Last Minute Zoo Trip

On the way home from our family camp out, we would be passing right by the L.A. Zoo, and we would be passing by the zoo at about noon, so there would be plenty of time to see animals. We decided to stop. We ate some of our camping food for lunch, applied some sunscreen to every one's faces, pulled out the annual pass, and went in.

Liam woke up that morning saying his left foot hurt. We thought maybe it was due to the way he slept, or a bug bite or what ever, but he seemed fine with it. But as we were walking up to the zoo entrance, we noticed he was limping quite a bit. It also seemed a little swollen. It must have gotten tweaked at the beach the day before. He hasn't really complaining about it, but you could tell it was bothering him. We asked him if it was hurting him a lot, but he said it was only a little. He said he had to walk slow.

Anna gave him a piggy back ride from the entry way till the swans and flamingos. At that point we looked at the tram and thought if it wasn't too much, we would use it this once. $12 later, we were on the tram, on our way through the zoo.

We walked through the areas that most of the animals were. We took it nice and slow. Liam did great, as well as Tegan. Tegan didn't have a stroller to ride in, so she was walking everywhere we were walking too. That probably helped us take a slower pace as well.

A couple hours into our visit, and Liam started to actually complain about his ankle hurting too much. We were right by a tram stop, so we waited for the tram to pick us up and take us to the first tram stop by the flamingos. Once there, I picked Liam up on my shoulders and we all walked down to the entrance.

At the part where the strollers take a side path next to the steps, I was walking down the ramp (the steps would have been too much for my knees with Liam on my shoulders), there's a man pushing a stroller behind a couple of ladies; he's tall, curly hair protrudes out from under a ball cap, he's wearing sunglasses, and I could swear that it's Will Ferrell. I stop and point him out to Anna, and then I see the shoes he's wearing; a tall type of dress shoe that would normally be worn with pants to hide the elastic top of the shoe. It has to be Will Ferrell- only he would openly wear those with shorts and a tshirt. I didn't go back to bother him for a picture. He was there to spend some time with his family, so I left him alone. (sorry Josh)

Anna wanted to take a picture of Liam on my shoulders, so Liam and I hid behind a tree.

But then we had to come out so we could keep going home.

The kids were great. They were already pretty beat from our camping trip, and then they had to hike through the zoo. But it was fun. Glad we stopped.

Friday Flashback 08.14.09

Pulled this picture out and thought it would make for a fun flashback...

It's after graduation and it's at EMHS. Mom is holding a blue cap and gown, Keith and Kevin are not in the photo- I'm guessing it's 1998 and it's Keith's graduation and Kevin is on his mission.

Anna's looking smokin' hot in my old flight jacket.

I'm not hugely fat yet (that I can tell in this photo), so I like that.

Pre dreads for Kristi.

Kyle seems really tall there.

Kelly and Kim seem little.

Mom looks happy to be surrounded by her kids.

All only 11 years ago!

Early Garden Update

We'll be going camping for a few days starting tomorrow, so I won't be here to give a true garden update, so here's an abbreviated early update.


The big sunflower's head is so heavy, it's drooping WAY down these days. The seeds in the head are all growing and soon, should be darkening. But because we'll be gone a few days and I can't trust that some knuckle head won't come by and thrash it, I will probably cut the head off and let it dry in the garage.

Here is a picture of some zucchini I harvested this morning. I put the fork there for scale. There are also about 4 or 5 that will be ready to pick in 3 or 4 days.

The corn is getting tall and ears are starting to from on the ones in box 1, the tomato plant is getting pretty big, and the good news there is I found a few more tomatoes growing on it too. The cantaloupe continues to spread out, and there are a couple other rather large fruits growing on it. There are a bunch of little ones, about the size of a marble, but we'll see which ones actually grow. The pumpkin plant in box 2 is getting huge, but there are no pumpkins growing yet. There's been a bunch of nubs, but they've withered and fallen off, so hopefully some will stay healthy and grow.

I'll probably do another abbreviated update when we get back if there's anything to update.

Monday Music 08.10.09

Ever since last week's monday music, I've been thinking of this song: A Perfect Circle, "Sleeping Beauty".

What really sets this song apart for me is the dual parts layering over each other. Sometimes it's the vocals with the guitar, sometimes it's vocals with vocals, and then they come together at other parts. It's not that long of a song, but there's so much going on, that I find it very satisfying to listen to... until it's over.

Here's the song:


I used to crank the volume up on the album this song is on when I worked at Fish Mama with Kristi oh so many years ago now. When I hear any of those songs, I'm transported to those days. Good memories.


Bonus music:

Had the ol' iPod going while cleaning the kitchen the other day, this song came on, and I turned it WAY up to enjoy it. Anna said, "Who sings this again?" I couldn't believe she forgot! How dare she! (I forgave her though.)

Lush, "Lovelife" (could only find concert footage)


Loooooove Lush.

Lame Movie

Anna and I had the privilege of having a "day" date yesterday. My mom came out and watched the kids for us. (Thanks Mom.) We went to lunch at a breakfast only restaurant in Loma Linda called "Family Homestyle Cafe". It caught our eye because on the window it says "Home of the worlds largest pancake". The pancakes were huge; about 11 inches in diameter. Larger diameter than the plate. But each pancake was about 3/4 of an inch think as well. Anna ordered TWO! and a side of biscuits and gravy. I ordered their 6 egg "Meat Lovers" omelet which came with a side of biscuits and gravy. Long story short, the pancakes were normal pancakes, just huge in size. Nothing special. They didn't even have a variety of syrups- only maple. My "6" egg omelet wasn't even an omelet, it was more like a scrambled eggs with meat and cheese mixed in, and there's no way there were 6 eggs used to make it. It was big, but the bed of country potatoes it was served on made it that way. Verdict: No reason to go back.

After lunch, we chose to go to a movie. We wanted to see "500 days of Summer" but it's not playing anywhere near us. I think Ontario is the closest I found. So, of the movies that were available, we chose "Funny People". We watched the trailer, and it looked like it was about stand-up comedy, of which we are fans, so that's what we picked.



BIG mistake! There's not a whole lot of stand-up in it, and the parts that are stand-up, are VUUUULGAR! There's a lot of it in the beginning, then the story/plot develops, and it's people not being nice to each other, super sarcastic, unapologetic, and so on. It depicts cheating (adultery) as something everybody does, that no one likes, but that everyone needs to accept as no big deal. Did I mention it was vulgar? Now thinking about it, I can't believe we didn't get up and walk out and ask for our money back. Shame on us. It was a HUGE waste of our date time, and time in general.

Paul Blart Mall Cop was WAY funnier than "Funny People", and it really wasn't that funny. I rented it the other day, and put it in a couple days ago. Anna exclaimed, "I'm not even tired, I'll probably stay up for the whole thing!", and truly believed it. I said it didn't matter, she'd be asleep in 15 minutes. Well, she made it past 15... but was out at 25. She even, at one point, woke up and was quite alert. She asked about what she had missed, and I filled her in. Then guess what happened? Within 5 minutes of that, she was out again, not to wake again till the credits were rolling. I didn't think it was that funny, but it had humorous parts. But I would very much recommend it before ever recommending "Funny People".


Hope to see a good movie soon.

Friday Flashback 08.07.09

It kind of seems like it's been a while since I've done one of these. Probably because it has been a while.

Today's picture was pulled from the big ol' pile (bag) of old photos...

That's about a year old Jennan on Anna's lap. So I'm guessing this picture is from 2006? We're in the side area of the compound.

There's breakfast items on the table which seems odd. I seem to recall we did some kind of birthday thing that was in the morning for one of the kids.

Another thing I notice, is most everyone in this picture has sweatshirts or jackets on... Ahhh it must have been a little chilly that morning. Remember those days? They feel like they're never going to happen again when you're in the scorching heat of summer. AC is nice (OK, very nice), but it's just not the same as a nice cool morning. I think that's one of the big reasons why autumn is my favorite time of year- it's the first cooled part of the year after a blistering summer.

Anyway, if you remember more about this day than I put here, please share it in the comments section.

Recycled

I finally got around to taking all of our plastic bottles and soda cans to get recycled. Took home a cool $20.75 for my efforts. That should cover tomorrow's lunch date with Anna. Mom is coming over to watch the kids. Should be fun.



We also recycled our old Chevy Astro van. Anna sold it today. It's still sitting in front of our house at the moment, but it's no longer ours. That money will definitely help us make it through the summer.

It's been a good day.

Hope yours has been good too.

btw- I disabled the auto-play on my blog juke box. So if you want to hear any of the music you used to hear here, you'll have to go to the bottom and push play.