Brave Jennan

When we were at Disneyland on monday, one of the rides we went on with Sara and Josh's family was Star Tours.

They were taking Maddie on the ride, who is about the same age as Jennan, and we asked if she was tall enough. Yes she is, so we measured Jennan, and she's tall enough too!

We asked Jennan if she wanted to go on the ride, and she said yes. Luckily Anna's mom was there that day with all of us, so she watched Tegan and Bodie, and the rest of us went on the ride.

Here's Jennan just before the start of the ride. She was very calm.

Through most of the ride, I was watching Jennan instead of the screen. She was just sitting there as if she was just watching a movie. When the ride got a bit jolty, she held on, but there was no other reactions. She didn't flinch, scream, look away, or any of that stuff.

After the ride was over, and we were walking off, I asked her if she liked that ride. She said it was scary, but she said it was fun.

Brave Jennan. Growing up.

Liam Birthday Stuff

Liam's birthday was Sunday. We did some miniature golfing the saturday before, as you know, and then we went to Red Robin for dinner. Because Liam can't have any dairy, they made him a "smoothie". He chose raspberry (which was a surprise). He was very nice, and gave everyone a taste.



Anna caught him just before he got his sip on...





Anna made Wii remote cakes, and bee cupcakes for the family birthday gathering on Sunday. Funny story, Anna had decided to make the Wii remote cakes, but made the mistake of asking Liam what design he wanted his cake, and he said "A bee cake", and I think he threw in there something about cupcakes. Anna said, "What about a Wii remote cake?!" and Liam said, "no, I want a bee cake." He liked them both. The little remote and bee cupcakes are from a wheat and dairy free cake mix. The larger remote cake is a regular box mix cake.

Anna put together a pin-the-candle-on-the-cake game for the kids.

Here's Liam blowing out the candles!

And opening presents!

It was a fun little birthday. A big thanks to everyone that came.

Then on Monday, we went to Disneyland to share some time with Sara and her family for Sara's birthday. It was also the first day back to school for the boys. Liam got a birthday crown at school, and he wore it to Disneyland. Here's a picture of Liam on the "L" of the "CALIFORNIA" in front of California Adventure.

Anna took Liam to get a Disneyland birthday button to wear while in Disneyland, so all the "cast members" can tell him happy birthday. Another cool little birthday thing for Liam.

A Week Ago

It was a week ago that Anna had her birthday, and if you recall, I posted a tribute with a bunch of my favorite pictures of her.

In my search for the pictures, I knew there was one I wanted that I couldn't find. It was taken a while after she cut her dreads off, and she had medium short hair. I could not find it ANYWHERE! I was so frustrated. I couldn't take any more time to look for it, and made my post the way you saw it.

Well, a few days later, I was looking through some loose pictures I had, for something else, and low-and-behold!... I came across that picture of Anna I was looking for!...


I don't know what it is, but Anna looks so stinkin' great to me in this picture. Is it the hair clips? She already has a fantastic smile, that's been established, but I can't put my finger on what it is about this shot that makes it so great. It really doesn't matter why, I'm just glad to have it. Funny thing about this picture is, it was taken by one of the kids. It was either Duncan or Liam, and they were wanting to take a picture, so Anna let them, and they took it of her. What Luck.



Also, in my search for pictures of Anna for her birthday, I wanted to find some of her with her dread locks that I thought were really good. Again, I couldn't find ones I wanted to use, and ran out of time to continue the search. These next pictures of Anna and her dreads were also found in the loose photos I happened to be looking through a few days ago. I'm glad I did.


Here is Anna feeding a baby Duncan. I think this is a great shot of her with her dreads.


And here's another picture that I think Anna and her dreads look really good. This is a 4 generation picture. It has Duncan, us (his parents), my parents (Duncan's grandparents), and my grandparents (my mom's parents [Duncan's great-grandparents]).

So yeah... Anna's my own personal super model.

Liam's Miniature Golf Birthday Present

Saturday, late afternoon, in celebration of Liam's birthday, we went miniature golfing. Liam had mentioned months ago that he wanted to go miniature golfing for his birthday, and it just stuck. So it was something we planned a while ago. It was a bit warm that day, so we waited till the temperature dropped a little. The kids had a great time.


Group shot! Mommy with her kids on rocks. Probably her favorite picture combination.

It was tough for the kids to have to wait their turn, so we were using a group golf technique. Looks like Duncan finished already.

Where we went, they have a lot of up-into-a-structure-and-out-to-the-"green" type holes.

Another group shot, this time with the windmill as a backdrop.


Duncan was sure to line up some of the trickier shots.

One of those pictures that just makes you smile.

Dad with a few extra obstacles to make it to the hole.

About 2/3 through, Tegan began to drop her ball into each hole, and then pull it out very victoriously.

Duncan up high and surveying the landscape.

The kids were great while we golfed. They took turns being first, didn't care who got their ball in first, etc. There were a couple times we needed to remind them we were having fun, before they got too worked up over something, but all in all, a fun time was had.

After golfing, we went and had birthday dinner for both Anna and Liam at Red Robin. I will post a blog about that probably tomorrow sometime.

Monday's Music (04.27.09) on Tuesday

I forgot to do Monday's music yesterday, so I'm doing it today.

Late Saturday night, I went to help clean up after the local area's "Mormon Prom" that was held in our building. As I walked into the cultural hall and saw all the stuff that needed taken down and swept, etc., I noticed the DJ was still there and playing music as the cleaning began. I realized pretty quickly that I new the DJ! It was an old friend named Mike Smith. Mike and I had a lot of friends in common when we were both freshly off our missions, and became friends as a part of that. He and I and a handful of our friends even drove out to Utah together once, and stayed at his grandparents house. Anyway, I took the chance to get caught up with him a little, and helped him pack his gear into his van. When I think of Mike Smith, who is a HUGE music fan, I think of the 80s band The Primitives. I think we must have listened to a lot of The Primitives on that drive to Utah that one time, so for me they are forever linked.

Here are a couple of the more well known songs they sing...

"Crash" (I chose this one because it has better audio than the "video")



"Sick of it" (I chose this one for the better audio too. The actual video is here if you want to check it out)



Good songs.

Our OC tour

On Friday, it was my mom's birthday. She was planning on going to Disneyland, so we decided to head out there again, and spend the evening with her. Everything was going as planned, we were making good time out to Disneyland, and we had gotten there just after mom did.

We met up with my mom just outside the entrance gates. We said our hellos and made our way to the entrances. Once there, we hand our annual passes to the gate worker, she scans them, and tells us we're blocked out. Huh?!

Turns out that we were indeed blocked out for that day. I didn't even think to check if we were blocked out or not. I figured because it wasn't a Saturday or Sunday, that we were fine. Guess not.

Well, now what do we do. Kyle and Donna were meeting mom and us that evening too. They weren't far behind us, so we waited to say hi, and then went back to our car. The kids were a little confused, but did remarkably well accepting our explanation. Anna wanted to find a beach, but it was pretty chilly and the sun was almost down. So we chose to just drive, and see where we end up.

I headed south on the 57 from Ball Rd. We stayed there till we got to the 55 south, and took that down to the 405 north. Why? I don't know. We exited on Harbour, and headed south. We were in Costa Mesa, not far from the OC fairgrounds. We spotted a pet store and pulled in to see if there were any animals inside, and take a break from being in the van.

The pet store had some parakeets, hamsters, rabbits, and puppies. The kids really liked watching the animals. Tegan especially liked the hamsters, and Liam really liked watching the rabbits.

Once we were done there, we got back in the van, and started looking for a Burger King. Some of the kids wanted a slurpee, and Anna and I were looking to get a shake. Well, BK sells Icees and shakes, so that's what we were looking for. I headed up Harbour, no BKs. I came to Ball Rd. I know there's a BK on Ball. We pulled in. I went to get our tasty treats, and Anna started changing the kids into their pajamas for the drive home.

I get up to the counter, order the icees, and the shakes, and the worker tells me the shake machine is down. No shakes. Of Course!! So I get the icees, and head out to the van. Tell Anna, and we both just shake our heads. We're on the road, I know where a Carl's is just off of Ball, and we go there. They have one size of shake (not very big), and they're over 3 bucks a piece!!! Yikes! But at this point, we're so ready to just get on the road home that we go ahead and get the shakes anyway.

What an adventure!

Kee-ah

Liam recently began karate classes. He's doing pretty well. I made it a point to practice with him a couple weeks ago, and it helped him out a lot. So far, he's enjoying it quite a bit. I think once Duncan and Liam figure out that they can help each other with their karate, they'll have even more fun with it.

Here's Liam in action.


With Duncan, after a karate class that he did sparring in, we started taking him to get a slurpee as a reward for trying his best, win or lose. But Liam doesn't care for slurpees, so I let him choose a pack of starbust candy. He chose one called sweet and sour. He was eating a sour one right in front of Anna, so she quickly grabbed the camera...

That's one soury looking face!

Sara Is "Old" Today

Today is Anna's sister Sara's birthday! She turns "old" today.

I thought I would honor Sara's big day with a collection of pictures...



Here you can see Sara in the center of the picture, covering up her Curious George tshirt. I think she's 18(?) in this picture, and a senior in HS. This was taken at a birthday party for yours truly. We said it was a "pool" party, and had the toddler pool you see in the lower right corner. Also in this picture is Sara's friend Judy, Scotty, Bryce, Christina, and Erin. It was a fun party.




I believe this next picture is of Sara the morning of her wedding day. It's early, and she's just gotten up. There was a lot to do that morning, and it was time for Sara to get all prettied up. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a quick picture. You can tell she was glad.

Here's a horribly taken picture of Sara at our first little apartment playing darts. It was horribly taken because I think I had to sneakily take it. We had a dart board on the back of our front door. We played darts quite a bit back then. Sara, as you can see, was also a "glasses girl" without her contacts in.

I think this picture of Sara with curlers in her hair is from a drive down to San Diego early in the morning for either Ken and Rachel's wedding, or her/our friends', the Chubuck's, sealing.

Here's a picture of Sara not exactly thrilled to have her picture taken. I think it may have had something to do with wearing the glasses (which she didn't do that often). She was over to play darts. (I think this is from the same night as the other dart picture). I think Sara was around 17 or 18 at this time.

Another curler picture! Yes! This is Sara getting ready for her senior Prom. Her friend Barbara is doing her hair for her. She's all excited.

Here's a picture of Sara doing a little solo dancing. I believe it was some line dancing to a country song. I DJed for the Pasadena young single adult dances way back when. The plus side for Sara was she could ask me all nicely, and I would cave in, and play songs for her at the dance.

Girls jumping on trampolines! I don't know who took this picture. This was taken at/after Anna's bridal shower. Anna's the one with the long brown hair, that's Sara jumping, and I don't know who that other girl is.

And finally, here's a picture from our wedding reception. What's going on with every one's face? Anna's biting her cheak or lip or something, and all I can figure is that Sara and the other girl are singing along to what ever song is playing. Otherwise, this picture was taken with perfect/horrible timing.

Well, I'll go ahead and end there. Those were some great pictures! Nothing too embarrassing, right?

Actually, for the first bunch of years that Anna and I were married and lived a couple blocks away from her folks' house, Sara and I got to be really good friends. We ran errands, hung out, visited Anna at work, etc., etc. Anna and I would pick Sara up from school quite a bit before she got her own car, we would visit her at work a lot when she worked at Johnny Rockets, and so on. Because of all the time we spent together, I have a special place in my heart for Sara. All the teasing comes from a place of love. Sara is a great sister to Anna, and for that, I will be forever grateful.

Happy Birthday Sara!

btw- Josh has been spoiling Sara all week long, leading up to her birthday. You can check that all out over HERE.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday. I thought I would honor her today with a sampling of photos I dug out of my picture pile...

Here is mom, Kristi, Jason and myself walking the streets of New York (Dad took the picture). Mom, dad and I were visiting Kristi and Jason, who were living there at the time. Since then, my mom has gone back numerous times.




Baby Jennan being held by grandma. I think we have a picture like this of each of the kids with grandma.

This is from pretty recently. Mom and Kristi came out for a visit a couple months ago. We're at Duncan's karate class. Tegan did not miss her chance to sit with grandma.

This is from 2001 or 2002. I believe Kelly and Keith were just about to head back up to Utah from a visit. Kevin and I came from our work out to say good-bye. Mom's kids, all grown up.

Here is another picture from our trip to visit Kristi and Jason in NY. We were on Ellis Island. We walked all over the island, took pictures with the statue of Liberty, etc. While we were in the museum, there was a huge down pour just as the ferry boat arrived. We bought these thin plastic ponchos to keep us from getting drenched while we waited in line to get on the boat, and for the ride back. Definitely a photo op.

Flashback to 1984/85. Mom holding baby Kelly at the Hawaii Int. airport. Mom was obviously there for a visit. I don't know any of the details for the trip. But I do remember that shirt she's wearing. I would have been about 12 at the time.

I know this day! It's Dec. 16, 1995! This was taken the day Anna and I got married, just outside the L.A. temple. It was wiiiiindy that day. Grandpa flew in from Hawaii to be there, Grandma wasn't healthy enough to fly at the time. Mom was so happy to become a mother-in-law, and she has played that part wonderfully.

Here is another wedding picture. I believe this is from Kevin and Dawn's wedding reception. Anna made their cake, and mom assisted her in dishing it out. Looks like mom is enjoying the perks of helping with the cake.

Here's another picture of mom with her crazy kids. I was being silly apparently (because I'm hilarious), Kevin got caught blinking, Kim looks pissed off, Kelly's still in pajamas, Kyle was super skinny (meaning this was taken very shortly after he got home from Brazil), Kristi with the grin, Anna and Dawn were ready for the picture, and Keith is in Colorado. I'm sure mom was about to smile.

Here's the oldest picture of the bunch. Taken probably in 1975 in the living room of grandma and grandpa Foutz's house in Rosemead. That puts Kristi at about 1 year old, I'm probably 3. That would mean Dad is about 26/27 and mom would be about 23. I think mom looks fantastic in this picture.

Thanks mom for being so great my whole life. Even if there were any difficult times between us, I'm sure it was for my benefit. You've been a great example to me in the gospel. When I needed to lean on a testimony, I knew I could lean on yours till I grew mine. I attribute my love of music to you. Both in listening and singing, and I hope to pass that love onto my own children. Thank you for all that you've done for me and my family.

I love you, Mom. Happy Birthday.

Bearthday at Disneyland

This year, you can go to Disneyland for free on your birthday. They have other options for annual pass holders that come on their birthday, so we went to Disneyland for Anna's birthday. We were also lucky that it was the last day of the second geological conference Anna was attending, so she was done just after noon. That gave us a few extra hours at the Disneyland parks, which was nice.

It wasn't too crowded yesterday either, which was also an added bonus. Anna opted for the Disney gift card as her alternative for being a pass holder. The only down side to the card, is that it can't be used to purchase food. Though Anna was able to buy candy with it, which makes us wonder if we can use it to buy candy apples and other treats like that. We'll have to look into that next time we go.

Anyway, we had a fun time. Here are some pictures from our day...


There we are, making our way into the heart of California Adventure. Anna took the picture.



There is construction being done in the lake for a future water and light show, and there are some body outlines along the construction wall.

We made our way over to the Toy Story midway ride. Anna was showing the kids the mineral formations in the base board (or would it be called base tile?). So she took a couple of pictures of the kids looking at it.

On one side it's me and Liam, on the other side it's Duncan and Jennan. Tegan is with mom taking the picture. BTW: I came from behind to beat Anna by 2000+ points at the very end.

Jennan is tall enough to go on the jelly fish ride now, so Anna took her and the boys to ride it.

Strapped in and ready to go!

This is a great picture of Jennan. She looks awfully calm...

Mommy and Jennan, ready to go!... Jennan did fine on the ride, no freaking out or anything like that.

I guess after that we tucked the camera away because we didn't take any of us in Disneyland. Anna wanted to use some of her gift card to get a couple things for Liam's birthday, so while she snuck away to shop, I took the kids on Buzz Lightyear. There was hardly any line, so we got on pretty quickly. When we were done, we just circled around and got right back in line. Again it was very short, so we got right back on. After that, I tried to get them to go on a third time, but they weren't interested, so we had a snack while we waited for mommy.

We also went on Nemo, Autopia, and Pirates before heading home. The temperature had dropped a little more than we were prepared for, so the kids were getting kind of cold. We felt like we had had a full day, so we headed out. In honor of earth day, we walked back to the parking structure instead of taking the tram.

Almost forgot to mention we opened presents before we left to Disneyland. I made Anna a belt (her other one broke). Duncan made mommy a leather bracelet (with daddy's help). And we all gave her the DVD of the new School House Rock: Earth. She also bought herself a few tote bags at Disnayland with her gift card.

It was a fun day.