Mailbag

It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd answer some e-mails that we've gotten over the last little while as an update.

Tamara's Husband,
Nice article in Mormon Times. I learned so much about your heritage. Care to elaborate?
C Hardie
PS, Nice pic.

We thought it was cool that they wanted to do an interview, but it didn't turn out how we imagined. The only time stress came up in the interview was when she asked Tamara, "Has it been stressful?" and Tamara answered, "Sure." So we were surprised when it was the focus of the article. I'd like to clear up a few things. First, Ben wasn't on meth. Second, I'm not of Mexican or Irish descent. Third, that look on my face is more "Really? More pictures? When he's crying?" not "I'm so stressed from having a kid." Again, we were surprised that those were the pics chosen. See the previous post for Tamara's pics (which are updated regularly).

Smokey! I haven't seen you online in months. You'll get pwned like a noob when you get back. Why are you avoiding me?
-The Baron

It's true, I haven't played video games with my friends for months. I only work out like once a week now. You can see how committed I am to the process.

Doug,
What's going on? Ben and Will don't look anything alike. Are they similar in personality? You know, like you and Matt.
-Cuz

Not at all. Ben has moved around a lot, flailing his arms but holding on to anything, since he was born. He also didn't like his pacifier until recently. He takes forever to eat. His favorite things to do early on were stick his hand in your mouth while you're feeding him, want to play at 2am, and take an hour to eat four ounces. He also only poops once a day and it's a disaster. Will, on the other hand, likes to sleep, eat quickly, and squeeze onto your hand and fingers. We also feel bad because we sometimes forget that they're so different in age. Sometimes we expect Will to act like Ben when he's only two weeks old. Then we remember how good of a baby he is.

Yo! Clownster here. I hear you're only sleeping from 1-5:30 and complaining about it. Seriously? We have triplets and I hardly ever sleep. I also have a real job, not a "student". Quit your complaining and man up.
-Rambo

John, good to hear from you, too. People who know me know how much I love to get enough sleep and nap. These last weeks have been ridiculous. There's only one more to go until I'm done with finals. But it's worth it for the dudes. Hopefully Ben's sleeping through the night by the end of the winter break. The last week he's been sleeping 10-4 so we're hopeful.

Dad, What's up with all the pics and flashes? How do we get mom to stop? Anytime I'm awake there's a lens in my eye and a red light on my forehead before the sky explodes. You put us in the bouncy and force these awkward interactions on us. Why do you guys do this to us?
-Ben and Will

I know, I know. The pics are ridiculous. You think they'll go down, but they don't. I suggest two tactics. First, look at your grandpa's smile. If you start smiling like that people will stop asking to take your pic. Second, look at the look on my face in the article. You give mom enough of these looks and she'll get mad at you and give up. There are serious consequences later so don't do that often, but from time to time it's worth it. Otherwise, you grin (but not like you enjoy it) and bear it. One last thought. You guys throw up and poop on everything else in our house, consider doing that on the camera.

Timing Issue

I have been slacking at this whole blogging thing but I do have a good excuse!! I have uploaded a bunch of pictures on FB so here are some links of pictures....I will update info soon:)


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126222&id=647682644&l=88373df83d

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126226&id=647682644&l=af8717179e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126223&id=647682644&l=7625090770

Couple More Photos of William

William and I are still hanging out at the hospital hoping that this infection gets better. I cried this morning when Doug and Ben had to go home and can't wait for our little family to all be together.

Welcome William

Sunday night I spoke with the birthmother of our second child for about an hour about issues she was having and other things going on in her life. You know I must be committed if I was on the phone for 53 minutes. I didn't do very much talking. The last time I was on a conversation that one-sided was when I asked Tamara's dad for permission to marry her. She said at the end of the conversation she was getting uncomfortable and wanted to lie down. An hour later she texted (Tamara, I don't text) saying she was having contractions. Twenty minutes later we got a text from her friend they were at the hospital. Twenty minutes later we got a text the baby was here. Between the two babies there was less than forty minutes of labor. She was at a tiny community hospital so she was transferred to another tiny community hospital that had a nursery section. William Hudson Hall was born at 11 weighing in at a solid 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 21 1/2 inches long. He's almost as big as and has more hair than Ben, who's six weeks old. We're still at the hospital because he has a respiratory infection but we're meeting with the pediatrician shortly and hopefully he gets released today. For some reason Tamara forgot the cord from her camera and the battery charger so we only have one pic to share right now. I assure you there will be more.
Tamara wanted me to add something about where the names comes from. Wilford is her grandfather's name and William is also the name of some great guys we know including Bill and Nate. Hudson was the name Tamara wanted since we lived in New York when half of our ward named their kid Hudson. Nobody cared they were all the same because, like us, they wouldn't be around for more than a few years. Benjamin is close to Bennion, my mom's maiden name and Ellis is her mother's maiden name. Just a little FYI.

I'll take two

Big Ben (I'll try a few nicknames and judge what we use by the reader response but some of them are intentionally lame and I'll ignore any further recommendations you make) got out of the hospital yesterday. He and Tamara are at her aunt and uncle's in Pleasant Grove. Tamara's also update the link with the pictures at least every other day so feel free to check out the new pics. She said li'l bizzle now gets annoyed when he sees the camera, not just when the flash comes on, so I asked her to tone it down a little bit for his long term health. Apparently aversion to taking inordinate amounts of pictures are genetic.
Many of you will be familiar with the We Ain't Scared Tour 2003 featuring D'nasty, Pound Fi'ty, and Wolverine. There were several themes and phrases that really made the tour epic. One of those was, I'll take two. Perhaps you need an example. While drooling over the McLaren F1 and finding out the price tag was only $1MM, you would here "I'll take two!" When being offered a small dessert by a foodserer disgusted by the amount of food you've eaten at their all you can eat buffet you might here "I'll take two," over and over and over again. Another one of the phrases was I ain't scared. When jumping off perilous cliffs where a few feet in either direction would mean broken bones the proper response is "I ain't scared." If you arrive in a town at midnight looking for a place and someone offers you one and leads you down an alley to her house you reply "I ain't scared." I think you get the idea. When the opportunity came up to adopt Benno, these were the two lines that popped into my head. Probably because, just like the tour, we had no idea what we were getting in to. So far, Bennoi has been a trooper and really responded to us. After the papers were signed and we were visiting with B-jammin alone for the first time after two days, the nurses told us Benno hadn't been eating and if he didn't start they'd have to insert a feeding tube. After hanging out for half an hour we gave him a blessing and five minutes later he took down half a bottle and continues to eat like champion. Beno responded way more to Tamara than any of the nurses and they made comments on how quickly he knew who his mom was. Benny and mom should be home in about a week which means I have a lot of work to get the room ready for Jam. Anyway, take care and if you have any recommendations for nicknames for Benjo let me know.

Benjamin Ellis Hall

Friday morning we headed to the hospital as the mother was being induced. Tamara was in the room with her and I went in for a little bit while all the meds were kicking in. The mother says, I think he's crowning but I'm only four centimeters dilated. Then she had a big contraction and started making some labor pains/noises so I was out. She didn't want me in there for the birth and I didn't particularly want to be there. As I was told by Tamara, the nurse came in and said you're not having the baby yet. She decides she wants to take a nap but the doctor came in and said, "You're having this baby." So, one push later, the baby was out. It was about half an hour after I left the room. This is her third child and she told us with the second child she did one push, the doctor told her to hold on for a sec, she sneezed and the baby came out. Apparently labors aren't terribly difficult for her.
Benjamin Ellis Hall was five pounds five ounces and 18 inches long. He's healthy and happy. He grabbed my finger at one point and wouldn't let go. I didn't think he was awake so it was pretty cool. Here are a link to the pics. We'll have more posted on Sunday night.
We're really happy and feel very blessed.

Quick Update

This will be quick and sans picture for now. A few days ago we received a call from one of the agencies we were working with about a mother who was due next week on Saturday. Wednesday afternoon we found out she would be induced on Friday, as in today. So I'm sitting in the waiting room while Tamara is in the delivery room. The mother, Heather, was induced around 7:30 so we should have updates later today. We met the parents last night for the first time after quickly arranging a trip to Utah. In case you're wondering, I-15 is still under construction in the exact same spots as when I left over five years ago. Anyway, more updates to follow.

End of Summer

This summer is wrapping up. I finished up my internship last week and school starts this next week. It's sad to see the summer come to an end but there's lots of good stuff in store. Stay tuned in a couple months from now.

Last Friday we went to the LA County fair to celebrate America. If deep fried avocadoes dipped in chocolate are wrong, I don't want to be right. I'm not sure if I should write about what we did or ate - it's all pretty exciting. I'll hit the highlights of each. We had a sausage that was over a foot long and an inch and a half wide drowning in grilled onions in peppers.

Mom and Steven's still working on the looking at the camera thing.

Tamara got some sort of electronic cleanse through their feet. I challenged what exactly was being cleansed and I got vague and non committal answers. Tamara bought a bunch of massage stuff and she swears she'll give one. Adam bought some landscaping tools so he can start his own business. We got our teeth whitened. Then we capped the day off with the best strawberry shakes we've ever had. I'm not sure how they do it, but the strawberry flavor is flowing and it doesn't taste sugary at all. Absolutely amazing. Needless to say, it was a sweet day.

The end of the day. Who doesn't love the fair?

While we were there my dad called and asked if we wanted to see flogging molly the next day. I had heard a few of their songs and enjoyed them. We were excited but not exactly sure what to expect. Cutting to the chase, they rocked. They brought a ton of energy, played really hard, and were obviously having a good time themselves. It was pretty infections and we ended up having a great time. We totally recommend them.

Speaking of rocking, here's my dad killing it on Guitar Hero:

For various reasons Tamara was heading to Utah/Idaho and my dad and I ended up going as well to see my grandfather ordained a patriarch. It was a special event and all of my dad's sibling made the trip. We also spent time with Angie and Eric while in Idaho Falls. If you called us over that weekend and didn't get a response, it's probably because cell reception was pretty spotty. I've been informed this lack of technology is particular to the eastern side of Idaho while the western side is up to date.
The end of the summer is always sad but there's good news coming to compensate.

The Hollywood Bowl

Because Doug has such great patience he was able to land a sweet internship this summer. I am so proud that he stuck it out and did not settle for a job that he did not want just to receive a paycheck this summer. With the help of our friends (thanks Covey's) he has really enjoyed working this summer. He is going to have to explain what he really does because I have to admit that I kind of tune out when he starts talking shop.

The owner of the company gave us box seats to the Hollywood Bowl last night where we saw Tovey Conducts Bernstein with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was truly amazing, a night to remember. Next time we will know to bring table clothes with center pieces but we enjoyed our yummy sandwiches and sparkling cider. We invited the Lattin's because we really like them and they hooked us up with some cheese and crackers that were delish as well.

We always love to take advantage of where we live. We look forward to seeing and doing as much as we can because who knows when and where we will move to next. And I just enjoy having incredible dates with my hubby. Chalk this up to another great night in LA!!

Saint Forgiving

When I was on my mission, at one point we did a district meeting in English as opposed to Spanish. If you said a word of Spanish, you had to start over. It was much tougher than it sounds after a year of trying to speak Spanish and translating certain missionary words I had never used in English. We also translated the names of towns. San Francisco-Saint Frank, San Isidro-Saint Izzy/Ozzy, Zapote-Sapote (it's a fruit). A couple weeks ago we spent some time in Saint Forgiving, or San Clemente for those of you that hablar.
My mom's family has been going to San Clemente since she was a little girl. I won't reveal her age, but let's say it's been a while. Every year we go to the San Clemente Inn for a week. It's a pretty complex ritual. You wake up, saunter down to the beach, and stay until you want to go home. At the beach you can go in the water, take a nap, or hang out. It's a very taxing day. Usually for lunch you either get pizza or go to Pedro's Tacos. Pedro's Tacos is to fish tacos what MJ is to basketball. Everybody wants to be like Mike, but there's only one. After your rough day at the beach, each family cooks one night and they you hang out at the pool or hang out until the older generation kicks you out so they can play their card game. It's kind of like sitting at the adult's table at Thanksgiving. I still sit at the kid's table. But we have way more fun.
Anyway, that's a typical day at in San Clemente. Every now and then we mix it up by going to the pool before the beach, play shuffleboard before dinner, or hang out in the morning and don't go to the beach until the afternoon. I think you get the idea.
This year we went for the first weekend and then went back Thursday night through Saturday. I'll run through some of the highlights of this year. One night we went night swimming and out of nowhere this dude attacked us. We were standing there minding our own business, and he just jumps at us, casually mentions what he would like to do to us, and swings. My cousin Matt ran off like a little school girl. My other cousin Richard took him down and the rest of us were about to open up a can on him before his friends ran over and stopped us because he was drunk. Like that was an excuse to act like a moron. If you attack a group of seven duded (well, six because Matt ran off) you deserve what you have coming. That was exciting. Matt, after recovering his dignity, also got his mission call to the Brazil Florianopolis. Apparently the surfing and beaches are awesome. Other than that we had some huge waves on the last couple of days due to some storm way off the coast.

Here's Matt (in the front) acting tough. Too bad we know better. The real men are in the back.

Tamara with Jane making her cameo in the hundreds of pictures she takes.

The little kids table.
If Pedro's Taco is closed, there's always an Eric sandwich!
Here's Grandi. This whole event is thanks to her.

Baking Withdrawls

I have been trying to lose some weight so I have stopped my love of baking for about two months now but I just could not take it anymore. Doug planned an evening of Halo with the guys so I planned an evening of baking. I could not decide between something sweet and tangy or something chocolate so I went with both. Thanks to Martha Stewart, I made chocolate cookies with marshmallows in the middle covered with chocolate frosting, always a favorite in my world. Doug's favorite dessert is anything with lemon and raspberry so I dreamed up this recipe that I must say turned out to be the bomb!! I made lemon pudding by scratch whipped it with heavy cream then layered with ginger snaps and raspberries and let it set. I could not get a great picture, but it is amazing. We have a lot of extra so if you are reading this and want some, come on over!! After tonight I am going to have to work out double but so worth it.

Huey Lewis and the News

Thanks again to the wonderful Halls, we got the hook up for great seats at a concert. This time it was Huey Lewis and the News, where it is not hip to be square. Once again when the lights came up we realized that we were the youngest people there, but it was a great night. The concert was at the OC Fair so of course we ate lots of fattening foods and oh yes it does exists......Chocolate Covered Bacon. I never thought that I would see the day!!!

Shocking

Last night was the exciting end of the Bachelorette. Tamara has been waiting for this for months. I think this show is pretty lame. Reality TV? Where they end up in a fantasy suite? Wait, what? I was making fun of the show relentlessly so I did a bit of research to get data to support my stance since that's what I do. I was shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that of the 13

seasons of the Bachelor not one has gotten married. On the last season the dude picked one girl, then dropped her for the second one. Apparently they're still together. But she was the second choice. That's real love. Of the five seasons of the Bachelorette one has gotten married and the one that just ended which Tamara says has a real chance of lasting. So in 18 seasons why have one success with one more possible. That's a terrible track record. Tamara has a

better record of setting people up one on one. Imagine if she got twenty five chances with each person.

I'm not going to go into the reality complaints about being spending a week in spain, then hawaii, and then who knows where else. Fantasy suites, rose ceremonies-it all sounds very reality based. But I think there's one lesson to learn from these shows. The batting average for the bachelorette, 1-3 out of five depending on the accounting, is clearly way better than the bachelor, 0-13 no discussion. It's possible that the bachelorette is on the same PEDs Manny and Papi were on in 2003 and those numbers are inflated, but those results won't be leaked for some time. Anyway, what we see is that women chasing men never goes anywhere. Who though that sending 25 women to fight over a dude and throw themselves at his feet would result in him being committed to any of them? The only effort he put in was in sorting through the psychos. The bachelorette has enjoyed some success because it forces the dudes to work for the girl, which is how it's supposed to be. When one finally gets her, he'll value her more because he's put so much into it as opposed to the bachelor who thinks women are easy (which judging by the 13 seasons-there are lots of them out there). Though the show has virtually no redeeming qualities, there is something to be learned from this.

UPDATE: Anderson Cooper was also shocked

Little David's Sports Birthday

Many of you have heard me talk about little David. He is our neighbors kid and he just love this little bundle energy. Today was his 3rd birthday so we had to celebrate with a sports theme. David already knows all about his sports and is dang good. Cassie (David's mom) asked me to help with cupcakes and I knew just what I wanted to do....sports cupcakes and of course my favorite chocolate footballs (I also made those for our Super Bowl party). So Cassie made the cupcakes and we decorated them like basketballs and baseballs. I think that they turned out adorable don't you?

Jury Duty

I'm currently sitting around waiting to find out if two of our fellow Angelinos want to plea out and make a deal or go to trial and face jurors who want nothing more than to be done as soon as possible. It's riveting sitting around imagining the justice system at work just a few rooms away. I think jury duty could be great, but I've never been utilized. I have, however, spent several days sitting in poorly ventilated bland rooms listening to private conversations and seeing diseases passed around one uncovered sneeze at a time. I thought about taking the Liz Lemon approach but I couldn't do it with a straight face. Maybe I need to take my civic duties more seriously, like Pauly Shore.

So at my last job we probably spent more time arguing about font, grammar, spelling, and formatting instead of actual content of our presentations. While it was painful at times, I learned a really valuable lesson. When given a sheet, card, etc. I can spot mistakes within twelve seconds. I was reminded of that today. There was a farmer's market outside jury duty and I bought some streusel from Daphne. While eating I looked at the sticker listing the ingredients and the first thing I noticed was that 'dairy' was spelled 'diary'. It really ruins things. One guy gave me a business card and his address was mispelled-first thing I noticed. A friend sent me a pitchbook to look over and ten seconds in I see his email address in a footnote is wrong. In the business world it's called detail oriented but it usually turns into being critical. It's easy to be critical. Most of the time there is plenty of criticism and no ideas for improvement, which is the hard
part. But people love being critical without having to be responsible for the criticisms-hence the love affair with anonymous postings. I'm trying to retrain myself to only use it in work situations, but it's proving difficult. So, to make up for it I'm giving Daphne a shoutout and letting you know the original streusel is really good.

Big Weekends

Last weekend Tamara's brother Rob and his wife Hailey came and visited us. Apparently it was the first time Rob has visited Tamara EVER so it was a big deal and we had to come through. I came up with a tour of Holllywood to start out. Fortunately, I found the most amazing breakfast place, The Griddle Cafe. For anybody living in LA, it would be a mistake to not go here. They don't list prices, but everything is around $10. The portions are ginormous and it was super good. We also only waited about fifteen min. I really can't overstate how good it was.

We then went on our Hollywood tour. We saw Michael Jackson's star with all the accompanying weeping, wailing, and the selling of counterfeit memorabilia. Anything to make a buck. We also visited the Harley store.

We then took off to the beach. Venice is always a trip. It's not unlike Coney Island-great people watching, unique food, and lots of public entertainment. While Venice doesn't have amusement park or carnies, we do have muscle beach, ropes to climb, and the actual beach is way better. And by way better I mean I don't feel dirty when I get out like at Coney. They also both have freak shows. We rented bikes, went to the pier and then stopped at the Venice Harley store.

Before we took off to dinner, we visited the Santa Monica Harley store. I hope you're seeing a theme here. We then had dinner up in the hills before heading to Diddy Riese. Overall it was a great weekend.

For the fourth, we first headed down to Manhattan for some surfing with Tamara's co-worker, Sabrina. Manhattan is pretty sweet. Houses right up on the beach. Not too crowded. I definitely recommend checking it out.

Next we headed up to the Halls. As some of you may know, there hasn't been TV in the Hall home since '92. Jason just graduated so they (and by they, I mean Mom) had DirectTV installed. It's taking some getting used to. I showed Dr. Hall the hot dog eating contest which he had heard of, but never seen. Like it did for me, it really changed his life. Dr. Hall hooked us up with massages which we really appreciated. I jumped in the pool while Tamara laid out. Grandi and Al came over while we bbqed. The food was great and even though it's not that far away it feels like being on a vacation.

If you are interested in viewing pictures from the whole weekend, click here.

Showing Off Our Skills

I thought that I would add some video to show off what we were doing in Lake Havasu!!
Doug and I jumped together and I was still able to get up on the wake board.

Twofer

My last post was pretty stupendous so I let you soak that in for a bit before I hit you with this two in one. Also, I know with the USA T&F championships, the NCAA T&F championships, and USA being in the Confederation's Cup final, we're all pretty distracted right now. Two weeks ago we went to Lake Havasu for Tamara's family reunion. That's two in a row Tamara's family has invited me to for those keeping score. We had her parents, her grandparents, Rob and Hailey's family, Doug's family sans Robin, and the Feils. In all we had, one house, one boat, two jet skis, and three Dougs. Since we were going to a lake, I really wanted to jump off

I'm twice as old as the next oldest person here

something. In total, I had three wishes for the trip. Jump off something, blow something up, and drive something fast. While the second might require some effort, I thought those were pretty doable. The very first day something blew up-my skin from the sunburn I got. Putting the jacket on and off took off my sunscreen and my bulging biceps were a nice shade of lobster. Not exactly what I had envisioned, but I was one for three. I tried getting up on the wakeboard but it didn't work. I blamed it on the board being small (my toe went over the edge) but nobody bought it. Then Tamara got up so that didn't help. That night we went to a local go-kart shop and I proceeded to wipe the track with everybody. No,

Rob not wanting to be right

seriously. From last to first. While not everybody else did, I drove something fast. They gave me a certificate for my amazing performance. That was two of the three down.
My last wish was to jump off something. We talked to some local friends of Rob's and they gave us somewhere to go. I was amazed at all the kids that jumped off this eight foot cliff we found. They don't even know they could get hurt. I think there's a lesson here. I got to jump off my 30 footer a few times, the last one with Tamara (video to come). It was precious. I don't often jump off cliffs, but when I do, I prefer the high ones.
Anyway, I went three for three. We had a good time with the fam which is what Tamara wanted so everyone is happy. Here are some more pics. Let me give you a couple tips about Havasu. The London Bridge was transported there piece by piece from London and reassembled. It sounds cool, but it disappoints. The boats cruising the canal are out of this world amazing. They were filming a new version of Piranha at the lake and Rob and I were extras in one scene. You might miss me, but you can't miss Rob's mustache. If handlebar mustaches are wrong, Rob doesn't want to be right. Look for us on the (surely) direct to DVD movie.

The bigger event, of course, was Tamara's anniversary of her 29th birthday. You might remember this from last year's birthday extravaganza.Not coincidentally, the 21st is the longest day of the year. We had planned a picnic on the beach for Tamara's bday but it was drizzling on the way there, which wasn't good. Nobody's a fan of wet sand. It was overcast for a couple hours before the skies

Before the clouds parted

parted and the sun appeared. We stayed for a couple more hours. The water was way nice but the waves were a bit weak. What are you going to do. That night, after a two hour nap, we went to a

Mucho mejor

restaurant on the Venice boardwalk, which is always a trip.
Much to Tamara's chagrin, her birthday was shared with Father's day this year so we went up to my parents' place. Grandi, Adam, Lisa, and Steven also came. Jason had shipped off earlier that week to BYU and it was weird without himbeing there, but we quickly adjusted. By quickly, I mean we forgot he was gone until he called. Tamara got some sweet gifts-a Martha Stewart baking book, a crate of strawberries, and a H&M gift certificate-all things she loves.

Denver with the Dixes

Tamara asked me to do a blog post, apparently it's been a while. Over Memorial Day weekend we made our inaugural trip to Denver to visit the Dixes and experience the newest hate free zone we've been creating across the country. They've settled down there, we hadn't met their newest baby Camille, and we're pretty sure Warren had forgotten about us. Since the Nuggets were still playing I also hoped we'd run into the Birdman. As a shock to just about nobody, we had a great time. Let me run through some of the highlights. Dix and I went running through the backyards of some of the rich people in Denver. Very impressive. Then we sat around and were awesome for awhile. After that, we headed to downtown Denver. They blocked off a bunch of blocks from cars so you can walk around. Except buses come speeding through on a regular basis so it's not as though you can just hang out in the middle of the street. Stephanie and Tamara went to a chocolate store while Warren chased pigeons and played in the dirt. There was an art festival going on. I questioned an artist about some of her questionable techniques and Dix criticized artists for displaying simplified Chinese characters backwards. We really impressed ourselves. For lunch we killed a huge plate of nachos and a burrito the size of a bowling pin.
Though she doesn't read this, big shout out to Taylor's cousin for baby sitting for us so we could go to Dave and Buster's. It was my maiden voyage and I realized what a mistake I had been making all these years by not going. Taylor spent a lot of time racing heavily modified cars, motorcycles, and helicopters. Stephanie and Tamara were busy playing a game they couldn't explain to us but it spit out tickets. We decided to help them out so we went to the trivia game and took tickets from the four nice ladies sitting next to us. For four rounds. Then they realized we were a force to be reckoned with and left. S&T were on a roll with the tickets so we headed to a game where you get tickets for every quarter you push over the ledge. Very challenging. Apparently banging the machine to aid the quarters going over is looked down upon in Denver. I base this solely on the looks people gave me. I believe it was around this time that S&T made noises about winning blenders which were 4400 tickets each. Even with fake money that's a lot. Somehow they got really close, usurped my card and the last few games I wanted to play, won more tickets at the unexplained game and won two blenders. I've been excited by a few things about this, but this level of enjoyment was something else. There were several (yet unfulfilled) promises about how often these would be used. It also reminded me how much fun arcades and other forms of juveline entertainment can be.

The next day we went to Red Rocks after church. We were serenated by some aging hippies, with a Willie Nelson look-a-like, playing african drums. Their younger leader was wearing a purple tank top and jorts and was pretty entertaining, though not for the intended reasons. I think I had seen him with the renaissance group at BYU, battling with that guy with the red moustache. Apparently it's a pretty popular place to run up the stairs and there was a tremendous amount of spandex around. Somehow, Warren found puddles to jump in. We drove home in the most amazing downpour I've ever been part of. It was really freaking impressive. After that, we sat around and were hysterical. At some point right before we left, Warren even decided he liked us, which was a hard fought battle. I'm going to highly recommend Denver for anyone who's thought about going. It's almost a hidden secret how cool it is, much like Jamal. While we never did see the Birdman, the trip was a raging, though too short, success.

Summer Theme

For card club this month we had a summer theme and I have really been wanting to make these beach bag cards again so that is what I did. I am really happy how cute they turned out, I am finding it hard to give them out. I might just have to make more....

Appreciation #20

This months appreciation goes out to Andrea Boerem. Andrea and I met while at a BBQ in NYC. I still remember her rose colored sweater and her shinny lip gloss and I thought that she was beautiful. We quickly formed a relationship that has continued to grow. She was a constant support to me last year and has been the best cheerleader for us throughout this whole adoption process. Andrea is always so happy and cheerful and I have never heard her say a mean thing about anyone. Last weekend she came to California to stay with her parents for a week and I got the privilege of hanging out with her for a night. She came over and had a sleep over just like we would of in high school. She tried really hard to convince Doug that we should dress him up in girls clothes and do his make-up but we settled for watching chick flicks, baking desserts, and of course eating them. I loved that when we woke up in the morning the first thing that she wanted was more cookies and ice cream, that is the Andrea that we know and love. I am truly grateful for her friendship and for everything that she has taught me.

Dougie Fresh Birthday Celebration

Yesterday our not so young Douglas turned 29. To celebrate we thought that Go Kart racing sounded like a great plan because lets face it, guys like to drive fast. We started the evening off with dinner at BJ's, not to shabby.

Then we were off to the tracks. I must say that it was a whole lot of fun!!! Check us out:




Sunday we had a small BBQ with birthday cake. Doug request a lemon raspberry cake and we all know that I aim to please my man so a pink cake is what he got.


Happy Birthday you old man, I love you so much.