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.

Diddy Reese

When people heard that we were moving here, I often would hear, you have to go to Diddy Reese. Diddy Reese is a cookie joint where you can make your own ice cream sandwiches. When we first got here, we tried to go a couple times but the line was always way to long and I never thought it was worth it. I mean, I bake pretty darn well so who needs to wait in line forever when I can just go home and make it myself. Well, it finally took some friends coming into town to make us go. I have to say that I was impressed how good the cookies were and the line went really fast. Our dear friend Ann came into town and she grew up around here and really wanted to go so we went to Diddy Reese and had a great time.

Doug's brother Adam, his wife Lisa, and son Steven came to visit us this weekend. Off to Diddy Reese we went. There we were minding our own business in line when a homeless man came and just hit, yes hit our dear dear Steven....hard. What the heck???? He said that he did not like the way that "the baby" was starring at him. As Steven was crying, it took everything in me not to go hit him back. Call me insensitive, but that is an innocent boy he was talking about. Anyway, Diddy Reese is still the bomb but watch out for people standing around you. Who would want to hurt this adorable little guy??