It Ain't Easy Being Cheesy

This year's theme for the OC Fair was "Say Cheese" which we did, a lot. We had a grand time including riding a rockety roller coaster almost to our demise. How fun it was to have Brittany, Danielle, Kiffy, Mom, Bailey, Levi, Todd, Anne, Grant and I all together for some fair play which we did until midnite when the fair closed. Until next year when we'll do it all again! (Are you guys in?)

Levi, Todd, Brittany, Brittany's little boy Jake, and I all went on Friday to check out the US Open in Huntington Beach. It was a lot of fun and the highlight was probably the Moto-Cross.
There was 6 trick bikers and one got hurt doing some crazy move.

Jake felt inspired. (Cue electric guitar whammy)

I think seeing the extreme sports was life changing for Jake as he, upon leaving, was inspired to immediately start experimenting with some tricks in his stroller and is now really into extreme strolling. He puts his thumb in his mouth just to show how "at ease" he is in such extreme positions (and also to freak his mom out a little). That Jake.

RV stands for "right up my alley"

This is the first of many pictures in an ongoing pursuit of mine to capture those themes on which so much of my own exhiliration and happiness derive. You know those things that you enjoy most when shared with someone else who can appreciate their beauty? The people who "get it". This is one of those things. This goes out to all who can appreciate an RV's message...to humanity.

To me, RV's aren't just out there to carry it's owners to various destinations or to make camping more comfortable. Their purpose does not lie solely in being a home on wheels moved with a motor, nor is their existence fulfilled in being huge and taking up a lot of space for parking, or even in slowing traffic. They do much more than that. They teach us about life! I revel in the irony, mystery, comedy and truth I find in the names printed along the side that sends a message to us all. I mean, they could easily all read "Get out of my effing way!" but they don't. These owners (or manufacturers, I don't know) print messages we should all ponder. I mean, look at this guy. To me he's saying, "I'm not just moving for my health, I'm traveling here". Either that or, "Get out of my effing way!" (fyi: "eff" is slang for freak). Whatever it means, I think we could all take a page out of this guys book. What, my friends, does it mean to you?

Todd's first time

Cream Cheese Muffins

I recommend these very much if you like cream cheese.  They are very delicious.

Beware the Burrito

Levi: "Dude. You should've eaten over last nite"

Braden: "Why?"

Levi: "Cause you would've died.  Seriously, the food was the bomb"

(Pictures of Levi were not staged.  He had the food everywhere like hanging off of his nose eating at the dinner table so I decided to get my camera)

PS.  I made sweet grilled chicken, fried platains with garlic and onions, homemade guacamole, refried beans with jalepenos and Todd (Grant's bro) made a homemade tomatillo salsa and jalepeno cream sauce for smothering the burrito.  It really was better than any burrito any of us have had in a restaurant.  The flavors combined so well.  We all scarfed, Levi just happened to have it all over his face and hands too and as far as Levi and his friends are concerned, the meal reached "death" status.

Annabee and the Bee(hive)

Anne had her updo competition and did a fantastically high beehive (without using a cup people).  She did a great job with quotes from Barbra all around indulging in the  60's themed challenge.  You make us proud!  She is learning a lot and has a keen eye for style and detail.  She just knows what looks good.  If anyone is looking for someone who will do great hair, give her a ring (in other words, contact me and I'll hook it up).

If you haven't yet before seen the new iDance, here it is.  It is customarily done when one receives or purchases a new Apple computer, etc.  Here it is being done after the woman pictured just opened up her new Apple laptop and placed it on... her lap.  She also received a free printer/scanner/fax/copier and a free iPod Touch with her student rebates which prolonged her dancing.

During the whole day at Six Flags Magic Mountain (I'm not yet sure if it's magic, but it is more family friendly than the last time I went in high school where it was swarming with gang-bangers and cholos), we didn't want to go on a water ride because we knew we would be so uncomfortable the rest of the day.  We went strong all day experiencing the craziest feeling ever on Tatsu where you go down this dip upside down and backwards (to see the part exactly, look at the roller car in the picture below) following a cork-screw or something.  The one mistake we made was attending the live "CSI" show.  With 1 hour left, we rocked Riddlers Revenge (where you stand up on the ride), Ninja (where they say "Hi-YAH" right before you take off), and the Log Jammer (where you get soaked)...twice.  It was probably the most fun part of the day running around the park trying to get to the rides before it closed (and don't think we were the only ones doing it).  Plus, the rides are more fun in the dark but it didn't get dark until 9 and the place closes at 10.  We needed to get a picture of us soaking at the end of the day.  I just got worked over by all the floods into the "log" after the dips because I was trying to keep our backpack dry which was behind me.   They are doing two-for-one deals when you bring in a Coke can which makes the tickets $30 dollars a piece.  It was good times.  We were Todd (Grant's bro who just moved down here from Chi-town), Me, Grant and Levi.  

I guess I'll never know what it was like to be at this party.

Me N Annabee

This picture reminds me of some pictures taken of us on the beach when we were little.  To find a picture of Anne smiling when she was little is actually really rare.  She is either making a funny face, straighfaced or aloof.  I was always looking at the camera doing what the adults told me to do-smile.  Anne obviously took this picture without me knowing it, otherwise I would have been smiling.  It is weird to think we have the same genes but then again, it kinda makes perfect sense.

So, we had a bonfire with our Young Marrieds group for our once-a-month FHE activity that Lori did such a good job planning.  I volunteered to go early and claim a pit (I wish I did it like how Micheal Scott declared bankruptcy but I guess that would be more like proclaiming a pit, not claiming so nevermind).  I got there at like 5 and was afraid I wasn't going to find a pit but luckily there were two left so I even was able to choose between one with nails or one with more nails, so I chose the one with nails.   Since I was there by myself, I brought a book to read for a while until the peops arrived but as luck would have it, there was a fam from my home ward at the pit right next to the pit with nails that I chose, so I caught up with them until Anne got there.  Anne and I had a photoshoot and waited for Grant, who got there at the same time as Cinnamon and Tom.  We went and ate at SuperMex right across the street and then went back to join the group for roasting dogs and globs of marshmallows.  One day I want to have a Smore party where we have all different kinds of crackers and chocolate varieties.  That would be globs o' fun.

4th Flavor

To start the Fourth off, we had ourselves a BBQ.  Danielle and Kiffy joined us for some grillin and chillin.  We had a good time and good food too.  We decided to indulge in  a 

make-your-own kebab (which was pronounced with a short "a" to keep it FOTC real) party.  We had marinated chicken in greek dressing, italian sweet sausage, mushroooms, sweet peppers, red onions and corn.  For a side dishes, we cut up fresh pineapple and tossed it in brown sugar (and made kebabs out of them too) and baked beans.  We also experimented with strawberries and bananas on the grill (fairly palatable).  For appetizers, we had chips and veggies and my favorite tex-mex dip.   Also strawberries, bananas and fresh pineapple with cream cheese dip was a strong player.  It all came together really well when we played "ice hole" in the pool quoting our fav show Flight of the Conchords all the while.  The most quoted episode had to be Bowie.  It lends itself so well to that.  (We all had a FOTC party the other night that was rather fun as Danielle and Kiffy own the first season... but that's another time and another post.) 

Sweat Sisters

Danielle, Anne and I became Sweat Sisters during our hike on thursday in El Morro Canyon.  I guess the view is really awesome from up there as you are supposedly able to see San Clemente all the way to Long Beach or something like that, but when we went hiking, there was lots of fog that made it impossible to see the view but really great lighting for experimental photography which I did with my new di-gi-tal gadget.  I thought my new Canon SD 790 IS did a delicious job.  It has really cool features that automatically adjust the lighting and eveything depending on what you are shooting ie: the beach, indoors, sunsets, kids and pets(or anything else that moves quickly), underwater(when you put it in it's waterproof case which comes separately), aquariums,  fireworks or even foliage (which was a fast favorite of mine). 

It has a macro feature which allowed for some great detail on this spider (which picture Danielle took as she braved getting so close to this spider :)  Anyone know what kind of spider this is?

And I was able to test it out for myself capturing a much less scary subject...flowers.

This was taken on the foliage setting which allowed for capturing the array of tans and such.  We had a really fun time and afterwards we went to the Laguna Culinary Arts School Cafe.  They had a huge display of cheese and we vowed we were going to have a cheese party real soon...