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...

I wanna get di-gi-tal, di-gi-tal

Thanks to a cracked something on our camera, it's broken. How can I do a blog without a camera people? So, I am in the market for the best camera ever ( I am also enrolled in a digital photog class in the fall so I will be honing my picture taking skillz). Calling all my talented picture-taking peops and freaks, which digital camera is the best?(I'm throwing price to the wind right now so just give it to me straight) Thanks!

Watch out Mel

Definately worthy of a "check it out this".

The only show I've been addicted to since The Office. The Flight of the Conchords won me over the first time I saw them on Conan performing about a year ago. I had the episode on TiVo and watched it like 50 times. Since then, the cravable subtle humor kept me coming back for more, as I watched little tidbits of their HBO sitcom (on HBO for a reason, it's a little risque at times) on the internet (since we don't have HBO). I was drawn in even more by their brilliant Pet Shop Boys sound-alike song Inner City Pressure and when I saw Jemaine as "1986 David Bowie from the movie Labyrinth" I was overcome with emotion. (Labyrinth being a movie that my siblings and I watched over 1000 times growing up). Finally, we just rented the first season and watched it over and over again on a real TV screen :) My fav episodes are Mugged, Bowie and The Actor. The songs are super funny and witty, but the acting and dialogue (and addition of Murray the band manager's character) on the show are just genius. Mad props for the guys who invented hip hop in New Zealand at a BBQ. Needless to say, Mel isn't the only member of the "American Fan Base" anymore.

This last week was so fun as we had guests in town from all over the world (okay, they were all from Utah) but still, it was so much fun. My Aunt Jenny and her fam were in town for the week and we enjoyed going to the beach where I got fried, and also going to the American Girl store (which is really quite a big deal but I didn't know anything about it when I was little) at the Grove as it was my little cousin Eden's 6th birthday (she's the darling one on the bottom left)! We had a lot of fun and an exciting "visual experience" (in the words of my Uncle Garrett pictured below) driving through downtown LA :) We also had the chance to introduce them to PinkBerry which is also seems to be quite a big deal.

Grant also enjoyed ordering a chicken pot pie bigger than his face for dinner.

(thank you Yard House )

(and thank you Olivia for being so cute in the background)

Then, we met up with one of Grant's best friends Ephraim and his girl Cami who were in town specifically for a movie being premiered at the LA Film Festival. But first we went to the Body World's 3 exhibit at the California Science Center. They have incredible displays. One of my fav's was an exhibit of just the capillaries where you can tell exactly what the figure is, whether it was a face or a hand or even a chicken (they've got animals too like a giraff and an ostrich). Also, they had an exhibit of the nerves of the body that was amazing (everything is real except the eyes). It's incredible how they can do that.

Here is a picture from the after party of the "World Premier" of a movie called HottieBoombaLottie (he said he got the name of the movie from highschool. I guess it was a term girls used to describe the hot guys. I've never heard it before in my life. Maybe it's unique to Utah? He went to Provo high. Anyone else heard of this not from Utah? disclaimer: nothing against Utah, I was born in Provo so...) which both Ephraim and Cami worked on (Ephraim was the gaffer and Cami did catering and actually had a small part in the movie). It was a fun experience as I had never been to a movie premier before or the LA Film Festival or any Film Festival. And the theater was packed, sold out actually. Afterwards they had Q and A with the writer/director/lead actor Seth Packard who was a friend of Ephraim and Cami. The producers was very nice as we (Grant and I) didn't have tickets and it was sold out but they were able to track some down for us which was really great of them. Thanks!

It was kind of a teeny bopper high school comedy "Dynamite"-esque. It was funny and entertaining. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it (Grant really got a kick out of it. He likes that kind of stuff a little better than I do) and it had a great soundtrack (which appealed to me more than the movie itself).

Here "we" (even though I'm not in the picture) are waiting for the show to begin...

A big shout out to all of our out-of-towners who showed Grant and I a great time. (isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Maybe we should work on that...) Pictures like these (where Grant is on the "red carpet" but you can't tell and it's a horrible picture anyway) inspired me to enroll in a photography class this fall. Hang in there people. It won't always be this bad!

My hard working man

I just had to take this picture of Grant when he got home from work one day (he is talking to one of his best friends on the phone which is distracting him so I can get my shot). He is always so happy and positive when he comes home, even if it's been a hard day. He is such a deliciously good husband :)

Me N Annabee

On two totally different days I am wearing the same hat and Anne is wearing the same side braid. Isn't that something?!

Marriage hazard

Becoming
incredibly

cheesy.

The joy of soy.

I'm back with whoop A's.

I'm back (for now) and super excited my grueling schedule has returned to my normal low-key life (kind of). I am so happy that my time away has born gifts that keep giving. With my 2 A's in Physiology and Microbiology, my core science GPA is 4.0 which is really good when applying to nursing schools which I am doing this month. Grant and I have been having a good time though and are happy that we recently celebrated Anniversary number 1(raise the roof) and Grant surprised me with a trip to Lost Wages to see the Cirque show at the Bellagio ,"O" ,which I have been wanting to see forever. To say it was amazing is an understatment. We had such good seats we could see the expressions on the performers faces, we were like 4 rows back. Grant's so good. We ate at Bobby Flay's restaurant which Grant remembered that I mentioned I wanted to eat there a while back (I didn't remember myself so double surprise). We ate at a great brunch at the MGM. Brunch is my fav. They even had deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Is that legal?

We found out the day after our anniversary that I was preggers and then 10 weeks later I had a miscarriage which was definately an experience. Grant was really great and took the whole week off of work to be with me. We are grateful for the bonding experience and knew everything was in the hands of the Lord. These kind of experiences I like to call cliff hangers. (Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis reference)

We are looking into buying a car. Any suggestions?

Well, I will get some pictures and things together for my next post-make it a little more interesting! Until then my pretties.