Course of the Force

Sunday July 14th - Course of the Force Conival @ Oceanside Pier

 After church, we went down to the pier to enjoy the festivities celebrating the 2nd Annual Course of the Force Lightsaber Relay to Comic-Con!  Once again, I did not get to run (dangit!).  But we had fun doing all the free stuff at the Conival...like enjoying free lightsaber otter pops-

 Photo Ops w/ our favorite characters-

 I got to Vader Gav-

 Got to hang out at the cantina w/ Chewie-

 And spend some time with our favorite R2 unit-

 We got there for the last 1/2 hour, but still had fun.  

 So long til next year....

PLF Reunion

20 years later!

 Last weekend, I reunited with 10 friends from High School for a Cheer Reunion.  It was put together by Jackie Pack (Chico!) and WOW!  What a weekend it was!  We met at the Fairmont Santa Monica Hotel and checked in Friday afternoon.  We all met up in the lobby wearing our trapeze clothes...cause we went over to the pier for a Trapeze Party!

signing our lives away...

 Jackie reserved the place for 2 hours, had it catered and even had some old cheer uniforms out for us to play with!

 It was so freaky climbing up the ladder to the platform!  I was the second one to go!  And here is my first try...

 I did it and it was AWESOME!!!  (you can't tell, but I'm totally shaking...)

 Here's my second time...

 Then my 3rd...getting the "hang" of it!

Then we got to do a "catch"...

 It was so much fun!  I can't believe I got to do this!  And we all had such a great time being together again.  It really felt as if no time has passed...And look how cute we are!

Yvonne, Jackie, Tina-Marie, Vicky, Jenni, Kari, Renee, Ana & Me

 Once we were done (& sore & tired) with trapezing, our leader (Jackie) led us back to the hotel to freshen up for our dinner at the Penthouse at the Huntley.

 Here we are enjoying appetizers and drinks at the ritzy Penthouse!

 We all headed back to Mine/Renee's Room and just chatted and looked at old pics from High School til about midnight!  Then it was off to bed!

Saturday morning, Renee and I were up around 8.  We headed downstairs to the lobby restaurant and had ourselves a nice breakfast.  She went to get a facial while I went back up to the room, sat on the balcony and enjoyed the ocean view and called home to check on the fam.  We all met in the lobby around 11 and headed down to the Jonathon Beach Club for some lounging on the beach!

 We relaxed and chatted the afternoon away at the beach club, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our next adventure.  Jackie had hired some girls from the Dry Bar to do our hair.  But I went to Kari's room and she made my natural curl come to life!  I loved it!  We got all dressed up and met our limo bus out front and headed to Nobu Malibu for dinner.

 I seriously had the best dinner of my life.  I had never tried sushi before, so I was a little scared.  But once I got started, I couldn't stop.  It was so yummy!  And I even liked the caviar too!

 Me & My Roomy!

 After we had been stuffed full of our 10 course meal...we headed out to the patio for some more photos...

 After dinner we went to a club - The Bungalow - back at our hotel.  Everyone was pretty drunk, and I was really tired.  Tina-Marie was done too, so we left around 1:00 AM and went to bed.  Everyone else was out until 5:00 AM!  

Chico & Tico together again!

I had to be up at 7:00 AM, check out and head home to hear Gav speak in church.  It was such an amazing weekend and I had the best time re-connecting with these ladies.  I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to Jackie for putting all this together.  It was so wonderful connecting will all these fabulous women.  I can't wait for the next reunion!

To see all the pics... Click HERE.

Zion's Camp

Troop 788

 The 2nd week of July, Gavin headed off to Scout Camp.  But this year was special.  It marks the 100th year the LDS church has participated in Scouting.  So to celebrate, 12 stakes in Southern California (2000 scouts) gathered at Mataguay Scout Ranch for a special LDS edition of Boy Scout Camp.  

 It was HOT and CROWDED and DISORGANIZED.  But boys being boys can make fun out of anything!  Gav had a great time and Jeremy got to be there for a couple of days too.

 Gav got 4 merit badges done and 2 of them were Eagle required.  He can finally get Star!  (Yay!)  He is finally starting to enjoy scouting.  

 The special thing about this camp, was that each night there was a devotional.  Similar to how we do things at Girls Camp.  They also had the opportunity to get the "Endure in Faith" award.  They had to pray ,read scriptures and write in their journals each day.  On Wednesday night, they got to watch a broadcast from President Monson that was just for them.  Then Elder Groburg, came and spoke to them in person.  Gavin said that was his favorite night.  

 They all made it home safely on Saturday...although they were very tired and dirty!  Gav's favorite parts of camp were the rope swing and watching the mud wrestling matches.

I'm glad he got to go and got to have such a great time!

Gav spoke about his experience at camp the next day in church.  When I get the copy I will post it here...it was really neat!

Saturday is a Special Day...

 I almost forgot! On Saturday we had a family day of service! We have Sister Missionaries in our ward now and they are AWESOME! They asked us to come help paint a barn for a family that is investigating the Church. So, after we cleaned the church building, we headed over and met Dan & Kevea. I don't remember their last name. We got right to work and loved meeting their family. We worked all day from 10-4:30! We became fast friends and can't wait to play with them again. The whole family helped so much. We all painted, but I also helped Kevea finish her irrigation system, Jeremy helped dig holes and plant trees, Gavin power washed the barn, Brody and Cali played with the kids and Luke swept leaves. It was such a great experience for all of us.

GAFFIGAN!

Saturday night we finally got to use our Anniversary Gift!  We went to Humphrey's with the Humberstones to see Jim Gaffigan.  He was so funny!  Did not disappoint!  My cheekbones were sore from the smiling and laughing!  He had a whole bunch of new stuff and closed with Hot Pockets and Bacon!  This was our first time out with Leah and James.  They are so cool and we had dinner at Jimmy's American Tavern on Harbor Island.  That was so delish!  It was a fun date night....Happy Anniversary to us!

Happy Birthday USA!

This year we had no plans for the 4th!  Nada..Nope!  It was weird...

Luckily, the Bronsons invited us over to the Compound for a BBQ.  It was such a nice day.  We slept in and headed over to the Ranch.  YOM and YOF are in Ohio, so we had to check on the house and the pool (hee hee!)  We swam for a couple of hours and then headed to the Compound.  Brian had smoked buffalo chicken and tri-tip all morning.  It tasted AMAZING!  Plus, everyone invited brought side dishes and desserts.

These 2 didn't have any plans, so we brought them along....look at that belly!  That's a little baby BOY in there!

The Millers/Bronsons know how to throw a party!  They had a snow cone machine...

Fun prizes for the kids...

Shorty got in on the patriotic fun too!

There were lots of friends to play with...

The coolest backyard waterslide...

Kaci even had a craft table set up!

It was so much fun just hanging out with so many fun friends...

Happy 4th of July!

We left around 8:00 PM and headed home.  Brody was the only one interested in seeing frieworks.  So, Jeremy and I walked with him up the hill to watch Brengle Terrace's show.  He loved it!  And it was kind of special just having that moment with our baby (sniff, sniff...)

I am so very grateful to live in this country.  I hope we will always be able to celebrate this day and all the freedoms we enjoy because of it!