Summer 2013

This Summer was CRAZY-BUSY-FUN!!!

Starting the 3rd week of July, we were able to have so many friends and family come to visit.  I was so busy, I couldn't take time to blog each visit individually...plus, they all overlapped.  So, here is my attempt to get it all in.  We will start with the first group of visitors, from Minnesota:

-The Woolfs
The Woolfs arrived in town for a wedding and stayed in Esco w/ family for a week.  But lucky us, we got to still play!  The first thing they wanted to do-

 Once they were done staying at their Aunt's, they came to our house for a week!  It was so fun to have them here.  

 Of course, we spent some time at The Ranch too-

 On our last day together, we headed to the beach one last time.  Here's the crew-

 I love this woman!!!!  17 years of friendship.  She is more like a sister to me and I love her dearly.  So glad we got to hang out so much this Summer.  Miss them already!

 BUT WAIT!!!  We snuck in one last play date with the Woolfs before they headed home.  We crashed "Annie" 's Birthday Party at the OSF.

The Christensens-

Tash & her fam had been camping at the beach while the Woolfs stayed with us.  Then she spent a few days with her parents before coming and staying with us.  They arrived the day after the Woolfs left are house!  (Phew!)  While she was here, we headed to The Ranch...

 And we hit up Boomers!

 So blessed to have such an amazing friend like her!  Also, I feel like she could be my sister too!  18 years of friendship and still going strong.

I love that our kids have so much fun together.  It was such a great few days.  So happy that no matter how far away, we still get to be so close.

The McEwans-

 Shawna and the kids got to town about the same time that the Woolfs arrived at our house.  They stayed at Mark & Tracy's.  Their first week, Mark & Tracy & fam + Mom & Dad were on a Church History tour.  So, we got to have some fun with them at the beach and the Ranch and with everyone else!  It was so awesome to see them.  The kids are so big...especially "Sissy".

 When everyone got back from their trip, we had a family dinner at Gammy's.  Just like old times...

 The Ranch-

 Cali loved getting play time in with her littlest cousin...

 The first week of August...we had a Wilson Family Beach trip (post to come later)...but when we finished that up, I got to see this guy-

Love Him!

 AND this lady!  Granny has moved back to So Cal and got to meet all of us at Camp Pendleton for Christian's 12th Birthday Party!

 The McEwans were staying at the cottages at the beach and we all got to meet up to celebrate this guy's big day.

 As an added bonus, they arranged to have Christian ordained a Deacon and receive the Aaronic Priesthood.  That was pretty cool!

 We teamed up with Mark & Tracy and got him a Ukulele.

 We got in some more beach and family time before they headed  back to Florida-

 One last family dinner...sniff, sniff...

It was such a blast hanging out all together again.  I love my family so much and am so happy we got to have so much fun together this Summer.  

I took a gazillion pics...and if you want to see them all...Click HERE.

Comic-Con 2013

DAY 1-

BOOM!  We made it!  It almost didn't happen this year.  I missed all of our chances to get badges throughout the year.  Luckily they had a re-sale of returned badges and I was able to get us Thursday passes.  FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!  This is mine and Gav's 10th Comic-Con and we got to celebrate with everyone.  Gav really wanted to cosplay as Dr. Who and I had no idea what shirts to make that everyone would want to wear.  So, my friend Yvonne, owns Surfy Surfy, her hubby is a big nerd and had these "Surfy Wars" shirts made.  I got us a family set and off we went!  The morning started a little stressed...  Our normal parking lot is under construction.  So, we parked in a different one that was not very close to a shuttle stop.  Plus, Jeremy didn't know how to read the payment machine, so he was ticked at the parking price.  PLUS, Jeremy lost his email with his badge confirmation bar code.  We were so worried that he wouldn't get it.  BUT, we made it to the Con, Jeremy made it in-no problem and we had ourselves an excellent day!

The shuttle ride

Luke & Brody were so excited to get "Lego Movie" Con bags that came with capes!  The boys started the day with the "Mad" panel, while Cali and I headed downstairs to catch up with Ashley and get her a new Her Universe shirt.

On of the things I love about Ashley, is that she really takes time with her friends and gets to know them.  She saw Cali and ran up to her saying "Hi Cali!" and gave her a big hug.  She wanted to know all about what she has been up to and what's coming up.  She makes Cali feel so special.  She also took the time to sign a pic that Cali had gotten of Ashley and Dave Filoni.  That started off our day perfect!  After seeing Ashley, Cali and I headed over to the Weta booth and I bought a book, "The Squickerwonkers" written by Evangeline Lilly and illustrated by a Weta Artist.  Evangeline was there at the time, so we got her to sign the book, talked to her for a bit, told her we couldn't wait to see her in DOS, and then got this pic!

One of the highlights of my day - Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel)

We met up with the boys in the upper lobby and ate our packed lunches.  It was so fun having Daddy with us.  He makes everything so much, well, FUN!

After lunch, we stopped by some of our favorite booths in the Exhibit Hall.  At the Hub booth, we got to vote for our favorite ponies.  Cali got interviewed about her choice, Pinky Pie.  She may be featured during the Hub MLPFIM Marathon in September.  Gavin was so jealous...

At the CN booth, we got to go into the Ice King's Dungeon and see Gunther.  We got our picture taken, but I can't find it (dangit!).

After visiting the Exhibit Hall, we split up again.  I headed upstairs with Gavin to try and get into the TORN panel.  Jeremy took the other 3 outside to check out the WB's "Lawn Con".

My Line Buddy

The WB puts together a great, free, family-friendly outdoor exhibit at the Hilton Bayfront.  The kids enjoyed the Teen Titans Go! Balloons...

Raven

And the life-size Lego Hobbiton!  So Cool!

Jeremy had fun too!  Here he is with my favorite dwarf, Thorin Oakenshield.

Gav and I made it into the Walking Dead Comic Panel, prior to the Torn panel.  So we were gone for a while.  Jeremy took the 3 little ones back in to the Convention Center and had some fun at the Marvel booth.

Cali got to purchase some more of her favorite Adventure Time comics at the Boom! Booth and even got one signed and personalized.  She was stoked!

Gav got stopped all day for his picture to be taken.  Here's another Dr. we ran into...

We reunited after the always awesome TORN panel at the Lego Booth.  They always have such a fun booth.  We finished some boards for the Lego Wall of Fame...

Then we finished the day with the Star Wars Pavillion.  Here's Gav getting vadered by an action figure...

Brody did not want to move from this spot...

Kid Shot at the Del Rey Booth...

And we ended the day with a Stormtrooper Dance Party!!!!!

We had to get a group shot with our shirts on for Surfy Surfy and then we headed home.  It was a fabulous day!

It was a little exhausting packing so much into one day.  But it had to be done.  So glad we were able to be back at one of our favorite places.  Hope we get to continue this tradition for years to come!

DAY 2-

Nope!  We needed MORE!  Luckily, there is this great blog - sdccblog.com, that has a list of all the free and other off-site events that happen around the Con.  We checked out the list and headed down to check them out!  First stop, WB's Lawn Con.  I didn't get to see it on Thursday, so the kids let us go back.  Here's my kiddos as the characters of Mystery Inc.-

I LOVED the Lego Hobbiton!  Here's me and my baby checking out Bag End-

AC IV had a rad pirate ship parked out back and Gav got this pic with one of the pirates and he was wearing his AC III shirt... AWESOME!

We headed over the pedestrian bridge to check out the gaslamp...

There's almost too much to see!  It is even more overwhelming than the convention center.  There's so many things going on!  Here's some shots of our wonderings...

DC Tent "We Can Be Heroes" Campaign

Taking a break at the Chuck Jones gallery

In line at the Shifty Look Lounge at the Hilton Gaslamp

Our favorite (and longest) stop of the day was the Shifty Look Lounge-  We love "We Love Fine" and their shirts.  They had a booth at the Shifty Look lounge and Gav used his money to buy a new My Little Pony shirt.  Yay!

I won a Galaga shirt with my raffle ticket-

And we all got free Pac Man shades!  Brody was stoked to get a new Adventure Time Shirt and his cool We Love Fine bag!  It's bigger than him!

We were at the gaming lounge for 2 hours!  These kids had a blast playing all the new and old video games set up.

It was such a beautiful day, and not too hot.  Here we are walking to the Regular Show event...

But we were sad, because we got there and the line was closed....BOO!

But No Worries!  We headed over to the History Channel's "Vikings" event.  They had viking boat races going on, but the boys wouldn't do it. BOO!  But we took a rest and had a snack inside the Viking tent.

Our last stop of the day was the Enders Game experience.  I wasn't too excited about it, but it turned out being one of the coolest things we did all day!

The tent was full of props and sets from the movie.  Here's the kids at Battle School-

They did an amazing job and now I can't wait to see the movie.

Yeah, we did meet up with Gavin's "girl" friend, Anna.  We left him with her for a couple more hours, while the rest of us headed home.  It was interesting to see all the off-site stuff and it was great that everything we did was free.  But I love being in the Con so much better.  Glad we got to experience more Con fun though and know what its like now!  Can't wait for next year!  Goodbye Comic-Con...

Too see all the pics - Click HERE.