Universal Studios

We decided to take the kids to Universal Studios this year. It was only a 2 hour drive up to LA in LA morning traffic. And on the way home only 1 and 1/2 hours. No traffic comming home. It was great. The kids all enjoyed Universal and they have all enjoyed telling everyone that mom got sick on the Simpson Ride. Yeah, I tried, thought I could keep my eyes closed and avoid most of the motion......NOT. It didn't work. Needless to say I'll never do that again. Everyone wanted me to go on it with them, but comming off the ride they were all changing their stories. "We told you not to go". Yeah sure. Oh well.

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words

Well this is my one picture that is worth more than 1,00 words. This is the roller coaster at Legoland called Project X. It's really not that bad or a roller coaster, it's really only the first drop. You go up a steep hill and then turn a corner and down you go. It's so much fun to watch.




We never buy the photos that they take of you on the actual coaster, but we couldn't resist this one.

Did Someone Say FIRE!

When we left Legoland on Monday we got out to the parking lot and saw smoke. I told Robert that it looked like it was close to the Condo where we were staying. Legoland is only about 10 minutes from the condo, so we got back on the freeway and headed to the condo. The closer we got, the closer the smoke got. We soon discovered that the fire was burning on Camp Pendelton which is just the next exit off the freeway after ours. The smoke was thick. Just as we got off the freeway two air tankers fighting the fire flew over head. They were going out to the ocean to fill up and then back across the freeway to dump. So they were making a round trip in less than 4 minutes. We hurried home and dropped off our stuff, put on our sand gear and headed out to the beach. It was quite an impressive sight to see two planes fly over the condo, circle out over the ocean and then descend to fill up their tanks. They probably made 5 or 6 trips before the sun was gone and it was too dark for them to continue. So here are some pictures of the action. I was really excited to show my photography teacher the last picture of the plane in the sunset. I wished I had had that photo for the last assignment when I needed a sunset shot. One week too late....oh well. He was still impressed.

Legoland - WARNING picture overload ahead

Yes, we did our annual trip to Legoland California. The kids just love this place and I have to say that I do to. I love a park that we can do in one day and say that we did every ride (even more than once). It is usally so quiet at Legoland in October, it's wonderful. There are no lines to speak of. I mean really, if you stand in line, it's only until the riders on the ride currently come off and then you're on. It's the best. Especially the roller coasters. The boys love to go on the roller coasters, but Kayla is by far Robert special Roller Coaster buddy. She loves them and loves to go on them with dad. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her on her favorite coaster, but there's not really a good spot to get a picture at. It goes by so fast that the pictures are always blurry. They all go on it over and over and over and over again. Just as soon as they come off of it, they get right back in line to go again. It's so much fun. This trip was especially nice for Kayla as she has grown significantly since last year. Now she meets all the height requirements on all the rides, so nothing if off limits....well except for mom. That's pretty much all rides. Oh well. I have a lot of fun watching their smiling faces.



This is the Bionicle ride. It's just like the teacups at Disneyland. It just goes round and round.







The boat rides are always a big hit. This was Kyle's favorite when he was little. I think it's still one of his favorite. I'm glad Kyle still hasn't outgrown his love for Legoland. It's nice that we can all go and enjoy it still.





Then there's always the famous.....I've been eaten by a shark snapshot. Can't go there without getting an updated picture.








There were mummys to be seen and I have to say they were pretty scary.....well, except for that last one. She's just too cute to be scary.











Get a load of all these characters. What a group. Kayla was excited to get her picture taken with Spongebob. She loves watching that show.



And who could forget the other Bob.....Bob the Buidler.




Happy Halloween to everyone. Yes that's right. Only 10 more days.

U.S. Midway

Okay, here's my first installment of our week in San Diego. We left on Friday after a 1/2 day of school and got out to San Diego that evening. It was so nice to just be there on Saturday so we could get an early start to our vacation.

We started out by going to see the U.S. Midway which is an air craft carrier that has been turned into a self touring museum. It is located near Sea Port Village in Downtown San Diego. We had a lot of fun there. We went about 3 years ago, but they have added a lot more to see and do.



At one point my family all got into a little bit of trouble and got thrown into the Brig. It took some sweet talking to get the captain to let them go.

Then the kids all took their turns in the cockpit of different airplanes. The boys really loved it.







Kayla had so much fun. This time she could walk up and down the stairs by herslef. Last time we had to carry her and those stairs are really shallow. She had fun in the ready room.





Well that's all for now. I've got hungry kids and homework waiting for me to help out with. Tomorrow hopefully I'll have more time to dedicate to some more pictures and post.

It's VACATION Time

That's right. We're on our way to sunny San Diego. It's fall break and the kids are out of school for the week so we're off to our favorite vacation location. We're so excited. Kayla is really looking forward to digging in the soft, soft sand. She just loves that. The boys are also looking forward to being able to boogie board in the ocean. Eveyone I'm sure will have a wonderful time. So for now this is my last post until we return. Hopefully there will be lots of fun things to post about.

Photography Assignment

Okay here's my pictures for my next photography assignment. I needed a picture using the sunset with a silohuette, and white background and a black background. They're much harder than it looks. I still need one more of just a sunset. We'll see if I get it or not.

I'll give it a try as well

One of my friends did this on her blog today and she didn't tag anyone but challenged us if we wanted to. I've never done a tag before, but decided that since I don't have anything facinating to blog about lately, I'll just do this instead. So here goes.....

8 TV shows I love to watch
1. NCIS
2. JAG - only on reruns
3. Dirty Jobs
4. Jon & Kate plus 8 (if she can do it with 8, then I should be able to handle my 3)
5. Food Network (Paula Deen)
6. Dancing with the Stars
7. Let's make a Deal
8. Are you smarter than a 5th grader? The answer to that is....."NO"

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Red Robin
2. Texas Roadhouse
3. MaCayo's
4. Panda Express
5. Cheesecake Factory
6. Guayo's El Rey
7. Chipotle
8. Black Angus

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Took kidos to school
2. Took myself to school
3. Meet and did a food order (RS Pres gone out of town, she's got to get home SOON!)
4. Did an emergency food order
5. Met a friend for lunch at Panda Express (Orange Chicken RULES)
6. Picked up kidos from school
7. Fixed dinner
8. Surprise visit from our Bishop at 9:00 p.m. (yes, I was already in my PJ's and had to run and get redressed. How embarasing. He needed to drop off more work for me to do in the absence of our dear RS Pres. She really has to come home NOW!)

8 Things I'm looking forward to
I'm not even going there. The last two days I've looked forward to finally having some "down" time. HA HA HA.....Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. He's making sure I have plenty to do. So I'm not sure exactly what I have to look forward to, only that it will be rewarding when I get it done.

8 Things on my wishlist
1. A healthy family
2. Do well in my photography class
3. New lenses for my camera
4. A personal tutor to teach me more photography
5. Christmas was 8 or 9 months away instead of only 3
6. Clouds - yes clouds. I need them to take a sunset shot for my assignment next week. Pray for clouds.


Okay so there's only 6 things on my wishlist............I'm still thinking. If I think of something else I'll add it later.


Enjoy.

What's up lately

Okay, I'm sure you all are just like me in that I check the blogs often to see what's new in the life on my friends and family. Often am dissapointed that no new post exist. So here I am.....posting about what's new in my life.

Last week was a very hard and busy week. I had that BOKEH assignment that weighed very heavily on my shoulders. I was so glad when last Wednesday came and I could move on. I turned in my assignment, it was critiqued in class and then I was like a free bird. Felt so good just to have that over with. I'm still not going to post any pictures of it though. NO WAY !!

So then immediately to take it's place was my upcoming SUPER SATURDAY at our ward. Yes it's not until November 15th, but I've got to get orders placed and in by October 13th. The orders have to be in one month prior to the super saturday so the lady doing these kits has plenty of time to get them together.

So instead of posting my awful BOKEH pictures.....I will post the pictures of what we're making for our Super Saturday. I think they're really cute. Besides, that's about all I have to post for now. It's all I've been doing since last Thursday morning. SUPER SATURDAY, SUPER SATURDAY, SUPER SATURDAY, SUPER SATURDAY. It's just all I can concentrate on for now. However, today I returned to school to start learning about a new technique for my photography class. I am so excited about this one. I'm actually anxious to get started on it, although we still have one more day of lecture until we get our assignment on Wednesday.

So here are the pictures of Super Saturday.


This is a magnetic memo/note board that can hang on the wall.


Letter blocks done with scrapbook paper


Just plain black and white blocks


Just a cute saying. It's done on a 2 X 6. It just stands by itself.



This is a 6 X 6 Tile. Lots of ladies in our ward are doing this for their daughters to put in their rooms. Cute idea.

BOKEH....none for me thanks :)

So Sorry eveyone.....I've had yet another assignment in my photography class. However this one I had an extremely difficult time with. Our Theme for this one was Bokeh. Yeah....what.....it's pronounced like Boka. It basically means the picture needs to be out of focus. For some reason I had a really hard time with this one and am just glad that it's over. I'm not even going to post any pictures from it, 'cause they're just junk. It was more of an artsy kind of assignment, and I'm not very artsy. Wish I had been for this though. So needless to say I've literally spent the last week photographing nothing but junk. When class was over today I was so relieved. Now I finally have time to sit down at the computer and catch up on my blogging buddies.

Okay....here is an example of Bokeh.




However, here is just a random shot of Kayla at school the other day. She just brings a smile to my face. She loves for me to come in and help in her classroom. It is a lot of fun and I have really enjoyed being able to do it.

Still Life Assignment

Well....after about 2.5 hours and 150 shots later, I think I finally have my two required pictures for my class tomorrow. Tell me what you think. I'm so glad that is over. I've dreaded this assignment ever since I started taking my first class last semester. I told my friend about the 1st week of class last semester....."I hope we don't have to do one of those pictures where we have to arrange fruit in a bowl." This was that assignment. I just couldn't bring myself to do fruit in a bowl. Well....actually I tried several times, but I'm just not cut out for that. It's probably a mental block or something. This is my version of a Still Life Photo.

Yes...we're all still alive

For anyone who cares enough to read this poor blog entry, it's just to let you know we're all still alive and doing well. It's been a very busy start of the school year. The kids have finally all adjusted to school and the routine and mom is getting adjusted to it as well....well kind of. I started school again myself this semester taking another photography course. I'm really excited and am anxious to start taking pictures once again. I haven't picked up my camera much here lately, but I'm sure that is about to change. I just got my first assignment....a Still Life photo. I've got to give some time to it tomorrow and maybe if something works out I'll post the pictures on the blog. We'll see......

The other problem to my blogging disapperance was our internet has been touch a mostly GO (like in gone) for the past week. Every time I get the computer up and running the internet has stopped working. Then it would come on and I could get the home page up and then.....yep....you guessed it, it was gone. So frustrating. So tonight I think I might make it to actually get a post on, catch up on my favorite people and see what else is going on.

3 - 1 = 2 .....well kind of

Well it had to happen sometime....Today we.....well I should say just me, said my goodbye to Kayla's dear beloved pet goldfish, Nemo. I went in her room this morning to get her clothes for the day and turned around to find Nemo belly up at the top of the bowl. I gasped, turned off the light and left the room. Yes....I'm one of those moms now who replaced the dead goldfish without Kayla finding out. For some odd reason today she didn't ask to feed Nemo this morning. That I'm thankful for. Kayla has been having a hard time going to school each morning with lots of tears and anxiety about doing math. So the mornings have been a little stressful and today I just couldn't bring myself to tell her that Nemo died. Yesterday was the first day that Kayla went to school with no tears and I didn't want to backtrack and send her in crying today because of the fish. So I got the kids off to school, disposed of the remains, cleaned the bowl, went to Petsmart to get an identical fish and here I am. I've debated about blogging about it, because I don't want the kids to find out what I've done. I'll repent later.

So as for my science experiment with my friend Wendy, the count now stands at Branch's 2 original fish and Sorensen's 1 original fish.

Aug. 6, 2008 - First Day of School

Well here it is again. Time for the pitter, patter of little feet heading off to school. The sound of complete silence in the house. The house staying clean all day after I've cleaned it.....well at least until 3:30. That's good enough for now. I'll take what I can get.

Kyle hasn't allowed me to take a picture of him yet....you know...he's too cool now. He's in Junior High. Whatever.......well I've managed to get Nathan and Kayla so far. Nathan has started 4th grade and Kayla is in 1st grade. They both love their teachers and love being back with their friends.

No news = good news

Well I guess the old saying goes.... No news is good news. I haven't heard anything from Wendy's household on the remaining goldfish so I suppose it's still alive. As for our three goldfish....well all is still well. However Kyle's fish is developing a spot on it's head. I don't think that could be that good, but it's still alive today. We just keep taking one day at a time.