Monday, August 3, 2009

The Matt

Jeremy here- So my little brother Matt came down to Huntington Beach from Sacramento to visit us last week. I guess he was getting bored of sitting at home with his parents, a bed-ridden grandma, and several aunts coming and going. So he's 13 and my mom was about to let the boy ride a greyhound bus overnight to downtown LA. I suppose since he's 6'2" he looks a bit older than he really is and he can defend himself. But fortunately she was able to figure out an affordable round trip flight (again his height saved him because apparently you've got to be 15 to fly in a plane, but his Greg Oden-like looks conviced the security he was older).
We had a seriously good time. Every day was something you could write home --er, write a blog--about. SarahLynn and I took him to the Newport Beach Golf course, which sounds super high class, but it's pretty rinky-dink (one hole featured a green that was covered in sand...why did they put the hole in a sand trap??) Matt did really well for it being his second time ever. But the best part was SarahLynn! When she golfs with me it's fun, but she's not always into it. But as soon as we got to the course she decided that she's Tiger Woods (Tigress Woods? Tigerette Woods? Liger Woods?) She goes out there and demonsrates the proper short-iron swing like as though she's doing private lessons, and she helped him with his mental game ("just taaap it in"). She's such a teacher, it doesn't matter what the subject, she just has to teach it. It all went great except for the part when Matt almost nailed a guy in the back of the head with an errant 3-wood.

We went to the Orange County Fair which turned out great. We laughed our heads off at the hypnotist show twice, were surprised by the Chinese acrobats, and were confused by the Weird Al exhibit. I was delighted to see an entire section of the fair dedicated to pigs, with multiple references to Hormel and SPAM.

Saturday we checked out the US Open of Surfing down at the pier. We actually watched a lot more bmx bike competitions than surfing, and it was all pretty sweet. The highlight had to be standing in a super long line just to get some bright orange Nike hats that were cool, but we'll probably never wear again. Matt and I played catch with a mini-football in the waves for hours...so fun to grab a diving catch as a wave crushes you.

Monday night we scored Angels baseball tickets from work and got to witness a real fist fight in the stands...and saw back-to-back-to-back home runs by the home team. Then we played in the arcade at ESPN Zone until it closed.
So pretty much Matt had the greatest time of his life. And we had just another weekend in beautiful Huntington Beach. Ok, it was fun for us too!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Good Times

School Ended
I have loved working at my new job with these amazing kids! Here are some end of the year pictures. I can't wait for next year because I will get to go through an entire school year with my students!

Honeymoon Visit
Stacy and Dan Birk did some road tripping for their honeymoon. We met up with them in San Diego and went on a double date to an Island restaurant and then to the temple. We had a really great time together. Stacy is so amazing. She has such neat gospel insights and a very strong testimony. I'm so glad we're still friends.
Beach Cruisin'
Jeremy and I found some beach cruisers at Walmart for an amazing price during Memorial Sale Weekend. We've been riding around town ever since! These bikes are seriously so much fun!! So far, we've ridden to the beach tons of times, Starbucks, the Night Market, Target, and a few parks.

On Saturday, Jeremy concocted his own version of a bike basket by taking a shopping basket from a grocery store and strapping it to the back of his bike with a bungee cord. The bungee cord makes for a nice feature; it allows the basket to be removed.

Jeremy and I were so proud of his invention that we made sure to cram everything in it that we needed for the beach yesterday. This included 1 blanket, 2 towels, books, water, suncsreen and a basketball. We wobbled all the way to the beach with the hefty load before we realized that we could have put some of the things in a backpack! Oh well.
Baseball Game
We were able to get awesome seats at the Angle's game. We went with our friends Jon and Vanessa Wells.

Girl's Camp
I went to my church Girl's Camp as a leader this past week. It was nice to be up in the CA mountains with lots of energetic little ladies. We learned a lot about the gospel and got to share our feelings about Jesus Christ throughout the week. Very neat.


Sunday, June 14, 2009

Weekend Trips

Sacramento, May 29-31
Katie, our little sis, and two of our cousins graduated High School! So we drove up to have a party with them and visit the fam. It was a VERY quick visit, but we managed to play basketball as a family at the church, have a BBQ, watch the movie UP with our friends Ian and April, and enjoy a few hours of church before heading back to HB.

Great Gma June, 94 years old!

Jeremy hit a tennis ball with a baseball bat straight at Matt's arm. Ouch!











Our new baby cousin, Aaron!

Jeremy with Katie

Jeremy got to help at a convention for work!

Denver, June 6-8
My best friend Stacy got married to Dan Burk this past weekend in the Denver Temple!! And it just so happened that a good friend from HS, Tia, was getting married the same day. So I hit two weddings and receptions in one day. It was another VERY quick visit, but so worth it to see the brides as happy as can be. It was especially amazing to be in the temple with Stacy, her groom and family. What a blessing to feel the Spirit of the Lord so strongly and to know that marriage can truly last beyond the grave.



Tanya will be the next graduate, just one more year! sniff, sniff.f

I got to visit with friends from HS that were at Tia's wedding. Three of us turned out to be teachers!!

Isn't Abbie beautiful!?