three little birds

annie loves the song "three little birds" by bob marley. here is her rendition.

enjoy.

can you feel the temperature drop?

i play the flute in the wasatch winds symphony, a community band here in utah county. as i was walking out of rehearsal to my car tonight one of the other flute players was just leaving and rolled down her window and enthusiastically tells me "you're awesome", she then continued with "your presence exudes coolness." i was taken back a little bit with this compliment, but then recovered and stuttered something real cool like "hey thanks" or something like that. i mean, i like to think i'm cool, but it's always nice to have some reassurance from the outside. i won't let it go to my head though because i do realize that is was a compliment from a fellow band geek.

if anyone wants to get in the holiday spirit in early december come to the christmas concert.

wasatch winds symphonic band

"a holiday spectacular"

monday, december 8, 2008

7:30 p.m.

american fork high school

catalina island

last thursday we went drove down to california to go to catalina island. we went with a couple of friends, and NO KIDS! i don't even remember the last time we had a weekend without the kids. thanks to mom and dad, and dan's parents for watching them. anywho here is a recap of our trip....

we drove all day thursday down to huntington beach where we stayed at the hilton across the street from the beach. it was pretty nice, except for the beds were double beds which made for a cozy night for our friends that went down with us since they weren't married. they weren't even dating or anything. they are both married but to other people. anywho, mike brought down his blender so he could make smoothies. i thought it was kinda weird that he wanted to pack his blender, but i sure enjoyed the smoothies for breakfast.

mike with his famous blender

well, it took us a little bit longer than we thought to get to the ferry in long beach, so we missed our 10:00 ferry to catalina island, and were put on the 12:15. alicia decided she needed to roll out some muscles in the middle of the terminal, until some guy made her move out of the main walkway. we had our bikes with us, so we went for a bike ride and found some lunch before returning to get on the ferry.

alica

dan and i in front of the catalina express ferry (dan is being extra safe by wearing his helmet).

avalon bay

when we got there, we rode our bikes to the hotel, checked in, then walked around the town. most of the transportation around town is done by golf cart, so we rented one and went for a tour of the town. we drove the course for the triathlon we would be doing the next day.

overlooking the harbor

that afternoon, we rode one lap of the bike course to get a feel for it. it was up a canyon, it wasn't real steep, but steep enough that it made me wish i had a granny gear on my bike to make it easier to pedal. then we rode the run course. all of this prep work made me nervous for the race because i am not too good with hills, and this was a pretty hilly course. anywho, the next morning we got over to where the race was going to start, set up our transition areas, and shimmied into our wetsuits. a little bit before the race was going to begin, mike realized that he had his wetsuit on backwards, and had to take it off, and put it on correctly. dan was in the second wave to start and i was in the last, so i sent dan off and hoped that he wouldn't drown. he did awesome though. so we swam in the ocean up one side of the dock, out to some bouys, then back to shore. then hopped on our bikes for a 3 lap course up the canyon and back down. while riding up the canyon i was wondering why i always think it is a good idea to sign up for these triathlons...i still haven't figured it out (it's kind of addicting), coming down the canyon was fun though. dan lapped me on the bike, and actually finished the whole thing before i even began the run. the run had a couple of long steep hills, so i ended up walking part of it. i still need to work on running a lot. anywho, i ended up with 8th place in my division, and dan with 13th in his (his was a lot tougher division than mine). our friends also did well.

after the race.

we had tickets for the 7:00 ferry that night, but decided to trade them for sunday morning. so since we had the afternoon, dan and i decided to go diving. we rented some gear, and went for a dive among the giant kelp forests. it was pretty cool. the deepest we went was about 70 feet. that's the deepest i've ever been. there were lots of fish, and of course the giant columns of kelp. it had taken us so long to get the gear and stuff so it was dark by the time we came out. we had lights and stuff, and there were plenty of other divers nearby, but i still get nervous in the dark so we surfaced.

we had cold stone ice cream for dinner, then went to a movie. the theater was way cool, the ceiling was dome shaped and there were murals painted all over. there was even an old organ right up near the front.

the next morning we packed our bags and got on our bikes to ride over and catch the ferry, when we found out that the winds were too strong so our boat was cancelled. we rode over to the dock anyway and changed our tickes for 2:00. well, that boat was cancelled too. so finally, about 3:00 we were advised that all of the ferries for the day had been cancelled, so we had to stay another night on the island. the hotel we were staying in gave us half off since we were stranded, so that was cool. that afternoon dan was able to go out to one of the sailboats with a guy we met the day before. he lives on his boat, and when he found out that was dan's dream he invited him to go and check out the boat. they took some kayaks out and dan hung out on the sailboat and swabbed the deck and stuff, while i went shopping.

dan and peter going out to the sailboat.

earlier that day we had seen the missionaries and found out that they had a group that meets at the bank at 4:00, so we went to the services where there was one other member besides us and the missionaries. i guess that area has only been open since january and they have had 13 baptisms, but all were spanish speaking and attended the 6:00 services. the services were about a half hour long. we sang a song, took the sacrament, the missionaries each shared a thought, and then we sang again and that was it. it was great. the missionaries invited us back to the spanish services, and asked me to share my testimony. we went back at 6:00, and there were a couple of families there that we were able to meet. we had the same services, but in spanish. they did have sunday school after that for about a half hour. it was pretty cool.

so the next morning we were finally able to get on our ferry. the seas still had some big swells, so they were handing out puke bags, and on the deck below us there were people taking turns puking into the garbage can. it was awesome. anywho, we made it back to the mainland, and drove all day and finally reached home at about midnight last night. we had a good time, and it was fun to get to know alicia and mike better. i went to pick up the girls this morning at my mom's house, and when i got there the girls looked at me, then went right back to doing whatever they were doing before. i asked annie if she missed me, she said "nope". well, at least it's nice to know i was missed while i was gone.

october

stuart and i did the lake powell triathlon. he was brave and did the olympic distance, i did the sprint distance. i was scared because i thought it was going to be pretty flat, but there were some good sized hills. it was fun. i ended up with 3rd place in my division. they gave me a medal and i ran before they could take it away. a kid i went to elementary school with won the whole thing for the olympic distance, and one of the kids i coached on swim team won his age group. stu did awesome for not having run in a couple of years.

the girls on halloween. well, this was actually taken the weekend before when we went to jon and nicole's halloween party. on halloween we went trick or treating at dan's work, then dan took the girls around to a few neighbors. they thought it was great.

barack and michelle (c'mon, use your imagination!)

we went to go pick out pumpkins, and the girls had so much fun. annie's was carved to look like a panda bear.

this was me on halloween night (i'm a stick person). after dan got back from taking the girls trick or treating, i made annie go out again with me so i could walk around in my costume after dark.

catch-up

so i know i've been a blogger slacker lately...so here's a quick recap of the last few months.

september:

dan and i did the summit triathlon. they gave me a 3rd place medal, then changed their minds and i ended up with 5th place. at least i got a picture of myself with the medal before it was stripped from me.

i also did the timp tri club swim across deer creek. it was about a 2 mile swim (round trip) across the lake and back.


we went to logan for our annual tradition of the demolition derby. we also stopped in brigham city for peaches. i think this was annie's 4th demolition derby. yeah, we're pretty white trash.


dan had a birthday, and i made him this awesome cake. i had seen pictures of maisy's that she made for xander's b-day, and i thought it would be appropriate for dan since his birthday is on national talk like a pirate day.

i sprained my ankle while running in the dark. it was sprained pretty badly, and i skinned up my knee pretty good too. this was a few days after.

we went up to midway to emily (dan's sister) and nate's cabin house where they reside on the weekends. they made some yummy tacos. we went on a walk, and the leaves were beautiful.

for something interesting to read

since i am too lazy to post something of my own...you can read this if you haven't already read it.

tennis anyone?

"tennis is a gay sport anyway, you can quote me on that"

dan's comment when we were discussing some of the bond propositions for american fork city, one of which apparently included tennis courts or something.

don't vote...

threehead

last night we went to maceys to stock up on food storage items and as a reward for the girls not having too many tantrums we got ice cream cones. while we were eating them, annie missed her mouth and ended up with ice cream on her forehead. this morning she was reminiscing about our fun trip to the grocery store and how she got ice cream on her threehead.

costa rica day 4

lets see if i remember our trip since it has been so long since i have posted about it...

sunday may 4th. (jaco to la fortuna)

we woke up and decided that since we had spent the night at a hotel right on the beach, we had to at least go down to the ocean for a little while before heading back towards alajuela. we walked across the parking lot and onto the beach at about 7:00 in the morning. we were the only ones in sight. it was pretty cool. the water warm, but the girls weren't too sure about playing in the water yet. annie just wanted to build a sandcastle up by where we had left the towels. we stayed for a little while then decided we had better leave to get the rental car back to alajuela by noon.

we made it back, and had the rental car guy drop us off at the airport where we waited for a couple of hours for chame, jon and family to arrive.

we met up with those guys, rented a big 12 passenger van and started off toward la fortuna, north of the san jose area. we drove for an hour or so, singing songs along the way, then stopped for some dinner in san ramon (i think). we drove for a few more hours on winding narrow roads until we arrived in la fortuna.

annie's quotes

a few quotes from annie lately:

"I found pearl jam between my toes"

"girls go to hello kitty school, boys go to dinosaur school"

"i want the nice mom (or the nice mary poppins - if she is being jane or michael that day)"

costa rica day 3

costa rica day 3


saturday may 3: woke up this morning and, after a refreshing shower, went out in search of breakfast. we walked through the outdoor market where vendors were selling mostly vegetables and fruit and stuff, but we also saw a lady selling hats. we tried a few on annie (she had claimed dan's hat as her own) but she always would say that it didn't fit. so we gave up and continued our search for food. we found a bakery and bought some juice and some bakery goods and sat outside and ate breakfast near the dog that was foaming at the mouth.


on the way back to the hotel we walked through the market again. amongst all of the costarican vendors there was this white lady wearing a bonnet. yep a quaker lady. apparently further north in costa rica near monteverde there is a big settlement of quakers. anyway she was selling bread and jam and looked a little out of place, but i guess so did we. there was also a guy on top of a truck feeding sticks through a machine. we came to the conclusion that it was sugar cane and he was juicing them. we didn't try the sugar juice, but we probably should have.


well we packed up our stuff and headed toward manuel antonio national park. it is a park on the beach that has some trails through the rainforest. we drove the windy road from quepos to manuel antonio. when we got close to the park there was an official-looking guy in an orange vest and a name tag showing people where to park. we got suspicious when one of the other guys (not official looking) came by to tell us that it cost 2000 colones (about $4) to park. we watched everyone else and they were paying, so we decided to pay the guy because we didn't want them to be mad at us (and our rental car). so we walked toward the entrance to the park and asked some guides at the entrance if the car parker guys were official, and they said "no, but they will watch your car for you." i hate feeling like i'm beeing taken advantage of because i'm a tourist, but our car was still there when we got back so i guess it was worth it.

this was outside the door of our car when we arrived

at high tide you have to cross through some water to get to the entrance of the park. dan helped annie cross, then as he turned to help eva and I annie sat down in the middle of the little stream. well, as we got to the ticket booth, there was a short line of about 3 people. one of the guys who worked there saw me carrying eva and let me cut through the line and made a lady move her stuff off of a chair so i could sit down. anyway, by the time i sat down for a second dan had made it through the line. during our trip people generally loved seing the kids and going out of their way to help us. i guess that is one reason to take babies on a trip.

so we hiked through the rainforest on a trail along the coast. dan had annie in the backpack and i had eva in the baby bjorn. apparently the majority of people that go to manuel antonio just take the short hike to the beach on the other side of the park as some people were carrying bags of ice and drinks and picnic items. this was nice because the rest of the trails were practically empty. we took a few short, but sometimes steep, hikes through the rainforest where we saw a couple of sloths, a troup of monkeys, and a few other random unidentifiable animals.

annie mostly just wanted to put rocks in this little pond

after leaving the park we stopped at a cool restaurant overlooking the ocean. they had taken an old airplane and made a bar in the inside, and the restaurant around the rest of the plane. it was kind of a fancy restaurant which usually scares me, however i loved it because it was all outside (but covered) and they didn't care that dan and annie weren't even wearing shoes.

we were going to meet chame and jon and their family the next morning at the airport so we started driving back towards alajuela. it was pouring rain and dark. in costa rica you could be where it appears that you are nowhere near a town and all of the sudden there will be someone riding a bike or walking on the road. people don't walk off to the side of the road, they walk the line. this makes for a stressfull drive. well, a couple of hours later near jaco, the rain suddenly stopped, and eva suddenly started crying. she had had another one of her famous diaper blowouts. so we pulled over in jaco (think spring break surf town) and found a place under a lightpost to try and change her. we were on the main street so people were walking by and i had eva in the trunk of the car (the trunk was open) screaming at the top of her lungs. after getting her wiped down and into a clean onesie we decided to just stay there for the night.

getting a hotel room in jaco was a difficult task as everything was full on a saturday night. after trying about 3 hotels we decided to try one last one right on the beach. they had a room which what i understood had a double bed and a single bed. however after paying and getting to the room we had just a double bed. apparently i need to brush up on my spanish, i guess it was a double or a single. we decided to stay anyway and put eva on the floor - which didn't last too long. so the four of us shared the double bed. it wasn't as bad as i was expecting however at about 4 or 5 in the morning it sounded as if every bird from the rainforest was right outside our room screeching at the top of their lungs. not just nice little good morning chirping, but jungle squaking of many different varieties of very loud birds. i acutally started to laugh a little bit to myself as i thought "are you serious?"

soul train

this is a little excerpt from the email that we got from dan's little brother joey joe joe jr. shabadoo. he is on a mission in detroit.

"at this one door we knock on the lady answers and say she doesn't care about the Mormons because they don't believe Black People have souls, (a comment we hear lots) and elder Dedrickson replies back, "It has been clinicly proven a fact that Black people actually have MORE soul than White People." Check and Mate."

i always figured that was true, but didn't know it was clinically proven. wow. does anyone remember that movie soul man from the eighties? that was good.

costa rica day 2

costa rica day 2 (may 2):
we woke up with the sun and after our continental breakfast of bread and jam, corn flakes, and baby bananas we set out for a walk of alajuela's center. we went to the plaza in the center of town where little kids were feeding pigeons and squirrels. one of the little boys gave annie some peanuts to feed the squirrels.


we checked out the cathedral, went to the market, then did the obligitory stop at pops ice cream shop. i had some sherbet - cas (i don't know what this is in english) and guanabana (soursop - i think) flavored, dan had coconut and mango, and annie had some chocolate chip. mmm. we took our ice cream, walked across the street to the plaza, sat next to a drunk guy on a bench and had our morning snack. on our walk, eva's pacifier fell out of her mouth somewhere so i suggested we take the same route back to the hotel. about a block away was eva's paci in the gutter. it had only been run over probably once so we picked it up, put some hand sanitizer on it, and rinsed it off back at the hotel. good as new.


we decided to rent a car and drive down the pacific coast. earlier on in the week, before we left for costa rica, eva got sick. we thought she was done with the diaper blowouts, but a couple of hours into our trip to the coast we stopped in a small town (orotina) and eva was covered in poop. we made space in the trunk to change her diaper and after about 20 wipes she was all clean. luckily we had stopped next to a little restaurant, so we were able to wash hands, get a bite to eat, and drink some yummy juice.

back on the road, we crossed the tarcoles river. you can walk out onto the bridge and look down to see the crocodiles basking in the sun.


about five hours after leaving alajuela we ended up at our final destination for the night - quepos. we were able to find a cheap hotel, and went out to get some food in the pouring rain. we found a place down the block and had some dinner. on the way back to the hotel i was telling dan that our hotel reminded me of the cockroach hotel we stayed in in mexico, except that it didn't have the cockroaches. when we got back to the hotel and turned on the dim light, i heard dan chuckle, then he set off stomping his foot at something. it turns out we had a huge cockroach in our room. dan, the fearless hunter, was able to kill the bug and put it in the toilet where it swirled around for a while. meanwhile, eva was having another diaper blowout, and unfortunately since we went with the cheap hotel, that meant no hot water. sorry eva.

we survived

so, we survived our 13 days in costa rica.

day 1: (thursday, may 1) our day started out with a call from continental airlines asking us where we were. no, we weren't late for our flight, but our flight was going to be delayed and we were going to miss our connection in houston. they wanted to get us on a flight in 45 minutes. however, we were still at home and would not be able to get there in time.

they did find us a flight on another airline so we would be able to get to costa rica that night.

we had packed all of our stuff for 4 people in one bag, so when we got to the airport and weighed our bag, we were over the baggage weight limit by 10 pounds. we pulled out enough stuff and shoved it in our carry on bags and barely got under the weight limit.

the flights were uneventful, and when we got to costa rica that night, the guy at immigration let us go through a special line so we didn't have to wait in the long line.

we asked the cab driver to take us to a hotel, and he took us to a decent one in the center of alajuela called la guaria.

after getting our bags to our room, we asked the guy at the front desk where we could go to get a drink (not a "drink", but just a drink) so we walked around the town that evening, went and bought some juice and grape fanta at the liquor store, then went back to the hotel to watch pimp my ride and get some sleep.

to be continued...

was this my idea?

so tomorrow we are leaving for costa rica. i decided it would be a great idea to take our two kids, and meet my sister and her 4 kids (oh yeah, husbands too - but they kind of count as kids anyway). so make that 2 women and 8 kids travelling through central america.

did i mention we leave tomorrow and we have yet to secure any type of lodging?

donations please

a while ago dan was walking into the house and looked over toward the neighbors house to where they have a trailer parked. standing behind the trailer (away from the road, but in plain sight to dan) was one of the guys that lives next door peeing (toward our house so dan got a good view). this is the same guy that we were talking to one sunday afternoon when he was drunk and his fly was wide open.

well the other day, i walked onto our deck in the back yard and i looked over toward the neighbors house (our house is a split level, so the deck is up high and we can see into the neighbors yard) and i saw the little girl who lives there squatting by the side of the house, then get up and pull up her pants.

so, due to the recent activity at the neighbors house, i am taking donations to fix their bathroom, or at least rent one of those porta-potties to put in their yard.

it's just allergies i promise

so last weekend during conference dan was "touched by the spirit" i guess. we were watching tv church, when i looked over and saw dan crying. what was on you might ask? the deseret first credit union commercial.

check it out

anyone up for this concert?

colorado

well, alyssa did a great job summing up our trip to colorado last weekend, but i'll post a few more pictures of our fun weekend.

we went into denver for lunch since we needed some nourishment before driving to eagle. we ended up on a fun pedestrian street and got some burritos at chipotle. i fed eva some of the burrito then opened up some baby food for her. she took a few bites of baby food, then wouldn't open her mouth for it anymore. however, when i offered her some of my burrito, she eagerly opened her mouth. smart girl.

some cool dancing statues in denver
at the huge mothership of rei stores

liz in front of her cute house

eva loving swinging at the park.

tucker bauer burton (or as alyssa likes to call him "tuckahoe" when he is in trouble)

anna and mikey

alyssa at the loaf 'n' jug getting some yucky hot chocolate

a few miles out of eagle we were stopped on the freeway. there were accidents all over the place on the way back to denver. at least we left a few hours before the huge 70-car pileup that apparently caused the freeway to be shut down for about eight hours.

other highlights from the trip (but i don't have pictures since i didn't do a very good job at documenting everything):

• air boxing to "eye of the tiger" on the drive from denver


• the welcoming commitee of anna and mikey and their sidewalk chalk arrows leading us to the house


• guitar hero


• staying up way to late talking


• red velvet cupcakes


• anna dancing and singing to high school musical


• the neighbor kids coming over every ten minutes to play with liz's kids


• sunday night "baby got back" dance party

eva's first plane ride. she did great.

thanks liz, anna, mikey and tucker for a fun weekend!

engrish

jane and stuart brought engrish.com to my attention. i thought this recommended menu was worth a post.

(not-so) bright idea

whoever came up with the idea of that fake plastic easter grass for easter baskets obviously did not have a 2 year old.

but none for the little boy who lives down the lane

another funny thing annie does lately is when i ask her a question to which the answer is "yes", such as "do you want something to drink?" she will sometimes reply "yes sir, yes sir, three bags full."

the way

apparently annie has been learning the song "i am a child of god" in nursery. she loves singing, and lately she has been adapting the song. the other day she was eating some marshmallow maties, and instead of singing "help me find the way..." she was singing "help me find the marshmallows". other adaptations: "help me find the treasure", and "help me find nar" (nar is her cousin xander). if she doen't find "the way", hopefully she'll at least find something else -whatever it may be.

H2

today as we were driving home i saw one of those hummer h2 monstrosities turning the corner. i glanced to see who would be driving such a car. i expected to see some twenty-something jock or a super soccer mom. i could even imagine a spoiled teenager driving such a car. but no. it was an old grandmotherly lady, probably in her eighties peeking her little grey haired head over the steering wheel. it made me chuckle. i just wish i could have got to my camera in time.

solving the world's problems with a rope

this morning i was in bed with eva, annie and annie's dolls. annie kept telling me to move over (because she likes to lay horizontally). i told her that i would fall off the bed if i moved over. she then said that she would throw me a rope.

speaking of ropes. that is annie's answer to anything that is out of reach.

she drops her book behind the couch. she needs a rope.

her ball is out of reach behind a snow bank. she needs a rope.

i wonder what she would really do with a rope if i ever found one for her to use?

flight of the conchords

my brother blair sent me this link. i am now seriously considering getting HBO.

partner yoga

every year (since last year) around valentines day our recreation center has a partner yoga class. we went last year and my brother stuart and his wifey jane came down too. the sign says that you don't have to have a partner, that they will pair you up in class, but i highly recommend bringing someone that you don't mind getting really close to. last year a guy came by himself, i don't think he was married, and a married girl came by herself so they got paired up. we were right next to them, and i think they felt a little awkward. anywho it is pretty fun, and they even have dessert after. so if anyone is interested in coming down, let me know and i'll sign you up. it is on friday the 15th, and is $10 a couple, or $5 a person.

big brother?

so last night i was doing some important surfing of the internet, when i got an instant message from matt, one of dan's buddies. matt is currently in iraq, so it was kind of fun to chat with him for a bit. we were asking him how the weather was, what he was doing, where he was and stuff. we decided to look on google earth (one of the greatest inventions by the way) and try to see where he was. he told us the town, and the approximate location, but when we tried to get too detailed, like if he was north or south of the euphrates, all of the sudden we lost our connection with him.

coincidence? i think not.

don't forget...

go vote today.

today we went to vote. we started out by going to our normal voting location where there was a sign posted that said that this polling location had been moved to another school a few miles away. on a different sign, it said something to the effect of "if you belong [these] voting districts, then go to legacy elementary, and if you belong to [these other ones] go to af high school." it was very misleading because 1)the first sign didn't say anything about the polling location being split between two new locations and 2) even if we were smart enough to figure out that is what the second sign was saying, who really knows their voting district anyway?

anyway, after going to three different locations we ended up at the proper voting location and cast our meaningless votes.

by the way. did you know that if you are registered as unaffiliated, you can vote democrat, but not republican? however, if you are unaffiliated, you can register yourself with a party at the polls and vote for whomever you want. on the other hand, if you are already registered with a party, you cannot change it at the polls.

lesson learned? for the next presidential election, change registration to unaffiliated. then for the primary elections you can vote for the cantidate of your choice regardless of party affiliation.


addendum: after reading this disheartening tale i learned that apparently each state has it's own rules and regulations regarding open or closed primary elections.

the rose garden

on friday night we had dan's work party. it was way fun. we went to the jazz game where we had dinner first then got to go see the jazz win against the sacramento kings. we took little eva with us and she was scared at first with all the loud noise, but then she got used to it and fell asleep for most of the second half. then, his firm had rented out rooms in the anniversary inn for the employees. they had a lottery at work for the different rooms and we ended up with the rose garden room. it was kind of floofy and had fake roses and lattice and stuff everywhere. it was probably the room i would have chosen least out of all of the rooms there, but hey, it was free for us. i guess dan couldn't get anyone to trade their room for ours. it was fun going with a big group though, because we got to go around and see all of the different themed rooms. luckilly, eva wasn't too loud because we had some neighbors that weren't part of our group, and we didn't want to ruin their romantic escapade. thanks, dan's work for a fun evening. we feel much closer to everyone now because hey nothing bonds a company like, umm, well, "sleeping" next door to your co-workers.

band of horses

it's a good day when you discover a new band worth listening to. i know band of horses has been around for years, but i just found some of their music and i like it. check them out. you can also check them out here.

just in case

today we went to apply for eva's passport. we want to be prepared in case we need to flee the country in the near future. you never know. they guy at the post office wasn't sure these pictures i took would pass because of the shadows, but i think they are better than the one the "professional" passport picture taker guy took of annie when she was a baby where my hands are in it.