Comic-Con Crazyness

Curtis happened to be in San Diego when the annual Comic-Con was going on. He and the group he was with decided to venture out to Downtown San Diego and check out the craziness and he did come across a few Characters. 

 He only took pictures with ones he thought the kids would like. Other than that he said there were a lot of..um.. I don't know how to say this nicely -losers who never grew up and still live in their Mom's basement. This is the highlight of their year to get dressed up and come to this event. A few days after this some guy that was at the Real Estate convention that Curtis was in San Diego for took a group on a Pirate ship and hired some guy to look like Jack Sparrow. Curtis said it was interesting but never understood what the point was. meanwhile. ...some cousins came over for a swim.

California Road Trip

Curtis' niece, Krystal, got married in Monterey, CA on July 3. We decided to take the family and see most of California and make it a fun trip This dinosaur was right next to a Burger King so we stopped at it. You could go inside and it was a hokey gift shop. It was a nice place to stop especially since we got stopped on the freeway for an hour plus. Some type of accident or something This picture makes me laugh of Derek pushing Trey up. We spent the first night in the LA area and hit six flags. Curtis, Dax, and Derek had passes from when they went a few weeks ago. We mostly stayed in the little kid area since we had Trey with us, I don't like roller coasters, and it was packed with people who wanted to ride roller coasters. The Green Lantern ride opened that day for a 3-hour wait. No thanks. While we were on this trip we swam in the Hotel pools a few times. Trey's swimming skills really started to take off. He started swimming on his own. He has no fear

Duane Greeley, Curtis, Andy Ibach

We met up with Curtis' friends from way back when in San Jose Funny thing that Andy actually lives in Gilbert now. We had to go to San Jose to see him. We met up with Curtis' family at a park near Santa Cruz. Here we are with his Mom (Grandma Shauna)

All dressed up for the wedding in Monterey, CA

We went and checked out some tide pools around Monterey. The kids loved it, we saw all kinds of crabs and crawly things. Way cool for our little scientists.

The reason for the trip, is Alexi & Krystal Sevastopoulos with her son Jacob. Next stop San Fransisco

Trey getting encapsulated inside a bubble

Next, we went up to San Fransisco. We took the kids to the "Exploratorium" It is a science museum where you can touch and play with everything. It is an amazing fun place with hundreds of science experiments going on. Both Curtis and I had been there in our youth and knew the boys would LOVE it. Curtis, Dax, and Derek went through the Tactile dome at the Exploratorium. It is this dome that is totally dark and you have to feel your way through and use other senses besides sight to get out. Curtis had done that as a kid and remembered it being way cool. We made reservations for it, then we mentioned to Curtis' family that we were doing this. His sisters said they didn't like it as kids and it scarred them for years. We had second thoughts. We decided they could go check it out and then decide. Dax and Derek loved it. At first, it was a little weird/scary. Curtis told them if they made it through he would buy them an ice cream Sundae. They made it through, then they went through 6 more times. They were pretty good at feeling their way around the last few times.

The toilet drinking fountain. This is a toilet that has never been used as a toilet and it has fresh filtered water running through and is set up as a drinking fountain. The sign says that most people won't drink out of it because it is a toilet and they can't get over the fact. I thought my boys would love it. After I took this picture Derek told me he wasn't actually drinking the water because it grossed him out. He told me that before he even read the sign. I couldn't bring myself to drink from it either. It seems to be confirmed people don't want to drink from a toilet no matter how clean.

Outside the Exploratorium. There is a replica of this dome at California Adventure. It is a pretty cool structure.

San Fransisco Cable Car.

Before we left on our trip we didn't have much of a solid plan once the wedding was over, we were kind of winging it the rest of the trip. We had plans to be in San Fransisco on July 4th, but we didn't know if we were going to spend the night there, etc. While we were at the Exploratorium we decided to stay in SF and we better get reservations. We had kind of been talking about it the entire day but weren't sure what part of town to stay in etc. Since Curtis grew up in the Bay area and was somewhat familiar with SF he went online and figured out where we wanted to stay. When he called to get a hotel they told him the city was sold out for the 4th of July, but... there were two rooms available in the entire town.

 UGHH! Luckily one of the rooms was at the hotel that Curtis scouted out for us. Oh my goodness we were so lucky. The hotel was the Handlery at Union Square. It was way cool. It was an older hotel but made modern, and a great location. We had to take a crank elevator (added mainly for handicapped access). The kids thought it was great. We could see all kinds of action on the streets below. We decided to walk those streets so the kids could experience San Fransisco and they did get an experience. We saw many homeless people, which didn't seem to phase them until we came across one crazy fellow who was yelling "shut up" to anyone and everyone in earshot. Between his "shut ups" were other colorful phrases. I knew he was freaking the kids out so we got out of his way ASAP. The kids didn't say much for a while then Derek started referring to "Mr. Shut up" often throughout the trip. They thought he was actually mad and yelling at them specifically. 

 We went to Fisherman's Warf and had plans to go to Alcatraz. We couldn't believe it when we went to buy tickets they were sold out for the next week. Big disappointment for the kids, but we had enough fun doing other things, and they got over it.

Heading back home we stopped off at Grandma Shauna's in San Jose Grandma Shauna gave Trey this toy train set. He couldn't wait to play with it once we got home. He loved it, played and played and played with it.

First Day of School

First day of school-"The most wonderful time of the year". Actually this summer we had such a great time, I wouldn't have minded summer being a bit longer. Derek is starting 2nd Grade at Hancock, and Dax is starting 6th grade and middle school. I can't believe it. Derek is in Mrs. Shafer's class. He was happy to see his friend Mason from last year in his class, and also his friend Westin. I don't know how long it will last he and Mason sitting next to each other. Last year Derek would come home and tell me how funny Mason was. He was so funny that Derek said he made him laugh so hard he almost peed his pants. The next stop is Arizona College Prep-Oakland campus formerly Chandler Traditional Jr. High. We got there just as it was starting so not much time for pics. It is middle school now, I don't think the parents get to go in the class and take all kinds of pics like they do in elementary school. Most of the parents just dropped the kids off and said goodbye. No walking to the classroom etc. I like this picture with the kids in their uniforms. I think they all look so nice. I did realize it is harder to look for your kid when they are all wearing the same thing. Other than that we love it. The first few days went well and Dax seemed much happier than at Hancock. Today was the third day when I picked him up he said " I love CTJH" I'm so happy. Last year he was not happy. This was a big week for Dax. Since he turned 11 last week, he is moving up in Scouts. Last night we had his last Cub Scout Pack meeting. He earned his Webelo badge, the religious square knot (Faith in God award), and also the arrow of light (I'm not sure what that is, I think it means they move up to official "Boy Scouts" When the scouts advance they also get to pin a little award on the parents. Maybe because they think the parents deserve an award for getting the scout to do the work to advance. Great Job with all your hard work. Tonight we are onto... Boys Scouts. I hope enjoys it as much as cubs. He gets to wear his arrow of light, and the square knot badge on his new uniform. His first overnight campout is coming up in a few weeks.

Jazz on the Strip

In June, I met my cousin, Amy, for a weekend in Las Vegas. She was going to the Jazzercise convention with her friends. I think her true intent in going was not to go to the Jazzercise convention but to get to Southern Utah so she could visit her relatives there, especially her 80+-year-old Grandmother. 

Las Vegas is the closest Airport, since Las Vegas is close to me and I also have relatives in Southern Utah we decided to meet and have some fun.Some Characters we found on the strip. If I knew what I was doing I would be holding the gun with two hands.

Amy and I on the strip Jazz on the Strip The Jazzercise convention When I decided to meet Amy there, I really did not intend on going to the Jazzercize convention. Once I got there I really didn't have anything else to do. So I went and it was actually really fun, kind of a cultish workout class. Amy met about 20 of her Jazzercise friends there, but there were about 2000 in the classes.

Amy's friends that we shared a room. They decided we all needed "Vegas names" Maryann "Paris", Laura "Candy", JoEllen "Gigi", Amy"Sugar" and Me "Pinky"

It's raining men. it made me laugh when the male instructors were Jazzercising to that song.

Cher impersonator who came on stage while we were Jazzercising to Cher songs. The impersonator looked so good, at first I questioned if it really was her. At the end they thanked HIM??? for coming to Jazz on the Strip 

After the convention, we rented a car and drove 2 hours to Southern Utah to meet up with the Relatives. The first stop is Kanab, Utah. This is where our Moms grew up. Our Grandma died in 2001 and neither of us had been back since. Our Uncle Roger moved into Grandma's house. We were a little nervous about going back to the house knowing it would not be the same. Surprisingly a lot of her stuff was still there and it still felt like Grandma's (mostly) The infamous Red Room, where Grandma used to do her bookwork for their service stations. We loved that Red phone and it was still there with her phone number still on it like they used to have them.

Grandma's fireplace with one of her paintings in the background. Toni Smith(cousin's daughter), Mary Smith (cousin's wife), Kathy Smith (Aunt), Roger Smith (Uncle)

We also stopped by our cousin Shaun's house and visited his family. He is the 911 dispatcher in the metropolis, of Kanab. Population 4000. He had great stories of 911 calls. For example, the guy who called and said he went to Wendy's and they were rude and took a bite out of his chicken nuggets, so they need to go arrest them. We stopped by the cemetery to visit our Grandparents grave. Grandma LOVED Coke in a bottle, so we left her one. Surprisingly we had a great time at the cemetery. Amy's Dads side from both of his sides of his family were all from Kanab. We walked all over the cemetery and found all her, Frost, and Hamblin relatives. It was so fun and interesting. I think Amy was related to half the cemetery. A megaphone from our Moms' cheerleading days at Kanab High School, and our beloved red phone (it still works). We were only in Kanab for a few hours then we drove up the road 40 minutes to Hurricane to visit her Frost relatives. I think we had as much fun in Southern Utah as we did in Las Vegas.

More Summer Fun

After Detmer Football camp was over the kids started tennis lessons and a Lego Amusement Park class They did pretty good at Tennis. It was dang hot even at 8:00 in the morning. One day Derek got "heat disease" (his words) and they had to dump water on him. They also did a Lego Amusement Park class where they built amusement park rides, roller coasters, swings, etc. made out of legos but hooked up to these little motors. It was great fun. After they built the original project they could do things to modify the rides. It sounds like sometimes they modified them a little too much and the rides went berzerk and things started falling apart. Dax also took the Lego Robot class. When I picked Dax up on the first day the instructor told me that they learned about Newton's Law. Dax already knew it so the teacher asked him to get up and teach the class Newton's Law, so he did. Dax also had to teach me, because I couldn't remember. An object in motion stays in motion yada yada yada. Ask Dax if you want more. We went up to cool refreshing Flagstaff. Papa let them shoot his pellet gun. He also took them to the trout farm and they caught 3 fish. 

 Curtis's Birthday- The kids helping me make a Basketball rice crispy Birthday treat for Dad Curtis has always wanted to go to an MLB all-star game. This year it was held in Phoenix at Chase Field where the Diamondbacks play. We went to Home-run Derby for Curtis' Birthday. We went early and watched them warm up then into the derby. It was great fun especially as it got closer to the end and watched them battle it out.