Playing Santa

We decided to get the little bean a nice Christmas gift.
A play kitchen.
We found a great looking set that was half the price
of one we were hunting for.
Luckily the super-talkative Wal-mart associate tipped me off that it would require some time to build. I pulled it out on the 23rd and spent 90 minutes cutting the pieces apart
and doing some assembly.

After another 90 minutes+ while watching A Christmas Story...I finally got all the bits and pieces assembled. Now I just hope it stands up to her wild playing.
(This is over 3 hours of cutting, trimming, and Screwing.)
I'll post her response... post-Xmas..

The Russian Bean
Last night our sweet bean decided to try on the cap her Uncle Nate brought home for Peach from Russia. It was knitted by a babushka (or old woman, in Russian), who lives on the streets and sells her wares to survive.
If I do say so myself, these snapshots are darn cute and reminded us that we have the most adorable little girl in the world! (Not bragging or anything).
Enjoy. They'll make you smile... honest!

This is the bean's 'smile'...don't know where she learned that.

"The Bean Supremacy"

We had the ultrasounder write down the gender in a sealed envelope,
which we might open for Christmas. :)
I think we should name this one "Number Two" or "Mackie" maybe
"Rice Nugget" but peach probably wants something
a little more ... normal. :P




The Bean Ultimatum
Here is a snapshot of the original bean in her element.
Greed, MoneyLust and Power.

Survey Invitation

I am wrapping up my final semester of classes for my Master's degree at BYU. I still have a thesis to write but that's next year's worry.
I am currently working on a short survey for a research paper I will be writing in the next couple of weeks.
If you have some time, 5-10 minutes please consider following this link and taking it. Then as you are able share this link with others you know. Of course with any research the more responses you get, the more valid the results.

Follow this link to the Survey: https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_5A4MrSAQQhGVC9m&SVID=Prod

Thank you.

Feeling Good!

The Peach has been feeling much better this week, so to celebrate, she cooked up a doozy! We love to cook here, we can often be found watching the Food Network and trying new recipes. But for the last 6 weeks or more we haven't done much in the kitchen.
Tonight Peach decided to cook a corn/potato chowder and let me build a nice apple crisp.
Here's a few shots, they were delicious! We had the Chowder in bread bowls, nice touch :)

Go the Distance

Well, I've been looking forward to this weekend for some time. My folks came down to watch the BYU Homecoming Spectacular, and stayed over so my pops and I could go to the Homecoming Football game against New Mexico. (they won 21-3 of course!)
We had super-great seats right behind the endzone, next to the cannon they fire after every Cougar Touchdown. We were in the middle of the student seats so there was plenty of excitement and action.

It was a great time being with my dad! Two Cougars enjoying a great, if chilly, afternoon.
Some tense moments and great plays. If I never make it to another game this season, my season pass will still be worth it. I only wish I didn't have so much homework so I could've enjoyed their company more. We love it when they come to visit.
When they left last night to go to the Spectacular, Cambria broke down, cause she thought they were leaving. She loves her grandma and grandpa, or as she calls him "bum-pa." too cute! Here's a shot of her eating alfredo off his fork yesterday when they treated us to lunch.

Official Day 8 (Return trip 2 of 2)Again, not a very eventful day. We left Las Vegas and drove through the strip...gawked for a minute and then sailed on home. Peach and I sat in the back seat with the bean playing a seek and find game on my computer. Time passed very quickly :)

Before we knew it we were home, with plenty of time to relax and put the bean to bed.

Sadly she woke up around 2am with a fever/chills & little pukes. Poor little bean.
:'-(
(at least she made it through the trip before she got sick.)

And thus ends the "Summer of Us"
Next up is 4 months of schoolwork...deadlines...papers...etc.

Official Day 7 (Return trip 1 of 2)

Nothing too exciting to report today. We took a leisurely route from Solvang to Santa Barbara and from there through the tip of LA and back up I-15 to Vegas.
We stopped for lunch in Rancho Cucamonga and gas in Baker.
Once we were 'checked in' in Vegas, we found some food and called it a night.
Here are some extra shots from the week.

Official Day 6

Today was a simple joy. I spent the morning Golfing with Digdug at some simple golf course in Buellton. It was a little 9 hole course but we had fun, I actually got par on 2 holes! Which didn't help my score because I had 10 strokes on two other holes.After an afternoon nap we tripped on down to Gaviota Beach and explored with the kids (much less tar.) The waves were pretty and solid, lots of kelp and sea grass. We even saw some whales playing. That was pretty cool! You can see the whale in the center.

Tomorrow we drive to vegas and thats the beginning of our two-day re-entry. :)
Check out the photo additions to Day 5

Official Day 5 We woke up in Cambria and walked along our favorite Moonstone Beach. GLORIOUS!

Still a little foggy, but beautiful and relaxing. Cam just wanted to play with the sand and rocks...and avoid any pictures. We tried to take a family picture...but she wasn't having it.

We drove back to the condo in Solvang, relaxed a bit and then headed out again to hit some shops. We found a christmas shop with tons of ornaments, so we grabbed a few.
Then later in the evening we went for a hike to Nojoqui Falls.
(Don't ask me how to pronounce it.)
The waterfall was a mere trickle but I think it was still a fun 40 min diversion. It was cool to see a small stream falling from like 50 feet above and disappearing into the moss and trickling out the bottom. Driving back the 5 miles to our Condo we stopped to grab a picture of this guy crossing the road. I've never seen one in the wild this close! it was crazy!
It could've ripped my face off! He was honestly 5 inchs wide....probably would've been 8+ with his legs stretched out!

Official Day 4
We relaxed for the morning, then picked up a rental car and headed north. Peach and Bean and I got a room in Cambria, CA 90 minutes up the coast. We used to come here a lot before we moved back to Utah. We stopped at our favorite campground/tide pools in Montana de Oro.
As always it was beautiful, even though the entire day was foggy and dark. It made the waves much more exciting! We only saw like 3 or 4 starfish. In the past we've seen 30-40 each time. But we usually came to visit in the spring/summer. Bean had fun playing around in and around the rocks. When we first got there, a rogue wave washed over the tide pools and we all raced back inland to escape it... Peach's shoes got soaked.
We finished the drive up to Cambria, walked a few shops before they closed. We ate dinner at Linn's, as we have many times in the past. I had Lamb Chops :>) We picked up some jars of Ollalaberry Jam to try.
It's been a delightful return to an old favorite place. We may have visited the 'beach' on Day 3 but where we went today were our kind of beaches, rocky, fierce, powerful and majestic.

Official Day 3

Well we spent the day relaxing from our drive. We didn't do much other than just a trip to the nearest beach. Refugio. It was great to see our bean enjoying the waves, she just stood waiting for each wave and bracing herself for when it flowed back. She had fun and we had fun watching her.
About 6 minutes into our playing, Peach looked at the bottom of her feet...covered in bits of TAR! mine too! it looked like we were polka-dotted blackfeet. It was so nasty! The tar would not come off no matter what. We ended up buying two bottles of fingernail polish remover to clean ourselves up.
Poor bean's little shoes were trashed. Luckily the polish remover worked for cleaning our feet...but my fingernails still have black lines.
We ended up buying Bean a new pair of shoes in Solvang called WeeSqueak. they are super cute, with every step she squeaks.
Darling!
Like a bell on a cat.
Love it!

Pics from the beach.

Official Day 2

We took off early from Reno, (cause the bean woke up before 6am!) and started driving.
Our first stop was the Jellly Belly Factory. I was in heaven, a beautiful array of millions of beans in every color and flavor!

We toured the factory, of course Cambria was more interested in the tour guides microphone than the fabulous display of bean automation below.

Before our tour we stopped to eat at In-N-Out...something we could never get back home. It was pretty yummy, I grabbed a bumper sticker for our RoofBag to show our support.
We have loved the roofbag, we got 3 duffles that fit perfectly inside it. So at each stop we carry in three long bags instead of forty little bags. We love it!

We started a tripometer when we began, and just as we came over the hill to Pismo Beach, as the ocean burst upon our view and we gloried in its beauty....I checked the tripometer...Exactly 1000 miles on the dot from when we left. That was rad!
Tomorrow we'll rest and explore Solvang...and find me some Wooden shoes! YEah!

"Put your hands together!! and Stomp on the devil's head!.."
-some song on the Sirius radio "Praise" channel

Official Day One
We survived day one. We left homebase around 9:30a and after a quick lunch in Wells, NV we pushed through to arrive in Reno at 5:30 (Reno time.) A relatively uneventful day and much easier than we expected. We finished with a buffet at Circus Circus, a few midway games and that was it. Tomorrow we’ll stop at the Jelly Belly factory and then drive on down to Solvang.

Here we are taking off. I drove the first 3+ hrs.Our travel mates...

Here's the bean and her travel mates. :)
We stopped at a rest stop in Valmy (to clear the air in the car. :-))
Cam decided to join the other two in picking "flowers" but she gave them to their mom instead of us ... silly billy. more tomorrow.

The SUMMER OF US!

Well, we began the 'summer of us' tour tonight in Ogden. You bet! O-town. An old college friend of ours sings a cappella and his group T-minus-5 hosts A Cappella Stock yearly. A great collection of vocal talent. We got a baby sitter for our lil bean and the kids, had dinner at the Athenian (DELICIOUS!!) and then went on to see most of the show.
Tonic Sol Fa was the highlight, their style of vocal instrumenting is fast and catchy. We loved it.
What a way to start our trip.

I'll detail the route and activities tomorrow.

This is Tonic Sol Fa. Peach had a hard time watching them cause their main voice guy was so ove the top flamin' some day I'll do an impression for ya. She loved listening to them, just couldn't watch him. :D
Tomorrow we drive to RENO, the biggest little city...should be fun and games after that. if we survive 7 of us in a van all day.

go team.

I found this funny bit at the bookstore.
They're basically little round rocks
covered with some sparky stuff.
hard to read but it says
"Thew hard on the Groud, only."

48 Hour Film Project

Here's the film we wrote-shot and edited last week.
more about the wild adventure later.

Waiting on the World...
As I'm waiting for some video to render, I figured it was high-time to catch up.
I am currently editing a montage/composition intro for a KBYU special on N. Eldon Tanner. (It's maxing my little laptop's capacities...)

I'm also in the midst of wrapping up my second sem. here at BYU, One full paper left, and two rough drafts to polish up. the paper is an exploratory look at the Television news biz... how can they balance being Journalists...if they operate as a business...for profit? A couple insightful interviews, and some deep thought..and it's been quite intriguing.
I've also picked up some extra $$ shooting for the U.S. Ski Team, basically a TV production company out of LA pays me to shoot Aerials and Mogul competitions in Park City...Pretty Great stuff!

...front row + dough!

And in the near future to exciting events;
we're finally returning to Bakersfield (and of course Disneyland).
...and when we return it will be time for this year's 48 hr festival Film competition. We're looking to really do well this year. Last Year was tremendous fun and we won the award for best scripting.
That is all.

Poor Genius

Earlier this week I did some 1-on-1 editing training with a guy in SLC. It was a blast, I didn't realize how much I really knew! (Then again, he didn't start using computers or email until a year ago. So there was plenty to share.)
Here's where my rant comes in... Here's a guy, that works construction during the day, but has a 'sugar momma'. She has given him like a 400 sq ft. studio to do his creative work in. In there is a crap load of instruments, guitars galore, drums, keyboards, you name it. AND in one corner a sweet video editing system. Mac G5 dual core, dual widescreens HD monitors, an HDV deck and all sorts of speakers and toys. It was great fun to show him the ins and outs of his own system, it's potential and what not. As I left he showed me, tucked away in a closet, a full set of airplane ready shooting gear. This wasn't a handycam and a collapsible tripod. These were huge padded bags for carrying pelican cases with an HD camera, boom mic setup, and a $2500 audio recorder with a port-a-brace carrying case!!

Now the kicker. He got this gear because he wanted to make an audio recording of noises and sounds of the Amazon rain forest. Then the 'momma' figured if they're going down there they should get some video gear and shoot it. (She paid us, Super Heumann Productions, to come over and show them the ins and outs of the camera last summer.) So on a whim they get a full set of professional gear- fly to South America and shoot crocodiles, and the howling monkeys!! AND THEY HAD NO CLUE WHAT THEY WERE DOING!
Now he's trying to edit some of it together and maybe market it... BUT HAS NO CLUE!.
Please forgive me for my outbursts, but I feel like Michaelangelo watching some kid off the street finger-painting with fresco on the Sistine Ceiling!

Oh well what can I do.

My, My, My...
The last four months have been tremendous! We have settled in Spanish Fork and make daily trips to Campus where we hand off our little Bean. School has been delightful for Drew, finally a challenge that has inspired him to excel. (straight A's for the first semester ;) ).
Peach is thoroughly enjoying her time in the Daily News newsroom, where she gets to pass along her wealth of knowledge about the biz.
The biggest news...Cambria had her ONE year birthday right before Christmas. We invited our families to come celebrate with us, and watch Cam eat her first piece of cake. She was in heaven! The handfuls she shoved in her mouth were enormous! but so darling!
Here's a little video Drew persuaded his Peach to make the night before. It's our own mini newscast. This is the montage from the tail end of it.



You can watch the full version here.