Travis' New Ride

Go UVa

We left Northern Virginia early so Travis could attend the UVa vs. Virginia Tech game. He wanted to broadcast his allegiance all the way to Charlottesville and count how many others were doing so too. I think the official count was UVa 28, Tech 13. Unfortunately, the score of the game didn't end up with us on top, but Travis had fun nonetheless.

Merry Christmas-I mean Prize

Although these pictures look like it is Christmas, it's actually a game called Prize. Travis' family plays this game after the Thanksgiving feast every year. It's a pretty greedy game which we question why we play it every year. We continue to do so though because there's always good gifts! Travis' mom gets all the presents. There are 5 dice on which the letters of PRIZE are spelled out. On each dice there is a blank and if you roll and get any blanks you don't get to pick a present. There is stealing involved which makes for a pretty interesting game. There are tears every year usually shed by a younger family member not getting the gift they wanted.

This is our loot. We always come away with some good stuff. Others aren't as lucky.

This One is For You

Well, I'm finally updating our blog. Sorry that it's taken so long. I hope I haven't lost any fans. Here is what we've been up to since the last time I posted 3 months ago...

HARRISON FAMILY BEACH TRIP

Sandbridge Beach, Va

Katy, Andrew, Laura, Travis, Me, Michelle holding Harrison, Nate holding Elizabeth, Wendy holding Gwen, Matt holding Emi

Travis, Andrew and Nate trying to catch grapes being thrown to them.

COX FAMILY FARMS, Northern Virginia

Katy and a friend

STAKE FAMILY PICNIC

Me and Cheryl

And last but not least Travis has accepted the offer to return to Palo Alto California. So, I guess it's official-we will be San Francisco Giant fans!

You are my Sunshine

Last weekend was spent in Visalia with my family. Of course this weekend marked the release of the final Harry Potter book. My mom and I met my brother and his girlfriend at Border's around midnight to try and get a copy. So many people were there that we would have been there hours. So, my mom and I decided to let my brother take care of getting our books since we aren't the night owls we once were. I woke up the next morning with the book sitting by my door with a little sticky note saying how much money I owed my brother for the book. How sweet! My brother and I read the book off and on throughout the weekend trying to get ahead of the other to spoil something that was coming up. Sunday afternoon my sister and older brother came over with their kids to play and eat. These videos are of my sister's youngest daughter, McKenna, who is around 2 years old. She's singing 'You are my Sunshine', attempting to sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' but not getting the words right so singing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' instead. She may seem shy in these videos, but she actually LOVES to sing and will sing all day while she plays. Oh, by the way I finished Harry Potter today and it was awesome! I think she wrapped it up perfectly.

'Chariots of Fire'

Travis and I were driving to San Francisco for a work function this afternoon and we saw smoke in the distance. We thought it was a wildfire because there have been a few around here this summer. As we approached we saw that there was a fire burning out of control, but it had been started by a car that had flipped off the freeway.

Transformers

I've really been looking forward to seeing the new Harry Potter movie. A while ago I had a conversation with Travis about seeing it together the first Saturday it came out. Yesterday as I was talking to him about my plans to go today he claimed that he didn't remember agreeing to go to the movie. With much persuasion he agreed to go to the 'theater' but he wanted to see Transformers instead. Luckily for him they were playing both movies starting at the same time or else he would have had to watch HP with me. Mine was good, but like always the book is so much better! Transformers, on the other hand, according to Travis is the best movie he's seen in a long time! Here's a video Travis found that he thought would whet your appetite to see the real thing. We'll let you be the judge.

Stanford

We explored Stanford's campus this afternoon. I thought it was really pretty. I've never seen a college with mission style architecture, but I haven't seen many colleges. Of the campuses I've seen I'd have to rank UVa #1, Stanford #2, BYU #3, UVSC #4.

Brian Regan

Tonight Travis and I went and saw one of my most favoritist people in the world!! BRIAN REGAN! For those of you who don't know who he is, he's one of the greatest comics I've ever heard. He has the goofiest expressions and his jokes are very clean. If you get a chance to see him don't turn it down. His concert was outside at a winery in Saratoga, Ca. It is up on a mountain overlooking the bay area.
This is from his DVD I walked On The Moon.

This is one of my favorite skits! The video isn't very good, but you can hear him. It's about his early years in school.

7-11

Today is July 11th, which to most of us is just another day. To my husband though it's his second favorite holiday (4th of July being his first). 'What holiday?' you might ask. Nothing other than 7-eleven's birthday and that means FREE SLURPEES!!! Of course they give you smaller cups, but that doesn't matter when you hit up a few 7-11s during the day-or even just go multiple times. Today though we only went twice. Travis' record is 9! See if you can top that next year when this special day comes around.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. Travis and I spent ours in Pismo Beach/Morro Bay area. My younger brother, Kris, had a baseball tournament last weekend in Morro Bay. They did well-won 3 lost 1-but didn't make it to the championship. My parents decided to make a vacation out of the tournament and rented a beach house for the whole week. We drove down for the tournament Friday evening and on Sunday Travis left me to go and work on Monday and Tuesday. On his way back to Santa Clara he had the scariest experience of his young life as he spun out at 75 MPH. Someone braked and swerved into his lane trying to avoid an accident. The next thing Travis knew he was spinning out of control like Ricky Bobby. Miraculously he was able to avoid flipping or hitting anything and nobody hit him. He drove back down Tuesday night to spend the 4th with us. I had a fun couple days at the beach with the family. For the 4th we decided to fight the crowds in Pismo and set up camp on the beach to watch the fireworks they shoot off the pier. There were thousands of people and many things going on. It was a nice sunny day, but a little windy down on the beach. At 6 o'clock after being there for about 4 hours already the fog started rolling in. At this time the boys were freezing after boogie boarding in the cold water. Not being able to see the testers they were shooting off the pier, we decided to leave. Hoping the weather was clearer in Morro Bay, we headed back to our beach house. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't any clearer or warmer. But the boys were able to take warm showers before we headed down to the beach to see the fireworks. We couldn't see a thing! The fog blocked everything, but would light up with the different colors of fireworks. When a green one would go off my brother said it was a soul coming back from the dead. You'd have to have seen the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie to understand. Travis was disappointed considering this is his favorite holiday! We ended the night with ice cream from Fosters Freeze and back to our place in front of a fire by 10 o'clock. If we had been in Pismo we would probably still be walking to our car. Travis and I woke up at 5 in the morning (yes I said 5) to drive back for him to get to work. At least I got some good pictures of sunrise.

Dad's New Phone

Dad got a new phone recently and it has a camera on it. Here are some pictures he took of our trip to Pismo for the 4th of July. Pretty good quality huh?

Mom and I in front of Morro Bay rock.

Travis, me, Mom, and our friend Annette on Cayucos Pier (her son is on the baseball team and stayed at the beach house for the tournament).

Travis sunbathing without a towel.

It may have been sunny, but it was windy which made it very cold.

Tag!

I just realized that I've been tagged by Jamie Ormsby to do this questionnaire. I usually don't do these sort of things but I decided to live on the wild side and just do one. Here it goes!

4 places I've worked
1. Aunt Bonnies, Visalia. It was a cookie and ice cream shop in the mall. I only worked there for a few months because it went bankrupt. I wonder if it had to do with the employees being to able to have free food while they worked?
2. Harbottle Law Firm, Visalia. Secretary/filer for an attorney.
3. Dr. Berg's Orthodontics, Orem. Orthodontic assistant.
4. Dr. Bickers Dental office, Charlottesville. Dental assistant.
(I feel like I'm writing my resume.)


4 Places I've lived
1. Visalia, California. 0-18 years old.
2. Provo, Utah. 18-21 years old.
3. Charlottesville, Virginia. 21-going to be 24 years old.
4. Santa Clara, California. Just for the summer but it may be 24-?? years old.


4 places I've been on vacation
1. Pismo Beach, California. We've gone at least once a year since I was little.
2. Europe. For a school trip when I was a junior in high school I went to Switzerland, Rome, Venice, Florence, Nice, Paris, and London.
3. Australia
4. Cancun


4 movies I could (and HAVE) watched over and over
1. Legally Blond
2. Pirates of the Caribbean
3. Napoleon Dynamite
4. Shrek


4 favorite TV shows (just 4?? Because really I can name more.)
1. Grey's Anatomy/ Office
2. Shaq's Big Challenge. Just started last Tuesday and I'm already hooked!
3. Lost/ American Idol
4. Live with Regis and Kelly/Oprah


4 favorite foods
1. Mexican. Especially Cafe Rio.
2. Raising Canes fried chicken strips with their dipping sauce.
3. Italian. Pasta and pizza.
4. Splash's clam chowder (Pismo, Ca. Show up early because the line goes around the block.)


4 places I'd rather be
1. Where I am right now with family-Pismo, Ca
2. Any beach though would do
3. Anywhere with my friends from Charlottesville. Not IN Charlottesville though.
4. Utah with my friends from Utah.

"I Left my Heart in San Francisco"

Yesterday Travis and I traveled to San Francisco. We were worried about driving around the city and being able to find parking, preferably free, so we decided instead to take the Bay Area Rapid Transit. Also known as BART. They have free all day parking at their stations so we drove to the closest one and took a 40 minute ride into the heart of San Fran. Once in, the rest of our journey was on foot. I thought it would be no big deal since I spent a whole weekend walking around New York city, but I forgot that S.F. is very famous for its hills. I was surprised at how steep some of their hills are. Sometimes it felt like we were walking straight up! Anyway, we walked through China Town, which I must say is nicer and prettier than New York's. We also went to North Beach (Little Italy), Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf, Boudin sourdough bread factory, saw Coit Tower, Transamerica Pyramid, and walked all the way up Lombard street. Luckily we went to S.F. when we did because than evening on Jeopardy they had a question about the Boudin bread factory and one on Fisherman's Wharf. Unfortunately, we got both wrong, but at least we had been there a few hours prior. Transamerica Pyramid Bay Bridge Coit Tower The Rock. Aka Alcatraz. Boudin Bakery. They made a crocodile out of sourdough bread.

Lombard Street

Kayaking Trip

We spent the weekend in Pismo, CA with my family camping. Most of us went kayaking Saturday morning. The group was my mom, dad, Kris (brother), Heather (his girlfriend), Martin (brother-in-law), Chris (his son), Timmy (his other son), Travis and me. Most of us have been before so we didn't expect this time to be as crazy as it was. My mom and dad got flipped on their way out into the ocean so I guess we should have known what was coming. All together they flipped four times. I got knocked out once as did Heather. Bother Kris and Travis stayed in tact for whatever reason! On our way back to shore to end this crazy adventure my mom and dad went down which by this time was expected (sorry mom and dad), my brother-in-law and Timmy went down four times in a row!! And both our tour guides ate it while trying to help all of them back into their kayaks. Travis, Kris, Heather, Chris and I were safely on shore watching this whole debacle take place. My brother took pictures of the mess but you'll have to wait while we get those pictures developed.

Yes, that is a sea otter rolled up in the kelp massaging his head.Beach full of birds.There were swells that they had you try to ride to go between rocks. As you can see it was dangerous because if you missed the swell you would be shipwrecked on the rocks until another one came to push you off. We made it but once we were through a wave hit us and I got knocked out.