Bless their hearts

So a couple of weeks ago I was driving down Moorpark Rd. in Thousands Oaks, and there was a small group of protesters. There were only a handful of them, maybe 6 or 7, and it seemed to me they were all over the age of 70. I couldn't imagine what they were protesting, but as I drove by I noticed they were outside a planned parenthood office. Bless their hearts. It was touching to see them out there. I should have stopped and joined them!

Sneaky, Sneaky

Sneaky little ice cream makers. Have you noticed how certain ice cream brands have kept the same circumference of their gallon ice cream containers while they have made them shorter. They have tried to trick, yes I did say trick, consumers into thinking they are buying the same old gallon of ice cream. Quoting Wikipedia we read "In May 2008, the 1.75 Quart container was further down sized to 1.5 Quarts (3 Pints). Other ice cream manufacturers followed the down sizing move. Thus, the consumer pays more for less." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyer%27s Ok, I know it isn't the most reliable source but it is one none the less.
Really?! Really?! Honestly.

Sweets and Spices part II

Wow, where did I leave off? I think we were still in York visiting our friend Christy. From York we went back to London, and from a little attic bedroom to a flat on the Themes. That was a fun surprise. The place was decorated very modern, and it had more than just the necessities. It had an amazing view from the living room window across the Themes to downtown London, including the Tower Bridge. Here is a night shot. We had one free night without a cruise ship to block the view. There was a huge TV, lots of game systems, and karaoke. Plus there was a full kitchen with a washer and dryer (that is combined in one). At one point I couldn't get my clothes out. I was going to have to buy new clothes! Here we are with the instruction book trying to figure out the whole thing. It was pretty funny. Here is the sweet bathroom too. It is kind of weird but the shower glass (well it was frosted)makes up part of the hallway. So we had to shower with the doors to the bedroom and the living room closed. The first day we were in London we went all over town. We went to Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the guards. It was very fun. By the way, I am a professional at taking pictures of myself and others. It is a true talent.We also went to the Royal Mews. What's that you say? The Royal Mews is where all the horses live- well they used to all live there. Some of them live in pastures out in the countryside. It is also where they house the carriages that have been used by the royals throughout their lives. This is the latest and greatest.Pretty fancy huh?! We also walked through Hyde park, and we tried to find the guards with the red coats and the big black hats, like the ones in the marching band, but we couldn't find them. It turns out that they were out of the country for the moment. My sister read in the paper that one of the Princes (which one is the oldest one? Probably Prince William) was on some kind of a humanitarian mission. We think they were with him. After walking all over town we went back to the flat for like three minutes, and them we were going to go to the US v. England soccer (or futbol match- whichever you prefer). My brother surprised us with scarves- everyone wears their team scarves there. I guess they came with our tickets. But what a great surprise that was! We were a little worried about getting beat up at the match. We know how much the English love their futbol. But really despite us losing, we had a great time. It was a great night. The next day we got up and toured around some more. One highlight of the day was going to St. Pauls Cathedral - where the little old bird lady sings. We walked up the 400 something steps to the top of the cathedral. It was quite a trip. We ate lunch on the steps. I loved it. We also went to the Tower of London. That is where the crowned jewels are kept. You know how I like the bling. We saw two shows while we were there, Les Miserables and Wicked. Both very good shows. Really though I love Wicked. If you haven't seen it, I say do it! I think this post is long enough... so I am going to finish it. But really, I has a grand time! One last shot of my brother and sister and me on the tube.

Fish & Chips Part I

So I never actually ate fish and chips, I did eat a lot of curry, and pasties. I hope that's the way you spell it. I also ate at a fab place called Wagamama's (again, not sure how to spell that one). But it is really yummy! I could eat there everyday!Ok so what's so special about fish and chips and curry and Wagamama's? Well They all happen to be in the motherland, ok not Utah, England. My little brother and sister and I took a little trip across the pond to the UK, more specifically to York, Bath, and London. We had a great time. In York we went to visit a close family friend who is getting her masters. We took the train from London to York. We went through beautiful countryside. We went to church on Sunday. That was cool. Then we went walking through the city. Thats our friend's finger pointing at where we are in York. We toured around the city centre, and was privilaged enough to be there during the Sword Spectacular. Here are some now dancing with their swords. while watching the sword dancing we ate pasties. I had one with tomato, cheese, and basil. I also had one with spicy chicken- I was curious because the English don't do spicy- it was curry. We also ate at Betty's. In York it is the place for tea. We ate yummy desserts there. We walked on the Roman wall that surrounded the city. Here are some steps that lead up to the top of a section of the wall. We had beautiful weather in york. We went to the York Minster Abbey (also a cathedral). Here is a view through the city. This is a picture of the Rose window.
We also walked throught the Shambles. The shambles is a street where the top floors of the buildings hang out farhter than the first floors. They were only charged by the footage of the lower level. Here is my sister and our friend. You could practically reach out and touch your neighbor!The next day we took the train to Gloucester to meet up with our friend's friend to go to a cheese rolling festival. Unfortunately because of the weather we missed the cheese rolling, but we did get the opportunity to walk to the Gloucester abbey, or St. Peters Abbey. It is a beautiful place. Here is my sister and our friend in one of the many beautiful halls (recently used in the Harry Potter movies). Here I am in one of the courtyards.


We also went to Bath, another beautiful town in the west country. Here are myself and my sister and brother at the Roman baths.Bath is where the Romans built their famous baths. They thought the naturally occuring spring waters had healing properties. Water is best! We walked around Bath and then we drove back to York with our friend's friend. What a day! The next day we took a bus to Castle Howard. Another beautiful place. The Castle is still owned and lived in by Howards. The weather was not so nice to us while we were visiting the castle, but it was still beautiful. everything was so green there. We walked all around the grounds.There are beautiful gardens including rose gardens, although the roses weren't in bloom when we were there. We walked through what seemed like a forrest, called Ray wood. There were beautiful wild flowers. There were walled gardens and ornamental vegetable gardens.

We walked from the house through the gardens to the Atlas fountain along the outside of the woods to the temple of the four winds. We then walked back to the house through the woods. The view from the temple of the four winds was breath taking I think I don't know if it could be anymore beautiful with the sun shinning as it was with the clouds and drizzle. Can that be my backyard?!

Springtime in St George

This past weekend my friend Kristen and I went to visit my parents in St George. We had a great time! Who knew there was so much to do? I guess every time I have visited we have had a plan. This time there was no plan. This time I had thought about going horseback riding somewhere. You know it is Utah right? There is bound to be horseback riding somewhere. So I tried to get reservations at a place in Snow Valley but they were booked. So my mom suggested we go to Zion National Park. What a great idea that was. We got up early and drove to Zion. It was beautiful! We were hoping to go trail riding in Zion since we missed the boat in Snow Canyon.

We ended up going for an hour trail ride. With a group of tourists. I think there were like 28 other people on the trail ride (don't worry mom and dad came with us to Zion, but skipped the trail ride). Here is a picture I took while on the trail ride of two of the three patriarchs. I never quite got all three of them together.

We got to see deer and wild turkey on thr trail, it was very cool. We actually saw a lot of deer.

We saw some on the road on the way, and then we saw more on the trail. They weren't phased at all with 30 horses walking by. We also actually crossed the Virgin river on horse back. The water was just about two feet high. After a busy morning we ate lunch at the lodge and then went to one of dads favorite little rock shops and got some fun colored glass to spiff up the backyard a bit.

Sunday we took a drive up through Snow Canyon and took a lottle look around. This a picture standing on petrified sand dunes. It is amazing that plants and flowers can grow out of the sand.

After wandering a bit we kept going up to Pine Valley. That was very cool. There is a little church that has been there since 1868. They still hold mettings on Sunday. It was freezing there. There was still snow on the ground. We didn't stay too long.

There were some boys fishing, it was pretty cool.

We really did have a great weekend.

What Can I say

So I am a slacker, what can I say. But I am going to try to be better at writing on this blog. What better way to re-confirm my efforts with pictures of me and my new best friend Rob. Ok well there aren't actually pictures of me and Rob, just Rob... through a window. A couple of friends and I went to a grand openeing of a DC Shoes store on Melrose in Hollywood, Ca. yesterday to see Rob Dyrdek (a professional skateboarder and reality tv star), but all we got were these pictures. They are great pictures from on the other side of glass if you ask me.

Isn't he cute! Ok not exactly my type, I prefer Big over Rob. Ok not really. I wish big was there but he wasn't. So we decided instead of waiting in the line we were sure would take us nowhere we would go find Rob and Big's house because if Big wasn't with rob he was surely with the dog and the mini horse. Well gas is expensive these days and I was running out of it, so we decided to call it quits. Overall I would say it was a pretty grand adventure!

No Body puts Alaska in the corner

Alaska!

So my parents and the single sibs went to Alaska just recently. Is was good times. The weather was fabulous (well most of the time), the almost 24 hour sunshine is very cool but kind of hard to get used too, the people are very friendly, everything is pretty much slower there, even more so than little Agoura hills.

So here is the fam, hanging out at the visitor center in Denali national park. We stayed at this place that reminded me of Dirty Dancing. No body puts baby in a corner. Lets see, from here we went on a little nature walk, where we ate wild blueberries. It was cool. We Walked around with our little volunteer ranger. He told us all sorts of stuff I can't really remember. The visitor center was pretty cool. Who knew that when a mosquito bites you in Alaska you become part of the Alaskan Eco-system. Man, that's why you write this stuff down.

Ok, but that isn't even the beginning. We started in Anchorage Alaska, and we took a train to Denali. It was a cool train. My brilliant mom decided to upgrade us to the deluxe train where we sat high above everyone else, and below us was our own little dining car.

We ate ridiculously over price food. But for train food, it wasn't half bad. In fact I was thinking about good hamburgers and I had to think about the one I had twice on the train. Here is us in our fancy train car with real cloth napkins. So I'm thinking this will have to be the sweetened condensed version of the Alaska trip.

Maybe we can call it the best of. So man, we went on the Tundra Wilderness tour. Fabulous! Basically 8 hours on a bus, driving through the Alaskan wilderness. Yes, you into the wild fans, we went there. Of course when we go there we had hot chocolate and box lunches, but we went there. A highlight of the trip was when we got to try on antlers of all sizes at the ranger station of the halfway point in our tour. My brother Joe actually tried on a bear skin and we had a little mock Bear v. Moose fight. We also went Moose v. Moose too. Very fun. Our tour guide lived off the grid. She was a nice lady.

I think Joe won. On our wilderness tour we saw moose (mommy and baby), and bears, eagles, and lots and lots of beauty. We saw the Alaska state bird that looks a lot like a chicken. Who knew. We took a lot of trains on this trip, but that was kind of the plan I think. The trip from Anchorage to Denali was like 8 hours long. We saw some cool stuff on the train too. Alaska is a beautiful place.

We also went on a boat trip to see fjords, and ice bergs, and glaciers. It was really cool. I was really afraid of getting sea sick. I went whale watching once, and it didn't turn out well. But I was really fine. Right away we saw Orcas! Killer whales! That was really cool.

So our boat trip was to see a glacier. That was very cool. We heard it calving. Where the ice falls off in big chunks. Jill says she saw a crack open in the glacier. We named it Jill's crack. That was very cool. I like Alaska!

The glacier was 70 stories tall and over a mile wide! We also got to see another glacier called Spencer glacier up close and personal. We rowed a bout out into a lake. There were huge ice bergs that had broken off the glacier. We got all dressed up for the occasion.

Oh, that's us sumo wrestling. Thats what it felt like after we loaded up on the outer wear.

We ate yummy soup and sandwiches. They had brownies too. It was cold and rainny, but very cool. We got about half a mile away from the glacier.

Well, I think this blog is long enough. We had a fabulous time! I would go back in a heart beat. We got to see some cool stuff. Crazy wildlife, and cool flowers.