Little Mermaid Sing-Along

Last Sunday, Shayna and I headed over to Hollywood. Yes, the movie capital of the world... to see the "Little Mermaid" sing-along at the El Capitan Theater. It was great to feel like we were tourists! We went with our friends, Lisa & Camille, Norma & Madison, and Jennifer & Cece. We had a blast! Even though it was 10:00 am we polished off a huge tub of popcorn and a bottle of fruit punch!


After the movie, we headed over to The Grove and had lunch at the American Girl Place. Of course the lunch wouldn't be complete with an expensive American Girl doll, so my parents offered to pay for one, and I took them up on their offer. Lisa and I decided
to get the girls the Bitty Twins and split the cost! Genius! It was a great day with friends and Shayna loves playing with her new doll she named, Anna.





















If you have never been to the American Girl Place, they have everything there for your doll, including a hair salon, where they charge $15 to style your DOLL'S hair.

California Emergency Preparedness

As a professional geologist in California, and having worked for one summer at the USGS/CalTech, I am fully aware of the potential for a major earthquake or disaster which may or may not occur in our great state. Now that I'm a mom, I worry too much about the potential disaster from a different prospective. I was contacted by a group representing the state of California to help urge citizens of this fine state to assess their risk, create and document an emergency preparedness plan, which can be then saved, printed and/or emailed to family and friends. In addition to the downloadable disaster plan, the state has created a short, customizable book to help you educate your children on what to do in the event of an emergency. What I am asking of you, is to go to this important site and create your own family plan. It's a cinch! If you can fill out a form, you can create an important tool for your family. What the state hopes is that WE can spread awareness and stimulate action for this important initiative, not just with your friends and family, but statewide.

Here is the link to access your emergency plan materials and WE Prepare! Children’s Book

Click here to start!

It's also very important to put together your own preparedness kit! Here's a cool site to start a list from: Make Your Own Preparedness Kit

Mark and I will be adding a few more important items to our new disaster kit. I can't believe that the Northridge Quake was 14 years ago! My family was very lucky, as my dad and I visited Costco the day before that quake and bought a ton of water, drinks, and flashlights (which happened to be free after you mailed in your rebate form). We experienced some damage in that quake and was without power for almost an entire week! Please prepare yourselves and take the time to check out the websites I have highlighted on this page!

Zion National Park (cont'd.)

DAY 2:
We woke up to another beautiful day in the park. We decided to hop on our bikes and ride up to the Museum via the Pa'rus Trail. We watched the 20 minute movie about the park and locked our bikes up for the shuttle ride up to the Zion Lodge stop. Our next trek was up to the Lower Emerald Pool.
It was beautiful!
After our long hike, it was a unanimous decision that we hit the head and then get in line for the ice cream! Yum!


All in all, it was an awesome trip and I can't wait to go back to Zion!

Zion National Park

DAY 1:
Our 2nd camping trip in as many weeks has taken us to a beautiful place in Utah. We left on Saturday morning for Henderson, NV. to visit with the family for Passover. It was very nice, even though we were only there for less than 24 hours. On Sunday morning, we made it to Zion National Park in a few short hours, set up camp, and biked over to the Visitor's Center to plan our adventures for the next two days. We woke up the next morning, packed some lunches, hopped onto one of the park shuttles, & headed up to "Weeping Rock Trail." After some gorgeous views, and dripping water down our shirts (from the weeping rock), we hiked back down to the shuttle stop. I have to admit, I wasn't too thrilled about taking the shuttle all through the park, but it's a great idea and the longest we waited for a shuttle was about 4 minutes, which is wonderful if you're traveling with an impatient 3 year old!


We got back on the shuttle and ended up at the The Temple of Sinawava stop. Here is where the hike to the Narrows begins. Unfortunately, the Narrows portion of the hike was closed due to high waters (the water temp was 45 degrees!). Before we knew it, Shayna was getting tired and we eventually took turns hiking with a 35 pound kid on our shoulders! Oy Vey! We headed back to camp, via the shuttle, and stopped at the Visitor Center's bathrooms. In the midst of taking turns watching Shayna, "Allie" the Alligator (Shayna's most FAVORITE plastic friend in the world) was somehow misplaced. OMG... water works for hours, as we scoured the camp for her bestest buddy. He was no where to be found and a visit to the Center's "lost and found" was going to be the first order of business the next morning... at 8 am... right when it opens! Stay tuned...

H - O - T !!!

Because it was sooo HOT yesterday, Shayna & I headed down to the beach to meet the Lindsays. We brought the bikes for the kids because we thought it would be fun to pedal along the beach. Little did we know that it was going to be a scorcher and after 45 minutes we decided it was a better choice to head over to the Belmont Brewing Company for some brunch and mimosas!
Even though the bike riding was somewhat of a bust, we still had fun with the Lindsays, who we don't get to see very often.


Shayna and Mason were very happy to see each other...

Mini-Vacation... for me

Mark's parent's, Art and Lynn, came down to southern California in their motorhome with Shayna's cousins, Kaitlyn and Cooper, for 3 days of Disneyland/California Adventure fun! We dropped Shayna off on Wednesday night, with sleeping bag in hand so she could spend the night with her Grammie and Grandad in the motorhome. They woke up the next morning and headed over to the park. From what I hear, they had a blast! I will post pictures soon.

Mark and I enjoyed a night to ourselves. We headed over to Main Street in Seal Beach for a much needed date night. The next morning we, of course, woke up at 6:15 and enjoyed a quiet house and some uninterrupted coffee. I didn't know what to do with myself, so I headed over to ASE (my old office) and hung out there for an hour, while everyone convinced me to go get a manicure and pedicure. I reluctantly left and headed over to the nearest salon. It was great! I had a lady painting my nails and a man massaging my legs in a massaging recliner! It doesn't get any better! It was really funny, when the burly hispanic man seated two chairs over from me was deciding on the color of the polish the gal was going to paint his toes. After much deliberation, he decided on a light pink... he also had her paint a flower on his big toe! We were all giggling to ourselves as he walked across the street back to his job at the Ford dealership service department. I'm sure that I could've received a free oil change on my Saturn as blackmail!

Thanks again to Grammie and Grandad for Shayna's fun trip and my day off!

Death Valley Days...

We left for Death Valley, our old mapping grounds, last Wednesday night, with a brief stop over in Tecopa. On our way to DV, we had some breakfast at the World Famous Crowbar in Shoshone. Shayna was not told of the "wonderful" times we had here as geology students back so long ago. She did hear about Jenna's pool table story... LOL! This is a "G" rated blog, so I won't get into it... After a huge plate of pancakes and 5 cups of coffee, we headed to our campground in Furnace Creek, with a stop at Badwater, of course. Shayna was a very cranky kid at this point, for some reason. She was not happy at all and refused to listen to either one of us. Don't you just love our family portrait?
On the way to Badwater, we noticed some awesome flower blooms along the sides of the road. They were beautiful and so was the landscape!

























Here's a cute one of Shayna with her Dorothy the Dinosaur hat!















...and here's one of our campsite.














We made it over to Scotty's Castle and saw some wildlife, too!



























When we got back from the castle, we headed over to the Furnace Creek Ranch pool, which btw, you have to purchase your tickets @ 7am sharp, or they sell out!

And my favorite picture of the trip:

When we arrived home on Saturday, we came home to this:

- about 3 dozen dead bees scattered around the house, but mostly in the kitchen! If someone can tell how this happens when your house is locked up tight, is much appreciated!