I Can Do It All By Myself

Mara is really good about getting her shoes on by herself. She can do up her sandals alone, but needs a little bit of help with her jellies. But tonight she got them on all by herself!!!!!

I love the fashion of a 3 year old!

Xander's New Friend

While Pat was mowing the lawn tonight, the kids were in the back playing. Xander found this tiny grasshopper and decided to play with him for awhile. I was amazed that it stayed on his hand! He held it for a good 10 minutes and was just so happy about it. He even tried to bring it inside a few times and we had to remind him to keep it outside. Afterwards, Pat was able to do some more Dragonfly catching. It's amazing the color difference from the one we got a few weeks ago, to this one today!
One things for sure, Xander loves bugs :)

Outside Fun

Last Friday, Mara and I enjoyed some time outside in the backyard. I really hate to be in the sun during the summer because I burn so easily, so I try to wait until later in the day when there is more shade on the swing set to go out with the kids. We have a glider swing that the kids love and Mara always makes me swing on it with her. I took a bunch of pictures of us while swinging and here are the 2 that look the best :)

We also have a tire swing and I made the mistake of sitting on it, because then Mara decided to spin me. So I layed back for a little bit and enjoyed the ride, but quickly got dizzy and decided it best to lay on the grass for a bit. But I was able to get this cute picture of her while she was spinning the swing! I just think that she looks so big. Where did my baby go?

(This is her natural smile and I love it! Too bad she won't smile like this for pictures all the time!)

Seeing the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Before our trip I told Pat that I wanted to take the kids to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house. It seemed that our days were numbered and that we wouldn't be able to make it. But Tuesday morning I got reservations for Wednesday afternoon!!!

I love this picture. It looks like a postcard! And all I did was crop it :)

While waiting for the video presentation to start I got pictures of the kids. This is apparently Mara's 'happy face'. Her eyes are always so squinty in pictures, so I told her to have a happy face! She then made a silly face and I had to ask her again to have a happy face, and this is what I got. So pretty much her 'cheese face' and 'happy face' are the same!
We were able to have someone take a family picture for us and when we were done Mara said "Mommy, I say cheese!!" and she had the biggest smile on her face. I'm so proud of her! Too bad Xander had his eye's closed! Darn,we almost a great picture on the first try. I'm sure it'll happen eventually.

Sidenote: We had cute vinyl people on our Pontiac that I bought in Disneyland 2 years ago. I was really bummed that we couldn't take them off the old car and put them on the new Van. But I was able to buy some new ones when we were in Disneyland last week!!! They didn't have the regular girl like we had on the Pontiac. So I got the princess for Mara, which is really fitting :) She helped me get them out of the package to put on the car and she kept calling hers a Fairy, because of the wand! I love them and now I can find my car a little easier in a parking lot!!

Day 5 - The End

On Sunday we took our time getting over to the convention center, since we had to pack up everything and put it in the car. When we got there we walked around a bunch and tried to get some last minute things like the Huge WB bags!!

Pat had a run in with Snake Eyes and almost got in trouble!!!

We were able to meet the amazing Leonard Nimoy!!!!!!!!! He was so nice! All of the actors that were signing autographs would also pose for pictures (for a small fee). But Leonard was so awesome because he didn't charge for photos!! So we were all able to get our picture with him!

(Notice behind my head is Brent Spiner aka Data from Star Trek The Next Generation. I did shake his hand and tell him that I loved the show, but I didn't buy a photo with him)

I saw this woman that was the best Dianna Troi I have ever seen!!!

Afterwards I got in line for the Paramount Booth again to see if I could get a Tribble (I was to early) But I did get a picture with Bob from Monsters VS. Aliens!

We then headed upstairs to maybe get into a Star Wars Trivia panel, but decided that we just wanted to get on the road. So we met up with Catherine and saw Giselle from Enchanted!!!! A group photo at the end of the Con. You can tell we are all tired and ready to be done. So we got on the road and headed to Las Vegas for the night. We got stuck on I-15 for more than an hour in really bad traffic about 30 miles outside of Vegas. When we finally got through it all, there was a charred bus on the side of the road that was pretty much just the framing! It was so crazy!! We still haven't looked to see if there was anything reported about it.

Once we got to Vegas we checked into the Stratosphere and did a little gambling. It was the penny slots for me. I even played a Star Trek Slot!!!! (and lost it all)

I only played $5.00 and ended up winning $5.30 on my last dollar. So after it was all said and done I won 30 cents!!! I probably could have won more, but I told myself that once I was over 5 bucks I was going to stop.

I love Vegas! :)

A view of the Stratosphere on the way home.

We drove home from Vegas on Monday and got home about 4 pm. The kids were very excited to see us and Mara was very giggly the whole evening, it was cute.

Thanks again to Roger, Tammy, and Mom for helping us with the kids while we were gone. We really appreciate it. I'm pretty sure we won't be going back next year, so you won't have to worry about it next summer.

Day 4

First thing Saturday morning, I went over and got in line for the Paramount Booth and was able to get a Live Long & Prosper Foam Finger! At the booth they have a replica of the captains chair and bridge, so you can get a picture! All the girls at the booth had 'green skin' too!!

Afterwards I met up with Karri and got in line for the LOST panel. (notice the people dressed up from the original 'V' TV series, so cool!)
In the LOST panel, it was originally just the producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but they like to have surprises. So Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Michael Emerson (Ben) showed up!

Here's a pic of them all together.

We had to get a picture of Karri at the panel.

There were other surprises too! They had Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Josh Holloway (Sawyer) and at the end Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) showed up too!! It was really cool and we got a bunch of video but they're too big to post :(

Here's another person from BSG!! Nicki Clyne, she played Cally Tyrol on the show.

And we were able to see Bear McCreary again!! He was signing the newly released Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Soundtrack, so I got a signed copy of the album! So cool!!!

After that we headed back over to Ballroom 20 for a few more panels and walked by this guy giving an interview!!!!

(Eric McCormack from Will & Grace) And we saw tons of people dressed up as different things, but this one was by far the best! He's Boo Mario from Super Mario Galaxy!! We love this game!

We got into Ballroom 20 just in time for the 'V' panel.

Remember, back in the 80's a really cool show about aliens that look like us but are really lizards. Well, they are remaking it! They showed the pilot episode and it looks awesome!! And it has Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet from LOST) in it!

Next up we had 'Fringe'!! This show is so amazing! I love it! And I am a really big 'X-Files' fan and I can say that this show is better than 'X-Files'. Everyone needs to watch this one.

Next was the 'True Blood' panel. Pat and I just finished watching the first season a few weeks back and totally love it! The show is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and has Anna Paquin as Sookie, and Stephen Moyer as Bill. They are awesome together :)

The author of the books was even there too! Charlaine Harris (in the polka dots)

We all went different directions after the panel. I got in line to redeem some tickets that we got during some panels. We got a cool newspaper from the 'Fringe' panel and a bag with a t-shirt, book, and notebook from 'True Blood'. Then on my way back down to the floor I walked by this guy!!!

Jimmy Fallon!!!!

Back on the floor we got a picture of Pat with the He-Ro statue at the Mattel booth. He's from the He-Man universe if you couldn't tell. There are banners all over the place and these ones made me laugh. I had to really read the Geico one to understand it!

They are both ads for 'True Blood'! I love it! And then my favorite are the banners for the 4th season of 'Dexter'. You gotta read the bibs on the babies, they make me laugh. We were able to get buttons of all 4 and even a bag for the show. It's hard to explain the show, so go look it up if you don't know what this show is. We are watching the first season and loving it!

Well, that's the end of day 4. There's just one more post left and it's going to have to wait until tomorrow.

The Adventures of Starbuck

I decided to bring along my Minimate of Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica (she's a little bigger then a Lego guy) and get pictures of her in fun places. Instead of posting them all, I made a slide show of them. So just skip this post if you don't care :)

Day 3

After taking the bus in the mornings and realizing how slow they were, we found that there was a shuttle van that took us directly there from our hotel! This guy was amazing and we were there in under 5 minutes!

Pat & I on the shuttle

Catherine & Karri on the shuttle with a bit of a photo-bomb from us.
Friday was our panel day. The shows that we liked were all having panels in Ballroom 20. So we got in early for 'Stargate Universe' (which I don't have any pictures of, since we aren't fans of SGU). Then it was time for 'Caprica'/'Battlestar Galactica: The Plan'. Caprica is a spin-off of BSG premiering in January. It is a story of 60 years before BSG. One of the stars that was there from Caprica is Easi Morales (who plays William Adamas father) and then Edward James Olmos (who is William Adama in BSG) talked about BSG: The Plan (he directed it). Up next it was The Big Bang Theory!!
Here's the whole cast:
I got up and asked a question. I was second in line and took video when I was up there, but mine is really shaky. Karri also took video, but I was able to find a clip on YouTube of my question. So instead of trying to upload a video I'm just linking the other one here!



Here is a link to Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.
After my question, walking back to Karri & Pat.
Another shot of the whole cast.

Pictures of us in between panels. Catherine, Me & Karri

Next it was '24'. We only cared about this one because Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck on BSG) is going to be on 24 this next season and she was there.

Pat left and went to the floor for the rest of the afternoon and saw Mark Hamill!! Looks like Luke Skywalker is getting old!

After the '24' panel they had one for 'Bones', but we don't watch that one either, so no pictures. But after that was 'Dollhouse' with Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku

Pat was able to come back into the room and hang with us for the last panel of the day. It was TV Guides Sci-Fi. From right to left: John Cho (Sulu in the new Star Trek movie) talking about his new show 'Flash Forward', then Jim Parsons & Johnny Galecki from 'Big Bang Theory', then Rebecca Romijn from the new show 'Eastwick', then Zachary Levi from 'Chuck', then Scott Wolf from the new remake of 'V', then 2 producers, and the real Allison Dubois (the show 'Medium' is based on her life) that is going to have a reality show about cracking cold cases!!

It was a really long day of sitting, but we were able to see the shows that we cared about.