Knott's Berry Farm

Thanks to Uncle Angel who got us in for free to Knott's. I hadn't been since my senior yr of high school (Oct. 98 I think) so it was fun to go with the hubby and kids.

Sometime back in the summer I let Azure ride the carousel in the mall. Since then, she has been obsessed with them. She also loves the part in Charlotte's Web where Fern rides the ferris wheel. So, those were the 2 rides she was anticipating the most.

You have to get funnel cake at Knott's!

Snoopy on ice

Charles and I even got to escape for a bit to go on a ride by ourselves! Thanks Tally. We wanted to go on a rollercoaster but, the line was too long so we went on Supreme Scream. We had never been to an amusement park together in our 5.5 yrs of togetherness so it was fun to go and hold hands on a ride by ourselves :)

Thanksgiving

This was the first Thanksgiving we spent with my family in 5 yrs. In Nov. 2005, I brought Charles home with me to meet them. We had been dating for 4 months. It was fun to think that we were here 5 yrs later with our 2 children. I'd say 'who'd a thought?' but, we were pretty sure we were going to be married back then, so I guess we did know :)

Before partaking of our feast we all went around and said what we were most grateful for that year. Of course, they are so many things to be grateful for, but one of the miraculous events that stands out in my mind is Vince's birth and my VBAC. Thank you again friends for the power of your prayers and faith in our behalf.

I also made rolls. Not sure I am going to attempt them again until I have a mixer. It is just too difficult to knead by hand and come out with good rolls in my opinion. I realize these pics are not good. It's so that when I finally make an amazing batch, I can look back at these pics and say, "Wow, I've come such a long way."

And, I just really like this pic of Talls and Angel.

Fall Recap Part 3: Cross-country Road Trip

For those of you who don't know, we are currently at my parent's house in CA for Charles' 3rd rotation in City of Industry (30 miles from their house). Since he needed a car to commute everyday we drove across the country...again.

I packed up the car with all our belongings for 7 wks BY MYSELF since Charles was in Baxley. I was pretty stressed out about this, but I did it and I felt pretty proud of myself for doing so.

We did the trip in 5 days and 4 nights. The first night we spent in Birmingham, AL. Second night in Oklahoma City, OK. Third night in Albuerque, NM. The last night in Yucca, AZ with Miah and Monica. It was remarkable to watch the terrain change gradually from the tree dense low country to desert mountain plains. Even though we wanted to pull our hair out multiple times and asked ourselves why we didn't fly, it was beautiful to see such diverse topography of our beautiful country.

Worst moment: Vince's blow out in his carseat and trying to clean up the mess in a bathroom with a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, on the floor.

Best moments: Driving at sunset EVERY night for 4 nights and seeing amazing sunsets as we drove west.

Sunset in Miah and Monica's backyard

Unexpected happy moments: Seeing snow at the TX/OK border and walking through it in Amarillo. AND seeing Charlie's face light up when we came upon the first western mountain range and say "We belong in the west!"

We loved the sunset in Arkansas as we drove through the Ozarks. Hopefully we can take another trip back there someday to explore further.

We are gearing up for our trip back to Savannah on Sunday.

Los Abuelos

My Lamadrid grandparents came for a visit. Azure couldn't say "abuela" or "abuelo" and kept referring to them as "her" and "him". I tried to have her repeat me but, she thought I was saying the same thing over and over, not realizing the difference between the "o" and the "a". Then she would get frustrated and say she doesn't like Spanish. So, here's hoping that she starts warming up to the idea of attending a Spanish Immersion kindergarten class in less than 2 yrs.

Despite the language barrier she had a blast with them at the park. They spent about 30 mins pushing her in the swing and chasing her around the park. And they are her GREAT grandparents. Being healthy is such an apparent blessing when you get older.

When they got back from the park I asked her if she learned any Spanish words and she said, "No, they didn't speak Spanish." Hmmm.

Fall Recap Part 2: Dr. Graham's

We are behind on the blog. So, here's to backtracking yet again.

Charles' last rotation was in Baxley, GA. We had the pleasure of looking around Dr. Graham's property (the preceptor who Charles stayed with Mon-Wed for 5 wks).

He had a donkey and a horse.

A really cute donkey. Which only confirms further that we absolutely NEED to own a donkey at some future date.

He also had a cotton field. Bless those southern folk who spent hours picking cotton in blazing humid heat.

There is something breathtaking about seeing an endless white cotton field all ready to harvest.

Of course, Vince wanted to eat it.

Thank you Graham's for taking such good care of Daddy for us!

Fall Recap Part 1: Exploring

A couple Fridays & Saturdays back in Oct we went on a few family runs to prepare for the 5K.

On Friday Oct. 22 Charles took us to a "secret lake" he had found on one of his solo runs that is just 1 mile from our house. It pays to explore in your own backyard.Take a look at the treasures we found:

We spotted Charlie's footprint from his barefoot run a couple days before.

Obviously it was beautiful and we pointed out how similar it looked to the Sacred Grove where Joseph Smith first prayed and saw Jesus and Heavenly Father. Azure decided she wanted to say a prayer too.

It is so refreshing to be outside in nature. Teaching opportunities are plentiful for inquisitive minds.

Boring Dad Post, please disregard

Howdy, y'all. It's me-the guy who never writes posts, but occasionally appears in pictures as the disoriented nerd w/ glasses. As a proverbial "heads-up" to any interested parties, I'm currently working on applications for 5 different pharmacy residency programs. Interviews begin next month, after which I will hopefully be matched to a program in March to begin work in June. The Match is akin to going to Vegas and betting your life & livelihood on several numbers at the Roulette table. Unfortunately, I will not see any German duo-trained white tigers or French circuses in the gamble which will unroll over the next few months. I'm applying to programs in:

Tampa, FL
Savannah, GA
Winston-Salem, NC
Albuquerque, NM
Tucson, AZ

After and if I interview, I will rank the programs, and they will in turn rank me, followed by super computers meddling with my life and hopefully a happy outcome for all, world peace, etc. So there is a good chance we will live in one of the above cities come June. This may be joyous news to some, bitter melons to others. At any rate we are giddy, so stay tuned for utter and complete insanity to be unveiled as our lives are soon to be "flip turned upside down" in the words of Sir William Smythe.

5K

Saturday Charles, his brother Jeremiah and his wife Monica, and I ran a 5K in San Dimas. This was my 3rd 5K. The first was in Sept. 2003 a month after I returned from my mission. The 2nd was with Charles and Azure in March 2008.Running is so much more mental than physical. Last week I did a zumba class at 24 hr fitness. It was beyond awesome! I am not a fan of cheesy aerobics which I thought zumba was. Turns out zumba is a Latin dance class for an hour straight. Why did no one tell me?! A vital part of my soul is composed of salsa with a tad bit of merengue. My hips can not help but sway whenever I hear those sweet rhythms.

I thought the class was 30 mins. At the 30 min mark I realized it wasn't over. The song ended and I thought, "I'm getting tired. I'm not sure I can keep dancing for 30 more mins." As soon as I said that to myself another song started and my body just started moving again. As long as those songs were playing, my body would move and I would tap into some reserve energy. I started making some mental connections about endurance and physical strength and childbirth and positive affirmations.

I realized after an hour of intense cardio workout that the upcoming 5K would be relatively easy. It would probably take me about 30 mins to run it and I just did double that with really no problem.

I remembered laboring for almost 48 hrs with Vince thinking how exhausted I was, but once he finally turned (from posterior to anterior) I tapped into some reserve energy which gave me 3 more hours of strength to push him out.

After these thoughts and experiences I went into the 5K knowing that I could do it even though I had only been running about 1-1.5 miles 2x a week for the past 6 wks or so. That realization alone was worth 2 wks or more of training for me! While I was running up hills during the race a small thought of "this is hard" would creep in and I could combat it with "yeah, but, I could do this for an hr. Remember the zumba class? Only 15 mins have gone by."

Running with family members/friends is really motivating too. As we passed each other on the course (there was a part when you turned around and went back the way you came) we called each other by name and said, "Good job, keep going" etc. That was so motivating!

Since running track in high school I learned that you pick up the pace on the last 100 meters and you sprint the last straightaway. After the mile 2 mark I tried to pick up my pace but, there were still lots of hills and I felt like I only had enough strength to keep my current pace and not stop. At this point some people had already finished running and were walking back to find family/friends to encourage them to keep going.

Even though I didn't spot Charlie among them, I knew the end was near. I thought about how essential it is to cheer each other on. We are all running in the race of life. In my mind's eye I saw that those on the sidelines were like our ancestors that have gone before and our unborn posterity. They are cheering us on. I felt of their strength. I started tearing up a bit and realized I had never felt the spirit so strongly when running b/c I honestly don't enjoy running THAT much.

I should note too that I forgot earphones for the iPod so I had to strap it to my arm and turn the volume up. Sometime just before mile 2 the shuffle got turned on and would play a song for about 5 seconds before going to the next b/c of me bouncing around so much. To be honest I was pretty frustrated about it, but looking back I realized that when I was trying to get it to work, I was distracted running up a couple hills and so I didn't have the thought that I wanted to stop. So, it not working turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I finally saw Charles and Miah at the finish line and I was able to sprint until I crossed it. Unfortunately I didn't get my time b/c the chip fell off my shoe and I thought holding it in my hand would still get me my time, but the sensor was at our feet. I didn't even see the time as I crossed the finish line so all I have to go off of is that Charles said it was 33 mins.

My goal was to get under 30 mins but, those hills really slowed me down. Especially b/c I didn't train on hills. I really couldn't in Savannah, since there are none. All in all a wonderful experience. In Feb Charles will be running a half marathon on Tybee and I will do another 5K with the kids in the double jogging stroller. I'm looking forward to it!!!

Jeremiah won 1st place in his age group!

Babbles

Just this last week Vince has started "talking" much more. Strings of "da-da-da", "ma-ma-ma", and "ba-ba-ba" have been almost constant from him.

Today he was playing with the blinds. I saw him grab something and thrust his fist into his mouth. As soon as I said, "Chubba", he started laughing hysterically and was startled like he realized he had been caught. Sure enough, I found a leaf in his hand. It was so cute! I love watching his personality emerge.
He's making more attempts at crawling by getting on hands and knees at times, but he still can't figure out how to lunge forward. When he wants to move forward he gets back down on his belly, arches his back and kicks his legs. It's interesting how unique each child is. At this age, Azure was cruising around all the furniture.

He has been acting much more social and going to all 4 of his great grandparents, Aunt Tally, Uncle Angel, and of course Nana & Papa with little to no hesitation.

hAllOwEeN

We are not your cutesy we-all-have-coordinating-costumes-family. But, we have aspirations. Maybe some year. I have been a cholita (native Bolivian woman) for a few yrs now and Charles said he would not let me be that again.

Luckily we had dinner with some friends who happen to own A LOT of costumes and wigs and dress ups. One of their kids pulled out a mullet wig and put it on Charles. With his beard it looked pretty awesome. He said he had a pair of buck teeth and there you have it- with hardly any effort at all he had his costume, a red neck.

Then they said they had a kid's size extra large Power Ranger costume that they thought I would fit into. I haven't really gotten into dressing up for years so the prospect of dressing up in something ridiculous was actually pretty exhilarating. However, when I tried it on, I found it to be skin tight. It wouldn't really be appropriate for me to wear in public and especially NOT at our ward's trunk or treat, which was the only Halloween activity we had planned.

I should mention that I am really proud of the city of Savannah (despite the crime here) for holding a town meeting and deciding that the city would celebrate Halloween on Saturday and not on a Sunday. How awesome is that?! I love living where there are other Christians who value the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy.

So, back to the Power Ranger costume. Maybe inappropriate to wear in public, but, not inappropriate to post pics on the blog right? Heehee :)

A redneck, a bear cub, and a mouse.

At the last minute of desperation I decided to be a pharmacist and wore Charles' coat and stethoscope. Lame, but, better than nothing.The trunk or treat. Our ward has a very small turnout for these.

Too busy eating her loot to pose for a pic with Tyla.
This is such a classic Vince face. He loves grabbing hair, especially mine or Azure's. This is his excited "Oh my gosh, hair!" face.

Afterwards we headed to a pumpkin patch to take pictures. I think the guy was somewhat annoyed that we only came to take pics without buying a pumpkin. Oh well.

We are mean parents and ate some of Azure's candy while she was in bed. We also have only let her eat a little at a time. Because we have always been sticklers with sweets she knows the drill. When she has just a little candy, she is extremely grateful. I like that. It has also been good to use her candy as bribery :) Works like a charm.And with the cooler temps we have busted out the feetie pajamas again. This blue one used to be Azure's. As I nursed Vince in the glider that night I put him in it, I had fond memories of sweet little Azure in Provo. They grow so fast!

Keep in mind it's bedtime here. Vince thinks this photo op is funny.
Okay, is it over? I'm hungry and tired.
Alright! I've had enough. It's time for bed!