Earthquake!

Yay, I survived my first earthquake! Connor and Elise and I were sitting on the hallway floor coloring with crayons when I heard a noise like a big truck coming down the hill. Now, ever since we moved to LA, every time I hear a noise like that, I wonder, "Is that an earthquake?" I didn't have to wonder for long though, because seconds later the floor just started zig-zagging underneath us. The kids were practically on my lap already, so I just pulled them closer and scooted about a foot over into the laundry room doorway. It was more exciting than scary at the time. About 10-15 seconds later it was over. Nothing had moved in the house, no damage or anything. I explained to Connor what had happened and told him to stay close, while I cautiously went to turn on the TV and call Ryan. His first words were "I'm okay!". Now, I was glad to hear this, but I must admit that it hadn't even occurred to me that he wasn't okay. I guess I had too much faith in the indestructability of Los Angeles sky-scrapers or something.His experience was a lot more dramatic. Because the building is on rollers, and because his office is on the top floor of a 55-story building, they were rocking back and forth above the city for quite awhile. After talking to Ryan later I realized that most of his coworkers really thought they were going to die, Ryan included. (He wasn't scared, though. No way!) While I was talking to him, I wandered back towards the living room doorway, only to be followed quickly by a nervous Connor, who grabbed my leg and asked, "Is it shaking again?" I guess he thought I was taking cover without him. Other than that, Connor seemed to think the whole event was pretty fun. I was jittery and shaking for about an hour, which seemed silly, because nothing bad had happened. Nonetheless, I took the kids outside for a couple of hours to avoid being crushed to death by imaginary aftershocks. (We never felt any.)

During a later phone call with Ryan, he managed to convince me that the kids were safe to go inside and take their naps (thank goodness).

We said alot of thank-you prayers over the next couple days. I'm glad that the kids were right with me when it happened, because if I had had to run through the house gathering them up, I think I really would have been freaked out, and they would have been too.

Elise and Dad playing a rousing game of Swingball . .

Fun Firsts

Well, Elise is finally asleep. She and Connor have been sick for the past couple of days, and although Connor gets really sleepy when he's sick, Elise gets mad. She really does not know how to suffer in silence, so I've been holding her basically all day today (she didn't even want to nap - it took a dose of Tylenol and about two hours of attempts to get her down.)

It wasn't always this way. In fact, last weekend, and the one before, we had quite a bit of fun. Two Saturdays ago, I got to take Connor to see Wall-E, his first movie in a theater!

He was really good, too. He kept forgetting to whisper, and had alot of questions, but he was pretty well-mannered by the end. I definitely recommend the movie, by the way. Just go in with reasonable expectations. I had been told that it wasn't that great, so I totally fell in love with it.

Last Saturday, we took a trip to Pasadena to see the Kidspace museum. Multiple families we know had been telling us how great this place is from the day we moved to LA, but we never seemed to get around to it. I have to admit, it's pretty amazing. They have a fake river in back for the kids to play in, along with a million other interactive toys and exhibits. Most are for older kids, but they still have a ton of stuff geared for the little ones.

Connor on the little-kid trike path. The awesome helmet is a rental.

Elise (and my leg) at the water table. This is where we spent most of our time, and where Connor got beaten up by a two-year old.

I was all set to buy a membership at this place, since I could easily envision coming here several times a month, but I discovered it was about $160. That might not be a bad deal, in retrospect, but I just wasn't prepared to drop that kind of money without thinking about it a little bit first. After all, we do have a zoo membership that we virtually never use anymore.

Anyway, later that day, we were hanging out in the backyard when Elise stood up, thought for a moment, then started walking across the patio! (Okay, it was only four steps, but it would have been across it.) She continued doing this for quite awhile.

It was especially surprising because, for several weeks, I'd been trying to entice her to take a few steps (away from holding on to a chair, that sort of thing), and she just hadn't seen the point of it. (She'd cheerfully drop to the floor and crawl to me). Maybe seeing all the bigger kids at the museum inspired her.

Connor and The Arts

Okay, I have to start this with a video I've been meaning to post from the beginning:

As you can see, Connor is quite the interpretive dancer, as well as body artist. I guess I haven't been giving him enough outlets for his creative energy, because this past week, he broke into his locked closet, climbed the drawers, found his paints, and started work on anything that looked like a piece of paper up there.

Then, just a couple of days later, I was in the bedroom folding laundry or some other boring housewife thing, and I noticed that Connor had become very quiet in the other room. Any parent can tell you that this is a red flag. A quiet child is either dead or being really bad. So, I went into the dining room to find him coated, coated, in peanut butter. He had finger-painted it all over the top of the table, down his bare legs to his feet, from his elbows to his hands, and had even given himself a complexion-boosting facial with it. He claimed he had simply been hungry.
Now, some of you may be saying, "Why do you take pictures of him every time he's bad? Doesn't that just reinforce his behavior?" The answer is, yes. But I can't help it. It's too funny.

Deal or No Deal!

Last Wednesday Ryan took the day off, we got a babysitter, and drove to fabulous Culver City to attend a taping of "Deal or No Deal".

We thought it would be fun, but it was actually much better than we had expected. Mostly because it was just so dang interesting to see how they put these kind of shows together.

We showed up at 9am and wandered around for a minute trying to figure out where we were supposed to be. There was a long line of fairly well-dressed people standing along a wall, and the guy at the end said he was there for the show, so I got in line while Ryan kept looking for someone in charge. He came and got me a minute later saying that we were supposed to go up front to be admitted, so we left the pretty folks and joined a crowd of people who looked more like us.

About 45 minutes after we started waiting, they began taking people into the studio and finding them seats. We got great seats, right to the left of the tunnel (our left) about two rows up. After everyone had been sitting a few minutes, they started bringing in small groups of folks we recognized from the "pretty people" group outside. They carefully placed these people in all the front rows, in the section just in front of the models, and everywhere else the camera spent alot of time. Two sat right next to us, and we found out that they were actors! They were getting paid to be there and act excited. I always wondered why so many people in the audience were young and dressed like they were at the opera . . .

Those audience members look as good as the models . . .
(I stole this picture online - we weren't allowed to bring cameras)

The show was really fun. We were coached for about an hour while they set things up. We practiced laughing at Howie's jokes, sounding disappointed, giving standing ovations, that kind of thing. I guess the taping we attended will be the season premiere in September, so everybody has to watch and look for us. I don't want to ruin it, but the show comes down to two cases at the end, it's pretty dramatic!

After everything ended and the contestant left, we were asked to remain in our seats. Then they began about 45 minutes of "audience shots". This may have been the funniest part of the day. We were instructed to feign various emotions for the camera. They said things like, "Okay, now let's say Howie just said something kinda funny - polite chuckles." "Now pretend the banker just offered a deal that's insulting: a 'oh no he didn't!' reaction!" "Now, there's somebody coming down the tunnel, and at first you're looking like you don't know who it is, then you recognize them and go crazy!"

Yeah, reality TV is great.

4th of July Weekend

This past weekend was pretty cool. Thursday night we had a barbecue and invited over a few of our friends from the Glendale Ward (our old ward). It was actually alot of fun - I always dread having people over, but it always seems to turn out okay.

Friday, the fourth, we had planned to go to a local fireworks event with the kids, but we spent too much time looking at houses, and when we tried to find a parking spot, we realized that it just wasn't going to work. We ended up getting some In-N-Out and watching the show from our driveway, which was a WAY better idea. The noise would have scared the kids to death if we had been any closer, and then we would have had to hike back to the car with spastic little ones.

Connor really enjoyed the fireworks this year, and, surprisingly, so did Elise. Last year, at Ryan's coworker's house, we had to take them both inside so they'd stop screaming.

The next day we went to Zuma Beach with the Hillquists and some friends of theirs. We hadn't planned on going to the beach, since we were convinced that it would be too crowded. When we got the invite that morning, though, we felt like we should accept.

Our earlier fears were warranted - after driving an hour to the beach, we were told that there were too many people there, and the sheriff had shut down the parking lots. We drove around and waited for about 45 minutes, and were finally let in.(Online picture of Zuma Beach when it wasn't full of people)

It turned out to be a fun trip - Connor and Elise played in the sand (Connor is still not a fan of the ocean, we'll see if that changes this year), and Ryan got to go boogie boarding. The people we met were really cool, too. I'm not sure if we'll go to Zuma beach again, though. It's just so far away!

Elise, asleep in her spaghetti . . . .

Elise Rides a Bike

Connor got a "real" tricycle from his Grandma for Christmas, although he didn't figure out how to pedal it until about a month ago. That meant that his old scooter bike was available for his little sister to ride!

For our 7th anniversary, I got Ryan a Weber charcoal grill with a rotisserie attachment. (His old grill was falling apart, and anyway, it mysteriously disappeared from our old house around the time we moved). He was so impressed with the gift, that he felt he had to one-up me, so he bought me a grown-up bike. Now we're totally a family of bikers, right?

These were definitely not the best pictures we took, but I realized afterwards that the others had our house number in them, which is not really something I want on the internet.

I think the plan is to find a used kid-trailer and a cheap bike for Ryan. Then we can go cruise muscle beach, or whatever. (Oh, and yes, we're in the process of getting Connor a helmet for his trike. He hasn't really needed one until recently, but he's learning to pick up some speed!)

Wii Fit

Around the beginning of June, Ryan got us a Wii Fit for our Nintendo Wii. It's actually alot of fun, and pretty good exercise. Here is a video of Connor working out. (This is my first try posting a video, so bear with me!)