Los Angeles Sight Seeing

Last Sunday we received news that Jackie's Mom and sister Jodi would be coming to visit on their way to a surprise birthday party. They got here in the afternoon on Friday and we spent time just talking, eating pizza, walking around Barnes and Noble, eating malts and playing games. It was a lot of fun just hanging out. On Saturday Jane wanted to go to some of her old stomping grounds in L.A. since she grew up here. So we first headed to Olvera Street in L.A. and Union Station.

Jackie's Grandpa Chalk worked at Union Station and Jane took us on a tour. I had never been in a big train station before and it was actually pretty cool. I was surprised by how many people still use it. How everything was done inside made you feel like you were almost back in time. She showed us where Grandpa Chalk worked and then we just walked around the station. We watched some trains come in and we will have to try it sometime. We walked back to Olvera Street which is an old Mexican little town. There are tons of little shops, food stands and lots of taquitos. So we ate some amazing taquitos and walked around the shops. There was some type of rally or celebration going on so there was music and lots of people.
Grandpa Chalk worked here at one of the teller stations.
Ummm I guess you can't get to Hogwarts from the L.A. Union Station, could not seem to find Platform 9 3/4.
Talk about old school chairs. Not so comfortable, but cool looking.
Next stop on the excursion was the Newport Temple. Sure was beautiful and it is cool to see the inside of another temple. I'm amazed at how each one is unique and how beautiful they are in their own way.

Next stop was Aunt Renee's surprise 60th birthday party. The theme was the 60's. There was some great costumes and we played some fun games and on top of that there was great food and fun people. Oh and you should see these people dance!!!! (Allie, Laura, Emily, Arlene, Gaylene)
These were my favorite costumes and dancers. (Joe and Dave)
Jane with two of her sisters and a couple of cousins (Renee, Jane, Charlene, Arlene, Gaylene).

Thanks Jane and Jodi for coming and visiting, we had a good time!

Johnson Family Visit

So Tim, Ashli, and Wyatt came and visited us last weekend. The arrived early, early Saturday morning. After getting some rest and a nice waffle breakfast made by Jackie we headed up to Santa Barbara to walk around. As you can see from the picture above how spoiled we are here in California, because we thought it was really cold so we had sweatshirts on while Tim and Ash thought it was no big deal and had short sleeves on. They thought it was warm. Kind of funny how your body adapts to new climates. Sunday after church we headed down to Aunt Nae's house for a Taquito Family party. It was a lot of fun and the Taquitos were amazing. It was fun getting to know some of Jackie's extended family. Wyatt had fun playing with the other kids his age. Well thanks Tim and Ashli for visiting us. We had a great time.


Wyatt and Jackie
Parker and Wyatt
Amy and Wyatt
Carson, Kallen, and Gage

Sea World Part II

Sea World

So here is my attempt at doing a slideshow, it didn't work out the greatest, so if anyone has tips on how to do a slideshow, leave a comment for me.

We have had a fun week and a very busy one. Jackie had Payroll closing and I had Month End Close due this week plus billing everything out from the previous month. So it was busy, but it was a lot of fun to have Kim, Scott, and Hannah spend some time with us. We spent some time at the beach, eating at a great restaurant, playing games, and mostly being entertained by Hannah. After getting all our work done on Thursday, Jackie and I headed to San Diego to meet up with Kim, Scott, and Hannah. We stopped half way at Aunt Nae's house and had a great time talking with Amy, Emily, Allie, and Aunt Nae. We laughed, laughed, and laughed some more. Friday morning we left Aunt Nae's house early and headed down to San Diego. We stopped at the temple and walked around there. Wish we would have had more time to go inside, but it sure is a beautiful building. We next made it down to the Layton's hotel and had breakfast with them. They packed up and we headed to Sea World. On the way to Sea World I ran a red light by accident at a really confusing intersection right in front of a Highway Patrolman, but he didn't pull me over and I figure it was because we were on the city streets. I sure did luck out. We had a great laugh at my expense. Sea World was a lot of fun and was very relaxing for us. We enjoyed the Dolphin, Shamu, and Sea Lion shows. They were fun and it is amazing what they can do with those animals. We saw lots of cool things while we were there and it was so fun to be with the Layton's. Hannah is so cute and just getting so big and talkative. After saying good bye we drove to downtown San Diego and walked around for a little bit. We saw Padre stadium and then ended up leaving because we were so exhausted. Made the drive home pretty quick and fell asleep within minutes of getting home.

This morning I ended up having my last Young Men's game. We lost, but I sure had fun working with the Young Men and getting to know them. I don't know how great of a coach I was though. Well, anyway we had an exciting week and were glad the Layton's came down.

Church Ball Brawl

I don't know how many have seen that t-shirt that says: "Church BasketBall, The Brawl that Begins with Prayer." Well at our Young Men's basketball game today we had one of those games. We are in the play-offs. I am coaching the team and so far we hadn't lost. We were playing this team known for their tempers (their Old Men team too). So the game is going along just great. The game was pretty close. There had not been a lot of fouls or physical play until four minutes left in the game. There ends up being a loose ball and two players grab it, one from my team and one from their's. The referee's call a foul on our player and after the whistle the two players were still fighting for the ball. The other team player pushes our guy, he pushes him back, then their player shoves our guy, and our guy throws like a chest pass back at the guy and the ball hits him in the thigh. At this point I'm thinking oh no our guy is going to get a technical foul, after a few seconds the opposing player decides it's not over and runs at our guy and tries to kick him. So now I start yelling and heading over there to break it up and before I can get over there the opposing player throws two closed fisted punches at our player and hits him in the eye. Our player basically walks away as we break it up. He had one big shiner. It was crazy, never seen that happen before in a game. We ended up losing by a few points which isn't important. Our guy is okay but the thing that makes me mad is the Stake Young Men's President doesn't think the player that threw the punches should have to sit out the rest of the tournament. I think something's wrong here. So we will wait and see what happens. So there was my exciting Saturday. Got to love Church Basketball.