Tyler and Jen's Wedding

This was a busy busy weekend. Friday I left work a little early, picked up the Uhaul truck and started loading it. Our friend Andy came over and was a huge help. By the time Jackie got home from work, we were ready to take the first load to the new apartment. Dropped everything off, went back to the old apartment to get all the misc stuff. I left to pick up Spenny and Nellie from LAX. I got back after eleven and by that time Andy and Jackie had loaded up all the left over stuff and had the Uhaul at the new apartment. Then Andy, Spenny, Nellie, Tyler (the night before his wedding), all helped us unload the last little bit. It is great to have such wonderful friends.

Saturday we had Tyler and Jen's wedding. We were able to go to the temple with them and it was wonderful. It was a lot of fun to get to know more of Tyler's family. Here is a part of his family. He has 11 or 12 siblings plus 50 or more nieces and nephews. Not everyone was here because it was their fifth wedding this summer. The Wedding dinner was in Camarillo and like always the weather was perfect. It was such a nice evening.
Nellie, Jackie, and Logan in his sweet Tux.

Sunday was spent finishing up everything and we are glad to be in the new place. Not too excited to unpack stuff though. That is just as bad as packing.

Brian and Abby

We had a really fun week. We were lucky enough to have Brian and Abby come spend a few days with us. They came down to Los Angeles to see Abby's brother and new nephew and were able to come see us as well. It was fun to hang out and just talk. Friday we went to this miniature golf place near us. Jackie got the best of us all and won. We won't mention how many strokes Brian lost by.
Hanging out on the first hole.
Jackie quite upset after missing her birdie attempt.
I held the lead until the 16th hole, what a terrible hole.
If anyone has been down here to see us, you have seen this castle off the freeway. I was excited to actually play this hole. I drive past this castle everyday on the way to and from work. Sadly to say, I didn't make it in the trap door, but still got a birdie on the hole.
Saturday morning I taught Brian how to longboard. He was really good at it and was a natural. He did almost run into a truck that was moving and sent the board flying in front of the truck, and luckily the board didn't get run over.

We went up to Santa Barbara, walked on the pier, rented bikes and tricycles. Later we ate at Rusty's Pizza in the lighthouse and then took them on a tour of our favorite parts of Santa Barbara.
My amazing picture taking skills as I am riding the tricycle, holding the camera and taking the picture without being able to see what I was taking a picture of, pretty good aim.
This is us up a the Santa Barbara Mission overlooking the city and the ocean. Amazing view and there are some great gardens around here.
Today we headed down to LAX and stopped off in Malibu on the way and had a picnic on the beach and played a little frisbee. We put our feet in the water and it was cold and the sand was so hot. We just sat on the beach for a few hours and talked and watched the waves. Abby got some reading in and it just made for a relaxing afternoon.
We had a wonderful weekend and we're so glad that Brian and Abby could come down and see where we live. I do think my favorite part of the weekend was beating Jackie and Abby over and over again in Sequence. They never stood a chance.

Dallas Cowboy Camp

The Dallas Cowboys are doing their training camp here in Oxnard California. I know this seems weird that they would be so far from Texas, but they really are here and I have pictures to prove it. They must come because of the amazing weather. It's a lot better to practice in 75 degree weather as compared to the weather in Dallas right now.
I didn't spend too much time over there since it was during work. I mainly just saw them stretching and getting ready for practice, just throwing the ball around, and warming up.
Here are their 5 Super Bowl Trophies

The Wide Receivers. Terrell Owens came over and high fived the people on the front row of the fence, I was on the second row. The team getting a motivational speech from Magic Johnson. It was cool to see how big the players really are and sadly enough I did not see Jessica Simpson as she was here on Tuesday hanging out with her boyfriend the Quarterback.

EARTHQUAKE and Hanging out with Family

Probably most everyone heard about the earthquake that hit the Los Angeles area this week. It was measured at around 5.6 and that is considered a moderate size. Both Jackie and I were at work, the ground felt like it was rolling and it moved for quite some time, at least that is what it felt like. It was the first one we have felt in the over two years of living here. It was actually pretty scary, more of the thought that a big earthquake could hit and what if we aren't prepared.
On Saturday we went to Jackie's cousin Kallen's son Carson's baptism out in the Glendora/La Verne area. It is always fun to go to a baptism and feel of the spirit. It was also neat because Kallen has a new baby and they were able to do the baby blessing afterwards with all the family there. There was a nice luncheon afterwards and we had a great time talking. After the luncheon we went to "Aunt" Arlene's house to visit. She had just got back from England and we were able to see all the stuff she brought back. We just sat and talked and before we knew it, we had been there for 4 hours. We headed back to Kallen's house and hung out there for another few hours. Jackie was able to watch the Osmond concert that they had recorded from the conference center the other week. It was fun to be with family and just spend a day relaxing.

Jackie and I playing Rock Band for the first time. It was a lot of fun. We weren't very good at it though. The drums were hard to play and the guitar took a little time to get used to. It was a lot harder than I had imagined it to be. We always hear of everyone playing Guitar Hero and it was fun to actually try it. It could be the next game we get for the Wii.
Jackie and London
Jackie with baby Holland
Jackie, Kallen, Holland, and Aunt Cookie

Wet carpet and wet burp cloth to be!

We had a very exciting past weekend! Friday morning when C.J. grabbed the scriptures off the floor he noticed they were a little bit damp. So we moved them and didn't think twice about it. Saturday night when we were kneeling for prayers, we were on my side of the bed which we never are, and when I got up my knees were soaked. We starting feeling around and noticed that a corner in our bedroom was very wet. We started moving our stuff around and noticed that all my church books that I had up against my dresser were completely wet. I put them on the table to dry and sadly some of them are not usable anymore. I was and still am upset that my nice books are ruined. We went to church on Sunday and after church had one of the maintenance guys come look at our carpet. Come to find out our water heater was leaking and they would need to replace it, pull up our carpet to get out the wet padding and so the carpet could dry. We had our friends Spenny and Nellie come to help us move our bed over so it would be easier to pull up the corner that was wet. While we were moving it, Spenny was kneeling on the floor and got wet. The water had gone across our whole bedroom. We took down our bed and moved everything into the extra bedroom except for our dressers. When I came home from work on Monday, all the carpet in our bedroom was pulled up with three big blowers in there to dry it out. Did I mention that it stunk like wet dog in our bedroom all weekend? Anyway, today when I got home, the carpet was all put together again and our carpets were cleaned. It still has a faint smell, but it is way better then what it was.


Now for my exciting project! Tonight for an enrichment activity we had a sewing class. Now I took one in high school, but if you looked real closely at the things I made they were not so great, but from afar they looked wonderful! Tonight my friend Stacie was teaching the class, and we made burp cloths. It wasn't that hard, it just takes some getting used to. Mine of course is not as professional looking as Stacie's, but I have to say it turned out pretty darn good. I am very proud of myself in case you couldn't tell. I better not make too many though because my wonderful Mother-in-law has already made me lots for when we have kids! Thanks Connie!! And here is the finished product:

Movie Weekend

Two Movies came out this weekend that we were really excited to see. On Friday night we went and saw Mama Mia. Jackie and I had gone to the Broadway version when it was in Salt Lake three years ago and had so much fun, so we had been excited for it to come out on the big screen. It was a fun movie, not quite the same experience as seeing it live, but still a lot of fun. First time we have been to a movie theater in California on opening night that was actually sold out. We usually always go on opening night too. The theaters down in our area are never crowded. Anyway I thought Meryl Streep did a good job and you could tell she was having fun in the movie. On Saturday night we went and saw the new Batman movie The Dark Night. It was amazing. I think we liked Batman Begins better, but this one was still good. The Joker was extremely creepy and probably one of the best villains of all time. If you get a chance make sure to see it in the theaters. Be warned, it is very dark and there are some scary parts.
Saturday afternoon we had a barbecue with the three Skilled Nursing Facilities that are in Ventura County. We had an amazing barbecue and fun games for the kids. For the adults we had the egg toss as you can see below, relay race, tug o war, and pie eating contest. Jackie's facility took home the annual trophy. It was a fun time.
Me in the red with perfect egg tossing form, it's too bad my partner DID NOT have PERFECT egg catching skills. We made it to the final three teams and lost. Oh well........
Earlier in the week we had a "Couple Shower" for Tyler and his fiancee Jen. Some how I ended up being in charge of the whole event, don't know how that happened, but it turned out really well and we had a good time. We played some fun games, especially the ask them question game about their partner and if they answered it wrong they had to chew a piece of gum. Needless to say they both had at least ten pieces of gum in their mouths by the end. It was an eventful week. We are starting to pack as we will be moving to a different part of Ventura in August. It should be a hectic few weeks.

4th of July

What a nice and relaxing holiday weekend. We decided to stay in Ventura for the 4th. On Friday we went to a Festival in Downtown Ventura. There were hundreds of booths set up selling, pictures, paintings, crafts, vacations and lots of other things. We bought this photograph below. The picture below is the city of Ventura where we live. It is a beautiful place with perfect weather and very close to the ocean as you can see. We have really enjoyed living here.
We spent the day with the Morris' and had a barbecue at their apartment. The grill ran out of propane mid grilling and Spenny had to go get some more. Kind of funny, but we had great food and then went to the firework show at Ventura College. There were three firework shows in Ventura but we decided on the closest one to the apartment.
As you can see the firework show kept us entertained.
On Saturday we went out with Tyler and his fiancee Jen to the Hollywood Bowl. On the way we stopped at Porto's in Glendale/Burbank area. It is this Cuban bakery that has really good desserts and had some great sandwiches. The picture above is of Jackie eating fried plantains. This is a food I loved eating in the Dominican Republic on my mission and had never really found anything that compared to the fried plantains from the D.R. These were the closest things I have found and Jackie actually really enjoyed them. I was quite surprised. They sure tasted good to me and brought back many memories.

At the Hollywood Bowl we saw Bugs Bunny on Broadway. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra played the songs. While they played there were Looney Toon Cartoons being played on big screens. It was very entertaining and it was a nice relaxing evening. We arrived two hours before it began and had a picnic there and then watched the performance. It was nice to hang out with Tyler and Jen and catch up on everything that has been going on with them. They have been really busy with their wedding plans for next month.
We parked in this parking lot and once we got in there we realized that it was stacked parking, meaning you can't leave until the car in front of you leaves. I was a little nervous we were going to be stuck there for a while waiting for the cars around us to leave. Luckily for us the cars in front of us were gone when we got to the parking lot.
Hopefully everyone had as great of a Fourth of July as we did.