pictorial review of 2011

For Halloween I went as Quorra from Tron Legacy. I have to admit, I was pretty dang proud of my costume. Its as identical as a homemade costume can get.  Sean just put on some random clothes from our costume box. Some person in the ward said he looked like Howard Stern.

I've come to really enjoy going up to Griffith Observatory and taking pictures of the city.

 













For Sean's birthday I made small cupcakes shaped like baseballs. I made a cake last year and tried to do it on a smaller scale. Of course I made the infamous 7-minute frosting! YUM!

Afterwards we headed down to Anaheim where we went to an 

Angels game. Sean loved his birthday!

Earlier this year we took some of our youth to a Sparks game at the Staples Center. It was a fun trip downtown. Some of our kids hadn't been to the Staples Center before.

One day I came home from work to find this! It was Wii Jeopardy. I had mentioned in passing to Sean that I would like it so he bought it for me as a random gift!

Sean got a remote control plane for Christmas and he has really enjoyed playing with it.

Our stake does an annual 24th of July picnic and we got to try out some old-fashioned activities.

I probably should keep my day job . . . .

Sean was part of our ward softball team.

We decided to be tourists for a day and we got on a red double-Decker bus and toured Hollywood. It was a fun tour because you could get off and on as many times as you wanted. We got off a couple of times to enjoy the sites further.

Perusing all the handprints at the Chinese Theater

The "Red Carpet" heading up to the Kodak Theater (AKA the location where they do the Academy Awards)

I think Hanford's Fox Theater looks so much cooler!

Rodeo Drive (I'm pretty sure that is just some random Joe taking pictures of that fancy car)

This store is the most exclusive on Rodeo Drive. You have to have an appointment just to be able to go inside.

Sunset Strip

My job can be dangerous at times. I sliced by fingernail with a razor blade.

I love BYU Men's Volleyball. We try to go and see every game they play here in the LA area. This time they were playing USC.

For my birthday I went to Red Lobster. Yep, one of my favorite restaurants.

Hart Park is a really fun place to visit. Near the parking lot is a small animal/petting zoo. Then there are tons of walkways around the hill and one of those walkways lead you to the bison.

Random

They also have many older historical buildings like homes, school buildings and a small church. Sean had a little too much here.

Typical view when we go to the beach.

Sis. Elaine Dalton, General Young Women's President came to do a Young Womens conference for the LA area. Our stake was the host and I got the chance, as a Young Womens president in the stake, to have dinner and personal time with her. It was a very neat and spiritual experience.

Venice Beach.

Europe-Part Tre

Italy

Cities Visited: Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii

Get ready for the most shocking news you'll hear. Florence was our least favorite place that we visited. It was humid, VERY crowded and we actually weren't all that impressed with the sights. I will admit we are not big art people so that may have had to do with it. But I was surprised at the lack of information at the Uffizi. The Ponte Vecchio was cool looking and we had some very yummy gelato. But overall, I don’t think we'll ever go back.

Rome, on the other hand, was our overall favorite city. That probably has to do with the fact that we timed everything just right that we saw practically everything we wanted to and didn’t hit ANY lines! The sights included: the coliseum, forum, Victor Emmanuel Monument, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Pizza, Campo di Fiori, walking along the Tiber, Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. We loved everything!

Naples was dirty. The cab drivers right outside the cruise terminal were rude and someone tried to pick pock Sean. Needless to say, we did not enjoy Naples. But I did have some really good pizza for only one and half euro. We spent our day at Pompeii which was life-fulfilling, literally.

In the 6th grade I learned about Pompeii and how archaeologists were able to excavate and find out how people from the 1st century AD lived. I found it fascinating that someone could look at old stuff and be able to reconstruct the past. In the 6th grade I decided I was going to study Archaeology in school. And I did. So going to Pompeii, going to the place where it piqued my interest just seemed like coming full circle.

The train that took you out to Pompeii was a little ghetto. There was trash and graffiti in the cars. Definitely the worst looking public transportation that we took during our entire trip. Even some of the stops were so heavily tagged that you couldn’t even read the sign to know what stop it was. However, Pompeii was so much fun. It really was what I expected. You could just walk anywhere and tour almost anything. Thankfully I had my friend Rick Steves on my iPod so I listened to one of his podcasts that tours Pompeii. I really loved seeing the little bars on every other corner. Rick Steve’s calls them the ancient Fast Food joints.