Elliot's Birthday Trip - Part 2

After getting kicked off USS Midway, we took a walk around Seaport Village and bought cookies. We walked back to the hotel and rested for a little bit and walked further into downtown to Croce's Restaurant. And since we didn't know how to pronounce it the first time, we lovingly refer to it as Crotches Restaurant. We were mostly looking forward to the live Jazz. The food was delicious (overpriced) and the little fart of ice cream we got tasted like we were chewing on a mint leaf. I was screaming for my Dreyers by the end of the night.

It isn't funny to be homeless, but some of the homeless people we walked by made us laugh. Only because they would laugh randomly. Also, a little scary.

I was still recovering, so I was absolutely exhausted before we even got to San Diego that morning. By the time we got back to the hotel, I crashed and didn't even notice the train going by our hotel window every 8 minutes throughout the night. Elliot had a different experience. Now we know why the nightstand had complimentary earplugs.

We had some time the next morning before our planned activities, so we just walked around downtown.

We have a love for the Santa Fe Railroad and so we also love the architecture that goes along with the stations along the Santa Fe.

We ate lunch at Anthony's Fish Grotto (same place we ate dinner on our 2nd try at our honeymoon back in August 2000), before we went to our 1-hour cruise around the South bay.



There she is folks . . . the Adventure Hornblower.



Downtown San Diego

As we started into the South bay, we could see the aircraft carriers Nimitz and Reagan which are sectioned off with a barrier so no one can get in there. However, they were just opening the barrier to allow the Vinson to return, which it did during our tour.

This ship is just being built.

This one is brand new.

This is a floating hospital and has over 1,000 beds.

This is a destroyer.

This is a helicopter carrier.

This is a landing ship. It is made to reflect radar. This is Elliot feeding me all this information. I have no idea what he's talking about.

Maybe that's why he looks at me like that.

It was nice to go on the windy, but relaxing little tour before we had to get back to the airport for our flight.

So get this. I don't think we've ever spent this much money on one birthday, but we did save money because we got our airline tickets really cheap AND we used mass transit or our own two feet the entire time. We took the light rail to the airport in Phoenix, walked from the San Diego airport to downtown San Diego and all over the Midway (though I almost asked for a wheelchair around 3 o'clock), walked to Crotches, walked back to the hotel, walked to our meals, walked around downtown again, walked back to the airport (just over 2 miles), took the light rail back which is less than a mile away from our house, and just as we started crossing the street to walk the rest of the way home, Grandma flagged us down as she was returning our Stella and made us get in the car. Well, we almost made it the whole time.

I know Elliot loved the trip because it was all about everything he loves . . . including me! It's fun to see him admire all of the airplanes and aircraft carriers and helicopters and everything that has to do with WWII or any other battle or war. Seriously, he could be making all that stuff up, but I don't think he is because A) you can't make that stuff up as quickly as he was throwing that information at me, B) I know as a child he preferred reading about planes to playing outside, and C) he's the smartest man alive.

I loved learning about the planes and all, but . . .

. . . this was my favorite part of the trip. Happy Birthday Sweetie.

Elliot's Birthday Trip - Part 1

This handsome devil turned 33-years-old on October 6th.

He ate a shark to celebrate. I took a bite too. Very plain.

But we also took a short trip to tour the aircraft carrier USS Midway in the San Diego Harbor.

When we were in San Diego during the summer for our beach camping trip, everyone else went to tour this aircraft carrier while we wasted our time at Sea World. Stella was grumpy and wanted to play with her cousins and Elliot was pouting because we could have spent our money to tour the USS Midway instead. So Elliot's birthday wish was to go back to take the tour.

And since I'm a fan of taking trips with my hubby and not having to plan a single detail for his birthday, I went along.

This is Elliot's favorite airplane called Corsair. Why? Because of it's sleek and unique design . . . and it shot down a bunch of other planes.

Elliot is 6'1". I'm only 5'4"ish and would absolutely barf if I had to sleep in these tiny compartments. There were pictures around with quotes from some of the men on board and their feet were in each others faces. Barf.

This is just one of the chains attached to the anchor. Can you imagine the size of the anchor?

There were these creepy plastic dummies throughout the whole ship.

I had to strap my hair back in a ponytail because for some reason my stick straight hair becomes wavy when I get to California.

I also grew a nice zit on my chin to celebrate Elliot's birthday. He made fun of it, so I threw him in the slammer.

Now I'm going to try to get all of these airplane names correct . . . this is the SBD Dauntless. Elliot said that it sank 4 Japanese carriers at the battle of Midway.

He's so happy. He loves airplanes. We even have a little shrine to them in our bedroom. They are right next to our Peruvian fertility bulls.

Not sure what this guy was doing, but if he was on some secret mission, he should have worn camouflage so we wouldn't see him.

A-4 Skyhawk, which is what Senator John McCain flew when he was shot down and became a POW. Our tour guide flew this plane as well. Also, this type of airplane was used as the enemy in Top Gun.

F-14 Tomcat, which is the plane Tom Cruise flew in Top Gun.

Here's a seagull.

Hmmm, I wish he'd look at me that way.

F-4 Phantom, Mike Ashby's grandfather flew one of these

F-18 Hornet

A-6 Intruder

F-8 Crusader

"You can get a good look at a butcher's . . . by sticking your head up there . . ."

This is another type of Corsair, but I like it because it's face looks like a cartoon.

You can see how happy he is, can't you.

This little lip hung over the front of the ship and I got woozy standing out there, so I let Elliot stand alone.

We got to the USS Midway at 1:00 in the afternoon and started the self-guided tour right away. We had headphones and lots to listen to, but in the 4 hours we were there, we didn't even get close to listening to it all! We'd actually like to go back so we can listen to more of the personal stories from the veterans.

We did get to take a guided tour of the superstructure.

Elliot got to sit in the seats and see all of the airplanes from one view. I wish I knew him as a little kid. Then again, I'm sure he's just like Stella. Only she's not passionate about airplanes so much as random things.

I love this view because you can see most of the airplanes. Those airplanes are huge and yet you can see how much bigger the carrier is! HUGE!

We got chased out by all of the volunteer old guys. It was 5 o'clock and they could feel the buffet line starting to form.

This is my birthday wish. It's an iron.

Tommy Boy and Toothbrushes

OK, so Elliot and watched Tommy Boy a few weeks ago and I cannot believe how much we have both been quoting it over the last 15 years! Seriously, so funny.

So now I can quote it again because of my most recent poll about the color of the toothbrushes. Because Elliot's toothbrush is indeed PINK and not RED as you 13 colorblind people thought. So 67% (29 votes) for PINK and 30% (13 votes) for RED and the token difficult person with 2%. Which means, D+. I passed.

Tommy: D+?... Oh, my ... I passed! I passed! Oh, man!
Tommy: [shouting] I got a D+! I'm gonna graduate!
Tommy: [hugging a stranger] I wish we'd known each other... this is a little awkward.
Tommy: [shouts] I got a D+! I'm gonna graduate! Give me five!

I couldn't find the actual clip, but here's the trailer and it has lots of the quotes we quote! Sorry about the first several seconds. Thanks for playing.

Bunch o' Ladies & Chillins

Not a great quality picture, but the subject matter has some of my favorite people in it. It was also sprinkling out a little bit.

So when the men folk were in their Priesthood Conference at the beginning of October, the ladies went out to Tempe Marketplace for dinner and letting the kids run around like crazies. At one point in the evening while there were at least 8 ladies and 13 children standing in one group, I noticed that people stopped to stare at us. I wondered what they were thinking. The first thing that came to my mind was that they were probably thinking, "I wonder where their husband is." Only we're not polygamists. Not even close.

Happy Birthday Kiddos!

Happy #2 Birthday to Brynnie-Bobbalini! (11/04/10)



Happy #10 Birthday to Brookie! (11/05/10)



Happy #11 Birthday to Alex! (11/09/10)

The Hills Are Alive

I've been accused that my actual favorite movie (A&E Pride & Prejudice) isn't really a movie because it was a TV series, so if I have to choose a different movie, it would be The Sound of Music! Can you believe it's been 45 years since they made that movie! Below is their little reunion on Today and below that is a little something, something Stella used to do when she was little.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So Much To Do

Wow, I'm really behind in my blogging. I haven't even started October! I still have to do Elliot's Birthday Trip, Elliot's Grand Canyon Hike, Our 11th Anniversary, Time Out for Women, Family Gatherings, Drying Fruit, Halloween, Sassy Stella, and My Triathlon.

But until I finish my other To Do list and then I start working on the blog updates, let me tell you a short story (what am I saying, I've never told a short story). The same week my sister accidentally brushed her teeth with her husband's toothbrush, I made the same disgusting blunder with my husband's toothbrush. I immediately offered Elliot his choice of an assortment of colorful toothbrushes. He chose the one on the right. So please help me answer this question and take the poll to the left:

What colors are these toothbrushes?

Ugly Ol' Witch

I've wanted to do this project with Stella for years, but didn't pull out the stuff until this year. I did this ugly ol' witch project when I was in 2nd grade and absolutely loved my witch. I took great pride in my art projects as a kid. However, it just wasn't as fun to do at age 33 and with Stella who got bored after 4 seconds. We shriveled her up anyway.

Happy Halloween!

We had quite the struggle this year as to what Stella would dress up as for Halloween. For years she has always just wanted to be a princess. Totally tired of princesses. I thought we were good this year when she decided not to be a princess . . . until she decided to be Hannah Montana. Gag! I pushed it off as long as I could, trying desperately to get her to change her mind. Finally I went out and bought a nasty blonde wig that didn't even cover her whole head and then we headed to Aunt Xan's to look through their plethora of costumes.

Xan pulled out all the Hannah Montana stuff, but Stella kept reaching for the fluffy skirts and fancy jewelry. I sat there defeated, until Xan told Stella that she should just be FANCY NANCY. Aunt Xan is my new favorite person!

So here is a picture of the real Fancy Nancy (children's book):

And here's our Fancy Stella (it took an hour to curl her hair, by the way).

Holy Moly . . . Can She Get Any Cuter?