Sunday, May 16, 2010

New Update



Mexican bbq on Alvarado.


We had a picnic just off Santa Monica Blvd. near Beverly Hills. This was some killer bbq that we bought from a street vendor. Mexican food is the best in LA--way better than Utah, Colorado, and anywhere else you might live!


It was such a nice day in LA, so we decided to have some fun outside. Daddy picked this pretty flower for Sloane.

Sloane copied daddy and picked some small white flowers out of the grass. She gave one to daddy not mommy.


Grandest wants to go on Angels Flight Railway when he comes to visit in July, so Lance decided to check it out first. This is a funicular railway in downtown Los Angeles that connects Hill St. to a business plaza. It was first built in 1901, but closed. It reopened in March of this year and we wanted to see if it was any fun--good times. Sloane was stoked and she'll remember it when she goes again in July with Grandest.

Claire hung out with us today. Sloane loves to have her around.


This is the from the top of the hill overlooking east LA.



Sloane looks bored, but she loved it, I promise.

Thanks Claire for hooking us up with some good family pics.



Earlier, we drove up to Eagle Rock, which is on the way up a small canyon toward Pasadena, to check out a bakery/diner that we saw advertised on the Food Network. This place is called Auntie Em's Kitchen. Bobby Flay challenged the owner to a "cupcake throw-down" and lost! We had to see if the cupcakes lived up to the hype. As you can see from the picture, they are HUGE--slightly smaller than Sloane's head. They sell four flavors of cupcake: red velvet, chocolate, carrot, and coconut. We ordered all but the coconut. The carrot is good because the frosting is a not-too-sweet, cream cheese one that nicely complements the rustic cake (it is full of carrots, nuts, dried fruits, and other things that I couldn't identify). The chocolate is really chocolatey. Again, not overly sweet, just good, rich chocolate flavor. By far the best of the three was the red velvet, which is also chocolate, but lighter than traditional chocolate. They must add some red food-coloring to this recipe because these cupcakes look red as fire engines. These also come with the same cream cheese frosting (topped about 2 inches high on each cupcake) but this combination works better than the carrot cake. If you like cake and frosting, you should go to this place! A little crowded, but crazy good cupcakes.

Grace's birthday is May 14th. She is a happy 30-years-old now. Friends from the neighborhood threw a surprise party and decorated our door. Thanks everyone.

On another note, Sloane fell off the couch and broke her face.

Nice shiner.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Easter Egg Hunting BBQ Party


Sloane at her first Easter Egg hunt and BBQ--characteristic deadpan expression.
She was pretty stoked on gathering her eggs together.
She wasn't as fast as the other kids, but she caught on quickly and got some good loot.

We used the playground in the middle of our apartment complex to hide the eggs.


All the kids had hotdogs after the hunting was over.
We tried to get the kids together for a big group picture. These are all of her friends in the neighborhood--lots of kids her age to play with.

Sloane and Gaige decided that they had had enough of sitting down and waiting for people to take pictures.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Pool Day and St.Patrick Day

Sloane and Grace went to the pool with our friends Jaime and Lauren. The weather in LA is prefect for hanging out in the pool, Sloane didn't have a swimming suit (she had one but it was too small, and she just only wore it once), also Grace thought she wouldn't go into the pool because she doesn't like to take baths, but after 5 mins of watching all her friends playing in the pool, she decided to go . . .

Sloane is ready, even though she doesn't have her swimming suit on.

She doesn't want to just watch the other kids play.

Here we are. Sloane was kicking very hard to try to keep herself afloat. She enjoyed it, we are going to come to the pool a lot this summer.

Sloane and Grace. Everyone was already tired and resting next to the pool but Sloane was still full of energy.


Nice shot of Gaige who is just one month older than Sloane.

Bentley, Alex, Austin, and Sloane were having some snacks by the pool.



Grace and Jaime, I am very lucky to have a cool family living next to us. Jaime has two little boys, she always invites us to do lots of fun things and Sloane loves to play with her two boys. (well pretty much just follow them around).

This is Lauren. Hers is another cool family living next to us. Last week Lance was in China and Sloane was sick with a high fever for three nights straight, she helped me out a lot with this. Believe me it is very hard when your husband is not around and your kid is sick. You just need to have someone to talk to.

Jenna invited us to her house for a St. Patrick's Day party but Grace forgot to bring her camera, so we took some pics after we got home. We had a good time eating all the green food and drinking green milk. Sloane even got a green hat, a necklace, and a pot of gold.



Friday, January 15, 2010

Beach Day




Sloane and her friend Lorna went to the beach on Tuesday afternoon. It was nice because not a lot of people were there and they could run around. At the beginning she didn't like the feeling of sand but she definitely got used to it later.

This is a rare sight in Santa Monica--usually this place is packed.

The ocean water in California is pretty cold but Sloane was brave enough to wade through it a little.


Sloane's little footprints in the sand are so cute.


This is a video of Sloane going a little nuts running around in the sand. This was her first time touching sand with her bare feet and I think she can't believe how fun it is. It sounds like a puppy but it is really Sloane squeaking that you hear.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Happy New Year

We had lots of fun visiting UT at Christmas break, it was cold but we still got the chance to see all the family and enjoy time with them. We went to Temple Square with Grandest, Grandeur, uncle Lyman, Auntie Kelli, and Taylor.


Sloane loves to hang out with Taylor. It was really cold outside so both of them had big coats and hats on.
Beautiful lights.
Three generations.

Family picture.
Uncle Loren is going to take Sloane out to play with snow.

Sloane was afraid of Shmoo at first but Grandeur and Auntie Lane showed her how to pet her. After a while Sloane was brave enough to play with her.
uncle Lance and Jacob
I love this picture of Jacob.
Sloane got lots of presents--thank you Santa.
She loves Minnie Mouse, I guess we have to take her to Disneyland soon.
Sloane and Ma Ma
opening gifts--thank you Auntie Lane
visiting Santa's place..

Happy time together watching a DVD.
playing in the snow with ba ba

Visiting friends. Sloane finally got to meet baby Kingston.