Lance's family's visit

Last week Lance's family came to visit from Utah. Mom, Dad, Lane, Lyman, Kelli, Taylor and new baby Grafton all made the drive down I-15.

We all went to Disneyland. This is the family on the hottest-ride-of-the-century--It's A Small World. It's good for the girls.

Sloane was stoked on all the little figurines.

We waited in line at Mickey's house to get a picture with the famous mouse. They were playing clips of old Mickey Mouse cartoons so Taylor and Sloane were hooked.

We finally got there and the whole experience was a little underwhelming. Sloane didn't act very excited and Taylor was a little hesitant to approach the mouse.

Then again, Sloane always has a bit of a suspicious look on her face--especially when looking at dubious mice.
We took a reprieve from the punishing heat outside.

Sloane got a little tired.

But she perked up when we got to the Buzz Lightyear ride. This is one of her favorite characters recently.

She was more than willing to pose for the camera, but we still couldn't get her to smile.

The whole family sans Grace--she's taking the picture.

Our little family.

Buzz Lightyear is a killer ride. They give you these little lazer blasters and you go through the ride shooting all the bad guys and accumulating points. It's fun because you get to compete with your family. This is a picture of Lyman losing the competition.

Sloane liked to shoot the aliens too.

This pic is on the way out. Disneyland's Main Street is a pretty classic scene at night. We couldn't get a very good pic, though.

We hung out with Verna-Grayce, Ester, Honore, and Hester at Hermosa Beach. This beach is really fun. There are no crowds and the water is nice and clean. Sloane and Taylor love the beach and playing the sand.

Sun bathing, working on her tan.

They are cute in their sun hats.

The girls like the water too. Sloane is a little apprehensive, but she'll go in if she is with someone.

San Diego

It's coming up on the end of Spring Quarter so we decided to go visit our friends in San Diego. This is Ryan, Kristen, Maggie, and Jane Lindsay. After the USA v. England World Cup match draw (1-1) we headed to the beach to cruz for a little while.

They took us to this beach called The Cove. It was a pretty happening place. There were caves, sea lions, whales, long-distance swimmers, and tons of people everywhere. When Sloane plays on the shore she is still a little scared of the waves and won't let go of her daddy.

Both Sloane and Maggie got a kick out of the water.

She got soaked from head to toe, which is okay because the water in San Diego is a little warmer than in Santa Monica. It is also a lot cleaner.

Sloane and Maggie got along pretty well.

And this is Sloane making a her patented fake smile for the camera, while Maggie rotates her wrists in excitement.

Lance took her pretty close to the water where she would get fully splashed with the water.

Sloane loves the beach.

The Cove is a pretty scenic little beach park. This is in La Jolla just north of San Diego and just west of UCSD.

Kristen playing with baby Jane.

A lonely seal.

Seals soaking up the sun on the other side of The Cove.

Sloane was stoked by the seals. She's never seen them before and was little confused at first because they mostly just lay there lazily sun-bathing. Some of them got a little feisty, though, especially when one of the younger ones would restlessly climb on top of the others.

Sloane got really focused.

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.

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.