the Bowl

Last night Ryan and I headed out to the Hollywood Bowl to check out Tchaikovsky night - with fireworks!

The best parts were watching the conductor (he had a very exaggerated conducting style) and the pianist. How does someone become good enough to play like that? Oh yeah, I remember. Ten thousand hours of practice. I did read Outliers.

The USC marching band also made an appearance at the end of the 1812 Overture, along with the fireworks.

Photo with flash (and you can almost see how big my belly is):

Photo without flash:

cramming again

School starts on Wednesday for the boys, so last week we kept busy with the last of the summer activities. Last weekend we had our ward beach party:

A few days later Alex and Ben spent a day or two at their cousins' house. I came to pick them up and we played at the Huntington Beach Adventure Park:

The kids had their faces painted on another day at a craft activity. Alex had a black widow, Benjamin was Batman, and Charlie was supposed to be Elmo, but the result is a little scary.

Somewhere in there we also squeezed in one last pool day and another beach day including a stop at the honey farm. This year we decided to try the orange variety (I think last year it was cactus).

In a way I'm glad summer is almost over, since it's getting harder and harder to lug myself around in my very pregnant state, and I always look forward to fall (which weather-wise won't really arrive for another two months). But it's always bittersweet to realize how fast time is going by and to be faced with the reality of the boys getting older. We'll see how well I hold it together on Wednesday when Benjamin starts Kindergarten.

roughing it

A few weeks ago Ryan went on a week-long camping trip to Yosemite.

While he was doing this:

The rest of us were doing this:

Alex's seagull feather sculpture:

(I love Ben's legs sticking out from under the frisbee. It's very Wizard of Oz.)

Haslam cousins playing on Nana and Papa's hill:

Airband concert (thanks Judy for the pictures):

I'm glad we all survived. Ryan survived his encounters with bears and marmots and scouts and I survived having to kill a mouse. (It was still alive because we caught it in a glue trap. I don't recommend those.)

Charlie's 2 year pictures

I decided I needed to get some pictures of Charlie done before we have this baby, so here's what we ended up with:

These were the closest we got to smiles. Family members, do you have any requests? I have a bigger size (4 x 6) in the close up, so Mom and Dad are getting one of those. I have wallets in the other two poses if anyone wants one.

blast from the past

Ryan uploaded some of his old news reports on his facebook page and on youtube if anyone wants to take a look.
My thoughts when I watch these:
#1: Man, he looks young.
#2: He shouldn't have insisted that I always cut his hair. I think I've gotten a little better after ten years of practice.

Need a time waster?

The description says these are from the 80's, but a few are 70's and some are 90's. You can find the answers if you click on more info after you click here. Joel, I can't believe I missed #10.

There's also another TV theme one and a cartoon theme one.

more summer activities

We have a wonderful friend who puts together a summer calendar every year and distributes copies to a bunch of families. There is something planned every weekday of the summer, and whoever wants to participate is welcome. There are beach and pool days, the schedule of the free movies at the theaters, and fun events some of the moms plan at their homes. Last week we went bowling, and the week before we went to a dance party.

Here's Benjamin throwing the ball onto the lane. He got better at rolling the ball after a couple tries:

This was right before one of Alex's two strikes:

Charlie getting a little help from Judy (the calendar mastermind herself):

And here's some of the dancing: