I know my place

Joni has yet again come up with a creative costume idea for me, and now that I think about it, I'm starting to notice a theme...at my expense. Now that I think about it, aren't all Dad's given this role at some time in their lives, and can never go back?

There comes a time where you realize you just have to go with it, and understand your place in the world of loving wives and Halloween costumes. A time when you no longer look good in cut off sleeves or tight clothing, and when you no longer look tough despite how much tiolet paper you stuff in your clothing.

I remember the last time I chose my own Halloween costume, I was Zorro. It doesn't get much manlier than that. Nevermind that I was wearing a pair of Joni's black tights under my boots, I looked good...so good I couldn't stop smiling the whole night, which made the mascara I used to darken my moustache get on my nose. Fast forward and it's only gone downhill from there.

A sack of jelly beans...DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba (I was made fun of by a teenager with a coconut bra and grass skirt)...and now...a GIANT BANANA. It wouldn't be so bad if Ellie wasn't a little monkey and Joni wasn't Jane Goodall. Is it a joke at my expense? Am I just a good sport? Or am I a loving husband and father who knows his place, and picks his battles? Until I figure that one out, I am a banana.

San Diego!

The last time I visited San Diego was the week of New Years Eve (for a cheerleading trip) when '99 turned 2000 and people thought the Internet and all computers would self destruct. This time I went for an American Dietetics Association meeting with a Registered Dietitian cohort, my sis Andrea. We got all our classes done (and even listened to several) but we had way too much fun in between.

On our first free afternoon we made it down to Mission Beach and rented bikes. We rode them up and down the coast. We also briefly saw Sunset Cliffs, gorgeous!






...the posting above gave us a little Lol on our ride...

And has anyone else ever dreamed of sitting in one of these tractor digging devices? One more thing off my bucket list.




The Expo was incredible. And by incredible, I mean we were incredibly FULL from all the food being handed to us. It's a well known fact among specialty/health food distributors that the way to the population (& higher profits) is through medical professionals who talk about food all day. ==> RDs. We couldn't walk 10 feet without someone shoving some kind of food into our hands (not that we were complaining). Over the course of one day, for example, we tasted; almond milk, rice milk, regular milk, soy milk, hemp milk, coconut milk... the list goes on.
This robot told me he liked my boots, we were pals for a little bit.




We originally planned on staying in a hotel near the convention center, but those were insanely expensive. So we settled for the next closest option, which was about 2 miles away. We quickly discovered though, that the place we settled for was right in the heart of gorgeous Little Italy, and absolutely the best choice!












Above is our view from the roof deck of our hotel. We spent a LOT of our down time relaxing up there. We also found a red tub (random? we thought so too!) on the roof. It was light enough for two women to drag around so we ended up taking a bunch of pictures sitting in it. That tub entertained us for a full hour one evening.









You all know I love good food. When I go to a new city I always look up places featured on Food Network. We ate burgers at Hodad's, a surfer dig (Diners, Drive-ins & Dives) with punk rock blaring while we munched our gut bombs.





We also tried Cafe 222, directly across from the Convention Center. This one I got from "Best Thing I EVER Ate", a recommendation from Bobby Flay. Let me just tell you about this french toast. First of all it is banana bread. Two pieces stuffed with peanut butter, carmalized bananas and honey. Then prepared the traditional way, the top loaded with maple syrup and a heaping scoop of butter (which I should have just spread directly onto my thighs and skipped a step).



Very rich and delicious, but later in the day we decided that since we WERE at a DIETITIAN conference *wince*, we should do the right thing and exercise.

We saw these steps on the side of the Conv center and gave them a try. I thought I was somewhat in shape, but after a few days of these babies we were so sore we looked like giraffes trying to walk down a hill.






My wonderful hubs recently turned 32 (Happy Birthday Paul!) and I have to give him husband of the year award for letting me go on such a fun, educational, delicious trip.

I don't want our blog to fall of the face of the earth like so many often do, so I'm literally forcing myself to make time to put some things down for memories sake.

I just returned from a long week in Boston for work. I love the east coast, and Boston is a really fun city. I wish I would have taken some pictures but I'm a man, and that doesn't usually happen unless Joni forces me to which she didn't this time, so sorry. The highlight was going on a Segway tour of the city. It's funny because I always thought that people on Segways looked like HUGE nerds and I never had the desire to try it. Segways look like a 2 wheeled pedastol with handlebars.

It was probably one of the funnest things I have ever done, I would take a Segway over a Ferrari any day of the week, and I'm not even kidding. The cool thing about the tour is that they don't allow you to go on the sidewalks in Boston so we were riding through traffic during rush hour on a Monday. People were yelling and honking, and once you got over the fact that you looked like a total fool it was awesome. Let the people yelling and honking be jealous and look like fools as I wave to them politely and blow kisses from my Segway. We went through the entire city as the sun was going down, a couple of people crashed which was also suprisingly funny, but it was all fun and we were safe in the end.

We just went through our latest move before I left for Boston last week. This is our 12th home since we've been married, that just sounds wrong. We'll post some pictures soon, we really love this house, it's really unique and there are plenty of stairs for Ellie to climb. Joni is leaving me for a conference in San Diego this week, so Ellie and I will have some Daddy/Daughter time for a few days.

I feel like we have to keep taking so many pictures because our little girl is growing up so fast.

Ellie has been sick, it's really sad to hear her cough and really gross that snot is constantly pouring out her nose (sorry that's gross). I was wrestling with her earlier and she kept wiping her nose on my shirt (sorry again). She is a handful but we are so crazy about her. We are starting to think about time outs for bad behavior but we haven't started that one yet. I don't know if this is wrong but she has been biting a lot lately, and all I want to do is bite her back. Not sure how to teach her that it's wrong but we are learning.

Life has been wierd here lately. There was the shooting at the IHOP 10 minutes from our house, and then the plane crash at the Reno Air races on Friday. It's strange to be so close to these types of things that are national news. I flew to Boston on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 too. It seems like there have been a lot of happenings lately that make you realize how fragile life can be. I think I can say we are very happy, and our little town is really growing on us.

Emerald Bay

Hey all, just in case you were wondering what types of things make my day - little purple tennis shoes jumped to the top of the list this week.




We have been busy getting ready for (another!) move. Luckily, we are just headed across town to a different house since our landlord decided to sell our current house. So we have been BUSY, but Paul always takes time to play!



Yesterday we hiked down to Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe with our new friends the Millwards. The views were amazing on mile hike down to the water.





Marsha and I are true moms, packin' around kid gear and snacks... although I won't say I didn't enjoy my fair share of Teddy Grahams. They seriously might be my new favorite food.



Some day I WILL get a picture of Ellie and I where she is not trying to squirm away!





Right beside the beach front there are some beautiful flowers surrounding a "castle" that was built by some woman of royalty... who visited Lake Tahoe... details are pretty fuzzy, but that's what Marsha said. I should probably get the facts straight before writing about it but I'm too lazy on this Sunday afternoon. Anyways, it is pretty.
Emerald Bay is on the opposite side of the lake from where I last took Ellie. There were many unique little things to keep my attention all morning. Like the castle...



...this little Blue Jay (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no ornithologist [yes, I looked that word up but am still to lazy to research the castle story])...



...and a riverboat tour that circled the Bay twice while we were there. It looks like fun!







Can you ever go wrong with some Teddy Grahams and a Yoohoo? I say no. I love this picture (below) of Ellie putting out the vibe!





We had such beautiful weather in NV this weekend; a stark contrast to our friends and family on the east coast. It's good to know the worst has passed, you are all in our prayers. Love you all!

Lake Day

As many of you know, I have been completely obsessed with watermelon this summer. At least 4 times in the past 4 months I've bought and eaten (with a little help from Ellie) an entire watermelon in <48 hrs. Paul can't really eat it because it makes his mouth itchy... but he knew just what to do for my 30th birthday cake this year. YUM!





I'm sure you all got the invitations I sent out for my wisdom-teeth-trauma pity party. I'm just glad it's mostly done! I have to go back one more time and have a crown glued on but I believe my dental fiasco is nearing a close.




This past weekend Paul and I had separate (but equally fun) Saturdays. He took off to golf 18 holes with some guys from our ward. Ellie and I met some friends and their kids at Lake Tahoe to play at the beach. I hadn't been to the actual beach yet, and it was breath-takingly beautiful the way the mountains and giant pine trees came all the way to the edge of the sand. The water was crystal clear, but a little on the chilly side!








I was a little worried the whole day would be an Ellie chasing game, which usually happens in open spaces. But remarkably (and much to my relief) Ellie was totally content playing in the sand ALL day! She even spent a good amount of time playing with Cole, which is amazing for those of you who know Ellie. All-in-all our day was a total blast - it's my goal to get back at least twice before it turns too cold!

Back Home, Celebrity Golf Tourney

Ellie's new favorite toy is the garden hose...okay so it's not her new favorite toy but we decided to just let her play with it and get soaked to learn a lesson, the only lesson she learned is that no matter how cold the water she'll still play in it...just because she can. I was watching ESPN the other day and stopped on an interview of John Elway, one of my favorite sports icons ever, and I told Joni I was pretty sure the interview looked like it was in Lake Tahoe less than 15 miles away from us. She didn't beleive me, so of course I set out to prove it, as all husbands and wives do for stupid arguments...sure enough...he was there. Turns out there is a HUGE celebrity golf tourney every year up here in July, when I saw the list of Celebs it was a MUST to be there. Joni decided we should get a hotel and spend the night up there then hit up the tourney the next day, so we packed our toothbrushes and drove up for a quick little adventure. It was weird to see so many celebs everywhere. When Ellie went to sleep I took a walk for 15 minutes and in that short of time I ran into Jerome Bettis, Joey Porter, Carson Palmer, and Ozzie Smith. There weren't big crowds at all. We walked around town Friday night and got some ice cream and cookies. On Saturday we got into Edgewood Golf Course for less than 20 bucks and within 5 minutes ran into Tim Tebow, Andy Petitte, and Jason Kidd. One of the guys missed a putt and Ellie said, "Ohh noooo" right on cue. From there we were on a mission, trying to see as many celebs as we could. It was so much fun to walk around the course and Ellie was so good in her little stroller. I couldn't believe how few people were there, I was literally 2 feet from all of my favorite sports stars ever. We ended up seeing over 60 celebs, here are a few noteworthy ones: Michael Jordan, John Elway, Tony Romo, Ray Romano, Charles Barkley, the Jimmer, Jerry Rice, Ray Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Carlton from Fresh Prince, and a ton of others. I'm not the type to try to reach out and high five or talk to them, but a couple of them I talked to just because we were walking next to each other and there was nothing else to do. Turned out to be a pretty fun day. Here are a few not so great pics from our cell phones.Fredette putting, Barkley watching in the background. John ElwayRay Ramano was cracking jokes, he was fun to watch. Ray Allen teeing off, Jerry Rice watching. Tim Tebow And finally...Michael Jordan teeing off right in front of us, never thought I'd be saying that.