Disneyland, how I love thee :)

I missed 2 days in a row of blogging...shame on me. :)

I took Caydan to Disneyland on Tuesday since daycare was closed for Veteran's Day...boy was it crowded....I didn't bring my camera with me (shame on me again) because I didn't want to carry it around all day since I was by myself with Caydan and would have had to take it on every ride with me.......but I did get a couple of shots on my iphone to share with you :)

This would be Caydan waiting for the tram....such a patient little boy for a 2 year old...we waited forever just to get in the parking lot, and then waited forever again to get on the tram.....




We went and played in the Brother Bear campground area where you can walk across rope bridges, crawl through tunnels, and slide down rock slides...Caydan would slide down this little slide and then look at me with a huge smile and say "again?"...of course I said 'yes'. :)



Then we couldn't leave the Brother Bear area without getting a picture of Caydan and the little bear (I haven't seen the movie yet so I have no idea who is who)...



For lunch I picked up a yummy chimichanga, and we went over to one of the food areas to get Caydan some mac and cheese, applesauce, and juice....all of his favorites...and mine too :)



The last picture I took is from the Toon Town location...we walked around as we waited for our Fast Pass for Roger Rabbit to become valid and Caydan wanted to get in the car out in the main area....so here he is :)



We rode a lot more rides, traded some pins (addicting), walked around some more...then we rode one last ride, Peter Pan, and as we walked back to the exit, Caydan fell asleep in the stroller, I then had to carry him (the stroller was a rental), weary legged, to the tram and then to the car and then drive our exhausted selves back home. The whole next day I was sooooo sore, but I sure had a good time. :)

To end this blog, I would like to leave you with my current favorite picture of me and Caydan....I love my little boy :)

Caydan and Emily

I had a very uneventful Friday night this past weekend, and so I took advantage of that time to do some editing on some older pics I've taken....

When Dan's daughter, Emily, was out here for the summer, I attempted to create a makeshift studio....it didn't work very well...but I did my best and did a lot of editing afterwards to remove the background....but here is one of my favorites of Caydan from that shoot:



And here's one I like of Emily just beecause I made the background purty :)




Along with those pictures, I also went through some of our recent vacation pics....and here were a couple I really liked:






And I like this one A LOT...but can't figure out if I took it or Dan...I think Dan actually took it, and I edited it...but he did a great job :)
This was in Big Bear during one of our hikes...



Until tomorrow.... :)

My survey continued

Since I've been sitting home this super exciting Friday night (extreme sarcasm because I just don't know what to do with myself when I actually have nothing planned for an evening)....I decided to finish the survey I started earlier today...here goes :)

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:

1. Woke up, went to work, was about half an hour late...

2. Talked to a co-worker in my former department and got the latest gossip...good stuff

3. Came home and ate some surprisingly horrible ramen noodles....something was very wrong with this batch because I normally love my ramen

4. Went shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond for my cousin's wedding present...

5. Somehow, much easier than expected, talked Dan into letting me get a waffle maker at Bed Bath and Beyond...

6. Noted to myself for the hundredth time how addicting Bed Bath and Beyond is...

7. Went to Target and got some essentials....struggled back and forth with Dan about buying this adorable suit vest and button up shirt for Caydan to wear to my cousin's wedding on Sunday...he didn't want to spend the money on it as he wouldn't ever wear it again...although I insisted I would take pictures of Caydan in it for my portfolio therefore making it worthwhile...but I finally gave in because the pants that came with it were way too big and he wouldn't be able to wear them anyways :(

8. Came home and had two bowls of Life cereal to cure my incredible hunger that my disgusting ramen noodles had left me with earlier.


8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:

1. Seeing my beautiful angel's blue eyes again....someday

2. Going to San Diego Thanksgiving week and going to Legoland for the first time ever...

3. Going on our 3 day Carnival cruise to Mexico in March (anyone else want to come?)

4. Going on a 7 day Disney cruise...HOPEFULLY January 2010....

5. Transitioning from my full time DaVita job to a full time Avery James Photography career...

6. Buying a super nice camera that I can't afford right now...

7. Buying a house...that we definitely can't afford right now...

8. Buying the big giant flat screen tv that we will probably get in the next few months :)


8 Things On My Wishlist:

Besides all the things I said I was looking forward to in the last section?

1. To hold Avery again...

2. A house near Seaside Elementary school in Torrance where I can participate in extravagant Christmas lighting

3. A neverending clothing wardrobe....I'd just like to own a Charlotte Russe store pretty much

4. A car with the Bluetooth thing in it so I can talk while I'm driving and actually be able to hear...

5. A scrapbooking ROOM....actually, just an art room in general that I could store and stock with everything a creative mind could need...

6. A giant frame to fit Avery's collage in....and a wall strong enough to not let it fall on our heads...

7. A Mac laptop that I can take with me and do my photo editing on...

8. Every piece of photography equipment and editing software that I can get my hands on.



Now...I'm supposed to tag people....there's no one left to tag because I only know of 2 people who post blogs and they both have done this survey....but GINA is on here....so I'll tag her :) And....anyone else who reads this, you are tagged to make this survey your first entry on your new blog that you didn't actually intend to have but now you will because you're tagged and no one likes to be "it"!! :)

Don't forget to combine these questions with the two questions in my last blog as well. :)

Survey....about me. :)

Silly surveys...so Kristen and Jen both tagged me to do this survey...and I was sitting here trying to think of something to blog about today, and I couldn't come up with anything...plus I have 15 minutes to do it in....so I figured, what the hey...I'll fill out as much of this survey as I can and leave it at that for today :)

So here goes!!


8 Shows I Love to Watch:

Well, we cancelled our cable a few months back....and jumped on the Netflix wagon....so we haven't really caught any of the new shows...but I'll list the ones I still catch online or through netflix....

1. Lost - we've watched all of the available seasons on dvd through Netflix...love it

2. CSI (NY, original, and Miami - in that order) - So sad about Warrick though :( :( :( I actually missed the season finale from last season so I don't even know what happened to him...I only saw the season premiere this season :(

3. Prison Break - haven't caught the newest season, but I LOVED the past ones...

4. Reality TV - yes, I jumped on this bandwagon too...I love it all. My favorites are The Real World or Real World/Road Rules Challenges....also love Big Brother, Survivor, Amazing Race, America's Next Top Model...and the dumb ones too that I would get made fun of for listing :)

5. Buffy and Angel - my old favorites....my teenage years were centered around these shows :)

6. America's Most Wanted - I would LOVE to work on the hotlines or to do something to work with this show.....I think it should be mandatory for everyone to watch it. :)

7. I can't think of anymore and I have 6 minutes left to finish this....


8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. PF Chang's.....Kung Pao chicken, chicken lettuce wraps, chow mein....what more must I say? Yummmm

2. On The Border...I am not a big fan of Mexican food, but this place is WONDERFUL...I was enticed there through mystery shopping for free meals and got hooked and am an avid customer now....I recommend the fajitas or the beef empanadas...Mmmmmm

3. In N Out....nothing more needs to be said...it should be known

4. John's Incredible Pizza (I think that's what it's called)....it's off the freeway on the way to Vegas or Big Bear....on Montclair I think? They have every kind of pizza you could dream of...plus it's a carb lovers buffet dream....pasta, rice, potatoes, mini fried donuts....and it's like a giant Chuck E Cheese but way better.

5. Chuck E Cheese...anywhere I can eat and then play afterwards with my son is a YES on my list....plus I LOVE their pizza...I could probably eat a half of a large by myself

6. I'm out of time...can't finish the survey, or this question...maybe another day.

Have a great weekend all! I'll be back on Monday :)

Jordan and his beautiful family :)

I haven't shared very many pictures yet on my PHOTOGRAPHY blog....so I figured today's post should do just that.....

Here's a few of my favorites from the rest of the photoshoot with Jordan and his mom and dad. Jordan is an aspiring little model and is one of the most mature and intelligent 3 year olds I've ever met. The family as a whole are friends of mine, so I have interracted with little Jordan several times before....and even a year ago when I first met him, Jordan was speaking in full sentences and comprehending concepts and conversations way beyond his years.

This is one special little boy and I know his parents are proud :) And I'm honored to have been able to catch some beautiful moments of them on camera....here to share with you now. :)

Voting...

How can I not write about voting after one of the most historic voting days ever just occurred yesterday.

Strangely, I just jumped on this bandwagon at the last minute yesterday because I've never really had ANY interest in politics whatsoever...I've vaguely listened in here and there on the debates and news stories about the candidates...I've heard all the Palin jokes...

I decided I wasn't going to vote initially because I hadn't been keeping up with the stories and figured it was probably best to let my un-educated vote go unheard.....which is also why I've never voted before in past elections either.

Then all of a sudden, the hype got to me. Little by little throughout the last couple of weeks, and full force yesterday.

I knew enough about the candidates to say that McCain wasn't who I would prefer for my next President...and I tend to rely a lot on my "gut feelings" and my "people reading skills" when it comes to making important decisions...and my gut and intuition was telling me that Obama was a good man and was going to do his best to take this country to good places.

So I decided to vote....but moreso, I wanted to read all of the propositions and vote on them, because I feel like my vote has more of a voice when it comes to those issues.

So I spent a few hours yesterday reading and researching all of the arguments for and against the various Props, including my local Torrance propositions for the schools.

I made my decisions very educated and thought out and the one proposition that I just couldn't wrap my head around, I decided to not vote on because I didn't understand it.

So last night, we ate dinner, got bundled up to go out in the brisk cold, walked down the street to our local voting place....there was no line, we got in and out in minutes...I was so impressed by the little ink blotter thingies that you vote with....and left feeling extremely proud and as if I had made a difference in this country.

Then all night and this morning I was keeping up to date with the propositions because I was so curious as to what was going to happen. I was a little disappointed on some of them and the way they were turning out...but some I was very excited about. For one, I am thrilled about the bullet train. As of this morning it looked like it was going to pass, so I'm assuming it did...........I will be on the list of people buying a ticket to ride it whenever it is actually made. :) :) Anyone else interested in joining?? :)

I love weekends :)

I had a great weekend in case anyone was curious. :) I look forward to the end of the day Friday every week because we almost always have something going on.

Friday was Halloween of course, and so we took Caydan trick or treating. We went to this section of South Torrance where during Christmas everyone goes above and beyond to decorate...people come from all over the South Bay to see the sights, so we decided to check it out during Halloween.....this turned out to be a great idea as they also decorated pretty heavily for Halloween.

I absolutely love this neighbordhood and Dan and I were talking about how great it would be to be able to buy a house here someday. It's very Wisteria Lane like...very family oriented neighborhood...everyone was sitting outside on their patios or sidewalks passing out candy with little fireplaces roaring and parties going on...there were TONS of people out trick or treating (we had to actually wait in lines to go up to some houses).

By the time we were done, we were EXHAUSTED and Caydan was cranky....so we went straight home, watched Ghost Ship on tv, and checked all of Caydan's candy to make sure nothing was opened or unsafe.

Saturday I took Caydan and went to my cousin's fiance's surprise bridal shower. I hadn't realized til I got there that it was actually at my cousin's mom's home....which was wonderful because I haven't really talked to any of that side of his family since I was a little kid...and we were always so close back then...so it was great to catch up and have some heart to heart time. Plus it was wonderful to meet Erika's (that's my cousin's fiance) family as they will soon be part of our family this upcoming weekend.

Here's a pic of Caydan and my Aunt Susie (my cousin's mom)I took with my iphone:



Dan spent all of Saturday afternoon and evening at my cousin's bachelor party...which was very tame....video games and food at my cousin's house. And then I think they went bowling afterwards, but Dan came home.

And then Sunday was Disneyland day. :) We went to breakfast at Denny's and then headed over to one of my favorite places on earth...

It turned out to be a big day for pin trading (one of our favorite hobbies now) and there were TONS of people with pins and lots of cast members with new pins. My pin theme is Avery (of course)...so any pins that remind me of Avery is what I'm collecting....so right now I have a lot of Winnie the Pooh (specifically Tigger) pins, and a couple of Nemo, Bug's Life, and Cars pins. Dan is going for the scary/Halloween/villains theme...mostly Nightmare Before Christmas. And Caydan just has a mishmosh of everything....he tends to pick the princess and tinkerbell pins...strange boy. :)

We FINALLY got to ride the newer Finding Nemo submarine ride...this was a big deal for us because we took Avery to Disneyland when they were still building it and I have a picture of Avery up against the wall with a picture of Bruce on it...and he would have LOVED this ride as he loved Nemo.

So Avery never had the opportunity to ride this, and we have been wanting to go on it since it opened with a bittersweet thought....but the line is always sooooo long and we can never go. But this time it wasn't too bad and we ended up waiting for it and got on.

Again, a bittersweet moment, but Caydan loved it making it all worthwhile. It was actually a very neat ride and I highly enjoyed it through my teary eyes.

We went home after that...another exhausting, but extremely eventful weekend. :)