Sneak Peak at a Rose Parade Float

Chris snapped a couple photos of a float being built up at the Rose Bowl. Looks like Flowers.com is using Sesame Street characters.
Here Big Bird looks dead. We see the floats coming up the street behind our house on New Year's Eve as they start to line up and all the tall elements of the floats have to lie flat so they can get under all the stop lights. They remove the stop lights along Orange Grove and Colorado Blvd for the parade so they can get by.

Orange Grove is ready for the Rose Parade

I took some pictures on my jog up Orange Grove Blvd today. Everything is ready for the Rose Parade.

The Wrigley Mansion is the Tournament of Roses headquarters and the parade starts about a block north of it.

The bleachers have gone up on both sides of Orange Grove.

The weather is beautiful. Its so exciting.

Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the places where the floats are being decorated.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! Our Christmas day was spent mainly in pajamas. It rained all day so we got up (the boys at about 6:30 and then watched Brady Bunch reruns in our bed until we let them get up) a bit after 7am and made hot cocoa and started a fire before we opened gifts. Our camera died last Sunday so these pictures are from Chris' phone. Luckily, Chris gave me a phone for Christmas. The battery had to charge, so only the last photo on this post is from the new camera.

Christmas is a great time to stock up on new housewares for me. Like new sheets...
new stoneware.....

and new blankets for the beds. Thanks moms!

And, as Chris is tapping his inner backpacker, he got an ultralight insulated sleeping pad so he doesn't feel all those back country rocks digging into his hip on his trips with Davis and the scouts.

Here Nathaniel is about to open a gift from Uncle Mark and Aunt Annie. Oh yes, strawberry shake flavored pop tarts! Of course they go with the toaster (see below).

Deluxe four place with bonus bagel setting toaster. Thanks guys.

Davis is trying out his new internal frame backpack and (no, its not a rocket launcher) thermos. That thermos will come in handy on New Year's Day before the parade starts. Mmmmm... hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls.

But the most popular gift had to be the Wii Fit,

which took up most of the rest of the day. The boys are Wi Fit-ting and I'm just lounging by the fire.

Now that Christmas Day is done, it is time to move onto the Rose Parade (seriously). I'll be putting away the Christmas decorations today or tomorrow. We are excited to have a visit from Chris' brother Brett and his family next week, so I'll be getting the house ready (new sheets, blankets, towells and toaster. Sweet!). I'll make a trip to the farmer's market tomorrow morning for local winter produce (grapefruit, dates, kiwi, apples, lettuce) and I've arranged to get passes to Huntington Gardens and have planned the menu for the week. We love having guests for the New Year.

The rain has moved out and its clear and sunny. 70 degree weather is forcasted through the New Year. It is so much better going to a parade in Pasadena, CA when its sunny and warm with happy,friendly western parade goers, than going to the Macy's Thanksgiving parade in NYC in a sleet storm in Novemeber with New York's finest (police force) directing crowds up one street and down another, but you never seem to get closer to the parade.

Here's an artist's rendition of our town's float entry for the parade. New Year's Eve we'll walk over and help decorate it.

Keep checking back for more posts counting down to the parade!

Christmas Eve

Today we went to a matinee of "A Christmas Carol" at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. It was great! It starred Christopher Lloyd (from Back to the Future) as Ebenezer Scrooge and John Goodman (from Roseanne) as the Ghost of Christmas Present. The boys loved it. Davis just read it in english class and Nathaniel was on the edge of his seat when the Ghost of Christmas Future appeared. A very fun afternoon.

Here we are waiting for the show to start. We bought tickets for the cheap seats (3rd balcony) but there was low attendance so they upgraded us to the orchestra seats.

Here we are in front of an electric Christmas tree. The voltage is so high it's making the ends of my hair levitate (something weird is going on).

And, after three of four tries, Nathaniel actually held still for a picture and Davis conceded a smile. Hey, check out the websites for the theaters to the right, and then come see a show!

Nathaniel's Birthday party and Davis' Christmas parade

Nathaniel had his 9th birthday last week and we celebrated with our family on his birthday with a lemon merengue pie.

Then we had a party with his friends tonight at the park. We roasted hot dogs, played team tag, and made smores. The kids had a great time. We worried a bit through the day that we would get rained out, but the weather turned out great. It was cool but stayed dry. Very nice to hang out by the fire. We sang some campfire songs and then Nathaniel and his friends pitched in with their own songs and riddles.

Davis marched with the middle school band in a Christmas parade this morning.
Here he is right on the end playing the clarinet. He had a lot of fun and they sounded great.

Nathaniel found a ladybug while we waited for Davis and the band to get to us during the parade.

December 6, Hadley Studios Piano Recital

Davis playing "Song of Kilimanjaro'.

Nathaniel playing "I've Got Music" and "Rockin' Robin".

End of the Soccer Season (finally).

The soccer season is finally over. It went extra long this year. The playoffs were postponed because of the smoke in the air from the wildfires in Novemeber, and so everything was pushed back a week. Soccer season is fun, but I'm usually ready for a break by Thanksgiving.

This Nathaniel with his team "American Eagles" in the boys-under 10 division. They had a season that was good for developing sportsmanship skills.

Here is Davis in the semi-finals of the championship playoffs for the boys-under 14 division. Their team did a great job with an 8 win, 2 loss, no tie record. Davis played forward this year and was a strong contributor to the team. We haven't heard how the team did in the overall championship tournament (they lost the semi-final game and were playing in the consolation game today). Davis didn't play in the final game today because it is Sunday. I guess he'll find out from his teammates at school tomorrow.

Our Thanksgiving Week

This Thanksgiving our boys had the whole week off from school. So, I thought I'd post the fun things that we did. (Sorry, I didn't take photos of the boring (laundry, piano practice) and even painful (cleaning the room, etc) stuff that we did.

Our friends Adrian and Esteban came with us to the California Science Center. Here they are playing a virtual sports game in front of the blue screen.

After going through a few pulleys, this rope is attached to an SUV which can be lifted by the children, if they choose to pull on the rope with the greatest leveredge.

Davis was working on his golf merit badge (not nearly as fun as the citizenship in the community merit badge that the Kellers must have been working on (see Kellers' blog)). We went to the little par 3 golf course and dodged blowing leaves to complete 9 holes.

Nathaniel played his first 9 holes. Mom did better with the photos than with the golf... and the photos aren't that great.

Davis is showing some pre-teen tendencies and did not want to pose for a photo with his mom and grandparents.

Chris took this photo to show how much fun his mom and I were having making pies together for Thanksgiving. And then he sent it to his sister Caryn to rub it in. We did have fun though.

This is a plaque showing an old hotel that was built up in the mountains above Pasadena. The only way to get there was to hike, take a mule train, or a crazy funicular train called the Mt. Lowe Railroad that pulled the cars up a really steep mountain.

Chris and the boys are on the remains of the foundation of the old hotel. You can see in the previous picture there are stairs in the lower right quadrant of the hotel picture. They would be on the railing at the top of the stairs (if the railing were still there).

We hiked up up up for 2.7 miles to get to this burned-down hotel. It was a lovely day in So. Cal.

Davis hiked all the way with an ingrown toenail. OUCH!

Nathaniel is calling through an "echo phone" that was placed behind the old hotel facing a canyon. It directs your voice up a dead-end canyon across the way and comes back with about a 8-10 second delay.

This is one of the huge wheels that pulled the cables to bring the train cars up the incline railway.

This is a leftover railcar from the railway which was discontinued in 1937. There were a lot of resort camps and hotels in the mountains above Pasadena in the first few decades of the 1900's. It seems to have been very fashionable to "rough it" at these camps that provided the transport of all the baggage, meals, and entertainment like dances.

Nathaniel is at the trailhead which is a gate from an old estate.

Nathaniel loves the new sock monkey his grandmother gave him for his birthday (next week). We have all been kissed and hugged by the monkey over the last few days.

This is Thanksgiving dinner. Chris brought home the flowers Wednesday. The were so pretty with roses, lilies, carnations, and mums in autumn colors.

The day before Thanksgiving Chris suggested we go to lunch at Heirloom Bakery. What a great idea. We had a great lunch, and were so full that I didn't have to make dinner either. It was also nice because we put the boys at their own table so they could make their potions with the sugar cubes and soda without the grownups grousing at them.

Lt. Colonel Matt Garner in Iraq

Chris' brother Matt has been in Baghdad, Iraq since March, 2008. He is in the central command post located in Saddam Hussein's palace in the "Green Zone". We consider him to be in a safe area, and he does too. But danger is always present in a war zone. I've included a snippet from an update email he sent out. It's a subtle reminder of the threat the soldiers (and civilians) face in Iraq.
"
I was sitting out in front of the palace at lunch today reading and writing and looking around. I was leaning up against a very nice, and very large, stone enclosed fountain with rose bushes surrounding the walk way that goes around it. The entire fountain area is about 100' by 40' with elaborately carved fish and birds to dispense the water when it is on. Beyond the roses is a large lawn with trees and an iron fence that surrounded the original palace enclosure. It was very peaceful and calming to be out there and then I started looking a little more closely. Just beyond the iron fence are the concrete t-walls topped with concertina (razor wire) that are everywhere here. Closer to me were some light stands that sit about two-feet tall and were used to light the path around the fountain. The one that was immediately to my right has a shrapnel hole in it as did one about 15 feet down to my left. As I stood up I noticed three places where the wall around the fountain had damage from rockets that have been launched at us. It was such an apt description of what my experience has been here. Working in a palace while people launch rockets and mortars in "our general direction" to quote from Monty Python. And I live better than the vast majority of Soldiers here."

Cotcher in the row

We were excited to see our friend Paul Cotcher at church today. He and his family (Stephanie and Camila) were in our ward last year but moved to Sierra Vista, AZ so Paul could chase illegal immigrants and drug smugglers through the Arizona desert in the middle of the night. I know, how could he abandon fun like that? But they are planning to move back to the LA area so he can work with Immigration on narcotics or gang investigations. We took this photo after sacrament meeting as an update for Steph and Camila who are still in AZ while Paul does a 6 month training program.

Visit from Grandma Johansen

This week Grandma Johansen came to visit and we had terrific weather. It has ranged from the low 70s to the mid 80s with lots of sun! California is a great place this time of year (you should visit too.) We picked her up at the airport and tried to go for a birdwalk in Marina Del Rey at the Ballona Creek Freshwater Marsh. Well, we drove through a boggy area about a block long on a dirt road with some water on both sides. There was a big sign proclaiming that it was the right place, but no where to park and no actual trails. When the website claims that they are undergoing further development - they really mean it. After some failed attempts to get to the beach (fenced off) or a park (patch of grass) or a place with restaurants (canals block streets and its hard to get around), or trying to salvage the outing by going the Griffith Observatory (closed on Mondays), we drove back home and Grandma treated us to lunch at the soda fountain. This saved the day for the boys who had just spent 2 hours in the car with a grouchy mom.

The rest of the week we've been bike riding in Lacy Park, shopping at the outlet mall in Ontario, enjoying art and gardens at Huntington Library, and also fixing a flat tire. Tomorrow Grandma heads home, but first (after the boys are dropped off at school) she and Jennifer will have breakfast at Julienne's (can you say, "creme brulee'ed french toast"?).

Halloween

This year Davis and Nathaniel wanted to be the same thing - Link, a character from the video game "Legend of Zelda". I made the costumes and Chris made the swords (and ended up with bandaids all over his fingers). The swords turned out very cool and they are the best part of the costumes.

Chris is sitting in our "craftsman style chair" next to the tile-top table his brother Matt made for us (We'll have to include it in a new post).

Here is Nathaniel with his class at the elementary school Halloween parade.