The Proposal

I never asked if it was okay to post this but I don't think Justin ever looks at my blog anymore so shhh!  The video and color is not good because the room was a little dark but you can hear the words.  The recording didn't begin until a minute or so into his proposal.  What you missed is how he began by telling Sarah how beautiful and amazing she is and how smart...too smart as he put it... she is.  I'm so glad we have this recording!  Thank goodness our cousin Matthew had the presence of mind to grab his cellphone and begin recording once he realized where it was going!

Birthday Week

Saturday was my birthday, Sunday was Audre's (Jeff's mom) birthday, this coming Wednesday is Robin's birthday and Thursday, the 17th, is Ryan's 6th birthday!  To celebrate my birthday, Jeff and I went to a movie and dinner on Saturday night.  We saw Gravity in our Muvico's 21 and over theater.  You can have food and alcoholic beverages in the theater and you get free popcorn.  We saw Gravity in 3D which normally I'm not a big fan of but it doesmake sense for that movie which has stunning cinematography and makes good use of the 3D technology.

We had Audre and he sister, Auntie Joy, over on Sunday night for a birthday dinner for Audre.  Her memory is fading more and more and didn't even remember that it was her birthday.  She stays pleasant and good-natured so that is a plus.  Jeff really has his hands full with helping her to remember things like taking her medications both morning and night and driving her wherever she has to go.

We will be celebrating Ryan's birthday this weekend.  I think he wants to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  I've promised to buy him a game on my iPad and Jeff is buying him a game on his Kindle on his actual birthday but the rest of his presents will probably wait until the weekend.

My Facebook friends have seen this video but I thought I'd share it here.  After several years, our peahen (female peacock) still resides in our neighborhood.  She pretty much hangs out in the backyards of about six of our neighbors- the three houses at the end of our block and the three that are directly behind us.  This past week, we found her on the balcony off our master bedroom.

     

The Beach Boys

We took the boys and the dogs to the dog beach just south of Santa Barbara on Thursday.  They were so excited and had such a fun time.  They wanted to bring this boogie board so Jeff helped them catch a few waves... catch soup actually.  I assume everyone knows what soup is... but maybe only beach people know that term... soup is the foamy white water after a wave has broken.  Here's a short video clip of Jacob riding the soup.

Today is the last day of camp for both Ryan and Jacob and school doesn't start until the week after next so we have all of next week with the boys and no place for them to go.  We decided to come up with a few field trips for them.  I made online reservations for Monday to go see the Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center.  Remember when I went to Malibu and took a video of the space shuttle arriving in Southern California?  Have a great weekend!    

Rainy Days and Mondays

We went from the mid-90's to rain over the weekend and maybe a little more expected today.  Jeff was laughing at me because I didn't want him to drive the Prius and get it full of rain drops on Sunday.  On Friday, I didn't want to drive it because of all the ashes in the air.  Around noon on Friday, the wind direction changed and all the smoke from the fire headed our way.  We had Ryan's school function and by the time we got there, you could see the ashes falling.  Ash is very bad for a car because it can scratch a car if you try and wipe it off.  It's also very alkaline so you need to use the right kind of soap to wash it.  Jeff says he'll be glad when I'm not so fussy about the car anymore.  You can imagine how I'm going to feel when he wants to load up Kanan and Cooper!

Here's a photo of the smoke heading our way

By the way, Hidden Valley that I wrote about last Wednesday had to be evacuated on Friday when the wind shifted but they were able to save the area.  It was a big job to evacuate all the horses!

Here's a photo of Ryan with his award

He's wearing pink because he was a little pig in the performance of Little Red Hen

Here's a short video of the kindergarten performance of Little Red Hen.. Ryan is a pig in the front

Ryan's reward for his special day:  a lightsaber just in time for Star War's Day- May 4th

King's Landing

 On Saturday, Justin and Sarah (after taking trains and planes) arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  They splurged here and stayed in a luxury hotel:  The Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik.  They were so fortunate to have a sunny, warm, clear day as you'll see in the photos where Justin is in short sleeves.  This was the part of the trip Justin was most looking forward to as I mentioned before as it is the location site of King's Landing in one of his favorite shows, Game of Thrones.  Dubrovnik did not disappoint!  All he could say was, "Wow...just wow!"  The walls and fortresses date back to the early Middle Ages!

My favorite photo.  Those doors are so intriguing!

The unluckiest boat in Dubrovnik!

Another beautiful photo!

Later this week, I should have photos from the final legs of this epic journey:  Dublin and Paris. 

Ryan has mastered riding his two-wheeler. At first he could only turn one direction but now he can do figure 8's! Way to go Ryan! The video should straighten out when viewed. For some reason, I can't directly upload iPhone videos to blogger so have to go through Vimeo.

VCRs

Does anyone still have a VCR? We have one but we never use it. Video tapes have been replaced by DVDs and now BluRays. We had some of our home movies copied to DVD but we still have boxes full of old movies on video. I took a quick cellphone photo of a box of videos and sent it to Justin asking if he was interested in any of them. Most of them were movies that were his favorites...like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Arc and other movies that he could watch over and over again. Here's the photo.

Of course he wasn't interested so I googled, "What to do with old videos" and a good suggestion was to donate them to your public library so I will take them this week if Jacob is well enough to go to his Storytime on Wednesday.  I did save quite a few children's Disney videos and put the VCR in the "boy's room."

Our big entertainment center has really nice roll out storage racks for videos but the racks won't hold DVD's or Blu Rays so once again, I googled, "Blu-Ray Storage Pull Out Tray" and found THIS. 

This will be perfect and over the weekend, shipping was free.  Here's a photo of our entertainment center.

The storage rack will go in the cubby on the bottom right with the wood door.  Behind the wood door on the left are XBox and Wii games.  I was able to get the old video racks to hold them.  As much as I love our entertainment center, it is limiting in that we can't get anything bigger than a 40 inch screen.  It's not that big of a deal because our furniture floats in the middle of the room so we're close enough to the TV.  Anyone else have any outdated technology?  Typewriters, cassette players?  What else?  Jeff was inspired by my cleaning and found lots of old 3.5 floppy discs to toss.  Remember those?

A Perfect Snow Day

We had the most perfect day in the snow with the boys on Monday.  It was warm so no one got cold and, while a little icy, there was plenty of snow for sledding, making snow angels, having snowball fights and making a snowman.  And we did all of those things.  Here are a few photos I posted on Facebook and after the photos is a video of the boys sledding.  You can hear how much fun they're having by their joyful laughter.  I'm sure Pat, their dad, was a little shocked to see how fast they were going but all went well and no one got hurt.  Ryan did slip once while walking on an icy patch and landed on his chin getting a little scrape but no incidents on the sled.  It was so nice and sunny that we were able to have a picnic lunch on campground tables in the snow.

We did not make that big snowman!  The two bottom parts where already there so we made a head and added the arms, buttons, etc...  I would suggest you watch the video larger by clicking HERE.

Snow Day from Darylynn Mills on Vimeo.

You can see both Kanan and Cooper in the video.  They had a great time, too, and Cooper rolls in the snow just like he does in the sand at the beach.

Highs and Lows

Didn't mean to disappear on you but it was a busy weekend of many highs and lows.  Of course, I don't need to go into it because we've all experienced the profound sadness of what happened last Friday in Connecticut.  Jeff avoids listening to most of the coverage but I need to watch it and try and come to terms with it.  As heart-wrenching as it is, I find it cathartic to experience it.  Just like Columbine and other similar tragedies, I am always so in awe of the phenomenal character that so many people show in such times of tragedy.  I really don't know how they go on but their courage inspires me.

We had a really nice party Saturday night and then we had another party to attend on Sunday night.  Sunday was also the one year anniversary of Justin and Sarah's first date so I thought I'd post a photo of them taken at our Christmas party.

   

Jacob was here with me on Monday so it was good therapy to be with this little sweetheart.  I guess he said to Jessica the other night, "Goodnight sweetheart" so she figured he must have heard that from me because she doesn't say sweetheart.  I took this video of him being super silly.  He's really faking this laughter just trying to be a little goofball but I thought it might brighten your day just like it did mine.

Jeff said I pulled that curl down on his forehead.  I swear I did not!

Get in the Picture!

A while back, Katie Couric had a show about how moms (and grandmothers) are rarely in the family photos.  There's always a reason/excuse.  I'm the photographer, my hair's a mess, I don't have my makeup on, I look too tired, I've gained too much weight....and on and on.  But the result of all this is we are erasing ourselves from our children's (grandchildren's) lives.  Here's the article that spurred the show.  It's really very touching and I think you should read it if you're guilty of this, too.  I'll bet any mom will not be able to read it without shedding tears.  And here's a short clip of the Katie Show about it.

So I went through Jeff's Disneyland photos and found one of Ryan and me that was nice and that I could print and put in the "I Love My Grandma" frame that has sat empty since he was born five years ago.  We are riding on Dumbo together.  I want him to remember his Nani and how much she loved him.

  

So about my 3 Day Detox Cleanse.  I made it through it but it wasn't easy.  The breakfast and dinner drinks were tolerable but the lunch time smoothie was the worst!  I could barley choke it down.  It was thick and chunky!  Ewww!  But the end result of the 3 days was I lost 4 pounds!  I wasn't even trying to lose weight.  Wouldn't you lose weight too if you had to drink this?

  

Not Impressed

Just like Mckayla was not impressed with her silver medal, Jeff was not impressed with my movie of the space shuttle flyover.  I told him he was just jealous because he didn't get to see it.  The shuttle flew over many landmarks in California on Friday.  It was piggybacked on a 747 and flew over Sacramento, our capitol, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco before heading down the coast to Southern California.  I went to Malibu to watch it fly by.  I was on the beautiful campus lawn of Pepperdine University when I took this movie.  It's very hard to see and I probably should have tried to zoom in but I wasn't going to have my face in the camera and not see the flyby with my own eyes.  I'll link to my Vimeo page where you can see it larger.  Space Shuttle Endeavour <-Click here

Space Shuttle over Malibu from Darylynn Mills on Vimeo.

They flew all over the LA area including landmarks like the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Park and Disneyland before landing at LAX.  I think all of Southern California came to a standstill for that hour and a half or so.  The next big event will be on my birthday when the Endeavour is moved to it's new home at the Science Center.  If you thought the big parade and turnout for "The Rock" was big, just wait for this!
 
The other excitement over the weekend was Jacob's 3rd birthday. He'll be here on Tuesday so I'll try and get an updated photo of the sweetest little boy ever! I'm writing this early on Sunday because I'll be busy watching the Emmy's and won't have time to post later. If there's anything worth writing about as far as fashion, etc... I'll add that on Tuesday. Now that the Emmy's are over the new Fall TV season really kicks off. Tonight is Dancing with the Stars, with an All Star cast of previous contestants.

Beach Boys

Things have been progressing well with the "swimming lessons."  We've spent a lot of time in the spa and on Thursday, we spent the whole day at Zuma Beach.  If Ryan and Jacob can play in the surf, a pool should be easy.  Here's a video.

Two Little Beach Boys from Darylynn Mills on Vimeo.

I have some cute photos, too, that I took with my cellphone camera and posted on Facebook.  Here are a few similar ones from my camera.  

Jacob and Jeff with Jacob doing his best Coppertone Baby impersonation

Look how happy Ryan is!

My favorite shot- Silly Jacob!

I'll have to write next week about our visit to the Barkley Pet Hotel in Westlake Village just a few blocks from our house.  Our dogs will not be staying there!

Cock-a-Doodle-Don't!

Have I mentioned that our neighbors have recently decided to raise chickens?  Agoura, where we live, has a history of being horse property but we are in the more residential area called Agoura Hills.  The more rural area is known as Old Agoura.  Well, apparently our neighbors think they live in Old Agoura because they have a coop under their balcony.  Every morning around 4:30 AM, we are treated to an alarm clock that crows, "Cock-a- Doodle-Do" about every 15 seconds.  It seriously echoes through our little valley below.  Fortunately, our double-paned windows seals out the sound but if we choose to sleep with windows open, we are awakened at the crack of dawn.  Naturally, I have video (and audio so turn up your speaker) evidence...

I really don't mind it very much but I'm wondering if other neighbors are just as tolerant?  I hope Mr. Rooster  isn't a victim of "fowl" play!  Actually, I think it's a little inconsiderate to subject an entire neighborhood to a rooster crowing just so YOU can have eggs in the morning.  These people also have 2 German Shepherds that attacked our neighbor's little dog, Jack.  He had to go to the vets for stitches and the family never offered to pay the vet bill.  In the video, you can see our June Gloom weather.  It usually clears up by around 10 AM.  Will write about our Father's Day weekend later.