week 5 of summer-fun-o-rama

It seems like I have more and more to say and less and less time to say it in. You will have to live with a few pics and short, informational sentences. You will have to live without my magnificent humor until Zola goes to college.

Last weekend Stephanie, Caleb, Zola Jane and I went to San Diego. We loved gawking at those poor caged animals, trashed a hotel and made fun of people gutting fish off the pier at Imperial Beach. We had a pretty good time, ate ridiculous amounts of sugar and watched hotel tv until the wee hours.

Caleb flew home Tuesday, and since then Stephanie and I haven't really done much. It's been a more relaxing installment of Summer-Fun-O-Rama this week since Stephanie has "been there, done that" for most things. On the week days, the most exciting thing we have done has been walk to blockbuster for more "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Friday night we went to the Grove. They had a live band and some of the kid-faces of Disney were there. We met and got Zola's picture with Vincent Martella, the voice of "Phineas" on Phineas and Ferb and plays "Greg" on Everyone Hates Chris.
Stephanie is trying to "friend" him on Facebook. He messaged her a few times to figure out who she is (and remembered getting the photo) but I told her not to be disappointed if he doesn't friend her. She is friends with a band we went to see last year at the El Rey, and I guess they message all the time, so maybe Vincent and her will be laughing about this post together in a few years when they get married. Who knows.

Saturday early, I took Zola to get her pictures done. I've tried to do it every month on or around her birth day. I skipped 6-months because we took family self-portraits in Arizona. But, it seems like so much has changed from the baby who just laid on her back and smiled.


She was COMPLETELY ADORABLE in this photo session. After that, I took her to get her ears mutilated. We can now start the gender training in full. Next week, I am going to bind her feet.

Afterward, Stephanie and I went back to the Grove. They were doing a "Hawaii" event with hula, music, and free food, drink, lei making, etc. We toured Kauai while we waited for our showing of TOY STORY 3 in 3D... very, very worth seeing. We took Zola to her first movie in the theater and she was very well behaved. I was worried because people in LA are serious about their movies. She appeared to love the movie as much as Stephanie and I did. She laughed, she cried... and so did we. (Although we did it at appropriate moments and no one shoved a pacifier in our mouths.)

I think the big plans for today are to go hear some DJs perform at a public park and do some household maintenance. If we don't buy groceries soon, Stephanie will be forced to eat the baby. She's sweet, but I don't think it will work. I'd never be able to figure out if the sides should be savory or not.

dry heat

I had some time off and some plans that fell through, so we went to Arizona on a whim.



While we were there, we took some family pictures of ourselves in front of the same plant that we got married in front of.
And Zola Jane got to go swimming for the first time. She didn't love it at first, but it was so hot that I left her in the water for a while to cool off and she "warmed up" to it. Love my puns.

Oh, and by the way, we decided an hour before we left to come back to kidnap Stephanie. Yay... extra kid!

lucky number seven

Here is my turd. She is seven months old this week! This is the last picture ever taken of her hair before it retired and moved to Florida.

I love this head chopped one for two reasons:
1. you can not see her chopped off hair.
2. it looks like it was taken with a 110 camera in the 70's and could be any of the 5 pictures taken of me when I was little (ninth children never have millions of baby photos of themselves. It's a well-documented fact. Don't worry mom, I'm not hatin'.)

The pic above is what I call her "Lindsey Lohan" smile. She has that grin on her face because she knows that her panties are showing in both of the remaining pictures and she doesn't care because she is hopped up on girlie-girl.


There you have it. Seven months.

Just kidding. I can think of more to say. I'm not just going to punctuate the images. Anyway, you don't get to hear from me that often anymore 'cause I'm off living the sexy, glamorous life of a hollywood starlet (now that they are all pushing forty and pumping out offspring.)

We have a young fella, Caleb, living with us for a few weeks to help out with added childcare need while I'm getting acclimated to my new job. He's absolutely precious. He is in the kitchen as I type, Internet: making me a smoothie. And when I got home, I could make out the distinct aroma of lysol. Utah churns out the most polite young people.

We have been fully launched into our annual Summer-Fun-A-Rama. Shopping at the Beverly Center, China Town, Melrose, Hollywood Farmer's Market, the Fairfax High Swap Meet, Amoeba Records, Hollywood Boulevard, and so on... We've gone to Friday Night Jazz at the LA Contemporary Museum, the Lake Shrine Self-Realization Center Garden, saw a Dodger's game, eaten tons of Indian food, rode bikes down Venice (with baby in a trailer), walked the Santa Monica Pier, and lounged on a Malibu beach. The last is the only one we have a picture of!
Whew. I'm out of breath. That's a lot of fun.