Cali

we just got back from california for the second time within 30 days. this visit we brought connor with us and made it more of a vacation, not just work. while we worked all day, he and a friend went to disneyland and california adventure one day and did a lot of longboarding. it was 80 degrees, and as much as i love the cold and snow, it felt really good. we ate outside, went shopping at an outside mall, and hung out in the pool and hot tub. it didn't suck. our last day, we went to universal studios.

MY mother hips

i HAD  to do a post about the band. "the mother hips". i have loved them since 1998 when i went to my first concert with jack. he was a fan for a few years before that. it's probably the 22 concerts we went to from the years 1998-2012 or the fact that we used to make out to their c.d. over and OVER AND over AGAIN when we were dating, OR the fact that i am IN LOVE with the lead singer, tim bluhm.
they are just amazing! their music is under the genre of california soul, kind of like wilco i guess? but the band has opened my eyes to a whole other genre of music that i had no idea about at the age of 18.

they come here  often, so, if any of yous want to go.....i will be there, so i can stare at tim!

favorites...

i need to make a list of my FAVORITE  movies  EVER... i talk in movie quotes and it's a problem

{not in any order, except for #1}

rear window

{i fell in love with this movie when i was 9}

the life aquatic

edward scissorhands

the birds

emperor's new groove

sixteen candles

home for the holidays

HALLOWEEN

TOMMY BOY

raising arizona

amelie

and so many more... i guess i'm a loser, but i get through hard times in my life by watching movies. they give me so much happiness. they inspire me, they challenge me, they comfort me.
{thank you movies}

our trip

we went on a big trip two weeks ago to california. we planned on doing more of the northern coast, but planned WAY TOO MUCH. we had to go out to ontario for a scrapbook expo, so we made a fun trip out of it. we went to ontario to sequoia national forest, to yosemite, to mammoth, then home. lots of driving, but very fun.

these are in the sequoia national park, which was awesome. i couldn't believe the sizes of the trees, they felt prehistoric almost. some of them were 2,000 years old. these pictures don't do them justice

we were alone in the park too, it's their off season, so, literally, we were alone. it was kind of creepy camping that night, because, we knew if we heard something, it wasn't the other campers!

these were taken on the "trail of a hundred giants"

 

next stop was yosemite, which jack had never been to. we could have stayed a week there. there is so much to see and they have a village there, with an awesome grocery store, a few places to eat, restaurants  and delis. there are a ton of places to camp and stay. we didn't stay in the park though because, they were having a huge hauntavirus outbreak, and we didn't feel like puking and having the diarrheas. we stayed in the coolest town named oakhurst. i would recommend it for sure. it's just outside of yosemite, and we stayed in a great hotel.

 this is oakhurst, not a great example of it though. it reminded me of the town from the movie "roxanne"

 this is half dome and el capitan. el capitan is one of the best places to rock climb in the world.

this was the waterfall we hiked to, and we found a secret little area really close to it. there were some hippie kids there, so, of course, jack had to jump in and prove he was still young to all of them.

 our buddy eating our cheese and tortilla chips

 this waterfall, in the summer, is so much bigger. again, we went in the off season

 these are from another hike we did in yosemite, it had the best 360 degree view of the whole park.

it was so windy, which made it so much more dramatic.

 this is right in front of el capitan, we had lunch here and was sitting next to two climbers that just finished climbing it. they were up there for 7 days, sleeping in cots hanging off the side of the rock, AND they lost half of their food on the first night. they were badasses, but that could not sound less appealing to me or jack.

this cool area is on the northeastern way out of yosemite.

 

these were aspens in mammoth.