Volume 34

SUNDAY NEWS
January 24, 2010


It has been raining for days here in Arizona which doesn’t happen often. We have had some pretty good storms. One night you would have thought we got hit by a hurricane. The wind was crazy and it kept going all day and late into the night. We finally got all the Christmas decorations down. We were the last people in our community to turn off the lights outside I think. We took down the light and put up a Cardinals banner and flag for the play-offs. Unfortunately that was short lived and we are now adopting the Colts for the rest of the post season for Super Bowl hopes.

Very Vayden
Vayden went for a check-up at the doctor this week. She got shots in both arms and one of her legs. She was very upset, and so was Lori. She is a tough litter critter and she is doing well. She is in the top 92% in height. That has stayed pretty consistent throughout her growth. Looks like Vayden will not be shopping in the petite section when she gets older.

Vayden is a good eater willing to try almost anything. In fact several weeks ago while at the park she found a piece of dog poop, and before anyone could stop her she picked it up and took a nice bite of it. It was one of those with a crunchy outside form sitting in the sun, but a gooey inside. Her breath smelled terrible afterwards.
Vayden will now announce to everyone that she has pooped by saying the word “Stinty” Then she will pull out the changing pad an lay down on it. Christian and Vayden have great times together these days playing and laughing and running all over.

We have a few more pictures from our Christmas Cruise. These are from the ship. Our experience was a little different this time. Last cruise we were in a different port every single day. This cruise we had days where we were at sea the entire day.

There are a lot more people on board when you are not in port. Another thing that was different, was the fact that when we were leaving or returning to Los Angeles it was cold if you were up on the decks. It is strange to need a jacket one day and then wake up the next and be able to sun bathe. Below is Christian and Vayden doing miniture gold on a cold day.

Lori did well in the casino again. We saw most of the shows. There is a picture of the theater above. Vayden was a little more difficult this trip. She nevere mad it through an ennitre show. We had very nice servers at dinner. Their names were Monica nad Andre. They took good care of Vayden always mnaking her special napkin toys and bringing her fruit plates that she loved. Dinners were always really good.

Lands End in Cabo San Lucas is in the background of this photo taken in the Dinning room.

Note from the Editors
There are several Photo Addendums attached to Volume 34.

Volume 34 - Photo Addendum 1

Photo Addendum 1

A few of Karl's favorites captures:

Vayden loves her big sister.

You think maybe these two are related?

Vayden Loves her big brother Vayden wants a kiss

Suprise Kiss

Volume 34 - Photo Addendum 2

Photo Addendum 2

Volume 34 - Photo Addendum 3

Photo Addendum 3
Our Vaydy Bug



Hang Loose!

Volume 33

SUNDAY NEWS
January 10, 2010

Los Angeles

We were happy we got to spend some time with Alyssa and Karl’s younger brother Mark and his girlfriend Marie. One night we went to dinner at a Brazilian Churrascaria (steak house) prior to leaving on the cruise.



On another night we went to see the Glory of Christmas which is performed at the Crystal Cathedral. It is the story of Christmas performed with great music, fantastic sets and costumes, flying angels and live animals. Vayden was not being her good natured self that night so Karl had to take her outside. The cast was very nice to her. A lot of the cast is outside at times during the show and Vayden did get to meet some of them including all three wise men. One of the wise men actually held her for a bit and Vayden got to touch one of the camels and several of the other animals.

When we got back from the cruise we went the famous PhiliPpe’s and downed a dozen French dip sandwiches.
After Philippe's we walked Olvera Street. We also went to Hollywood and the ‘Walk of Fame’ We met some stars as you can see by the pictures in the Photo Addendum. We also drove to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive.

Walk of Fame
We also went to the El Teypeyac Café for some of the best Mexican food you can find. We ordered a Manuel Special Burrito and two tacquitos which fed all of us. The taquitos come with about two cups of guacamole. The Manuel Special Burritto weighs about six pounds.


El Tepeyac is in deep East Los Angeles. We needed a few thing for the hotel so we stopped by an El Mercado in East Los Angeles near the El Tepeyac Café which is an experience Lori will remember. There were armed guards, no one spoke English and the formula which we wanted to buy was locked up. Blonde Lori was wearing a pink shirt and hat and stuck out like a sore thumb. Even the manger approached her confused by her presence there. He must have thought she was lost. We didn’t end up getting the formula out from under lock and key, but we did buy the kids a pack of Canel’s Mexican gum and some pork rinds which they loved and ate for the rest of the trip.


Karl, Christian and Vayden went to the Museum of Natural History one morning.


Lori, Brittney and Shelby went down to the Santa Monica pier one evening.



After all the hustle and bustle of being down town Los Angeles for several days with all the crowds, standing in line, valet parking we thought it would be nice to go somewhere calmer. We stopped by Whittier, ate at Rocky Cola Cafe and spent an afternoon at Penn Park before meeting up with Mark and Marie at Miss Knott’s Famous chicken restaurant. The chicken and the boysenberry pie there is deleicious. But the real star is the biscuits, butter and boysenberry jam.


As an explanation for these shirts, Mark as many of you already know is battling a brain cancer right now. While mark was still medicated and in the hospital to undergo surgery to move his brain tumor, he nick named his brain tumor (bt) ‘ben thomas’ for some reason. The name stuck and the shirts followed.