Cousin Visit

My sister stayed in town the week after Rick's wedding so we went up to my Mom and Dad's home in Tehachapi to visit with them.  The kids hadn't seem their cousins in quite some time and missed them SO much so the reunion was a great one.  Here's a few picture to remember our trip.

 The kids played outside in the grass and started a marching band with Evelyn in the lead.

 The kids and I sat together on the front porch swing.

 We played at the Stallion Springs park.  Preston and Aubrey liked the space ship!

 We fed the ducks at the park.

 From left to right:  Joshua, Eliza, Aubrey, Preston & Evelyn

 My sister, Nichole, with the adorable Lily.

We took the kids to McDonald's for lunch.  These two girls were inseparable the entire visit.  This photo was taken moments before they had to say their final goodbyes.  It was sad :(  

We sure miss the Mansius family but the moments we do get to spend together are that much more precious.

Rick's Wedding

My cousin Rick was sealed on May 22, 2010 in the Los Angeles LDS temple.  My mom's entire family came to the temple and it was such a neat experience to see everyone together.  Rick was one of my closest cousins growing up and it was a proud moment to watch him be sealed to the love of his life for time and all eternity.  :Preston took this picture sitting on my shoulders :)  My cousin Rick and his new bride with her family.  That's my Grandma Nelson at the bottom left smiling at Preston:

  The night prior to the sealing we stayed at the temple apartments and I took the girls, Evelyn and Eliza, for a quiet walk around the temple.  Andrew and I did this the night before our sealing so it was sentimental and a nice experience walking with them and talking about the temple.

Summer days

This summer, because of our busy schedules, we didn't get to spend quite as much time in the pool as we normally would but we did get some good swimming time in.  Here's a couple of my favorite pool pictures...

 

The kids in their swimming suits!  They have the most adorable smiles.  This is definitely the last year Preston will fit in his little green floaty suit which makes me a little sad.

 The kids were just a little excited to go swimming.  I believe this was their first swim of the summer!  I promise this is Preston's excited face.  I think he's overdoing it just a bit though ;)

After their first swim or two the kids were back to where they were last year.  They were both comfortable with the deep end usually preferring it to the shallow end.  But Evelyn, no matter how many times she attempted to jump off the board could never bring herself to do it.  Maybe next year...

 Preston's showing off for the camera while drying out in the sun.  I love this cheeky smile!

 This picture has a funny story to it... This was the day I taught Preston that it was alright for boys to go potty (#1) outside in the bushes if it was an emergency.  He was pretty excited about this fact and let's just say he may have taken it a step too far!  I promise this did NOT happen in the pool.

Beale Park and my First House

One day while scouting out house locations for the film we stopped and played at Beale Park. 

 I love how diverse this little group is!  Evelyn makes friends so easily and always tries to include everyone when she plays.  I've always admired how social she is.

Preston standing on a turtle.

FYI:  I did find a great little house on Oleander that day for the film but it just didn't work out on account of the owner asking for too much money.  But I loved the house!

Also on our travels that day I got to show the kids the house I grew up in.  I can't believe how much it hasn't changed.  Even the orange blinds in the window to the right.  That was the room I shared with Nichole and those are the same orange blinds!  It was fun reminiscing on the old days in my old neighborhood.  I'll have to write more about this later.  Just looking at this picture again brings back a flood of old memories.  The first time I remember getting in trouble, I threw a mud ball at a passing car...  Walking alongside my sister to school... My dad's fish and waterwheel in the backyard...  Playing with the neighbor kids...

Future Cinematographer

Andrew bought this souvenir t-shirt for Preston at NAB.  Preston loved it and now refers to it as his "camera shirt".

 I couldn't resist posting this one.  Preston was so excited the first time he got to wear his new t-shirt! 

Las Vegas 2010

  So, I've come to the conclusion that there are some MAJOR perks to working... like, for instance, going to LAS VEGAS!  Last month, April 12 & 13 we took a short business trip to attend this years NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention.

Now I've been to conventions before but this was my first time at NAB and I was not prepared for what I saw.  It was almost overwhelming!  So much cool and interesting stuff all in one place.  I read on their site that there were more than 85,000 professionals there from more than 157 countries and 800,000+ square feet of exhibit space!

We got to see some major industry professionals including the DP (Director of Photography) of the show 24 and Garret Brown (pictured above), inventor of the Steadicam system, demonstrating his latest invention the Steadicam Tango.

You know you've always wanted to know what the inside of a lens looks like...

Later that night we attended an exclusive party with special guests Kevin Shahinian and Ray Roman as well as several other well known event filmmakers!  Kevin was there to showcase his new movie "City of Lakes" which Andy went to the next day and said it was amazing!  It was so fun getting to meet so many talented people AND to top the night off I even won some free training during the raffle!

The view from the executive hospitality suite at the Aria Resort where the party took place was so amazing!  Andy was totally rocking that Film Tools shirt...  he was asked at least half a dozen times that day if he worked there.  Also notice the Vegas Strip on the far left! 

Andy's super, amazing, awesome cousin, Jenny, took care of the kids for us while we were at the convention.  {Thanks again Jenny!  You are one in a million!}  The kids had such a great time.  She took them to the park the day we were at NAB and Preston didn't stop talking about the "butterfly park" until at least two weeks later.

Jenny also introduced us to this wonderful little piece of heaven on earth.  Cane's chicken and toast is my new all time favorite love.  I crave it all the time.  I'll never eat at another chicken place ever again.  Now I just have to petition to have them build one in my city.

The next day Jenny took the kids and I to the Springs Preserve.  I loved this place!  Seriously:)  Such a great redemption after our last museum trip.  Everything about the Springs Preserve was awesome!  I highly recommend it the next time you're in Vegas with kids.  Lots of fun stuff to see like live animal habitats, a flash flood exhibit, exhibits about the original Vegas inhabitants and fun educational Vegas style games. 

They even had this recreated railroad car from the early 20th century complete with about a half dozen statue people and these 3 adorable kids;)

Ok, I just can't help but throw this one last picture in.  Total BFF's Homer and Evelyn were in the process of making homemade play dough.  When I asked them to look at me and smile this is what I got.  Makes me smile every time! 

Andy shot video of Jenny's 3 boys during our visit with them.  They had so much fun with it, almost too much I think;)  Stay tuned for that!

New favorite movie

Apparently this movie came out in 1995, and I'm just now hearing about it!?!?!?