Ryan

Many of you already know, but Grant's younger brother, Ryan, passed away on Saturday, October 25.

In case you don't know the story yet, Ryan was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease a couple of weeks ago. He began treatment for that, and had a colonoscopy. It seems that since the colonoscopy, his health really started to deteriorate. He lost 20 pounds in the span of 10 days, and checked into the hospital on Tuesday, the 21st. Nothing seemed to help him, and he kept getting worse and worse. On Friday, he was walking down the hall and fainted. They rushed him to ICU, and that's where he stayed until God took him the next morning.

Grant, Kendall, and I, along with Grant's older brother, John, were able to get on the same flight to Pensacola, and we arrived here on Saturday night. We'll be here as long as needed.

Please pray for the entire family and friends as we're sorting through all of this.

Ryan was 17 years old, and in his Senior year of high school. In his short life, he travelled more than most people ever will. He was finishing up work to become an Eagle Scout. He loved video games. Basically, he was a great kid.

We don't know why God chose to take him so young, but we do know that God is in control.

I wanted to thank Mrs. J and Pinky for their kind words. Also, thanks to everyone else for their words of encouragement whether by email, Facebook, or message board.

Tree Huggers!

This weekend, we went to Sequoia National Park. Instead of boring you all with details you really don't care about, I put together this little movie with our pictures, and a very appropriate song.



By the way, I'll post more about the bears that you see towards the end of the movie. They deserve a post by themselves.

It's a Beautiful Morning!

One of the clearest since we've lived here...

See This?

See the green arrow? That's about where we live (edited to say, the arrow is not at our house, in case you were wondering....). See the first Target symbol? That's the BRAND NEW Target that just opened yesterday (although, the brochure we got about it in the mail said it opens on Sunday, but whatever). San Pedro finally has a Target, and I couldn't be happier. It's not like it's that much closer than the one that I frequented before (see the second symbol), but it is closer, and it's in the town I live in, so that's what matters.



I went to it today - everything was clean and pretty, and they have these new fancy-schmancy shopping carts (although, our shopping cart cover doesn't really fit on it, but I made do). And the people that work at the Starbucks there haven't really got it down yet, because it took them well over 5 minutes to get my Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate, even though I was the only one in line. But that's okay. It was worth the wait.

Splish Splash

A Year Ago...

A year ago today, Grant got a phone call that we never thought we would get. One of our very, very good friends from Albuquerque unexpectedly passed away.

The bad news is - we miss him dearly. But the good news (and really, it's the best news of all) is that he's with our Lord and Saviour! And, we have a TON of great memories that bring smiles to our faces instantly. He also leaves behind a legacy of what a Christian husband and father should be - I have a feeling that Grant is not the only one of the guys from our "Albuquerque group" that looked to him as an example. The same goes for Edie, and her example to all of us new moms.

I really don't know what else to say - I've been struggling to write something all day today. But Megan inspired me with her post, and she stole the picture that I was going to use, so I had to find another funny picture of Brent (which wasn't hard to do). So this is Brent, pointing out Grant's "guns."



To Edie and the kids, I just want to say that we love you and you're always in our thoughts and prayers.

We have a monster!

We have this little inflatable ball (like a mini-beachball), and Grant and I were throwing it around last night, and Kendall was just going crazy! Towards the end of it, I decided to set up the video to record it. It didn't get the total craziness of Kendall, but you get the idea.

Great Scott!

Yesterday, we made our way up to Pasadena. The reason for our trip up there is that I found a high chair on craigslist, and that's where the people lived that were selling it. So, to make use out of our gas for driving all the way up there (it's almost an hour away), we decided to do some hiking. We've been wanting to go to Pasadena anyway, and the high chair gave us the perfect excuse!

I guess God decided that SoCal hadn't gotten enough rain recently (I don't think it's rained since we've moved here - except for a sprinkle or two), and that yesterday would be the perfect day for it to rain! So, no hiking for us. But we went to the Farmer's Market in Pasadena, which was fabulous.




Before we went up there, I wrote down the addresses for the houses used in Back To The Future from imdb.com. I had seen before that most of them were in Pasadena, so we made it a priority to at least find Doc Brown's house. So after the Farmer's Market, on our way to get the high chair, we found it! Apparently it's the Gamble House, previously owned by the Gamble family (of Proctor and Gamble), and is now a museum. It's absolutely gorgeous, and a perfect example of the craftsman style of architecture (which is my fave!).



We picked up the high chair, then started making our way back home. On the way, we had one more stop to make. I had watched an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network, which featured this restaurant called Auntie Em's in Eagle Rock (which is right by Pasadena) that had these awesome-looking Red Velvet cupcakes. So, we went, and I waited in a very long line (maybe 15 minutes) for 2 of these cupcakes. But they were definitely worth the wait. One of these days, maybe when we're actually able to hike, we'll have to try to eat there, because the food looked so yummy!



By the way, I hate this picture, but Grant and I were trying for the longest time to take an artsy-fartsy picture of the cupcake, and I kept telling him to not get me in the picture. Well, he did, and now he's making me post it.

We made it home, and were so inspired by Doc Brown's house that we decided to pop in Back To The Future. Since Grant didn't get to use his new camel-back-esque backpack on our hike, and didn't want to waste the water from it, he sucked it down during the movie.



And this morning, Kendall used her high chair for the very first time. I think she liked it.

I Need....

Megan and Jasmine have already done this, but I was kinda bored, so I thought I'd give it a try. You can go to Google, and put in your name+needs and see what comes up. Pretty funny, except for the R. Kelly ones - I'll leave those out. :)

Kelly needs to keep the drama going
Kelly needs a quivering antennae
Kelly needs her brother backstage
Kelly needs to dump Katherine Heigl - NOW!
Kelly needs a new attitude
Kelly needs a little guidance
Kelly needs a new job
Kelly needs to pee
Kelly needs to stop speaking Italian
Kelly needs a $25,000 mouthpiece

Grant's weren't that funny, except for the first one...

Grant needs wife

Snack Time!

I got an issue of Real Simple that was geared towards families a couple months back. In it, there was a section dedicated to kid CD's that are parent-friendly, and one of them that caught my eye was Snack Time by the Barenaked Ladies - you know, that group from the Great White North that have all the funny songs? Apparently, the band is now outnumbered by all their offspring, so they decided to write some kid's songs - twenty-four, to be exact.

It's great.

Kendall loves it.

I love it.

I highly recommend it.