The Surface of the Sun!

That's what Arizona is in July. It was 90 degrees outside at 10pm. 114 in the day. Yes, Team Raptor went to Phoenix the first weekend in July. Why, you may ask? To see the Davis family!

Major, growing up, losing teeth.

Brooke, cheesing it up.

Photo bomb!

Brooke has a creative way of eating. And yes, this is from Culver's, which Ben and Megan took Laura to in Michigan. Apparently they have them in AZ, as well.

Major really wanted to take a group photo, this was his first attempt.

And the final result, a couple tries later.

 Then Brooke got a hold of my iPod....

AM2

Yes, I (Laura) went to an anime convention in Anaheim and dragged two of my friends along with me. And it was glorious!

 A samurai (I think). Looks like he's trying to get in? Maybe? That doesn't make sense, cuz the convention was free...

Nyan cat posing with the guy from Catherine and some random people. Has anyone else played Catherine? Kind of a weird game, but the demo was fun I guess. Troy showed me the game, and I lost interest pretty quickly, but after seeing other people totally into it (look at that guy! He is out in public wearing only boxers and horns. And carrying around a pillow.), I want to give the game another try.

Kakashi Sensei! I saw him with a couple other Naruto characters when I first walked into the convention room, but was too overloaded with Anime and cosplay to remember my words. All I could do was, "Uhh.. agh! Oh! Him! Naruto! That's not his name!" so I took a picture from afar cuz I was too flustered to go up and ask for one. He was wearing a face mask, too bad you can't see it. =(

Here are the other two I caught up with later on. That shark sword is pretty intense. It's as tall as she is!

Mario! Check out his hammer!

G4 was also at AM2 apparently, probably on the day(s) I wasn't there, or maybe at times I wasn't there, cuz I didn't see any G4 reps, but they got a better pic of the Mario man. This pic is from their website. (I did not take it.)

Fact.

Not really sure what she's all about, but it was a fun looking dress...

This lady had lots of cutesy stuff on her fingers, wrists, neck, and hair. And clothes. And also sold all of those cutesy things that we looked at but didn't buy.

I never watched My Little Pony, but for all those who did/still do, there was a place designated to talk Pony talk. And to draw ponies and put them on the wall if you felt so moved.

Here we are! Me, Kacie (check out her craft blog in our Links section) and Gina. Thanks ladies for putting up with me! Kacie kind of keeps up with some of this stuff, but Gina has no interest in anime anything, but came along anyway because she's awesome and enjoyed laughing at me geeking out and my shyness/creepiness at taking pictures of cosplayers from the shadows instead of asking them for a photo.

THERE WAS A FASHION SHOW.

I don't really get it, but whatever floats your boat Japanese designers...

Cutesy lady modeling stuff in the back ground, and in the foreground a cutesy goth guy. I'm confused by what message the designers are trying to portray in his look. You can't see too well in this pic, but he's got a black mohawk with black lipstick, wearing a pink zip-up shirt that has a hoodie with cat ears in the back. ???

Well, there was also a video I wanted to upload, but due to technical errors, that won't be happening this post. Maybe we'll figure it out later. So sad... you won't get to see part of an event. There were concurrent events going on while people were milling about the floor. The one Kacie, Gina and I wandered into was scheduled to be about cosplay make up tips and techniques, but the lady who was supposed to talk about it never showed up... so there was a guy employed by AM2 that was doing anything and everything to keep a crowd entertained. At one point the group burst into the Pokemon theme song, inspired by one of the group member's costumes. Shortly after, there was an impromptu cosplay contest. Among the contestants were Zombie Poison Ivy (from Batman, but zombie-like), Harley Quinn (also from Batman), the eleventh Doctor (from Doctor Who) and Mario and Luigi the Super Gangster Brothers. Oh well. Just come over and watch the video on our computer.

Laura Goes to Michigan!

May 4th I flew out to Detroit, and came back to L.A. on May 10th. Lucky me, I got to stay with Ben and Megan and Aspen as I attended a music therapy continuing education credit seminar. (I have to have 100 CMTEs [Continuing Music Therapy Education credits] every 5 years, and this seminar got me 50 in one weekend!) It was Saturday-Monday 8am-7pm and Tuesday 8am-5pm learning about using music therapy in end-of-life care, and about how to start a music therapy position in a hospice company. So I learned some clinical stuff, and some business stuff too! It was great!

One of the attendees brought her iPad, and recorded some songs for music therapists to use in their work during our role-plays one morning. I shared one, and another lady shared hers. Neither of us had them written down.  We're continuing the oral tradition. =)

This song I learned in Jamaica, it's called, "Buddhist Blessing".

   

This is Taryn Thomas, she's a music therapist working on a cancer unit in a hospital in NY.

The best part of the trip, though, was time well spent with these folks:

What a cute family!

We went to go feed some ducks and geese. Aspen wasn't too sure about the whole thing once we got out of the car.

 

She felt much better once safely off the ground up in mommy's arms.

 

Daddy took her exploring on some benches that were sitting in the lake.

Yes, they were IN the lake.

Another day we went to a state park. Aspen using Ben's shoulders as her carriage and Ben's hair as her reins.

With some coaxing, Aspen was able to pet one of the goats at the petting zoo.

What a little cutie! Megan says Aspen loves to "read".

Auntie and niece cheesing it up.

Grand Prix-ing it Up!

We could hear the cars racing all weekend from our apt. After it stopped raining Friday morning (April 13), we walked the 6 blocks to see what was up, with our free tickets, to see all the practice runs.

Laura had to pretend to be a racing fan to get in.

Some of the stands people sat in.

                      Team Raptor in the crowd.





Laura quickly lost interest in watching the cars, and turned her attention to the audience.

 What happened to the rest of his dreads???

A fisherman showed up.






The look is popular, apparently.

Yes, this kid bleached the end of his rat tail and then dyed it. 

 

This kid couldn't put his 3DS down.        Every crowd has at least one ear plugger!

 If you look closely, you can see the second braid flow down his back.

                                   Tobias would be proud.

 Also something most audiences have at least one of: the crowd creepster.

There was actual (practice) racing going on, too. 

 The water got the best of Takuma Sato.

Practice run for the celebrity race. Adam Carolla in the silver car. Can't remember/couldn't find who was in the black and green car.

                                   Whoo!