Troy's Birthday

was May 18, and we celebrated by going to Catalina Island. There's a ferry that leaves from downtown Long Beach, and you get a free ride on your birthday. Woot, woot! Going to Catalina is fun on normal days, but extra fun on your birthday because: 1. you get special discounts and free stuff at different places and 2. all those discounts throughout the day are a constant reminder that it's your birthday and you have a bunch of strangers wishing you "happy birthday" throughout the day. It's awesome!

He got a "Happy Birthday" ribbon so everyone could know it was his birthday.

Happy birthday, Troy!

It was a windy boat ride.

Team Raptor with Catalina Island in the background, just before we got off the boat.

We rented some electric bikes to get around the island. The battery on the back tire helped us get up the steep parts, so we didn't have to peddle as hard. Or at all, if we were on a flat stretch of road.

The bikes came with handy baskets to put stuff in.

Troy navigated us around the island....

...While Laura sat at a tiny table...

...And tried to figure out what this loose seal was looking at...

...and climbed some trees.

....Then struggled with getting down.

We stopped by some pretty places.

                               

Showing some love at Lover's Cove.

We saw the island from way up high on our bike ride.

We found the pet cemetery!

Laura strayed from her no-meat diet for a buffalo burger, choosing to believe that the buffalo came from Catalina and wasn't treated with any chemicals or other nasty stuff.

Troy's free birthday meal from Buffalo Nickel Restaurant.

All in all, it was a great day. We can't wait to go back for Laura's birthday in September!

We use a lot of cups.

All the cups we used Sunday morning. The number of cups used is slightly higher than a normal morning because we both had sore throats.

All the cups we used on Monday. This is after all the dishes were washed on Sunday. Again, slightly higher than normal because of our sore throats, but still. That's a lot of cups. Plus a water bottle.


I guess we just get thirsty. And forget where we put the last cup. And have to get a new one. Good thing we have a lot of cups.

Laura is Still a Spaz

I locked myself out of the apartment again, sometime last week, on my way to pick up Troy from work. I was holding something in my hand as I walked out the door, and instead of checking to see if it was my keys, I just locked the door handle to our front door and the screen door in front of it. 

Two doors, too easy to lock.

Oy veh. I should probably stop doing that. Luckily, we have awesome friends for neighbors, and Yesenia let me borrow her car to pick up Troy, so he could let us in. Thanks again, friend! Some banana bread in on its way for you...

Life in L.A.

This post is to explain to people what it's like to live in Southern California, the L.A. and Orange County areas. Cuz that's where we live right now, and sometimes it's great (not often) and sometimes it's crazy (more often).

Awesome: Getting to see local music. This is a band some friends from Laura's Skilled Nursing Facility job are in together, it's called MiSLeD. (All the capital letters are the initials to their names. I don't know what "M" stands for, but "S" is for "Santi" and "L" is for "Lara". I don't know what "D" is for.)

Awesome: Beach. And it's so close to us in Long Beach. When we lived downtown LB, it was a 15 minute walk, but now we're uptown, it's a 15 minute drive. Boo!

Random but funny: Apparently people other than Laura and Jenny appreciate Salad Fingers. This was somewhere in Seal Beach.

Snookie's Cookies are driving around L.A. County.

This used to say "A Historical Landmark" but, someone got fed up with it because who knows anything about the Kelly House? Nobody. So yes, it is a Hysterical Landmark. People of downtown Long Beach, you get it. 

A typical bike in Santa Monica.

A typical lady in Santa Monica. 

Not uncommon - year round. It seems like these signs come up every couple months. All that kush is effecting their memory, they forgot they just had the expo! And traffic. All the time.

Not so awesome: Bad parallel parkers.

What about all this space behind this red car??? Why did it have to get all up on Phil the Ford Focus???

Yiddish in Downtown L.A. Naturally.

Fancy rich people name their houses in Belmont Shores of Long Beach after old books.

And this is what that fancy rich house looks at across the street.

Lots of appreciation for zombies in Long Beach/Seal Beach areas. There's a zombie convention every year in Long Beach. People dress up zombie like, and roam the streets. There's a race, and probably other stuff too.

Gross. And it never rains, so my windshield doesn't get a free washing.

Dead roach found in Troy's church shoes. That nasty bug was a good 2 inches long. *Shudder* So glad we're not in that ghetto apt anymore.

Walmart in downtown Long Beach. Someone just set their empty coffee cup wherever they happened to be when they finished their coffee.

Fantastic trees in Pasadena. You can kinda see Jason and Troy hanging out on the tree roots there.

A restaurant that sells grilled cheeses and cereal (also in Pasadena). And have an epic food challenge! If Laura decides to eat meat, she may try this challenge sometime.

This amuses Laura. It sounds like they're saying "Like and share Long Beach Lesbians!"

Kacie and Laura went to the top of Signal Hill to look out over Long Beach. It was very windy. Apparently it's a popular place to take prom pictures.

It was also cloudy. We got to see the splendor of Long Beach/San Pedro's industrialism and smog.

And Chloe. Chloe makes it all better. Except when she scratches. But then she does something like this, and it's all better again.

Family Time

March and April we saw family, and it was good times.

First, the Davis family came out to CA during their spring break. They had a lot planned in their few days here, and were generous enough to share some of that time with us.

We went up to Utah for General Conference, and to see more familia.

We sat outside and listened to the Sunday morning session in the beauty of Temple Square.

Troy was trying his best to fake a morning smile.

One of Laura's best shots in photography. Ever. Salt Lake Temple.

A reminder that we weren't in L.A. - some family left all their stuff unattended. And nothing was taken.

Team Raptor.

2 weeks after we got back, Troy was cleaning out his church folder and found an envelope with his name on it, that he forgot someone gave him a month earlier. Looks like we didn't need to picnic outside after all.

Outside of Trolley Square.

Another reminder that we are not in L.A. - a sign to remind people to lock their cars.

The Sunday afternoon session we watched (fell asleep) with Troy's dad and Robyn. Then we went to Sandy that evening and hung out with Laura's cousins (and their cousins).

John gave us a wedding announcement while we were hanging out with them. Sorry we can't go! Congrats, cousin!

 Monday morning we visited Brittni, Westin and Waylin.

We delivered a box of goodies from Erika to Waylin, and Waylin found good use for the box.

On the way home, we encountered snow. In April. We couldn't get the videos to show up on this page, only the link, which is weird. So click on the link and it will take you to the videos.

Utah Driving 1

Utah Driving 2

On the way home we stopped in Vegas for dinner at The Carnival World Buffet at The Rio.

One of Troy's plates.

One of Laura's plates.

We love taking pictures of our food.

Laura strayed from no meat for some shrimp.

We felt obligated to get dessert. Ice cream not pictured.

Laura's desserts.

We also hung out with Jason and Liz a couple times. Jason gave Laura a glockenspiel.

So pretty!

And that has more or less been our lives for the past few months. Good times with good people. =)