get out!

having grown up here, i think i tend to take for granted all the amazing activities southern california has to offer. in fact, it took a visit from a aussie friend last fall to finally get my butt to the getty. how long has that place been open now? too long to have not visited.

anyway, with dad's birthday and father's day popping up in june, it was a good excuse to get out and see some of the fun stuff we have around here.

did you know the griffith observatory has reopened? it was shut down in 2002 for renovation and repair and just opened back up this past november.

they added a huge expansion, revamped the planetarium show and added a bunch of new exhibits.

but, you know, the view alone is worth the effort to make shuttle reservations. (you can't just drive yourself up quite yet.)


it was a fun outing for the fam. (although we all forgot our cameras, so i had to rip these photos of their website. oops.) anyway, go check it out. you won't regret it.

another neat place to check out is the los angeles county arboretum...

we just wanted to go and wander around the gardens, but they have all kinds of classes and talks and whatnot available all the time, as well as fun on-going events. for example, every 3rd sunday of the month is family picnic day, and on saturday nights during the summer, they have california philharmonic concerts on the green.

there is a lot of hollywood history there, as well. i wish i had read up on that before i visited, so i knew what to look for. although, when i rounded the corner and saw the front of the building below, i quickly found myself pointing to the sky and saying, "thee plaaane, thee plaaane!"

(please tell me you people watched fantasy island.)

but the best part... the peacocks! they're everywhere, and really laid back around people.

anyway, just thought i'd share. we live in a pretty cool place, and it's nice to take some time every now and then to stop and smell the peacocks.. err, roses. so go... GET OUT!!!

get juiced with a friend

click on the coupon.

thanks to jason for the heads up on this one.

happy friday!

an all star event

sandee's all stars made a huge showing at the relay for life this past weekend. and although it was a hectic 30 hours for me, our team made it one of the best experiences of my life.

our family is seriously blessed to have such awesome people in our lives. la palma may be small on square footage, but it more than makes up for it in heart!

here are a few fun photos of the all stars in action...

i was short on photo-taking-time, so these pics only represent about half of our contingent. we totally dominated! ha! =) AND! we were one of the few teams that actually kept someone on that track at all times.
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anyway, all of our hard work paid off because we raised over $6000 for the cause. we actually ended up winning a trophy for being one of the top fundraising teams! yay us! and the event as a whole raised almost $70,000! that ranks our community near the top of the entire OC!

thanks again to all of our all star team members and supporters. you made this event a HUGE success!

300!

no, i'm not talking about "300" the movie. although i did get to see that on the imax screen down at the spectrum and it was awesome! if you have an imax theatre near you that plays major motion pictures, you should definitely check it out!

anyway, the 300 i'm talking about is jumps. yesterday, i finally made my 300th skydive. it's not a huge milestone for most jumpers, but it was a significant one for me.

i made nearly 200 jumps in my first year as a skydiver. but due to a few hurdles, i was stuck between 200 and 300 for the last 5 years, and i wasn't really sure if i was ever actually going to make it to 300. but i finally did, and it was awesome!

i got to share the jump with a few of my best skydiving friends, and we only had one goal: have fun! (well, that, and get a few good photos from it, since i don't have a ton in the air.) and i would definitely stamp this one: mission accomplished. here is the video:

(sorry that it's not edited down. i didn't have time to mess with that today.)



too much fun!!! here are a few of my favorite photos:

so, usually, when you hit 100, they pie you after. i skipped being pied on my 100th, because i hit it while on a trip to colorado, where i made sure nobody knew it was my 100th. now, 300 is technically not a pie-able offense, so i made them promise there would be no pie. of course, i said nothing about cake. i guess i had it coming...

thanks a million times over to brooke, naomi and terry for making it such a memorable event!