Magic Mountain

On May 6th Tyaan, Michael and I went to Magic Mountain. We hadn't gone for a couple years and I decided it was time.


We played a game and each got a cape as a prize. I actually won, so got a stuffed monkey as a prize as well. He went on a bunch of rides with me during the day.


Towards the end of the day Tyaan played a game because she wanted to win a batman hat. She did it!


Michael and Tyaan got pulled up on stage for a fun game. They got to throw water balloons, and at the end got drenched!



We had a lot of fun!

Riding Trip

On March 27th we went riding. Jon and Bryce (and Marley!) actually went out the day before and camped for the night. The rest of us went up that morning. It was Tyaan, Michael, Caitlin and Courtney Miller, and myself.

It was a fun day. Everyone had plenty of time to ride, and I even got to ride my bike for the first time. We were out on a dry lake bed, which is fun because you can go really fast.




We had a really small bike out that day... Jon rode it around for a few minutes and made us all laugh.


Jon also brought an RC Car. I drove it around for a while. At the edge of the lake bed there is some terrain and I could get the car jumping pretty well. Marley had a great time chasing it for quite a while.


Jon had posted some signs for me to follow. They had gone to a different spot than we usually do so he was concerned about me being able to find them. It was kind of tricky, but we made it.


We had to be home in time for a broadcast that evening, but everyone got their fill of riding. Most of them even rode from the lake bed to the paved road, which took about a half hour or so. It was fun, and burned the gas out of the tanks. Then it was time to head home!

Riding Trip

On November 14th, 2009 Jon and Tyaan went on a riding trip with some friends. My work was moving to a new building so unfortunately I wasn't able to go. It sounds like they had a lot of fun!

Courtney??, Mike, Russell, Bo, Tyaan, Bryce

Tyaan and Bryce. This is when they were dating.


Tyaan and Bryce.

Tyaan's 18th Surprise Party

On July 23rd Tyaan turned 18 and I threw her a surprise party. We had just gotten home from Hawaii so I convinced her that we should do a party later in the summer. I used my mom's house and set up while she thought I was at work. I told her that my dad wanted to take her out to dinner that night so she got dressed nicely.

Here is the backyard once it was ready.


She always wants a jumper...so we had to get one. They did have a lot of fun in it. And of course Russell had to climb up on top...




Her cake was amazing!


Can't believe she's 18 already. What a beautiful girl she is. I was so glad that she had such a good time, and that I was able to surprise her!

Riding Trip

On May 23rd we went on a riding trip. Tyaan hadn't ridden since breaking her collarbone on Jan. 3rd. We didn't dare go riding again until after swim season was over. So we had been waiting a while for this trip!

This is me coming in after riding Jon's bike. I love to ride his bike out on the dry lake bed because it's SO fast!


Tyaan's friend Bryce came with us on this trip. He had never ridden before and hadn't been able to go on a young men's riding trip that Jon and other leaders had put together a few months before. So Jon had wanted to make sure he got the chance to ride. Since he is a swimmer also (he was captain of the boys swim team at Chaffey, while Ty was the girls captain) and also swam at CIF we didn't want him risking injury until season was over.


Here is Ty, back in her riding gear after all those months!


It was a fun day. We got to ride some trails. Jon doesn't get to ride very fast when he's with us because we're nowhere near as good on dirt bikes as he is. This was also the first time I had been out since I had crashed so I was pretty timid. (It hurts!!) But he is patient with us, and says he had a good time anyway!

Beach trip

On May 9th we took a trip to the beach. It was warm at home, but the beach was overcast so it was pretty cool. The girls still got some skim boarding in because it wasn't too crowded. We also got to play volleyball, which Tyaan has been playing more lately and is getting more comfortable with it. I love volleyball so I'm enjoying that!




I stayed out of the water...

AMA Supercross Finals

We got tickets to go see the AMA Supercross Finals in Vegas on May 2nd. We were really excited because we weren't able to go to the race here in Anaheim and the season was ending. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on tickets so when we found some that were a really good price we grabbed them.

We did the trip in a day so we didn't have to spend the money to stay the night out there. We left mid morning, Russell came with us. Tyaan made herself comfortable so the 4 hour drive didn't seem too bad. Russell was playing video games most of the way, so he was happy as well.


We got there and found our seats which were pretty good. It was really cool to see the track in person since we're used to watching on TV. The pits were open and we got to watch practice during the day. It was pretty hot when we got there, but it made the evening perfect once the sun was down. This is a picture of the track from our seats.


Russell, Ty & Jon


Ty and Jon in their Supercross hats!

Russ and Ty.


There was a show in the pits that Ty and I went out to watch. These guys were flipping and doing all kinds of stuff. It was pretty amazing! They did a show in the stadium in between races. At one time they had 3 motorcycles all doing back flips and in the air at the same time!


Jon and I during the races. It got pretty heated with the Reed vs. Stewart fans. We are Stewart fans, because he is by far the best rider, but in Vegas the Reed fans are overwhelming. Since this was finals and Stewart and Reed were 1st and 2nd in points it came down to this race to decide the season champion.

Here is Stewart during the race. He is amazing!!

Tyaan's sign. The "Reed...who is that guy" is totally funny. If you follow the series you'd realize how cute it was that she put it on there.

They put on a pretty good fireworks show when the race was over. Stewart won the championship (although not the race) which was AWESOME!! Reed didn't win the race OR the championship, although he tried to wreck Stewart because he's an idiot... but that was pretty awesome too.


Afterwards we drove home. It was a long, but really fun day. We got home early the next morning. Luckily Russell drove most of the way home so Jon could sleep. It was a really fun experience and we'll definitely have to make it to a race next season. Although we'll go to Anaheim. The drive is a lot shorter!! (only about 30 minutes)

Backwards 2009

Tyaan's school's Backwards dance was last Saturday, February 28th. She went with Wade and these are a couple of the pictures they had taken. The theme of the dance was "Jungle Boogie".


It sounds like they had a good time. They doubled with another couple who they are friends with. I got to be the chauffeur of the evening and enjoyed getting to spend some time with them. They had dinner at In-N-Out, went to the dance, and then came back to our house for a couple hours and watched a movie.

Phantom of the Opera

For Christmas my mom gave Tyaan and I a ticket to see Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. I have always wanted to see it and have never had the opportunity so it was a great gift! We went on February 16th.

Here we are ready to head out.

It had been raining for a few days and I was worried about traffic on the way out there, but it stayed clear for the entire night and we didn't hit any traffic at all! We took my Phantom CD for the drive and were all ready to see the play after listening to it. Here is the theater all lit up before the show started.

A quick picture of the stage during intermission. You can see the chandelier, which becomes part of the show a couple of times. This is taken from our seats. We were in the 3rd row in the center balcony. They were perfect!


Here we are coming out of the theater. I loved it and was thrilled with how well the actors did. The guy who played the Phantom was fantastic, but they were all really really good.


I was so excited to finally get to see it and it met all of my expectations. I loved seeing how they did the show on stage and I'm always fascinated with how they keep the stage changing and show such a range of scenery and situations in a small area. Tyaan was laughing at me just before it started because I was so excited. She said I was like a little kid on Christmas morning.

I loved it! Thanks mom!!!

Another Riding Trip

Jon and I went on a riding trip by ourselves a couple weeks ago. Tyaan decided to stay home since she's injured and can't ride. (Can't blame her for that!) After riding the bikes out on the dry lake bed I was looking forward to trying it on the trails and dirt. We tried a new place this time that neither of us had been to but is popular. It's much closer to our house than where we had gone before which was great. We got there in an hour and were home in the early afternoon. We didn't have to pack lunch or anything because it's close to home so it was easy to get out of the house and on the road in the morning. And I was home early enough to get errands run and some housework done. That's a good day in my book!

Here I am in my borrowed gear. (I don't have a bike yet so I don't have my own gear) It is my helmet though!


Here is Jon getting us ready to go. It is nice to have a husband who's strong enough to move the bikes around and into and out of the back of the truck. I also learned that it's great to have a husband to kick start the motorcycle when I can't do it and have stalled it...again. :-)

We had a lot of fun. Well, Jon says he had fun but he had to go pretty slow to stay with me. I took a pretty good spill when we hit a patch of rocks. I went down, and it hurt, but I wasn't injured too badly. I scraped up my elbow and smacked my side and leg on the rocks so I got some pretty bruises several days later. I was just happy I didn't ruin my jeans. I put a hole in Tyaan's shirt though, which is a bummer. And I scratched up her bike, but she forgave me. Of course that's the first thing Jon told Ty when we got home (I don't think I was even out of the truck yet) and the 2 of them told EVERYONE! My ribs still ache where I landed and it's been 2 weeks! It was fun though and I'm looking forward to going out again. We might go this Saturday if it doesn't get too busy.

Riding Trip

On January 3rd we went out riding so we could get Tyaan on her new dirt bike. We went to a dry lake bed outside of Barstow which is a couple hour drive from our house.


Tyaan got to ride her bike, and I took a turn on it as well. It's a fun bike! I hadn't ever been on a dirt bike before, and hadn't ridden a street bike in several years but I didn't have any trouble. I even felt brave enough to get on Jon's bike afterwards which is a little too big and too powerful for me, but on the dry lake bed it was SO much fun! At one point I looked down and was going 74 mph.

Here is Jon on his bike. How do you like the numbers he gave it? He says the bike doesn't run on gas, it runs on fury. He really likes his bike...


Unfortunately the day didn't last long enough. After a few hours Tyaan decided to try riding a quad that some friends of ours had brought and she flipped it over. She broke her collar bone and we jumped in the cars and made the drive home and to the emergency room. We spent most of the day there.

So, her waterpolo days are over (in high school at least) and we're all very sad about that...mostly her team and coach because they're missing having her in the water. We're hoping for the best for swim season. She had some pretty high goals for this year and we're hoping this injury doesn't stop her from achieving them. It's going to be a lot of hard work but if anyone can pull it off it's Ty. Hopefully we'll get her in the pool in a couple weeks and working on building that muscle and endurance back up.

Keep her in your prayers! We're looking for all of the help we can get to have her heal quickly!

Tyaan's Wall of Flowers

We finally got around to painting another of Tyaan's walls. We painted one dark blue and put stars all over it a couple years ago and her intention was to do the other walls also. Over Christmas break she decided it was time, got her room ready and we started painting. She picked out this beautiful green (that I'm seriously considering painting my kitchen and laundry room with- I like it better than the green I already have)

Tyaan and Wade painted the wall and I got to do the corners (yuck!)


Once they got the second coat on Tyaan started adding the flowers. She just started drawing and painting away and they all came out pretty beautiful. I wish I was this artistic.


She added some text as well. It says Joy - the meaning of Life.



I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of Wade and Tyaan so I could show you how adorable they are. He's a great kid and we're enjoying his company.


It turned into a couple days of Tyaan painting flowers, but this is the finished product. I think it's beautiful and she seems pleased.


She's already got the shade of purple picked out that's going on the next wall...