I’ve been so busy with work lately that I haven’t been nearly as faithful of a blogger as I should be. For that I apologize (again). I promise some amazing catch-up posts in the future. In the mean time, here’s something pretty dang fun:

On Saturday we were able to take the kids the Disneyland (thanks Dominic!!!) for the first time in four years and now that the kids are old enough to really appreciate it, it was something really special. Cricket had been talking about going to Disneyland so much back in Jersey, it was great to not have to tell her “maybe someday” or that its “too far away”. So we took some pictures, and here they are!

Finn and the kids on Main Street USA

Me and the kids at the Disneyland Halloween celebration.

Happy Birthday Parker! It’s your special day!

…and suddenly everything in the world feels right again.

It’s been a great day today. Parker and I woke up this morning and got his girls ready for church and we went to his ward (my old ward too). It was cool. Everybody was really warm and welcoming there (well, almost.). Then afterward, we headed back to Christians and had a crazy lunch mixing up a bunch of different stuff. Serious this is why your’re fat action. We’re talking peanut butter and chocolate chips on top of strawberry nutri-grain bars. DELICIOUS!

Last night Parker and I picked up his girls and we went over to our friend Ben Soto’s place. It was awesome, and they have a beautiful house. We got to play Wii for a while, eat cupcakes and stay up late. Oh and he has two awesome chihuahuas that we played with (Banksy and Stella).

This morning, Parker, Christian and I drove up to our old ward building in Brea to attend the funeral for Kemy Pyper. She was an awesome lady who was our bishop’s wife when we were younger. She was SUPER nice and our Bishop (Dennis Pyper) was very influential on me and my family. it was a heavy emotional funeral, but like most Mormon funerals, it was overall happy, with our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and eternal families. We know she’s in a better place and is waiting for her family. Nevertheless, the sadness of seeing her family say goodbye to her, even if it is just for a time, was touching.

I might stay here a little longer than I had originally planned on… I’ll keep you posted as things develop.

In other news, Parker and I are taking his little girls to the Barnums for swimming and food tonight and it should be fun! I haven’t even seen Don and only got to talk to Mary for like 5 minutes. I have the best in-laws ever and I haven’t even seen them! Plus Sarah and Joe and their awesome kids are coming in tonight, so it’ll be a par-tay. Party.

In the meantime, here’s an awesome video I saw yesterday that makes me want to quit life because it’s so awesome.

So after a wild wild adventure crossing the country yesterday, I finally find myself back in California. At the moment, I am in Downey at the super top-secret Yo Gabba Gabba headquarters where many awesome plans for the eagerly-anticipated Season Three are currently underway. I’m having a lot of fun hanging out with my brothers, Parker and Christian and I’m going to be here until Monday. They let me use a little iMac in Parker’s office, so I can blog from here! woo woo!

So to keep this from being simply an extended status update, I’ll share a little story with you. When Parker and I first got to the studios here, he gave me a bit of a tour. Apparently, they shot a big action scene for the upcoming Iron Man 2 out here in the parking lot last week. There’s some spy pics online but I won’t show you. Top Secret!

But yeah they were cleaning that stuff up when we got here this morning. So Parker and I snuck into an empty soundstage where they filmed the first Iron Man as well as the awesome Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls (and when I say “awesome” I mean absolutely horrible). So we were walking in this unlit warehouse and we went down a steep slope which took us by surprise. We continued further into the darkness and suddenly, we found a SECOND steep slope and I totally slammed. (what’s with me and falling down lately? Someone call Bob Saget, because I’m America’s Funniest Video) I didn’t think I hurt myself but a minute later, my thumb felt puffy (which is really weird because I didn’t even land on my thumb). Now it’s totally bruised and I still can’t figure out how it happened. (See pic below)

I’m okay. You don’t need to pray for my thumb or anything. It’ll be fine. I’m serious. Stop it.

Then I had a 3×3 Animal Style combo at In-N-Out (with a lemonade!) because I totally deserve it. Then I hung with Christian a bit and he showed me some funny videos on his computer. So it was an awesome day so far. Oh, and I had my first Five Guys Burger yesterday at the airport, and it was awesome!

I’m going to take a nap now.

So at the very beginning of April (almost two months ago), Marylynn’s parents came out to visit us and we thought to ourselves, “well heck, they’ve seen our apartment plenty of times, and it’s full of boxes, why don’t we just take them on a little church history trip to see Palmyra?” So we told them our idea and they got all giddy. We went, had a great time and here are the pictures to prove it.

So the night before we left for Palmyra we headed out to Cheeburger Cheeburger in scenic Lawrenceville for dinner.

I think Grandpa is cutting off one of Buster’s fingers here. I think Buster likes it.

Me and Crick-a-Lick.

My two favorite Marys.

Grandma and Cricket. Nice glamour shots pose!

The next day we piled into the car and headed up about five hours to upstate New York to the tiny town of Palmyra. Now if you don’t know, Palmyra is where our Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church) was founded. The Prophet Joseph Smith who was called to restore Christ’s church from ancient times was a farm boy in Palmyra. A lot more happened there, that I’ll touch on that later. Over hereis a more detailed account.) Our first stop was to visit the Smith Family Farm.

The Palmyra Temple was built only a few years ago and is right across the street from the Smith Family farm.

Here’s a better shot of it we took a few days later.

This is the cabin where Joseph and his family grew up (nine kids in this tiny place!!).

This tree was planted in memory of Joseph’s oldest brother, Alvin after he died at the age of 27 (?). Cool to see how big it is now.

My awesome in-laws, Don and Mary in front of the Smith family homestead. They built this home later on. I guess the cabin was getting too small…?

Here we are inside the homestead. Other people have lived here in the past 150 years, but since the church bought it a long time ago, they’ve restored it and re-created what it was like before.

This is our family.

A shot of the barn and homestead from out back.

Buster running ahead of us on our way to the Sacred Grove.

Cricket and Buster right when we got into the Sacred Grove. Cricket was grumpy about something.

So this is what we call the Sacred Grove. This is where Joseph Smith went at age 14 to pray to see which church was the true church and he received the First Vision.

“The First Vision” is when God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that none of the churches held the full truth and that they were all in error. Joseph learned here that he would be called to restore Christ’s church as it was established during His ministry.

So, the First Vision took place in early April, 1820 and is often represented in paintings and church films as taking place in a lush, leafy green forest. It was interesting to be there at the very same time of year. The trees were still bare and there was a stillness in the air.

I experimented with the macro zoom a bit on the camera and got some cool results.

More macro nature shots…

I like this one a lot. I used it for the art of my last podcast episode.

In the early spring, we could see leaves just starting to bud. Mary pointed out to me that it was such an appropriate time for the Gospel to be restored. A time of renewal, new life and hope. I thought that was amazing.

Mary and Don in the Sacred Grove.

The Smith Family Cabin from behind.

After that (was it the next day? I think so. I can’t remember) we went to the Hill Cumorah monument. The angel Moroni led Joseph Smith to the Hill Cumorah where the golden plates were buried. Joseph later translated these plates and that’s what the Book of Mormon is. Today there stands a monument up on top and a visitor’s center below. Every year there is ths hill Cumorah pageant there, where key parts of the Book of Mormon are acted out.

Here’s our little family on top of the Hill Cumorah. You can’t tell from this picture, but it’s actually pretty high up. Well, at least higher than I had expected.

Here’s looking down from the top.

Marylynn and her mommy are strolling along the ridge of the hill. It drops of pretty steep on the back side as well.

This is the Angel Moroni monument on the top of the hill. He’s also the little golden guy blowing a trumpet on top of our temples. Kind of a cool picture.

Cricket, Buster & Moroni.

Cricket and Buster on the Hill Cumorah. Watch your step, guys!!

Reminders of new life were all around.

Cricket my sweet.

Buster and Cricket at the Monument again.

Hill Cumorah Marker Stone. To read it easier, click to view the original size over at Flickr.

This paints a clearer picture of the steepness of the hill. I think Marylynn and her dad were talking about me.

Our Family at the Monument.

Got a few more nature shots on our way down the back side of the mountain. These are blossoms

Cricket gave me funny looks.

Budding Leaves

On the trail down the hill.

Hill Cumorah Visitors Center

Buster doubled up on the audio commentary in the Visitors Center. Must have sounded awesome in stereo!

Cricket agreed it was a good idea.

Marylynn practiced her Braille with a sample copy of the Book of Mormon… in Braille.

Afterwords, we headed over to McDonalds for lunch. Happy meals made them happy apparently.

Me and Don. I think he was describing his evil plot to destroy the world! Muwahahaha…

Then we headed over to the Peter Whitmer Farm. Donnie was checking to see how sturdy the sign was.

The Meeting House at the Whitmer Farm… and Cricket.

Buster, Grandma and Cricket outside the Peter Whitmer cabin

Peter Whitmer’s cabin. This is where the church was first organized.

All of us.

Inside the Cabin. The first Sacrament Meeting was held here. OK, well not THE first (that would have been the last supper), but you know what I mean.

A replica of a first edition Book of Mormon in the upper bedroom.

The hotel we stayed at wasn’t as modernized as we had hoped.

Then we went over to the Book of Mormon Publication Site in Palmyra. And that tall guy is Don.

They recreated what the publishing offices looked like.

More inside the publishing house.

The Book of Mormon printing press.

Buster was mr. wiggly pants by this time.

Back at the hotel, Grandma and Cricket got a few cuddles in before bedtime.

Cricket in her nightgown that Grandma Becky made for her. I love this photo. She’s so lovely.

Kids sleeping at the hotel. Buster wasn’t used to the new place and wet the bed… my apologies to the cleaning lady!!

This snow storm hit as we were leaving. Perfect timing!!

Cricket and Buster love each other at a Dunkin’ Donuts somewhere on the way home.

It was a really fun trip and I’m glad we could do it. We moved a few days later. What a crazy week! But it was well worth it.

I’m in San Diego on a business trip. Last night we got to have dinner right across the freeway from the temple! Not to mention it was at Islands, which was totally delicious. It was pretty good time. Unfortunately I fly back this afternoon, so it doesn’t leave much time for visiting friends or anything. I feel like quite the jet-setter these days.

UPDATE:
I just snapped this pic out the window of the lobby here in the Hilton Hotel I’m staying at. Gotta hand it to my boss, Marc D… he’s the man.

Friday was the day we had to say goodbye to our beloved France. It was such an amazing trip in so many ways. It was great for me to share France with Marylynn so she could experience the places and culture that meant so much to me. And I’ll always be grateful to the Dobys who were so good to us. I can’t wait for them to come out our way!