Friday, December 26, 2014

Just can't get enough Ranch

We went to LA for Thanksgiving and this is how the trip started:

Jackson found a package of Ranch in the car and went to town.

Luckily the mess was fairly contained so it wasn't awful.
This kid and dip, it kills me.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Grandpa Bain

I happened to be at my parent's one night when my dad got home and it was complete pandemonium. The kids ran up to him and went crazy. It was adorable. These little turkeys love their Grandpa!

Monday, December 22, 2014

We skipped out on season tickets this year (lack luster line up and nap time reigns supreme) but were still able to make it to quite a few games this year. Perhaps the highlight for Scott was seeing Utah and Stanford play and having Utah WIN!! We got amazing seats, thanks to a lackluster season, and all the action happened on our end. Overall the game was sort of boring but overtime happened right in front of our eyes and it was super exciting.
Seriously folks, we were this close.

And Jackson has learned to smile (but not look) at the camera.
He was rooting for the red team (but his shirt was for Stanford).

He enjoyed playing with discarded trash and handing it to strangers.



The best we could get.

The next week we went to the Big Game.
Stanford obviously paid the refs more and it was a humiliating game for Cal.
Let's not go there ever again...

I like this guy!
And I'd like to get this license plate for my Dad's car.

And the next week Scott stayed home with lots of kids so adults could see Cal play BYU!

Friday, December 19, 2014

My diligent sidekick

Jackson is always looking around the house to see what he can dump out or put somewhere.
We spent hours one Saturday giving the house a serious deep clean and by dinnertime it looked like a tornado had blown through. We do love our little tornado!

Pants or no pants, he's always up to something.

He has free reign of his cup drawer and at least once a day it gets emptied.

I'm much better at washing and folding than putting away so Jackson often steps in to help.

Hopefully one day he'll learn the difference between clean and dirty laundry.

And he's my sous chef. Once 5pm rolls around Jackson can be found in the kitchen!

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

London: Harrod's & Hampton Court

Saturday we spent with Scott's Scottish friends. We went to the British Museum and Harrod's.
Naturally this is the only picture I have.
I was intrigued by what the British Museum displayed: they had a lot of busts with no faces. The faces were back in their home country. In true American/British form it said that the artifacts were in this museum for better preservation. Few nations have the confidence to say things like that.
Harrod's was awesome but ridiculous. Who knew it cost $10 for 4 little pieces of chocolate!

Sunday we were about ready to cry with homesickness and hunger (British food is awful) 
but we bucked up and went out to Hampton Court, after a quick stop at the Victoria & Albert Museum.


Isn't the art work amazing!?

I loved the courtyards. 

We did the maze and Scott was stunned that we actually found the middle!

Monday morning we happily flew back home to real life and Mr. Jackson.
We really loved London and saw almost everything she had to offer.
I thought this trip was a starting point for touring Europe but Scott saw it as a bargaining chip to get me to Africa or Israel. I'm not so sure about that...

Monday, December 15, 2014

London: Parliament & Harry Potter

Bright and early Friday morning we raced to our tour of Parliament.

The building is beautiful and rich in history and tradition.

Yet again, some stupid Americans snuck in a very classy event...

We went to DC about 2 years ago so it was interesting to compare governing bodies. Although I have deep American pride I was intrigued by many things British. However, I didn't realize before how useless their royals are. I know sometimes we think the President is useless but he has a lot more power than the Queen. She can't veto a bill and the speech she gives Parliament each year is written by the members of Parliament! I'd love to be royalty but it seems like a name only.
(Am I going to regret writing these words one day when I'm politically famous?)

And we made a quick stop at Trafalgar Square.

In the afternoon we toured the Harry Potter studio.
We did many things in London and I almost hate to admit this was one of my favorites.
Scott has a friend in Scotland who wanted to go so I watched all the Harry Potter movies a few weeks before. Just as I finished watching them it was discovered that tickets were sold out the day we wanted. Since I already invested so much time into the movies I decided we'd go alone.
Scott is Harry Potter clueless (neither of us are huge fans) and even he liked it.
It was amazing to see how much time and talent went in to creating the movies. If I thought my money was going to the people doing the work I'd be willing to pay a lot more for my movie tickets. The amount of work and creativity was amazing!

Harry's room under the stairs.

They actually made a life size banquet hall.




This is Dumbledore's study but was also used for a few other things.
Can you imagine the work to change everything around and then set it up again?!


The Wesley house.

I was really impressed by the sculptures and paintings that were legit. 
We thought a lot more things were CGI but most things were actually real.


4 Privet Drive

Ron's chess player


Diagon Alley was epic.

Butterbeer was horrible.

Not even Scott finished the glass we bought.

Can you see us in there?

This is the 3D model they created of the school. JK Rowlings didn't tell them what was going to happen with each book so they had to wait like everyone else. However, that meant that sometimes what they envisioned the school looked like didn't work with the next book. If you watch the movies in quick succession you'll notice that Hogwarts looks different in each movie. Interesting fact!



And by this time we really missed this cute guy.
He had a great time with cousins and friends but perhaps 11 days was about 5 days too many...