John's new BFF...Brendan Fraser

Okay, so my husband is way too understated and he tends to play things down. Let me explain. Last week John told me I should come and meet him at work on Friday (he works on the back lot of Universal studios). He said Brendan Fraser was coming to do a little promotion for "The Mummy" and John knows that I am a huge fan of Brendan...especially his early stuff (a bit of a crush for sure) like Encino Man, and School Ties, and With Honors. His production company was doing a little camera work for this event. I thought that sounded pretty exciting...but he left out a few details.

So me and the little kids headed over to Universal, met John at his office, and walked into the park with him. We were just planning of playing for a while until the presentation started. John and his company were setting up cameras and John had this list in his hand. When I asked him what it was for, he said, "Oh, it's just the interview questions for Brendan". WHAT? Then he proceeds to tell me that his company is interviewing Brendan and sending the footage to news stations and Access Hollywood. So I asked him who gets to do the interview...and he says, "Oh, me". WHAT! HELLO! He never told me this part before. This is definitely the kind of info I thrive on and get all excited about and kind of obsess about...and apparently the kind of info that doesn't phase my husband (like meeting and talking to a big star is just everyday business...Hello). So me and the kids watched the "Mummy" presentation with the rest of the huge crowd,and then we hung around because we knew John was doing this interview. The crowds dispersed because they were told Brendan was not coming back out (but I knew different) and so me and the kids inched up to the little roped off area that John was setting up in. Brendan came out and before you know it he was shaking hands with my husband and saying, "Hi John, how are you doing". Can you imagine that? "George of the Jungle" getting all personal with my hubby. By then we had a big crowd around us watching Brendan. Carver was pointing to John, and someone in the crowd saw him and then they yelled, "Hey, his Dad is doing the interview. How cool."

I couldn't really hear what the interview was about, but I think I have a good idea of what Brendan was saying.

"What an honor to meet you John Lopez"

"Yes...I saw your wife in the crowd...she is beautiful"

"Of course I want to be your new BFF and meet your family Dude".

This is a little behind the scenes video that one of John's co-workers made. You can't really hear anything, but it is kind of fun anyway.

Meet me at the Beach!

Anyone that knows me, knows that I love living in Florida...and a big part of that is THE BEACH! I love the beach. This past week at church, I just told a bunch of friends to meet me at the beach on Tuesday, and voila...BEACH DAY! The beach is only about 40 minutes from my house and so it is the perfect little get-away. We had 8 moms and 28 kids there that day. We set up our own umbrella city, played in the water, ate lunch, and just had the best time. The teenagers hung together and played volleyball, keep away, or went boogie boarding. The tween girls dug some holes, played in the water, and became the beach divas. The little boys were all over the place (but mostly boogie boarding), and the babies just played in the waves. I looked around, seeing all my wonderful friends, seeing my kids having such a perfect day, admiring the sand, the water, and the sky, and I just felt so blessed to live here. I have loved all the places I lived, and I guess good friends and family make that possible. Here...my friends become my family.

"THE TEENS"

"THE BEACH DIVAS"

"THE SURFER BOYS"

"THE WATER BABY"

Leisurely Lizard

Yesterday was pool day...one of my favorite days. All our friends meet at our neighborhood pool on Wednesdays and we just hang out for the whole day. Usually about 10 moms and 30 kids or more. Anyway, toward the end of the day, I remembered a trick I saw someone do on TV with a lizard. I had all the kids try to catch a lizard for me (they are everywhere here). I picked him up, rubbed his tummy about four times, and then he was hypnotized or something. He was breathing and blinking, but he wouldn't move. So we set him in this little boat, an he just held onto the steering wheel and did a little boating...for about five minutes. It was so hilarious and the kids were just going crazy. To snap him out of his "trance", I just picked him up, and then he ran away. It was quite the entertainment for us.

Fantastic 4th of July!

This year we spent the 4th of July here in Florida. Almost every other year of our kids lives, we have spent the 4th in Kaysville Utah... where I do the 5 or 10K race, then we do the chuck wagon breakfast and the parade, then BQ and swim at my Mom and Dad's house, and then Lagoon's fireworks. Well...this year we had to postpone our trip to Utah (we are counting down and will be leaving on July 19th), and so we had the 4th in our own town. The kids were so sad to miss their cousins and all the Utah festivities...but they ended up having SUCH A GREAT DAY! We invited some good friends to spend the day with us (The Roe Family) . We headed to our pool, (met the Hillis family there) had a great time splashing around, then had a BQ in our back yard, then headed over to our neighborhood festival in our own little town square. Bounce houses and all sorts of fun. We had front row seats for an AMAZING fireworks show over the town square. We then headed back to our house for "fireworks in the street", (thanks to Jeff Roe). We had so much fun with our friends, the kids made new memories, and it was fun to see how festive our neighborhood gets for the 4th.

Girls Camp!

I got to go to part of girls camp this year! Yea! I am in the Young Women's presidency for church and so I went to help out. I have been to so many girls camps as a leader, but this was the first time I was there with Kinsey. Girls camp went great and all the girls had a great time. I love the girls in my ward. They are so wonderful and they really all just love each other. I was so impressed at the way they got along. No fights, no drama, just lots of fun. Girls camp was located on the LDS church ranch (about 45 min. from my house), and the girls stay in cabins. I have always been in a tent at girls camp, so the cabin thing was new to me. But when you live in Florida, and the heat and humidity are so high, air conditioned cabins are a must. Here we are having a nice game of apples to apples in our cabin (above).
We had a nice covered porch to eat our meals on...and good thing that it was covered, as Florida's afternoon rain liked to hit at lunch time.

Kinsey and Savannah Raskey
I was in charge of the "craft" for the whole stake. I helped them make fun colorful chunky bracelets, and it seemed to go over really well. It was fun to see the girls wearing the bracelets throughout camp, and afterwards.
This was a HUGE alligator that wandered into camp one night. Okay, not so huge, but still a gator (never had this problem in Seattle or Utah). The bishop of our ward tried to shoo it away, and it wouldn't budge, so he grabbed it around the mouth and carried it into the woods. We now call him the "alligator wrestler".

Just for the "cuteness" of it!

"We love our Dad"

I almost forgot to blog about Father's day, but it's never too late in the blogging world...Right? Well, John has six huge fans living in this house. He is an amazing Dad, and the best husband ever (I stand by that claim). The kids go into a frenzy when he comes home each night. He is kind of like a celebrity (well, until he tells someone to go to bed, or asks them to do a chore...then he loses that status, but you can't be on top all the time). We had a great Father's day, with lots of "Daddy pampering" (including lots of food, gifts...and uninterrupted nap time). Kinsey even made him one of her yummy cakes. I truly think my kids are going to grow up knowing what a great Dad they had. He spends so much time with them, teaches them things, laughs with them, and has a personal relationship with all of them. Lucky kids for sure. And lucky ME!

GIRLS WEEK-END (Siesta Key Triathlon)

Well, we did it! Our third Triathlon. And to make it even more fun, we decided to make a girls week-end out of it! Five of us headed out to the Gulf Coast of Florida, to the white sands of Siesta Key, to swim, sweat, bike, run, eat, talk, and relax. SO MUCH FUN! Me, Sara Rose, Carrie Helms, Marie Winchester, Tracy Bosch...after we finished the race. Beckie Lowe and Andrea Rediski ,who had to back out at the last minute, were also there in spirit. (Andrea's disabled son had to go into the hospital...and I know how much she wanted to do this race...and how much she trained...so we thought of her the whole time). So...starting from the beginning, Sara picked me up, and we tried to get the bike rack on her car. Since there were only five of us, we figured out a way for us all to drive together. Sara took her back seat out, we fit two bikes standing in that area, and then put three bikes on the rack, and put all our bags in a car topper. Way more fun to drive together.

Okay, we think we figured it out...on to get the other girls.
As we picked up Carrie, we had her husband come and check the rack. He helped us get it a little more secure...and coached us with a few tips. We suddenly realized that we would be putting this bike rack on and off of the car many times by ourselves...and we needed to know how to do it. So thank you to Matt.
We made the 2 hour trip to Siesta Key, and talked the whole way. We found our "packet pick-up/registration spot", though we were skeptical. "Local Coffee and Tea"? Could this really be it? Yes it was. The guy that runs this race also owns this little shop. We picked up our packets, asked a bunch of questions, got him to give us our t-shirts early (everyone else had to wait until the next day), and tried on a bunch of stuff. As we left, we had been labeled "The high Maintenance girls". Well...whatever works. I did find an amazing deal on a Tri-suit, ($150 dollar suit for $25.00) so I was super excited.
Right away we went to check out the race course. Check out this starting line. BEAUTIFUL! So we had to stand in the very water (warm water may I say) that we would be racing in the next morning. Siesta Key is known for it's powder fine white sand and warm water. Notice we are all wearing our "Tri" necklaces. Okay...so you can't really see them, but I made us all matching necklaces. The two pendents say, "Wisdom", and "Strength". I thought was appropriate for this race.

We got settled in our fun condo on the beach, then headed out for a night on the town. We ate at a fun little sidewalk restaurant, and enjoyed the food, the atmosphere, and just talked for hours. So nice to not have to vacate a restaurant because of screaming children or because of the horrifying "kids-mess" made on the floor. Back at the condo we got our stuff all ready for the Triathlon the next morning. Soon we were trying out each other's bikes, testing each other's clip in shoes (trying to find the easiest clips), and having a great time. Usually the night before a race I am so nervous, but this night was so much fun.
We woke up around 4:30 a.m. and we were loading the bikes around 5:15 a.m. Still dark when we got to the race site. Now we have a few butterflies in our stomachs. By the time we got to the transition area, a lot of people were already set up, so we had to just kind of fit in where we could. This race was full of very "serious athletes". A little intimidating for sure.
I loved walking out onto the beach early in the morning. There were still some morning clouds, but it was so beautiful to see this white beach with all the racers getting ready to swim. I had never done a ocean swim before, so this was a whole new experience.

Getting excited...and still a little nervous
The whistle for our wave seemed to come out of nowhere. Not much warning. I almost had to laugh, but instead...I ran into the water. The water was so warm (actually I swim a little faster in cold water...but oh well) and it was a bit difficult to get out past the first small waves, but then I got going. I didn't like the salt water in my mouth...but lake water doesn't taste so great either. I seemed to have three girls surrounding me the whole time and got kicked a lot, but that's okay. I made it through...SHARK FREE!

Okay, this truly is me running out of the water (third person back), but you will just have to take my word for it. It was hard running through the sand to get back to the bikes. The bike was a 13 mile loop and it was so pretty through the small beach streets of Siesta Key. The run was a loop through the woods, and then a killer run down and back on the beach. It was supposed to be 3.2 miles...but it seemed to go on forever. I was so happy to be off the beach, but then we had one more loop through the woods. Arrghhh. I was so happy to see the finish line. We did have cloud cover for the first half of the race and that was nice, but it got quite hot and it was so humid. Saps my energy for sure. Sweat and salt water are not a really fun combination. Can you say STICKY?
Finished and so happy about it. The race was different distances than the other races we have done, so I think I did well (they didn't have our split times so it is hard to judge completely), and finished second among our little group.
We were all so happy that we finished our third race. This race really hurt at times, but it felt so good to be finished.

We all called our hubbies after the race. All five of us were wandering around with cell phones. We missed our cheering sections.

For the rest of the day we hung out at the condo, took wonderful naps, read, and talked and talked. It rained a lot of the afternoon, but that didn't stop the fun for us.

We got to see the most beautiful sunset and enjoy the beach in the evening. We ate dinner at a fun little restaurant right next to the beach on an open patio. We talked and talked way into the night again. I can't believe we never ran out of things to say. We headed back Sunday morning and got to church just in time.

I'm so glad that I got to share this fun week-end with these fun girls. I learned so much from them and got some fun stories as well. We all came home refreshed...and a little sore.

This should be the link to the picture of me coming out of the water. I'm not sure if it will work or not.

http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slideshow.jsp?auto=0&aid=768a5498cf43b70aefef&idx=150