USS Iowa

Our friend Michael came down to Southern California for a visit, so we decided to take a day to go exploring.  Owen and I have been on a WWII kick lately, watching  Enemy at the Gates, World Wars, and The Pacific. We thought this was a good opportunity to check out the USS Iowa since she served in the Pacific during WWII.
P.S. 10 points to anyone who knows why all boats/cars are ladies...

The ship came to the harbor in Long Beach in 2011 and serves as a museum.  Obviously, they've kid-proofed everything so that you can't hurt yourself or slide down anything and get stuck.  Bummer.  I DID ask if all of the kid-proofing was reversible and was told that, if need be, the Iowa would be battle ready in a few months.

The Iowa brought Roosevelt to Europe during WWII and is the only battleship in the history of the United States that has a bath tub instead of a shower to accommodate his needs.  

Our amazing tour guide, Roger, had to explain to a young museum goer what Polio was and why it was significant that a bathtub was built into a battleship.   

This is the Bridge! Can you imagine what would happen if you pushed the wrong button!

This is the navigation room, which is normally roped off but Roger let us come inside.  This is one room that was NOT kid proofed and I literally was a step away from knocking myself out!  There are two parascopes in here.  I ran into one and bounced off the other.  The first time, Roger said "Whoops! Watch your head."  The second time he said, "I said WATCH YOUR HEAD!"  I'm going to go ahead an assume that the little black dots on the wood floor by the wheel are blood stains from previous head wounds.

These were super high-tech navigation tools from back in the day.  Roger did explain how they worked, but I must have been concussed because I don't remember the specifics.

A film reel we watched said that these guns could hit a target dead-on from 40 miles away!

These two were loving every second!

Juan Pablo Update For Ellen

I think we have a mutant on our hands!  Is this normal?

Pueblo 2014

I missed Kylee's birth by a DAY! Can you believe it?!  Lyndsey, I'm thinking all of that walking around we did in Dillard's because I couldn't make up my mind about what Dad and Russ should wear for the wedding had something to do with her coming early....very sorry about that.  On a happier note, although she came early, she is doing very well!!

Deezer and KK are growing up so fast! Kennedee read me books-every day.  She is a smart cookie and loves to learn.  Kaydence is hilarious and totally let me carry her around wherever we went.  It's bitter sweet watching these kids grow up and I'll happily pack them around as long as they let me.

Here is the whole Pueblo bunch together!


Obviously, one of my duties, as favorite auntie, is to teach bad habits!  It turns out the Kaydence is a natural....



Seriously, how cute are these kids!  We went to the Denver Aquarium, out to lunch and dinner, and watched Frozen AT LEAST 7 times.  It was a great mini vacation!

Peggy

This is a special shout out to the one and only Peggy Whitlock.  Peggy, if you are reading this, know that Owen and I are sending love your way!  Keep your chin up and keep that twinkle in your eye!

Love,

Owen and Kandi

Alumni Party

Last year, the Alumni party was a time where Holli and I got to spend some real quality time with each other.  The Alumni party is held every year at a fancy hotel for all of the previous and upcoming graduates at MSU in the film program. The intention of the party is for past MSU students to network with successful graduates, current students to find a couch to sleep on when they move down, etc.  Being the finances of two film students and not having much to contribute to the conversation, we had to find a way to entertain ourselves.


Alumni Party 2013:

Ah, 2013.  What a year.  As you can see, this picture is probably blurry for a reason.  We really lived it up at the alumni party in 2013. We ate the snacks (hello bacon wrapped dates!  I freakin’ love those things!), we indulged in the libations without hesitation, we decided to take action/fashion shots in the bathroom- you know, the usual.

Alumni Party 2014: 

2014 will go down in history as the year that I became old.  There is no such thing as “feeling my oats” anymore unless I want to feel like I need Ibuprofen and a nap.  What kind of crap is this?  This year, we decided that we needed to recreate our epic bathroom picture.  We had to take a few shots and enlisted the help of our friend Tessa to be our Artistic Director to make sure the shot was perfect.  This time around, we had to try pretty hard to make the picture blurry...

 

The Natural History Museum

Since I was shopping for my wedding dress over Valentine's Day weekend, Owen and I had to postpone our day date that we had planned to the Natural History Museum.  The great thing about LA is that you can watch a documentary on TV and then go to the museum or science center the next day and learn more about it.  In keeping with our Netflix trend, we opted for the museum, followed by watching Monuments Men and meeting up with our friends Holli and Rory for dinner. 

Every Friday, Owen and I have "Taco Friday" where we, obviously, eat tacos and watch "Gold Rush" on the Discovery Channel, followed by Bearing Sea Gold. This season, not only are the miners digging for gold in Alaska, but also diamonds in the jungle of Guyana.  We love this stuff.  The mineral exhibit at the museum was right up our ally. They even had a HUGE exhibit about the California Gold Rush with tons of nuggets the size of your fist, but I was so distracted- it was like the first time in my entire life that I didn't get a picture of something that I wanted to.

There were rows and rows of beautiful rocks and mineral deposits.  I kept thinking that my mom, who is a notorious rock collector, would just love all the different colors, shapes, and sizes.

 The dinosaurs were ahhhmazing!  Literally, 90% of the specimens at the museum came from Eastern Montana, followed up by Wyoming and North Dakota.

Race on The Base

This past weekend a few coworkers and I ran the Race on the Base 5K!

I knew the race was coming up, but I didn't necessarily "prepare" in the traditional sense of, you know, running.  I mostly prayed that I wouldn't die and wouldn't get embarrassed from all of the little kids passing me effortlessly...but mostly that I wouldn't die.

We made it out alive and were very proud to show off our medals!