Me and the people.

Nicole reminded me after my last post that there were no pictures of me (or us, or me and the kids) in it. Which is not surprising, since all of those pictures came from my camera. So here's some pictures of with me in them from our trip to Newport Beach. And the ocean. And Disneyland. :) (These were all taken by Natalie or Nicole)

Me

Me and Nicole

Me and Ethan

Me and Chelsea

Me and Jayden

Gang pictures

Newport Beach trip 2009

So I'm finally getting around to documenting our trip to Newport last month. To begin with, an amusing photgraphic anecdote:

Nicole's shoes for the trip (she would like you to know she's not crazy):
My shoes for the trip:

The night we got down there had one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen. After rushing back from taking the kids to the pool, I grabbed the tripod and took a few pictures:

Our first day at Disneyland, I was the designated water carrier so I didn't take my D60. Therefore, I only took like 3 pictures with our little point & shoot. But look how pretty I am... :p

Tuesday we went to Laguna Beach for a while in the morning and hung out at the pool and condo in the afternoon.

The next day was our Downtown Disney day, as well as Ruby's on Balboa Pier for some tasty burgers.

Thursday I left my Camelbak at home and took my D60 to Disneyland. As Nicole has said many times, one of the coolest things about Disneyland is the attention to detail. There's a lot packed into a relatively small area and it all, down to the last chair, is meant to add to the completeness of the park. Here's just a few of my favorites from Disneyland.

Friday was another mellow day at the condo and the pool. The grounds at the Marriott's Newport Coast Villas are fairly well suited for the whole Tuscan theme.

As is customary, we stopped in Baker on the way home for a gyro (for me--everyone else eats somewhere else). Here's a few pictures of the Halloran Desert, south of Death Valley.

We got back to St. George just in time for dinner and the sunset.

Wiser words...

My dad once gathered my brother and me up, and said he was going to tell us the secret to success. His next words were, "Win if you can, lose if you must, but no matter what happens always cheat." My mom yelled at him from the kitchen of the trailer we were living in, and I figured I had it made. Since that day (I think I was 11) I've evolved through varied definitions of the term "cheat". Occasionally in my younger years, "cheat" meant do whatever it took to win/get ahead. In the Disney film The Sword In The Stone, the wizard Merlin defines cheating as using magic: "Every last trick in the trade, if I have to." He doesn't do anything dishonest, even when Madam Mim turns into a purple dragon (the dishonest form of cheating), merely thinks very creatively. When I realized that honesty and integrity were important to me, my definition of "cheat" took a turn in this direction.

I've had some fairly proud "cheat" moments in my life, though only a couple stand out as the years go by. One was in my last job, where 16 alligator clips, 2 ethernet cable ends, 2 pieces of foam, and some very creative soldering became what we called the "superhack" and allowed us to verify that 1200 feet of CAT 6 ethernet cable were still useful and didn't need to be thrown away.

The most recent was on our return from Newport Beach, where I discovered that my fine Swiss watch is water resistant but not steam resistant. On getting the watch back from the store where it had been dried out, I discovered that the date was wrong. Whereupon I discovered that the knob setting that allows turning the date forward was not working. No worries, I could just turn the hands (that still worked) forward and the date would go forward that way. Whereupon I discovered a problem. It takes roughly 3 spins of the little knob to turn the hour hand 360 degrees (12 hours). It was July 1. The date according to my watch was the 9th. Faced with the prospect of roughly 132 spins of that tiny little knob, I improvised. With a little dose of awesome. Enjoy.