OK, here we go. Some photos and video of our camping trip to Carlsbad State Beach. I’ve picked out some of my favorites, but you can see the lot of them here on flickr.com.

Here are Lauren and Jordyn getting some rides on the surfboard.
Both  of them did really well! I had to jump up over each wave with my camera in-hand… trying to keep it from getting splashed since I was up to my belly in the water.

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Every summer, for the past 10 years, we’ve been camping for 3 or 4 nights at the South Carlsbad State Beach. It’s our ‘end of summer’ tradition of sorts. Last year we skipTypically, you have to book your stay 7 months in advance… so, if you want to stay in August, you call on February 1st at 8am to get your spot. This is a very popular campground and the sites for the summer months usually sell out within 10-15 minutes. Somehow, we’ve always been lucky enough to get some dates booked. A few years ago, they started taking reservations online through the ReserveAmerica.com web site. We’ve had good luck with that method of booking for the past 3 years… until this year. Let me entertain you with our 2009 camping nightmare. This is a long read, but if you like feeling someone else’s pain, please take the time. Sit back, grab a beverage, and have a chuckle at my expense.

If you’re looking for photos, sit tight please. I haven’t had any time to process what shots I had a chance to take. You’ll have to check back later for those.

Day 0: Sunday

Check-in day… we’re all excited and have everything packed into the RV. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. We usually just throw up some tents in our campsite and “rough it” when we camp there. I use the term “rough it” very loosely as there are restrooms and showers on premises, but for us, this is camping. This year, since we have Brody with us, we decided to rent an RV for the trip to make it a little more bearable for a 14-month-old. We got a great deal on a private rental from a friend-of-a-friend. We picked it up the previous night and spent the morning getting it all ready. So, back to the story: all packed up now, we’re rolling down Interstate 5 South to our destination. Read the rest of this entry »

The OC Fair came and went once again. We love to go to the fair, and part of our annual trip there is to pile into the photo booth and get a strip of group shots. This was Brody’s second year, and the booth is getting crowded!! Really not sure how we’re going to keep this up in the coming years.

I always love seeing how Lauren has changed over the years! Now we have Brody in there and we’ll have more fun changes to watch.

The ever popular compilation of all the years:

2009:

Hey peoples! If you didn’t know already, I just turned wun years old! Mom and Dad invited people over and there was cake and lots of presents for me. I hope I get to turn wun again soon, because it sure was fun.

I know it’s been a loooong time since I’ve posted, and I apologize for that. But, my daddy has been super duper busy over the past few months. He stopped going to work every day back in April, he said something like laying down, or laying off… I dunno what you grown ups mean sometimes. He was real busy trying to find another place that he can go to work. Anyways, he got to stay home with me a lot and I really liked that! Well, he found a new place to go to work and we’re all happy for him.

So, let me quickly catch you up on thingz I have been doin’ over the past few months! I’m gonna run it down in a list for you. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m allergic to some beer, but not all beer. It’s not a specific kind or style of beer either. This is a problem for me because I really like beer… not just some beers, but all sorts of beers. I love to try new beers … which is tough with the allergy. With my iPhone, I’ve found an application that lets me keep track of all the beers that trigger my allergy.

BeerPad is a nice little application for the iPhone that is designed for beer enthusiasts to keep track of their beer adventures. You can add beers that you try into the application and it keeps all sorts of information in its database for you.

Features include:

– Assign parameters to each beer from predefined lists. These include Style, Brewery, Region, and Pairings. Each of these lists are editable so that you can add items to them if they don’t exist.
– Assign a photo to the beer. Choose from the camera roll, or take a new one. I am not a fan of the iPhone camera, so I search google images to find either the label or a good pic of the beer online, then save it to my phone and use that one. I discovered that once you assign the photo in BeerPad, you can remove it from your camera roll and it stays in BeerPad.
– Assign a rating for the beer on a scale of 5 stars.
– Several other free form parameters can be assigned. i.e., color, aroma, finish, etc.

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