This picture is at Sea World in San Diego. It was really cool, and the shows were amazing, but Bentley loved the star fish pond because he could play with all the star fish. Yes, those are all real. 

This is my hot little pool buddy in my sunglasses :-)

The L.A. temple is stunning. It is really, really big and indescribably beautiful. We traded off kids, and Bentley enjoyed walking around the grounds. 

Corban is growing so fast that we figured he was big enough to watch over Bentley now. Bentley is a fish, as you can see. He swims all over by himself with no trouble. 

We went to the "Mormon Night" Dodgers game. Don't let the smiles deceive you. It was actually a horrible experience of all-you-can-eat (garbage food) pavilion, 2 square inches of seat space, beer stench, and bad viewing. Bentley had a ball with the loud music and endless popcorn though. The later it got, the funnier and giddier he was. He was dancing like a drunkin' fool with no pants of because he wet them of course, and thankfully, he made all the trouble worth it. ...One of the experiences in life that you just laugh about later. 

There is no doubt that Bentley is musically gifted, but we are trying to start Corban early too.

Bentley and Mama eating lunch at the beach.

The parks here are better than any I have ever seen in my life, and there are tons of them. We have been to dozens now and have hardly touched them. 

Long Beach, CA

After our month-long nomadic track all over Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming, we are finally settled in Long Beach, CA where we will live for the summer while Brett does his internship with Toyota. I hope to post some pictures of our trip, but we are still getting our feet down, so don't take my word.

Brett's Secret

So was anyone wondering why, all of a sudden, Brett became a blogger over the past few months?  Truth be told, I took a social media class last semester, and I had to do a blog post every week.  Just putting that out there.  Having said that, it was fun to try and blog about our family, and I enjoyed seeing what friends have been up to.  Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know that I won't be blogging as frequently anymore, but I will try to keep it up every now and then.  Both Kinsey and I are terrible bloggers, but we'll do our best!

Moving to LA this Summer for Strategy Internship with Toyota

We are moving to Los Angeles (Torrance) this summer!  I got an internship doing corporate strategy for Toyota.  I know a lot of people would die to live in LA, but the location may be one of the harder things for us.  I'm actually ok with it, but my wife, who grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, is less than excited.  There's a lot to do, though, and I have a brother about an hour away in Riverside, so it will be fun.

Looking for housing is not too fun, however.  Especially in an expensive place like LA.  Back to combing through Craigslist, rent.com, padmapper.com, etc to find a place.  We've reached out to people we know, as well as BYU alumni through the BYU management society, and heard back from some people, but are still looking.  When searching Craigslist, I was reminded of how annoying it is when someone posts misleading information, and posts it almost every day.  I called an extended stay hotel near Toyota in Torrance (a Travelodge at 2448 Sepulveda Blvd. in Torrance) that was advertising $1395/month.  However, when I called (they posted that same day, and continue to post every day), they said the minimum was $1500/month.  And that's for 1 single person.  So my wife + 2 kids is another $150/each.  Now we're up near $2k.  I didn't stay on the phone much longer to find out what other hidden charges there would be.

As I think about looking for a place, I'm reminded of our experience moving here to Provo.  Hopefully we can avoid getting a place in the condition our house was in!  I had to start my MBA program with our house in this condition, and Kinsey had to be there all day.  It was like this for about the first month of school, while we worked with the landlord to put a kitchen floor in and make other modifications.  Oh, and there was no air conditioning, so it was over 90 degrees every day inside the house.  Here are some pictures:

House when we moved in:

This is the kitchen

 Laundry room

 Since the house was such a mess, we piled everything into the front room.  This is pretty much all the stuff we brought from Chicago

 Another view of the front room

House now:

Kitchen 

Front room

We worked hard to leave our house in Chicago in the best condition, so it was a little frustrating to come to this mess in Provo.  But it's better now.  Hopefully we can find a great place in LA!

Hike the Y

The weather was beautiful this weekend (getting excited for summer!) so we decided to hike the Y.  I must have hiked the Y 4 or 5 times during my time as an undergrad at BYU, but I hadn't made it up yet since coming back for my MBA, so we took advantage of the nice weather and hauled 2 kids up the mountain (Corban's first hike!).

It's a short hike, but pretty steep.  Throw a 30 lb. kid on your back, and you're in for some good exercise.  Having already played a racquetball game that morning, I was pretty tired.  Bentley did walk some of the way, but he didn't make it too far before saying "carry daddy, carry?".

I think my favorite part was when Bentley decided it would be more fun to hike down the mountain instead of up on a pretty steep section.  He was a few feet behind us, and all of a sudden he turned around and ran, as fast as he could, down the trail!  I ran after him and caught up to him just as he was slipping and falling, but I'm amazed he made it as far as he did.  We laughed for quite a while, and then tried to convince him we still needed to hike up the mountain.

The view was great from the top, it was a fun Saturday afternoon activity.

Happy Birthday Bentley! 2 Yrs Old

 

Happy Birthday Bentley!  I can't believe Bentley is already 2 years old.  His 1-yr-old birthday doesn't seem like it was that long ago.  Time is flying by way too fast.

Bentley is so much fun, we love to be with him.  He's a very happy and cheerful kid, and loves to do fun things like dance to music, play outside in the dirt, play catch or kick a ball with dad, and chase around the house.  Like probably all fathers, the highlight of my day is coming home and having Bentley run in from the other room to give me a big hug.

Bentley got some fun toys and some new clothes.  I wish we could have opened the gifts much slower (maybe one/day for a week, for example), because he loved each gift and wanted to play with it before opening the next gift.  It was hard to get him to put the toy down and open the next present.  Instead of throwing a bunch of new stuff at him at once, it would be nice to let him play with each gift for a while.  The only gift he showed absolutely no interest in was the clothes (no surprise).  He picked up a pack of underwear, looked at it for a second, threw it back in the bag, and went back to the toy truck he had just opened.

Here are some pictures of Bentley's birthday.

We had some balloons in our front room for Bentley when he woke up.  All day, he would take the balloons over to the stairs and chuck them down the stairs one by one.  Then I'd pick them up, bring them back upstairs, and he'd do it again.  It was cute! 

You can see all the balloons at the bottom of the stairs behind him 

Streamers for the party 

Bentley had no problems blowing out the candles 

This was one of his favorite gifts.  He loves trucks/cars. 

Some toys for playing/digging in the dirt (his favorite activity) 

Bentley had some fun when we took down the streamers

 

Drive from Chicago, IL to Provo, UT

That's me standing below a waterfall in Yellowstone National Park, one of the places we stopped at on our drive from Chicago, IL to Provo, UT last summer (2011).  When I decided to get an MBA at BYU in Provo, I quit my job a few weeks early so we could enjoy the drive and get settled in Provo before school.  It was an awesome trip, I'm glad we decided to take it slow and have some fun on the way.  Here's a quick breakdown of the things we did:

1. Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
2. Mt Rushmore in Rapid City, South Dakota
3. Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota
4. Hiking in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

1. Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

I love waterparks!  Wisconsin Dells, WI is a crazy little town.  For some reason, this tiny town in the midwest, about 3 hours from Chicago, has something like 20 or 30 theme parks/water parks/mini golf places/etc.  The waterpark we went to is supposedly the largest water park in America.  It's a fun town!  They even have huge indoor waterparks for the winter.  We went to Wisconsin Dells 3 or 4 times during the 3 years we lived in Chicago.  Here are a few photos at Mt Olympus Water and Theme Park.

Bentley LOVED playing in the water 

Bentley tuckered out from playing so much

2. Mt Rushmore in Rapid City, South Dakota

I lived in Rapid City, South Dakota as a kid (3-4 yrs old), but I don't remember it, so it was really fun to see Mt Rushmore.  It was well worth the parking fee to walk up and see the monument, as well as hike up closer to the mountain to get a better view.  This is the first time I remember Bentley walking A LOT in one day.  He hiked the stairs up to the monument almost entirely by himself.  We had to move fast to keep up with him.

3. Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota 

While in Rapid City, we went to the Reptile Gardens.  We got to see all kinds of cool reptiles (giant turtles, snakes, crocodiles, etc).  They also had a lot of exotic birds.  Bentley absolutely loved all the animals, we had a great time.  The giant turtles were fun because you could touch them, sit on them, or whatever you wanted; the turtles just sat there and didn't move.  I think the highlight, though, was the crocodile show.  As you can see in the picture, this guy walked around a fenced in area full of crocodiles and talked about how they live, what they eat, etc.  He even pulled one out of the water by its tail, jumped on its back, and grabbed its mouth with its hands.  And yes, he clarified, crocodiles will eat humans, but are usually too lazy to put forth the effort.  A few started sneaking up behind him during the show, and he had to move around to different spots during the show.

 This picture is actually a random place we found just outside Rapid City that had groundhogs running all over for you to feed.  Bentley enjoyed trying to catch them.  And yes, he tripped over a groundhog hole.

The giant turtles at the reptile gardens 

Want to know how to catch a crocodile?  First, you grab its tail... 

Then jump on top of it...

Then grab its mouth!  It's that easy 

They also sell cool things in the gift shop, like this parrot hat

4. Hiking in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

My wife is from Cody, Wyoming, which is right outside Yellowstone.  So she's been to Yellowstone many times.  However, she hadn't actually stopped and done many of the hikes.  So we decided to hike around a bit, and found this waterfall!  It was a hike off one of the geyser areas (I can't remember which one).  Since it was off the beaten trail, we were able to hike right up to it, and stand in the water below it.  Also, hot water from geysers were flowing into the river right next to the waterfall, so the river had hot and cold spots. It was awesome.