Vandyland Shout Out: Adam Vandermyde

Today’s Shout Out goes to my big brother Adam Vandermyde.

Adam just started a new consulting job with Deloitte and spent his first week in training in Orlando. The ~300 newly minted consultants were given a mock consulting case and divided into teams of five. Each team was to evaluate the case, develop a strategic plan, and make a presentation to various judges. The top teams would then make their presentation to the entire body of consultants and judges, but only one team would emerge as champion.

Not only was Adam’s team declared the winner, but Adam also came up with the approach that his team ultimately adopted (which adoption came through Adam’s usual placid yet pragmatic encouragement). Said the partner who wrote the case, “In the eight years I have been doing this, I have never seen anybody come up with that approach.” Anybody who knows Adam knows that he is a natural leader and has the right balance of confidence, objectivity, personality and unflappability to be an effective corporate adviser.

Also, this week I asked Adam to help me develop a program that would increase efficiency in my church responsibilities, and what Adam came up with was a perfect solution to a common problem. It’s called the “Home Teaching Pro." The new program will not only benefit me in my position, but will help all those we share it with (not to mention all of the new families that will be visited as a result!) So Adam, here’s to you!

Sayonara Sermons

Our Good Friends, Natalie and Gavin, had to leave LA and move back to Idaho . . . We'll miss you two!!

Before they left, Matt and I took them flying over Los Angeles at night - that's our favorite flight because you can see all of the city lights. It was especially cool because there was a Dodgers game going on that night so we were able to see the stadium all lit up and filled with thousands of people.

Mini-Matt enjoyed the flight as well.

Even though he didn't get to see much, he was sporting a cool headset just like his daddy.

Bocce Pinata Bashing is Born

How Bocce Pinata Bashing Came To Be:

It all began with Ryan's Birthday request: a donkey pinata. Everything escalated from there. Kinohi and Ashley showed up at our apartment with a giant donkey and bags and bags of delicious, sugary candy. After filling the donkey up with candy, we lured the boys out of the pool and up to the apartment where the Birthday surprise was waiting. As you can see, both Matt and Ryan were extremely excited about the prospect of bashing open the giant donkey - or just riding it . . .

After lugging the candy-filled donkey outside and realizing that hanging it up was going to be more difficult than expected, Matt came up with the idea to use Bocce balls to free the candy from the pinata.

Check out our moves:

And the damage that we're doing to the poor donkey:

Those Bocce Balls really did a number on our donkey pinata:

In the end, we had a blast destroying the pinata,

and we were able to enjoy our spoils:

After our day of fun, we will never resort back to the boring, outdated method of using a dinky little stick to free candy from a pinata.

Bocce Pinata Bashing is the way to go. We suggest that you join the trend.

My Husband is a Fish

Matt loves the pool - and the hot tub. He would spend all day in the water if he could. His brother, Brandon, seems to enjoy the water almost as much as Matt does.

It's a good thing that our pool has windows looking in on it so I can spend some quality time with my aquatic man.

EARTHQUAKE!!

Yes, it is true . . . Matt and I survived our very first EARTHQUAKE!!

Don't be alarmed. We were able to walk away from the 5.4 rated quake with only minor injuries. I had to stop reading about "Molecules of Emotion" - good ol' BYU independent study - and jump up out of my chair quicker than my prego belly would have liked, but no major trauma occurred. And Matt, who was up on the 34th floor of his law office high rise, suffered from slight dizziness caused by the swaying motion of his building. Pretty intense. :)

The shaking lasted about 20 seconds - or so the newscasters informed us. It was a very weird feeling, having the whole earth shake underneath you and having no control and no idea of when the shaking would stop or if it would get worse. I couldn't call out on my cell phone for nearly 2 whole hours!! No more putting off getting those emergency preparedness kits!!

Earthquake Damage Done:

After many hours of hard labor, I was able to restore our home to its pre-earthquake state:

Flying Never Looked So Good

As most of you know, Matt got his private pilot's license during his last semester of Law School. Flying has become one of his favorite things to do. He gets so excited about soaring around in the sky and will take any opportunity to go. A couple of weekends ago he was craving a winged adventure, so we called up our pals and headed over to the airport.

*Sorry to those of you who missed out . . . we texted everyone but it turns out that our phones' text messaging wasn't working . . . don't worry, if you still want to go, just mention flying to Matt and you'll be up in the air before you know it.

Us girls had to occupy our time while Matt completed the standard flight checklist; so, we pulled out the camera and had our own little ANTM photo shoot, crammed into the cockpit of the plane. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term ANTM, look it up and join the addict train). Here is a little glimpse into the chaos and hilarity of our photo shoot:

Real Life Arachnophobia

This is my friend Shellie - and her adorable little baby, Avery. Matt and I met Shellie and her hubby Scott at Pepperdine Law School and have shared some really memorable moments with them: Scott smacking by butt, Matt drinking Shellie's breast milk . . . (out of a bottle), our crazy Mexico trip with Ricky Bobby (aka Ryan #2), and - sorry Shellie, I have to mention it - my glorious arm wrestling triumph! - to name a few.

Our most recent "memorable moment" involves the creatures that I am most terrified of . . . SPIDERS!! Many of you know of my fear of spiders . . .it began when I was stuck helplessly in one of those awful kiddie swings - the ones that act like a giant rubber strait jacket diaper. Yeah, I was stuck in one of those and a huge spider came crawling up my leg, and there was nothing I could do about it. My fear was later heightened by my cousins holding me down, making me watch Arachnophobia. I have never gotten over my phobia. . .

So, I called up Shellie one day as I was heading home from work - just to check in, see how she was doing . . . she was distraught. The spider pictured below had somehow landed on her neck when she opened her laundry room door, biting her twice, before she was able to swipe it off and kill it with Raid. I headed over to her house and was able to muster up the courage to scoop the evil predator off the floor and take numerous up-close pictures of the disgusting creature. I stayed brave the whole night until I was taking out the bag of trash and another spider - not nearly the same size, but a spider nonetheless - crawled onto my hand. I freaked out. Poor Shellie. She was already shaken up enough. Pretty sure the spiders were out to get us . . . How's that for a real life Arachnophobia!!?

I Love Being an Aunt

Matt's older brother, Adam, his wife, Michelle, and their 3 kids, came and visited us this past week. Matt and I had so much fun playing Auntie and Uncle.

Kailee is the cutest little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl you'll ever see.

And Preston gets more and more handsome every day. He is so sweet to his younger sister and brother.

Michael is such a happy baby. He has the biggest, cutest grin. He and Matt really bonded this week. It was so fun to watch Matt entertain Michael with his wide array of goofy faces. Michael, Mini-Matt, Matt's sister Annie's baby, Brooklyn, and his brother Brandon's baby will all be super close in age. I'm so excited for the 4 of them to hang out together . . .

Michelle and I took the kids to Seal Beach and I got to follow the her and the kids around with my camera. It was so much fun. Michelle is the cutest mom ever and her kids couldn't be any more adorable.

*Thanks for spending the week with us!! We love you and we'll miss you when you move to Texas . . . Hopefully we'll both be able to meet up with you in October!

4th of July Fun

We had a really fun 4th of July at Dana Point with a great group of friends and our adorable brother and sister-in-law, Brandon and Lindsay. Thanks Adam and Melissa for "opening your hearts and your home . . . " :)

The firework show was great! Luckily, we had an awesome photographer - thanks Ashley - who was able to capture the fireworks lighting up the sky behind us . . . so romantical . . . :)

Earlier that evening, before the fireworks kicked off, the boys cooked us up a delicious barbeque - best sliders ever!! It's all about the Hawaiian rolls! MMmmmm. The Belly was thoroughly satisfied . . . until it heard that there was ice cream in the freezer . . . May I introduce you to:

"Ice Cream Willey"
(insert creepy ice cream truck music here)

When I took this picture, I didn't realize how creepy my ice cream man looked . . . he seemed so adorable when I opened up the wrapper and found his crooked little smile grinning back up at me . . . he tasted yummy and that's all that really matters anyway. :)

We all had a great time staying up late playing cards games and Guesstures. I got a little bit competitive with Speed . . . only because I was just not on my game!! Ashley, Natalie . . . I officially challenge the both of you to a rematch!!

And Guesstures . . . words cannot express the joy that this game brings to my life. No game has ever caused me to laugh harder. Thank you to Regan, Ashton, and now Natalie, for your amazing Guesstures performances - they will forever live in my memory.

We spent the next day at the beach before Brandon, Lindsay, Matt, and I headed back to LA to catch the 8pm performance of Wicked. I have been trying to get Matt to go to this show with me for months and months . . . It was fabulous!!