What is Kinesiology?

My new major at UNLV. I was laid off from Wright Engineers about a month ago so I had to decide to look for another full-time job or just focus on finishing my bachelors degree. School seemed like the better choice (especially in the long term). Since I was going back to school I also decided to re-evaluate my studies. I was majoring in Mechanical Engineering (mainly because thats the job I had). Given the choice I have always been interested in biology, anatomy, physiology, etc. So thus is the tale of how I decided to go back to school and change my major. The Kinesiology major at UNLV is a blend of sports nutrition and athletic training classes (which means I will have a 4 year degree to squirt water in athletes mouths).

After I get my bachelors I want to apply to a PA program (2 years) to become a Physician Assistant. Please be sure to update all your personal records tracking my life and decisions to include this new entry. Thank you.

This athlete cried bloody tears of joy when they found out I was going back to school.

Snavelfish-eye photographs

Sunday night we went to a local park with my sister's family (before they went home to Lehi, UT). My brother-in-law, Taco Tim, brought one of his fancy cameras and lighting to snap some photos of us. Tim is kind of a documentary film maker/editor/skateboarder/taco eater/bug enthusiast/nice guy/bicycle rider. We love these photos Tim thanks so much for snapping them for us.

"Look Dad it's a camera"

"Tackle"

We had to hold Taj down for this one.

Again, Taj is being coerced.

No coercion for this one but he seems a little distracted.

We have learned to love the photos of Cathy and I smiling and Taj screaming. We sandwiched our faces together to keep him in place. :)

Funny Faces at Firefly

My sister and her family visited us this weekend from where they live in Lehi, UT. We had a great time hanging out with them. Taj loves playing with his cousins and they love him. We went out to dinner with them at a tapas restaurant named Firefly. Its basically a place where everything on the menu is appetizer size and everybody shares. My favorite is the dates wrapped in bacon with an almond in the center and some blue cheese. Sounds weird but its delicious.

Incredible Edible Irwins (but since the food was so good we didn't end up eating them after all)! Taj's cousins are very animated and photogenic as you can see below.

"Hey vato, don't you know I'm loco?!"

Scared/Surprised

Angelic Sweetness

Angry

Our version of anger (it was opposite day so you can imagine how happy we really were).

Spidey and the crew dancing...

fun stuff.

Lied Discovery Children's Museum

This last Saturday I took Taj and his cousins to the Children's Museum for the afternoon. We have a family pass for the year so we all got in free. There are a lot of really fun things to do at this place so if you live in Vegas and have kids and haven't checked this place out you should look into it. It's funtacular!

Taj has been working out so he picked a costume that complimented his natural physique. In case you can't tell Superman/girl is kissing her bicep. This is in the dress up theater exhibit.

Real life fireman gear you get to try on and play with.

Remember Mr. Wizard putting kids in bubbles on TV? You could be that kid (and if your friend video tapes it you could upload it to YouTube which is pretty much the same as being on TV).

Taj and his three cousins popping up to say hello.

We tried our luck in the art room and drew some jellyfish with markers, pastels and glue. This was more fun than I expected.

I drew this one :)

There was even some bouldering to be had on giant sized reproduction of someone with really bad skin. Beautiful blemish-free people would have really lame faces to climb on cause there would be nothing to hold on to.

La Jolla Cove, San Diego, CA

I went down to CA last Friday for the day. We left at 6 am and got back home at midnight. We (my friends Josh and Tyson) went to San Diego this time hoping to catch some of the swell from Hurricane Jimena down off the coast of Baja California. There didn't end up being that great of waves (1-3 ft) but the water was really clear and warm so it was nice to not need wetsuits for a change.

This was a really beautiful view we just found on some random side street we decided to drive down. The left side of the picture is of Scripps where we surfed. Scripps is right next to another really good big wave spot called Blacks beach.

The whole coast is lined with these cliffs with tons of black birds just dotting the cliff wall (zoom in to see them). There were also a bunch of people exploring the coast on rented kayaks.

This is La Jolla Cove. It seems like the Hanauma Bay (famous Hawaii reef for snorkeling) of CA. There were hundreds of people snorkeling. The cove is full of sea life; dolphins, seals, lobsters, fish. Everywhere we went we could see these bright orange gold fish the size of footballs in the water. I don't know their name but a spear fisherman told us they are endangered (despite the fact that we saw hundreds of them). The spear fisherman also told us that this cove was one of Jacque Cousteau's old stomping grounds and the place where the snorkel was invented. I don't know if thats true or not but it seemed to make this place even cooler.

This little store has been here in La Jolla for over a hundred years.

For $4 you can go down some stairs in the store to a hundred year old tunnel leading to a cove that opens up to the ocean.

Despite the danger/risk involved, we decided to check it out.

The tunnel was amazing! Dark and dank and impressively deep. The fact that this tunnel was located inside the store and it was over a hundred years old was the coolest part.

The cave at the end of the tunnel was okay (Josh appears to be a bit disappointed). The tunnel was the best part(or maybe Josh's white sunscreen mustache). $4 for 15 minutes in a hole in the ground. Maybe I should get into the tunnel business in Southern CA.

We did a lot of exploring that involved cliffs and bridges and standing near the edge of something tall. My friend Josh kept getting queazy when we would stand next to the edge and pretend to lose our balance. I asked Josh to take my picture on this bridge (he almost couldn't take the picture with me up on the railing :)

Picturesque Oceanesque Awesomesque

I really liked this Dr. Seuss tree.

One of my favorite things about CA (besides the beach of course) are the variety of trees you find.

And variety of people. This guy was doing a little hands on advertising for his Glide Cycle cross training bike thing. It's designed for low impact running (it has no pedals). The U-shaped frame is like a big spring when you are running. Pretty interesting.

Taj's bloody toe

Taj has become quite good at opening the refrigerator lately. The other day he decided to help himself to some juice. He grabbed a full bottle of juicy juice and was carrying it across the tile when he dropped it on his big toe. He limped around the first day but was pretty tough about it. The next day he was running around like normal. Atleast once a day it seems like he bangs his toe on something and starts it bleeding again.

Even though his toe is all mangled, I have to admit I still think his little sausage toes are cute.