Day 2

NASCAR Pepsi 500

Sunday afternoon and evening we went to the NASCAR race at the Auto Club Speedway. My company gave us tickets in one of the Terrace Suites. It came with access to an air conditioned suite, rooftop seating above the pits and all you can eat and drink for the day. Oh, yeah... and special parking and pit passes. It was a blast!!

A Busy Weekend Ahead

We decided to take advantage of the three day weekend and pack it full of fun stuff!

Day 1 - Saturday

We went to Disneyland for the first time in a couple months. We were able to ride the new Toy Story ride "Midway Mania". It was really fun!

Mr. Potato Head interacts with the audience and talks to specific people in the crowd. The ride is like a video game where you shoot at targets and play carnival games in 3-D.

We also got Baby's first picture in front of the train station... the first of many, hopefully!

Needing a little change...

Time to change things up a bit... :)

August Birthdays

In our blogging absence, two of our parents have had birthdays pass! Don't worry, though - just because we didn't blog about them doesn't mean we forgot them. :)

It is so difficult being away from half of our family - especially on birthdays and holidays. We would love to have everyone together to celebrate. Instead, we had to send Mom's birthday wishes across the miles, miss her and just pray for a wonderful birthday for her. One of these days we're going to get to take her out to a big birthday dinner!

Dad (O'Brien) also celebrated a birthday this month. He was a happy camper because he got several things for his new toy... a Canon camera. Sorry, I don't know which model it is. I should have had Andy write this part... he would know. But it's a really nice one! Below are a few pictures from dinner at Gyu Kaku, where we celebrated with the family.

Softball

I am so far behind on posting to this blog - please forgive the absence! I will work on getting caught up this weekend.

Andy has been playing softball with the Lifespring team, along with Dad, Mike and Staci. They've been having a fun time, despite some exhausted muscles and sore shoulders. :) Here are some pictures from some of the practices and games...

Ahh... Baby Warns' First Earthquake!

Just a quick blurb to let everyone know that we're fine. Thanks for the calls and concerns that came our way. The 5.4 magnitude quake shook us up and gave us a few jolts (the news said it lasted 15 seconds), but all is well. No damage for Andy or myself at work... we'll see if anything fell off of shelves when we get home! Our third story apartment tends to magnify the effects and sound of earthquakes.

So sad...

My heart goes out to the family of Greg and Cathe Laurie (evangelist and senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship here in Riverside), as their son Christopher was killed yesterday in a car accident here in Riverside. I can not imagine the anguish that they are going through with the sudden loss of their son. Right now, for me, my heart is even heavier for Christopher's wife and daughter. His wife, Brittany, is now a single mother and expecting a second little girl in November. Knowing what Andy has meant to me throughout our marriage - and now even more so as a partner and support in pregnancy, I can not even begin to imagine the grief that she must be experiencing right now. It breaks my heart to even think about it. God's grace is sufficient to handle their sorrow - we know that. But trying to understand how in a situation like this is like looking too closely at a mosaic and only being able to see a few shards of glass. Please pray for them. This is the beginning of a long road of dealing with sorrow that very few of us can understand.

For more, you can visit the Harvest blog: http://blog.harvest.org/