Vegas baby

Vegas was great. The Muse concert was amazing. Chara and i both getting sick was unplanned for and not all that appreciated. But we had a good time and are happy to be home

Christmas Desserts

Despite cutting my thumb with our new knives that are WAY too sharp, i still made some awesome desserts

Chocolate Eclair Dessert
Eclair Dessert recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 individual packages graham crackers
• 2 (3 ounce) packages instant french vanilla pudding mix
• 3 cups milk
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (16 ounce) package prepared chocolate fudge frosting

Directions

Line the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan with graham crackers. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix and milk. Stir well. Stir in whipped topping to pudding mixture. Spread mixture over graham cracker layer. Top with another layer of graham crackers (you can frost these too) and remaining pudding. Top all with a final layer of graham crackers and frost with chocolate frosting. Refrigerate until serving.

Apple Crumble Pie

This was just some apple crumble mix thing i bought at the store and added butter to. no recipe.

December Nights

December Nights in Balboa Park was awesome. We had a great time with friends, had some great food and just had a great time.

More Pumpkins

Pumpkin Carving party

The Nail and Sail

OK here's the gist. You get 2 hours, a limited ammount of materials (wood, nails, caulk), you bring your own tools, and you build a boat, and then decorate it, and then sail it against the others

this was our first year of entering the Nail and Sail which was apart of Oceanside's Harbor days and it was a blast. We had so much fun...despite the outcome of the boat.

The 3 man build team consisted of myself, Joe and Kevyn

I know how to work a caulking gun

Joe rocking some lumberour boat coming together

Kevyn was the man with the woodworking

and this is what we made...

The team by our creation
All you need is love people...


And here was our epic sailing adventure caught on video:




And then our boat was in the dumpster...

next year we will win it all..

I love this...

Epic camping trip 2009

A little late in putting these up. so many good pictures from the trip.

We are home now from our epic camping trip of 2009. We went back up to Lake of the Woods OR and camped out there for about a week with all of our friends. Some came up from San Diego with us, some from OR and some from WA drove down. We had an amazing time hanging out with friends and enjoying some great weather and beautiful scenery.

Here I am hanging out in a new hammock i bought. Carson and Madison were helping me test it out.

Wrestling in the hammock did some fun things with static electricity.
Beautiful sunset on the lake our first day there. We had great weather and no rain.
Scotty and Manessa looking out over the lake.
Joe and Sophie Helen by the lake
All the little kids caught frogs
Chara with Carson
Joe rented a pontoon boat and we toured around the lake
Chara and Riley looking so cute
everyone on the boat having fun
All the kids had a great time
Stacey had to do a bit of work so she had her phone out a lot.
the kids loving the water. Actually it wasn't horribly cold.
see! not too cold. we all went swimming
we even bathed in the lake as there were no showers, much to Charas shegrin and desparate attempts to find one.
Stacey jumping in.
Stacey and Madison
the gang looking good
and the whole swimming gang
Then came the pie eating contest. Staceys aunt Sherie brought us up some amazing food and a couple of pies
the kids dug right in
even Riley
Then it was the boys turn...
we showed the kids how to do it
yummmmm
Joe was to not be outdone
i think James won though...
Staceys mom attacked Stacey with a piece of pie
Chara was not happy about the bug situation. There were no mosquitos thank goodness, but the gnats were not pleasant around dinner time. Here she is keeping them out of her cup
cute picture of Jerry and James around the campfire
and just a fun picture of James
Me telling stories around the fire
Chara and Chelsea by the fire
And the big group picture
the big group silly picture
the big group serious picture
Family picture - Stacey, Carson and Madison
Family picture - Scotty, Manessa, Marissa, and Hallie
Kids picture - Jonathan, Marissa, Cameron, Carson, Madison and Hallie
Family picture - Brandon, Chelsea, Jonathan and Cameron
Family picture - Joe, Sophie-Helen and Riley
Family picture - James and Jerry
Family picture - Ben and Chara
Family picture - Ben and Chara the rock star
Riley and Chara
James and Carson
and some wood chopping action
so strong
even stronger
teaching the boys
super tough
he's going to hurt himself
And our last day at the lake we had some beautiful mist and a nice cool 41 degree weather when we left.
and yes we went for a dip in the lake in the 41 degree weather before we left because we are hard core like that.
Awesome trip. Long drive home. Can't wait til next year

Outsidelands Music Festival

Our epic summer adventure and roadtrip began with a stop up in San Francisco to see the Outsidelands Music Festival. This was a 3 day music festival held at Golden Gate park. There were 6+ stages and tons of bands to be seen over 3 days. We saw a lot of great bands and walked our little feet off all over the park.

Lenka was one of our favorites that we saw.
Cage the Elephant was great.
Dave Matthews played on Saturday and they were awesome to see again.
The weather was great the first 2 days and got quite chilly on the 3rd day.
we are just the cutest.

Last chance to vote is today

The voting is closing today so if you haven't please vote for my
panels for the next SXSW.

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/index/4/q:ben+cote

Thanks
-ben

Awesome camping trip

We will post more pics later but we have had an awesome camping trip
up in Lake of the Woods OR. We are heading home now and yes it's a
very long drive.

Here is a beautiful sunset on the lake

Epic summer road trip - day one

Ok so we totally ran out of gas on the first day of our roadtrip. We
drove up from san Diego to san Francisco yesterday on day one of our
trip. Our car, a prius no less, has some issues with the gas tank. It
beeps to tell me to get gas and the. Proceeds to run out of gas 5
miles later. It should beep when I have 2 gallons left and thus
aproximately 90 more miles of driving, but not so much.

As luck would have it we stopped on the 101 right by a farm that has
thier own gas pump on the farm. So after some nice farm folk and a
gallon of gas that got us back on the road and down to the next gas
station which was only 2 more miles down the road.

After that we made it into san fran with no problems and we settled
into an awesome house we are renting. We are staying right by golden
gate park which is where the Outsidelands festival is taking place and
that's why we are here.

Looking forward to seeing some great bands this weekend

Ben

night out..

so thursday ben and i headed out to the greenday concert down in SD.. - now i never would have called myself a 'huge' greenday fan.. but - after they ran around on stage for 2+ hours and put on the most amazing energetic show i have ever seen - i became more then a fan.. - in fact - ben had to stop me from quitting my job, dropping everything, and following greenday on tour..
they were pretty entertaining and put on one hell of a show..

the begnining

billie joe.. my new hero..


the crowd loving it..


pyrotechnics..

Vote for me!

Time to vote my friends

I have two ideas submitted for the next SXSW conference and I need your help in voting for them so they will get added as part of the schedule.

As you may or may not know, I am working for a great new company called OneRecovery and we are pushing the boundries of online social networks and issues of recovery and healthcare. We are learning a ton during this process and meeting a world of amazing people and we'd like to share that information with others that may be interested.

In that effort I have put together 2 panels for the next SXSW (South by Southwest) interactive festival. This is an amazing event where very smart people of all areas come together to talk technology and its impact on all of us.

Please take a minute to vote for my panel ideas by giving them the ole thumbs up. It only takes a minute to sign up to vote. And if you have some nice feedback for the comments that would be great too.

thank you

Ben

a weekend getaway

last weekend me and some ladies from work decided to get away for a girl weekend.. we headed up to the american river for some good old river rafting.. we rafted with a company called whitewater excitement. This company provided us a beautiful campsite for three days, two days of serious rafting, and 5 excellent meals. we rafted all day monday and tuesday, and then headed home tuesday afternoon..

sunday afternoon we road tripped it up..
here are the ladies unloading the van


marek and april 'helping' set up the campsite


we had a beautiful campsite called 'the meadow'

the view from our campsite

april enjoying some smores

Our second day started with the 'tunnel chute' - which is a tunnel that 'was blasted through by gold miners in the 1800s in order to divert the flow of the river away from the famous Horseshoe Bend. The Bend forces the river to be squeezed into a 100 ft long, 12-foot wide cascading spillway. The river then flows underground through a navigable tunnel.'
This rapid was the most fun.. the command our guide gave us was pretty much 'sit down and hold on'..
tunnel chute: the set up

tunnel cute: submerged

tunnel chute: the recovery

tunnel chute: success


this rafting was a blast.. we pretty much rafted only class III or class IV rapids, and we did it successfully.. we managed to never flip our boat. We did accidentally lose one of our rafters.. lizard was trying to demonstrate how slippery the boat was and managed to slip right off the front of our boat.. no worries - working as a team - we quickly had the lizard queen back in our boat where she belonged.. - other then that we stayed safe and sound, and had the time of our lives.. -
we had so much fun we are planning another trip as soon as possible.. - only this time i might might let ben come along.. after seeing the pictures - ben was not thrilled at being left at home all alone..
either way - we had the best time.. and looking forward to our next adventure..

Comic Con 2009... where the nerds gather

Comic Con blew through San Diego this past week with throngs of nerds and geeks in all their costumed and smelly goodness. Chara headed down to check it out.

and for the record, Chara wanted to go, not me.
Captain Morgan and...??
couple of star wars peeps
two little costumed brothers holding hands... super cute
casual dude with a huge sword...
more costumed folks being interviewed
and a wonder woman
not sure...
again.. no idea..
some batman characters with great costumes
a small GI Joe skirmish
lots of nerds, lots of geeks, lots of fun costumes.... its a lot to take in

camping with the kids.. and the dirt.. and the bugs..

this weekend we packed up our camping gear and headed out to palomar mountain for a weekend of camp fires, dirt, rocks, smores, and bugs.. lots of bugs.. we met up with stacey and her kiddos.. and as a bonus my sister and her fam joined us.. this was my sisters kids first real venture into camping.. and it was a success... - isaiah was right in his element - and by the second day of camping was head to toe dirt - and loving it.. thank goodness he wasn't driving back in my car..

carson teaching isaiah how to put up a tent..

jesse and the gang learing about the dangers of mountain lions.. - deborah was not thrilled about the 'big cats'...

carson and isaiah hiking

more hiking through nature.. there was poison oak - so we kept to the trail and told the kids to avoid touching anything green..

the kids in a cracker eating contest..

the kids learning about nature

a smaller version of rock climing..

the boys showing off thier muscles

now the girls turn..

the gang at the end.. packed and ready to go home and shower..

Pismo Beach Camping trip

We made our way up the coast to Pismo Beach for a quick weekend camping trip with Stacey and her family. It was a nice drive and a great quickie camping trip.

Setting up the tentCarson climbing on a tree
Chara unpacking
Chara in our tent
Helping setting up the big family tent
me in my cowboy hat
Carson is the most photogenic kid ever!
Playing in the sand with Carson
Madison building sand castles
whales playing just offshore
beautiful sunset
great pick of Chara and the kids
again gorgeous sunset
even more beautiful
seriously how cute is that kid?
the cutest family ever
and the cutest couple ever
after the camping we hit up a farmers market in Pismo Beach. Chara got a massage while i took some pictures
some pictures...



It was a great weekend and we wish we had more time there. We'll definitely be back

Fleetwood Mac Concert in LA

A week or so ago we all when up to LA to see Fleetwood Mac at the Staples Center. We had some great seats inside a private box thanks to Jesse.

Here is the whole fam outside Reanna and Jesses house in LA

All the girls with Steve

and the two daughters with their Dad

and their crazy dog Booby

I couldn't bring in the big camera so not a lot of pics from the show, but here is one from my phone.

They played all their songs and everyone had a great time

MIA

we have had a very busy two weeks - which is why we have been absent from the blog - sorry bout that..
the last two weeks have included:
work, a girl trip to palm springs, some work, an amazing fleetwood mac concert, more work, and a camping trip to pismo beach... we just got back - and i am showered, and ready to relax.. pictures to come..

weekend getaway

last week ben and i heard that jason mraz and dave matthews were going to be playing at the MGM in vegas.. him and i both had the weekend off - so ben and i booked a last minute hotel, got us some tickets.. and road tripped it out to vegas for an amazing show..
hanging at the concert
 

you can't tell - but that's my boyfriend jason mraz
 

Disneyland with the Sister and family

My Sister Jeanne and her family came down to California for a little vacation and to use their Disneyland passes before they expire.

we went up and visited with them for a day and did Disneyland and all that

Here is Chara and Maddie shooting some aliens on Buzz Lightyear
And here is the girls on Jeanne's new favorite ride California Screaming


we had a good time visiting with them and are very happy that we don't have to do the 18 hour drive back up to WA

and when i look at you i throw up..

this week i am so over vomit.. two nights ago - everyone of my patients vomited - including two different patients who had both ingested a liter of fluid that was a mix of cranberry juice, water, sprite, and contrast - (this mix is often used when people are getting abdominal cat scans).... there was pink vomit everywhere.. then last night i had a pt who had been drinking some cocktails, fell down and hit her head, and there was blood everywhere..
so - after three days of work - after all the pink vomit, and all the blood - i am so looking forward to the next three days off..

this will make you smile

watch the whole thing. Its worth it.


Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Easter. 2009 edition

Easter 2009 in pictures

The egg dying begins

Chara's beautiful purple egg

some of the eggs in processDeborah and Steve working together

More helpingthe making of

Isaiah and Reanna

The kids getting ready for the egg hunt

And they are loose and on the hunt!

As fast as their legs can take them

very exciting

Kelly Ann is kicking ass

The girls are so excited with their finds

Kids unloading the eggs to find the goodies inside

Deborahs all about the cash

Noah is happy with his cupcake

Cutest couple ever award

They are pretty cute too

And i am an awesome pool player. look a that technique!

better late than never...

this year - because of our busy schedules - my girls and i were a little late getting together for our secret santa gift exchange... but we finally found time and had christmas in march..
the late christmas did not disappoint, and we spent most the night laughing and exchanging stories about what it's like to be a real nurse.. - and i did realized the one bad thing about not being in school is that i don't get to spend as much time with my ladies.. i sure miss them..

melody celebrating her culture


Momma jax with her flower power


the lizard queen sporting a light up crown


the gang

Keaton wants a dog beach

We love taking keaton to the beach and she loves to swim, but the only dog beach around us is 20+ miles away in Del Mar. So we are working to get a dog beach up in Oceanside.

http://www.friendsofoceansidedogbeach.org/ set up a walk today to get dog owners and lovers down to the proposed site and walk along the area to raise awareness. Keaton had a ball with all the other dogs. She got quite tired on the walk and we stopped here at the harbor

Lots of dogs turned out. Big and small. Here are the small ones

Here is the BIG ones. this guys is horse!

New addition

My pretty cousin gave birth to Maverick Bradford Hawes, born March 20th at 9:12am.

9 lbs 21 1/4 inches long

Congrats to Joe and Kristen, he is beautiful.

you don't hate children right?

so here's the deal. kids are cute. we all love them...more or less.

But we can all agree that they shouldn't go hungry....ever.

so click this linkand go to http://www.pledgetoendhunger.com/

all you have to do is sign up with an email and then Tyson will send 35lbs of food. And it works. They've already sent trucks of food to local shelters and they want to send more.

so do it. now. go to http://www.pledgetoendhunger.com/ put in your email and tell someone else about it. thats it. do it now.

working girl

last night was a full moon - and not only does that mean the crazies come out to the ER - but apparently so do the sickos.. and by sickos i mean really sick patients.. last night at 11pm we were simultaneously doing CPR on two patients while another one of our patients went into labor - last night was busy - i was exhausted and so over it by 7am.. thank god i don't have to go back tonight.. i think i have earned my three days off..

daylight savings bonus

i worked last night - and thanks to the miracle of daylight savings - at 2am - it all of a sudden became 3am... thanks to daylight savings time - we sprung forward - and i got to leave work an hour early - and now i am showered, in bed, and ready for a nap..

Fun Family Day in LA

Headed up to LA today for some family fun time. We all went hiking up in Runyon canyon in the morning.

It was a beautiful day. Very warm out. We should have not forgotten our water in the car.

Thomas was looking as cool as ever.

the dogs had a great time too. Here is Lex cooling off with some water.

disney day

ben and i took advantage of some time off - and spent the day at disneyland.. i was having a fun time - but aparently mister ben was not.
 

Don't call us...

We finally got tired of only answering our home phone to say, "hi please take us off your call list and stop calling us. thanks"

So we just canceled our home phone. If you are trying to reach us please use our cell phones, skype, twitter, email, etc. That should be enough ways to get a hold of us.

A day in the life...of our dog Keaton

Dance party (in the shower)

the kids came over and really liked our new shower with speakers in it. so they had a dance party in the shower.

fun in the sun

friday ben took me on a hike in torrey pines.. it's a great hike that has an awesome view of the ocean..



the whole time i felt like i was in an episode of lost.. i kept look around to see if i could find 'the others'

happy hikers

and for the perfect end to a perfect day - my friend danni - who is an amazing massage therapist- came over to give me the most wonderful hour and a half hot stone massage.. i could not have been happier or more relaxed..

taking advantage

sometimes ben and i forget how lucky we are to live in southern california.. today was a gorgeous warm day -
so we took advantage and met up with our friend stacey and her fam - and we all headed down to moonlight beach and had us some beach fun, and ended up with with great food around a bonfire..

carson running from the waves..


ben and carson making a sand castle

ben, maddison, and carson - ben was the king of making smores tonight..

at night it got a little chilly - so we snuggled up by the fire..

nice sunset

click on the picture to see it full screen and see the sail boat in the sunset.

we are just cute...

This picture requires no explanation.

It is done...

The major remodel of 2008 (and a little of 2009) is done...mostly

Still have to put up blinds, but thats about it. The shower door was installed yesterday and now we can use our awesome shower. The room looks great. We are very happy with it. It was A LOT of work, but it came out really nice.

Here are some more pics

More fun with Brandon and Chelsea

i think i'm still recovering from our adventures with Brandon and Chelsea. But it was so much fun. Here is the gang at Disneyland outside of our new favorite ride "Midway Mania" and if Brandon and Chelseas kids are reading this, No your parents did not go to Disneyland without you and they love you very much.

we are so cute. and Chara is pretty too.

Brandon and Ben working on a turkey leg

and before all of that we hit up our friend Mike's birthday poker party where Chelsea kicked ass and took 4th place out of 47 people. Here she is at the final table going all with aces and getting beat by the guy next to her with an off suite jack eight. Yeah he took out the next guy with an off-suite ten four. He was just lucky.

10 happy years

Yesterday was our 10 year anniversary. Yep. 10 years. can you believe it? We are going on a cruise for our anniversary but are waiting for it to be a little warmer. So for a quick getaway we headed up to Solvang for a little visit and some wine tasting.
Our friends Brandon and Chelsea decided to come down for last minute visit and crash our anniversary. They just keep inviting themselves along places and we can't stop them. (actually we love them) Here they are tasting some wine.
and some more.
and then we hit the "As Seen On TV" store and bought some crap
and we ran into a HUGE dog. 170 pounds and growing.
walking down Solvang
then we hit Santa Barbara on the way home
a bird
a bigger bird
and then i took my wife out to a nice romantic dinner at In and Out. Yep i'm a classy guy. we took Flat Stanley with us.
10 happy years. Here is to 10 more.

lost and found..

ben and i adopted keaton about 10 years ago from a humane society - and we were never really sure what kind of dog she was.. after years of having her we guessed we had a rodhesian ridgeback - but were never really sure.. a couple weeks ago i was walking around a flee market in la - when i saw someone walking a dog that looked excatly like my dog.. so i had to ask - what kind of dog it was..turns out these people had what they called a 'boerboel'


when researching boerboels - i learned that this breed is a mix of Rhodesian ridgeback, bull dog, and bull mastiff - which all look a little like my puppy - and all the research said that boerboels are very good watch dogs, loyal, and loved children - which are all very true of my puppy - but - when i read that these dogs 'require an extraordinary amount of human attention and companionship' - i knew i had found my dog..



yep. Thats our 100 pound lap dog that must be sitting on your lap at all times

New Years Eve 2008

Twas the party of the year. Or at least the end of the year. Poor Chara had to work that day so we did not get to the party until very late, but there were still many good times to be had.

Here is Chara, Rhianon and LoanJosh, our gracious host, and Chara
Earnest, Daniel and Chara
Rhinanon with all her drinks
a nice kiss for me
Earnest and his milk dance
Josh and i dueling it out with our cameras. Mine survived the night. His...not so much.
Earnest and Chara
late in the evening everyone crashing on the couch
it was a great party. we are all really tired today.

Happy new year everyone!