This brings joy to my heart.

2010 Newport Beach Boat Parade

Last year Tucker missed the 2009 boat parade due to a bachelor party. So, this year he wasn't going to let a recently repaired Achilles stop him from making it. 

The 102 Annual Newport Boat Parade can be viewed from the Balboa Peninsula harbor and we are lucky enough to view it by crossing the street. It was raining most of the 5 nights that the parade circles. I made it to 3 viewings and the fireworks finale and Tucker made it to 2 parades.

Tucker put this quick video together of some of the boats from Saturday night's boat parade. (Warning-Tucker was the videographer and some of his jerky motions can cause dizziness):

Good News (& Gross Pictures)

We went to the surgeon's office this week awaiting a cast for Tucker's Achilles. We even spent the night before deciding what color he wanted for his cast.

When the doctor took off the soft cast that had been put on him after surgery he was more than impressed with how well Tucker was healing. He has 13 staples going down the back of his foot, there was little swelling, good color, and no infection. The doctor made the decision that Tucker was healing so well that he wouldn't put him in a cast for the previously discussed 4 weeks. Instead, Tucker has a nice boot that he will remain in for the next few months.

We have another doctors appointment a couple days before Christmas to get the staples out (pictures below).

Tucker is so positive about his current situation. He is quarantined to the couch or bed with his foot elevated for at least another 2 weeks. And he doesn't even complain.

Last Night's Sunset

We went outside because our living room was glowing orange.
From our rooftop I could quickly see why.

Even the ocean seemed to be glowing orange.

A beautiful crescent moon showed its face eagerly awaiting the Winter Solstice in 9 short days.

Brave Man

Tucker had surgery to repair his torn Achilles tendon last Friday. I was a nervous wrench and was almost brought to tears when I had to leave him.Tucker never looked scared or showed signs of worry.  He had a fabulous surgeon and was in good hands at the new "state of the art" orthopedic wing of Hoag Hospital Irvine. Mom Cannon met me at the hospital waiting room and distracted my nerves with light conversation and gossip magazines. After an hour or so in recovery we could go up to see him and sign release papers. He was in good spirits and looked extremely tired. He slept the rest of the day and awoke at 4am when the nerve block on the lower part of his leg wore off. Every day he seems to feel better than the last. He is such a brave man for going through this with little complaints and lots of thanks.

HOW WE ENDED UP HERE...

...AND OTHER THINGS WE ARE MORE THANKFUL FOR 

I'll start from the beginning...

We picked up Cole, on Wednesday, at the Long Beach Airport on our way up to Valencia. He looked great but a little tired from his studies in San Fran. When we got to mom and dad's house Cannon said, "Oh Tara and Tucker are here..... and (confused look on his face) Uncle Hadyn." Uncle Dirty had been away so long that Cannon and Roman didn't even recognize him.

To keep our active nephews entertained we went to Valencia Lanes for a riveting hour of bowling.

Ro was very serious about his bowling. By his body language you can tell that this was a good roll down the lane.

That night we went to see Ryken's cute little face and have dinner with his mom and dad.

Kim and Dustin are the best and planned a gluten free dinner for me. I was to bake dessert, dairy free for Dustin's dietary needs, and of course I missed the milk chocolate chips ingredient in the batter. Therefore, I'm officially the worst house guest ever.

The next morning we rose bright and early for the annual Turkey Bowl. After waiting with Michael for the Triple A guy (it was so early I'm surprised that I didn't lock my keys in the car too), I saw the norm on Hart's football field.

The boys playing football (Tucker played quarterback and is seen to the right of the picture with green shorts).

The little ones were bundled up eating doughnuts.

I cuddled baby Boden tightly because I can't get enough of him.

Then, just as the second half was getting good we learned that one wrong step on the football field can wind you up here...

Yep, a ruptured Achilles tendon on the right foot. For a stressed, worried, and anxious wife I held it together pretty well.

As the ER (no urgent care was open in the area on Thanksgiving) doctor explained the injury and the recovery Tucker quickly realized that his snowboard season went out the window and that it would be even more difficult to track down his clients at work. After the ER, I dropped Tucker (and mom) at the house where Cannon and Roman promised they'd take care of their brave uncle. Cannon even sympathized with Tucker by pretending his swords were crutches.

From there I fled to LAX to pick up my pretty cousin, Danielle, in town from DC.

I had a great time with my side of the family at my grandma and grandpa's house but was so worried about Tucker I knew I had to get back to the SCV. Tucker is so sweet he even pretended that he was deeply saddened about missing out on Thanksgiving at my grandparents house.

Back at the Cannon house we had a fabulous feast filled with all the fixings of a perfect Thanksgiving dinner.

We then played Turkey Bingo with the whole family (except for Griffin, who didn't fly down from Utah this year).

On Friday we celebrated Mom Cannon's birthday. Her birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. Since she wouldn't let us move Thanksgiving to Friday and she couldn't convince us to just skip her birthday this year we celebrated it on Friday.

First things first, I packed up Brendan (since Tuck was out of commission) and headed to grandma and grandpa's house to set up all of grandma's Christmas decorations. Grandma decorated the tree, Brendan set up the Snow Village, and Danielle and I set up everything else. Pictures coming!

Danielle stayed with us in Newport Saturday night, I drove her back to grandma and grandpa's to drop her off Sunday, where I picked up Cole, drove him back to stay the night with me and Tucker, then I dropped him off at Long Beach Airport Monday. Feeeeewwww!



Tucker was such a trooper with all the holiday festivities. I was so grateful to be able to take him to the orthopedic surgeon today and set up his surgery. The sooner my hubby is as good as new the better.

Better Luck Next Year

We went.

We saw.

We got disappointed...

...then excited.

Our LA Galaxy lost 0-3 last week to FC Dallas in the semi finals for the MLS Cup. We had front row seats and Galaxy scarfs around our necks willing our home team to win, but it didn't help much. Next year will be ours boys.

Post Halloween

I realize that Halloween was weeks ago.

But I couldn't skip this post because our announcement is too important to skip.

We had a record number of trick or treaters this year! It surpasses our previous record of 2 whole treaters at our previous residences.

54!

We did all the same Halloween decorations and carved our fun pumpkin designs. I bought 1 bag of M&M/Skittles mix and 1 bag of mini Hershey's mix. By 8:30 we were out of candy and I was scrounging for extra candy around the house. I couldn't just close up shop! After a quick analysis of the remainder of the treaters out on the streets we swiftly (10 seconds flat) blew out all the candles, brought in the walkway tins, and unplugged the lights. After a good laugh, Tucker and I thought that we'd have costumed rioters hungry for candy pounding at the front door. It boils down to location, location, location. Next year I will be armed with plenty of candy to go around.

Fall Heat Wave

This is what weather.com says for our area today.

Right Now	Next 36 Hours

	Today	Tonight	Tomorrow
Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Sunny
95°F	97°	65°	85°
Feels Like: 91°	High	Low	High

Tucker was working and me, well, I had an open agenda. So, I grabbed my beach chair and walked to the beach. It was quite arguably the most beautiful day since we moved here. The beach was empty of beach goers, boats were motoring out of the harbor, dolphins were playing, and I was tanning. I'm very sure that it never got to 95 degrees, thank heavens.

This was the view to my left....

 and my right.....

15 Things Tara is Doing

1. blogging here 

2. painting this



and this

to this

3. potting these

4. missing them

5. planning for holidays

6. going to concerts

We went to a Chuck Ragan concert 2 weeks ago at UC Riverside. We recorded some of his awesome songs and even a conversation with Chuck after the show on our Flip camcorder. When we got home I accidentally deleted all the video clips while trying to load them on the computer. Well, we still have the memories, right? 

7. playing with Sean

8. decorating the bedroom

9. hanging shelves

10. to lazy to workout....darn, sorry cute running shoes

11. baking gluten free bread

12. trying to find a perfect lamp shade

13. wearing these

14. loving Tuck

15. watching football