Tyler, Texas

So our next assignment is going to be in Tyler, TX. It's a small town about 90 miles east of Dallas. Course we did just learn a valuable lesson. We should research the cities we're thinking about moving to before accepting the contract. We just found out Tyler is located in Smith County, which is a dry county. After a little more research we were glad to see they serve alcohol at restaurants, but just don't sell alcohol in like grocery stores or liquor stores. Apparently Fat Dog is the closest liquor store to town. We;'ll be here from November 7 - February 8.

Jeannie Visits

Jeannie came to visit and we had a really good time. We took her down to the Cove, only to find out they got rid of all the seals. They turned the little beachy area that they all hung out on back into a swimming area for people. There was one large rock that a couple of seals were playing around, but it was really sad to see them gone. Seeing the seals was one of my highlights of San Diego.

We went down into the Cave at the Cove. Let's just say there were like a million steps.



We went walking down at the harbor and saw the air craft carrier, some cruise ships, and some old ships as well.




We just barely made it to Sunset Cliffs before the sun went down.



We went to the zoo. The meerkats were way cute.

Las Vegas 2008

So after our trip back to Richmond we drove to Las Vegas and met up with Dwayne & Norma. We went downtown and had a blast.

They had cool music and video show that played every half hour. Plus all down the side walk was little vendors selling stuff, there was a comedian, people spray painting pictures, a band playing, etc.

The second night we were there we just wandered around for awhile and then went to go see Cirque de Soleil: Ka. It was really amazing. Highly recommend it to anyone, especially their show called Mystere. After the show we went to NY, NY where we found a dueling piano bar.

Trip to Richmond

So we took a trip back to Richmond and we had a really great time. It was really good seeing everyone again. We were really bummed out that we didn't get to see Jordan and Cam. Hopefully we'll make it back sooner for our next visit and get a chance to see them. I couldn't believe how much Anna & Noah have grown up.








We wish we had had more time to hang out with everyone.














We were really happy to get a chance to see Nana as well. Hopefully we'll make it back to visit more often and we always welcome people to come visit us where ever we are. Hope to see everyone real soon!

San Diego Comic Con

So Comic Con was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! We had such a great time & we're already trying to figure out how we can come back again next year. First I'll explain what Comic Con is and then post some pictures from the event. It was held at the San Diego Convention Center downtown. The main floor housed the main exhibition hall. This had setups for comic book writers & artists to do autographs and solicit their books. It had vendors selling everything from comic books, toys, video games, posters, t-shirts, statues, and many other things. It also had lots of comic book companies selling their books as well. This comic con has become more than just comics and has solicitations for video games, manga, anime, movies, & TV shows. There were lots of stands from TV shows & movie studios promoting new movies, returning TV shows & new TV shows for this fall. This whole area was the biggest part of the con and got pretty crowded at certain areas. The biggest lesson learned was if someone was giving away free stuff, run in the opposite direction. Pretty much everyone will go crazy over free stuff. Stupid free stuff at that. Upstairs in the convention center were smaller rooms that held different panels. The panels ranged from TV stars promoting their shows, movie stars promoting new movies, comic book writers & artists talking about upcoming stories, Comic book companies promoting their books, instructional information on how to get into the business as a comic book writer/artist, etc. These rooms ranged from fairly small (maybe 250 people) to very large (holding 6,000 people). The hardest part was figuring out which panels you wanted to go to and make sure they didn't overlap with any other ones. This of course was hard and we missed some things, but we got to see a lot of great stuff. Some of the TV panels showed sneak peaks at the upcoming season and then they also had lots of time for fan questions. There will be probably at least one celebrity that all of you all know. Maybe more, depends on how much sci-fi stuff you watch. Also, there are tons of people who dress up in costumes from anything sci-fi, comic book hero, Star Wars, manga, and much more. So enough talk, onto the pictures.

The first night of comic con was a "preview" night. People who bought a four day pass for the whole event were able to attend preview night that was open for 3 hours. They gave away lots of free stuff and we got a head start on looking at everything. They first herded us like cattle into large hallways to shuffle us into the exhibit hall.

This is Gail Simone, awesome comic book writer.


Ryan standing next to a life size Dalek (from British TV show Dr. Who).

Yep, they're made out of legos.

They're all dressed up from different Nintendo video game characters.

Richard Dean Anderson from Stargate. Most of you probably know him as MacGyver. His show Stargate has been on the air for 10 years and this was the first comic convention he's ever been to so we lucked out in being there.

Ben Browder from Farscape and now on Stargate.

Amanda Tapping from Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Sanctuary.

Michael Shanks from Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, now on Burn Notice.

Christopher Judge from Stargate.

Some girl dressed up like Power Girl.

Me & The Ghostbusters.

Guy dressed up like Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.

That's one mighty large sword.

Ray Stevenson is going to be the new Punisher in Punisher: War Zone. Also was Titus Pullo in HBO series Rome (great show!). He's giving his Roman salute.

Julie Benz is also going to be in the new Punisher movie. You might recognize her from Dexter, Angel, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Hey, it's Chyna the wrestler.

There was some very scantily clad costumes.

Neil Patrick Harris. Yes, that's Doogie Howser. He's here to promote his new project Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. He's also in How I Met Your Mother, Harold & Kumar go to White Castle & Escape from Guantonimo Bay.

Joss Whedon, writer & creator of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, and Firefly. Also has new show coming out this fall called The Dollhouse.

Nathan Fillion, also starring in Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. Also from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Firefly, and Two Guys & a Girl.

Brian Austen Green from Sarah Connor Chronicles. Most notably known from Beverly Hills: 90210.

Thomas Dekker from Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Summer Glau from Sarah Connor Chronicles. Also from Firefly, Serenity, Angel.

Lena Headey for Sarah Connor Chronicles. Also from 300.

Shirley Manson, new character this fall on Sarah Connor Chronicles. You might also know her as the lead singer of the band Garbage.

Ryan ran into Indiana Jones & his father.

People dressed up from manga book called Death Note.

Cool artwork from Janes in Love book. I got a free copy of the book and signed by the author on preview night.

Watch out for those Klingons. (Star Trek)

Eric Estrada from CHIPS.

Hayden Panettiere from Heroes.

Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes.

The highlight of the whole event for me was seeing Seth Green. And yep, he's tiny.

Lou Ferrigno from The Hulk TV show in the seventies & eighties.

Justin Hartley from Smallville.

Jewel Staite from Stargate Atlantis, Serenity, and Firefly.

The adults weren't the only ones to get all dressed up.


Well, I know that was a lot of pictures, but we had a blast and we have many more pictures. We also took a lot of video and Ryan'll be working on putting together something soon. Hope you guys enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed the convention.