Summer Fun

Some pics from when my family visited this summer. My sis and me at the Aquarium of the Pacific. We don't look alike - but not many people can tell us apart over the phone! Love you, sis!
Joseph getting a good laugh in with Grammy.

My niece and nephew in an egg at the Santa Ana Zoo.

My nephew, Gabriel, my sis, Dawn, and my niece, Ileana.

Gabe and his daddy, Michael, playing chess.

Gabe after a particularly wild boogie-board ride! Get 'em, Gabe!

Me and sis with Jo-Jo-bear

Ethan ready to ride!

Joseph in the sand.

What being at the ocean for 5 days does to little ones!

My fam! Thanks for a great visit!

Delayed Wickedness

Well I know this is late in coming, but I thought I'd post some wrap-up commentary on the final round of the Wannabe Wicked contest this past August 20th. First of all, thanks so much to everyone who took the time out of your day to vote and send encouraging comments! I really appreciate all your kind words and support!

Anyhoo - here's the scoop: I went and performed and was able to give a strong performance despite having lost my voice days earlier from a bug the boys and Elliott had gotten. The judges gave good comments and I had a great time. I didn't end up winning, but it was a good experience!

We got some good video of my song on our 8mm video camera, but I'm having a lot harder time than I expected getting that converted to a digital format that I could post here. If I get get the video converted, I'll definitely post it!

WICKED RULES (just a little less without ME there!) :)

WICKED voting has started early!!!

Well, we're not sure why, but citywalk has changed the rules on the Wannabe Wicked voting. It was supposed to be you could vote as much as you wanted, everyday, up through the 19th of August (starting tomorrow, on the 13th). Well, we just checked the site (see below) and the voting has started AND you can only vote once a day. Anyway - PLEASE go vote starting today if you planned on voting.

http://www.citywalkhollywood.com/wickedvote/index.html

Thanks in advance for any and all votes for me! :)

Wannabe Wicked Videos

Just a quick update. While we still think the link in the previous post is the place to go to vote for Holly on the 13th, it is not currently providing access to any of the finalists' video auditions. However if you go to SonicBids' Wannabe Wicked page (SonicBids is the video hosting site for the competition) they now have all the finalists videos available for viewing. If you want to check out Holly's audition along with her fellow finalists (the competition) here is the link:

http://www.sonicbids.com/ItWorks/event_view.asp?event_id=1114

Help Holly Get WICKED!

Big news! Holly was picked as a finalist at last night's Universal Studios Citywalk Wannabe Wicked competition 4th round semi-finals!!! This means that she will be performing again on August 20th for the grand prize (which includes a walk-on appearance during a WICKED performance!) In addition to the judges' pick that night, there is a fan favorite competition that will be occurring prior to the final round. Here are the particulars:

Audition Videos of the Semi-Finalists for each round of the Competition selected by the
Judges will be displayed and accessible on the Universal website at www.CityWalkHollywood.com on August 13, 2008. The Audition Videos will then be rated by anyone who chooses to log onto the site and vote for the “Wannabe Wicked Fan Favorite.” Voters can vote for the “Wannabe Wicked Fan Favorite” as many times as they would like between 9:00am PST, August 13, 2008 until 11:59 pm August 19, 2008.

Here are some pictures/video from the semi-final round last night:
Posing, pre-show, with a WICKED balloon
Getting some last minute info

The emcee, RoRoIn front of The Emerald City map for a photo

Opening intros for the 10 semi-finalists

Performance of "For Good" and Judges Critique

(sorry for the distortion, but this was taken with our little point and shoot camera)

Singing "Dear Old Shiz"

Cutting off RoRo, after she hit the high note at the end of Dear Old Shiz

Here's Holly getting picked as a finalist (Georgia's timing here is perfect - nice shot Georgia!). Holly says that her exact words in this moment were, "WHAT??? SHUT UP!!!"

Message of congrats from OZ

"Whew!!! Ok, now it's three more weeks..."

In the meantime, GO VOTE!!! Well, voting doesn't start 'til the 13th, so go practice voting. When the time comes just imagine you're in Chicago: vote early and often! It'll be a clickfest folks - you can vote as many times as you want.

And if you're available for the Wednesday, August 20th finals contest, then come up to Universal Studios CityWalk and get WICKED with us!!!

Water Slide

This summer we've been so fortunate to have a lot of visits from loved ones. We've recently had a great gathering with Holly's family, some of whom came from as far as Massachucetts. The boys have had a great time with their cousins Ileana and Gabriel, including a couple of fun afternoons at a nearby water slide. We'll hopefully get a lot more pictures up from the whole vacation, but for starters here's a great sequence of Jackson and Ileana and the end of a water slide run.

Summertime, and the livin' is easy...

Just thought I'd post a few pics of the kiddies enjoying some of what summer in So Cal has to offer. Our three guys enjoyed running around the sand with their cousins a couple weeks back. You can see the reddish pink light in the picture. Often the marine layer comes in at evening time and the sun "sets" early, but that day we got to watch it all the way down to the water.

Here are some closer shots of the Jones boys sitting on the grass on a school field trip...
















clambering around a newly chalked climber...




















and ascending a step ladder in the front yard during car wash time.

Moving back indoors, Grandpa had Jackson and Ethan enthralled with some vintage Lionel toy trains. Guess what Santa will probably have in his sack this Christmas...

More pics soon!