Nick Coso

For years I worked at River City Bank. At one of the branches I worked at, I got to know a customer named Nick Coso. He was the nicest guy who was going to school and working. We always talked about school and our classes. We were the same age. He became friends with many of us at the bank. Sometimes I'd even stop in to see him when he worked at Coach in Arden Fair Mall.

Last night while visiting with an old co-worker, I found out that Nick had been killed in June. I don't know any details, but I hope they find who is responsible. He was a wonderful person. I ran across a blog with a slide show from his memorial. Just looking at his pictures shows you the excitement he had for life and the many people that cared about him. I know how close he was to his family and hope that they can eventually find peace during such a terrible time.

Mutliple Posts Ahead!

There are multiple posts about our vacation. While trying to post them in correct order, ended up posting them in reverse. So, enjoy them however you will, but Our Awesome Trip to LA should have been the first one.

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

If our trip wasn't already good enough, we then got to go to the taping of Conan O'Brien. We went to Hollywood before going to the studio, grabbed some lunch and got in line around noon. We were numbers 8-11 in line. So, we were pretty happy about that. They came out around 2 pm to give us wrist bands and then lead us into the studios around 3:40ish. While in line I crocheted, yeah call me an old lady (it was for a Humanitarian project).


While in line we started to chat with our new friend, Anthony. He is from Australia. He was in the US for a few months traveling and knew he wanted to end his trip by seeing Conan. We had the best time visiting with him and with another Aussie, Eugene. We all just talked until it was time to go in. Anthony is also in a band called Our Monk. You can find him on iTunes. He wanted a picture of us, so we thought we'd get one with him too (Anthony is in the middle & Sebastian is next to Dave).


So then it was time to go in for the show. Dave scored us the prized seats! We couldn't believe that we were right behind Andy Richter! It was awesome! We were within arm reach of every important person on the show. The band all came past us, smiled at us and Max almost gave Jeff a fist bump. Andy smiled and waved right at us when he was leaving (not that I am a big Andy fan, but still cool).



During the commercial break Conan came right in front of us to talk to the warm up comedian. I could have run my fingers through his once redhead hair. Bill Maher was terrible, you could even see how tense Conan was during the interview. Nick Cannon was slightly better, pretty quick interview, and then The King's of Leon were awesome. We like them, so it was neat to see them in person. We were on TV a handful of times at the beginning, so it was fun to not only be there, but have people see us too. Overall, it was fantastic. We had a great time with Jeff and Kairsee, I loved spending time with just Dave, and we got to see some fun things! Who could ask for more.

Here's the episode if you'd like to see us.

Some bonus finds...

We were able to see a couple places where some of our shows are filmed.

If you look at that little sign over my shoulder it says... Scranton Business Office. Oh yeah, we found where The Office was filmed. Hiding in a business park. It was awesome!

The character's cars were even in the lot. Here is Dwight's.

Here is Michael's. Notice the writing on the back, a little sneak peek for the upcoming season. Also, check out the PA plates.

Not the best picture, but does this building look familiar at all? It's the apartment building from Seinfeld. Hidden on a random street in LA. Did you know Seinfeld was filmed in LA? They used shots from NY buildings, but filmed in Southern Cali.

Then here is an almost famous looking person. Not really, but we kind of thought he looked like Michael Cera from Arrested Development. It gave us a little laugh. He was really an NBC page.

Hollywood

Yes, I will admit, I am a little star struck. I have always wanted to go to Hollywood and see the Walk of Fame, Grauman's Theater, and the Kodak Theater. It was much cleaner than I expected and I enjoyed seeing all the foot & hand prints.

This picture was leading into the Kodak Theater.
(I was pretending just for a second that I was going to an awards show,
which is totally on my top 10 would love to do list.)

Our Awesome trip to LA

A few weeks back David's cousin Kairsee and her husband Jeff, invited us to go with them to, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. We were thrilled! So we planned our babysitter schedule and asked the family if they would help, which they did. It worked out great and the boys had probably just as much fun as we did. Thank you Aunt Teri, Gramma Jean, Grandma & Grandpa Mills, Auntie Janell & Uncle Peter, Grandpa & Grandma S, and Uncle Chad!

So we left the boys at Aunt Teri's Friday night and left early Saturday morning. What a treat to spend 4 days with Dave, along with Jeff & Kairsee. We had the best time.

(To see the collages better, double click right on them.)

Saturday we spend at Magic Mountain, which was a blast. We went on some pretty awesome roller coasters. We are big thrill seekers and only found one roller coaster that kind of put that knot in your stomach, but the others were pretty cool to ride.

We also went to Santa Monica beach, Zuma beach, 3rd Street Promenade, The Eastmont Ward for church, Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

These are some pictures from the beaches and the boardwalk in Santa Monica.

Here is a little sample of Jeff running on the beach, Baywatch style.

We saw a variety of clowns and street performers. Of course we had to take some pictures!

Our Parker is 2!

Parker, Mr. Mills, Sparkie Parkston, Parker David, Parker Davis, Parkeroni, Mr. Millskin, Parkie, Parkster, etc... our little man of many names is 2! He is our boy that keeps us on the move. Always thinking and finding a new adventure. Here are some of his currents favorites:

- Caillou (which he say 'ailliou)
- "Chocie" chocolate of any kind or chocolate milk
- Hanging out in just a diaper
- His big brother "Joshie"
- His "de-de" or baby doll (it's starting to sound like baby now, but dede was cute)
- Any dog that he can pet in our complex
- Eggo waffles, his almost every morning request
- He licks everything right now, like people's shirts or even my cheek
- Slides
- Lincoln Chinese' seasame chicken with noodles
- Mom's meatloaf
- Standing up on the front of grocery carts leaning his head back as far as it can go
- Pushing around a kitchen chair to get fruit out of the basket

This boy of ours just puts a smile on everyone's face. He has a fun little personality. I have looked forward to him becoming more independent (which he has). He is at such a fun stage. I couldn't be more happy to have two boys who are buddies and love one another.

Parker we all love you so much and are happy to celebrate your 2nd birthday!