CampTing on Bear Canyon Lake: a video.

oh come on, you knew i was gonna make a camping video.
if this video kick is going to continue, i need to learn how to focus and keep my hands steadier. whoops.
so grab a dramamine anti-seasick pill enjoy!

song credit: vampire weekend "a punk" & father john misty "i'm writing a novel"

saturday swim session: a mini video.

want photos? click here. 

it's wednesday. a camel's most favorite day.

there's something about this commercial that makes me giggle each time i watch it. 

maybe it's the "mike mike mike mike".... because there's always that guy in the workplace.

regardless, happy hump day. 

a full moon paella birthday party.

every weekend should be a three day weekend. no ifs, ands or butts about it.

on saturday night, a group of us celebrated our resident colombian (not to be mistaken for colUmbian), alex, with a huge and delicious paella feast (thank you, heather!) and a surprise mariachi band that was coordinated by alex's mom in colombia. 

maybe it was the full moon, i'm not sure, but there was something extra magical about that night. i know you've had those nights, too. the kind that are just so easy and so fun. the get-togethers that have people still buzzing days later about what a good time was had. that particular warm desert night reminded us of just how lucky we are to have made such a solid group of arizona friends. the kind of friends that allow you to come as you are and sing loudly out-of-key, who laugh at your bad jokes and gently tease back, and those who will hold your hand on the trampoline and groove right alongside your terrible washing machine dance moves.

a little bit of everything in this video from alejandro's 38th birthday paella party. xx 

Our Favorite Colombian Celebrates his Birthday with a Full Moon Paella Party from Teri Bockting on Vimeo.

a mother's day movie: a day all about vickdogg.

a mini movie recap of our mother's day celebration in tucson. 

because sometimes videos are more fun than photos.

song credit: "everywhere" by fleetwood mac

documentary: 56 UP (playing at the Film Bar).

have you heard this documentary? 56 UP?

The UP Series started in 1964 when one director interviewed 14 children from all over England with diverse backgrounds, to ask them about their lives and their dreams for the future. And then, every seven years, the director went back to talk to the same 14 children and examining the progression of their lives... until they were 56 years old.


The film gets rave reviews, even Roger Ebert ranking it as one of the top 10 films of all time.

Both D and I have been looking forward to seeing it. Sounds so interesting. Makes you think about what factors really steer the course of your life.

I'm super excited to see 56 UP is playing at the beloved Film Bar in downtown Phoenix. We're going this week. Click here to check out the very limited Film Bar dates and showtimes.

scrappy, the soccer playing pooch.

when steven and dad came to visit (here), they brought along their two dogs: odie (who got his name from being called "O.D." or "other dog" when they didn't have a name for him yet) and sir scrappy.

for a few weeks leading up to their visit, my dad kept telling us how scrappy was awesome with a soccer ball. yeah, okay dad... whatever. 

then, we saw scrappy in action and couldn't stop smiling. he's a natural with the ball! dribbling, balancing the thing on his head as he runs - he doesn't stop.  

apparently one afternoon a neighbor's soccer ball got thrown over the fence and scrappy just started going crazy and dribbling the ball. take a look at our little soccer mutt. 

a video // our virgin island vacation.

wonder what our recent vacation to the virgin islands really looked and sounded like? now you know. 

enjoy.

song credits:
bob marley // stir it up
yacht // psychic city

dyllan is an aussie. my heart is exploding.

after a phone chat with shmer last night, i got this video message from dyllan in my email inbox. i can't stop watching it. the dyllbug is such a sweet little girl and it's official, she's an aussie. you're going to die from cuteness when you get to the 36 second mark... the accent! it's full blown. i've watched that part 20 times. and her words and phrases... playing in the sand pit, eating ice blocks and "mucking around." i die.

danny and i laid in bed this morning and watched this a couple of times. 

"doesn't this make you want to have a baby?" says my husband. "yes... this kinda does." 

(but not yet!) 

hiking the grand canyon // a little video.

i was in the mood to make a movie, so i looked through my footage and decided on our grand canyon hike. enjoy! 

song credit: "flowers in her hair" by the lumineers. also mentioned here.

our very merry california christmas.

we had such a nice christmas. 

lots of quality time with the whole family that was the perfect combination of mellow and fun. 

we lounged around and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

ate all the traditional fare - deviled eggs, eggs benedict, homemade salsa & chocolate mousse 

laughed our asses off playing hours of "the game of things" on christmas night. 

there was no shortage of activities: golf, darts, ping pong, walks to the park, piano sing-a-longs and playing jayden's new memory game featuring family photos (pssst.. this was a huge hit for everyone. make yours here.)

each of the packages were beautiful and filled with goodies.

and then on the 26th, almost 30 of us got together for a big family christmas fiesta.

just how being home for the holidays should be. 

decided to make a the photos into a festive slideshow, enjoy!

photos from our last christmas in california (2010) in this post.

take me home country road :: an oregon film.

a little video i put together using footage from our oregon visit last weekend. 
song credit: john denver. 
enjoy.

an island holiday.

ahhh... hello, holiday weekend. i'm so happy you're here. sadly, i'm totally under the weather but hoping to kick this bug to the curb so i can fully enjoy my multi-day vacay.

in year's past, we've always been on an island - coronado island in san diego. not happening this year, but we're hoping the tradition will continue again next year... hint hint soon-to-be mr. & mrs. q.

as i wind down the workday and gear up for a few days off, i can't help but dream of a real tropical vacation.

during the computer clean-up i came across an itsy bit of footage from our trip to the virgin islands back in january. sadly it isn't much, but i put it all together to make a tiny 2-minute video. it's just enough to take me back to those glorious five days.

happy memorial day weekend

it's only supposed to be in the low 90's in phoenix.

that's super awesome weather for us desert folks.

an oldie but a goodie iMovie.

a lil family iMovie i found during my computer clean-up. made earlier this year for Makaela's First Christmas Eve.

the reason it's called a terabyte.

a terabyte is a humungo amount of digital memory. ahead of megabytes & gigabytes - it's one trillion bytes of storage.

and you know what? it's named after me. get it? ter-abyte. bad nerdy joke. i know. danny's so embarrassed.

why? because it's official. i'm a data hoarder. it's out of control. my macbook pro is maxed out again and i've been spending hours the past couple weeks backing up my files to external hard drives and then backing those up because i'm a byte hog and terrified to lose anything (especially photos and videos which take up 90% of my space).

it's terrible. and although my iPhoto library is extremely organized, from this point forward i'm vowing to:
a) only keep my edited photos
b) only keep my very favorite edited photos
c) delete. delete. delete.

ugh. this is so hard for me. i love memories, but come on. i do not need 8 different photos of the french crepes we ate on our honeymoon. pick one, teri.

the only good thing about this cumbersome backing-up process is that i've come across all kinds of video footage. i've been reminded of all the random video footage we have and encouraged to make something of it before i back it up.

get ready for some totally random, mostly crap, but fun little family iMovies to appear on the blog. we'll start with this one i made last night. it's of huntie playing in the backyard irrigation or "swamp" as we like to call it. more about that here.

Hunter the French Bulldog Sunday Swampin' from Teri Bockting on Vimeo.
song credit: Arcade Fire's "City with no Children"

the time has finally come.

rain or shine, this is gonna be the best weekend ever. it always is.
and yes, i said rain. stupid la nina is heading towards the west coast.
never has coachella seen a cool day - much less rain. this year forecasts are saying wet and strong winds.
i don't believe it, but feel free to send your warm weather vibes my way.

but like my dad said, if it does rain it'll be more memorable and even more like woodstock.
 thanks, dad. always mr. positive.

KONY 2012

in case you haven't already (as i'm posting this, there have already been 55 million views), spend 30 minutes this weekend watching this video. it's fascinating on many levels. the cause. the power of technology. using those tools to come together and spread a message. that society is changing. the idea that one person can make a big difference. it's incredibly well done.

frenchie freak-outs.

at home, hunter is the best dog in the world. out in public... it's a crap shoot. the guy is on edge all. the. time. 

if we're in the car, he freaks out when cars or people walking get too close. if we're on a walk and there's a leaf that blows, bird, cat or heaven forbid a dog, he goes into complete meltdown mode. he loves to play with other dogs, but when he sees them from a distance he gets soooo excited and screams. people come out of their homes to see what's going on and shoot us looks like we're the worst parents in the world (or beating our dog).

those of you who have watched huntie, walked with us or spent time outside our home's four walls with my little prince have experienced the screaming frenchie and embarrassment that comes along with it. 

on a recent walk, we saw a dog so i got the camera rolling to capture some of the screams. i'm not exaggerating when i say that this is a very mild meltdown. i promise i'll capture a full-blown freak out soon. 

so, who wants to take huntie for a walk? 

 

angela, nick... matt, mallary... bring back frenchie-sitting memories?

foster the people.

I'm sure you've heard the song "Pumped Up Kicks" on the radio, right? It's by Foster the People and on Tuesday night Danny, me and some friends went to see their show at a little venue in Scottsdale. Man, talk about a fast rise to the top. This band released their debut album at the end of March 2011 and became mainstream pretty much overnight. We later heard our $20 tickets were selling for $200 on Craigslist. Dang.

{at "the venue" in scottsdale. it happened to be raining that night, but otherwise there's a retractable ceiling}

{hi nissa! ;)}

{we'd never been to "The Venue" in scottsdale. it was interesting - two story home fronts}

{matt, alicia, jamie & the ting}

{alicia on the air flute, danny on air keyboard & erinn on air drums. i was on air harp}

minnesota on a stick.

nothing says summer in the midwest quite like the minnesota state fair. 

together with meg and quinn we took on the crowds, 

the live farm animal birthing center (true story), 

"the zipper" (it will be mine and quinn's last time on that particular "ride") 

and of course all the "must try" fried favorites & food "on a stick."

we tried fried pickles (my favorite), pronto pups (corn dogs), french fries, tom thumbs (mini donuts), cheese curds (fried cheese), pizza on a stick and a tub of chocolate cookies. 

holy moly fried goodness.

{danny checkin' out the map}

{what's that you say? oh, that's miss minnesota's face carved into a block of butter. real butter}

{it says POP! i loved it this one's for you carlye}

{....on a stick of course}

{meg couldn't wait to get her hands on a bag of tom thumbs mini donuts}

{the famous cheese curds. honestly, i was not a fan at all.}

{first cheese curds. i love cheese and i love me some fried goodness but not the curds}

{hydrangea everywhere}

{quinn and i were ready to ride that crazy thing in the sky but for $55 we passed}

{the half of the group up for fair rides}

a little video from down below...

{the boys trying to win us a Reggae Banana}

{free throws: 0/4. the basketballs were "weighted" - darren & danny}

a video - maybe next time boys.

{we kept joking around about pizza on a stick... but of course we found some!}

{another "must try" were the pronto pups - corn dogs but sweeter}

{just a casual tub of dessert}

{my favorite fried food of them all. dipped in ranch - obviously}