Joe & Cara

2 Year Anniversary Trip to NYC...

2011-11-20T22:25:00.000-08:00

For our 2 Year Anniversary we decided to take a trip to NYC. We hadn't been for a few years, so we thought it would be fun. Since it was our third time going together, we decided that we would try and do things we had never done before and just relax and enjoy our time. Our Anniversary was on Oct 9 and we headed to NYC Oct 10-15. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central. This is our favorite hotel because it is right next to Grand Central and can just hop on the subway and go!! We got to NYC in the late afternoon on Columbus Day. We were pretty hungry, so we checked into our hotel and headed out to eat. We decided to go to The Shake Shack. We had never been before and one of my cousin's told me we had to go. We went to the one at Madison Park and I think all of New York was there as well. The line was enormous and it was like 9 at night!!! I kept thinking to myself that this better be worth the wait!! After being in line for an hour, we finally got to the front of the line. We each got a cheeseburger, fries and a shake. We also go some frozen custard since neither of us had tried it before. I thought the food was ok, but the frozen custard was amazing!!!!

Afterwards we hopped back on the subway and headed to the Apple Store. We were excited to go and see what the outside of the store would look like due to Steve Jobs just passing away. It was pretty cool!! There were tons of sticky notes left for Steve, tons of apples and even some apple boxes, old key boards, ipods, etc. It was by far the biggest memorial we had seen and we knew it would be because of the location of the store. The outside of the store was also all boarded up because they are in the process of remodeling it.

So here is the real story as to why we had to go to the Apple Store the first night...When we got to LAX to get on the plane, Joe was unloading our bags from the car and realized he had left his backpack at home. This probably sounds familiar as I did the same thing last year when going to SF, but because I was flying out of Orange County, Joe just went home, got it and brought it to me before my flight. There was no way this was going to happen this time because it takes at least an hour to get back home and another hour back to the airport and our flight was leaving in little over an hour. I called the airline to see about switching our flight but they said it would be at least $450 each and we wouldn't leave until the next day. Joe's backpack had our macbook, our hard drive with our pictures and all his work stuff like his blackberry and other stuff. (Secretly I was glad his work stuff was left at home....we were going on VACATION!!!!) After Joe calmed down...I have to admit I was a bit afraid of him because he was SOOOO mad about leaving it, we decided that if there was anything really important, my parents could ship it to us. We talked about maybe shipping the macbook but Joe was too afraid something would happen to it. Joe came up with the perfect plan of getting an iPad when we get to NY. We have been talking about getting one for a while, so now was the perfect time. The best part about the NY store is it is opened 24 hours, so we could go whenever we wanted. We got there probably around 10:00 pm and the place was still packed!! We got some help and in a matter of minutes, we were the proud new owners of the iPad2! We then headed back to our hotel for the night. ..In other words, headed back to play with our iPad!!!!

The next morning, the weather was gorgeous!! We could wear shorts it was that nice!! We headed out to the Jets team store in search for the Sanchez jersey I had been wanting. The store was Jets heaven!!! I was in heaven!! Of course they didn't have my size in the jersey, but that didn't stop me from getting a hat, license plate frame, drinking glass, magnet and a key chain!!! We then headed to grab some lunch at RARE. I had seen it on a TV show, so I wanted to go there. Joe had his first Bison burger and I had a cheeseburger. We also had sweet potato fries and Parmesan fries.

After that we hopped back on the subway and headed to Union Square to check out the new flagship Citibank branch. It was pretty cool. There were flat screen tv's all over the place that you could interact with and even had a customer service phone that you can actually see the person you were talking to on a screen. I think the security guy there was getting a little nervous about Joe and I just walking all over the bank, so he finally came up to me when I went in one of the back rooms and asked me if I needed some help. I told him that we both work for Citi and we were from CA and wanted to check out this new branch because we don't have anything like it in Ca. After that, we went next door to the biggest Best Buy we had ever been in. I think Joe was in heaven!! We picked up a cover for our iPad and then headed out. When we got out of the store, there were 4 firetrucks and a bunch of firemen all suited up. There was something going on down in the subway. As they headed down the stairway to the subway, I got a little teary eyed thinking that they were just going to do their job, just like those on 9/11. Such brave men!!!

We then headed to Times Square to go see Mary Poppins. I had gotten tickets for this months back and never told Joe. I didn't know how excited he would be to see Mary Poppins, but I know I had wanted to see it. I ended up telling him a couple of days before our trip and he didn't seem too thrilled. Oh well, I was excited!!! We had the best seats!! I was able to get the first row of the first mezzanine, right in the middle!! The show was really cute. I think I kept annoying Joe because it wasn't exactly like the movie and when something didn't happen that was supposed to happen, I would complain to Joe!! There were some really weird parts that I couldn't understand why they would come up with that, but overall it was great. The end was the BEST!! I won't give it away just in case you haven't seen it yet. It's a must see!!

We then headed to our favorite Times Square restaurant, Roxy!!! It has THE BEST CHEESECAKE EVER!!! The portions there are huge, so Joe and I split a sandwich. We then got a slice of the peanut butter cup cheesecake. It was soooo good!! We then headed to do a little shopping. Joe had given me a gift card on Valentine's Day that I hadn't used, so we went to the Quiksilver store to use it. While I was busy trying on clothes, Joe was walking around carrying a pair of slippers I wanted. He met one of the employees. She kept joking with him that the slippers he was holding were for himself. When she rang us up, she decided to decorate a box for him. It was pretty funny!! We also ended up signing my gift card and giving it to another employeel that worked there and she keeps it with her employee ID card!!! We had soo much fun joking our with them and now have two new FB friends!!! We were pretty sure that they had no clue how old we were and that Joe was old enough to be their dad!!!! We then headed to Forever 21. It had 4 levels!! It was huge!!!!! We then headed back to the subway and back to our hotel.

Wednesday was the day we had been waiting for. We had tickets to the 9/11 Memorial. It was raining, so we got bundled up and headed to the subway. When we got off the subway, we were at Wall Street and were greeted by a lovely live band...otherwise known as Occupy Wall Street!!! The people there were crazy!!! There were tents everywhere too. In the front of everyone was this freaky person dressed in a gas mask and a strange outfit, waving two huge flags. There were police all over the place just watching them. We watched for a while and then decided to leave. It was really weird!!!

On our way to the Memorial, we stopped at the Essex Cafe. This cafe is right across the street from the World Trade Center. When 9/11 happened, the cafe was turned into a medical facility to take care of people from the attack. They have some pictures and the original medical sign that they had made during 9/11 in the cafe.

We then got in line for the Memorial. Security is really tight there and you have to go through medal detectors before entering the Memorial Park. As we walked around the area, you could see where they are still working on the new transportation hub and the other buildings. It was weird, once we entered the Memorial grounds, it became silent. There was construction happening loudly all around the Park but for some reason you could tune that noise out. Seeing the pools in person is very powerful. To see the actual footprint from the buildings was humbling. I thought they did an amazing job with the pools. The rain stopped just as we got to the Memorial, which was nice. I had written some names down of people I wanted to find and pay my respects to at the Memorial. It was very emotional seeing the names of my good friend's family members and friend's. Every now and then you would find a flower or a flag by a name.

We were also able to find the Survivor's Tree. This tree is the actual tree that was pulled from Ground Zero. It was taken to a place where it was restored and taken care of to one day be replaced back to it's original home. This tree is different from all the other trees in the Memorial Park because you can see the slashes and marks from the destruction it went through on 9/11. It is also a very powerful thing to see still standing. Once we were done at the Memorial, we went to the 9/11 Memorial store. They had a ton of t-shirts, books and videos about 9/11. Joe and I both got a t-shirt and I got a bracelet that I have worn everyday now since I got it. They were also playing footage from 9/11 that had interviews with people who had lost family members. As you walked into that area, there was a feeling of sadness when you entered and saw that footage. It is true that it is a day we will never forget.

We then headed to Soho because Joe wanted to go to the Firemen store. We had to stop and grab a piece of pizza at Joe's pizza!! Next door to Joe's pizza was Popbar. They serve frozen gelato on a stick and then you dip it in chocolate and some toppings. It's similar to a Balboa Bar but believe it or not, SOO MUCH BETTER!!! It was sooo good!!!

Afterwards we went to Rockefeller Plaza, the Lego Store and the Nintendo Store. It was raining, so we tried to stay indoors as much as possible. We then went back to Times Square to go to our favorite Thai food restaurant. Of course I had to stop at the Disney Store! On our way back to the subway, we stopped at Roxy's again to get a slice of cheesecake to share. This time we got caramel, apple struessel......IT WAS AMAZING!!! We ate that slice sooo fast!!!!!!!

Thursday we were going to meet some co-worker's from Citi on Long Island City. Before we headed there, we went to the Doughnut Plant in China Town. It was pretty good!! We then headed to LIC. It was soo much fun meeting our friends. It was nice to put a face to a name!! The Citi building is soo tall and when we were up in their offices I could feel the building swaying back and forth from the wind because we were so high up!!! I had to bring them some gifts from California so I brought them a huge box of See's Candy and each of them a Mickey or Minnie Mouse hat with their names embroidered on them from Disneyland, of course!! I am wish I would have gotten a picture of them with their hats!!!!! We went to a yummy Italian restaurant for dinner and just chatted and got to know each other a little better. It was a great night!!!!

Friday we took a train to Hartford, Connecticut. We were going to visit the Baldwin's. They used to live across the street from me when I was in High School. We hadn't seen each other for like 15 years. Mike and Bettianne have three children-Little Michael, Brendan and Molly. Little Michael was probably 3 or 4 when they moved. He would be the only one who remembered us. I can remember going over the their house and watching little Michael while Brendan was born!!! Shauna and I went out to New Jersey after they moved back to the East Coast and went to Cape Cod with them. Bettianne met us at the train station. She still looked as cute as a button!!!! She took us to see Molly. This is the first time I remember meeting her. Bettianne said that I would have met her when she was a baby because she was born in CA, but I don't remember. I had never seen a "girl" Baldwin and she was the cutest!!!!!! She had the big Baldwin eyes and smile and looked like Bettianne!! Molly was hanging out with her Field Hockey team eating some lunch, getting ready for their game later that day. Bettianne then took us to see where the hurricane had hit some homes along the Long Island Sound. It was crazy seeing the destruction.

We then went to their house. I was greeted by "big" Mike and the first thing he said to me was "Nerdy, Nerdy"!!! I died laughing!! I hadn't heard that expression in 15 years. Little Michael used to say that to my dad all the time!! It was soo good to see him. I then got to see Brendan..he was soo big!!!! He was home for fall break. I told him how I was there when he was born and couldn't believe how big he was!! We chatted for a while and then headed out to see Molly's field hockey game. It was fun watching Molly even though none of us had any clue on what the rules were or why the ref kept blowing the whistle!!! Molly's team ended up winning in the end!! It was pretty awesome!! She is #2 in the white jersey and plays defense. It was soo cute hearing Bettianne cheering for her!!!!!

Brendan and Molly

We then went back to their house right when it started pouring rain!!! Brendan went to the train station to pick up little Michael. It was sooo great too see little Michael.....though he is no longer little!! He is over 6 ft tall!! We had a great dinner and then looked through some old pictures of their days in Ca. At one point little Michael mentioned that even though we hadn't seen each other for at least 15 years, it was neat that we pick right back up as though we had never been apart. That is what true friend's can do!!! It was awesome!! It was true....it was like we had never been apart!! I didn't want to leave. It was so great being together again. We promised that we wouldn't let another 15 years go by and would try and maybe get together with everyone next summer at "The Cape"!! We took some pictures and then they drove us back to the train station. It was sad to say good-bye :( The Baldwin's have to be the nicest family I know. They are so sweet and their kids are amazing!!! Little Michael just graduated from Georgetown Univ and is working in NYC as an Investment Banker, Brendan is going to college in Massachusettes at Holy Cross and Molly will be turning 16 soon and is in HS in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Brendan, Michael, Molly, Me and Joe

Little Michael, Mike, Bettianne, Molly and Brendan

Michael, Molly and Brendan

Here are a couple of pictures we found from back in the day...

This is when Shauna and I went to visit them in New Jersey and went to Cape Cod. Look how little Brendan (in the stroller) and Michael (on my lap in the red shirt) are!!!

Little Michael was attached to my brother Matt!! Every where Matt would go, Michael would go. It was soo cute!! Now Michael is bigger then Matt!!!!!

Saturday our flight wasn't leaving until 8:00 pm, so we decided to pack in some last minute things. We took the subway to Roosevelt Island to go see John and Audrey Crisp. It was fun catching up with them and seeing Audrey ready to pop!! Their baby was due the next week!! Baby Weston came right on his due date and is soo cute!! We brought them a little NYFD onsie for Weston :) We took the airel tram back from Roosevelt Island. It was a really nice view with gorgeous weather!!!

We then headed back to the Apple store to get some pictures during the day. Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and went to Central Park to walk around and around along the streets. We then decided to head to Times Square one more time before we had to go. This ended up being a very bad idea.....as we started getting closer to Times Square, there were police everywhere. All the streets were being barricaded. All the police had tons of those zip tie hand cuffs. As we got closer to the middle of Times Square, it got more and more crowded with more police and sirens. A huge crowd of people was coming...it was the Occupy Wall Street protesters!! They decided to move their way to Times Square. It was pretty scary and we luckily got out of there as fast as we could. We couldn't get to the subway because it was crazy, so we had a bit of a walk back to our hotel. We finally made it back to our hotel, hopped in a town car and were off to JFK airport.

Occupy Protesters in Times Square

We had a great time in NYC. Even though I still wasn't feeling my best, it was great to get away from everything and just spend time with each other. We had another week off when we got back from NYC. We pretty much spent that time relaxing at home. We did go to Disneyland one day to see all the Halloween decorations!!!

I can't believe two years have already gone by!!!!

2 Years!!!!

2011-10-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that today is our 2 Year Anniversary!!! Where has the time gone? It has been a great two years and we just hope they keep getting better!! We are on vacation the next two weeks to celebrate and are heading to NYC tomorrow morning...early!! Our flight leaves from LAX at 7:40 am, which means we need to leave our house at 5 am :( So I probably should go to bed now!! We are really looking forward to spending time together as the past 4 months have been pretty challenging with my work injury and Joe has been sooo busy at work! I think we are mostly looking forward to getting away from everything and just having fun.

Today we will watch our wedding video, which is a tradition we will do every year and look through our album. We are going to head down to the beach to take our anniversary picture on the sand, which is also a tradition I want to keep doing each year. Glad the beach is just 5 miles away!!!! Joe is enjoying the day watching his Raiders, actually the game just ended and they won, so Joe is very happy!!!! Where as my Jets game is not being aired here today, so I'll just get updates on my iphone :( Then I guess as some point I'll start packing...ugh!! I hate packing!!!!!

I can't wait to get to NYC!! This will be our third time going together. We decided to try and do things we have never done this time. One of those things is going to the 9/11 Memorial, to pay our respects to those lost on that day. We are also going to Connecticut for a day to visit with the Baldwins who used to live across the street from me when I were growing up. Unfortunately, it looks like it is going to rain three days we are there, so it should get interesting!! Oh well....we will still have a blast!!!!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our wedding day!!!

Happy Anniversary Babe!! I LOVE YOU XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Better Late Then Never...

2011-09-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to making the photo book from our trip to Kauai and Oahu LAST YEAR in Oct for our One Year Anniversary!! I have been putting this off forever because I took 980 pictures and didn't want to go through them all!! Well, I got an email from Shutterfly for a free book, so I figured now was the time to finally put the book together! It took over 3 hours last night downloading all the pictures and then most of the day today putting it together. It was fun going through all the pictures and remembering the fun we had!! In just a few weeks we will be celebrating our second Anniversary (can't believe it!!) and are looking forward to our trip we have planned!! Hopefully by next year this time I will put a book together for that trip!!!

Here's our book (click on Full Screen and then you can view it better)...

Click here to view this photo book larger

Star Wars in Concert, Hollywood Bowl

2011-06-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

Last night Joe and I surprised Audrey and Carter and took them to see "Star Wars in Concert" at the Hollywood Bowl. I saw a commercial for this back in April and it looked really cool. I got tickets and was able to keep it a surprise until we got there. Lisa had told the kids they were going to a concert outdoors but that was it. I kept telling Carter that we were going to a Disney Princess concert and he was not happy at all. He kept telling me that he thought we were going to a Star Wars Concert because he saw a commercial about it...GREAT!!!??? Well, I played it down and acted like I had never heard about it and told him that I wish I had known and it sounded really cool. As we drove up to the Hollywood Bowl, Audrey read the sign and said "We are going to the Star Wars Concert!!!" I acted like we still weren't going and told them how sorry I was that we were going to the same place as Star Wars but were seeing something else! I told them that maybe we could swap our tickets for it but Audrey said the sign said it was sold out so we wouldn't be able to!!! They kept seeing all these kids dressed up in Star Wars with their light sabers and it was killing them. Finally, Joe told me I had to tell them because they couldn't stop talking about the lucky kids. I handed them their tickets and Audrey read them and said "YES!! We are going to Star Wars"!!! They were really excited!!!

Before we got into the concert, they had all the characters there that you could take pictures with. The kids were really excited!! Carter was pretty bummed that he didn't have his light saber, so Joe bought him a little green one and Audrey some Star Wars dog tags...Joe of course had to get himself a pair of dog tags too!! We also got this huge Concert book that has really cool pictures in it.

We got in our seats and couldn't wait for the show to start!! It started almost a half an hour late, but it was worth the wait!! They had Anthony Daniels be the narrator. He is the actual person that played C3PO in all the movies. He was pretty cool and funny!! So basically how it worked was he would go movie by movie and explain what happened and then they would show clips from the movie on huge flat screens and the Orchestra would be playing the music. It took me a while to realize that the music was live because you are so used to just hearing it from the movie. It sounded AWESOME!!! It was pretty cool when it got dark because you could see all the light sabers glowing!!! After about 10 minutes of it, Carter asked me when the "movie" was going to start!!! I explained to him that this was how it was going to be and after a little bit, he got it! He was really cute waving his light saber around during the battle scenes!! I think he and Audrey both liked it!!

The best part was when it was over, they announced a surprise guest was there. All of a sudden John Williams walks out and the place goes NUTS!! It was soooo cool!! Of course he had to conduct a song and it was AMAZING!!! Not many people can say they have seen the actual composer of Star Wars live...but we can!!!

I video taped most of the concert, but they took too long to download so I didn't download them all. The first is mine and the rest I got off of Youtube, so here are some of my favorite moments...

Opening Song...

A Recap of the whole concert...check out all the light sabers glowing at night, pretty cool!!!

John Williams Conducting...

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU......

Jonathan...

2011-05-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

Last November, Jonathan came from Arizona to go with me to the USC/ASU football game at the Coliseum.

He thought he would be funny and stand where Bush's Heisman used to be!!! Any ways.....

I had this button for Jonathan to wear but for some reason, he didn't want too!! A few years ago, we were at his house watching the USC/ASU game and I was nice enough to bring both he and Eric one of these buttons. I remember giving it to Eric and he threw it on the floor!!! It was the funniest thing!

Well, USC ended up BEATING ASU 34-33 with a last second field goal!!! We were lucky to be sitting right in the end zone where the final kick was made!!!! Jonathan couldn't have had a more perfect view of the USC VICTORY!!!!!!

He was a HUGE ASU FAN!!! I just wanted to make sure he felt at home in his room when he stayed with us. I am sooo glad I got this on video...

I never got around to taking down most of the "decorations" in that room and now I don't know that I ever will. Whenever I walk by the room, I just laugh inside when I think of Jonathan's reaction!!!

We miss you Jonathan, more then you know!!!

An Amtrak Adventure

2011-02-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

Since Joe is in San Antonio working for two weeks :( Emily came and stayed with me for the weekend. Friday night we watched Audrey, Carter and Brady (well mostly Emily did because I got stuck at work late). On our way home, we were talking about what we were going to do on Saturday. We had originally planned to go on a hike but as we were driving, I saw an Amtrak sign and thought of an idea...It would be fun to take the train to San Diego for the day!! So, when we got home, we went online and checked it out. It was only $19 each way. We could leave at 9:30 in the morning from Irvine, get to Old Town San Diego at 11:00 and then leave Old Town at 6:30 and get home at 8:00. Emily had never really been to San Diego, so I thought she would love it!!! It was perfect and at midnight, we bought our tickets. We decided it would be an adventure.....and boy was it an ADVENTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left from Irvine and got all settled on the train. We were quite impressed on how smooth the ride was!! The seats even reclined back really far!! The view on the ride down was awesome as we pretty much rode along the ocean the whole time. The weather was gorgeous which made it even better!! We got to Old Town and explored around a bit. We had lunch at a pretty good Mexican food place. On the way out, we watched a bunch of little kids dancing. After we went into a couple of shops and then we decided to head to Seaport Village.

We hopped on the trolley right from Old Town. We took the blue line to Santa Fe (this will be a key place for us later on!!!) and then hopped on the orange line to Seaport Village. We walked around the village a bit. I took Emily to the kite store my family would always go to when we were kids. We were kind of tired since we didn't go to bed until pretty late the night before, so we decided to go relax on the grass and take a nap. It was right along the water and there were a ton of sail boats out on the water. There was a guy flying a stunt kite right over us and it was fun to watch. After relaxing, we got some energy and headed back to the trolley to go to the Gaslamp District.

We took the trolley just two more stops and were at the Gaslamp District. Our first stop was Pinkberry for me. Emily wanted some ice cream, so we found a homemade ice cream shop for her. We then walked around and went into a few shops. We then headed back to the trolley because we wanted to go check out the Mormon Battalion exhibit at Old Town.

We got back on the trolley and got off at Old Town. The Mormon Battalion was pretty neat, but we had to leave early because we wanted to make sure we were back to our train with plenty of time.

We walked to our train stop and were there 25 minutes early. We were proud how early we were!! A little while later we saw a train pull up on the other side of the track and heard them announce it was the Amtrak headed north. I asked the guy next to me if he was waiting for the Amtrak and he said that it was the train across from us and he was waiting for the Coaster. Emily and I looked at each other, grabbed our stuff and started running. We were so tired from walking all day, but ran as fast as we could. Of course it wasn't a short distance...we had to run down some stairs, through a walk way and then back up a set of stairs, pushing people out of our way!! I could hear them say "Last call, doors are closing". We finally got up to the train and the doors were shut. We started knocking on the door but they wouldn't open. We were yelling at them to open the door, but nothing. A kid inside the train came to our door and told a guy that worked on the train that we were trying to get in and he just sat there. Then the train left. We just looked at each other in disbelief!!!! It was the last train at that stop for the night. There was another couple with us that got left also and we all just stood there in disbelief that they wouldn't open the doors for us!!

Emily and I couldn't believe we missed the train as we were so good to be there early. All we could do was laugh and then we realized we had no way home. She called her parents and she was laughing so hard I don't think they really understood what was happening. As she was on the phone, I found a police man and told him what happened. He told me that we could take the trolley back to the Santa Fe station and get a train from there. It was a glimpse of hope and we hopped back on the trolley.

We got to the Santa Fe station and talked to the ticketing guy. We told him what happened and he told us that we should never take a train from Old Town because it's too confusing and this happens all the time. He said we learned the hard way!! He said that there was a train leaving at 8:20 and it would take us home and we could just use the tickets we had :) We were soo relieved!!! We had about an hour and a half until it left, so we went and got some dinner. I don't think either of us had ever eaten so fast...there was NO WAY we were going to miss this train!!

We got back and I asked a guy where we could wait for our train, we didn't want to be on the wrong track again!! He pointed over to a section that was labeled for our train (how clever, maybe Old Town should invest in SIGNS THAT SAYS WHERE THERE TRAINS ARE!!!!) We were the first in line!!!

We got on the train and just looked at each other and laughed!!! We were soo tired and it had been a very long day!!! 14 hours later from when we left in the morning we were FINALLY going home!!!!!

So remember earlier how I said that the Santa Fe train station was going to be a key place for us??!! When we were on the trolley headed to Seaport Village, we met this guy from Michigan. We were waiting for a trolley and he asked us if we wanted a picture in front of the Santa Fe sign. We looked at each other and were a bit confused. He said that Santa Fe is a really popular salad (WEIRD!!) and it would be cool to have a picture in front of it and think of the guy from Michigan that told us to take it.

Well...THANK YOU guy from Michigan for taking a picture of us in front of the Santa Fe....this is the train station that got us home :) We said we were going on an adventure and boy did we have an adventure!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-25T23:17:00.001-08:00

"Shop With A Hero"

2010-12-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Joe and I headed out to Banning to participate in "Shop With A Hero". It was put on by B.P.A.L. (Banning Police Activities League). Our good friend is the Chief of Police for Banning and every year they select about 20 kids from the program to take shopping for Christmas. Each child is paired with a "hero" and given one hundred one dollar bills to buy whatever they want at Wal-Mart. It was AMAZING!!!

We all met at the Police Station at 8:30 in the morning in Banning and then the kids jumped into a couple of limos and we headed off for some breakfast. When we got there, we were paired with our child. I was with Juan, who is 8. Juan also had his 5 year-old sister, Elizabeth, there too. She is sooo cute!! Her nickname is Boo because she looks like Boo from Monster's Inc!! I swear she looked like she could be my kid!!!! Joe was with Leng, who is 11. Leng always has a huge smile on his face :) We hung out with the kids for a while and then got some breakfast. We even got to meet Zorro, the police dog! After breakfast, the kids all lined up to meet Santa and get their $100. After everyone sat with Santa, we headed back out the limos to head to Wal-Mart.

Juan and Boo :)

Now this is when the coolest part started!!! We had a full police escort to Wal-Mart...SIRENS and all!!! It was incredible!! There were about 4 limos, probably 15 cars and about 15 police cars and motorcycles!! We first went through a neighborhood where all the neighbors came outside to wave to the kids. Then we headed out to the streets. Somehow Joe and I got separated from the Banning group. They headed off to the Morongo Reservation, but we had no clue. We just kept following the police escort. We ended up following the Beaumont group to Wal-Mart, but were glad we did!! It's not too often that you get to go through stop signs, red lights, people pull over for you, drive on the wrong side of the road or not have to pull over when there's a police car tailing you with it's siren blaring!!! I told Joe I felt like we were in a huge car chase! I'm sure the people on the roads were wondering what in the heck was going on. It was about a 20 minute drive of pure EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!

When we pulled into Wal-Mart, the fire department and their trucks were already there to greet us!! There were people and Wal-Mart employees standing outside waving and taking pictures of us! We felt like celebrities and I'm sure the kids were in heaven in their limo!! Once the Banning group arrived, they had the same reception!! I was kind of glad we were already there because I got to film and take pictures of them driving in.

As soon as we got the ok, Juan and I were the first one's into Wal-Mart and we sprinted to the toy section!! He was on a mission for a remote control helicopter, but after seeing all his options, he changed his mind. He ended up picking out a Spiderman DS game, a Luigi cover for his DS, a Halo lego set, Transformers and a pair of shoes. As we were trying on some shoes, a reporter came by and asked us some questions and took some pictures. We ended up having a picture in her article in the paper!!! Juan's older brother found us and it was fun seeing him help his brother pick out some fun toys!!!

We headed to the cashier to buy Juan's gifts. We found his sister, Boo, and she ended up buying clothes for herself! She even had some money left over and she showed me with a HUGE smile on her face!!! Juan's mom came to bring him home and it was so nice to meet her and give her a hug. She "thanked" me for being Juan's hero, but it was her I "thanked" for letting me spend the day with Juan! I was soo sad when they said they had to leave, I didn't want it to be over. Weren't we supposed to play with the toys now!!???? I stuck Juan and Boo in my shopping cart and tried to sneak out with them!!!

We had the best day!!! I know Joe had a blast too!! What more can a 38 year-old kid ask for then take another kid shopping??!! I think Joe was having the most fun picking out all the toys!!!!! It's always amazing how something like this can make you feel and make you realize how fortunate you are!! We can't wait to do it again next year and the years to come!!

Thanks Leonard (Chief), Liz and Logan for inviting us to this amazing event :)
Click this link to see the Article about the event. (There's a picture of me helping Juan try on his shoes and one of Joe standing behind Leng. You can see the back of Leng's shirt and you can see Joe's name tag behind him!)

Jumping off Kipu Falls

2010-10-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some videos we took when jumping off Kipu Falls...

Joe jumping

Cara jumping

Cara in the water filming (sorry a bit shaky, I'm treading water and filming at the same time!!)

Rope swing and some crazy locals jumping off the top of the tree!!

One Year Anniversary, First Stop: Kauai

2010-10-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

So we have been in Kauai since Saturday, Oct 9th, the actual day of our One Year Anniversary!! We flew into Honolulu and then hopped on a little plane to Kauai. While waiting for our flight to Kauai, I had Joe try his first Lava Flow (virgin of course)!!! The vacation had then officially begun!!!! We stayed at a relative's condo in Poipu..Thanks Vaughn and Margaret!!! It is an awesome condo!! We have been keeping pretty busy since we got here. We rented a convertible Mustang and good thing there aren't too many police around because Joe is having a blast driving it (when he can go more then 25 miles an hour!!) One of the things I love to drive through in Kauai is the tunnel of Trees!! It is soo pretty :) Saturday night we just wandered around a bit and then got some burgers at Tom Kat's. The burgers were yummy!!!

On Sunday we headed to the North Shore to go to Tunnels to go snorkeling. We had breakfast first at Joe's on the Green. The food was really good and it was right on a golf course. This was the first place we saw that had the name "Joe" in it and soon learned it is quite a popular name around here!! Joe would be quite famous! We headed up north and made a couple of stops to look at the scenery and I showed Joe around Princeville. We then got to Tunnels but the waves were too big to go snorkeling so we just watched the waves and relaxed. It was pretty windy out so there were a bunch of kite surfers we got to watch. Afterwards we explored the cave and then got some yummy smoothies!! I got mango (I seem to lately be obsessed with mango!) and Joe got pineapple. On the way down we passed by a place called Banana Joe's but they were closed. We totally forgot to take a picture for Joe!!! That night we had dinner at Bubba's burgers.

Monday we decided to head west to Waimea Canyon, know as the Hawaiian Grand Canyon. We had breakfast at a cafe called Kalaheo Cafe & Coffee Co. It was a great spot for breakfast and soo good!!! The drive up the canyon was a pretty windy road with awesome views!!! It was gorgeous!!! Our favorite view was when we got all the way to the top and you could see the start of the Na' Pali coast!! Absolutely breathe taking!! We had a pretty sweet view driving up there in the convertible!!!! After, we headed back down and got some Shave Ice at Jo Jo's!! Joe had to take a picture since his name appeared once again!!! Just spelled wrong!!! I had some pretty high expectations for this place but have to admit that Sno on the Go back home is way better!!!! On the way back we stopped at Kauai Coffee so Joe could get a free coffee fix. This is the largest coffee estate in the US!! They had all these different flavors of coffee you could try for free, so Joe was in heaven...me on the other hand, not so much!! We got to walk through the coffee fields and it was pretty neat! After that, we headed to Spouting Horn. It is a big blowhole that is pretty cool!! It even makes a screaming noise as the water goes in and out. The waves were still pretty big, so it was awesome to watch! That night we couldn't decided what to eat so we just headed to Poipu village for a quick dinner.

Tuesday poor Joe woke up with a sinus cold, so he wanted to just rest all day so he could get better. We went and got some breakfast again at Joe's on the Green and then we went to the Grand Hyatt to check out the waves. I had been dying to take Joe here because it is absolutely the most gorgeous resort!!! This is where my parent's always stayed at and we would love swimming in the pools and getting a ton on lava flows there!!! I took Joe back home after we walked around and then I decided to go do some snorkeling. I learned it's not that fun by yourself but I still had a good time. I saw a ton of fish and it wasn't too rough where I was, so it was worth it. I stopped by a deli in Koloa to grab Joe and I some lunch and then headed back home. That deli makes the BEST sandwiches I have ever had!!! We then headed back to the Hyatt to try and watch the sunset because we still hadn't seen one, but when we got there, it was already over. We ended up watching the surfers at Shipwreck beach. The waves were still pretty big so it was awesome!! We then headed to go get some Thai Food for dinner.

Wednesday Joe was feeling a lot better, so we thought today would be the day to go searching for some waterfalls. We stopped and had breakfast at Kalapaki Joe's (that's right, another Joe restaurant). We came to find out that they only served breakfast on the weekends, but they said they would make it for us any ways!! The restaurant was on top of some other buildings, so there was a nice view by the window where we sat. We saw a bunch of scuba equipment below us and decided to go check it out after we ate. We found out that they take people out scuba diving and it wasn't expensive at all. I have been dying to scuba dive for a long time, so what better place to try for the first time!! We booked ourselves a lesson for 10:15 the next morning!!! We then headed for our waterfall adventure. The first fall we got to was Wailua Falls. It is a really tall fall, but you can't really get to it, so we just looked at it over a wall. We then headed to Kipu Falls...Heaven on Earth!! We found the hidden trail off the road and started our journey through a sugar cane field. It felt like we were walking through corn fields like in the movie "Field of Dreams"!! As we got closer, we could hear water and then we came to the waterfall. It was like something out of a movie. A secluded waterfall with a pool of fresh water and no one around!!! It was AMAZING!!! The waterfall is about 20 feet high, so you can jump right off it! There is also a rope swing off a tree but it was pretty sketchy trying to get the rope so we just stuck to the waterfall!! There were a group of locals that climbed all the way to the top of the tree which had to have been 6 stories high and jumped off!!! They were crazy!! There were doing flips off the rope swing and everything!! Once you were in the pool, there was a ladder that someone had bolted to the rocks to get you back up. Climbing up that ladder was scarier then jumping off the waterfall!! Joe jumped twice and I jumped three times. Joe had to drag me out of the water. I probably would still be there now!! It was soo magical there!!! Joe had gotten me a waterproof video camera and it finally came to some good use!! I was able to take a ton of videos and pictures while in the water!! I even took it snorkeling with me the day before and got some sweet shots and videos!! If you ever go to Kauai you have to go to Kipu Falls!!! $20 bucks and I'll tell you where it is!!! HAHA!!!! Sadly we had to leave and headed to the Beach House to watch the sunset. We saw a gorgeous sunset and got to watch a bunch of surfers too! The waves were huge there!! We then headed to get some dinner at a Japanese Teppan Yaki place where they cook in front of you. It was really good!!

Thursday we got to go scuba diving!! I was really excited although I kept having dreams the night before that the regulator kept coming out of my mouth and I couldn't breathe and didn't have enough air to get back to the surface!! Luckily that didn't happen. The best part about our scuba trip was it was just Joe and I and the instructor!! He gave us a quick lesson and he said the only two words we needed to remember was Breathe Out!!! He told us that the hardest thing would be when he told us to put our head under water!! Joe and I both thought he was crazy!! We can go under!! NOT!!! It was the weirdest and kind of scary feeling at first!! It took a while getting used to the fact that we could take a breathe in under water. Once we got a hang of that, we were off!! We got down to about 55 feet and it was awesome!! We saw a ton of fish and even a sea turtle!!! I even got some pretty cool shells from down below as well!! We were down for a little over an hour and then came back it. We were surprised how tired we were once we were done!! It is pretty exhausting but FUN!!! Too bad we didn't see any sharks!! The instructor kept telling me that if we did see a shark, I would be the only safe one since they are "man eaters"!! HAHAHA!! Our instructor was a cool guy!!! Our instructor told us this crazy story about a couple he had taken out the previous week. He said that when they were under, the he kept checking on the wife's tank to see that she had enough air. A little later, he noticed that she wasn't getting any air and went to her tank and all the air was GONE!!! He sure didn't touch it, the wife didn't touch it...so that left one person..the HUSBAND!!! The instructor confronted them separately and asked the husband why he tried to KILL his wife??!!! The husband said that he didn't do anything of course!! He then asked the wife if there was something going on between the two and she said that she never had any reason to doubt her husband's love until now!! The instructor wanted to call the police but it would be his word against the husband and it would probably look bad on his business, so he told them to get lost!! So...I made sure to keep Joe away from my tank!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! It was fun just being there with Joe and watching us both learn to do something we had never done. I know for sure we will be doing it again!! Only 3 more dives to get certified!! Afterwards, we went and got some lunch at Puka Dog. A friend of mine told me about it, but I really had no clue was it was!! It is the BEST hot dog!! It was actually a polish sausage and we got a hot sauce, mango and pineapple relish and some Hawaiian mustard. We will definitely be going there again when we get to Oahu!!! We then did a little shopping and got some ice cream from Lappert's. It was really good ice cream. We decided to have our last evening in Kauai at the Beach House restaurant for dinner. We had a perfect table right on the patio in front of the waves. It was a great view!! Our food was delicious and we even got surprised with a dessert and card from the restaurant for our One Year Anniversary!!!!

Friday morning was our last day in Kauai. We decided to have our last breakfast at none other than Joe's on the Green. We then headed to the Kilauea Lighthouse where we saw some amazing views of the coast!! We stopped and got a frest fruit smoothie before heading back to the Lihue airport. We then hopped on a little plane for a 20 minute flight to Oahu, where we are staying at the Turtle Bay Resort! Kauai has been amazing and we have had a relaxing and totally fun time here!!! We won't miss those annoying roosters however!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is just a sneak peak at our view from our room at Turtle Bay...it's going to be a rough!!!!! Time to go hit the beach..ALOHA!

10-09-09

2010-10-09T01:04:00.000-07:00

One year already??? I can't believe a year ago today Joe and I got married!!!! It took forever for our wedding to happen and "poof" it's already been a year!! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. I wish I could have frozen time and just stayed at that moment forever. I married my best friend that day and didn't think things could get any better, but they have!! I am so lucky to have Joe and he treats me like a queen!!! Today we are heading to Kauai and Oahu for ten days to celebrate our one year. As soon as we get to Kauai we are going to watch our wedding DVD!! I have been DYING to see it and can't believe I actually waited to watch it for the first time on our Anniversary!!! I am soo looking forward to just spending time with just Joe. We are going to do whatever we want and whenever we want!!! I can't wait to just lounge at the beach, snorkel, hike, explore and just be with Joe!! And of course, we don't have to go to work for two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I better get to bed, Lisa will be here at 7:30 am to pick us up!! I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve, not able to sleep because I'm so excited to go on our vacation!!! ALOHA!!!!!!

The Count Down Has Begun...

2010-08-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

We can't think of a better place to spend our 1 Year Anniversary then these places...

Our first stop will be Kauai where we will be staying at our cousin's condo on Poipu for 7 days

We'll probably do some kayaking along the Na Pali Coast

Then off to stay at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu for 4 days

Hopefully we will see some BIG WAVES at PIPELINE!!!

Joe has never been to any of the Hawaiian islands so I can't wait to take him there!! I am looking forward to spending time with just Joe and I and NO WORK!!! I just have two rules for our trip...Joe will be leaving his work cell phone and work computer at home!!!! It will be 11 days of pure bliss and relaxation :) ALOHA!!!!

Headwinds???...WHATEVER!!!!!

2010-08-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Emily came down to hang out with me for the day until she leaves for USU next Friday :( We decided to go for a bike ride down by the beach. Originally we were going to go from Newport to Huntington but I remembered about a trail from San Juan that you can take all the way to the San Clemente Pier. So we figured it would be an adventure since neither one of us had ever done it!! We were doing great, and first stopped when we got to Doheney to take a couple of pictures. We then headed through the Doheney campgrounds and to Capo Beach. Next we hopped onto PCH and it was nice because there was a wall between us and the traffic. We made a quick stop at North Beach (Pico) to get our tires pumped up...they were really flat but we were clueless how flat they were!! A nice man pumped them up for us and then asked us how long we were going to be riding because it would be getting dark in a few hours and we would have "headwinds" on the way back. Emily and I both looked at each other and laughed at "headwinds", whatever!!!

We then headed on a dirt trail along the train tracks and beach towards San Clemente Pier. We came to a bridge where we had to walk our bikes or we would get fined $100, so we chose to walk our bikes!! We stopped for a few pics since the views were amazing!! As we came to the pier, there was a free concert getting set up!

We went to the pier and had some dinner on the pier. As we were sitting there, we noticed the flags moving more and more due to the wind picking up. Emily and I both looked at each other and said "the headwinds" and laughed!!! After we ate, we took a couple more pics on the pier and then headed back.

It started to get a little chilly and once we got back on to PCH we experienced THE HEADWINDS!!! They were so strong and all we could do was laugh because it took everything in us to pedal against them!! Remember, we are on beach cruisers with NO GEARS!! We noticed the sun starting to go down and figured we better hurry before it gets dark. We spent the rest of the ride laughing at each other trying to pedal against the winds!!!

We finally made it back to my car and that's when the next adventure began, trying to get those dumb, bulky bikes back in my 4Runner!!! We had no issues putting them in the car on the way down, but now we couldn't figure out how to get them to fit. Having no strength from our "headwind" adventure didn't help either!! After 20 minutes and taking them in and out at least 5 times, we finally got them in the car. All we could do was laugh!!!!

Afterwards we stopped at "Sno on the Go" to get some shaved ice. Emily had never been before and she was quite overwhelmed with all the options to choose from and the fact that you could put ice cream in the middle of it was hard for her to understand. I told her to trust me and sure enough, she is hooked!!

We went home and her and Joe played some Rock Band and then we went to bed. We had a blast and I am going to miss her when she goes away to school :(

Emily brought her camera, so most of these pictures are from that. I then used my app "camera +" from my iphone to change the effects and make them look pretty cool :)

Ahhh...The Good Life!!!

2010-07-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today we hung out at the pool most of the day while Doug went to work. The pool was pretty sweet!!! There was a chairlift that went right over the pool! They had the coolest furniture at the pool and a few cabanas to lounge in too. My favorite thing at the pool was these huge mattresses that you could lay on. It was like you were laying on a bed :)

After we swam and Doug was done with work we headed back out to Aspen again. We walked around, played at a park witha playground, went into a few stores and had an awesome dinner at ...McDONALD'S!!! We (except for Shauna) are probably the only people that came to Aspen and ate at McDonald's!!! Doug was excited to go to the Marmot store (there are only two in the US)!! It was a gorgeous day out again and nice and warm. It started raining just a bit while enjoying our delicious meal at the park. We were sitting under a tree, so we didn't get wet at all. It was pretty neat watching the rain come down through the sunny ski against the majestic mountains :)

Parked our cars in front of our Hotel..mine is silver, Shauna's is yellow and Doug's is red!!!!

I am sad that we are leaving this HEAVENLY place tomorrow :( But I am excited for the drive home because Doug is taking us another way that is said to be one of the most beautiful sceneries you will see!!!

Colorado or Bust!!!

2010-07-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

Monday I booked a flight to Colorado for Wed-Mon to go see Shauna and the gang!! I had already taken the time off because Shauna was coming to CA, but she decided to come in the beginning of July instead. So I had the time off and nothing to do. Shauna called to tell me they were going to Aspen from Thurs-Sunday with Doug's work and I could come if I wanted. So, I booked a flight and here I am!!!

We headed to SnowMass on Thursday and are staying in this AMAZING hotel called the VICEROY. It is spectacular. We have a one bedroom with a den, but it is more like a three bedroom with a full kitchen..oh and there are 4 flat screen TVs!!!! The view from the hotel is breathe taking!! We are right on the ski hill, so there is a chairlift right at the hotel!! We went to the village Thurs night for dinner. There was a free concert going on on the ski hill that we listened to. We got some mexican food for dinner (if you want to call it that...pretty NASTY!!) Then it started thundering and poring rain!

The view from our balcony....it's rough!!!

The hotel gives the kids free sunglasses!

Free concert on the ski hill

Today we headed up to Aspen Highlands to go the the Maroon Bell hike. We met up with Doug's boss and family and another family Doug grew up with. We took a bus up to the lake where we would go on our hike. It was unbelievably gorgeous. The scenery reminded me a lot of Lake Louise in Canada.

Lake Louise

Maroon Bells

The Maroon Bell mtns are the most photographed mtns in the US!! We went on a hike around the lake and stopped for a little snack, then headed back down. I didn't want to leave. It was sooo beautiful there!! The drive there and back was gorgeous as well. I can't imagine living here and being able to come here all the time!!! After the hike we hung out in the Aspen Highlands village and had some pizza.

Can you believe she is 4 months pregnant??!!!!!!

Alexa with the mtns in her sunglasses :)

Aspen trees :)

Aspen Highlands Ski Resort

Aspen Highlands Village

Tonight we are heading to Aspen to walk around and have dinner. The only thing that could make this trip even better was if Joe was here :(

One Phone Call Turns Into "Happily Ever After"...

2010-07-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

5 years ago today I made the most important phone call...I called Joe and asked him to dinner!! That's right...I made the FIRST move!! I can remember it like yesterday....Joe used to drive from LA to Laguna Hills every day, so he would stay late at work to let the traffic die down. So, I had promised him lunch from helping me out with something and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to use that as an excuse to ask him to dinner. We had been talking a lot due to having to work with each other on some stuff and I could tell that something was happening between us, but wasn't sure. He was at one point the guy I HATED at work!! But somehow he was starting to grow on me!! So I called him and asked him if he wanted to go eat dinner while he waited for the traffic to die down. He said "sure" and I'm sure I was jumping up and down and FREAKING OUT!! So I told him to meet me at the Yard House in Newport. I can even remember what I was wearing: white capri's and my brown rip curl shirt with a brown satin bow!! I'm pretty sure I put some kind of make-up on!!! I remember seeing Joe waiting for me at the restaurant..He had taken his tie off and I thought he looked SOOO CUTE!! I had never seen him without a tie before!!

So we sat down and I ordered my favorite meal, seared Ahi. Joe ordered CHICKEN POT PIE!! I remember thinking to myself, "Who orders chicken pot pie!!??" I was also dying because I HATED that as a kid growing up!! Well, we pretty much just talked the whole time and made fun at each other. I remember getting up to go the the bathroom and when I came back, Joe had paid the bill....I was supposed to pay!!! That gave me an excuse to tell him we would have to go out again so I could pay!! After we ate, we went down to the parking garage and talked for over an hour...well Joe just made fun of me for about an hour!! Of course, I thought it was cute :)

Two days later, we went to the movies and were never apart after that!!! I can't believe it has been 5 years and now we are MARRIED!!! Now we have two anniversary's to celebrate!!!! I can't imagine my life without Joe :)

Here are some pictures from each of our anniversary's since we have been together...

LOVE YOU BABY, LOVE YOU XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

1st Anniversary at the Madison in Long Beach

2nd Anniversary at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach

3rd Anniversay at Disneyland

4th Anniversary at Disneyland and a "pirate sleep over" with the kids (NOT our kids of course!)

Oct 9, 2009 Wedding Day

I found these pictures that Joe had taken of me at work back in 2004. We barely knew each other back then. Little did he know at that time that he was taking a picture of his FUTURE WIFE!!! (These aren't the best pictures of me but I thought it was pretty funny that he took them!!)

That's me smiling at in the background!!! "HEY BABY...WHAT"S YOUR #?? HAHAHA"

He must have really fallen for this pose!!!

She's All GROWED Up!!!

2010-06-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

Emily graduated from High School at the beginning of June and I CAN"T BELIEVE IT!!! She is the youngest cousin on my mom's side. I can't believe she will be going to Utah State in September. I am really going to miss having her around to hang out with. Emily is half my age but she seems so much older. Above is a picture of me holding her at my high school graduation back in 1994 when she was just one!! Time has flown by and we have become so close and great buddies :) I hope you know how proud I am of you Em :)

Now I just have one more cousin that will graduate next year, Taylor, who is the youngest cousin on my dad's side. I am starting too feel REALLY OLD :(

Wishing it was a dream...

2010-06-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it has been two years today that my Grandpa passed away. It still feels like a dream and it's not real. It has been a hard week remembering what we all went through two years ago. As hard as it is for me, I can't begin to imagine what my Grandma is feeling. In just three days they would be celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary. There aren't many couples that have known each other since childhood and have been together ever since. My Grandpa treated my Grandma like royalty and took such perfect care of her. My Grandpa would always do such sweet things for her but my favorite has to be the shoe book he made for her. Now my Grandma has a great love for shoes (this is where I must get it!!). She keeps her shoe boxes for each pair and it's hard to have to open up each box to figure out which pair is which. So, being the smart Grandpa he was, he decided to number each box. Then he took out one of the shoes and took a picture of it next to the box #. He put each picture in a book so my Grandma could just go through the pages to figure out what pair she wanted and then find that numbered box!! I hope that I can have a relationship as loving as theirs!

There are many things I miss about my Grandpa, so here are a few of them and some of my favorite memories:

*Calling me sweetheart and giving me a kiss and a hug when he would see me
*His funny jokes (only he could get away with telling those jokes!)
*His saggy pants
*Staying a week with he and my Grandma and being at dinner and my Grandpa telling my Grandma that I wanted some potato chips, saying I didn't, he saying I did and then giving me "that look"...forgot to mention they were "salted" chips!!
*Going on a drive with he and my Grandma and taking me to all of their old homes above the Rose Bowl and telling me stories about all of them
*Always being with his camera and saying, "OK, 1,2, 3..."
*making dribble sand castles at the beach house
*falling asleep where ever he was!
*Sitting next to him on California Screaming for the first time and watching his face..and him trying to walk straight after he got off!!
*watching the Electric Light Parade
*Going to Disneyland :)
*Telling funny stories about all of our crazy relatives
*raking the sand for us so it was perfect
*always fixing up the yard
*sitting in his dark room
*being more computer savvy then me
*hated "rap" music
*coming to my high school basketball games and taking pictures of the team for our Program
*always having an organized garage
*being pulled on a tube from a boat at Lake Powell
*swimming across the Balboa Channel
*being the most helpful person I know
*being the hardest worker I know
*dancing with my Grandma
*loving my Grandma more then anything in this world!!!

I love you Grandpa and I miss you more then you know...XOXOXOXOXO

Me, Grandpa & Shauna making dribble sandcastles

"The Wedding", by Audrey Saunders

2010-03-14T21:46:00.001-07:00

Audrey had to do a narrative at school where she had to write about something and narrate it to her class. She chose to write about her day as our flower girl. I thought it would be cute to make a book for her about her narrative and give it to her for her birthday. I had Lisa email me her narrative and I put it on the last page of the book. I got as many pictures as I could of her from the wedding and turned it all into a cute book. She loved it and I am soo happy she did!!! She kept telling Lisa that she doesn't know how her narrative became a REAL BOOK!!! Take a look at the book...the last page is her narrative, but in case you can't read it you can read it below the book...

Click here to view this photo book larger

The Wedding
Written By Audrey Saunders

It was a beautiful Friday morning and I didn’t have to go to school. It was a special day. It was my Aunt Cara’s wedding and I was the flower girl!!! In the morning I went to get my hair done at A Star Is Born. It’s a hair salon where you can get beautiful hairdos. I told the hairstylist, “I want my hair in two little braids in the front that connect in the back.” When she was done my Mom said, “It’s perfect! You look beautiful!” After she finished I put a clip in the back. It was brown with a gold center.

After I got my hair done my mom and I went to pick up the flowers. The flower lady’s name was Candy. The flowers were all different shades of oranges and for the vases there were real white pumpkins!! After we got them we put them in the car.

After we got all dressed we drove to the beach for pictures. I was wearing a brown dress with gold flowers on it and gold shoes. We were in the middle of taking pictures when my Aunt Heather yelled, “Ouch!” She had stepped on a bee. She was almost crying and in pain. My Grandma ran to get an ice pack from the Life Guards. She put it on her foot and it felt better.

Next we went to the Community Center. At the Community Center we had the real wedding. That meant it was almost time for me to be flower girl!!! When it was time I walked down the isle. I carried a basket that was as white as snow and the orange petals from the flowers were in it! After my two cousins and me watched a slide show, danced, and played around. During the dancing it was time to throw the bouquet!!! Cara turned to me and said, “Stand behind me.” The next thing I knew she through the bouquet right at me. When I looked in my hands I noticed I had caught it!! That was one of the most fun times of my life!!!

The End!!!

Happy Valentine's Day Joe..XOXOXOXO

2010-02-14T22:29:00.001-08:00

I made Joe this book for Valentine's Day. It is our honeymoon :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Washington DC in April

2010-02-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

I just booked our trip to Washington DC in April. We are going for our birthday's. Joe's is on the 12th and mine the 23rd, so we are leaving on the 24th for a week. We have both been wanting to go to DC together. This will be my third time. It is going to be different because the past two times I was with my sisters!!! I am sure Joe will be just as fun :) We can't wait!! I got a sweet deal on hotwire.com for our hotel. We are staying at The Dupont Hotel in Dupont Circle. The cheapest rooms are $300 and we got it for $139...and it's a four star hotel!!! It looks really nice so I am excited about that too!! I wish it was April already!!! I hope the cherry blossom are still there when we get there!!

Good-Bye 2009...Hello 2010...

2010-01-16T19:13:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it is 2010!!! Where did the time go? Christmas and New Year's has already come and gone and now it starts all over again. The holiday's were great. I was lucky to be off of work the week of Christmas so I was able to hang out with everyone.

Heather had everyone over to watch the Boat Parade on Balboa. It was fun. The night before we had a "girls only" sleepover. We had dinner at Fashion Island and then went back to Heather's and hung out (I of course fell asleep!). The next day in the afternoon we took the ferry across and walked to the Balboa Pier and got shakes at Ruby's and then headed back for everyone to come. We decorated the outside with lights and ornaments. Lisa organized dinner and we had soups, salad, hot chocolate, hot apple cider and a bunch of deserts. Cory and I went and saved our spot on the sand. It was a lot easier then saving our spot for the Rose Parade!!! Lisa even brought a smore maker so the kids could have smores! It was neat watching all the boats all decorated. The only bummer was getting off the Island when it was over. It took some of our family over an hour just to get off the island!!???

We went ice skating during the day on Christmas Eve and Hillary and Emily came down to join us. Then Joe and I spent Christmas Eve night at Disneyland which has become a tradition of our for the past 4 years. It was the year anniversary of when we got engaged so of course we had to go to "our spot" and reminisce!!! I had to reinact some of our pictures from that night too!!! We also go to Disneyland on Christmas Eve for my grandpa's birthday!! It was his FAVORITE place! Afterwards we headed to my parent's house. The kids were reinacting The Nativity with hand puppets and then Joe and I gave the kids some pajamas for Christmas!

Shauna, Doug, Jaden and Bradli stayed with Joe and I for a couple of weeks. It is a blast having them here. Bradli sure loves Joe and can't get enough of him. He is pretty attached to her too!! Bradli will not sit still with ANYONE..unless it is Joe!!! They would just hang out together on the couch and watch TV! It was fun having the kids here for Christmas morning, it made it so much more fun. We actually got a tree so they would feel at home. It was fun watching them open their gifts from Santa. Afterwards we went to my parents for more presents, then off to Joe's grandma's house and then finished the night at Mike and Shauna's.

I got a late night Christmas present of getting sick and was sick through the New Year so I wasn't able to go to the Rose Parade this year :( I did feel better the day after and the whole family went down to Balboa and rode bikes down to the Wedge. My mom and Lisa both got beach cruisers for Christmas so now I'm not the only one with one! We had a blast cruising down to the Wedge. I think Doug thought he was in the Tour de France because he was going crazy in his surry! It was fun having the whole family together at Christmas. Matt and Brooke were able to come for two weeks too!!

Well, I am sick again :( This time it is a sinus cold which I have never had before. My sinuses are sooo stuffed up it is driving me crazy. I am hoping I am better by tomorrow so I can go and celebrate my Grandma's birthday!!! Here are a few more pictures from the holiday's just hanging out...

"A Year of Blind Dates"

2009-12-05T22:43:00.000-08:00

My friend, Megan Carson, just published her first book, "A Year of Bind Dates". This book is a MUST read. Megan wasn't having the best luck finding "Mr. Right", so she decided to join a dating service. She was set up on several blind dates. You will not believe the things she went through!! You will even find yourself relating to some of her stories. I went and saw her today at her book signing and found out how she ended up writing this book. She told me that she would just blog about her experiences and a publisher found her blog and asked her to write a book! You can only find it on Amazon.com right now. The official release for the book will be in January.

Those of you who know me know that I HATE to read. I read this book in one day. I couldn't put it down!! It is sooooo hilarious!!!! And the fact that I could picture Megan during all these dates and knew some of the places she mentions in the book since she grew up in Mission Viejo made it even more fun!!! Trust me, this is going to be a huge hit!!! Grab it now while you can!!!

Check out her website: www.megancarson.com

FINALLY...Our Caribbean Honeymoon, Part 2 of 3...

2009-12-01T20:28:00.001-08:00

Sorry it has taken me SOOOOO long to update this....I have been avoiding downloading all the pictures on here! I hate that they all download backwards from the order you put them in. But here you go...

Our third stop was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. This is where we were going to swim with stingrays. The water in the Grand Cayman is the most BEAUTIFUL water I had ever seen. The water was as clear as drinking water with a light turquoise color to it. We took a boat out to the middle of the ocean. The funny thing was it was only like 3 feet deep in the middle of the ocean!! There is a huge sandbar. As soon as we got to Sting Ray City a TON of sting rays appeared. It was awesome!!! We got to swim with them, pet them and even kiss them!!! It was the coolest thing!!! Afterwards we went snorkeling along a reef right by the stingrays. The snorkeling was pretty cool. We were told to stay away from the edge of the reef because it drops to 6000 feet over the edge!! Of course, I was curios and "accidentally" wandered over to check it out but kind of got in trouble and had to come back!!

After that we headed back to the shops and did some shopping and had some fish and chips at a cool restaurant right along the water. All of the restaurants along the water had ladders that went straight down to the water so you could snorkel and then climb up and get a bite to eat!! It was pretty cool!!

Our final stop was to Cozumel, Mexico. This is the stop I had been waiting for our whole trip. This is where I would get to fulfill a long lifetime dream of SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS!!!! It was AMAZING!! I don't have any pictures of us actually swimming with the Dolphins because I still haven't developed the pictures from our underwater camera. We swam in an enclosed area in the ocean. We had about 10 people in our group and we took turns doing about 10 different things with the dolphins. We got to lay on a boogie board while the dolphin pushed our feet, we held onto the fins of the dolphin while it swam on it's back and took us for a ride, got a kiss from it, hugged it, held it, danced with it and a bunch more. It was absolutely amazing!!! Right as we got out of the water it started to poor rain!!! It felt awesome because it was like 100 degrees with humidity. We timed our swimming with the dolphins perfectly. The groups behind us had to do their swim in the pooring rain which didn't look too fun!!!

After we swam with the dolphins we went and had some lunch. The place where we swam with the dolphins was in this huge park. It was amazing and absolutely gorgeous. There was a ton we could do there. You could swim in a regular pool, a salt water pool or go in a spa. There was even a bar in the pool!! They also had AMAZING snorkling!! The was soooo clear!! I had the best time even though I snorkled by myself. Joe stayed with our stuff to make sure no one stole it!! There were tons of fish with all sizes and colors. The water was so clear that when Joe took pictures of me you could actually see the fish in the pictures. Afterwards we headed back to the port area and did some shopping for our neices and nephews. We then boarded the ship for our last time until we would be back in the USA :(

I promise not to wait this long to update the final days on the cruise and our few days at Disney World!!!!

Our Caribbean Honeymoon, Part 1 of 3...

2009-10-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

We are back from our Honeymoon and we had an AMAZING time!!! We flew into Orlando the day after wedding, Sat. We stayed in Orlando over night and then we headed to Cape Canaveral to board the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship. This is the biggest ship in the world, but next month, Royal Caribbean is introducing their new ship, the Oasis of the Seas, which will take the title as the worlds largest cruise ship. You could see Kennedy Space Center from the port which was awesome. We wanted to take a tour but didn't have enough time.

We got onto the ship pretty early and immediately started to explore our new home for the next week. The ship was HUGE!! The 5th deck was called the Royal Promenade. This is where they had all the shops and restaurants. It was sweet. We were on the 6th deck, so we could just walk down the stairs and were at the Promenade. There was a pizza restaurant and a little cafe that you could eat at whenever you wanted. There was a Ben and Jerry's there too that you had to pay for. There were a ton of shops but they were the kind of shops you don't really buy anything from, unless you have a lot of $$!!

We headed to the top deck, 12th deck, to check out the pools and get ready for the "sail away" party. We got a Virgin Pina Colada and watched as we sailed away to our destinations.

We then explored some more of the ship and found Joe's sanctuary...the Video Arcade!! What more could he ask for then to be able to play Guitar Hero on his honeymoon!!! He just couldn't resist :) We also found Johnny Rockets, the miniature golf course and the rock wall.

That night we decided to have dinner at one of the Specialty Restaurants, Chops Grille. We had the best Fillet Mignon!!! We then headed back to our room and enjoyed the gorgeous sunset and view we would be having the next week from our balcony.

Monday was a day at sea, so we had the whole day to lounge around and do whatever we wanted. Of course we ate all the time!! We wandered out to the front of the ship for a while and then spent some time lounging at the pool. That night we had a formal dinner night. It was fun to get dressed up and get treated like royalty. When we got back to our room, we had an elephant waiting for us made out of a towel. Every night they would leave us a different animal.

Tuesday we stopped at our first port-Labadee, Haiti. I was a little concerned about going to Haiti, but once we were there, I was more comfortable. Royal Caribbean owns it's own private cove on the island so the only people there was us and a few locals. We took a tour on sea doo's along the coastline and then went parasailing. We then went swimming and then walked around and listened to some locals bands and shopped a little. The water was an amazing turquoise color and soo warm!!

Our second stop was at Ochos Rios, Jamaica. This was Joe's favorite stop mainly because this is where we went ZIP LINING!! It was AWESOME!! We went on 9 different courses and it was a blast. I wasn't scared at all and got pretty brave that I would do a running start and jump off the platforms!! We zip lined through a rain forest with a river below which made it even more incredible!!!!! We had a little hike to the course once we got suited up and a bit of a hike back when we were done. You can't beat hiking through a rain forest following a roaring river!!! Afterwards we had to get some Jerk Chicken which was sooo good!! We then stopped by the beach so I could collect some sand to bring home. I decided to collect sand from every island we went to as a souviner. Joe then wanted to stop by the Harley Davidson store and then we headed back to the ship.

This is the half way point of the cruise. I will post our remaining stops in a few days...too many pictures to post tonight!! Stay tuned for the rest...

WE FINALLY DID IT!!!

2009-10-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Friday we FINALLY got married!!! It was the most perfect and beautiful day of my life. I can't believe it has come and gone. I wish that day and night wasn't over and could go on forever!! We were lucky to have gorgeous weather at the Montage for pictures and the weather at night was perfect. We are now heading the Cape Canaveral to get on our cruise ship to set sail for the Caribbean. I cannot wait for a week of pure relaxation and some fun adventures. But most of all to spend time with my perfect new HUSBAND!!!!!

See you in a week........

P.S. If anyone took any pics that day and night, please post them!! I am DYING to see them :)

Just 4 Days To Go!!!

2009-10-05T12:08:00.001-07:00

Engagement Favorites...

2009-09-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my favorite engagement pictures...

Matthew and Brooke Heyman

2009-09-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting to putting up pictures from Matt and Brooke's wedding on Aug 22nd. First are pictures at the Salt Lake Temple, then the luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and then the reception at Brooke's parent's backyard. Aren't they the cutest new couple!!!

Matt's Last Day As A Bachelor...

2009-08-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Joe and I flew to SLC for Matt's wedding. Lisa, Dave, Shauna, Doug and kids all drove. We all met up with Matt on Friday at his apartment. We went to BYU to walk around campus to show Joe since he had never been there. Joe forgot a hat, so he bought a BYU had and a football t-shirt. I NEVER thought I would see him in a BYU hat!!! We had lunch at the Cougar Eat. It was like 100 degrees outside, so Matt thought it would be fun to head up to Provo Canyon and go the Bridal Veil Falls to cool off. On our way out of campus we found this neat pond with tons of ducks!!

Bridal Veil Falls was AWESOME!! The water was freezing and was great to get in from the heat. The kids all put on their swin suits and played around the rocks and water. They even got brave and dunked themselves in the freezing water. It was fun to hang out with everyone at a waterfall!! We then headed to the Beaver Creek resivor for a quick swim.

After our swim my mom and dad took Brooke, Matt and Joel back to the apartments and the rest of us drove through Park City to get back to SLC. We headed to the Gateway for dinner. After dinner Dave, Lisa, the kids and Joe and I walked around temple square. Joe had never been there either. I really wanted him to see it at night time. That is my favorite time to see the temple. It had been a while since I had been there. The grounds are soo much bigger now since they expanded to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

I think Joe was pushing on Bradli's stomach a little too hard because a suprise came out of her mouth right when I took the picture!!!

We all had a great last day with Matt as a Bachelor. The next morning he was going to be a married man!!! I will post pics of that later, but here are a few teasers...

How cute are her pink shoes!!!! Doesn't Matt looked "thrilled"!!!!

Engagement Picture Preview!!!

2009-08-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

There's more to come, but here's a sneak peek...