Jonathan...

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

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!!!

"Shop With A Hero"

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!)