2 Years!!!!

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...

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

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...

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!!!!!!!!!!!