3-D Baxter

So I put these glasses on Baxter and he has had them on for over an
hour. I am not sure if he sees his dog treats in 3-D and makes them
look better or what but he is down with these shades. Now we just need
to hit the streets and roll dirty around downtown lake forest and pick
up some bisnatches for Baxter

Chris & Lynsey Come To Town!

Chris and Lynsey came to So. Cal to visit her family... and we lucked out and got to see them last night! We hit up Javiers (at the Spectrum) in the spirit of Cinco De Mayo, followed by the puppy store (see Russ' face below as he tried to talk me into getting Boots), frozen yogurt at Golden Spoon, and then catching up and talking into the wee hours of the night at our house. We had such a great time!

Boots

Russ wants to get this puppy from the pet store at the spectrum. I'm
not sold yet. The people at the pet store named him boots.

BABY SHOWER

On Sunday I got to go to Carrie's Baby Shower! Her family always knows how to throw the most fun parties! We played games like guess the baby animal and name that BABY song.... it was so much fun! Carrie looked amazing like always--she's due in June! Both Allison and Rachel also got to come--I didn't know if Rachel was going to make it--since her due date was the same day! So she'll be having her little girl this week some time! Here is the last picture I'll get of her before she has the baby! :) She's huge.. huh?

SWAP MEET

On Saturday morning, after hitting up the garage sales--our golden finds were two retro chairs for the new store (pictures to come later), and a new roomba vacuum cleaner (we got it for $5!)---we met up with Rob and Megan at the Orange County Swap Meet. I hadn't been for about two years and this was Russ' first time. We had a blast and walked each aisle. I got a new purse, Russ and I both got new sunglasses, and I got some necklaces. However, I couldn't believe the deals we got on fresh vegetables and fruit. We got a huge bag of grapes for $2.50, a huge bag of tomatoes for $1, a huge bag of green beans for $1, and a cucumber for $.25! It was awesome! We will definitely be eating healthy this week!

P.S. This random guy just jumped in the photo we were taking... I have no clue who he is! :)

The spoils (russ post)

This is just a small sample of the spoils of my redbull day. I
finished the last can about a month ago from last years event so
hopefully I have enough to last me through the winter

Red bull air race. ... More to come (russ post)

Here is a teaser pick of the red bull air race in san diego. I'll have
some more pics and videos soon to come

SAN FRANCISCO RECAP

So this weekend we flew to San Francisco with Rob and Megan for a quick weekend get away to meet up with Dusty. Russ, Rob, and Dusty are all high school buddies (P-dale high). Our plane flew out at 7:30 am from LAX so we had to get up bright and early (well it was pretty dark at 3:30am), for our flight. You saw the picture below of Russ and his Egg McMuffin. We got there around 9am and we were off to ride the BART into town. We stayed at the Hilton Regency and thanks to Megan's hook ups we had a suite with the coolest views ever! We packed the day tight with shopping at the local outdoor market, ridding the trolley, walking around downtown, eating a clam chowder bowl at Fisherman's Warf, walking around the boats, visiting Hyde park and eating a Ghirardelli chocolate brownie sundae at their famous factory. We then went to a Giants baseball game--in which they lost--then went to little Italy and ate at the Mona Lisa. Sunday morning we got up, tried to eat breakfast at Mama's (but the line was way too long), but ate at a little cafe and watched people walk by. We walked around a park looking at an art exhibit, and then we walked a mile and half back to our hotel enjoying the downtown city life. It was the perfect quick trip! We had so much fun! Here are photos of the weekend.

San FRANCISCO

Here is our hotel view. We snapped this shot right before we headed back.



Check out Russ and his super cool backpack-- which Rob made fun of the whole time! :)




This really cool water statue was in the square right below where our balcony was. You could walk inside of it and there were tons of kids and families playing around it.

SAN FRANCISCO

Sunday morning we went out to breakfast. While we waited for a table we walked down the street to a art showcase in the park. This famous church (I can't remember it's name) is in the background.



Here is the bridge in the background. It was a beautiful evening!



Here is the foyer of the hotel. It had this huge giant ball thing in the middle that reminded us of the red ball in the TV show Alias. The hotel had a huge atrium and was so cool inside.

SAN FRANCISCO

The Giants game was a lot of fun...even though they lost big time. Most of the excitement came from buying scalped tickets. We originally thought we had box seats (courtesy of Dusty), however he wasn't able to get them... so we each pitched in $20 for him to find us some good seats. He bargained with a few ticket scaplers... and finally found some good seats. He haggled with the guy for about 20 minutes--going back and forth. Finally the guy sold us the tickets and we went in. Little did we know that the guy switched the tickets last minute and gave us seats on the VERY LAST ROW of the stadium! We literally were on the back row against the fence. Even though the view was amazing (you could see the bridge and the harbor right there) the seats were not. We wanted to go back out to the street to find the guy to beat him up, but by that time we were already in the 3rd inning so we decided to stay.



Here is a picture of us sad because of our seats (notice the fence in the background).



Then Dusty came through with a plan and after he moved a couple of people around...really he asked people to move so they could make room for us... we had seats just a few rows up from the field.



Here is a picture of us much happier in our seats!

SAN FRANCISCO

This is the view from our balcony at the hotel. We were on the 10th floor. Megan works at the Hilton so she was able to get $75 rooms which ROCKED!!!!!! She knew the room manager there so he hooked us up with this awesome suite!



Here is the group chilling on the balcony relaxing before the Giants game.



Here is the other side of our view--downtown San Francisco. From our view Megan and I watched some firemen try to get into a building that's fire alarm was going off. Luckily there was no fire, but it was fun to watch the excitement!

SAN FRANCISCO

Rob, Megan, and Dusty headed off to do some wine tasting and Russ and I went to induldge ourselves in a little Ghiradelli chocolate! The Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes put huge smiles on our faces and satisfaction in our tummies! We also learned how chocolate is made... and we felt a little like we were Augustus Glue in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

SAN FRANCISCO

Fisherman’s Warf. The clam chowder bowl was good—but not the best we ever had. The streets were crowded as expected for the Saturday “rush hour” and the husle and bussle of the warf and the smell of fish made it an exciting experience.




Here are Megan and Rob ordering their chowder bowls... Dusty got a corn dog— you ask why a corn dog? To this day we still don’t know why he chose it over fish or a clam chowder bowl— I mean really...




Debbie & Megan on the pier with the golden gate bridge in the background.




Russ with some old boats in the background.

SAN FRANCISCO

Walking over to the outdoor market.



"San Francisco... the Rice-A-Roni Treat!" Bridge view from the outdoor market.



Riding the trolley. So fun!!!! We bought $11 passes so we could ride it all day... but we ended up only going up a few blocks and then walking... oh well... at least we got some fun pictures!



Russ, Debbie, Megan, Dusty, & Rob ridding the trolley. What a fun group!

The real slim shady (russ post)

So were at the airport and this homeboy is rocking a cross that was
almost life size. It was pretty hardcore. But not really. I managed to
get a spyshot without him or TSA noticing

Have it your way.

So russ can never order anything regular. It has to be special. At the
airport this morning he asked for two round eggs on his sandwich-
opposed to just one flat egg. What did he end up getting from the poor
confused cashier? All three eggs- two round, one flat, and then his
sausage and cheese. It ended up looking like a big mac!

Beat that speed typers....can you beat me?

84 words

Speed test

Can you beat my speed? Click above and try! Russ--I double dog dare you--

Let's roll (russ post)

Baxter got his new riding gear and now he's ready to roll. All this
cruising PCH and now Baxter wants in.

Finally!!! Carrie & Nick!

So for the last two months Carrie and I have been trying to get together.... and it finally happened last night! We met up for dessert with the hubbies and talked away! We caught up on everything that has been happening in our lives and the night was filled with stories about rouge employees, crazy Russians, insurance fraud, namable products, and my personal favorite--"the dagger." For those of you who know Carrie & Nick-- you'll have to ask how Nick became the "sword bearer" for a homeless guy, almost got cut into peices, and now is being supeoned in court about the whole situation.... quite crazy.

It was a fun night. I can't wait for next time! By the way, for those of you who haven't seen the giant cookie sandwich at Claim Jumper--you must try it next time--it's HUGE and delicious!!!!!

GRAND FINALE... BALBOA

We also checked out Balboa Island—where we walked around, hung out on the pier and saw some really weird hot pink and orange octopus thing, and ate a frozen banana. We then headed to the Spectrum where we ate at Javiers—Russ and I shared the burrito which was good, and then we had Pink Berry—which is good with chocolate chips! :) Then the Harmors headed to the airport. We had so much fun with them! They definitely have to come and visit again soon!!!!!!!!

WICKED....

On Sunday we went and saw Wicked at the Pantages Theater in LA. It was my second time seeing it, but the first for everyone else. The boys had gone to a car show during the day in Long Beach, so we decided that we would meet at the theater in LA. Desiree and I had gone to the beach during the day, so we were a little late getting showered and ready to drive up to LA. We had talked to the boys right before we left and told them that we were leaving and we would call them when we got there. As we were driving up to LA, I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone on the charger. Desiree started to dig in her purse and realized that she had forgotten her cell phone on the counter. We crossed our fingers that we would be able to find the boys when we got to LA. Does anyone know how much a payphone costs now a days? Luckily we didn’t have to use one—but it’s funny how helpless you feel without your “link” to everyone else. As fate would have it, the boys were genius and just stood outside the theater waiting for us. We missed the first 10 minutes of the play, but it was amazing! I haven’t been able to stop singing the songs in my head! We took a quick snapshot, and then the usher told us we couldn't take photos inside, so this is the only one we got.

Laguna Pride

In the afternoon we decided to check out Laguna Beach—we did the walk up the boardwalk to the gazebo and then we hit of the shops. Russ found these really funny “naked dolls” and I found some really cool glass robin eggs that we both wanted to get, but talked each other out of. Desiree got some really cool greeting cards. We then hit up BJ’s Pizza for dinner and met up with Ashley Simms (now Harmor--who I went to seminary growing up with) and her husband Travis (who is Tylers brother—small world huh?). We then went and hung out at their house in Irvine. It was a fun night!

Woody Frenzy

We all decided to take a trip up the PCH to see all of the unique beaches that the OC has to offer. While driving, we ran into a WOODY CAR CONVENTION. Check out some of the cool cars we saw! There were probably over 100 of them there!