I Said Yes!

June 24, 2011 By 2 Comments

Engagement photoFive years ago today, Jesse asked me to marry him… and I said YES! I have been planning to write this post all week, but my that sneaky husband of mine went and beat me to it. He posted our engagement story on his blog in the wee hours of the morning. I can’t really be mad about it though since he did remember.

Obviously, I’m so very glad I said yes. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like without Jesse. I can’t believe that day was FIVE years ago, just wait and see where we are after the next five!

Filed Under: Marriage, Memories

California, In Pictures

June 3, 2011 By 5 Comments

I’ve already posted some pictures of our vacation to California, but there are so many more! Jesse was taking pictures like crazy and his turned out really great with the fancy camera. Here’s a few (or a lot) of our favorite things:

It’s hard to pick, but I think my favorite parts of vacation was visiting all the places we used to frequent years ago. I’m a very sentimental and memory loving person, so seeing my old house and old town was high on my priorities for while we were there. Plus I wanted Jesse to see all my old favorite places.

Rancho sign

A walk down memory lane, our old neighborhood

Jesse and me at the lake

The family at the lake

Jesse and me appreciating the mountains

Andrew and Nicole chasing birds

We loved seeing these purple trees everywhere

We gawked at the Bugatti Veyron and the fancy shops along Rodeo Drive

Jesse thoroughly enjoyed his Pink

We took a drive through Hollywood

The family overlooking the Hollywood hills

We were all so excited for the graduation events. We managed to score front row seats for both the hooding ceremony and the graduation ceremony. I’m pretty sure Ashley’s friends thought we were a little crazy. We had our seats so early that we got to watch the rehearsal too. Dad was giving all Ashley’s classmates high fives as they passed us to take their seats. But our craziness paid off with some great pictures!

The main event

Ashley getting hooded

Ashley after hooding

Dad checking Ashley's hood

Ashley hooded

Ashley laughing at our crazy family

Ashley's hand shake

Ashley receiving her diploma

Ashley exiting graduation

Ashley with proud parents

Ashley with proud siblings

After the graduation festivities, Ashley was able to join us for more site seeing and remembering of memories.

The beach we loved going to for years

Beautiful beach view

Mom and Dad enjoying the beach

We've always laughed at this triangular house, no piece of land goes unused

View driving down Pacific Coast Highway

Ruby

La Jolla Cove waves crashing

La Jolla Cove seals soaking up the sun

La Jolla Cove beach

Jesse and me at La Jolla Cove

Hang gliders over the ocean

The bridge to Coronado Island

We thought the valet parking for boats was too funny

Andrew and Nicole at Coronado Beach

The girls on Coronado Island

The boys on Coronado Island

The boys being told to take a funny picture... Andrew looks the same

The boys being told to be funnier

Me shopping on Coronado Island

View of the San Diego runway from the top of the famous parking garage

Jesse and me imitating the famous Unconditional Surrender statue

Is that enough pictures for you? Do you feel like you were there too? We really had such a great time. Now we are back home and back to real life. However, not back to our normal sleeping schedule. Adjusting to the time change has been much more difficult coming home than it was when we got out there. It was really hard to get up this morning, but I’m still up later than normal again. Just think, in three years Ashley will be getting her doctoral degree and we’ll get to do it all over again. We loved California!

Filed Under: Family, Memories, Travel Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Birthday Mom!

March 3, 2011 By 3 Comments
Mom and me in 1984

Mom and me in 1984

Today is Mom’s 50th birthday! I happened to be looking through my scrapbooks this week and was laughing at all the silly things we used to do.  Mom always had such creative and fun ideas to keep us entertained when we were kids (and now too).

Funny dinnerOne thing that I remember very well was “funny dinner” and I have no idea why that is such a fond memory.  I think it mostly happened when Dad was out of town.  Maybe Mom was extra tired without Dad around and didn’t feel like making dinner or maybe we were making her just a little nut-so.  But I remember that it was fun.  She would find the most unusual dishes to eat our dinner out of.  Looks like that night I was drinking my milk out of a muffin pan with a straw.  I tried to explain to Jesse why we liked “funny dinner” and it sounds ridiculous now, but we couldn’t wait to see what Mom would come out of the kitchen with.  I still have funny dinner now, without the crazy dishes.  When I’m too tired to think of what to have for dinner I sometimes end up with sausage, rice, and an apple.  Now he can see where that came from.

This week were were watching a new TLC show called Outrageous Kid Parties.  These people spent over $30,000 on their son’s 7th birthday party by hiring actors to play pirates, ordering costumes for everyone to wear, and went insane with the decorations.  I remember that one of my favorite birthday parties as a kid was my “purple pizza pool party!”  At the time, my favorite color was purple so Mom thought it would be fun to make everything at the party have to start with the letter P.  All my decorations were purple, we swam at the pool, and ate pizza.  Of course all my friends spent the night too and Mom came up with silly and fun games for us to play… and that’s a party I still remember.

Purple birthday

We are looking forward hanging out and celebrating with Mom this weekend.  I’m not sure exactly what all we will do, but it doesn’t matter because she taught us how to have fun together no matter what we are doing.  It works out great because Ashley happens to be coming home this weekend because she is going to be a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding.  I know Mom will just love that everyone will be together… having fun.

Mom and me in 2010

Mom and me in 2010

Happy birthday Mom!  I hope you have a great day today, and a great family weekend.  I love you. 🙂

Mom

Filed Under: Memories