Happy Long Distance Anniversery!

Matt and I celebrated (or will celebrate) Eight years of marriage yesterday. Since he is still being worked over at the academy, we will wait for the weekend to do something special. He did send me flowers so it made it not feel as ordinary as a day. And we enjoy nice date nights each weekend as we have free babysitters with both sets of grandparents :) Last weekend we enjoyed a hike to the Whiskey town Falls.

Matt is a good guy and I am a lucky girl to have found someone who understands me (as well as a guy can understand a woman) and who cares for my happiness. I love him and love that I know him better than he knows himself. We have fun together. I look forward to the day we can live under the same roof all week long and not just on weekends! Happy Eight Years Matt... and to an eternity to come!

Friends Reunion

Its such a comfort to be around true friends. People who know you... who love you... who you can be you with.... who you can have fun with. I LOVE these girls and think we are all supposed to live on the same street. (or at least in the same city). We had a friend reunion in Redding. It was perfectly half way for the Cooks to come from Seattle and the rest of the gang to join from Lake Elsinore.



The kids were also ecstatic to be reunited. I love seeing these kids grow up together and thinking of them building each other up. They are all sooo stinkin cute. Not a funny looking kid amongst them (all 18 of them!)
We stayed on a houseboat for two nights and the last night the grown ups all went out and jumped off the top of the houseboat together and went down the slide. Niki observed (as she is 8 months prego). We have some nice, chilly memories from that... but we warmed up via the hot tub, which was filled with urine from the 18 kids who had sat in in the previous two days. We were so cold that we didn't mind much.

Enjoying a relaxing float

This is Niki's proof that she DID get in the water!

Wake boarding

Tera and Tatum. So cute seeing these girls giggling together again.

Feeding the deer carrots and celery that would come up right next to the houseboat.

Melissa and I's attempt at floating. It was rather difficult rafting with a newborn and Mazzi.

Kim and I riding the tube

Ashton winning at King of the Hill (tube)

Tera with her "boyfriend" Daxton. It is official! She now claims him. They are adorable together!

Playing at the Oasis Fun Center

My girls

Shelly.... love how animated she is

We celebrated Tera and Eastons b.day partys at the fun center. Tera was happy to celebrate with several of her best girl friends.

The boys getting ready for a game of lazer tag.

The bigger boys right before everyone took off.

And the girls. Miss you! See you soon!

All for Brian Regan

I traveled all the way from Redding to Lake Elsinore just to be at Brian Regans Comedy Act. Not really. I mainly used it as an excuse to go visit some amazing friends who I have been missing like crazy the last month. I made a four day trip out of it (without kids) and had a blast with some of my most favorite girls.

The trip started out with lunch with Meagan, who was my chauffeur the entire trip, at California Pizza Kitchen (CPK as the cool people call it) despite a sign stating that they had failed some inspection standards, but had fixed them. After a delcious lunch Meagan took me on a kayaking adventure (cause were spontaneous like Ally- the bachelorette) where we had some excitement changing into our swimsuits in the bathroom void of any kind of doors. Then we went to spend a moment on the beach and take a few silly pictures.

Then we were off to Lake Elsinore for a friendly game of bunco. I was very entertained by people getting super happy over buncos and babies and very mad when they rolled all sixes.

After bunco we called it a night and went home to get some sleep for the next fun filled day! The next morning Kim had a big brunch at her house with alot of my good friends. We ate all sorts of yummy brunch food and then Katie worked wonders on my hair. Following my new do Heather, Vanessa, Meagan and I went down to the Costa Mesa Ikea where we had fun browsing and picking out place mats that best reflected our personality colors (according to ourselves) I think we just picked our favorite color. :)

After Ikea we went to Cafe Rio and ate the best pork salads ever. Even if you have to eat drink pepto bismo afterwards...they're worth it!

We went back to lake Elsinore just in time to squeeze in some bull riding before our pedicures. We were trying to done extreme activity each day. It kind of ended at the bull riding, but we have all sorts of things on the list for next time! The bull riding experience was intense! My heart was racing and I felt like I was going to get flailed off the bull way out of the perimeter of the padded mat. I was holding on for dear life so much so that my wedding ring (my huge diamond- ha!) was digging into my other hand so hard that I cut myself. After falling I said I hurt myself to which Vanessa and Meagan so empathetically said "GET BACK ON!" So I did...

Then we met up with some more of my favorite gals for some relaxing pedicures... where we told them many, many times that no one was getting married, it wasn't a bridal shower, we were just getting together as friends. I don't think they ever understood.

Following pedicures we had some pink berry/golden spoon and then went to see "Eat, pray, love" (perhaps the most boring, longest movie ever!) I think I talked through half of it just to keep myself awake. Then we got home by 2 am to get some sleep before another big day!

Friday we went to the pool and made up a synchronized swimming routine... and I went to visit a few friends at their homes. Then went back home to get ready for my hot date to Brian Regan! Meagan went as my date since Matt couldn't' leave the CHP academy.

Vanessa did our make up for us so we looked extra sizzling and we both wore skinny jeans cuz were trendy like that. :) We went out to eat with the Mcdowells, Hannons and Nelsons to Lazy Dog (quite tasty). Then off to BRIAN REGAN! Brian Regan is hilarious!! Love him! Then we ate pazookies at BJ's and played some settlers so we could make it another long night. But little did I know my night was just getting started! I spent the last day of my vacation puking and on the toilet all night and day. It was no bueno. But, I recovered in time to make my flight home back to my family.

All in all it was an amazing and eventful trip! Love you Lake Elsinore Homies!