12 days until North Carolina

Guess who I get to see in 12 days. MY BEST FRIEND. Finally thousands of years later after she moved from San Diego to North Carolina I am going to visit her. Talk about way overdue. I have been looking forward to this for months, well ever since the tickets were purchased. I can't wait to spend time with everyone. The babies especially. Sorry Joe. (That is her husband). They beat you out by a hair. Look at these faces, how could they not be something that I am looking forward to.

They just make you want to squeeze them. I really do feel for Mommy she has her hands full with these two. I mean 1 one year old is hard enough, but 2 one year old boys. Oh goodness.

There is one thing that I am a little nervous about. The weather. I am a California girl anything under 65 to me is cold. Look at the weather right now in Cary, NC. I think I might be in trouble. How do you pack for the east coast in the winter/spring. Help anyone! My fingers are crossed that the weather gets warmer in the next couple of weeks. Do you see 37 degree's for tomorrow, eek!

 

I am ready, who cares about the weather right. I will just stay inside. Which I plan on doing anyways. I just want to relax and chill with the family. It's a vacation for me no matter how you look at it. Taking off in 12 days.

Going to the GAME!

Today is game day.

That's right, I have the Sheldon gear on, Averie's gear is on her dresser, the chicken is in the Crock pot for later, and the blankets are in my car. We are ready to go softball watching.

Last night when I got home, I had the opportunity to run, prep dinner, and get a little bit of cleaning done, this is all thanks to Grammy. She hung out for a bit while I tied up some loose ends. In turn, I was very organized this morning when I left for work. Day's like these are the ones I look forward to. I am very excited for the game later, and dinner.

This weekend is creeping up on me slowly. I could stand for it to come a little faster. Brian and Anessa are leaving on Saturday for LA. It is the first practice for the new Strike Force travel ball team. They are going to have a good time. While they are at the beach, playing and watching softball, and eating delicious food. I will be here, well actually I will be at my parents. Averie and I retreat to their house when the rest of the family is gone. Hopefully the hot weather holds up and we can go swimming. I had a beef with the weatherman yesterday. Yep that says 93 degrees on my car. I am thinking that me and him need to have a talk. 7 degrees is a lot. Especially when I dress based on the temperature.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun post. I have taken a ton of photos this week and plan on purging them all tomorrow. I still have to get my Nikon fixed, so I have been taking all my photos with my phone. I think I am a pretty good IPHONE photographer. *giggles*

Well I might post again tonight. I know that every one is sitting on pins and needles for this game later. Oh Tuesday's game. I almost forgot. Sheldon won 4-0. That was a huge win for us. We are that much closer to clinching a playoff spot. We have to win today, and we are in. I guess it would have helped if I explained why I am so excited for this game. I just assumed you all could read my mind. Wait you can't? *smiles*

Here is a brief update on my running too. It was really hot yesterday, but I did run. I might actually consider waking up early in the morning to run from now on. I know that sounds crazy, but the weather might be making this decision for me.

Where would you go?

Where would you go if you won a $300 Travelocity gift card?


My family and I have not traveled much in the last few years. My Step-daughters softball pretty much takes up all of our time and money. This year we have a bit of a reprieve. She is on a team out of town so we are not as committed as we have been in the past. I think we might even make time for a small vacation, even if it is just to the coast. I love the beach so I would probably take my family to San Diego. We love it there. I would take my husband to a ball game, and take my daughters to Sea World and the Zoo. I know they would have a blast at both. There is a Beach and Bikini Giveaway on This Wont Hurt a Bit's Blog. Check it out.

Friday, and we are OFF again

We are off again this weekend. EAT, SLEEP, BREATHE softball, that is the name of the game people. Brian got home really late last night. I feel like I have not seen him in forever. He is leaving after I get up and doesn't get home until the time I go to sleep. I have missed him to say the least. I was trying really hard last night to stay up to see him so I got  me one of these. You guessed it. STARBUCKS. It was a necessity, I swear. *wink wink*

With this baby in my veins, I was able to finish the laundry, pack, make myself a little something to eat, and play with my boo boo. I had planned on a run, but there was a shooting down the street, so that pretty much ruled out my run. I don't know much about what happened. I do know that I locked all the doors and stayed inside for the rest of the night. I do not even live in a bad neighborhood. I really am baffled by the world we live in these days. I have no explanation as to why these things happen. What are people thinking? Or are they not thinking and that is the culprit.

So instead of running I took 100 pictures of this beauty, okay maybe 10.

I am so lucky for her to be my daughter. I mean everyday I get to look at her gorgeous face.

That brings us to this morning, I was in kind of a rush. Not bad, but enough to keep me on my toes. I had a bunch of stuff to grab, but couldn't because I knew it would wake either the boo boo, or the hubby. So I tried to keep things quiet, and tip toed out. I will have to leave packing Averie's things in the hands of my husband. I have done this once before and it was not awful, but there were things missed. Nobody packs like Mama. the plan is to leave right after I get off of work. He will pick me up and off we will go.

I did acquire a pair of the cutest shoes. Salt Water sandals. I have them in my bag ready to be put on my little ones feet. I bought these and another pair, that were left in my car. *boo boo lip* But they are white with little heart cut outs, they are not the same style. They are a 2 strap sandal. I cannot wait to put her in either pair.

I think that is the rundown of my evening and morning, check back tomorrow for a run update. I have to map a path in Livermore that is roughly 3 miles. Should be a challenge. Hopefully I can get Shelly to run with me. Muah hahaha.

Las Vegas to Elk Grove or BUST!

We are back from Las Vegas. The trip itself was a lot of fun. We got there Friday, checked into our hotel (which was awesome, not baby friendly of course.), got things ready for the next day, and then headed to the Las Vegas STRIP.



This is the Hotel Lobby

It was a little bit of a challenge walking the Strip with a toddler, teenager, and my anti-social husband. None of us are huge fans of crowds. So walking the strip is right up our alley. NOT!! It was a total fail. But we did manage to see a couple of cool things. The water show at the Bellagio, The Paris Hotel, Cesar's Palace, and the Venetian. They were all pretty neat. Averie loved the lights on the Paris Hotel, and the water show at the Bellagio. She stayed up until 12am. Huge mistake looking back, she has been on a funky schedule ever since, and now I have to try and get her back on her routine. That was the only trip to the strip we made all weekend. It is just not our thing. Maybe it would be better for us to go during the day. I am not sure that would make a difference either, and I have no plans to return anytime soon, or at all. We will have the memories and that should be good enough.

Here is all of us, in front of the Bellagio

Next, Softball....

The team over all did pretty well. Anessa had an okay day on Saturday, and a great day on Sunday. She defensively played alright, nothing to write home to the grandparents about, but her offense was fantastic. She hit a bomb to center field for a triple. It would have been a home run if the field had fences.  I mean she had to have hit it 298 feet. The heat was intense on Saturday, we kept hydrated with lots of water, and kept cool with ice cold wash cloths. I am not exaggerating the HEAT was intense, and I think we all got through Saturday with no sunburn as well. Sunday was easier because the games were early. No drastic measures to stay cool were needed. After both games we packed up and headed to..... get Anessa's belly button pierced. For a girl that hates needles, I was shocked that she wanted it done. Surprisingly she did pretty well. I think I might have been more nervous than she was. Now there is a hole in my 16 year old's navel. The plan was for me to get my nose pierced at the same time, but something told me that I should wait to do it in Sacramento. What if it gets irritated. How was driving 9 hours going to make me feel? I think I made the right decision.

The Drive home was upon us, 9 hours of desert, and being cooped up in a car with the Kaylor's, oh my! We decided to grab something to eat at Wendy's before hitting the road. There was not much at Wendy's for a toddler to eat. I managed to pull some chicken out of my sandwich and she had a couple of french fries. After lunch we were were bound for the highway. Brian found an alternate route on his phone, and we decided to try that for the trip home. It claimed to take us through Yosemite. Brian, Anessa, and Averie had never been through Yosemite, we thought it might be kind of neat to drive through and see the sites via car window. The new route did not disappoint Twenty dollars later (that was the entrance fee to get into Yosemite.) we were driving through Yosemite. The sights were breath taking, but since we were just passing through, bitterness quickly settled in about the 20 bucks it cost to get in. Did we really need a 7 day pass just to drive through. Part of me wanted to break out the blankets and camp, just to make it worth while. Of course we didn't, we kept driving through. Hours passed of sleeping, not sleeping, eating, feeding, changing diapers, playing games, sleeping some more, singing way too loud, and flipping through the radio stations to find the one with the least amout of static, we finally made it home at about 10pm. Everyone was ready to get out of the cramped rental car, and go to bed. Including Miss Averie. I think she went to sleep at around 9pm. Slowly getting her back to her normal bedtime. It was a long, tumultuous trip, but it was spent with my crazy family so it was worth it to me. We were no worse for wear.

                     

Yosemite

Our view for most of the driving.





Las Vegas Baby!!

The drive to Vegas was long, and well long. So long that my family starts acting goofy. More details to come on the long, HOT, exhausting weekend.

Week{end} Wrap up

This weekend was so much fun. It was packed full of excitement. Saturday was spent at the softball field watching Anessa play in the playoffs for her high school . Her team did really well. They won both of the games they played. Final score was 16-1, and 18-1. They crushed them to say the least. Later that night we took Averie over to my parents house to spend the night. Then headed to grab something to eat and to the movies. We went and saw, "What to Expect When you are Expecting." It was pretty funny in parts. Not that great overall. The couple behind us made it pretty hard for us to enjoy it as well.



The result of SOFTBALL.... Wear SUNSCREEN people!

Sunday was the big anniversary surprise. Brian planned the whole thing on his own. I had the opportunity to sleep in on Saturday, but the excitement woke me at about 7am. I was up and ready to go by 8am. Talk about excited right! We were Averie and Anessa free, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa.

We were off....

 We detoured from the original plan and had breakfast at Gilwoods Cafe in Napa Valley, California. It was so yummy. One of the best breakfast I have had in a while. We then drove to Pacifica. This might sound cheesy, but Brian found a Taco Bell on the ocean. We love Taco Bell, isn't he sweet. I do admit that we passed up on the opportunity to have Taco Bell beach side for a different resturant. We were so tired Saturday night that we had Taco Bell then. Two days in a row is a little too much Taco Bell. We stopped at the ocean and took a walk along the beach. Brian found a beautiful sea shell and two starfish. He felt so lucky to have found one starfish that when he found the second one he thought we should go out and play the lottery. From the beach we went to a restaurant called the Miramar. It was very nice and the food was delish. Okay I had a salad, how can you go wrong. The Mimosa was a treat though. I figured that it was our anniversary day and that I should have some champagne to remember the day. The end of the day came and we decided to head home. On the way home we decided to stop at CAL and watch the Women's Softball team play Arkansas. It was a great game, and a great way to end the day. I love you Brian, and thank you for being a great husband to me and father to our beautiful girls.

p.s. I am still working on getting photoshop. I have a slough of photos that need downloading and editing. I am so behind!

At the Movies. {sorry about the quality}

On the beach in Pacifica



At the CAL vs. Arkansas game