Hooray for me being born!

Happy Birthday to ME!
What a great birthday weekend I had. It started Saturday with dinner and an off-broadway show called "Shout" that was all 60's music. So entertaining! Thanks Mom and Dad. It was such a fun idea and great to spend time with family to celebrate!

That day was also Grandma's birthday, and true to form, it was sunny and gorgeous! Lucky for me, it carried over into the next day for my day. Calla lilies will always remind me of her.


Then Sunday night, friends came over for food and (drum roll please).......
The Leaning Cake of Kristin!!

Okay, so I decided I wanted to make my own cake. As a throwback to my childhood, I looked high and low, and found cherry chip cake mix. Love it! So I thought 3 layers would be in order to kick off a great year.
Look at exhibit A:


The cake looks straight, right?!? Well, I was in a hurry and decided not to make sure all the layers were flat, and it was a mistake!
It started to shift before I was even done! Too late now, because people are showing up in 10 minutes.... oh well! I put it in the fridge to hopefully slow the slide, and this was the final product....

A 3-layered, sugar bomb, leaning cake of Kristin! It was delicious! Next time, I will improve on my cake skills, for sure.





Good cake, wonderful friends and family to celebrate with, and gorgeous flowers. I couldn't ask for more!

This weekend had Heart!

What did I love about this Valentine's weekend, you ask?


Gorgeous sunshine in the City. Absolutely beautiful, especially after the dreary winter days. Who wouldn't love that!?!

My toes loved the black sand at the beach.
And picnic on the beach in February.... Love it!

And love that I had great company to boot.... I am one lucky girl!

Happy Valentines Weekend to me!

Bowl 'em Cowboy!

Yee Haw buckaroos!
It's Bruce's birthday, and time to celebrate with a little bowlin'!


Nothin' like dressing up as cowboys in order to do some serious bowling. Funny thing is that the bowlers next to us wondered what we were going to do with all those bandanas.... lucky for them we weren't planning on bowling blindfolded!!!

Don't lose that balloon! (also known as how to find a kid anywhere.... tie a balloon to him!)

Hey Pardners!


What a great way to spend the day celebrating a great person - my Dad!
Love you!

D.C. covered in snow!

What does a California girl do in the winter?
Fly to a place where it snows and gets to a high of 32 degrees, of course! Yay!

I look a long weekend to hang with my good friend Camille in Washintgon D.C. The first day, the snow began. Good thing we got an early start and went to the Eastern Market for delicious french toast!

Camille, Ashley and I enjoying our breakfast immensely.

The rest of the day, the snow continued and for our own safety, we headed home. We ate good food, watched tv and waited for the clearing of the storm.

After church, we headed out again to see a couple monuments before dark.
The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial was beautiful, especially covered in snow. I loved how the underside glows as it got dark.



We also went to the Iwo Jima Memorial. Gorgeous with the Washington skyline in the background.



The last full day, we bundled up, once again. Camille is such a good hostess that she went with me to walk through a bunch of the memorials (probably for the 20th time for her)! SO we braved the cold, and enjoyed the beauty of the whole city covered in snow against a blue sky. Perfect for photo opportunities! Check 'em out:










After the monuments, we went to the National Geographic museum to warm up, and see the Terra Cotta Warriors from Xian. Super cool!

Eleanor Roosevelt. Love this woman! I couldn't remember the quotes I had by her, but I found them now.
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
"Women are like tea bags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water."

The last night, we went out for dinner, and decided to brave the below freezing weather for some final photo ops. And it payed off! The reflections and the moon....so worth the frozen fingers!



What a great weekend.
Thanks Camille! You are the bestest hostest ever!

Sing, sing a song...

So, I do not have a "bucket list", or whatever you want to call it, but I just did something I have never done before.... singing Karaoke.
So this friend of mine runs a karaoke night. And he can sing! I love appreciating the arts, but don't feel comfortable participating. Oh well.... So my "Birdo friends choir" did a group song to help me work up to it (Living on A Prayer), and then I sang a duet with Eddie - "Cruisin'". So nerve racking! But I survived! Phew.


(As a side note, there is some seriously entertaining people watching at these things! Some people are really bad, and some are really good. I think I ended up in the middle.)

Sung karaoke..... check!

I am thankful for vacation!

Once upon a time, there were 4 friends wanting a little rest and relaxation. So they planned a trip and went off to Mexico for Thanksgiving week! Gorgeous beautiful Riviera Maya.
We flew through Charlotte NC in the middle of the night. The airport was freezing cold! After trying to curl up in a ball (you know it is bad when you have dreams about being cold!), we were going to give up. But then we found them...beanbags! Those were genius! I was so tired that I forgot to be squeamish about the potential germ-factor, and promptly fell asleep much warmer. Smart idea!

But it was worth the discomfort to get here! What a gorgeous resort for relaxation. We layed by the pool. I read 4 books. Lovin' it!




And, of course, we had to throw some adventure in there too. We went to Xplor Adventure Park. There was driving amphibious vehicles, swimming through caves with stalactites, rafting through caves, and my favorite..... zip lines! We spent all day there doing everything (and the zip lines twice!) What a fun adventure, and not to mention flirting with all the cute guys working there (hee hee).


The next day we went to see the ruins of Tulum. What a gorgeous day! We walked around seeing as much as we could, and just enjoying everything, despite the crowds.

Then off to Akumal, a cute little town out of the way. We got there right before sunset. Just enough time to take a few pictures and do some walking on the beach while enjoying the view and the spectacular sunset. The pictures just don't do it justice!




We ate at Lol-Ha and had delicious food. It was a great end to a great vacation. Good times, great company, and great memories.


And this view of lighted palm trees was a great way to kick off my Christmas season too!

Is there a New Moon out tonight?

This is a little belated, but I had to post about my "New Moon" experience....
My wonderful sister, a faithful Nordstrom shopper, was shopping one day, and ended up with 2 free tickets to a special preview on "New Moon". Since the vampire/werewolf saga is not her thing, she graciously gave them to me! Yay!
I was super excited to share the teeny-bopper madness with my fun sister-in-law (whose thing IS the vampire/werewolf saga)!
The night of the premier, my sis-in law got caught in horrible, awful traffic and she could't come.... sooo sad! But my good friend Kari happily jumped in to come experience this with me!
The theater was open only to people with these special lanyards given by Nordstrom. Every one of the 14 theaters was showing New Moon. They were very serious about us wearing the lanyards the WHOLE TIME. I must admit, it was kinda fun to be able to walk right in the to movie theater, not pay, and then go find a seat. Although, it was a little sad having to pass the die-hard fans already waiting outside for their show to start in 4 hours in freezing weather...wow!




I must say that watching the movie with a theater full of girls 10-30ish was worth it. I loved hearing the screams and gasps through the movie with every appearance of Edward or Jacob. I am "team Edward", but I must admit that this movie has temporarily made me waver to "team Jacob"--- hello hottie!

Volunteering

In the season of Thanksgiving, we can show we are grateful through our actions.
One of my favorite quotes says, "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
Our ward youth group went to MedShare to volunteer in sorting through donated medical supplies to send to other countries. We had a great time in serving others. We have so much, and it feels so good to give back!

Cute or spooky?

When Halloween comes around, the burning question comes up....

Do I dress up as something cute or spooky?

This year, the answer was both. Since I had 2 parties, I did 2 different costumes... Yay!

Last weekend I went to my boss' party. They tend to be a little crazy in the costume department, so I stood out as the good girl that I am.



I am the Center of the Universe, of course!
(and no roller girl mishaps this year. Phew!)

Then last night I went the the "funeral" Halloween party. Everyone was supposed to come as something "dead". Not everyone took that to heart, so there were plenty of cute looking girls, but I ended up looking dead as a lightning strike victim.




Happy Halloween everyone!

Nathan and Auntie Hoot's Day of Fun!

Yesterday, I had a "special date" with my nephew Nathan. I gave him a gift certificate for his birthday, and he got to decide what he wanted to do.

We went to Rock City on Mt. Diablo to do some rock climbing and hiking. Perfect! Right up my alley!
So I drove to pick him up, and drove up to find him waiting on the sidewalk, sitting in his booster seat, and holding on to our sack lunches (which he packed himself). SO CUTE! I didn't get a picture of that because the minute I pulled up, he was up and gettin' in the car.

We went to Rock City, and true of any young boy, he just started scrambling around like it was no big deal. Loved it!!


Climbing into "caves"


Standing at the top of Boy Scout Rocks. He scrambled up there easily saying "This is good practice to be a good rock climber!"


Good times! We had great weather, good times, and ice cream to end it off. So great to spend time with a little boy who is growing up to be so fun to be with!