Sunday, October 12, 2008

FREE HANDBAGS?!?!?

No joke, you guys know I wouldn't kid about something this awesome. Check it out...

www.handbagplanet.com

They have WAY cute stuff!

NKOTB

I'm ridiculous. That's it, in a nut shell....

When I was 9 I so desperately wanted to go see New Kids On The Block, but my mom wouldn't let me. After Friday night I can see why, but at the time I was devastated. I LOVED them, couldn't she understand that? Sadly they broke up when I was 10 and I never got to see them in concert. When I was 15 Joey Mac and Jordan Knight had solo albums. My sister, cousin and some friends saw them perform that summer. We were in the front row. They looked right at us. They were amazing and we cried....

When I heard they were reuniting I told Dallan I was going to the concert. When the concert dates/locations were announced I was bummed to see the price of tickets and came to accept my presence at their show would just never happen. Thursday afternoon, an old acquaintance sent an email telling me she needed to get rid of two tickets and was going to sell them at a loss to her. I called Morgan since she was planning on coming down anyways and asked her to come, she said yes. Then on Friday morning when I was talking with my friend she mentioned that there was a third ticket available and wanted to know if I'd like that one too. Heck yes I did! I asked my friend Emily to come along and she was just as excited as Moe and I.

We got there right in time. The lights dimmed and the screens started to display graphics. The band was hitting notes and the next thing you know there they are. It was absolutely deafening. I almost couldn't breathe and yes, I cried again. I totally embarrassed my sis and girlfriend but I couldn't help it. It was so freakin' awesome.

When we got home and Dallan asked how it went all I said was, "I could die in my sleep tonight and feel like my life was complete." Poor guy - he's so amazing for understanding my obsessive attachment to all things boy band related - he laughed and tucked me in to bed. I obviously didn't die, but its one more thing I can cross off my bucket list!





Catch Up: Sunny San Diego







My sister and her hubby took in a couple sporting events this summer. While we could care less about the Cowboys or Braves coming to San Diego we do know this: it means they need a baby-sitter for the evening (and in the case of the Braves game, and OVERNIGHT sitter; they were celebrating their third anniversary). Dallan and I were happy to oblige. Dallan was slightly nervous about going down to visit as he hadn't seen Kenna since April when she was about 4 months old, but he shouldn't have worried - Kenna was all about Uncle Dallan....
The first time we babysat, I went down early as Dallan had an interview and physical fitness test for the sheriff's department. Kenna and I played all evening; riding the jeep in the backyard, coloring on the floor, taking a bath and then it was time for bed. Dallan's flight was delayed so he made it to the house sometime around midnight and we went to bed. The next morning we got up an hour before we knew Kenna would be awake so we could shower and get ready and clean up our air mattress. Once I heard her moving around upstairs, I went to get her. She is so cute in the morning (actually she's WAY cute whenever she wakes up...) and was totally cuddly. Once we got downstairs though and she saw Dallan it was all over for me; she was like clay in his hands. The second weekend was much the same; once she had eyes on Dallan she didn't know anyone else existed.




What do you do with an almost two year old? You attend the Elmo and friends breakfast at Sea World of course. We also spent time on the US Midway ship and at Seaport Village in downtown San Diego. All in all, we had the most fun with her (and my sis and bro-in-law) and look forward to the next opportunity to see her!

Catch Up: Alaska Cruise






Our second adventure this summer: cruising the beautiful waters that are Alaska for 10 days!


Dallan has always wanted to go to Alaska. I was fortunate enough to go back in the summer of 2000 with my grandmother and sister. I've been putting off this vacation destination in favor of other things (basically I'd already seen it so I wanted something new), but I realized last year that only two things mattered... 1. We had survived the deployment and would be together and 2. Who cares, where we go - we're lucky to be able to afford what we want to do! So, I called a travel agent and she took care of everything. We left out of San Francisco harbor on the morning of Aug. 15 and docked back in on the 25th. Along the way we saw Victoria, Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka and the Tracy Arm Fjords. It was so much more beautiful than I remembered and Dallan says it totally exceeded what he thought it would be. We'd definitely go again some day. Even on our days at sea we managed to have the time of our lives. We went to art auctions, trivia in the library, swimming, the movies, photography lectures and so much more. We were also lucky enough to eat every night with the three best couples on that ship. They were so warm and amazing - what lives they've all lead - plus the one guy was a walking trivia game*; needless to say we were never bored and the ten days went by way too fast!


*My favorite piece of trivia from the cruise.... Name all the states that start with either M or N. I'll give you this much, there are 8 of each....

Catch Up: South Dakota




So I'm only like three months behind here....


Dallan and I were able to go to South Dakota to spend a week with my dad's side of the family. Along the way, we picked up my fave sister in law (although she is totally a sister and not an in-law) and her husband and drove Dallan crazy watching movies on the forever long drive to nowhere. (In case anyone is ever thinking of driving from Northern California to Custer, South Dakota - DON'T; it's a 24 HOUR drive...). Except for me getting sick along the way (it's official; I'm allergic to Utah) we had a great time. Some of these family members I hadn't seen in over a decade and it was like no time had passed at all. They loved Kait and Clint and haven't stopped talking about how wonderful Dallan and his sister are. We went to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Hill City, the National Woodcarving Museum*, Purple Pie House and lots of other cool places. All in all, it was a great little reunion!


*Disclaimer - I totally did NOT want to spend an afternoon doing this, however Dallan very nicely went along with dressing up in Hill City for old time photos so I couldn't very well deny him such a simple request...Luckily we didn't pass this up because it was AMAZING!!!! We saw the most beautiful chess set designed to be Custer's Last Stand and wanted it so badly, alas $16oo on a chess set was way out of our price range but it totally inspired some creativity. Plus the resident artist teaches wood carving at Davis during the winter/spring semesters so Dallan may take a class there to learn how to do his own Custer's Last Stand....