Happy Halloween!

The Princess and the Frog wish you an enchanted Hallow's Eve!

I love dressing Toby and Bella in a themed costume every year. In fact, I have costume ideas to last for 10 more years! I saw this frog prince costume and just had to get it for my lil' prince, Toby. Mike, Toby, Bella, and I wish you a very Happy Halloween!




The Great Glass Pumpkin Patch

One of my co-worker's loves Halloween and pumpkins as much as I do. She goes to the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch every year in Palo Alto and invited me and my brother along. The pumpkins are custom-made from various artists throughout the Bay Area and range in price from $20-$1,000.

Pumpkin Carving!

My brother's good friend, Tori, was visiting from Austin for a few days. Mike and I miss hosting our Pumpkin Carving Party, so we decided to host a mini gathering with Davy and Tori.

Go Rangers!!!

Sleepy munchkins...

The finished product!

"Reunited and it feels so good..."

My sister, Lauren, spent five days exploring the Bay Area with myself, Davy and Mike. This was her first visit to NorCal, so literally everyday was filled with close to 12 hours of activites. We had such a blast together and I only wish we didn't live so far away from each other. Here are some photos of our sightseeting days around the Bay.


DAY 1

The first stop, once Lauren arrived in the city, was to see the famous "Painted Ladies". They probably look familiar to you...that's because these houses and the park they overlook (Alamo Sqaure) are where the Tanner family in "Full House" lived.



Next, we went to Lincoln Park for Lauren to see her first view of the Golden Gate Bridge.



It was such a beautiful day that we decided to visit Crissy Field, a beach that overlooks the Golden Gate. These two beachbums felt right at home with our toes in the sand!



We finished day 1 with a drive to beautiful Sausalito which is just north of the Golden Gate. Lauren, Davy and I ate a fantastic seafood dinner on the outside deck of a restaurant that overlooks the Bay.

Hehe...Davy was handed a bib to wear while eating his enormous bowl of seafood soup!

DAY 2

Lauren's first full day was spent exploring the city. We walked several miles and it felt as though we covered every sqaure inch of SF. We saw Union Square, the Ferry Building, Financial District, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Sqaure, and China Town. We even met Mike for lunch at Yank Sing where Lauren tried her first taste dim sum...yum yum!

DAY 3

Lauren and I are the ultimate beachbums, so we headed down to Santa Cruz for a day in the sun, sand and sea. We took the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) down to Santa Cruz so that Lauren could get a good sense of the rugged California coast. Our day ended with a trip to the movies to see "One Day' with Anne Hathaway. Word to the wise, the movie was terrible so don't bother seeing it. :)

DAY 4

NAPA...need I say more? We stopped at Beringer, ate lunch at Pride Mountain Winery, and continued on to Chateau Montelena (the winery and its owner's story were made into the movie "Bottleshock"), and Castello di Amerosa.

DAY 5

Lauren's last day was spent at Muir Woods National Forest (home of the world's largest trees, the Redwoods), Muir Beach Overlook, Stinson Beach, and viewing another movie ("The Help", which was fantastic and stay true to the book).

LAUREN - we had so much fun and can't wait for you to visit Cali again. The countdown has begun to my trip home in October....t-minus 5.5 weeks...yippee!!!

Summer Happenings

It's been quite a while since we've blogged....nearly two months! I'm usually camera crazy, but for some reason I haven't taken many photos lately. Anyhow, we've selected a few of our favorite photos from various activities taken the past couple of months.

Point Reyes National Park

Santa Cruz





4 Year Wedding Anniversary, 8/11/2007

Wow....4 years have flown by realllly fast. It feels like yesterday when we were hangin' in Key West with everyone. Anybody up for a reunion trip? :) Mike travels to LA every week for work. His flight schedule varies, but he's typically home pretty late on Thursday nights. Anyhow, our anniversary fell on a Thursday and we didn't have anything planned this year (if you know me...not having plans is unheard of). Well, Mike had plans...he flew home early on Thursday, showed up at my office with a bouquet of roses (he coordinated this with my boss) and had plans for us to spend the afternoon together in the city followed by dinner. Unfortunately, I was slammed at work and was unable to leave early (boo!), but we enjoyed a lovely dinner at a new restaurant down the street.

Mike's Flight Lesson

Mike was given a gift for an hour flight lesson with a local company down the peninsula. He had a blast!! Meanwhile, I enjoyed watching from the ground.

Visit with The Lee Family

One of my besties from college, Brittany, recently moved back to Houston with her family. I'm so glad I was able to visit her, her husband and precious lil' Xavi before they left Bakersfield for the Lone Star State. Isn't Xavi the cutest lil' dude? :) Brittany - I can't wait to see you again at our 'Rette reunion next year!