36 Hours O' Fun

We left at 7:00 am on Saturday morning for Vegas...got there in time for lunch, had a great time and left Sunday morning at 9:00 am. Short trip, totally worth it though - didn't spend a lot lot of cash and still feel like we have some of the weekend left to relax. Here are some fun pics and some highlights of the short trip.

We checked out the new City Center which included Kirk watching us take pictures behind "tornado" tubes. Did I say watching us? I meant pretending not to know us. Me and the Twin!For some reason, Kirk has always wanted to stop at the Alien Fresh Jerky shop along the drive to Vegas. He loves him some jerky. I thought the place was a bit weird, especially since there were large alien figures all over dressed as humans. Not sure what the correlation between jerky and aliens is???Luckily Kirk bought some Buffalo Jerky and Whisky Jerky and not the one below. Remind me never to put anything into my body that boasts to clean my colon. We had tasty, overpriced alcoholic slushy beverages.
Wendy won big on slot machines...as usual!

Other tasty morsels:

• Wendy and I got hit on twice in a matter of 10 minutes. Once by 2 Guido's with their pink dress shirts unbuttoned to their fake tanned navels and next by a guy missing a hand. Good Times!
• Using the road trip time to finish one book I had been reading and to start and finish another one. Book reviews to come.
• The gals (me, twin, sherri) had lunch at Mesa Grill stuffing ourselves with Bobby Flay's yummo burgers and fries while the guys (husbro, david, dad) headed for a beer and sausage filled lunch at the Hofbräuhaus.
• Sherri insisting that I "pee on a stick" desperate to find out if I am pregnant. The answer, nope. Sorry Sherri - better luck hopefully next time around.
• Hootin' & Hollerin' at the blackjack tables each time we won, which caused the casino manager to come see how much money we were winning. Once he discovered the majority of us were only betting $10-$25 a hand he said "If you found $10 on the ground, would you react by woo-hooing like that?" To which my reply was, "Um...YES! That is a burrito bowl with a fat fwap of guac from Chipotle I just found on the ground sir!"

I Totally Need That!

There are few things I appreciate more than a good invention. Here are four that will be going on my Christmas List this year!

The Wake-n-Bacon - no explanation necessary!

For trekking to the beach early in the morning while being a "supportive" wife while Kirk surfs on the weekends!
I think I will run more often...I mean, I think I will begin running if I get these beauties! I love a shoe that accentuates the toes.
A perfect addition to any kitchen!

What was that? You want a human head knife block for Christmas too?

Weekend O' Souther

This weekend the Southern Clan came down to the village because the Twin threw Jess and her buns in the oven a baby shower. In usual Wendy fashion ("always the hostess") the shower was adorable and super fun.

Edible Centerpieces are the best!

Marshmallow treats for everyone to take home with them.

Instead of wrapping the gifts that she got for the twins Wendy used them to decorate the shower. Hung them all on twine and clothespins throughout the house. All baby boys need their first pair of chucks!

Two of Jess' sisters were in town and were able to come to the shower. They are just as sweet and funny as Jessica.

And...the TINY ONE came to the shower too! In her finest party gear.

Two of everything for the boys! Made for very large piles of clothes for the boys.

The guys played outside with Owen during the shower. That kid is amazing on a scooter for only being 2 years old. Go OWEN!

Sarah & Mia

Nothing better than baby rolls :)

Diaper Cake handmade by Katie for Jess.

Katie also made this adorable argyle onesie for the boys. She is apparently super crafty! There were matching socks too.

From the scooter to the pool...the village keeps kids pretty busy.

David & Kyle hung in the pool with Owen. Because everyone loves a group photo.

And because everyone loves a silly group photo even more.

Love these girls. We look like an anti-skin cancer add with our white selves!

These are handmade blocks that Jess' sister Becky made for the twins. So sweet and clever!

Beautiful Sisters!

Had to post one more featuring the belly!

There is nothing better than hanging out with low-maintenance, super funny friends on a lazy weekend. Come back to the Village soon Souther's!!!

Great Escapes

One of the perks of working at CPK (aside from meeting my bestie Erin about 6 years ago) is getting to volunteer on behalf of the company. One of the coolest opportunities we have is to work the Great Escapes CPKids Camps. We sponsor these day camps with Starlight Children's Foundation for seriously ill children and their families and they are so much fun!

Last weekend we had a Great Escapes camp in San Dimas and Erin and I got the pleasure of working the Sno-Cone machine! It was awesome! Erin made quick work of getting the ice shaving down to a science. It took a little while to get a hang of it, but eventually and after squirting myself, Erin and anything in a 3 foot radius of the table with the syrup...I was a pro. We served a ton of kids and their families yummo sno-cones and had the best day.
One of the coolest things about these camps is the opportunity to see familiar faces. Erin immediately recognized one of the mom's that we had both met working a previous Great Escapes camp last year. She was familiar to me as well, but Erin had spent pretty much the entire camp that last year with this mom and her daughter who had cancer and was not in the best shape at the time. She had no hair, was in a wheel chair and was incredibly swollen from the treatment she had been receiving.

While I was scooping shaved ice into the cone for the mom, Erin asked her if her daughter was there and she said something along the lines of "YES! She is here, I know you must have seen her already. She is cancer FREE!" Her daughter came by shortly after with a big smile on her face, a full head of gorgeous hair and a giant hug for Erin. It was such a cool interaction to witness! I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to have a child with cancer, or being the child with cancer...heck - I can't even imagine having a kid just yet. The strength of these kids and their families is inspiring and I am honored just to get to spend time with them...even if it's just serving them up some sloppy sno-cones!

Lack of Words...Me?!?

So, I have been enjoying my weekly visits with my ol' biddy and we get along very well. I feel like I am getting super repetitive though with our visits. I ask her the same questions, she responds with the same old answers and we only have a few moments of "new" material going on. One of the other hurdles that we have now in our communication is that her eyes are bothering her - basically they hurt when they are open...so she closes them. It gets tricky sometimes because although she does tell me that she is just closing them because it gives her relief, it is hard to communicate with someone who is not looking at you and wondering if your all too familiar ramblings are actually lulling her to sleep.

Anyone have any suggestions for me...? New topics aside from the usual - what did you do this past week? how are you feeling? did you get any visitors this week? Guess what I did this weekend?...I have already covered her past - growing up, husbands, siblings, children, grandchildren, hobbies.

What would you talk to an adorable 84 year sassy old woman about???

Big for Her Britches

My girl LP (our F&B Admin) sent an email including a photo out last week to me, and 3 other gals at the office...

The email said:

"Which one is Julie and which one is the primordial dwarf?"












Nice...I think I may be rubbing off on her.

Back to the Normal Shenanigans...

Oh yes...after all of those beautiful pictures from our European vacation that I have been posting, I am starting off this post with this little gem! Wendy and I were stopped at a red light last week and I spotted him. For a second I thought I was at Venice Beach or something, but no. He was just chillin' on the street corner waiting for the green man to light up so he could cross. I wish I could have snapped a better shot. I wish I would have taped him because what you can't see is that homeboy was dance-posing on the corner with his ripped jeans and tye-dyed crop top. Work it out Goldie Locks!

On to better things though! The CULVERS came to visit. (Minus Jay, which was a bummer). Christy and the kids took a trip out to Cali and we were lucky enough to be on their schedule for a few days. Here are some pics from our time with them.

We spent their last night out in the Viejo Village making dreams come true...well at least for Mason!

David & Kenz on his Vespa!

Me & the Husbro!

This was hilarious. Christy wanted to try out David's vespa, but soon found out that it is not a good idea when your feet don't reach the ground while on the scooter. How adorable is she though trying it out!

When Mason arrived a few days earlier I told him that if he wanted to, Kirk would take him for a ride on his motorcycle. At first Mason was super excited...he told me it was his dream to ride a motorcycle. It want back an forth the next few days with him wanting to ride, then getting a little freaked out. Thankfully the kid has major guts and hopped on for a ride with the husbro. Here he is ready to hop on!

About to take off! He looked a little nervous, but by the time they reached the end of the cul-de-sac and accelerated off down the hill...all we heard was the sound of the engine reving and Mason yelling "Woo Hooooo!" They ended up going twice because Mase loved it so much. He wanted to go again, but I put the kibosh on that one when we noticed that Kirk (or should I say Kirk's groin) needed a rest after 2 rides of Mason holding onto him so tight and pushing him and his "ahhhemmm" up against the front of the bike. Sorry Mase...but I need the husbro in good working condition if we want to see a little Snell in our near future. Too much information? Oh well! When Mase got off the bike I asked him how fast he went, to which he replied. "I think about 45 miles an hour." I looked at Kirk knowing that was not true and asked him "Babe, how fast did you go?" He just looked at me and smiled...a smile I know all too well. After asking him a few more time he said, "About 80 mph." I wish I would have had my camera on Mason at that moment! His mouth was agape and his eyes were huge. Instantly he ran down the street to tell Christy how fast he actually went. I then asked Kirk..."How come you told him you only went 45?" to which he responded "We were only going 45 mph at the time he asked."

We also went out and had dinner at Farrell's. That place is nuts! They have a $50 ice cream sundae that it takes 2 people to deliver to your table because it is so heavy. They do crazy stuff there for birthdays and we wanted the kids to see the fun...so Christy explained to them that we were going to dinner to celebrate mine and the twins birthdays. I asked Christy why we just did not say it was one of the kids birthdays or hers - to which she quickly answered that her kids will NOT go along with a lie - and since they were not out here for our b-day in May, this was the perfect idea...ummm.

A group of servers came out and yelled at the top of their lungs for the entire restaurant to stare at me and Wendy...and instead of singing to us so whacked out annoying song they yelled out that since we were twins they were going to make us sing to each other...all alone! Well, I went ahead and gave it the old college try...and what does Wendy do? Miss "Loud as all get out" twin just stands there laughing while I am singing all alone.

Twin FAIL! Poor showing.

Ladies...

Gents...

I love you Culvers!!! Can't wait until our next visit together!

Zurich

What you should know about Zurich??? Expect to empty your pockets! We spent our first 24 hours and our last 24 hours of our vacation in Zurich. We spent a lot o' cash money on food...and we even shared our lunches to try to make it cheaper. We spilt a Hawaiian pizza (about 11" or so in diameter) and each had a soda...our bill was $41...huh? Dinner on our last night consisted of $29 Beef Tortellini for me and $27 Spaghetti Bolognese for Kirk.

We decided that we don't need to go back to Zurich unless we either come into a lot of cash or we have someone who lives there that we can stay with ... and cook with :)

Here are some of the shots from our short time in Switzerland!

This was spray-painted on a wall outside of a church along the river. It means "I Love You" in German.

Awesome stained-glass in a church along the water.

I Loved This Stuff!
Here is the church from outside.

A little Husbro Lovin!

Along the streets in Zurich