A Love Affair

So in Europe I had to get new shoes. I guess I should go a little further back.  I bought new black boots for Europe. They were padded, had great reviews, looked great with everything I was planning on taking and were good for all the conditions we would be in.

Now everyone warns you never to take new shoes on a big trip unless you have them properly broken in. So I did just that, I bought them months ahead of time and properly broke them in. Dom and I both got new shoes actually and took long walks a couple nights a week in them and wore them whenever we went out to get them all nice and comfy. We got through the tough stage and by the time we left we thought they were just fine. Wrong, pain, pain, pain. There was blood and tears. I missed quite a few masterpieces because I could literally walk no further. So I got new shoes......twice.

The first pair I bought were two sizes too big for me and had absolutely no structure to them at all. There were basically a peasant shoe, soft leather shaped like a foot. I had to do it this way so nothing would rub and my feet could start to heel. They did the trick and I could walk again but they just weren't very good when it came to rain or snow or looks for that matter.

A little more than halfway through our trip I found some new shoes. Actually I fell in love with some new shoes. I got them in Siena, Italy.  You would think they were fine Italian leather right? No, those were super expensive and I had my heart set on a beautiful bag, which I got, so I had to economize and go with leather from the Czech Republic. I act as if they were junk or something but that is not the case at all. They are fantastic. I loved them so much they could have been from America and still would have had trouble buying anything else.

They're chunky and comfy and do great in the ran, I can walk miles and miles in them and they go great with everything. My peasant shoes thankfully didn't have to endure much water, since they couldn't handle it, but no longer than thirty minutes after I got these new shoes we experienced our first downpour in Europe. My feet were dry and toasty and I was saying a thankful prayer the whole time.

I loved them so much that I would always snap photos of them when we were resting. Here are a few to give you an idea of their awesomeness. You can really tell how infatuated I was with them since I didn't realize I was taking a picture of them next to trash but again you get a feel for my affection and for Rome's atmosphere.

 

It's been about three months since we've been home and I still have a hard time wearing anything else. They're on my feet right now and I don't want to take them off. 

Go Shawty, It's Your Birthday

I was thinking about blogging something new today and saw that I had this little baby ready to go except for the writing.

I get so exhausted putting together all of the pictures that by the time it comes to writing about them I'm spent......................then I never blog again. So I'm just going to post it without in-depth explanations.

This was what we did for my Birthday (February). We went camping out by San Francisco, one of my favorite cities. :)

Our campsite was pretty lush.

Our fist time using our equipment and my Birthday "cake."

We did a hike and it was quite steep but lovely.

Right???

He's so great.

It was a bit cold at the top. This was the photo with the least blue lips.

We outlasted everyone.

So, a couple other things to mention, Dom got me yarn to start off the trip. We forgot our overnight bag and had to pick up a couple of toiletries on the way. We froze that night because we had no other clothes. A mole was climbing under our heads the whole night. We accidentally took the harder trail to the top of the mountain, however it was faster. One last thing, I had an amazing Birthday with my awesome husband. :)

Quinceanero

My brother just turned 15 and I was lucky enough to be able to celebrate with him. My family came up for Easter break and spent some time with me and the husband. It was so nice having them around.

We are trying to buy a house and it was SUCH a relief having my well seasoned parents around while we checked out some homes. Their wisdom is priceless especially when it's such a big decision.

My mom and I have similar taste and she is able to help me see what could be in scenarios such as these. We would look at a house and I would see a flaw and say something like........this is dumb, what builder would ever think this is a good idea? And my wonderful mother would come in and say, no, just think of some paint this color and shelving here and I eventually I would see the light.

We looked at a ton of houses with them, dragging my poor brothers everywhere too but they were so good about it. They would suggest which of our future kids would go in what room and how we could totally use this room for games, it was funny. We would then debrief at dinner.

My mom needed to use my glasses at CPK and I think she looked quite good. Very pretty mom. :)

Easter Sunday was pretty fun, we went to church, ate a huge brunch, went on a long walk with Dom's family and then met them up for dinner.

I was really excited for the coming week though because my wonderful brother chose to spend his birthday in San Francisco!!!! I was so happy that he wanted me to come along because I LOVE San Francisco!! We shopped, ate, did some sight seeing and then shopped and ate some more.

My dad and Logan on the trolley, they would lean out right after the driver told them not to. Typical boys.

Austin's favorite food is sushi so we had that for his Birthday dinner. He was in love and I was just happy to see that they served chicken. They all said the sushi was great but my taste buds disagreed, I tried some like all sushi lovers have me do and the result was still the same......yuck! Whatever, it was a fun evening and the fam was happy.

It was awesome waking Austin up in the morning by sitting on him and yelling YOU'RE 15!!! I asked him how it felt and his response, "I turned 15 when I was 4." If you knew him, you wouldn't be surprised by this. We spent the day shopping again and getting him his presents on his actual birthday.

I think all of the walking around might have gotten to Logan. This was the best I could get out of him.

What a stud, I can't believe my little man turned 15..........I miss toting him around on his rocking horse (or maybe it was a truck) and hearing the cutest giggle in the world. Oh well, they all have to grow up sometime right? It was quite the fun trip, the only downer was Dom couldn't come because of work.

I was sad to see my family go and I hope that they can visit again soon. What's a 9 hour drive for your only daughter right?

Started With Tears, Ended With Tears

Don't get me wrong, the trip was great but it started and ended a bit rough. I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning. Dom and I visited my house this past week. We were having "Christmas" with my family. We flew out on Friday and Came back last night, Wednesday. Now, a smart person would see that there is usually a lot of weather change in January and that if they're scared to fly they would try and work around that. Well, this person isn't so smart..........me.

We arrived nice and early at the airport since that's the only time we could get a ride, and so I killed some time knitting and Dom worked on his laptop. This is the start of a hat. I've made it twice before but I'm really excited about this one for me. :)

Then it was our turn to fly out. It had been raining the past couple of days, but it was clear skies this particular morning, nice and beautiful and sunny. SO not the case 30,000 feet in the air. This was the roughest ride both Dom and I had ever been on. Rough take off and it only continued to get worse. Then the pilot gets on saying, "Ok folks, the crew can only bring you water since it's too turbulent to put the drinks together." About a minute later he gets on again and says, "Well, it's deteriorating fast and we can't do any drinks, the crew needs to be buckled in for their safety." We flew out of our seats at one point, around here is where I started to cry. Poor Dom, he was trying so hard to make me feel better, but I just couldn't hold it together. You see, it's all in my mind and these moments where my mind gets the best of me is where God and I have some good one on one time. I'm thinking I should get the picture and have this kind of time with God when I'm not forced to. Anyway, a super rough landing later, we made it. Phew! I've never been happier to see the Ontario Airport.


Thank goodness I got to see these cute little faces above me to cheer me up after such a horrific experience. Of course, they were occupied with their Mac this and Mac that, but once and a while I would get them to acknowledge my existence. ;) And since I'm the guest of honor, I got to choose where we went for lunch. Da da da daaaa......Rosa Maria's!!!! Double wrapped chicken, rice, and cheese burrito with guacamole on the side. SO GOOD!!!!!!!! Seriously guys, I fantasize about what's pictured below sometimes.

After the amazing burrito was stuffed in my face, we went up to Big Bear for the weekend. Here's a picture from the drive up:

We stayed one night and got to walk around town and enjoy the lovely weather. Of course, I dragged my mom to a yarn shop. I didn't get anything.....can you believe it? Me either. After all that fun we went on home and enjoyed the desert. I got to see friends for dinner Monday night. SO fun. Well duh, they're my friends, of course I find them fun. Catching up is always nice. One of them is getting married so it's nice to talk wedding details and the others have new jobs or new areas they've moved to. So many things going on in their lives to be happy about.

I LOVED playing with my mom's dog Piper. This little girl is a hoot. Her little stick legs move so fast; it's hilarious to watch her run. She's like a ninja. One minute you're sitting on the couch eating a snack and the next she's right at your face standing on top of the pillow behind you eying your food. In the picture above she is standing on top of her kill, a stuffed lobster. Well, it was stuffed before she ended its fluffy little life. I need to come up with a plan to steal her next time I'm home......maybe a sound proof bag?

One of those friends I mentioned before is now a dental hygienist and offered to clean my and Dom's teeth. This is her cleaning up Dom's dirty mouth. It was quite funny talking to her about things while she's digging into Dom's gums. He's all nice and clean now and looking good. :)

Now, our last night there my dad made us this amazing feast. Chicken, tri-tip, green beans and salad. It was SO good, so good in fact that I ate enough for three people......this is where the story goes downhill. I think that second helping of green beans did me in. I was up the entire night and spent the whole next day on the couch sleeping, all of this while running to the bathroom. My stomach hurt so bad at one point I cried.......again. Dom hugged and consoled me. My mom covered me with blankets, propped my pillows, my dad brought me medicine and 7Up, Dom sat by my side and my brothers came home from school early to see how I was doing and to say bye before Dom and I headed home. I did have a cute little Piper cuddle in my lap to make me feel better too (pictured above).

I didn't eat anything but about 10 crackers that whole day so this is what our dinner looked like at the airport. Pathetic huh? It was hard to watch Dom chew on his burger and sip on his milkshake, not because I wanted it but because it turned my stomach just to look at it. Anyway, our flight was on time, we didn't have to wait long, we got a seat in the first row, it was a smooth flight and we got home safe and sound!

So what have we learned? What I learned is that I'm a huge baby whose nerves are as weak as a Hollywood marriage. I can't handle anything. That might be a bit dramatic, I guess the more positive outlook of this trip is that I have family who loves me and I am truly blessed. Let's hope the next time I visit home it will be less dramatic or that I can at least learn to handle myself a little better.

Day 14: A Vacation You Would Like To Take

I would LOVE to go to Bora Bora! I mean yeah, a month long trip to Europe with Dom would be amazing but I have been there before and I have always wanted to go to Bora Bora. I think it all started when I was around 11. I saw The Parent Trap in theaters with my mom and there's that scene when she says her friend was on a trip with her family to Bora Bora, well I didn't know where that was so I looked it up and have been longing to go ever since. Just take a look at the place:

Not only is the island amazing but it's where you stay that really won me over. They have houses on the water. You just walk out your door and jump in if you want, into the crystal clear water.

I would love to snorkel right by my room in the morning. Swim on up to the beach and sunbathe and then swim right back to my room to eat my room service lunch. Then get onto a little dingy tied up to my dock and putt around the island with Dom.


If you want to join, I'm sure group rates are more affordable. ;)

Can I Stay Please?

So it's been two weeks, so what? I like to take time to recover from my awesome trips and soak in all the good times I had. Also, if I feel required to blog about it, which I do because I had such a good time and remembered to take some pictures, I will procrastinate for the simple fact that I am a procrastinator. All that being said, this post will be about my trip to SoCal with Dom at the end of July.

To start off, we drove down........yuuuupppp, we packed ourselves up in the car with a buttload of snacks (almost all of which were sweet because I made the mistake of taking Dom with me to the store), pillows, beach towels, and an audio book. It was cheaper this way, although after bringing along Nibisco, Little Debbie and the Wal-Mart brand, this might no longer have been true. Our first stop was the Woods' place for dinner. We got to hang out with Sam too. The Woods were watching this adorable little mutt puppy that happened to have ears like Scram and the body of a wiener dog. Her name was Mika..........I'm pretty sure, I just kept calling her cutie. Behold the adorableness:

Dom wouldn't allow me to kidnap her, which I think her parents appreciated. Dinner was great and super fun, as time with the Woods always is. I hope we can see them again soon, it's always such a treat. Next we hit up our final destination, The Mahlers. We would be staying at Andrew and Allison's the whole week...........jealous? You will be after this post. They greeted us with a blow-up mattress, a cute apartment, and A Ticket To Ride, which Dom and I had never played before. It was pretty fun but made even more fun by the fact that we were playing with good friends.

The next day we collected Tony and hit up the beach, unfortunately Andrew couldn't join us since he had to work but Dom, Tony, Allison and I had a pretty good day in the sun. Reading books, eating junk, soaking up the rays, dipping our toes in the water and digging our feet into the sand, what could be better? If that stupid wave wouldn't have come and washed away Dom's wedding ring it would have been perfect. He was quite bummed but we have pictures of it, it was special when I got to place it on his finger when I committed myself to him but now it will be buried in one of God's most beautiful creations forever. Also, since he does own a jewelry store, we get to make him a new one that will hold special memories of its own. :)

Dom and I enjoying a beautiful day in the sun.

That night we all had dinner together, provided by Allison and her wicked culinary skills (Yum) and then went to Dave & Buster's for some half off fun (Wednesday's are half off everything). Love that place, especially with a group of people who appreciate how awesome a grown-up arcade is. :)

The next few days were quite a blur of fun, and since I didn't take any pictures I will just give you a run down.

Thursday: hit up the Rainbow Factory and bought myself some new flip-flops. LOVE the ones I got! Yep, that's plural because I had to get a fun pair as well as a traditional pair. ;) Next time I am definitely getting Dom some. I figured out I was definitely getting him some as we got on the on-ramp to leave. I believe indecisive is my true middle name. The rest of the day was a girls day. The boys were gone for the night at the bachelor party, did I mention we were down for one of Dom's old roommate's weddings? Well, since the boys were doing their thing us girls decided to do our own. It was me Allison and Allison..........I think it might have been entertaining for them every time I paused after saying Allison to try and specify it by adding a last name and then tripping over it as I then had to correct it mid-pronunciation to their new last name. I need to come up with a better system, I gave up after an attempt or two and just stared them down before I decided to talk to one of them. It worked quite well.

Us girls did the night up right, talked about boys, clothes, home decor, cooking, baking, marriage, family, frustrations and praises, we watched A Walk To Remember and cried, ate chocolate, and then talked some more. I think if a boy walked in the room he would have suffocated from all the estrogen floating about. The night was epic and one of the best girl nights I've ever had! I feel so blessed to have met these girls and to able to get to know them even better is such a privilege. :)

Friday: Went shopping in the morning and Allison.......Will-......Mahler! You see? I need to come up with something better. She got new boots, gorgeous, brown, on-sale boots. I refrained from spending anymore money as I was currently rocking one of my new pairs of Rainbows. Then, we hit up Del Taco since we both like it and never get to have it. I know there is one down the street from me but since Dom doesn't like it I only have it on the rarest of occasions.

Then, we went home and watched Pride & Prejudice (the new one) while we waited for the boys to come home from the bachelor party. Once they got home they took a short break to rest and then reconvened to play Frisbee golf while us girls got stuff for dinner. We had another big group dinner with the Mahlers, Parisis, Patrick and Tony and his girlfriend Kaitlin. She is great! So laid back and cool, basically the female version of Tony, which makes them one of my new favorite couples. We all went and played games at the Mahler's church after dinner until we were too tired to carry on.

Saturday: This was rehearsal for the wedding so most of the couples from our group were off to that for the day while Dom, Patrick and I stayed back and had an adventure or two of our own. Adventure #1, Quiznos...........right? Oh come on, who doesn't think eating at a place that will probably be extinct in 5 years is exciting? JK. Adventure #2, The Arboretum. Plants, dirt paths, beating sun, racial exhibit, turtles, dead rabbit, and a wedding. Quite the adventure. I thought this was pretty though:

Dom climbed up in the tree in the background of the wedding videographer.

Annnnd Adventure #3, Yogurtland. Dom LOVES Yogurtland and since we don't have one it's a huge treat for him when he goes. We haven't had it in about two years and he finally got to have a bowl. Nothing could disturb him right? Wrong. You know those huge green, black beetle things that fly? Well, one came after Dom.......no really, it had a vendetta out on him and when it was unsuccessful at clobbering his face it decided that it would ruin his long awaited treat. It pulled a kamikaze right into his bowl of delicious yogurt. No lie, see for yourself:

Dom took it like a trooper, but I think when you are involved in such a bizarre event you have no choice but to laugh at it. Later that night, when all the couples got back, we played Pitt, which is a loud, crazy game. Then we hit up Dave & Buster's again (Yes!!!!). Once everyone had their fill of ticket winning, we went to Johnny Rockets for some grub and then headed home.

Sunday was the wedding. We went to the Mahler's church in the morning and then the girls and guys split up and got ready. The wedding was in Chino Hills and at a beautiful location. Here are a few shots from the day:

The wives and the most-likely-will-be-a-wife girlfriend (too much?). From left to right: Kaitlin, Allison Mahler, Allison, Me and Melissa.

The Guys, from left to right: Tony, Patrick, Joey, Andrew, John and Dom.

The girls impersonating the guys (standing in correspondence to their other half).

They did sparklers for the send off. Dom got a little carried away. :)

The next day, our last day, was spent packing up and eating lunch one last time with the Mahlers. Well, Andrew was waiting on the rest of us while we ate lunch since he happened to be working at the restaurant we chose to eat at. It was a great send off, then we hit the road for a long 8 hour drive home. What a great trip right? Such great people and such wonderful relationships formed and enriched.

P.S. After such a long trip I got to come home to a package waiting for me from my swap buddy. It's sort of like a pen pal with another knitter. We send each other packages with knitting stuff and I got my first one when I got back. :) And I thought the trip couldn't get any better. Here is what she sent: