The Boss

We had a lot of fun Saturday night. One of the reps at Justin's work reserved a loge for Bruce Springsteen's concert - apparently one of the doctors in the office loves Springsteen. So we were invited to go as well. We had a great vantage point of the stage being up so high and the loge was stocked with food, drinks, and a tv so all the guys could keep up with the basketball scores during the concert. The best part of the concert though was watching all of the people "rocking out" in the audience. The rep even brought binoculars to really get a good look at everyone. Our favorite by far was a guy in the standing section two rows back from the stage. We named him Chris Farley becuase he was a large guy and the entire concert he was drumming along with the drummer and bobbing his head. It was hilarious. The second runner up? That would be the girl who tumbled down the cement stairs on the way to her seat BEFORE the concert even started! She was okay and got up after laying there a minute, and a few more beers later she was feeling fine - but boy she probably felt it the next day!

San Fransisco

Justin and I just got back from our first vacation without the kids! Yeah! We went to San Fransisco where Justin was presenting at the annual Orthopaedic Conference. So it was five nights and six days by ourselves - plus the 25,000 other Orthopods who decided to go to the conference.


This is a shot of us out on a boat with the San Fran skyline in the back. Boy was it cold and windy out on that boat! I even had to steal Justin's sweatshirt to keep warm.













Justin was busy during the days with conference stuff, so thank goodness we were there with friends! The girls and I did lots of "tourist" things during the day. This is a shot of me at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate park. We took a very "educational" bus ride to get there, but it was worth it. Other places we went during the day were China Town, Union Square, A farmers market at the pier.....let's just say we did lots of walking! And saw lots of crazy's! My favorite was Bag Lady Betty whom we met at Golden Gate Park, and if your wondering that really was what HE called himself and he also claimed to know everything there is about the Grateful Dead.....hmmmmm.









On Friday, Justin and the other fellows took a break from the confrence to spend a day in Napa Valley. It was a gorgeous day! And the scenery couldn't have been better. This first place was my favorite. It was a champagne vineyard (or as they say "sparkling wine" because we're not in France) and we were able to have drinks and artisinal cheese plates out on the veranda that you see in the picture. It was great! I honestly could've just sat there all day - but the rest of the group had other plans.




We decided to do one tour and that was out the Rutherford Hill Wine Caves. We thought this one sounded the coolest because of the caves. The caves were pretty neat, but unfortunately we weren't in them for very long. The doors you see in the background are set into the mountain and are the entrance to the wine caves. Pretty spectacular! We did a few other stops to round out the day and then Justin drove us all back to the hotel in the big excursion!





This was probably my favorite thing we did! We took a night tour of Alcatraz and it was cool! I had the insight to buy the tickets online about a week ahead of time and boy am I glad I did! They were completely sold out by the time we got to San Fransisco! This is a picture of Justin in one of the cell block rows. It was amazing to see just how tiny the cells really are! It was also neat to hear the stories of all the infamous people who were imprisoned there.





And that was our trip in a nut shell!! The kids and I are now back in Ohio and adjusting to the daily routine again after being out of town for a month! Justin did say however, that I can't do anymore of these month long trips......we'll see.

St. George

My mom, sister and I spent the last four days in beautiful St. George, Utah for their annual Parade of Homes tour. The homes were gorgeous - with the largest being 21,000 sq. ft. and the most expensive breaking the bank at $7 million! There were 26 homes to tour and we made it to every one. We all had a diffrent "favorite" but they were all amazing with amazing red rock or canyon views! I'm not big on the southwest/desert look, but for some reason I think that St. George is just gorgeous! Can you blame me? Look at the photo on the left?! All of my designer friends - check out the parade link below to view some of the homes!

http://www.paradehome.com/

Under Construction....

sorry the website looks so crazy.....it's under "construction" and i'll be out of town for the next few days. Check back later and hopefully it'll be beautiful!!!

Utah

The kids and I have made it to Utah! We're out here visiting family for a month and are really excited to see everyone. The plane ride was pretty uneventful, even considering the fact that I had a 2 and 3 year old flying with me. (thank goodness for direct flights from Cincinnati to Salt Lake!) Our flight was changed last minute to fly out an hour earlier - making take off time at 6 am! The biggest trooper was Anna. I woke her up a 3:30 in the morning and she didn't go to sleep until 8:30 at night Utah time (which is 10:30 Ohio time) with no naps or anything! She was just so excited to see everyone and especially her cousin Olivia that she kept fighting the sleep. I did however forget to bring my camera. So as soon as I learn how to use my moms I'll update the blog with some photos of our trip.

Q&A About me...

1. What are you most afraid of? Alligators/Crocodiles
2. What is the most recent movie that you have *seen in a Theater*? Alvin and the Chipmunks (Anna and I had a girls day together where we went out to lunch and a movie of her choice - that was her chocie)
3. Place of birth? Akron, Ohio
4. Favorite food? Cheese Enchiladas
5. What's your natural hair color? Brown
6. Ever been to Alaska? No
7. Ever been toilet papering? Yes
8. Love someone so much it made you cry? Ughhhh...yes
9. Been in a car accident? Yes
10. Croutons or bacon bits? Croutons
11. Favorite day of the week? Friday becuase it's the start of the weekend and it's date night in our house!
12. Favorite restaurant? Jeff Ruby's in Cincinnati or Gene and Georgetti's in Chicago
13. Favorite Flower? Hydrangea, Parrot Tulips, just never a carnation!
14. Favorite sport to watch? none, but if forced football
15. Favorite drink? Diet Coke
16. Favorite ice cream? Chocolate with peanut butter
17. Disney or Warner Brothers? Disney
18. Ever been on a ship? Yes
19. What color is your bedroom carpet? Light brown
20. How many times did you fail your driver's test? three
21. What do you do when you are bored? Catch up on odds and ends, surf the internet, call someone, read, watch tv.
22. Bedtime? lateley around 11
23. Favorite TV shows? real housewives of orange county, celebrity apprentice, the office, frasier re-runs, house hunters international and the travel channels Samantha Brown (that sounds like a lot of shows, but I just DVR everything and watch them when I have time)
24. Last person you went to dinner with? Justin - we tried this new Thai place called Teak. The food was so spicy that my lips were burning and we had to go out for milkshakes afterwards.
25. What happened at 30? Not there yet, but I'll guess cry!
26. What are your favorite colors? I really do like them all. "There is no such thing as a bad color, just bad color combinations!"
27. How many tattoos do you have? None
28. How many pets do you have? One. A pug named Chauncy
29. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Chicken
30. What do you want to do before you die? I will say that I just want to live a happy and full life
31. Have you ever been to Hawaii? No
32. Have you been to countries outside U.S.A.? Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Aruba
33.People you send this to..everyone on my list of family and friends!!!!

Hibachi

Last night we went to a Japanesse Steakhouse with our friend's the Babbs. It was John's 34th birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with a little Hibachi?!



We had just enough of us (eight to be exact) to fill the whole table by ourselves. The white dots you see is all the smoke from when the chef lit the whole Hibachi grill on fire - the kids LOVED it!!!

Here they made John stand on top of his chair and dance to their, I'm sorry to say, very poorly sung Happy Birthday song. As you can see they even had hand drums and everyone in the restraunt was clapping. At least John's smiling!!!

Here's Anna with her "training" chopsticks. She did really well with them and was even able to pick up her sticky rice in them!

And Cameron of course sporting a little bit of a spike in his hair. Cameron loved the restaurant and his favorite part was when they tried throwing food in his mouth!