I am Home

I am home from Las Vegas :) Boy what a fun weekend! I'll post photos in a day or two! I have a bunch. We saw 3 shows, Beatle's LOVE (Cirque du Soleil), Blue Man Group & Phantom of the Opera. We shopped at Caesar's Forum, The Canal Shops at The Venetian and also Barney's at the Palazzo. We stayed on the 16th floor of the Palazzo overlooking Treasure Island. What a new gorgeous hotel!! My sister and I also had a spa afternoon at Canyon Ranch Spa at the Venetian and got Ice Cream pedicures, plus did the "must do" gondola ride through the Canal Shops. We also found a Krispy Kreme at the Venetian, so we ran down to that, and took photos. A very busy 48 hours in Vegas....we flew in and out on a private jet and that was just fabulous too! A wonderful "father daughter" weekend!!! An annual tradition :)

~Pictures coming soon......lots of cheesy crazy ones! I went overboard a bit!

Viva Las Vegas

Tomorrow I leave for Vegas for the weekend with my sisters and my father. Should be fun and I should have some great photos to share when I get back on Sunday. Besides Vegas, Evan's soccer team is still in the State Cup games! They are still undefeated and alive! So another game this Saturday, which I will miss. Then next weekend is the Scrap Convention!!! Teresa, are you ready????????? :)




Just got this photo in the mail from my grandmother...thought I'd post it :) of me with my Aunt and Cousin. My cousin runs the "Shawna Rae Fan Club" in case anyone wants to join. She has membership forms, t-shirts, a secret hand shake and holds monthly meetings at a secret location. The next one will be held on Cinco De Mayo (wink).

Special Place x 2

This is part 2 to my question asked below, on where is your special place :)

Ok, I have 2 places. Both beaches (does that say something about me?????) I can close my eyes right now and still feel every all my senses working to repaint the picture in my head of this place. Like a video. Funny how the brain can do this. Or shall I say, what a miraculous gift we are given to be able to have this type of memory!! So the 2 beaches I would love to spend the day at are...drum roll :)

**Beach # 1 is a beach in La Jolla. It is located between La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club and Black's Beach. This beach is not really of sand, it is BIG giant rocks that are pieces of the mountain that came to rest. Sitting on these rocks watching the ocean is so peaceful. You can sit on a rock and the water splashes up to the rock, but not on you. You are higher than the ocean. It smells like the ocean (a clean ocean) and sounds like seagulls.......I remember this rocky La Jolla beach like I went there yesterday and would love to go spend a day there tomorrow. One of those days where time stand still.

**Beach #2 is a beach in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. This is a lay out, go swimming kind of beach. It is a beach I like to think in my head is a deserted beach, but it is not. It is off a highway and on the Eastern part of Oahu. I am sure it has a name. Gosh, I have no clue what it is called. Robb and I would go and spend our lazy weekend days in Hawaii on this beach (we lived in Honolulu, Hawaii). Away from the tourists and hustle of Waikiki. Little islands peeks out of the water in the close distance when we'd look out into the ocean from the beach. The beach never got anyone but us there at any time, and I remember looking at the clouds and watching them float by. I'd think to myself, to the clouds Hawaii probably looks like a little rock in this giant blue ocean it is floating over :) I can tell you the swimsuit Robb and I wore, the type of suntan lotion I used and thoughts that I was thinking laying there for hours on end....but I wont. Kinda boring and personal. I do have a good memory though :) A gift and a curse I guess.

Those are my 2 spots.........and I have other spots I love, but I go back to often, so those don't count. Lake Powell, Disneyland, Coronado all have special meaning and I love being there. But I go at least yearly or more...so it does not go with my whole "special place" thing I was shooting for :)

Maybe this Summer while in Encinitas I'll go back to this beach with my new Nikon...and in October go find this beach when we are on Hawaii. Take some photos to post :) OH, Robb's brother got engaged....so a wedding in Hawaii is our's plans for October! A month before Africa!!! Exciting 2008 travels huh????

My Cousin Who Followed His Dream

This is a little story about my cousin. He followed his dream of becoming an artist. His name is Kenny, or Kenneth Richardson III and his gallery is Pravus on Roosevelt. He is awesome and loves what he does for a livng every day he wakes up.....I think the world of him and had so much fun yesterday.....this is him and his gallery:



This is his art (see Iggysaurus ~ as in Iggy Pop as a dinosaur below):


(there is the David Lee Roth painting that is in this series with Iggy)






Our day being educated in the gallery:




Outside of the gallery on Roosevelt ~




More to come....as more shows happen and as Leah and I go down and learn more with Kenny Art School 101 classes :)



PS~ 3 more shots today at the DR for my trip....no pictures...I went solo today for them.

My Cousin The Artist

Today I made my 1st "real" art purchase. Real as in, not from a "store", but from an artist in a studio (signed and framed). The artist is my cousin. His name is Kenneth Richardson III and I bought a piece of art I have LOVED for awhile called, Iggysaurus. I'll post pictures later, Leah took some. We spent 3 hours at his gallery and studio today looking at all his phenominal work and talent...wow! So it is my first piece and I have my eye on 2 more pieces down there (all originals, not prints), plus I have a piece I wanted to comission him to do. His studio and work are amazing and I will defintely feature his infomation on the gallery shows on my blog monthly. They are open to everyone and anyone! The gallery is on Roosevelt. Here is his show in May (below). I'll be there!! Fun stuff.....I am sooooo proud to have "Kenny" (as we call him) in our family.....he is a real life artist who is following his dream and boy he sure did achieve everything and more!!!! Pictures of my "lessons in art" will be soon posted".

Your invite.....make a date night and join us for an evening of art!

A Special Place?

Do you have a special place that you think of often? That you remember and want to go back to? That you wish you could spend 1 day at? Where is this place? Come on and share :) And is it the place that makes it special, or the person who you were with?

(use the comments)

PS~ I'll share mine, if you share your's....this is not mine :) This is a "freeze frame" of my dad's web camera in January up at his cabin in Flagstaff. Kinda cool huh? Lots of snow on his front porch. My special place is not in the snow.....one clue, it is next to warm water :)

An Afternoon At "World Health Travel"

I received 4 immunizations and 2 prescriptions (pills for anti-malaria and antibiotics). Leah got 5 immunizations and 2 prescriptions as well. These immunizations were not our only ones we needed, we also got 3 others at our regular MD. Here is our wonderful afternoon at World Health Travel. See Paris in the corner all nervous...ha ha ha!


This shot burned - Yellow Fever- my arm today still hurts right where I got it!



Outside the "Happy Room" aka "The Room of Immunizations"


Leah ~





All smiles.........

SWEET NIBLETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now:

Then:


New Kids on the Block offically reunited!! Sweet Niblets!! I hope their tour brings the "Kids" to Az! I will SOOOOOOOOOOO be going to that concert....I will be dragging my dad to the concert along with my sister and brother! Not sure if I will take my kids to it. I attended a New Kids concert back in 6th Grade at Compton Terrace! It was so fun!! Anyway, my dad and us kids LOVED NKTOB back in the day, especially in Lake Powell. I have collectible dolls of the New Kids I may have to pull out soon, I even had a pillow case (I may not have it anymore).......this just made my weekend!

www.nkotb.com

I am just sad the Spice Girls did not stop here in Az on their short tour....oh well, I'd rather HANG TOUGH with "The Kids" anyway......whoa oh oh oh oh, just hanging tough!

Better Late Than.....

Better late than never :) Easter day...and the kids' Easter baskets! Hair accessories, dvds and Bakugans were "HAWT" (use your Southern drawl) items in our house this year. Plus the boys got a Ripstik each. www.ripstikusa.com/

Early Morning.........everyone had a little BED HEAD :)





Robb cooked breakfast on Easter...which is our usual Sunday tradition anyway. But today was just even more special and his parents joined us!! We call our weekly Sunday tradition of homemade waffles, eggs, pancakes, sausage, biscuits and bacon every Sunday, "NO CEREAL SUNDAY". The kids love the food and enjoy this special event every Sunday. But right around 1pm they are having cereal withdrawls. Captain Crunch and Toucan Sam (Fruit Loops) are our buddies here in our household. OH, and we can't forget about Count Chocula and the Silly Rabbit from Trix....they join us occasionally too!



Tomorrow (Friday) is another BIG step for me in order to get my "ducks in a row" for Africa. So far my application is done, paperwork complete, I have my passport (since I was 17), paid for my mission, purchased my airfare........now for the last part until I have to file my visa paperwork and then I wait for November....can you guess what tomorrow is??????????? I'll post pictures after I get back. Leah will be with me.

Rose Mary's Baby Shower

Last Saturday was my SIL's baby shower for "baby girl" X (there is no name picked out yet) at Top Shelf...........YUMMY..........Here is Rose Mary looking too good for being like 8 months pregnant.....and her YUMMY cake...and her baby shower with the family.

Do I? Or, Don't I?

In Between Dreams....

This is how I feel right now.....I am tired! Long day!! I hope you all had a YUMMY wonderful day full of happy thoughts, well wishes, good doings and blessed adventures. Oh, and I hope you get a good night sleep tonight! Oh how sleep can make or break a day!!! I {{{HEART}}} sleep.

Summer is almost here, yay!

9 weeks until our annual trip to Lake Powell........

Our vacation recipe: Some sand + red rock + water + 3 houseboats + some water toys + ski & bass boats + 35 family members + love + lots of laughter + a few cameras + a gallon of sunblock + chess board + a fire pit + night vision binoculars + sand toys + solar tiki torches + fishing poles + about 100 dvds + a ping pong table + "the bonzai" + Robb's "slingshot" (ha ha ha) + a trip to Rainbow Bridge + 6 fridges, 7 freezers and about 20 ice chests of food........and last but not least the "evening show" (wink wink), which I can't really talk about to those who are not on the trip with us......but my dad puts it on after dinner on select nights :)






This is what it looks like when 35 people eat dinner together :) Last year's trip!




More fun memories we shared....a family that plays together, stays together!