Happy Memorial Day

Disneyland

The day after seeing Carole King and James Taylor, my parents and I headed off to Disneyland! We were going for the a few days to Disney's California Adventure's Food & Wine Festival. The trip was to celebrate my parent's anniversary.

First things first. The trams that take you to and from the parking lot now have doors on them! Did somebody fall out? Although it had only been about a month since my last trip to Disneyland, I hadn't actually been on the trams during that trip... so I am not sure when they were installed. Sometime since the New Year.

We went straight to DCA to see if we could catch a Food & Wine cooking demonstration... we were in luck! It ended up being someone who was not the person on the schedule... and much to our dismay, it was the same chef that we saw last year... and even more disappointing? He did the exact same recipe!

After that we walked around DCA to see how the new changes were coming along. Disney's World of Color show is set to open very soon!

After that, we decided to give the cooking demos another shot. We had a great experience watching John Sarich, who is the Culinary Director from Chateau Ste. Michelle.  He gave some great tips, cooked up some excellent food, and was very entertaining to watch!

The next day we headed straight to the Captain EO Tribute and Space Mountain.

After that, we went to ride Star Tours... for the last time before it closes to make room for Star Tours 2.0! It will be a bummer to not have Star Tours anymore, but I am excited to see how Star Tours 2.0 turns out.

We rode on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. I got a great score, but was unable to beat my all-time high [which is over 625k!].

We also went to watch Aladdin [mom's favorite!] because there rumors keep swirling around about it going away to make room for a Toy Story musical.

Of course, we couldn't miss riding on Toy Story Mania!

And... we saw Chef Robert Irvine from Food Network's Dinner Impossible!

All hail the mouse!

One of my favorites... Winnie the Pooh!

And, Mickey!

What a wonderful trip!! I'm already looking forward to my next visit!

Carole King and James Taylor

That's right folks! I packed my bags and flew down to Arizona for a few fun-filled days!

My Dad picked me up from the airport, and we headed straight to lunch at one of our favorite spots: Ted's Hot Dogs! We started going here back in Buffalo, NY (where Ted's and my Dad are both from)... and when I was in college, we discovered that there was a location outside of NY in none other than Tempe, AZ! What a [wonderful] coincidence.

Later that evening, my parents, their friend Jill and I headed out to see Carole King and James Taylor! What an amazing evening... it was soo fun to be able to see them on tour.

Happy Birthday to Rachel!

Happy 25th Birthday to my cousin, Rachel!

Zac and I were so happy to be able to celebrate with Rachel. She had a party at her house the night before her actual birthday that we got to attend. Yay!

We had yummy food, drinks, and cake!!

What a fun evening!! Rachel sure knows how to put together a great party.

The next day Zac and I headed back up to the city to celebrate more with Rachel and her friend, Tom. We went to the Toronado for beers and sausages. YUM.

For some reason I don't have any pictures from that night - send me your pictures, Rachel!

Happy Mother's Day

Zac and I visited with my Grandmother, her sister and her brother-in-law for lunch on Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there! :)

When we got home to my Grandma's house, we helped her watch a DVD that my mom had made and given her last Christmas. When my cousin and Aunt were traveling in Australia [I think a year or two ago], they happened to be eating at a restaurant where Rachael Ray [of the Food Network] was filming a show... my mom recorded the show and put it on a DVD. My grandmother was very excited that we were able to [1.] play the DVD... [2.] find Rachel and Marsha on the show... and of course, [3.] she was very excited when I was able to pause the show and pose for pictures with them on TV for about ten minutes. Technology... so fun!

SLO Visit

The day after Chris and Karla's wedding, we met up with our friends Chris and Ninah, their baby Violet and Dayes, who had driven up from SoCal for the wedding weekend as well. We went on a walk in Morro Bay and hit up Top Dog for coffee and breakfast. It was so nice to catch up with everyone, and to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Trying to get two dogs to stay put for the same picture is always a challenge...

Parker giving Violet some kisses.

Zac and his younger brother, Marcus. We think Marcus finally passed Zac in height! If he hasn't passed him yet, he is awfully close...

Chris and Karla Get Hitched!

Our good friends Chris and Karla got married on Saturday, May 1st. What a wonderful celebration. We are so happy for you guys! Congratulations!

The kiss!

Husband and wife!

Chris, Ninah and baby Violet!

Zac and I with the happy couple!

Boys will be boys...

What a fun night! Congrats, Chris and Karla! :)

Arizona!

At the end of April, my dog and I set off for a road trip to visit my parents in Arizona! I rented a car (to get some good MPGs!), packed up some stuff, and set off very, very early on the morning of April 16th. The trip turned out to be very relaxing, and quite fun! As usual, I tried taking a many pictures as I could... Enjoy a few!

Parker is such a great dog in the car. He mostly naps, or sticks his head out the window. However, this would be the longest car trip I have taken him on thus far. I expected the drive to be about 12-ish hours (which was why I left around 5:30am in the morning!), including a quick stop for lunch in the Pasadena area with my good friend, Amanda. What I didn't expect was to be rear-ended! About ten minutes after we had gotten back on the road after lunch, we were driving along heading east on Hwy 210... and all of a sudden another car slammed into the back of mine. My initial reactions were to take my foot off the brake... check on Parker... and get to safety! Of course, everything happened rather quickly. A young teenager was driving the car that hit me - and truth be told, he was pretty tore up about the incident. We exchanged info, waited on the side of the road for the CHP to provide a police report... and a "quick" 45 minutes later, I was back in my car headed toward the next highway exit in order to calm down a bit, and get some shade and fresh air so that both Parker and I could cool off. Luckily, there was very minimal damage to my rental car, and surprisingly, the rental company said I could keep the car if I wanted, or drop into a rental location to exchange for another. Since there was only a few scratches on the back bumper, I decided to keep the car - it was a 2010 Mazda 3 - and thus far, was driving very well, giving me great gas mileage, and I was packed and in the middle of a long drive! (The car that hit me was probably totaled --- front end completely smashed in, and not drive-able.)  So, Parker and I hit the road! Unfortunately, with the time delay, we were then stuck in "LA traffic" for a couple hours before things finally cleared up. We arrived at my parents house at about 8:15pm (just under 3 hours past my expected arrival time), but still, not bad!

Parker and I pulled off the road more than I would if I had been by myself. 

We woke up very early Saturday morning because my parents friend, Jill, would be arriving at our house so that we could all make our way over to ASU to participate in Pat's Run. It is a 4.2 mile (in honor of Pat's jersey 3) run/walk in honor of Pat Tillman.

On Monday afternoon we had the nice opportunity to meet up with my cousin before she flew home. Rachel had been in Tuscon visiting a friend from college for the weekend. They were flying out on Monday evening from PHX, so we met up with them for an afternoon iced-coffee! It was definitely fun getting together with Rachel and her friends.

My parents and I took Parker on quite a few walks near their house. There is a nice area with walking paths and a few lakes that my Dad and I went to a couple times. I was worried about Parker getting too hot, or his feet getting too hot on the Arizona pavement... so in the lake he went! Of course, Parker does not like being in the water, but once he realized it was cooler being wet, he quit putting up too much of a fight and stood in the shallow water.

There was one family of geese, and about 8 or 9 families of ducks! All the ducks and geese in the area were extremely worried about Parker, but he did not care about them at all.

I love the desert landscape.

On Tuesday night, we went to an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game. It was such a nice evening that they had the roof open on the stadium.

On Wednesday we decided to visit Queen Creek Olive Mill for a tour of their olive farm, a nice lunch, and of course, shopping in their great shop! None of us had been here before and we had a very enjoyable time.

Where the tour begins (with some olive trees in the background).

The patio where we ate lunch after our tour of the mill.

There is a group of estates near where my parents live that have all sorts of animals on their properties, including horses, chickens, ostrich, one of the biggest bulls I have ever seen... The first day that my day and I walked Parker through this area, these guys were super curious about Parker and came running over to see him. He got very worried about them that day, but of course, I didn't have my camera. The second day we went walking through there, they again came running over to see Parker, but he did not care at all.

The next day we went to visit the Phoenix Art Museum to see the Ansel Adams exhibit. We had a very delicious lunch in the restaurant at the museum, Arcadia Farms, and got a guided tour by a docent of the Ansel Adams exhibit.

The day after that we went for a day trip up to the Grand Canyon. We took Parker along for the ride, and got to the Grand Canyon for a couple good hours of viewing before the snowy weather took over and viewing the canyon was no longer possible. It was a beautiful, and fun day. Turns out, we were visiting during National Park Week!

There is a very big grassy park (a couple football fields in size) in the community that my parents live, and luckily the entrance is just a short walk outside their front door! We let Parker run around off-leash in the field several times a day. He was in heaven.

He would run around and then find a nice spot to relax.

My parents and I got together with a few of their friends from college! What a fun night... BBQ and board games. We played two games that I had never played before.. including betting.. for nickels! :)

Parker made a new friend named "Buddy"

On my last day there, we went on a day trip up to Sedona, where we enjoyed a nice lunch and a beautiful day.

We stopped at a Farmer's Market to walk around and saw 3 little goats. One of the goats kept head-butting Parker through the fence. The little girl in with the goats offered to let Parker in the fenced off area with the goats, but we decided that probably wasn't the best idea.

On the way home, we stopped at Montezuma Castle National Monument and Montezuma Well (a unit of Montezuma Castle), both located near Camp Verde, Arizona.

Ruins from an old structure, possibly a home near the well.

Although the sun was setting on the wall where the Montezuma Castle was built, it was still a magnificent sight. We made it just in time before the visiting hours were over, and were able to walk around for about 20-30 minutes. We will have to make another stop here for longer next time.

Before we knew it, our visit was over! The week went by very fast. It was so nice to be able to take a good amount of time to visit in Arizona with my parents. Parker and I packed up and hit the road about 5:15am... and ended up making it home around 5:15pm! Talk about good timing.

What a trooper! Parker toward the end of the drive:

Mom and Dad, Thanks so, so much for having us!! Can't wait to visit again! :)