Happy Halloween!

Love,

East High School Cheerleader (from High School Musical) and Kitty Cat Princess!

Pretty Pumpkins

The other Sunday after church we stopped by our favorite local pumpkin patch. We've visited this one each year since we moved to the area. It's at a local church and they do a great job! I usually like to have the girls dressed in cute Fall clothes...but it was an unplanned stop on a perfectly beautiful Fall day...this'll do!

Orange & Purple...

...never looked so GOOD together!

Emerson is playing her 5th season and is a happy member of the Orange Crush! There are about 6 of the girls that have played every season together and it's been a real blessing keeping them together. They are sweet girls and have always been welcoming to new teammates. This season the girls have moved to playing on a bigger field, having the BIG goals, and are playing for the first time without coaches being allowed on the field...it's getting to be kinda serious and much more competitive! The girls are learning more about postions and defense/offense and their ball handling skills are improving alot.

Kirby is playing her first season and is a proud member of the Purple Sparkles! The girls are really super cute in their uniforms...which are always way too big! It's been an interesting start to say the least. I guess I've forgotten what it was like that first season with Emerson. Kirby has great ball handling skills for her age, but tends to be a bit non-commital about the whole thing during games. She has periods of "getting it" and periods of "picking daisies". Overall, she seems to enjoy it and will definetly be playing again in the Spring.

Oops I TRI'D It Again....

* UNFLATTERING PICTURES OF KAREN POSTED BELOW!*

HA!

(There's nothing pretty/fashionable about starting a triathlon at 7a.m.!!)

Back in August, I completed the TriGirl Sprint Triathlon (my second tri) with my dear friend Yolanda.

Heading in to the water for my wave start (I'm the one in the middle)...

I suppose I'm pretty happy with my results. I finished in the top part of the bottom half of my age group (did ya follow that?!) and didn't stop through any leg. The race consisted of a 300m swim in Lake Houston (I did really well on that leg), an 11 mile bike ride (pretty decent...though I was convinced my tire was going flat the whole time...it wasn't), and a 5K (good grief! I'm such a slow runner...but I DIDN'T WALK!).

On the bike, waving at Scott and the girls...

Yolanda, in her first tri, did awesome too! It was so fun to have a friend there with me and I'm extremely proud of all her hard work and success. I couldn 't ask for a better training partner...we work really well together and are already training for next season!

Me & Yolanda after the race - TRI BABES ROCK!

Nice booty shot of me heading to the finish...

Me and my future TRI GIRLS! I'm most proud of the fact that my girls saw their Mommy do something so rockin'!

And Speaking of California....

So not only did we go to San Diego in August...but Scott and I went to Santa Barbara the other weekend to celebrate my brother's 40th birthday! I tell you...we could get really used to frequently travelling to California...wouldn't want to live there...but could definetly stand visiting on a regular basis!!

We had a great time hanging out with Michael and Teresa. Teresa's parents own a condo right across the street from the beach, so it was a PERFECT home base. We ate lots of good food, enjoyed some good weather and some amazing scenery!

Here are Scott and I our first night there eating at Brophy's on the water. EXCELLENT FOOD!

Here's the four of us later that night

Lovebirds on the pier!

Here we are before dinner at Los Arroyos in Montecito (tres chic!)...seriously, THE BEST guacamole I've ever had!! Oh...and it was at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Montecito earlier that day that Teresa and I are pretty darn sure we saw the actor Jake Gyllenhaal (you know, the one dating Reese Witherspoon)!

We took a great little day trip to the Santa Barbara County wine country. The drive there was breathtaking and we even found the tasting room for a wine called Scott Cellars! It was a pretty decent wine and we brought a bottle of their "Cuvee J" home.

The birthday boy and his lovely better half! Love you both!!

California Dreamin'

As many of you know, we took a family vacation to San Diego late this summer. It was a wonderful trip and we had such a great time. Though we had a few episodes of sibling rivarly, some teasing, a little whining, occassional hearing impairment towards parental units, one almost lost child, and a few all out rental car-backseat scream-fests (*sigh*)....the girls were GEMS (insert only a small hint of sarcasm here!) and really enjoyed all we did. In fact, a common comment throughout the trip was "next time when we're here we will...." There's really alot to do in Southern California and though we managed to squeeze in a ton of fun stuff, a return trip could be completely justified!

So below are the highlights of our 5 full days there (you'll obviously need to scroll down a ways). I hope you'll enjoy seeing San Diego through our eyes!

San Diego - Day 1

Here are the girls ready to go on an early morning flight

And here's what we landed to....BEAUTIFUL!! Unfortunately, we timed our trip to coincide with a little Southern California heatwave...it reached in to the 80's inland most days and the lows were in the high-60's/low 70's each evening. DARN! :-)

Our hotel was located in an area called Liberty Station. This area used to be a Navy base and all the old buildings have now been converted to restaurants and shops. It had a charming appeal to it and was a great place to stay. Here's the view from outside our hotel. I actually jogged that path next to the water one morning too - meant to do it every morning...but hey, it was vacation.

Another neat thing on the grounds next to the hotel was the USS Recruit - a non-sea-going commissioned vessel made out of concrete used for training purposes. While you couldn't go on it, we could walk around it and take silly pictures.

After checking in, we had lunch at a fun 50's themed diner called the Corvette Cafe. They had great burgers and milkshakes, themed rooms, and a DJ that played all your favorite 50's hits and made the wait staff dance and sing from time to time. After that, we headed over to the harbor for a cruise around the bay.

The cruise around the bay was wonderful, and at times a bit chilly...such a welcome treat! The girls were on constant look-out for seals and other marine life while Scott and I were fascinated with all the military presence in the bay. Here are a few shots of the seals...

From this tour you can see the USS Midway, US Coast Guard, the Maritime Museum, a Submarine Base, the Rosecrans Military Cemetery and Cabrillo National Monument and Lighthouse in/on Point Loma and the Naval Air Station on Coronado Island. At any given moment you can see military helicopters, fighter jets, military ships and such...it's pretty cool!

Scott was most interested in the Submarine Base. Since 9-11, it's been under the extended protection of these big black "sausage" like buoys. As we went by, our guide pointed out that there were three Los Angeles Class nuclear subs being repaired. For those of you not familiar with subs, the LA Class is pretty much the bad boy of them all. We weren't able to get too close, but from the picture below, you can see the sausage buoys and there is a sub in dry dock behind the black curtain on the left.

Here's the USS Midway, the longest-serving air craft carrier in US Navy history. Every time I looked at it, I couldn't help thinking how my Dad would have been all over that thing in a heart beat! (Dad, it would have been awesome to tour it with you!!) It was always on our list to do, but we never got around to it. Shame. Next trip.

The harbor tour pretty much concluded our already long day. We had an early dinner and settled in for the evening, anxious to get started on some more fun the next day!

San Diego - Day 2

Our first full day in San Diego started early...5:30 a.m. early! No need for an alarm clock, Kirby was up and raring to go before the sun, due in part to the time change I'm sure. It actually worked out pretty well. We were dressed, ate breakfast, and at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Animal Park in Escondido pretty much right at opening.

The Wild Animal Park is an 18,000 acre wildlife preserve that mimics the natural habitats of African and Asian animals. The park notes that it is home to over 3,500 animals representing 429 species. It's a truly fabulous park....beautiful...and HUGE! In fact, we wound up renting a double stroller for the girls...it was a TON of walking!

The first thing we headed to was a special exhibit called Dino Mountain. This exhibit featured animated, large scale dinosaurs in a forest setting. These things were really cool...think Hollywood movie style made. The girls were given little Dino Passports - after reading the info on each dinosaur they were able to stamp their passport for that dino...a great incentive to have them listen to the facts and a cute souvenier!

Dino Mountain was located on the path up to Condor Ridge. Look at these views...

The must-do thing at the Park is the Journey to Africa guided tour. Here you get to sit in a shaded, open-aired bus and get a little closer to the animals. The landscape is incredibly gorgeous and it's pretty incredible to see all the animals roaming around.

Here's a pretty ariel view of where the Journey to Africa takes you. And thanks to Emerson being old enough to handle a camera...Scott and I may finally get some pictures TOGETHER...good job Big Girl!

Feeding the Lorikeets! And please - no comments on my "yes-I'm-a-tourist" sun visor. It was a life saver! :-)

We saw so many animals that day - lions, tigers, elephants, gorillas, meerkats, birds of all kinds...I'll leave you with two more pictures and then move on.

Though we spent most of the day at the Park, we were still ready for some more vacation fun. So on the way back to San Diego, we decided to take a few detours. Our first detour was through Miramar, California...you know, Miramar - Top Gun, Tom Cruise, fighter jets, etc. We thought it would be pretty cool but there really isn't much to see except the entrance to the Air Station. No jets flying at the time. Wasn't even worth a picture.

From Miramar, we headed straight in to La Jolla and over to the coast. Scott scored a fantastic parking spot and we walked down to the tidal pools where the seals hang out. The little guys are so cute and fun to watch wash up and shimmy on to the beach.

Here are our spoiled kids having an Italian dinner on a terrace in La Jolla....life is so rough!

Beautiful La Jolla

San Diego - Day 3 - LegoLand/Del Mar

Day 3 was spent at LegoLand in Carlsbad which was about a 30 minute drive from our hotel by the bay. I have to tell you...this is a fantastic park! All of the rides and attractions are geared for kids 2-12 years of age and there are incredible Lego creations everywhere. We spent the entire day there and had a blast!

We were having so much fun that we didn't take alot of pictures. Scott did get some cute video of the girls though....but I don't know how to post that...sorry! :-)

After Legoland, we drove the Pacific Coast Highway from Carlsbad back down to San Diego. What a beautiful drive! The little beach towns along the coast are just great. We decided to stop in Del Mar and found a great Mexican restaurant with the most incredible fish tacos ever. It was seriously the best meal we had on the trip....and the cheapest...go figure!

San Diego - Day 4 - Coronado Island

After a couple of days of too much walking around, we decided to take a day off and relax at the beach. We headed over the bridge to Coronado Island...which held two highlights for me - the Hotel Del Coronado and the Naval Amphibious Base where the US Navy SEALs are trained!

We began our Coronado day with a walk through the Del. It's seriously the most gorgeous hotel I've ever seen and now, having actually stepped foot in it...one of my new goals in life is to actually stay there on a romantic weekend with Scott! If you've never heard of the Hotel Del Coronado, you should google it and read about it's architecture and history.

We ate lunch on the patio deck at the Del.

Here are the girls with the famous Del red roof turrets in the background

I hate to knock my beloved Gulf Coast...but HOLY MOLY!...what a beach they have there! Next to the Caribbean, it's the most beautiful beach I've seen. The water is a bit chilly, but the shallow part of the water is a pretty blue-green shade and there is a gold glitter to the sand that is stunning. The girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the beach. We couldn't keep them out of the water. It was a great day!

Our Baywatch Beauties

If you look closely at this next picture, you'll see a line of young men running to and from the beach...these are Navy SEAL trainees getting "wet and sandy" during Bud/s training. My Navy SEAL obsession started last summer when my old trainer had me do a Navy SEAL inspired workout program...in fact, this program got me swimming (much to my initial protests) which then led to my triathlon training....

Anyway, since that program, I've read several books about Navy SEALs, watched documentaries, and even was able to meet Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell of the book Lone Survivor fame. So actually being able to see them training (though from a mandated distance) was a real treat for me!

We had dinner that evening at Sammy's Woodfired Pizza in the Gas Lamp District in Downtown.
It was a great meal and a fun atmosphere on the sidewalk. Check out the "Messy Sundae" that Scott and I split after dinner! And no...we didn't finish it!