Non-Adventure #27 Going to Cali!

Well here it goes, my attempt to catch up. I am starting with my trip to California. In April I went to see my sister Donna, she lives about an hour north of L.A. So I flew in to hang out with her for a week. Here is some landscape I passed in flight, also know as the Grand Canyon.

I arrived at John Wayne Airport in Burbank and we decided to spend our day in L.A., since we were already there. Our first stop was to the Getty Center.
You pull up and then drive down into a parking garage. Then take an elevator back up and wait patiently to ride up to the Getty on a tram. Here is a picture of what the scenery looks like as you head up the hill.
This is what the main building of the Getty looks like.
Here are some of the views from up top of the Getty.

This is from a landing looking down into the sculptured garden.

The tram on the way down.
We hopped back in the car and we headed over to Culver City. Our reason for heading here was mainly due to a somewhat new show on the Food Network channel called "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." On an episode, that I think was crunchy things, Duff picked a restaurant called Akasha, for the best onion rings he has ever had. So that is where we went next.
The menu at Akasha.
The onion rings. Originally I was going to eat them to go but I ended up eating them there at the counter.

I am here to tell you they ARE the best onion rings I have ever eaten. They were light and crunchy and super yummy! And there was no biting and pulling out the whole onion so all you are left with is the crunchy outer layer.

As we were heading back to the car we saw a farmer's market type street fair.
They had fruit, vegetables, soaps, lotions, food, and all kinds of things.
This guy was just singing and playing right in the middle of everything.
We stopped and bought crepes. Here is the crepe maker guy.Here is mine, I got a banana nutella crepe! It was so delicious!
After the fair we headed home, it was now 4 something in the afternoon and we didn't want to get stuck in too much traffic heading home. That night we kind of just hung out and watched some tv and a movie. The next day we decided to chill and we WALKED down the block to the beach. We layed out a little there before the ladybug attack and wind pelting sand became to much to take and we headed to her friend Nikki's to lay out there on their roof deck.


Thursday we decided to head down to their old stomping grounds, San Diego. We were going to start off and spend most of our day at the San Diego Zoo.

Once inside we headed out on the bus tour. We rode up top.
We saw elephants
Meercats
Giraffes
and drove by the pandas, lions, polar bears, and the bird area. Our ticket into the zoo also included a trip on the sky tram.
Up in the sky.
Me and Donna


Here you can see just exactly what we traveled on.
Since we rode back up to the top of the zoo we went into the polar bear exhibit.
Saw the zebras.

We strolled our way back down the big hill seeing as many animals as we could along the way. We decided that we would head downtown and leave the zoo but we got our hands stamped just in case we wanted to come back in.
We drove downtown and hung out at a mall there and then we decided to head to her favorite mall where we got some make-up touch ups at Nordstroms and ate dinner at Uno's Pizza (Where neither of us ordered pizza, I think she had pasta and I had a chicken and rice dish) before trekking up north to go home.

Friday we had a chill day because we were waiting for Charlie to come back in town from his FX. Once he came home we all hung out and ordered pizza. The next day we decided we were going to get up early and go to Disneyland! So aside from some minor blips and detours we arrived at Disneyland!
Walking in on main street

Our first stop was in Tomorrowland and we went to Innovations and played around in the Dream Home and other stuff. We ate in lunch in Tomorrowland. Then we headed next door and watched Captain EO in 3D. (This was 80's 3D not like the 3D of late). We then walked down to Fantasyland to ride on:



I love this picture of Charlie right before we went inside the tunnel!

Paris!
They have added some characters I don't remember seeing the last time I rode this ride, like Ariel

We then strolled over to Mickey's Toon Town and we rode Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle (Disney World in Florida is Cinderella's Castle and my favorite)
I tried to get a picture of Donna and Charlie riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Frontierland, but I don't think I was fast enough. We also ate dinner in Frontierland at Hungry Bear Restaurant.
We went to the Haunted Mansion

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, climbed Tarzan's Treehouse, saw the Tiki House show, and took the Jungle Cruise. Here we are picture taking before embarking on our cruise.


our cruise guide
The castle at night
Splash Mountain from the monorail station.

I loved that we rode the teacups at night because the laterns were all lit and it was so pretty.

I love this picture



The last thing we rode was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. Then we hung out a little in Downtown Disney before calling it a long night and heading back to the buses that would take us back to our car for our drive back home.

The next morning (not too early) Charlie drove me by In and Out for my burger and fries before driving me back to the Burbank airport. After a long and complicated wait at the airport I did make it home to Dallas late Sunday night.
On my way home.
I had a blast hanging out with Donna and was glad that when I left Charlie had come home and I wasn't leaving my sis all alone. This trip took place in April, since then Charlie has been deployed to Afghanistan and will be there for another 7 months at least. Please pray that he returns home to my sister safe.

I'm Sorry!

I hereby apologize for being the worst blogger ever. I have a TON of blog posts I need to update you all on but I am caught in a vicious cycle of first needing to hook up my camera, load pictures, write the blog! But before I get all that done something else happens and the list of blogs I need to load pictures on keeps growing! So be on the lookout because once I load those pictures on, the blogs will be coming fast and furious! Thanks for sticking with me!

Non-Adventure # 26 It's that special time of year again.... SPRING TREND SHOW!

That's right my friends our early morning trek to Northpark came again. This year some familiar friends went along as well as some new! On March 20th I got up bright and early (after getting in late the night before from Louisville) and met up with some special girls to see what new trends were happening in makeup and fashion. We got our totes, signed up for the raffle (Chrissie won a basket of Chanel skincare), had some breakfast nibbles, and waited for them to open up and let us sit down at the runway. When they did finally open up, Jenn and I made a beeline up there to reserve us some seats on the front row. Here we all are waiting for the show to begin. L to R: Chrissie, Me, Adorah (BSF friend), Robin, and my cousin Jennifer.

The stage for this year
Robin and Adorah totally cheesin!

I was totally sad that this years spring show fell on spring break. It meant that for the first time in years Baylee was unable to attend. She was on a spring break campaign to DC and didn't fly back till later that evening. I snapped the picture below because it was a dress that would look totally great on her, the model even had red hair like her!

I loved this purple dress
And as always my friend Meredith was there. I was lucky enough to have her do my makeup this year and we got to take our trend show picture. My friend Adorah was the cameraman and she got a little picture happy, so I picked my two favorites.

Then we (minus Jenn, she had to get home to her kids) went to lunch at Maggiano's in the mall. Our first attempt at a group picture only caught me and Adorah.
So we had the waiter take one of the table.
This was my makeup later that night I seem to always forget to take one right after I am done getting it applied. I loved it as usual! Meredith always does such an amazing job and I always leave feeling totally beautiful.
I had a long but great day with great friends. We tried a lot of stuff and laughed a lot. I cannot wait till it is time for the one in the fall!

A little more odds and ends, Allison was the only one to attempt answering the quiz questions and even though her guesses of all A's wasn't all correct (ABCAB) she still wins! So be on the lookout in the mail for your surprise gift Allison!

Last thing I promise! My sister finally had that shower for her friend! So I can officially post the diaper cake I made for her in Louisville.

The front:

Side 1:

Back:

Side 2:

I will try and post my Cali trip pictures, a some other events, and recipes soon! Sorry I am sooo behind!