Happy 4th of July (and Ass Kicking)!!

Sorry my blog has been on a summer hiatus for awhile. Summer school kicked my ass and summer school finals really kicked my ass!! Not to mention a couple of my regular commenter’s stopped commenting (you know who you are) and I was blog discouraged BUT I am back and ready to blog. Plus I have a CLASSIC 4th of July story for you, so read on!! I promise its worth it!

4th of July Rocks!! It is by far my favorite summer holiday!! I am such patriotic girl and love the chance to celebrate America!! Sadly I think so many American’s today lack the nationalism that other countries have. I hope that you aren’t in that group, I know I am not!! I am proud to be American!! YAY!! Plus any excuse to hang outside and BBQ is awesome in its own right!! Also I finished summer school the day before and needed a break!!

Our plan was to head down to Newport to help our friend out at his Segway shop, hang out the beach and then head towards home for a party and fireworks show on our lake. My day started off perfect because when the alarm went off Danny said the greatest words I could ever hear, “babe, why don’t you sleep a little longer before we head out!” You all know how I love my sleep, no need to twist my arm!! After another 30 minutes of sleep I felt great!! I got ready for the day and we were out the door.

We made a brief stop at Danny’s favorite doughnut shop and barely made it into the peninsula before the shut it down to incoming traffic. Newport and Balboa (well I guess any beach) get crazy packed on 4th of July (so packed it could be dangerous…I am just saying, no particular reason why…just that it COULD be dangerous) and there we people everywhere. Not to mention there were cops everywhere, totally not the day to act out but of course it is the day people get totally wasted and…act out!! Hehehehe.
After hanging out in the Segway shop for a little while, Danny, myself and the three guys decided to head out to enjoy the weather, after all it was a little slow in the shop because EVERYONE was outside.

The calm before the storm…Everything was nice and peaceful while we stayed in Balboa. Nice calm people and cute houses everywhere. There were lots of people out but it wasn’t overly crowded. We were in the section of “owned” homes and everyone was having family time.


I had a fun time in Balboa, calm and drama free (if I want to appear in my own blog I usually have to take my own pictures).


It was time to head towards the Newport Boardwalk…oh if only I would have stayed in Balboa!!


So up until this point I thought it was crowded down at the beach but I didn’t realize how crowded!! The boardwalk was insane, I mean it was an accident waiting to happen…again I am just saying…no reason…just saying it was very crowded and ANYONE could get hurt!!

Here are the guys cruising past Cabo Cantina (where Danny and I almost witnessed a girl fight later in the day).


The park on the beach! I think this is great….two awesome things together, a park and a beach, perfection. Plus there were BBQ’s everywhere and they were even selling grilled corn on the cob…YUM!! Too bad the guys wouldn’t let me stop.

Now remember that nice pretty family house in Balboa (if not scroll up), all calm with the family hanging out. As we moved along the boardwalk into the beach “rental” houses the scenery changed. No longer were we in the land of calm but in the land of college kids and I don’t know anyone that would call college kids at the beach calm. Just to better set the scene the houses began to look like this:

Yes, that is a little known version of Plinko…"Drinko".

And there were people in the streets everywhere; the streets were closed off to cars so they were just full of people! It was pure madness.

So as I was looking cute, crusin down the boardwalk on my Segway, the guys were all ahead of me and it was wall to wall people. It was a competition of us, bikes and masses of people. So as I was falling behind the guys further I thought to myself, I need to catch up or they are just going to leave me all together. As I surveyed the possible route through all the people, I waited till it looked safe and made my move; I guess I should have surveyed the crowds a little longer. As I ATTEMPTED to move around two bikes so I could pass them another bike was coming at me head on so I moved closer towards the edge of the sidewalk and the sand. Yep I said sand, oh and at the exact moment that I moving into the sand I was in front of a house where about 75 people were out on the patio watching everyone on the boardwalk…an audience if you will. So as my wheel headed into the sand, I am sure you can guess what happened. I went FLYING off the Segway!! I launched off it, though the sand and landed firmly on the sidewalk, all with my audience cheering me on! I landed with a huge thud; in fact this is what alerted my party that was still ahead of me that I fell. To put it as Danny said, “it sounded like a bomb went off”!!

I sat on the ground, STILL HOLDING THE SEGWAY UP MIND YOU, for a few minutes trying to catch my breath!! Danny and the guys came back to help me and another guy from the party too…but I just didn’t want to get up!! It hurt!! It hurt everywhere!! Once I was finally able to get up and back on the Segway, as I rolled away one guy yelled that he got the whole thing on video!! Perfect…so maybe if you go to You Tube I will be there. Another girl offered me a shot…she said it was totally deserving of a shot. I had to decline because to be honest I couldn’t see straight and I was totally sober!

Danny kept asking me if I was embarrassed for falling in front of all those people, and it was a LOT of people. But to be honest, while I wish it wouldn’t have happened I figured hey what could I do, I did do it and its over. Someone else said to me, “oh that sucks but it is just one of those crazy, random things that happen.” No it wasn’t just a crazy random kind of thing, for me this is a totally normal thing, nothing to be surprised at (see previous post where I, a 29-year-old-girl, fell out of bed). Maybe that is why I wasn’t too embarrassed. Hehehehe.

Also if I wouldn’t have fallen I wouldn’t have this fun blog posting. I guess I am just here to entertain all of you because as soon as we got back to the Segway shop I gave Danny the camera and said, “Take pictures of my injuries! I have to blog about this!!” Most people would want to keep a Segway accident on the down low BUT NOT ME!!

So with out further delay, my war wounds!!
All injuries were on the right side of my body…I fell onto that side and held the Segway with my left-side. Some how I got one wound on the inside of my left foot, I must fall very creatively.

And my shoulder one was pretty bad since I slid along the sidewalk.


My hands, a futile attempt to brace myself from the fall.


For the grand finale…here is the bruise I was lucky enough to receive on my right thigh (and this is the bruise post accident, day 5)!! Thanks to Danny for his suggestion of placing the quarter next to it so that people could see how big it really was. Hey, I like to be realistic here!!

I guess I went from my figurative summer school ass kicking straight into a literal ass kicking!! Hehehehe. But you know what? If I had to pick one to do over again I would totally pick the literal one!!

Oh and after taking these pictures my camera died. A causality of my accident.

I can’t lie and say I was feeling great after my fall because I wasn’t. I tried to pretend for awhile but I just couldn’t keep the act up. After we left Newport, we made a quick pit stop at the party we were set to attend. I felt bad because we could only stay long enough to say hello and apologize for my clumsiness. I was sad to leave because Al’s (Danny’s friend) house was BEAUTIFUL and they had a Pina Colada machine!! We headed home where I could relax for a few minutes before the firework show. We live right on RSM lake…it is about 50 feet out our front door and they do a firework show off the lake every year.

Just for a bonus, here is a picture I took of the lake the other day.

As I have mentioned several times on my blog, we have awesome neighbors, thanks to Royal and Karen who saved us a prime spot on the lake for the show. People in RSM take the show very seriously and start setting their blankets out two days before.

While I heard they had to cut the budget for this years show, I thought it was great!! Watching the show made me aware of how grateful I am too all the men and women who serve of country, they make it possible for us to have the freedoms we do. For them fireworks in the sky are a nightly occurance…the only difference is their life is on the line. So many people take the life we live in America for granted which is truly sad. AMERICA ROCKS!!!!

What did you do for 4th of July? I hope yours was as eventful as mine (but with fewer injuries).

Easter Eggs and Easter Wii

Happy Late Easter!! Yes I know I am a slacker, blah, blah, blah. I promise I am working on being more timely…it will happen…eventually.

For anyone who knows me I freaking love holidays and Easter is one of my favorites because I love hard boiled eggs (especially brightly colored ones) and Easter candy is the BEST candy of the year!!!! On a sad note, I have been so busy lately I didn’t get to put up my Easter decorations; this after I already missed my valentine’s decorations. AND, there is no need to ask, yes I do have Easter and Valentines decorations (and 4th of July, St. Patrick’s day, etc…). If you were to ask me my favorite holiday decorations I am not sure I could answer. Of course everyone tradionally loves Christmas, but I think Halloween is such much fun to decorate for and 4th of July could be my favorite, 1. Because I am super patriotic and 2. 4th of July always makes me think of home.

Easter morning started off as perfect as a day can…with me, Danny and the dogs all snuggled in bed. YAY!! I gave Danny his Easter basket…it was a mini one this year, and then I got to work. I had boiled 3 dozen eggs the night before, colored 1 dozen of them and baked 4 dozen cupcakes. The morning’s tasks included frosting and sprinkling the cupcakes (I didn’t take a picture of these cupcakes because they were just basic cupcakes, vanilla on vanilla with brightly colored frosting and spring sprinkles. I got Danny to deliver cupcakes with me to some of our neighbors as a “Happy Easter” treat…I am a Bree (Desperate Housewives) in the making…except I don’t clean. Hehehe. Then it was time to start the next task which Danny actually volunteered to help with…such a good boyfriend. We peeled the remaining 2 dozen eggs and Danny was so excited because by the end he developed a system where he could be the shell in one piece. If you try this it is actually a very difficult task, so he has something to be proud of, hehehe. This batch of eggs was for deviled eggs, as a result of the “Great Debate”…to relish or to not relish; we had two separate batches…one with and one with out. (I think most people at my Dad’s turned out to prefer the ones with relish but there were a few of us hold outs that did not like relish!! My Dad liked the ones without the relish but only because these were mine and I totally loaded the garlic salt in them!!) What do you prefer? Relish or no relish?

After all the Easter chores were done it was time to pack the dogs, food, Easter basket and Guitar Hero…yes I said Guitar Hero…all into the car. My neighbor Dave had the best line of the day, as we were leaving he saw all we were carrying and said, “Nothing Easter like Guitar Hero!”, so true, so true. Hehehehe.

Since my family lives out in the Inland Empire I don’t get to see them all that often so holidays are always great. I know the Inland Empire isn’t all that far but if you take into account traffic…it isn’t like I can just stop by for dinner after work. When we got to my Dad’s house everyone was there…my Dad, my sister, my brother, his wife, his mom and my nephew. Plus there were six dogs!! In my family we are all dog people and our dogs go where we go! Thank goodness my Dad has such a big back-yard!

I always think it is so much fun to spend holidays with kids, more than adults they really understand the holidays. My nephew Aiden is at that perfect age where he is finally starting to understand the idea behind everything but is young enough where everything surprises him!! It is so cute. At lunch I kept getting in trouble because I was teaching him how to open his mouth and show us his food…hehehehe. After lunch my sister-in-law brought a ton eggs so that we could have an Easter egg hunt for Aiden. And by ton I mean 65 eggs!! I asked her if she knew that we only had one kid in the family. At the beginning of the hunt everyone was out back watching Aiden, but as a result of the 65 eggs and Aiden’s desire to open each one to see what was inside, by the end of the hunt the crowd was down to just him and his mom. He really was a trooper.

Aiden checking out the Easter egg:

So excited over whatever he found inside:

Gracie checking out Aiden’s loot:

After the egg hunt it was time for some Easter Wii!! Everyone played bowling and then Danny, Johnny (my brother), Tracy (my sister-in-law) and Eric started a very serious tennis tournament. It was so funny because they all go so into it you would have thought they were playing at Wimbledon or something.

Check out the oh so serious expression on their faces (and of course Danny explaining what went wrong):

The boys really had to get into it:

To finish off the great day at my Dad’s house I thought I should give my nephew a cupcake (in addition to the candy and cookies I had already gave him) because it is so fun to feed peoples kids sugar and send them home!! You should try it some time!!

Aiden takes a bite:

I hope that everyone else had a great Easter too!! Holidays are such perfect days!!

Happy Easter!!

We hope your day was filled with family, friends, bunnies, chocolate and eggs!!

Love,

Heather, Danny, Aspen and Gracie

February 14th!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Love,

Danny, Heather, Aspen and Gracie

Good Bye 2007 and Hello 2008!!

Good Bye 2007 and Hello 2008!!

I can definitely say that 2007 as been a long hard year. So many things happened…I got laid off my job, I took a new job, lasted 3 days there and then I took another job. I was with that company for about 6 months and I was lucky enough to go back to my company of 5 years that had laid me off earlier in the year. This was also the first year that I took 3 classes at school instead of 2 and I can definitely say that was a challenge but well worth it as I am SO close to graduating. My Dad had surgery on his leg but he is healing nicely and hopefully he won’t have any pain soon!! And of course for those of you that know me (and I assume you do if you are reading this blog)…there is always the spa. I am so proud of everything that Danny has done with the spa and know that it will continue to become more successful with each day, but I would me leaving a huge part out if I didn’t say it was stressful. If you don’t believe me you try working with 20 or so “creative” females…hehehe.

If you don’t have the struggles in life you can’t appreciate the good things. So with this in mind I say good-bye to 2007 with fond memories and hello to 2008…I can’t wait to see what this year will bring.

We decided to make the move from 2007 to 2008 by hanging out with our crazy neighbors. If you have ever met them you know there is never a dull moment to be had. We are lucky to have such great neighbors, not only does Royal (that is our neighbor…Royal and his wife Karen) like to walk our dogs but they always can be counted on for entertainment.

We decided to just have a low key night and head to a local restaurant, Hanna’s, which is just down the street from our house. I know sounds like a CRAZY night…I guess Danny and I are just not huge New Year’s Eve people. It is always over crowded and over priced.

We met our neighbors at Hanna’s around 9:00pm…we were supposed to meet at their house but in true Royal fashion they left with out us to get there at 8:00pm. When we got there it was Royal, Karen, Terri Ann (a former neighbor), Suzie (Terri Ann’s sister) and Bill (her husband)…at the bar of course. Here is a picture of all of us at the bar, waiting for our table:


As you can imagine it was crowded being that is was New Years Eve and all so we had to wait a little while for our table, even though we had reservations. We entertained ourselves by taking pictures. Here is one of just the girls:

And one of me and Danny:


We finally got our table, ordered a couple appetizers and dinner. To be honest I thought the food was just ok. Here is a picture of me waiting to be fed:


Another picture of just the girls…you can see how excited Karen is to be wearing the hat:


The strangest part of the evening came at around 10:30pm when Karen leaned over and told me that Royal had too much to drink and that he wanted to go home…go home at 10:30pm on New Years Eve…is that even allowed? I guess I do have to give him credit because he was drinking enough to put me down (actually that isn’t saying much…sorry Royal)! He had at least 2 beers at the bar, 2 beers at the table, some other drink and 2 shots! The funny part is that Bill didn’t think he had drank that much…remember he had all those drinks I just listed AND he drank at Bill's house right before they came to Hanna’s. Bill said, “he only had 5 beers at my house”…isn’t 5 beers a lot? I guess I am just a wuss…hehehe. Anyways Danny had to drive Royal home really quick…he was literally back in under 10 minutes we live that close.

After that it was pretty uneventful, we had dessert, listened to a band and then rang in the New Year with pretty hats, silly noise makers and bad champagne (before tonight I never met a glass of champagne I didn’t get along with famously…at least till the next morning). Danny and I left shortly after midnight…the previously mentioned band was very loud (if you have ever been to Hanna’s you know it isn’t the largest of restaurants) and everyone had the added fun/annoyance of the noise makers…although it was pretty hard to leave my front row seat in watching the skilled dancers of the “Hanna’s dance floor)! All in all it was a good night…I am lucky to be celebrating another year with Danny.

One last thing…Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you have as GREAT a year as I am planning on having!!