Happiest Place on Earth!

The past year I have thoroughly enjoyed my Disneyland pass and am sad to say that it has finally expired :(

The last 2 weeks of my pass, I was able to squeeze in Disneyland 3 times!!!!

Sarah and her boyfriend Chad came down from Utah to go on a cruise to Mexico (thanks to the swine flu they weren't allowed off the boat) and spend a couple days in LA. 

Here is Sarah and I enjoying our time on the Tea Cups! Definitely a Disneyland classic

Before we left Disneyland after a lovely and long day, we stopped for some shopping, ice cream and a picture in front of Mickey's head. I had a blast hanging out with Sarah and Chad and their plethora of fast passes; those 2 really know how to take advantage of those things. Thanks for inviting me to your day at the happiest place on earth!

Disneyland I love you and can't wait to come for free on my birthday!

Danny Boi's Bday

Our family is getting so old...Dan is officially 30 yrs old!

2 years ago Dan and I were talking about the new restaurant Javier's that opened in Newport. My mom got the idea that this was his "favorite" restaurant...she couldn't get reservations then but it's a good thing she remembered this was his favorite because we finally went. This was Dan's first time to Javier's. Gotta love my mom's effort!

Roger told the waiter that it was Dan's birthday in Spanish so I think they felt a little closer to our family than most, so this guy hand fed Dan his birthday flan! Made my night!!!

Here is the whole gang outside the restaurant. Dan was stoked to carry his present and birthday balloon around the restaurant all night. 

Mommies Day

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I know I'm a little late but it doesn't mean I love my mom any less! She truly is such a selfless person and has so much unconditional love in her heart for her family. Mom I love you more than you'll understand, and thanks for all the support you've shown me especially during this stressful program :)

Almost every Sunday my mom invites the family over for dinner. She spends all Saturday/Sunday preparing and then spends most of her time when the family is over cleaning up so I decided my gift would be to prepare and clean Sunday dinner. Oh my goodness, I was so exhausted! I spent way too much money at the grocery store and then started cooking at 11am and didn't finish until 5pm...clearly I need some more practice.

I made a served a delicious salad, fresh fruit, Parmesan Chicken with Angel Hair pasta and a chocolate cake for dessert. My mom was in heaven watching me prepare dinner! She sat at the bar and we just chatted. Being the scrap booker she is, she wanted to document such a rare experience ;)

Here I am caught off guard with the picture but at least it shows my masterpiece! Ryan was so excited he wanted to make sure he was first for a piece.

Dan's present was to bring Duke over! I remember when I was a little girl visiting my grandma, my uncle would bring over his dogs and she would get so upset and scared when the dogs would go near her...it's fun to watch history repeat itself!

It wouldn't be Mother's Day without a picture of my mom with all of her kids all grown up

We love you mom!!!

Teaching Kindergarten!!!

So for the last 2 weeks my master teacher has been in Russia adopting a 12 year old girl, crazy I know! It's been a cool experience for her (obviously) but for me also because I've been able to sub for MY class!!! It's a weird concept but I was actually getting paid for what I am required to do anyway.

I was able to have the class ALL to myself for 2 whole weeks! I did all the prep work and planing for everything! I teach the majority of the day but it's the small stuff that I didn't realize that took forever, hence not making it to Disneyland until 5! I luckily have been on spring break from Pepperdine for the last 2 weeks as well meaning, I could stay late after teaching to prep and plan instead of running off to class like I usually do.

I'm excited to have her back tomorrow and meet her daughter but I'll miss having total freedom of my class. Here is the sign all the students plus my bilingual aid plus my cross aged tutor plus my principal and plus myself signed :)

Here I am with my class! We had a blast!!! We kinda strayed away from the worksheets she left me with but I think we had more fun :) I can't wait to have my very own classroom...cross your fingers that I'll be able to find a job in this economy and not have to drive trams again!

Papa's Birthday!

My dad turned the big 6-3!!! It took us a couple days to figure out how old he really was :)

He always complains that he never gets  to go to Disneyland with us because he doesn't have a pass, so we finally went for his birthday (because you get in free for your bday). I wasn't able to get there due to teaching and So Cal traffic on the 5 but it was hilarious to see my dad walk around Dland with his business casual attire (he doesn't haven't anything else in his closet) and a huge pin on the side of his hat that said "Happy Birthday FRED". I'm just sorry I didn't capture the beautiful sight with my camera. It was a good couple hours though!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Here is Ash and the babe, who by the way has been to Disneyland more than you'd probably like to know...spoiled!

We of course had a family dinner last Sunday to really celebrate. Sunday dinners are my favorite thing in the whole wide world. Despite what my mom says, we do not have these every Sunday :(

This is indeed the entire gang though! Tiffany isn't officially part of the family but the end is nearing soon enough

Speaking of my love for Dan's girlfriend....she threw a surprise party for him the night before. He is turning 30, geez everyone is getting so old! But anyway she didn't invite ANY of us! (please fill me in with your thoughts about that) but it's beside this point...she surprised him with this puppy. His name is Duke and all he does is cuddle! Needless to say, I'm in love! I couldn't put him down and kept sneaking him into the house :)

Easter...just a little late :)

I spend a lot of my time on the computer for school and almost an equal amount of that time procrastinating my school work. A lot of my procrastination is split between facebook and looking at your blogs to live vicariously through your eventful lives! Some of you have not updated since Easter and when I see the same post I think to myself, "Come on! Don't they know I have nothing better to do than check their blogs...update people!" Then I realized, I don't even have Easter up so I can't complain...until now ;)

Easter weekend I took a quick trip out to Utah. Sorry if I didn't stop by to say hi, it was another last minute trip and I spent the majority pretending I wasn't out of shape and skied. I did fly home on Easter Sunday to spend the day with my family. Good thing we all stuck around for the celebrations this holiday ;)

Here I am with the newest member of the family. We're so glad to finally have a baby that we can accessorize with bows and bracelets! 

And here are the proud parents to be! I'm so stoked to have another girl to accessorize! Congrats again Rog and Kari!!!

The grandkids...they're so cute!

Mike and Ashleigh posing for some pictures with little Kaleigh

Dan and Tiffany (her hair is long, it's just caught inside her scarf)

It was a good Easter with the family! I was happy I made the journey back in time for the Easter Egg hunt. I walked away with $22...our gardner will walk away with $40 when he finds the remainding money