FUN!

I know I am way behind... I have been super busy having way too much FUN! I will try to get caught up asap. Here is a quick overview:

Pittsburgh

Chicago

Santa Barbara

3 year Anniversary

San Diego

Maui

On Friday April 29th, my mom, Judy, Rachelle and I went out for a girl's day. We started off the day with the most amazing massages! Then we drove to the other side of the island to grab lunch at one of my mom's favorite restaurants. It was soooo delish! Right in the middle of our meal, there was a massive downpour! It was insane! Then we went to a lavendar farm and Surfing Goats dairy farm. By the time we got to Surfing Goats Dairy Farm it was sunny and warm again. When we got back to the other side of the island we went to the beach then I was 5th wheel at dinner at Sansei. If you ever go to Maui, you have to go to Sansei, it is one of my fave restaurants.

On Saturday morning, my mom and I walked to get coffee. I always get a banana mocha that is so yummy. Then we all went to our favorite snorkel spot. After snorkeling for hours and sitting in the sun, we came back to the house to relax a bit. In the afternoon, my dad, Kelly and I went to explore the blowhole and the cave. That night we all went out to dinner together to this incredible restaurant in Lahaina. I had never been to the Lahaine Grill before, but can't wait to go back! Everything was incredible!!

On Sunday, we went on a zodiac snorkel trip to Lanai. On the way over we saw awhale with her baby and escort. It was so incredible! We also saw a bottlenose dolphin and the snorkeling was amazing! We had a ton of fun! That evening we spread Mark's ashes at sunset in the cove. It was really sad, but also comforting to know that Mark will get to spend eternity in his favorite place and that we can always come to paradise and be with him. The sunset was spectacular and it was a really special evening.

"Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone."

  -Anonymous

Royal Wedding Party

When we got home from dinner, my mom and I got ready for our Royal Wedding Party. She bought so much stuff for it: themed hand sanitizer, english chocolates, crackers, pub style salt and vinegar chips, tea bags with royals on them, crowns, etc. It was really fun and we all got really into the festivities. Rachelle, my mom and I stayed up to see Kate (who was stunning) and watch the ceremony. My favorite part of the whole thing was the carriage ride through the city after the ceremony. Then I stayed up by myself to 6am Los Angeles time to see "the kiss." Talk about a disappointment. I blinked and missed it! Good thing they showed it again in slow motion and they gave into the chants for another kiss. I went to bed pretty exhausted, but it was so worth it. I really got caught up in the fairytale of it all!

The Tripod

On Thursday April 28th, my dad and I flew to Hawaii to meet my mom, Rachelle and Rachelle's family for the spreading of Mark's ashes. After we landed we went straight to dinner at Mama's Fishhouse, which is one of my all time favorite restaurants. As I was sitting there with my mom and dad, feeling like the third wheel, I realized what it would be like to be an only child. You would just constantly feel like a third wheel! Not that my parents aren't fun, but it definitely made me miss my siblings. One of the waiters overhead me joking about being the third wheel on their romantic dinner date and he joked that we were a tripod and each leg was equally important. We thought it was hilarious and it became the joke for the rest of the trip. All joking aside, it was nice to spend some time by myself with my parents and it was wonderful to be in Maui!!!

Dinner with Friends

On Tuesday April 26th, I went to dinner with two of my girlfriends from LACHSA. I haven't seen them in forever and really miss them. It was so great to catch up with them. It always makes me happy to be reminded that I have so many wonderful friends, even if I haven't seen them in a while they are always there for me, always have my best interest at heart and it always feels like no time has passed when we get together. Good Friends are Such a Blessing!

Kings Game

On Monday April 25th, Nic and I went to the Kings playoff game. It was game six of the playoffs and the Kings were down in the series 3-2 so the Kings had to win this game to stay alive. The Kings struggled through the first, but picked up their game in the 2nd and 3rd. With a few minutes left in the game, the teams were tied and the Kings got a 5 minute power play. Staples Center was going crazy!! This was the Kings huge chance and everyone wanted to finish the game up in the last few mintues. Unfortunatly, that didn't happen and we ended up going to overtime. The Kings had already lost 2 games in OT in the series, so we were a bit nervous. The Kings started OT with the remainder of their power play, but couldn't get the puck in the net. A few minutes after the power play ended the Sharks scored and just like that the playoffs were over for the Kings. :( It was so disappointing. Poor Kings. SO many fans were disappointed and angry...I just felt bad for them, to lose 3 games in OT has got to be heartwrenching. We really had a great time at the game, excluding the last few minutes and I'm really looking forward to next season.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) is a day of remembrance for Australia and New Zealand and is always celebrated on April 25th, so as soon as we got home from Easter we transitioned right into celebrating ANZAC Day. We finally got Susan's meat pie recipe and I sent Nic to the grocery store right away so we could finally use our meat pie maker! I was pretty nervous because Susan's recipe went something like this, "add a bit of this, and a squirt of that" and if you know me I like very specific, " add a cup of this and a tablespoon of that" recipes. Nic and I decided that we were going to just go for it (I mean what could turn out worse than the St. Patty's Day meal, right?). We kept adding ingredients to it and adjusting the mix until we thought it tasted good and then came the inagural use of the pie maker. We were nervous/excited to see how they would turn out and.....drumroll.....they turned out gorgeous!! Then, even more exciting, when Nic tasted them he said they tasted exactly like the ones his mom makes!!! Success!!!

We ate our delicious meat pies with dead horse (ketchup) and watched the AFL game. I also made ANZAC biscuits (they turned out much better this time becaue I found golden syrup at World Market :)) It was such a delicious meal and it was a truly Australian night.

Easter

So one of my plans for Easter was to wake up early and make Nic hot cross buns. We had them for the first time last year and I was really excited to try making them myself. After staying up really late the night before making the cupcake pops, I was not feeling up to it...I guess I will have to save that one for next year.

We went to Oma and Opa's house first. We ate Aunt Heidi's delicious deviled eggs. Uncle Eddie brought his famous guacamole and he and Lynette made delicious enchiladas too. I brought mexican meatballs and my easter egg cake pops. We ate and talked and Oma kept panicking that Jeffrey was going to fall in the pool (he is 7 and knows how to swim). Of course we gave Oma a hard time about it, she still has such a great sense of humor. After a few hours of eating and chatting Aunt Heidi suggested that we hide eggs in for the kids. So of course, I questioned, Are Nic and I kids? Or have we graduated to adulthood? (I was secretly hoping that we would still get to do the hunt). Aubrey and Katelyn said they wanted us to do the hunt with them (Yes!) so the "adults" hid the eggs and us "kids" all hunted for them together. It was a lot of fun as always. :)

From there we went to the Mercier's house to catch the tail end of their Easter celebration. I got to see Carlie and her ring!! We watched the kids hunt for eggs. Then we got to paticipate in the famous Mercier adult egg hunt! It was hilarious! Everyone changed into tennis shoes and it became very serious all of a sudden. After Chuck went through the "de-brief" everyone took off running. People were scaling the hill, climbing over the fence, digging through bushes, climbing on top of the camper...I couldn't stop laughing at how intense it was. I love how competitive everyone got. I ended up finding $7 and Nic ended up with $12. Paul told me even he found more money than me so i obviously have room for improvement next year. I know now that a dress and flip flops just won't cut it. ;) Thanks Merciers for a fun Easter!

Decorating Easter Eggs

Since we were already decorating cake eggs, I decided it would be fun to decorate some real eggs too. Nic wasn't too fond of the idea, but I insisted. We ended up having fun (and even more fun eating our coloful eggs!).

Easter Egg Cake Pops

On Saturday night, I made my first attempt at cake pops! I have been so excited about trying these ever since I had one at a party for either Brooke or Gracie. I finally decided Easter eggs looked easy enough that I wasn't being overly ambitious on my first try, but were still creative enough to feed my growing obsession with intricate pops (check out www.bakerella.com to be wowed!). I used strawberry cake mix, strawberry frosting and candy melts from Michaels in all different colors. The hardest part was getting the candy coating smooth. Some turned out perfect and some not so perfect, but once they were all decorated you could barely tell. They were really fun and a HUGE hit on Easter. I can't wait to make them again. :)

Weekend

On Friday night my mom and I went shopping and out to dinner. It was fun spending some time together just the two of us. We went to Maru for sushi (which I highly recommend) and got cupcakes from Velvet Cupcakes (if you haven't tried their fleur de sel you should, ASAP). On Saturday, Nic and I went furniture browsing. Then I came home and made mexican meatballs for dinner and we had margaritas. ;) Yummy!