Vegas Baby!

This year for Steve's birthday I surprised him with a trip to Vegas. We went to dinner with the fam on the night before his actual birthday, and during dinner I told him that he was going to Vegas the next day! He was very surprised! Joel and Sarah and Kevin and Sarah went with us as well. We left on Friday and stayed at Treasure Island, which has recently been redone. We actually got a room with a nice view, which you can't really tell from the pic below.

Friday night we all went to dinner at Lawry's. The service was fantastic and so was the food and the company. They even had carolers who went from table to table and sang whatever holiday tune you wanted to hear. In this shot, they are singing Steve "Have yourself a happy little birthday...." It was very cute. :) Everyone had prime rib of course, and I got salmon, which everyone thought I was crazy for. But it was great!

Happy birthday husband!!!

The next night we went to see Lance Burton. Steve's mouth was agape almost the entire time. I highly recommend his show, as it was very entertaining and definitely awe-inspring! We ran into this guy in the pub in the Monte Carlo.

They also had jsut about every beer you can imagine on tap!

Besides the dinner at Lawry's and the show, we basically just gambled and drank, the usual in Vegas. No one won any money, as usual. We each had a bit of a run on some of the machines, but nothing to write home about. We also discovered Svedka clementine vodka, which will now be a staple in our household. :) Great weekend!

Kitties

This is Kirby’s newest hangout. He straddles the wall here and pretends he is king of the world. From this vantage point he can see the living room, and dining room, and the kitchen. And of course, Cole as he walks by.

Hard to believe that he was ever this small!

And one of Cole’s faves

He's a big kitty now

Obviously this is Jaime's cat, great place to hang out!

This is why we call him a slutbag

Can you tell they are brothers? Yin and Yang.

Tricia & Brian's wedding

This past weekend we went up to Santa Barbara for my friend Tricia's wedding. She and Brian have been together for quite a few years. We ride the Harley up there from time to time to have breakfast with them, and hopefully now that their wedding planning has come to an end, we can make it more often! Tricia and I met our first year of college because we were dating frat brothers. We've been thru a lot together, and it was fantastic to be able to make it to their wedding. Not to mention that it is always fun to see old friends (A St. unites). The wedding was held at an estate in the hills of SB. The ceremony was on a grassy area of the property, and then they broke that down and turned it into tables for dinner. The theme was Hawaiian, in a very tasteful, non-cheesy way. Tricia was born in Hawaii and lived there for 8 years, thus the theme. The guys wore tuxes with converse, and the girls wore very pretty one-shouldered gowns. Tricia’s dress was beautiful, sleek and elegant yet princess-y too. The food was fantastic, the decorations were beautiful, and the drinks were tasty too. All in all it was a really fun night!

Here's a pic of me and Tricia back in 2003, before going out on State St.

And us now

Eric, Dave, and Mike (Dave & Mike were "A-streeters")

Camping at Twin Lakes

Last weekend we went up to Twin Lakes to go camping, just me and Steve. The lakes/campground are 3 miles west of Mammoth Lakes. I've been up there, but never knew this area existed. Here's a map of the lakes...they are actually two lakes, joined together in the middle.

On the way up, Steve took me to some places that he had been to with his Geology class back when he went to CLU. The first was called Fossil Falls. You can learn about it here. It's a 440,000 year old basalt lava flow, eroded by the now extinct Owens River. The water smoothed and carved the rocks so that they now look like fossils, thus the name.

Here's Steve on top of the falls.

And me climbing down in them.

This is Red Hill, an old cinder coneNext we drove to Lee Vining, which is actually 20 miles north of our campground and stopped for lunch at Whoa Nellie's Deli which is, believe it or not, located in the Mobil Gas Station. I discovered it about 5 years ago when I worked on a Pontiac commercial up there. It's the best food around. And it has a great view of Mono Lake. Steve had pork tacos and I had fish ones. Each came with a side of Brazilian black beans. It was great to have a nice lunch before we transitioned to sandwiches and hot dogs for the rest of the weekend.

After lunch we drove to our campsite and got set up. It was a really great site, level and shaded. We went exploring and found the place to rent boats and scouted out places for Steve to fish (and me to read). We spent the rest of the weekend fishing (him), reading (me) and we also hiked to this really cool waterfall and took a boat out on the lake to fish (him) and read (me). The lake was absolutely beautiful and the area was pretty quiet, so it was a great relaxing trip!

Lower Twin

Upper Twin, from the base of the waterfall
Waterfall from the bridge
We will definitely try to make it back to this spot in the future. Highly recommend it for you campers out there!

Jumping on the bandwagon

Of blogs, that is. We decided to start this blog to keep our friends and family up to speed on what we are doing. If you are bored, close the browser. :) But we hope you are entertained! Stay tuned.