Back to Climbing

After years of not going, Scott and went climbing again with Scott's friend Donaldson. And we had such a good time, we're planning to go again! Here are a few pictures so you can be impressed with how awesome we are. Luckily, the pictures don't show how much I whined and almost didn't make it on the harder route, but I did make it, so I guess that's okay. :-) I loved the rock that looks like a penguin- do you see it too?

Halloween 2008

My favorite holiday rolled around again and it was fun as always. Scott and I dressed up as Earl and Joy from the TV show "My Name is Earl". I actually dressed up at work to, but didn't show up in the short skirt that day. Scott's (I mean Earl's) mustache didn't hold very well, but we still looked great, if I may say so myself. :-)




Katie and I have spent Halloween together at parties for the 9th year in a row now! I don't think I've ever done anything with one person for that many years in a row, except for maybe Christmas with my parents when I was young. Thanks Katie for always being a great friend and sharing this awesome Holiday with me. Can't wait for many more!





Sara Palin decided to visit us, along with her baby and her gun.












Max Hedroom was with us for the second year in a row - what did we do to deserve that!?











I spent way too much time on making my Haloween goodies complete with witches' fingers, butterfinger eyeballs, breadstick bones and apple mouths - are you scared?







We had a ceiling fan (it took me a while to figure that one out!) and a beer pong table - should I admit that I understood that one immediately? ;-)











Fred and Wilma Flinstone even showed up - I loved it!












I never did figure this one out, but he was complete with a voice changer....???











Sara and Pinot dressed up as..... Sara and Pinot! :-)









Alex didn't have his own flapper there, but Katie stepped in happily and they matched perfectly!











Colleen (the best witch I've ever seen) and Jenny (can we say HOT flight attendent) were a perfect pair.








I told Craig (Scott's brother) that he would be a perfect Randy (Earl's brother). No costume, but I think it worked out well!








The cat in the hat! Somehow, Joy and he switched hats later in the evening.

Back to Nashville for lots of visiting

I went back to Nashville for a weekend to visit Katie and her adorable little boys, one of which I hadn't met yet. Tyler and Andrew are the cutest things ever and I loved hanging out with them. I don't think Tyler remembered me from last Christmas and he didn't know quite what to think of me, but I think he warmed up to me by the time I left. He even asked about me after I was gone. Andrew, with the age that he is didn't mind me at all and let me hold him and hold him and hold him some more - it was heaven for me! We went to some play places with them and watching Tyler play was great. He loves the slides as you can see in these pictures. We also put them into their Halloween costumes and both were the cutest cows ever. They didn't love their costumes that day, but Katie said they both loved them on Halloween. Thanks for letting me visit and play - it was great!














Nancy and Kristin also drove up from Chattanooga to take Katie and I out to dinner and we had a wonderful girls night out at a great restaurant. It was so nice to see family and I felt so lucky to have them drive up - thanks guys - I love you!

I also got to see my long lost friend Michael who I hadn't seen since I left Nashville 8 years ago. It was really nice to catch up with him and to restart our friendship again. I didn't happen to take pictures that night, so you'll just have to imagine that one.

I ALSO (I know, I was busy) saw my old friend Ian and his family, who you may remember from pictures when they came out to San Diego a few months ago. It was great to see he, Susan and Olivia and to see how much Olivia has grown - she's a doll. Ian's mom, who was actually in lamaze class with my mom when they were pregnant with us drove up from Chattanooga to visit too - it was so nice of her! She also brought pictures of Ian and I when we played as babies - too cute to see.

Fall camping at Mount Laguna

We headed up to Mount Laguna about an hour away on Friday afternoon for a weekend full of camping. However, as soon as we got there and felt the extreme cold, we had doubts as to whether we would make it all weekend. We met Jo and Shelly and their families and had fun watching Cole and Bailie enjoy the outdoors. Cole has grown so much since I last saw him and his blue eyes are about the most beautiful I've ever seen on a child - just like his mom and dad! Bailie is at such a fun age now and stole the show while we were there. We had to go into Jo and Steve's giant tent instead of sitting out by a fire because the wind was so strong we couldn't have a fire and couldn't stand the cold outside of the tent. We had fun playing games and watching Bailie walk back and forth from mom to dad. Scott and I felt very small with our tiny tent and tiny backpacking gear while the other couples had huge tents and everything else you would need for car camping. However, Scott and I were lucky because our tent fit perfectly between two trees and kept us out of the wind while both of the other couples didn't sleep a wink due to the extreme wind over and through their tents. After a 30-something degree night, we all decided to leave the next day. But not before a hike around to at least see the area where we had camped and an afternoon where we could finally have a fire and make some S'mores.

Nancy in San Diego

Nancy came to visit and we had a really nice day with yummy food and a great walk on the beach. We walked up around Torrey Pines and then way down along Black's beach. We saw beautiful waves, hang-gliders, and lots of naked men! No pictures of the latter - sorry. ;-)

Seattle

After years of trying to plan this trip, Terri and I finally picked a weekend and headed up to Seattle to see Andria. I hadn't seen her since before leaving for Costa Rica, so this was quite a treat! Caleb is now 3, whereas he was under a year old when I last saw him. He's grown up so much and is the sweetest little thing now. He talks constantly and completely cracked me up - but he's also so polite! And Lauren I hadn't met yet, but what a treat! It took her a while to get used to us and she did a lot of staring, but once she warmed up, her smiles made your heart melt (well, the staring made my heart melt too, what can I say?) Andria and Kevin are doing wonderfully and it was so great to see them and wonderful to get to go out with the girls again! We just missed you, Katie!! We even went on an old buggy ride driven by a tractor! :-)