They drove 50 minutes.......

to spend maybe 10 minutes with me, I sure am lucky to have such great parents!  I had such a great weekend, I am not quite sure where to start, so I will start with Sunday and work my way backwards.  Like I said the parents drove about 50 minutes to see me for about 10 minutes before hitting the open seas aka baby beach (I know it sounds like a fright), they have been hearing about all of the outrigger and DOCC stories lately and thought they needed to check it out for themselves and take a few pics (my mom only took 88 of them) of me and my new group of pals and I am so glad they did.  I have taken quite a liking to my new seat in the back of the boat and I have been pretty proud of my new skills in seat 6 as the steersman or as I like to call it the steerswoman with the team.  I led my boat out of the harbor, we did pretty good, we kept a steady pace, stayed on track, worked really hard and then it was time to switch up our boat a little and swap out one or two people to see how the boats would do with a different set-up.  All was well, we managed to get up close to the other women's boat, we were getting everything situated and then it happened, in a blink of an eye we hulied (sp?), capsized, flipped, what ever you want to call it we did it and all six of us were all in the water, swimming with the wild life (thank goodness we practiced this yesterday).  It was actually kind of funny, it looked like a yard sale on the ocean; shoes, hats, water bottles, paddles and gear everywhere!  We all jumped into action and got the boat upright, bailed all of the water out and were back in action in no time and continued on with practice, as we were heading back in it was kind of choppy and I was trying my best to maintain control of the canoe, it was getting kind of crazy and wouldn't you know but it freaking happened again, that's right folks we flipped again, out goes all of our gear, we were fishing t-shirts, jackets, shoes, paddles and hats out of the water, it was nuts and I could not stop laughing, it was hilarious. I was then kindly reassigned to a different boat to prevent this from happening again!  What a great day!

Look at all of the Facebook love from my team, they are awesome!

(Click on photo to make larger)

In other news, Saturday night I went to the Newport Film Festival with some of my new peeps (Sheila, Greg & Cherie) and saw Decade of Dominance at the Lido Theater, it was a great movie, very inspirational and amazing!  After the movie we hit up Mi Casa for dinner, drinks and hopefully a cousin sighting, but the cousin was no where to be found, I think she was at Stagecoach.  Whatever Melissa, guess we will have to catch you there next time!

And now this is where we will talk about Friday! Friday started off with some pampering, you know the usual; facial, manicure and pedicure (if I could of got my hair cut I would of considered it the royal treatment of a day), Friday night our little group of novice paddlers met up for dinner, drinks and fun along with a little entertainment courtesy of our Coach Rich and his band at the Renaissance Dana Point, it was a lot of fun and great way to get to know everyone along with the seasoned paddlers of the group, if you have not noticed by now, this new hobby of mine has taken over my life, holy moly!

I hope everyone had a great weekend as well, special shout out to the parents for making the trek down to Dana Point for a quick photo shoot!

We have a problem, Repeat, we have a BIG problem!

I am not sure what to do! I have a pile of jeans that need to be washed, but after spending soooo much time on the water working my booty off enjoying my new hobby, my jeans no longer fit (we are talking they are at least one size too big!), so the questions is, do I wash them or toss them?   This is serious stuff my friends, the only thing I can think to do is put them in the dryer in order to make them temporarily more snug otherwise Erin has NO pants to wear!

Suggestions?

Donations (help buy Erin some new pants)? 

Or maybe a way to go Erin!?

So.....you want to know.....

- My car smells like the combination of Hawaiian Tropics sunscreen, a dirty towel, wet shoes and _____, when you get in you feel like you are on tropical vacation gone wrong, anyone want a ride?

- The new “sport” type sandals that I purchased for my new hobby (I have a few politically incorrect terms for them) have created tan lines on my feet that make it look like I contracted some third world foot disease.

- This is the status of Gracie’s bed, all I have to say is errrrrrrrrrrrr!

- On Sunday night I purchased a way overpriced pizza for dinner (I contemplated ordering a larger size pizza just so they would deliver it), I justified it by saying that I would save part of it for lunch on Monday, but I ended up eating the whole thing in one sitting, I wanted to chase it down with a chocolate shake but talked myself out of it.

- I learned that is not a good idea to bag on one of your friends while out on the open seas when she is not there to defend herself. Little did I know they were videotaping our practice and my comment was recorded and shared with our whole team and is featured on Youtube. Awesome! (It was not a bad comment, just kind of teasing her, she laughed)

- On Sunday’s when I do not go to my parents for dinner I am showered, in my pj’s and ready for bed by 5pm, I know, PARTY ANIMAL!

- This is more of a did you know……They still make the yellow pages, I am shocked, I had one delivered to my doorstep the other day, here is a picture to prove it. I would have thought by now the thing would be extinct. Go Figure!

- Oh and here is proof that I ate the whole pizza!

The Big 7 part 2!

Saturday night the family got together to celebrate Cole's birthday, I am still trying to get over the fact that he is the BIG 7!  As usual we had a great time, Grammy made a yummy lasagna dinner, a fab strawberry birthday cake (I did not get to take any home, sniff sniff) and I took too many pictures, so here are a few!

Cole partied to hard the night before at his slumber party, poor guy looked hungover!

the little ladies!

The Witch Doctor

So excited to see what Auntie Erin got him!

Party Girl!

She speaks only the truth!

Happy Birthday!

The Big 7!

Siete, Zeven, Sewe, Sept, Sieben, Siete, Sette, Sete, Sju, Septem, well anyway you say it our little guy Cole is seven (7) today!  It seems just like yesterday that we were anxiously awaiting his arrival and now he is seven years old, where did our baby go?  Before you know it he will be driving and going off to college, please make it stop.  Needless to say, I am a super proud aunt and I love him like crazy!  Here is a quick trip down memory lane......

 

Happy Birthday Cole, you are the best nephew an aunt could ever have!

Love, Auntie Erin

Sorry for the picture overload, there were hundreds to choose from!

Punch It!

My sister seems to be the iphone app queen these days, knowing all of the latest and greatest apps on the market, I seriously must live in a bubble, I never hear about stuff like that, I have no idea what goes on in the world for the most part, I guess that is what happens when you turn your cable off, all the important information stops coming in, oh well.   Her latest find/obsession is Punchcard and I have to say I agree with her.  This app is bassically a rebate program and all you do is after you go shopping at any store you take a picture of your receipt and tag the location of the store, after 10 punches you get $$$ back!  I/the family did not believe her, but after 10 punches she got a check in the mail for $30 or $40, so now we are believers and I am a happy puncher!  

Happy Punching!

Surprise!

Yesterday afternoon I headed down to my cousin Katie's house in San Diego for what was to be a surprise birthday party that her husband Darrell was throwing for her!  Well....lets just say the "surprise" was on us (the party guests), Katie knew about the party, in fact it was her idea to throw it and it was to announce that little Derek was going to be a BIG brother, oh and to celebrate her birthday too! 

Katie revealed that the surprise was on us!

Congrats Katie & Darrell, you are awesome parents to Derek, baby #2 is lucky to be part of your family, here's to a happy healthy baby!

By the way, for all of you who are freaking out that I posted this, Katie has already sent out an email to close family and friends and the Facebook world knows too, so I did not let the cat out of the bag. 

Happy Birthday Katie! 

Take Note!

Such an amazing video, looks like this mama dog has better parenting skills that a lot of human parents who take their children to the pool. All human parents should take note from this dog on how important it is to watch your kids when near swimming pools or any body of water for that matter.

Look at the cute picture of Gracie and her first swim lesson......

Ahh, the horror of some of the puppy memories, good thing there were cute ones like this!

Midweek Randoms!

Just a bunch of random things going on in my head so I thought I would share! 

- Four boys were found in our kitchen yesterday at work trying to fill up water balloons, they were chased out and headed to the bathroom to fill them up, once again they were chased out and we kept these to ourselves and had us a little water balloon toss!

- In nine days my favorite little nephew will be 7 years old, how did this happen? 

- I spent all last night 5:00pm - 5:00am getting a jump start on my Summer diet aka barfing my brains out, it was great!  Not sure how it happened but I think it was a sandwich that I ate that did not agree with me, either way I probably lost 5lbs and I ain't complaining! 

- I called in sick due to my diet plan mentioned above, I was dog tired and there was no way I was gonna go to work, G-dog and I slept in till 10:00am and have done nothing all day!

- Gonna go meet up my with some of my old peeps from Cupertino tonight for dinner, it will probably be more like a glass of water for me and dinner for them, but they don't come to town often so I am going to go.

- It was supposed to rain cats and dogs, but it only rained kittens and puppies (hardly any rain), I was kind of bummed, I wanted to stay inside all snuggled up on the couch, instead the sun was out and I had to walk the dog several times.

- I was stoked when I went through probably two weeks worth of mail and found a check for $239.00, only to have my excitement taken away when I found my car registration at the bottom of the stack, talk about a buzz kill.

- My friend Lisa's garbage can was stolen a couple weeks ago, not sure who steals garbage cans but I think I found it! 

Happy Wednesday Everyone, Gracie is outside terrorizing my shoes, I have got to go!

Easter Sunday (Actually Last Saturday)!

Happy Easter Everyone!  We celebrated ours last Saturday instead of yesterday, we totally defied tradition and were serious rebels celebrating it 8 days early, but we still had a good time!  The Ferguson clan came down around lunch time for some spring time cheer, egg hunting, cookie making and some cut throat handball action.  As the proud Aunt I had the camera charged and all ready to go to capture every moment of the intense egg hunt that the Easter Bunny had left for the kiddo's, I was anticipating the cute moments of Caroline looking for eggs but wouldn't you know it, Cole and Mari helped themselves to the egg hunt before I arrived and while Caroline was napping, so no cute moments of my three favorite kiddo's to capture, so sad for Auntie Erin :(.  But, I did capture some other fun times from that afternoon so it was not a complete bust.  Cole, Mari, Kathy, Grammy and myself went to town decorating cookies, eating dough (such a bad aunt, I would alert Cole when his mom was not looking and let him eat the dough & I let Mari eat all the chocolate she wanted, again when her mom was not looking, but shhhh, don't tell her) and a having a fun time together.  Cole, Kathy & Grampy played a little handball outside, I tried to teach Cole how to drive but he would have no part in it, we went to see Ryan and Shannon's new place and besides all being together the best part was watching all three kids play together, so cute, the older two just love playing with their little cousin!

He wanted no part in driving, I had to beg him to sit in the front seat and pretend!

Don't mess with Mr. Handball

Cutie Pie!

Happy Easter!

Gonna have some FUN!

Look where the new hobby is taking me....

Yep, Erin is ready to get out of dodge and have some fun!  Anyone want to watch the Gracie dog?  Looks like my life savings will be going to Doggie Daycare, maybe her grandparents will want to spend some quality time with her, HA!

It is gonna be a GREAT day!

Not a bad way to start off my Monday morning; coffee in my hand, sunshine, fresh air, a long walk with the "G" and.....

Mr. Jackson waiting for me on the sidewalk and begging me to take him home, so I put him in my pocket and took him home!  I think this week is off to a great start, now I am off to deal with the public, it is the first day of Summer Camp registration!

Happy Monday!

Who me? Couldn't be!

Who me, eating grass?

I don't know what you are talking about, sheesh!

I found Gracie this morning with a huge chunk of grass just hanging out of her mouth, bad dog!