36, it happened on Sunday!

My birthday weekend was pretty darn good!  I came to work on Friday morning to find a bag of Starbursts on my desk from one of my coworkers and left with a bottle of Skinny Girl Margarita Mix from another.  I worked through lunch so I was able to leave a little bit early so I decided to treat myself to my favorite place (Good Choice Sushi), I ordered me some yummy takeout and enjoyed many episodes of Scandal (I know I am so late to the party of this one) on my couch via Netflix.  Saturday, me and my DAM Race crew along with another crew paddled from Dana Point to Newport (17.22 miles), it was so much fun.  Half way through our paddle we took a little break and my people surprised me with birthday doughnuts and Happy Birthday in the middle of the ocean, it was perfect, thank you to everyone who was there!  Saturday night was more Scandal and maybe some ice cream, I am seriously addicted to both right now and I was in bed by 9pm.  I am getting fat and lazy.  Sunday the 28^th was my actual birthday, seriously I do not know how I just turned 36, it is crazy to think about.  I started my morning with my FREE birthday Starbucks with my girl Gracie, we then went for a walk (yes, I totally violated Gracie’s house arrest, but I miss my walking partner) which was a bit too long for her, lesson learned and back to house arrest, had lunch with my parents, the Sheriff and Mr. Pie at Walt’s Wharf, had cake back at the parents’ house and headed home.  Once we got home the Sheriff took a much needed nap (midnight shift is a killer) and Mr. Pie and I went to get crickets for his new lizard pet “REX” and  an apple for a little project we have been wanting to do for a while.  Between all of the birthday texts, Facebook messages and birthday fun it was a wonderful weekend, thank you everyone!

 The Starburst mini's, yum, but I think I like the wrapped ones better.

Saturday afternoon I was a hot mess and I looked like this most of the day, talk about a mismatched outfit.

Walt's Wharf, I have not been there in years, so glad my parents suggested it.  Thanks Mom and Dad for a lovely birthday afternoon.

Me and my handsome date, poor guy wanted to put his head down and nap, he was dying on the vine.

 A birthday selfie, yep this is how I feel about turning 36.

This photo was totally staged, it took three attempts to get a somewhat decent photo of me blowing out my candles.

56 "likes" on Facebook, I think that is a new record for us!

The apple swan that Mr. Pie and I made, it was pretty easy thanks to youtube and Mr. Pie who coached me the whole way through.  It makes me so happy that he wants to do things with me, going into a dating situation where there is a child involved can be tricky and getting that child to like you can be tough, but I seriously hit the jackpot with Mr. Pie, we can talk about farts and burps (I had no ideas boys were like this), I can boss him around and tell him to brush his teeth and then do a crafty project all in the same moment.
 

Monday night (a school night, gasp) my paddling girlfriends took me to dinner at Ruby's, which BTW their menu has dramatically improved since the last time I was there and then we went to the Swallows Inn, for what we thought was Country Line Dancing, umm, I guess we should of read the fine print, it was more like bring your partner for some country two step, oops.  Anyways we storm the bar, crash some grouchy couples table, disrupt the flow of dancing traffic, pretend we are at a karaoke bar, sing loud and proud, and just create a scene because that's right the average age of the people there was like 60, I was the youngest one in the place and the old guys were seriously on the hunt for young chicks, because they were all over our table.  It was ridiculously fun and I am so glad we went.

Country Dancin' was clearly the better choice.

A little chicken dance, ice cream sundae and me boots.

Thank you everyone who came out to celebrate, that was one of the best birthday parties I have ever had.

The Sheriff bought me these for my birthday, I love them, they are so pretty.  I told him he did not need to get me a gift, we do so much together that that is gift enough, but just for the record, he could by these for me monthly and I would not turn them down.  :)

3 Birthday's, One Day of Fun!

Well, it happened again, three birthdays in September, mine, Shannon's and Kathy's, it is the darndest thing, it happens to us every year and somehow we cannot dodge getting another year older.  We gathered at the parents house Saturday afternoon for some swimming, dinner and cake, the usual.  The kids swam until they could swim no more and everyone had a really nice time.    Little Miss Caroline turned into a kid on Saturday, the girl has always been comfortable in the water, but she has always been so little, well on Saturday she went from baby to big kid the minute she got in the pool and swam independently 99% of the time.  She was even heard screaming "Daddy, I don't need you".  Poor Ryan!  

Anyone know a swim instructor who can help her?

We enjoyed using the slow motion feature on Shannon's phone.  If you are reading this via email you might need to go to my actual blog to watch the video's.

Caroline's card to me.

Probably one of my favorite birthday photo's (me and my little people sharing the fun)

Happy Birthday Kathy & Shannon.

10 days!

10 days until my birthday, 10 days till I am 36 (gag), 10 days until I will be closer to 40 than 30, 10 days until I am a old lady, 10 DAYS.  Not sure how it happened, 36 sure snuck up on me.  I still feel like I am 25 and somedays I think I am 10 especially as I am going off Mr. Pies skateboard ramp on my scooter but when I almost wipe out on the driveway I am reminded that I am almost 36, perhaps I should start acting my age!  Well since there is no turning back time, I guess I should embrace 36 and pray that it treats me just as good as 14 and 25.  And just because, if you would like to buy me something, I would be happy with the following…..

necklace

Skinny Taste Cookbook

Workout pants (size L to cover my rump)

A coffee date with my main squeeze when he gets home from work and before he sleeps the day away (midnight shift is LAME).

Gift cards to the Gap or Banana Republic will work too.

I know it is not much to work with if you are really trying to figure out what to get me.

Let the countdown begin.

Just when I thought life was going to slow down!

Just when I thought life might slow down a bit, life laughed in my face and continued with its craziness.  Paddling season is officially over except for that pesky Dam Race that I signed up for, so that means I will be back on the water paddling on Saturday, ugh.  Gracie must of felt left out of all the fun and decided that a $330 vet bill would bring her right back into the center of my attention, yep it did along with 6-8 weeks of house arrest for her (more on that later).  I went to the girly doctor yesterday in-between vet appointments and the first words out of her mouth were are you planning on having babies and if so, when?  I asked the Sheriff the same question today during our lunch date and he turned bright red and could not get any words to come out of his mouth, thankfully he was done eating so we did not have a choking incident.  I am starting to get worried that little babies may never come my way based on his mute response, I mean really, they would be sooooooo cute and Mr. Pie would be the best big brother.  I went to Hobby Lobby and Michaels over the weekend, I do this the first Saturday after paddling season is over every year cause all of the sudden I have free time and do not know what to do.  I want to make Mr. Pie a small photo album from our Hawaii trip but I cannot decide if I want to go the snapfish route or the traditional route, I am looking for something simple/easy/affordable but I do not think that exists.  I was kind of looking at this product line…..

but I am not sure if I am going to go that route.  Anyone have any good ideas?

I applied for a new job with another city (keeping the city under wraps for now), I debated on putting this out into the universe, but I think the more people who know and who are rooting for me the better, so please if you have any connections with the job gods, send them my way, please and thank you. This job would be a total game changer for me and my future.  Never fear, my coworkers know I applied so it is not as hush hush as the Newport Beach gig that I was sooooo close to getting.

It has been at least 95-100 degrees outside every day for the last week, I am so over it.  We had a flex alert yesterday and today, so that meant no air conditioning at work, it was bad.  We had a crazy random storm blow through as well, that made it hot and humid with no a/c, yep, I wanted to shoot myself.  

And last but not least pretty much everyone I know had a birthday in the last two months, I was feeling kinda left left out and then I realized hey, it is September, my birthday month, yay for getting old, said no one ever.   I suggested to the Sheriff that we go to the Santa Monica Pier (i have been wanting to go forever) and he suggested a hockey game,  so I suggested baby beach with a picnic lunch and paddle toys, he looked up hockey tickets, we went back and forth with ideas and to be honest, I really do not want a hot dog for my birthday dinner and I kinda want to go out for ice cream sundae's cause I really do not see him baking me a cake like my M O M does.   Any good birthday ideas for three, cause Mr. Pie will be coming along too and it is a school night, doh. 

Do You See What I See?

Double the trouble, double the fun, look out Auntie Erin here we come.  

That's right, Ryan and Shannon are having TWINS.

This has by far been the hardest secret to keep from the blog, this photo was taken around 10 weeks, we have known Shannon was pregnant right from the very beginning and have known about the twins since she was 7 weeks along.  Shannon is now much further along and we are allowed to share the exciting news with the world.  Both babies are doing great and we pray for a smooth pregnancy and two healthy babies.

Hawaii 2014 - #fmvacy

Well it has been a week since we got home and I am back to work (insert tears), so it is time for a mass amount of photos and recap of our amazing trip to the Big Island.  The Sheriff and I kept this trip a secret from Mr. Pie up until the moment we stepped inside the plane.  We made it through getting on the shuttle, checking in, security and waiting in the terminal without him figuring it out.  We told him we were going to a paddling race in Los Angeles and that we were going to stay in a hotel by the airport and while we were there we were going to go watch the planes land and take-off.  He bought our story up until we got onto the plane and then he figured out where we were going with the help of the flight attendant greeting everyone.  It was so much fun to surprise him, we recorded it, but due to privacy I will not be posting it. 

After much thought and weighing of the pros and cons we decided to stay at the Hilton Waikaloa (we actually scored a great deal through Costco) and boy howdy was that place amazing.  I have always wanted to stay at a hotel like this and my dream came true.

The view from our room.

Due to the time change we were up bright and early every morning, this was our first morning there, we walked around to check everything out and took some photos alone the way.

We were on a hill, that is why the Sheriff is leaning the way he is, no need to go swimming that early in the mooring.  The lagoon behind us is ocean fed, so there were tons of fish and a couple turtles, we were able to go swimming in it.

Under a waterfall, I love this picture.

We happened to wander by as they were feeding the dolphins.

One of our sea turtle friends.

Of course we had to stop by the local canoe club.

How pretty is this beach?  It was next door to our hotel.

We had the option of being upgraded to a convertible, we took it, way better than the Jetta we were going to get.  Secretly, I was bummed about not getting the Jetta, I always wanted one when I was a teenager and I think I still do to this day.

Mr. Pie and I with the wind in our hair.

I LOVE this picture, not sure why, but I do.

Cheers to an awesome vacation.

We had to walk by this mirror to get to our room so every afternoon we would take a photo, this is what vacation looks like on us.  I should of posted the one of the Sheriff with his beer in his hand, classy.

This is why I am never going to grow up, watersides are way to much fun.  Mr. Pie and I spent several hours doing this one day, I made the Sheriff take pictures.

This what we look like all cleaned up, ya much better than the after pool pics.

Mr. Pie would not take a selfie with me, boo. 

We had tickets to the Luau, it included free drinks with a drop of alcohol in them.

As soon as we got our food it started pouring down rain, they handed out towels, but we were drenched.

We left the luau, got our $$$ back for the tickets and then it stopped raining, so we went back, SHHH, don't tell anyone.  Mr. Pie loved every minute of it and they put on a great show.

Feeling guilty that we did not pay for the show, we bought the overpriced "family" photo.  I edited this one to make me look tanner, next to the Sheriff and Mr. Pie I look really white.  Funny story, everywhere we went people would ask him if he was from there as if he was he would get the "local" rate.  However, he could not pull it off cause if they started asking questions he did not have the right answers to make it look like he was a local. 

This is what FREEDOM looks like, Mr. Pie was at camp and we were kid free for hours.  I love having Mr. Pie around but I nearly killed him one day because he kept asking when we were going back to the hotel room (like hundreds of times) so he could play his iPad, he did not like my response that we were not going back for hours and I did not like him asking over and over and over again. 

A total scam, the kids collect these bracelets at every overpriced restaurant and get a "free" ice cream once they collect six.  

After five nights in Waikaloa, we moved to Kona for the race.  Here we are playing tourist and checking things out.  Not sure what is up with Kona, but the minute I get there I start to swell up, I seriously gained 10lbs of water weight while we were there.

Just a selfie.

We went to the Kona Brewery and…..

the Sheriff finally found a blonde that does not boss him around. ;)

Saturday was race day, I ended up paddling with a mish mash crew.  Four of the girls were from Hawaii (maui, oahu and the big island), one from Marina Del Rey and Me.  We had a great race.

The Sheriff and Mr. Pie met me at the finish line and after all of the canoes left, we went snorkeling.  Mr. Pie was kind of scared and held my hand at the beginning and then he was off and we could not stop him, he loved every minute of it.

After snorkeling we went to check out the sea turtles.

Ate ice cream.

Our last day there was rough, I was tired and grouchy, Mr. Pie was being a pain in the …, I was hungry, we were short of time, I needed to eat, we had to check out of our room and none of us could figure out what to do next.  So after breakfast we rented a stand-up board, played for while, went to da poke shack, had lunch, went to a paddling shop, wandered around and went to the airport, had gross dinner at the airport and had a rough ride home on the plane.  We got in at 6am took a shuttle home, picked up Milo at the kennel and crashed on the couch and just like that our vacation was over and we are broke.  We had a great time together, we did a ton of fun things and we cannot wait to go back next year.

LUNCH, it was really good.

ALOHA