Flashback Friday

June 19, 2005 - A classy game of Father's Day Croquet.

My mom bought my dad a croquet set for Father's Day in 2005. Good times were had by all.

Notice Puddin' in the background taking care of business.



Stinky





I think this was one of the many times my dad and Rob laughed at my croquet skills.



Rob losing interest.






The End.

Flashback Friday

October 2006 - Visiting Gena in Santa Barbara

A month after getting married, I went to visit my good friend Gena who goes to UC Santa Barbara.

The night I drove in, she made me dinner and we stayed in for the night catching up since any converstations we had had for the prior 17 months were all about my wedding.

The next day she took me kayaking. It was my first time and I had lots of fun but it was filled with a lot of "Uh...Gena!" Gena is a dare devil and I can be a little timid. Plus, she has a history of kayaking with whales - yes whales, not dolphins, whales. She has a video of it and it's insane. Correction: she is insane! But that's why I love her.




That night we went out on the town.





That night I got a mild concussion, in Gena's bathroom. Somehow while going to the rest room, I lost my balance and hit my head on her little table in the bathroom.

The next morning we took ourselves to get a hangover breakfast: bagels and coffee.

I went back for another visit the next summer in May 2007.




Gena is graduating this quarter - I hope I'm able to visit her again before she graduates and starts her next new adventure.

Looking forward to seeing you in July, Gena!

Flashback Friday

Trip to Mexico - October/November 2007

I decided to post about our trip to Mexico since we are leaving for Mexico tomorrow! Woot woot!

We went on a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise with Rob's parents and his sister Kathy. I think it was around this time Kathy was dating Michael, her now husband. I remember every night she would go online and check her email and say "Why hasn’t he written yet?!" It was cute - she was very excited about this new relationship. He did write her back a few times, but not as quick/often as she wanted (i.e. daily).

We missed the first couple of days of the cruise because Rob's best friend Mike was getting married. We flew into Mexico and stayed at the Las Hadas Resort for the night and then met up with the family the next day.




Rob and I had been on a cruise once before for our honeymoon, but this experience was a little different. Rob's parents graciously put us in a deluxe verandah suite and had our own private area to get meals and snacks, check email, etc. The most impressive thing in my opinion was the fancy machine that made lattes! Not hot chocolate, not café mochas like you see at gas stations - lattes! I was in heaven. I loaded up 1-2 times a day until about the 4th day I thought it tasted funny, like the milk had expired. A worker opened up the machine to check the expiration date on the milk and to my horror, I saw it was half and half. No wonder it was so yummy! I tried to limit myself to only 1 a day for the remainder of the trip.

Here are some highlights from the trip.

Our room.



Turtle plantation. We released couple day old turtles into the ocean.






Cliff divers.



Church.



Cocktail Hour.



Cutting up coconuts.




Kathy volunteered to make a clay tile.




Beer break!



Papantla Flyers - or as Rob called them, the Papantla Danglers.




Day of the Dead.



Rob HAD to check out the Gold's Gym.



Tequila Factory.




This guy wears many hats.



Largest shell store ever.



This guy killed me. He did an interprative dance - basically the life of a dear from prancing, to getting shot with a bow and arrow. Tragic.





More cocktails.



Going around in Rhinos/ATV/Etc.






Formal night.



The last supper.

Flashback Friday

December 2005 - Our First Home

About 9 months before we were married, Rob and I purchased our first home. We bought a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhome in Santa Clara.

This is us on the day we got our keys.




The lights weren't on so we gave ourselves a flashlight tour.

We planned on living there for 5 to 7 years but in ended up selling it 2.5 years later. It wasn't the best investment but we loved our first home.

Flashback Friday

My Bachelorette Party – June 30- July 2, 2006

Two months before the big day, my sister planned my bachelorette party. In attendance were my bridesmaids Ashley, Jen, Dorothy, Michelle and Kathy. My two other bridesmaids Gena and Stephanie were unfortunately not able to make it – but they were there in spirit.

Here we are getting ready for our little road trip.



We headed up to Napa on a Friday and stayed at the River Terrace Inn. Rob and I had been there before and liked it. On the way into town, we stopped at Starbucks and Coldstone to start the weekend off right. After checking in to the hotel, we went to Compadres for dinner and drinks.




After dinner, we headed to Walmart. I wanted to pick up some board games – yes, this was one tame bachelorette party. Just the way I wanted it!




The next morning we enjoyed a lovely breakfast by the river that ran alongside our hotel.




After breakfast, we were picked up for our private wine tasting excursion.





Our tour included a picnic lunch. The tour guide’s wife actually made the lunch and it was delicious!




After lunch we went to a few more wineries but we were kind of over it at that point. We told him we would rather skip the last 2 wineries and get ice cream! So he took us to a local ice cream shop and we all got sundaes.

When we got back to the hotel we did what we do best: relax.



That night we headed to Fume for dinner. I wanted to treat the girls to dinner since they treated me for the whole weekend which was very generous of them.




After dinner we were a little tired from walking around and drinking all day, so we went to the front desk to see what movie to watch. They had a ton of DVDs that we would watch for free. After about 20 minutes of “oh that wasn’t very good” and “I’ve seen that”, we decide on Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Before heading home the next day, we went to the spa at the Silverado Resort for some pampering.



Here is me and my bridesmaids on my wedding day – I love you girls!