I’m not ignoring you, I know you’re here.

It’s not you, it’s me. 

I’ll get back to you soon.

In between all the excitement of Amy coming back early this weekend, my mom, Jen and the boys, and I went to the beach to do stand up paddle on Sunday (I invited Amy of course, but she didn’t want to, she’s not a huge fan of the beach during the day).  If you remember, we tried to do this a couple weeks ago but they didn’t have any left for us.  The day started off cloudy and slightly colder than I would have liked but the clouds burned off just in time for us to get on the boards.  As usual, we had a blast!

Cute boy!!

He lost his 2nd tooth right before he went out!

Natalie and Jen

me

This weekend turned out a lot different than I thought it would (which is NOT a bad thing!).  Friday night I worked (which is really good because this weekend ended up costing me more than I had planned on!).  Saturday I slept till 9:15 (which was nice) but then did nothing for what seemed like forever.  I finished The Time Traveler’s Wife but that didn’t take long.  I cleaned out the snack cupboard and refrigerator, I was that bored.  I was supposed to watch my nephews at 5:30 so I decided to watch the rest of the Angel game in my room.  At about 3, I heard a knock on my door and someone said “Can I come in?”.  I thought it was my mom or sister and I said “Yes”, and as this person walked in I said “Hey” but didn’t even look up.  When I did look up, it wasn’t my mom or sister….it was AMY!!!!!  I just looked at her for about 5-10 seconds in disbelief that she was there in my room.  I finally said “Are you really here?” (I had just finished The Time Traveler’s Wife after all!) and she said “Um…yeah”.  I knew she was coming but she wasn’t supposed to come until Wednesday.  She had already talked to Aaron and I wasn’t actually watching the boys and the plans I thought I had Sunday with Jamie were also Amy’s doing to make sure I didn’t babysit.  I think we walked out of my house within 5 minutes and went off to surprise more people.  She hadn’t told anyone that she was coming Saturday, so she got to surprise just about everyone – her parents, her sister, her neighbors across the street.  We went bowling on Saturday night and then yesterday we went to Yogurtland and then the beach at night (our favorite thing to do!).  This week we have a lot planned, including (hopefully) surprising our friend Debbie tonight at my house.  I’m so glad she’s here and I get 4 extra days to hang out with my best friend!!  Side note:  I love surprises but only when I don’t know about them, if that makes sense.  I hate when someone tells me I have a surprise but won’t tell me what it is (like a gift or something).  That drives me nuts!!  This was the best surprise ever!!!!!

Last year I had a fun filled weekend of Angel games and beach fun.  This weekend was filled with sun and sand.  After spending 4 days at the river, we went to the beach on Sunday and played in the sand and water.  Jen and I had such a blast doing stand up paddle in Cabo that we wanted to do it again, but they were out   Then we came home and celebrated with my grandparents and the rest of the gang.  Here are some cute pictures of us having fun.

Floating in the water with Isaac...he's such a surfer dude!

Kisses for the birthday girl!

Then tonight we went to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  Yum yum!  We hung out for a few minutes on the beach and the boys played in the sand. 

Pretty sunset

Thanks for making my day so great!!

A couple months ago my sisters and I decided we wanted to go on a river trip.  We grew up going to the river and it had been a while since we had been.  We left on Wednesday morning and our final destination was Laughlin, but we took a detour to a place called Echo Lodge, in Parker, AZ.  It’s a camp ground on the river that we went to when we were younger (I think we decided it had been about 20 years since we had been there).  It was different and the same, if that’s possible, and the HUGE disappointment was that they didn’t have “real” Big Sticks or Root Bear floats, which is one of the biggest memories we have of going there.  Even without a ”real” Big Stick we had a lot of fun, especially since we had the beach and pool to ourselves (well, for the most part).

me and Marianne holding on to the anchor so we didn't float away

A guy came out later in the day and let us use his water trampoline.

me and Isaac

After a few hours playing in the water at Echo Lodge, we were on our way to Laughlin.  We stayed at Avi, which is not on the stip, but out of town and they have a beach right on the river and since we didn’t have a boat or watercraft, it was the best option for us.  We were annoyed several times by people around us – typical drunks, people who don’t have commom curtousy…like these people:

How rude!

That’s our chair and umbrella and those people just came and hooked up their boat right there.  I was sooo mad!  Luckily Marianne went down there before me and she was MUCH nicer than I would have been and they ended up being really nice too.  But seriously?  Right next to our chair and umbrella? 

Even with all the annoying people, we still had a lot of fun.  Here are some cute ones of the boys playing in the sand and water.

So cute in those sunglasses!

On the raft

Two cute boys!

We want to go again next year…know anyone with a boat that wants to let us borrow it?? I’m only half kidding

Do any of you watch this show?  For those of you who don’t, they are a family who has twins and sextuplets, and it’s a reality show about their family.  Recently Jon and Kate confirmed that they are getting a divorce.  They are continuing with the show (hello money maker!) even though they are going through a really tough time.  I have continued to watch the show through everything (only because once I start watching a show, I have a hard time stopping.  It’s an addiction really).  Yesterday I was thinking about it and I realized that I need to stop watching it.  Not because it’s a bad show, but because I shouldn’t be supporting something I don’t agree with.  I don’t agree with how Jon and Kate have handled their relationship, the show, and their kids’ future by exposing them to all that they have.  From all that I’ve seen – which I know isn’t the whole picture – they didn’t try very hard to salvage their marriage.  I thought that they would have tried harder, especially for their kids.  The funny thing is that throughout the whole thing, they both keep saying “It’s all about the kids; I’m doing this for my kids.”  I find that to be total crap.  If they were doing this for their kids, they should have taken some time off from the show to focus on what the problem was and be able to fix it without millions of people watching.  Yesterday I realized that by me watching their show, I am, in other words, saying I think what they did is okay.  And it’s not okay.  Anyone else agree?  Disagree?

My sister, cousin Michele, best friend Jamie, and I went to Cabo (Michele and Jamie for the 1^st time).  Jen, Michele, and I flew out on Saturday and Jamie came on Tuesday.  We did so many things while we were there (some of which I won’t do again!).  Sunday we went horseback riding and thought many times I was going to die.  At one point my horse scared Jen’s horse and she almost fell off.  Scary!  We all thought we were going on the beach, but apparently it’s against the law (who new they had laws in Mexico!). 

Me on Palmero

On the beach (only for the picture!)

Tuesday we went on the Pez Gato snorkel cruise.  Less drunks than last year (no Aaron when he was 13 either) but it was still fun!  I love being on a boat.  The wind in my hair (which was out of control that day!), the sound of the water, it’s one of my top 5 favorite places to be in the world. 

The Arch

Jumping off the boat

Tuesday, before Jamie got there we went on a banana boat.  So much fun, but I don’t think I’ll do it again.  Michele fell off and a few days later Jamie and I saw sharks where we had passed on the banana boat and I just don’t know if I could do it again. 

We're the 1st 3

Then Jamie got there!  We went out to dinner that night to a more lively place than we usually go.  It was fun because they played “Name That Movie”.  They played music from movies and everyone guessed what movie it was from.  We got pretty close to winning too.  Darn Ireland!  Another team that almost won (Santa Barbara) came over to say hi to us (we were OC).  Boy was he cute!!  Too bad he’s gonna be on a dating show that from what I understand, is pretty skanky.  Jen and Michele left Wednesday, but before they did, we did stand up paddle, which was super fun and a lot easier than it looks.  The water was clear and calm and Jen even saw a sting ray.

Stand up paddle

So much fun!

Thursday Jamie and I did the Pez Gato again (we do it every year, and like I said before, I love being on boat.  I actually do it more for the boat than the snorkeling!).  That is when we saw the sharks.  Not when we were snorkeling, but at the end when they took us by the arch. 

Me and Jamie at the Arch

Sharks!!!

Friday morning we got up early to watch the sunrise.  Yes I got up early to watch the sunrise.  And it was my idea.  Who am I!?  My thought was…we live in Cali and get to see the sun set into the ocean, why not see the sun rise in the ocean?  Well apparently I didn’t trace the sun right because it doesn’t rise in the ocean.  But it was still really pretty and well worth it. 

So pretty!

My favorite!

The rest of the day we did nothing but float in the ocean on rafts (another one of my top 5) and read.  We also went out to dinner that night at Jungle by the Beach and Jamie got lobster.  I tried it (my idea again) and it was gross!!  But at least I know now I don’t like it.

Fun hammock

Love love love her!

After dinner we went on a walk and the waves were really big and pretty!

Fun times on the beach

They were bigger than they look in this picture

Saturday we laid on the beach a little, but then we had to leave.  We landed at LAX about 4:45 and got home about 7.  I did laundry and talked to Amy for almost 3 hours (not our record by the way). 

We're twins

My first day back to work was crazy, but I’m hoping that by the end of the week it’ll settle down (could be wishful thinking!).  It’s always sad for a vacation to end but also nice to get back into the routine of life.

This is the love I get!!

:)

My loving sister somehow suckered me into doing the Mud Run…okay so that’s a lie.  Her friend couldn’t do it so I volunteered to take her place, not knowing what I was getting myself into.  First of all I hate to run.  I don’t mind cardio, but running is not fun to me at all.  My second mistake was that this thing is 6 miles.  6 miles of running!  6 miles is forever when you don’t like running.  I only trained for 2 weeks because that’s all the time there was after I found out I was doing it.  Luckily I wasn’t totally out of shape because I go to the gym, but let’s just say at mile 3 I was ready for it to be over!  So the biggest thing that got me was that I had to get up at 5am on a Saturday morning!  Those of you who know me, know that getting up early is one of my least favorite things to do in the world, on top of running.  So I had to get up early to run.  Yeah.  So the run…I wanted to die and my legs finally started feeling better today, 4 days later, but I survived and now I can say I did the Mud Run!  I came in at 1 hour 22 minutes, which for me, was pretty good.  The mud was fun and crossing the lake felt pretty good, but all in all it was just not all that fun.  I’m glad I did it, but I’ll never do it again!  Unless you wanted to pay me lots of money then I just might reconsider…

Yeah I blinked...I do that a lot for some reason

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the Angels!?  Yesterday a company that we do business with offered me tickets to the game last night, and I was so excited when I found out they were for their suite!  Our tickets gave us access to the Diamond Club, so my friend and I went in just to see what it looked like (we had never been in there).  I wouldn’t mind having seats right here:

Diamond Club view

The suite was very nice, with lots of food and drinks.  I had a great time, especially since the Angels won!