Midway

On my way to Cozumel I stopped halfway there and spent Monday night at Ashley's house in Houston, Texas. It was wonderful seeing Ashley and Jeremy and meeting their cute little puppy, "Texie". They took me to a mexican restaurant up the street that had the best fajitas and margaritas, too!

It was nice catching up with them, and I was so thankful for carting me around. The airport I flew into and out the next day "Hobby" was about 35 minutes away. Now they just need to plan a quick 'lil trip out to California! ;-)

Busy Boise Sunday

Sunday was a family fun packed day. It started out with breakfast at Goldy's with Chuck and Emily. We had a delicious breakfast!

After breakfast we spent the day at my parent's house, playing cards. Mom had made me a funfetti rainbow cake, my favorite! She also had a few other surprises like caramel and regular cadbury eggs and the white chocolate with milk chocolate lindt balls. How does she know me so well!?

That evening I met up with Kam to catch a flick at the Boise Edwards 22 mega-plex.

Can you guess what we watched...?

YUP! It was amazing. Yes, I was a crying sloppy mess. I hadn't watched this show in years, possibly since it was first in theaters. Kam was VERY kind to deal with me. haha! Thanks Kam!

Birthday Vacation Wine Tasting

For my 33 Birthday I took a trip that started in Boise, ID with a wine tasting excursion into the Snake River Valley with my closest Boise friends. We rented a hummer limousine that picked us up at the BODO PF Chang's. We had so much wine along for the ride already, it was a bit daunting!

From left to right there was my Brother Chuck, Chelsie, Sara and Jeremiah, Mike, Aida, Mary, Tiffany, Andrej, Chelsea, Kari and Emily. Phew! Large group, but sooo much fun! We headed straight to my favorite winery; Ste. Chapelle. They always treat us so well there.

After Ste. Chapelle we went to Koenig. They had my favorite wine of the trip, a medal winning ice wine that I ended up purchasing a bottle of at the winery. Unfortunately for the bottle, it didn't make it back to the limousine! haha

After Koenig we went to a new place that we were recommended; Fujishin (pronounced Few-jish-an). It was a smaller winery, but it had a large tasting room. Fortunately for the gal working we were the only group there at the time. The wines were ok, but hard for me to taste them at this late stage of the game! Here's a picture of the group.

After the wine tasting tour was over, we went into PF Chang's for dinner. Andrej, Mike, Chuck, Emily, Kari, Chelsie and Casey were there. We all needed some food after all that wine. As wine tasting adventures go; this was a GREAT time! Thanks to all my friends and family that made this such a special event for me! After dinner most of us took an evening nap, and then we headed out downtown Boise. I had a great night dancing with Andrej and Chelsie. Mike was very kind to drive me and Chelsie back to my house.

Anniversary Surprise!

To start off my 9 day birthday vacation, I flew with Emily back to Boise to surprise Chuck for their one year anniversary! We had kept it a secret for over a month, one of the hardest things I've ever done! It was very worthwhile; Chuck had no idea. We planned it all out in advance so that after Chuck had picked me up (actually inside the airport!) when we were driving away, I told him I'd left my jacket in the airport. He was like "WHAT!?" and drove back around. When he went to drop me off, Emily was hiding behind one of the cement pillars and jumped out. He was VERY surprised! We went out that night and had a great time with drinks and dancing.

Easter!

This morning Emily came over to my house and picked me up so we could attend Easter worship together! It was a nice service, although I wasn't used to having water thrown on me during a service. Apparently that's what the Catholics do! There were several different rituals, but the Lord's Prayer was virtually the same and I knew the words to most of the songs. It was very nice.

Then we headed back over to Emma and Evan's house for Easter brunch with them and their friends Jessica and John. We all contributed something and it was certainly a hodge-podge mix of things, but good food and company for sure!

Then I got a call from Kali that she was available after a long weekend of preparing for the new Nokia Windows phone. So I headed to San Francisco to pick her up. I brought her back to Rohnert Park and showed her where I worked. We were so very lucky that Kevin and Jason were done with their Easter plans and Kevin was able to let us into the Green Music Center and show us around. We even got to go up on stage and Kali sang a number- it was so much fun!

We had just a few minutes after the tour to show Kali where I lived and then it was time to take her back to San Francisco. It was so much fun catching up with my cuz. Love ya Kali!

Marin Half Marathon

This weekend is the annual Marin Half Marathon in beautiful San Rafael, California. Since the Santa Cruz half was just last weekend, no one else wanted to do this one so close so I was solo! First race ever on my own. I did run into my friend Irene at the race. It was a gorgeous day for the run. The Sun was out, the runners were excited. I started the race right up at the starting line- never done that before! So for the first few miles the faster joggers were passing me. I'm used to being the one passing slower joggers as I usually start farther back. I made a good time, one 1:52:00. Right about par for my half marathon times. I met a guy from new york who was traveling across the US running marathon races. It was a great race, one I look forward to every year! :)

Santa Cruz Half Marathon

This weekend I drove down to Santa Cruz, CA with Amanda on Saturday morning. We were going for the Santa Cruz Half Marathon presented by Firstwave Events. Our first stop was for lunch; originally planned for an old Sushi haunt of Amanda's from her college years at UCSC. However, they weren't opened for lunch so we went to one of my favorites- Canton restaurant. I've been trying new foods and with Amanda's suggestion I tried the Kung Pao Tofu (instead of the chicken like I'd normally have). It was delicious! She had the eggplant so I tried that and it too was delicious!

Then we met up with Jeff and Trisha at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and picked up our race packets and did some shopping. After that, I went with Amanda to see the new movie The Hunger Games. Having just finished the book the night before, this was perfect timing. It met all my expectations. Of course, we spent most of the evening comparing it to the book but we both enjoyed it very much.

Then we had dinner at another favorite restaurant of mine, the Hula Bar & Grill. Normally I'd have one of their fabulous chicken burgers, but this time I tried the Tofu tacos. Mmm! they were done perfectly. I've never had Tofu tacos, but now I know they can be done, and done well! Just as we finished dinner it began pouring outside (again) and we had to run back to the car, with Amanda laughing at me as I tried pulling my jeans up so as not to get them too wet.

On the way back to the hotel we picked up some ice cream at Marianne's Ice Cream. I had the Cascade Huckleberry and it was perfect. We kicked back and watched Pretty in Pink with Jeff and Trisha before having to turn in for the night.

Race morning came quick and we had to be down to starting line about 7am for the 8am race to ensure we got parking. The crowd was pumped and the starting line hosts did a great job of making it feel very lively. I started off with Jeff for the first four miles, but he was running less than 8 minute miles so I paused for some goo and let him continue on. The view along the cliffs was beautiful, but my favorite views were at the turning back point loop. The ocean had some breathtaking swells that caused the white spray to shoot up along the coastline.
I ended up running the race at a pace of about 8:20 second miles, one hour forty nine minutes and thirty three seconds; one of my fastest half-marathon times ever! I posted the run and map on my Runkeeper including pictures. Afterwards, we were pretty exhausted! Amanda and I stopped off at a downtown taqueria for a burrito then headed back home. Such a great weekend with good friends!