The Big 3-0!

So yesterday marked a milestone for my life- I turned 30! Hard to believe since I sometimes still feel like a teenager! It was a good day though, as we have so much to look forward to this year! Kurt started off the day with a cute card that informed me that I was to keep my new iPhone (part of my present) close by me all day to receive further instructions. Throughout the day he kept texting me these clues that all led up to dinner on the beach at sunset last night! He was so cute, he had gone and gotten takeout from The Boathouse (this cool restaurant that just opened up on our favorite beach here) and had a blanket and everything laid out. It was nice that it was a Wednesday night because there were hardly any other people on the beach with us. He also gave me a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses I had been lusting after- to shield my eyes from the sun at sunset! Thanks, honey, for making me feel so special and loved on my birthday! Thanks also to my Mom and Dad who sent me the beautiful bouquet of flowers shown in the pictures above!

On another note, please say some prayers for my parents and the other residents of the Gulf Coast region. Hurricane Ike has turned in the last day and now appears to be going in much closer to Galveston than anticipated. My parents are packing and boarding up to leave town right now, as Friendswood is currently under a voluntary evacuation, but could switch to mandatory later on.

From SB to SD!

We spent Labor Day weekend in San Diego! Kurt had Friday off too, so we made it down to SD on Thursday night. We stayed at the most beautiful hotel, the Estancia La Jolla! I can't even count the weddings we saw there this weekend- beautiful grounds! We spent Friday at the San Diego Zoo. My favorites were probably the pandas since I don't know that I've seen one in a zoo before. Saturday we took a trolley tour of SD that you could hop on and off of to see the sights. Our first stop was the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier. Pretty much as soon as we got off the trolley we happened to pass two guys running. Turns out one was Kurt's marketing prof. from UT- how crazy to run into him out in SD! The Midway tour took several hours and we were pretty worn out by the time it was over- but we had so much more to do! We also got off in the Gaslamp Quarter and at Balboa Park. The Gaslamp Quarter was pretty cool with lots of restored restaurants in it- we enjoyed an icecream at Ghirardelli since we were so hot and tired by then! Balboa Park was beautiful and a definite place to go if only for a stroll. At the end of the day the trolley let us off in Old Town and we had some good Mexican food and most importantly fresh tortillas! Yum! Sunday was spent around La Jolla breakfasting, walking by the beach, laying by the pool, and finally a very nice dinner at George's. On Monday we had to drive back, but we drove a stretch of the PCH so I could see Laguna Beach (yes, I know I'm too old to be watching this show!) and Newport Beach. Very fun and pretty beach towns- but not enough time to stop! Oh well, all good things must come to an end, right??

Congrats Susan & Trace!

On Saturday my best friend from growing up, Susan (Ring) Williams and her husband, Trace, welcomed baby Ethan! When I talked to Susan on Sunday she was on cloud 9! We are so excited for them and can't wait for our little girl to meet Ethan!

Our little Hoosier dog...

It was a sad weekend for our little family this weekend. We had to take our little weiner dog, Hoosier, to a rescue organization in LA. He had bitten me pretty badly a couple of months ago and then two weeks ago when I went to pick him up at the kennel they told me he had bitten one of their personnel and would have to be quarantined by animal control for 10 days because of it! That was kind of the last straw for us since he has a history of doing things like this and we can't have that around the baby when she is born. So, we had to make the very difficult decision of giving him up. This was not easy for either of us since I bought Hoosier for Kurt as a birthday/Valentines gift back in college. He has been with us for 8.5 years and so we definitely feel an emptiness in our house now. Please say some prayers for us that we can now have some closure with this, especially Kurt since he spent so many years in Austin before we got married with Hoosier. We have faith that he will find a good "adult only" home- hopefully with people who have had dachshunds before and know what to expect!

From NYC to SB...

My good friend Christina, who actually grew up right around the corner from me, came all the way out from NYC to visit us this weekend! She spent the first part of last week in the San Francisco area, then rented a car and drove down the coast to see us. We had a nice meal out on Friday night at Opal, a cute little place we can actually walk to from our house. On Saturday she got my typical driving tour of SB, then we joined up with Kurt and did the State St. thing. For lunch we were all excited to have some good mexican food (which I'm happy to report closely resembled Tex-Mex for once!)! We ended the day with a stroll on the beach with Stella- she loves to run off leash with the big dogs! So cute! We both really enjoyed our time with Christina! We just always seem to have the best conversations with her and I really enjoy reminiscing about old times since we were best friends back in about the 5th grade!

On another note- WELCOME HOME HONEY!! Kurt was in training last week in LA and it was so lonely around here without him! It feels so good to have him home again!!

Fiesta...forever!

I forgot to post that last week was Fiesta here in SB! This is a big event around here with events starting Wednesday night and continuing through Sunday. You wouldn't believe the amount of confetti eggs being sold on the streets in all different colors and sparkles- so fun and of course we couldn't resist cracking a few on each other! We went down to shop at the vendors (we bought Jumper- that's what Kurt calls her since she always jumps around so much on ultrasounds- a cute little senorita dress), eat some authentic mexican food, and listen to some music! We decided to get Stella a little something to celebrate the occasion too and she was the hit of the party in her sombrero! Ole!

An LA kind of weekend...

Kurt is in training in LA this week, so we decided to go down a day early and see some friends! On Saturday we drove down and checked into our hotel (after about an hour of sitting in LA traffic on the 405!!). Then we headed over to meet one of my best friends from home, Alison Spencer and her hubby Earl at their hotel. Alison had a hookup and got us some awesome Dodgers tickets and a VIP parking pass and everything! We were right in the middle of the 3rd base line about 12 rows up and were able to see Manny Ramirez hit his first homerun as a Dodger! Super cool since we were in Boston last year for the world series. Alison's Mom, Katie, and her stepdad, Bill, were also along for the fun night! We had such a great time hanging out and catching up with them!

On Sunday Kurt and I laid out at the hotel pool for a while, then he had to start his training, so my friend Tracy who lives in LA came to pick me up and we went down to Hermosa Beach to shop! So fun!