Friends & Fam

Brooke and Jimmy love to surprise us with last minute weekend trips. Unfortunately we only had 1 day with them but it was very fun while it lasted. We love you guys!

Remember this group? We decided to reunite after a year of being apart for a Cruise Reunion. We have not all been together since last summer's Mexican Cruise and it was long over due. We ate dinner at Lucille's BBQ and then hung out and talked for hours. Since we are still all located in Southern California, I sure hope we don't wait another year to get together.

Brianne, Brandon, Eric Bojorquist, Geoff Rowe

Monterey Bay

My sister Becky and her husband John invited us to meet them in Monterey Bay over Halloween weekend. John did a trade for some chiropractic work for a beach house in Monterey. After a very busy, long day helping Vicki at her Halloween party, Brandon picked me up in Orange County about 9:30 and we headed to Monterey. We got in around 2:30 am and to my happy surprise Becky was still awake!

Since we only had 48 hours before we had to get back in the car and drive home, we packed in as much as we possibly could. Friday afternoon we went to a little deli for lunch and then walked around these beautiful gardens.
Look at these AMAZING flowers. They are called passion flowers and grow on a passion fruit vine. We could not believe they were real because we had never seen anything like it before.
The gardens were so fragrant and the architecture of the buildings around it were so neat. Perfect place for a photo shoot.
We went to the beach because the waves were at least 15 feet and watched some professional surfers in action.

Later that night we went for a LONG bike ride. Half of it was literally on the beach (which didn't work out so well) the other half was on a bike trail surrounded by eucalyptus trees.
Since not all the bikes were in working condition, Brandon had to ride a bike like a scooter because it had no chain! I guess it was better than the alternative above.
After really working up an appetite we looked up a highly rated pizza joint and had some really yummy dinner. This restaurant was in a large out door mall that you would never know was in Monterey because it is completely hidden from the road by huge trees. It took us a little while to find it but the scavenger hunt was half the fun.
Saturday morning we woke up and went to the most beautiful state park. We hiked for over 2 hours and saw some of the most gorgeous landscape ever.
It was the PERFECT hiking weather.
This might be one of the only places you can be hiking through the forest and along the coast.
Look at this chubby little seal. Of course Brandon threw something at the entire family before I could get a picture of all of them. This guy was too slow so I caught him before he hid in the water.
3 WORDS: gorgeous, amazing, beautiful!
Same 3 words as above.
Nothing like a "PHAT BURGER" after a long hike. I know this picture turned out awful but the food tasted so yummy.
After our hike and lunch we got cleaned up and went to CARMEL. This is such a quaint little town with lots of shops and places to eat. This is a historic building but I thought this was the most beautiful RED FALL tree.
Carmel again had so many cool places you could do a photo shoot at. All the streets and building had so much character, it looked a lot like Europe.
This is a very well known FANCY restaurant called Casanova. We were planning on eating there however "Phat Burger" really filled us up and there was NO room for fancy food.

Next we went to the Monterey Pier and walked around the Wharf. They had it all lit up at night and it was so awesome. I am SO mad because I left my camera in the car and so I did not get to capture how much fun we had there. Since I was sad about the camera, Brandon got me one of those souvenir pennies out of the machine where it smashed a picture into your penny. Mine has a picture of a seal on it.

We went home after and made some sugar cookies and watched the second half of Sherlock Holmes since we didn't finish it Friday night.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Before we said our goodbyes we had a yummy breakfast of muffins, eggs, yogurt and fruit. This weekend FLEW by, it wasn't nearly long enough but we loved EVERY minute of it. Especially being with Becky & John, you guys are the best! Thanks again.

Halloween Party

My second mom/friend/employer Vicki Walker, is an amazing event and party planner. She has so many creative, original ideas and I have loved learning some of her techniques over the years. Last year I was excited because she asked me to be her partner in crime and help her decorate for a Halloween Party in Orange County. Last years event was such a HUGE success the owners of the foundation called her and asked her to throw another Halloween Party for them but EVEN BIGGER. After a lot of hard work the party this is how it turned out!!!

The drink station.
The CANDY station!

DIRT CUPS & HALLOWEEN CAKE FOR DESSERT

Vicki painted these panels argyle panels and brought them with us. We had 6 of them and scattered them around the huge room to give it some extra detail.

The banquet room was elegant but spooky, just what the owner of the foundation wanted!

The buffet table...its just too bad they didn't order enough food.

Here is the entrance to the party. Everyone got a darling trick-or-treating bag to fill up throughout the party.

Vicki came up with different booths for the kids to win prizes at. The bowling turned out so darn cute.

The ghosts are made out of 2 liter soda bottles!

Some of the other activities included: Fishing for prizes, bean bag toss, decorating pumpkins with faces like Mr. Potato head, balloon animals, and face painting. It is amazing how much work can go into a party that only last 2 hours! Oh well...it was AMAZING while it lasted and I know NEXT YEARS PARTY WILL BE HERE BEFORE VICKI & I KNOW IT.