Birthday Weekend!!

Friday: my Birthday!  :)

It was a terrific day..  full of birthday wishes...  and yummy food!  :)  I met the girls for lunch, and then went back to work.  :)  Gaby and Mike made a DELICIOUS dinner in honor of me!!  :)  the food was so yummy that I had to share...  ;)  some day I will figure out how to make the pictures into collages, until then, you get to enjoy them, one by one!!  ;)

My yummy birthday steak!  :)

The salad was just as good as it looked on the picture!  ;)

mmmmm.....  :)

haha!!  YES!  I was excited!  ;)

...and there was wine!  ;)

...and this guy came to the party!!  ;)  isn't he so cute??  ;)

...after dinner, the boys watched TV, and I guess I took a nap!  ;)  that dumb couch gets me EVERY time! 

my mom played with Sisco!

awwww.... :)

My dad traveled far to get me a cake...  and let me tell you it was well worth it!  I LOVED it!  it was definitely tasty!  ;)

Happy Birthday to me, with my Skype friends!  ;)  It's not the same without them!!  ;)

Happy Birthday to me!  ;)

This was seriously the BEST card EVER!!  :)  They had Sisco sign it for me with his paw...  can you see it?  it was super cute!  I LOVED it...  The things dog owners will do!!  haha!!  :)  Thank You Mike for helping to get the perfect signature!  LOVE YOU GUYS!  :)

a family shot...  my brother had to miss out because of work, but he was here in spirit!!  :) We still need to teach Sisco how to pose for our family pictures!  ;)

mom, and her girls!  :)

Thank you guys for everything, everything was deliciously tasty!  :)

Saturday: Birthday BBQ

Thank you! Jessica, Jaime, Melissa, Bobby, Chris, Ella, Lukey, Owen, Brody, Jakey Boy, and Miss Layla for celebrating with me today, the day was GREAT, the food was DELICIOUSLY TASTY, and the company was WONDERFUL!!!  :)  Love you guys!!  :)

The girls!  :)

Ella made goody bags for everyone including me...  the birthday girl!  ;)  she made a moose hand puppet! 

...and Jack-o-lanterns!  there were also butterflies, and other jack-o-lanterns in there too!  :0  thank you ELLA BELLA!  I LOVED your goody bag...  :)

Pretty decorations!  :)  and a perfect day for a BBQ!

mmmm...  The "treat" table....  Jessica made banana cookies and pumpkin bread!!  YUMM!!!  those are a few of my favorites..  and look at those yummy caramel apples too!  :)

They all got together and cooked all of my favorite foods, and I say all, because the boys helped too!  ;)   and we were ready to eat!!  :) tri-tip, corn on the cobb, salad, fruit

...and twice baked potatoes...  :D  I was super excited to see these guys!  ;)

and pasta salad, and pistachio salad, and rolls, and I'm sure there was more stuff I missed...   ;)

...and Melissa made these super tasty apple turnover fritter things that I LOVED....  they are probably my new favorite thing to eat for breakfast!  ;)

Happy Birthday to me!!  :)

Thank you again guys...  Everything was GREAT!  :)  you guys seriously made my day!!  :) xoxoxo

Sunday: Birthday celebration at D-land!

It has become a birthday tradition, Gaby and I go to the Happiest Place on Earth to celebrate our birthdays...  it's sorta like our sister day!!  ;)

I have no idea how we've never ran into this before, but we did today...  they had a special Dia de los Muertos display...  ummm...  ok...  ;) 

Dia de Los Muertos, is a holiday celebrated around the world in many hispanic cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.

we had to get our picture taken with the skeleton band!!  ;)

Then we moved on to Jack Skelion and the Haunted Mansion!  ;) 

The Haunted Mansion was all ready for Christmas it looks like!!  ;)

Haha!  Gaby bought me a birthday cupcake...  EVERYONE needs a Disneyland birthday cupcake!  ;)

I LOVE Halloween time at Disneyland, I think it's because it means that the holiday's are just around the corner...  and THAT is definitely my favorite time of the  year!!  :)

...and of course we needed the "Traditional" Mickey pumpkin pic!  :)

...and we spotted another perfect picture spot...  WHAT is it with me and pumpkins??  ;)

We decided to call it a day a little early after a few rides...  then we shopped on main street for a bit, picked up a little something for the girls, and decided to go on our way...  we couldn't leave without one of these though...  An Irish Creme frap from Haagen Daaz....  AAAAHHHHMMMMAAAAZZZZIIINNGGGG!  and a great way to end the day!  ;)

Thank you sister...  Disneyland was fun!  :0  Now lets go hit the Michael's sale, and see what other shopping we can do!!  ;)

....And just like that...  Birthday weekend came to an end...  Thanks again to everyone who helped make it as special and fun as it was!!  :)

Labor Day at Disneyland!

I have a few important rules I live my life with...  One of those is NEVER go to an amusement park on a holiday!! haha!!  I'm not a BIG fan of crowds.  So far I had never broken it...  that is until this past Labor Day...  The Chavi came down for the holiday weekend and monday was the ONLY day we could go...  Alrighty then...  off we went!!!  :)

She got up EARLY, grabbed her Disney hat, and off we went!!  Look at that happy smile!  ;)

These are phone pics, so they're a little out of place!  ;)  Michael bought us dole whips!  It's HIS Disneyland tradition!!  ;)

Gaby modeled one.... 

.....and I modeled mine!!  ;)  YUMM!  Thanks Mike, it was delicious...  :)

.....it was soooooo good it needed a "close up, and then I shared it with all of my "social media" friends!  ;)  It read, "nothing like a dole whip to end the summer right!"  ;)

OBVIOUSLY, I thought it needed A LOT of pictures!!  haha!  ;)

.... This was a picture we took right before they were ready to go home!  :(  she was telling me she was happy that we went to D-land!!  :0  I LOVE her!

Our picture while waiting to board the tram....  Join in Cousin!  It's tradition!  ;)

V was so excited to go to Disneyland that she "forgot" to tell  us to wait for Gaby, Gaby had told her to tell us that, when she talked to her on the phone as we were leaving...  when we pulled into the ALMOST EMPTY structure she sighed and said, "I wish Gaby would be coming with us," haha!  she was actually a little sad, we told her she should of told us, she quickly got over it, and as we were walking into the park she was taking it all in, I LOVE to see her face as we walk down Main street, it's almost like she's entering another world!  :)  Gaby and Mike were waiting for us on a bench at the end, and she was sooooooooo excited to see them, that she took of in a full blown sprint, SOOOOOO cute!

I LOVE this picture of V and Mike,  you can almost "feel" the love! 

He grabbed her hand and let her lead the way...  they were only gonna be able to stay with us for a little bit, because they had somewhere else to be, so we tried to get on all the cool rides while they were there!  :)  and off we were!

SOOOOO cute!  :0

ummmm.... almost!  there's a good picture of all 4 of us, somewhere!!  ;)

...ready to get on Space Mountain, I can't remember if this was her first time on it or not, I'm almost thinking it was!!  :)  SHE LOVED IT!!  :)

...and it looks like these guys were ready too...  haha!!

.....then it was off to try and see if we could get on Indiana Jones, another one of Mike's favorites, BUT unfortunately V isn't quite tall enough yet...  :(  Oh well maybe next time!  ;) 

haha!!

Look at me guys!

there's that dole whip again!  ;)

haha!!!

She was so excited for that cherry, she couldn't get her hands on it fast enough!!  ;)

I decided to take a picture of how "empty" the park was...  BECAUSE I couldn't believe it myself!!  haha!!!  ;)

UNBELIEVABLE!!

THEN we said to bye to Gaby and Mike and moved on to CHURROS, MY Disneyland tradition!  ;)

This one turned out better than I thought!!  ;)

Looking for ducks, she LOVES looking for ducks!  ;)

Then we took a break from walking so she could look for directions on her map!!  haha!

Mami and V

and we were off to storybook land...  One of HER favorites, and a must do....  EVERYTIME!  :)

I had NEVER noticed the mini pomogranites on the mini tree....  HOW CUTE ARE THEY??

...time for a cousin picture!  :)

I had never noticed how cute these arches really are...  It's where jasmin and Aladdin took their first magic carpet ride you know!!  ;)

...Then we were off to It's a Small World, another V favorite!  :)  I've wanted to take a picture of this postcard at the end FOREVER!!!  FINALLY I got one!!  :)

Then we were off to toontown....  BUT FIRST we stopped for a mickey pretzel... and a little photography by V!  ;)

Bea and Mickey!  ;)

I was hungry, so my mickey lost it's ear before we got our pic!!  ;)

...and I met Snow white...  and was she serious about her whinny greeting??  YES! YES she was!!  haha!

V, sitting in Minnie's house!  :)

Pretty landscape!! 

M is for MJ!  ;)

Then we headed over to California Adventure for lunch, and some rides!!  :)

The Bread factory was our first stop!!  YUMMMMMM

Then we headed on over to the little mermaid, and almost melted...  the humidity started to get so bad in the early afternoon....  EEECK!!!

...and about 3 o'clock V opted to go home early (we were going to try and stay until 5ish) and swim for a little bit before they were to go home...  so off we went!  IT WAS HOT!!!!  she fell asleep on the way home...  guess the humidity got to her too!!  ;/

as I was writing this post I realized that not only did we ride a lot of rides, but we ate a lot of food!!  haha!!  Overall, it was a GREAT trip, the lines were short, and the park was almost empty, NOT at all what I had expected...  I may even say that I would go on a holiDAY again!!!  ;)

and as promised, she went swimming...  all alone...  haha!  the water was CHILLY!!  ;)

 ..... and Lu hung out by the chair...  and don't worry, there WAS an adult within arms lenth of her...  I cropped them out...  sorry ;)

look at that foot!!

 ...she LOVES the waterfall.... 

 seeeeee!!!

....and just like that, we think we said good-bye to summer time and pool time!!  ;)