A fabulous sunset!!!

There's absolutely nothing that can clear my head, better than a good ol' afternoon at the beach...  Usually that consists of a sunset of some sort...  Today there wasn't one...  haha!  figures, that's sorta how that week had gone!  ;)  and the day for that matter....  My friend suggested I go to the happiest place on earth...  guess he had gotten tired of my sulky, blah mood...  Seems I've been having a really hard time moving on from things people do and say these days...  :/  So today after work I decided to go to my "happy" place...  unfortunatelly for me, it was supper foggy, and there ended up being no sunset...  so in between, prayers....  (I prayed for understanding, the ability to forgive, and the ability to possibly forget, or just plain let go of the things that people say or do)  I snapped a few shots of the ocean....  I have to say that I was quite happy with the results....  ;)

This one is definitly a favorite!  ;)

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Huntington, it is my favorite place to think, and definitly my favorite beach to relax at!  I can't wait to go out there again...  maybe next time the sun will cooperate!  ;) 

a treck up the Santa Rosa Plateau...

My friend Tammy and I went for a little shoot up at the Plateau...  We were hoping to run across some fun flowers...  but alas, it was too early, and they weren't blooming yet...  so all we got were some good ol' pictures of Nature...  and some much needed practice...  These are definitly my first real try at the manual settings on my camera while trying to get the lighting just right...  not sure I got exactly what I was looking for...  But the hike was fun...  ;)

I think this one was my favorite tree picture...  I like how the sun is peeking in just right...  :)

...and we found a pretty little stream! 

...and a place to take a picture of me!  ;)

pretty....  I LOVED being out there with nature...  And I was VERY thankful that no snakes decided to present themselves to me...  I'm sure I would of died right on the spot!  ;)

Tammy pondering her next pic.... 

We found ourselves a good looking woodpecker on a tree....  and used my zoom lens to take his pic!!  :)  can  you see him? ;)  hi there little guy!

then we were off to enjoy a litte dinner at the taco shop...  :)  We figured we deserved it, since we had probably burned off the yummy cupcakes we had in the morning on our 2 hour hike....  ;)  I had a yummy coconut one...   I think they called it a snowball...  and let me tell you it was YUMM - Y!!!  ;)

Happy Birthday Gaby!

For Gaby's family birthday celebration we went to Maggiano's in Costa Mesa!  Her and Mike LOVE that place, and I had forgotten how much I LOVED it too!!  It's an italian family style restaurant, where you get soooo much food and it's delicious! :)

We find anywhere to pose for a fun picture!  ;)

I LOVE my sister!!  :D

The desserts were amazing, One is NEVER too full to indulge in some of those!  ;)  We sang Happy Birthday to some sort of italian pastries...  YUM!! :)

Haha!  Me and Michael!

....and a little tiramisu!  ;)

...and a WHOLE creme brulee for me!  ;)  then I wonder why my stomach hurts when I'm done, lol!

...and a family shot!  Happy Birthday sister....  we hope you had a good one!  ;)

A b-day lunch.....

My sister and I have a birthday tradition...  every year we go out and celebrate each other's special day....  We really do enjoy our quality time, especially now that we're older, and we both work, and she's married, and we're just plain busier than we used to be!  ;)  This year we went to Ponte Winery to celebrate "her", Our friend Jill joined us....  the plan was to go wine "tasting", but we only made it to one!!  haha!!  at least we enjoyed our time there...  we ate really good food, and had a fun photoshoot, then we headed to home goods, it was definitly a great day!!  :)

Practicing with my new camera....  and YES!  I didn't know what I was doing!  haha!  practice makes perfect...  right??  ;)

Gaby and Jilly!  :)

Lunch at Ponte! 

Me and Jilly!

Our lunch was filled with lots of laughs, yummy food, and really tasty wine...  I'm thinking I wanna go back soon!  ;)

Gaby was really dissapointed that her wine was gone!  haha!

...and for the b-day girl they brought this delicious treat....  EVERYTHING was edible...  that marzipan was my favorite part!  :)

The birthday girl!

And this is why we Californian's are lucky...  while our day at the winery was amazing, there was also fresh snow on the mountains....  :)

just walking around....  I was "practicing"  ;)

say cheese everyone...  :)

in the barrel room....  :)  Jilly loves Gaby!!  :)

Gotta LOVE the scenery!

After Ponte and Home Goods Gaby and I trekked down to SD to pick Michael up from the airport...  It was his week in AZ, and he flew in for the weekend celebration!  :)  and what better way to celebrate his arrival than a little stop at Joe's Crabshack for a bottomless bucket of crab legs?  ;)  mmmmm...  We LOVE food!!  haha!!  :)

....AND we're ready!!  :)

....YEP!  that's exactly the way we all looked....  excited and digging for our meat....  Nothing like working for food....  ;)