My new Favorite

I can't believe Dancing with the Stars is already into Week 4 and I haven't posted about it. I have a new favorite this season....and I don't mean one of the celebrities. I am now infatuated with Dmitry who is partnered with Mya. After last week Kristi and I were wondering if there was a love connection between Mya and Dimitry (this week I'm not so sure). I think she may be a bit of a control freak. What do you think?

I definitely think there is a love connection between

Chelsea and snowboard boy and I think

she felt bad this week because she wasn't as familiar with the 2-step

and didn't give him much to do...hence bad marks. I hope they stick around.

What do you think about that one?

Only time will tell.

Dmitry

Did you see him with that shear black shirt last week?

At least he should stick around longer than last season... Mya is
a great partner.

Who are your favorites?

Favorites:

Dmitry with anyone (Mya doesn't have my undying love yet)

Donny Osmond (am I showing my age?)

Kelly Osbourne (love her enthusiasm and I think she loves her partner)

Derek (amazing dancing last night)

Mark and Melissa - (he gets the absolute most out of his partners...

now I hope there is a love connection between him and last season

partner Shawn)

Mark can stay awhile just because I like him and Lacey

Ready to see go:

Wrestler guy - Chuck (even though he has a cute smile)

Football guy - Michael (two left feet)

On the fence:

Aaron Carter can go or stay... if he would stop crying I think

he could be great and give Mya a run for her money.

Who are your favorites?

Extended Week-end Warrior

No... I didn't do a project or work around my house, but boy was I busy. It started during this past week when we celebrated my mom's 76th birthday.

Our bunco group went to Wood Ranch for dinner.

We had 3 birthdays to celebrate:

Diana

Vivian and

Cynthia

Next came mom's actual birthday.
(Mom must think she is like Kris with this
entire birthday adventure going on)



On Friday we continued our birthday celebration with our annual trip to Oak Glen.

We started at Peggy's beautiful wreath decked door, where she was waiting to welcome us in.


We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and some light shopping in the local shops.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the company, divine.



On Saturday I did a little prep work for my contribution to Festival of the Trees. A quick trip to Tai Pan and home for a rendezvous with the FU. Frank and Laurie came out for Sushi

No pics of Sushi night but it was great.

On Sunday we celebrated Tim's birthday. Mom was sad to see her celebration end but she had fun celebrating with Tim. We all went to the Happiest Place on Earth. It was the first time for Riley and Madison and I'm sure it won't be the last. I'll let Kristi fill you in on the details.

Birthday Boy hanging out with Minnie Mouse

The whole family (minus a few of course)

Pop Pop and Minnie

Pop pop and Madison

So my posting drought has come to an end.

It's good to be back :)

Frankie's Back

or maybe a form of Frankie.

For some reason I love Halloween, maybe it's the crazy witches and colors... I don't really know. For years I have had a 6 foot blow up Frankenstein ... or Frankie as we have fondly called him, that greeted my bunco girls each year for our Halloween Bunco. In fact it is common knowledge that he was madly in love with one of our Bunco girls (Cynthia) and always had a special place in his eh, heart for her.


Several years ago Frankie sprung a leak, in a very delicate place. He hung in there for years, the good sport that he was, but unfortunately it is time to put Frankie to rest.

RIP Frankie

we will miss you.


To my delight, my friend Peggy, knowing my love of Frankie, gave me a gift. A new and improved Frankie. He will never fully take the place of our dearly departed Frankie, but we are looking forward to the greeting he will give us at Bunco. So I introduce you to Frankie N. Stein Jr., who will start my Halloween decorating.

Welcome to Frankie.

Large and in charge and a fine figure of a man....eh.... monster

deep down, I think he's just a pussycat.

Can't wait for him to meet Cynthia

Endless Summer .....

this is the mantra of the North Shore...

I know summer is over, hard to imagine when we came home to 100 + temperatures, but you can't deny the days are shorter and the nights are cooler.

Kevin and I were lucky enough to extend our summer just a bit longer with a wonderful vacation.

The North Shore of Oahu is truly a beautiful destination. Anyone planning a trip will not be disappointed. The beaches are everything you would imagine Hawaii to be like.... long and sandy and the most vibrant shades of blues and greens.

I took over 700 pictures (don't worry I will be gentle and try not to post them all .. haha) and I don't think you can ever capture the true beauty.

While we were there we had a few days of unexpected high surf... waves 20 + feet and what a show they put on. You could feel the force and strength of these waves thundering through the sand.

We flew into Honolulu, grabbed the rental car (we were treated to an upgrade by Kevin's cousin, who works for Enterprise, to a convertible) and of course headed straight to Costco for the essentials. From Costco we headed across the island to the North Shore and Turtle Bay.

Kevin and I have decided that we really enjoy a condo feel rather than a hotel because we don't like to eat every meal out. Don't get me wrong... this vacation was one giant eating fest, but it is nice to have the option... and I do enjoy my coffee on the balcony in the morning (especially when Kevin makes it). We opted for a Villa on the beach, which turned out to be just perfect and the best of both worlds.

Kevin grabbed his towel ... and we headed to the beach for a swim, a beverage, a bit of exploring and our first sunset of the trip.

Would you believe that was me in the lounge chair... ? I didn't think so.
Do you see the caution tape to Kevin's left?

This big guy was on the other side. I guess he has priority on the beach and he was stretched out for a little snooze.

A few pics of the Villa before we gave it that lived in look.

Nice big TV and Bose stereo system. Can you believe
we never turned the TV on?

Shot from the balcony in.

Kitchen

View from the balcony to the pool



That lived in look...


Our first sunset of the trip from our beach looking onto the hotel.
Kevin's Heaven
Room pictures courtesy of the Little Mule
Outdoor pictures courtesy of the Big Dog

Paradise Lost

Hawaii .... North Shore .... Turtle Bay

Kevin and I returned from Paradise this morning. After a red eye flight we arrived at LAX at 5:45 AM. Sean was elected to pick us up since everyone else is out of town.

Thanks Sean.

I'm a bit wired so before I go in for a nap I thought I would post a little preview of the trip.

Kevin and I got a new Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 camera to take on this trip.

This is a durable, shock resistant, underwater camera with a multitude of settings. I actually used several of the settings and was amazed at what this little guy can do (I have not even tapped into the settings for the Nikon yet...but with this new challenge going I will need the upper hand... study time). We have a lot to learn about it but here are a couple underwater shots.

Me .... tee hee

Kevin

The Olympus has earned the name of the "Little Mule" and my Nikon has been named the "Big Dog".

Seems like we have a bit of competition going on in this household. Kevin has claimed the "Little Mule" for himself.

You can decide which camera is the winner. In the future posts I will disclose which camera took the photo.

Until then... Aloha


Looking on to Turtle Bay from our balconywith a welcome to Hawaii lunch.

Outdoor Wednesday ..... Shark!!!!!!!

In honor of my upcoming trip to Hawaii with my husband on Thursday

I am reposting an Outdoor Wednesday from last years trip.

This was a crazy adventure that I don't want to recreate...but I guess you

never know.......See you in 10 days

Another Outdoor Wednesday, I am so excited to participate. Thank you Susan at ASouthernDaydreamer for hosting.

I would like to start this Outdoor Wednesday with a story.

Once upon a time there was a Mr and Mrs who took a vacation to

the beautiful island of Hawaii. Kevin Dear and Darling loved the tropic beauty of the
sand and sea. Loving it so much they decided to take a snorkel trip that
was not as sterile as most snorkel trips. This trip was on a hard decked
zodiac with about 10 other people. A little more rough and tumble and closer to the water.

Some of the beaches had
been closed to the North do to shark sighting, but our guide told us everything was fine and
he would take us snorkeling, and then to a beautiful deserted beach. Kevin Dear and Darling

said sign us up at once. So off we went....

Not at all concerned but very excited we quickly came upon a pod of spinner dolphins.
They were jumping and swimming right next to our boat. Kevin Dear got a picture
of a little guy showing off for us.

Then the story gets interesting.

Our guide told us another pod of dolphins had been sighted and would we like to get into the water and see them up close. Well of course we did.
So as instructed, with no flippers just masks, we jumped into the water. It was
amazing. We were so close to the dolphins, and they seemed just as curious about
us as we were about them. They came a little closer to check us out.

As fast as they arrived, they were gone.
The guide told us to get back in the boat, take our time but hurry up.

Kevin Dear and Darling were one of the first one's in and they overheard the
guide telling the captain, "No, don't say anything yet". Darling looked at the guide and asked "don't say anything about what?"
He told her there may be something else in the water. Darling of course asked,

"Is it friend or foe?"
The guide just smiled...

Sure enough when everyone was back in the boat he told us there
was something off the bow. We all looked and saw a 10-12 foot tiger shark.

He swam right by our boat about 6 foot down. The guide even put his head in the water for a closer look...crazy. Since our boat was only about 22 foot it seemed
like he was passing us forever.

Darling felt like she was in Jaws as that big shark was passing the boat. As people leaned over to the side to see him
Darling thought we would tip the boat and see Mr. Shark up closer and more personal.

There is our boat keeping watch over our deserted beach.

After our adventure and everyone was safe, our guide
took us to this most exquisite deserted beach. Here we
shared a beverage and couldn't stop talking about our shark adventure.

Now back to the other Outdoor Adventures at Susan's

Aloha...see you soon

It ain't over till the "Fat" lady sings

I'm a singing because it's over and we packed up to head home.

Monday morning it was time to head home. We enjoyed a leisurely morning at Tracy's... did a tad more shopping and headed for the airport. We had a noon flight out and prolonged our goodbyes for as long as we could. After a few tears and hugs we were heading for the gate.

It had been a perfect weekend and nothing had gone wrong ..... until ... we were sitting on the plane waiting to take off. The captain came out in his infinite wisdom and said he wasn't happy with the propeller so would we please exit the plane.

They would call a repairman and get us back on the plane as soon as possible. We didn't mind...who in their right mind wants to get on a plane with a broken propeller?

We were stargazing anyway.. we had two celebrities and their families on our plane. Recognize either of them?

Jim Belushi

Amy Brenneman

Well off the plane we went... a couple hours later we were back in our seats, fastening our seat belts.

That lasted all of 5 minutes and we were ushered off the plane again.

Now... if you were taken off a broken plane not once but twice would you want to go on a third time...our celebrities didn't think so.

They chartered a jet and went back to L.A. together as we waited to hear what are fates would be. As it turned out they brought in a new plane from Portland to fly us home.

Here's a shot of our dearly departed plane.

So a couple hours later, into the new plane and home.... check this out

I shot these as we were landing.

lower

lower

and

down.

So about 6 hours later than scheduled we were pulling into our home sweet homes with memories of a great trip.

Thanks for coming along with me and helping me relive a great weekend... Thanks Trace.