Grease Is The Word...

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my baby brother Matt!  25 today,  I am so proud of him,  we were roomies for 4 years and I love him to pieces.

Tonight we are headed up to St. George to spend my birthday weekend up there,  I had mentioned to Ryan a long time ago I wanted to go see Grease at Tuachan for my birthday and he made it happen,  and also had the idea to invite my great friends the Murie's to come join us.  I am SOOOO excited.  Tazia and I were partner's in crime in high school and I just love the woman and mom she has become,  and I am lucky enough to have known her husband and his amazing family for even longer.  Adam even took me on my first official date, but no worries people he never had eyes for anyone other than Taz.  :)

To prepare for this fun filled weekend (and since my husband who grew up in a house with a mom and two sisters and yet still somehow managed to never have seen Grease before) we decided to watch it last Sunday night,   it's so cheesy but I love it.  And when it was over and I asked Ryan what he thought, he said "Yeah I can see why I avoided it, this is a chick movie" Man I love that guy lol

Last night we started the birthday festivities off with a dinner at one of my favorite places,  Mushashi's with two people I love one of my besties, Nycole and her girlfriend Christie. It's a Japanese steakhouse like Hamada's but only BETTER!  The sauces he makes are heavenly,  my friends and I have been eating their for years and I took Ryan for his birthday when we were just dating and he was hooked.  It was amazing like usual.  Oh and randomly,  Chum Lee from Pawn Stars was sitting at the table next to us.  Gotta love living in Vegas.

The only thing that would make my birthday weekend better is to have my whole family home. My brother Josh has less than 2 months left of actual school and then he has a year of clinicals.  He was lucky enough to get 2 of his clinicals in Vegas so starting in mid November he will be in Vegas and will not leave until end of March.  I am looking forward to having him around more,  we sure miss him being in Phoenix.  My dad updated his blog  the other day and I am lucky enough to be able to talk to them 1-2 times a day but I wish I could be in two places at once,  taking care of them and also being home with Ryan and the girls.   He seems to be handling this transplant well so far,  they are just waiting for all his numbers to hit bottom and then they will start giving him the shots to multiply his new cells.   I am looking forward to my visit on July 6th to spend time with both of them.  I need that visual contact so I can see with my own two eyes they are doing okay. 

And just for kicks the other day when I was painting my nails I decided to paint Zoe's while she slept.  It never even fazed her and now me and my baby girl have matching nails :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend....Happy Birthday to ME!!

My Father, My Hero

I talked to my parents last night,  they made is safely up to Salt Lake.  They left early yesterday morning,  stopped in St George for a blessing from my Uncle B and made it up to Salt Lake last night in enough time to grab the keys to the apartment and unpack.  My mom says the apartment is nicer than the one they had last time (which I thought was really nice)  and they look out onto the Gateway courtyard.

My dad gets his port line put back in today and should be in the hospital and receive his 2nd round of chemo this weekend, and his 2nd round of stem cells next week.  My plan is to go up and spend a week up there the 1st week of July when my dad will be hopefully gearing up to get out of the hospital.  We had such a great response from the 1st round, so everyone pray we have just as good a response this time and it knocks him into complete remission!!

Before they left we were able to have a BBQ for Father's Day at the house last Saturday,  we had my parents and brother and Ryan's parents and some cousins over to swim.  Ryan's cousins were a little afraid of the dogs at first.  I forget to tell people we have dogs I am just so used to them being around when people come over.  By the end of the BBQ though the kids had warmed up to them and were not to afraid.  They realized the dogs were following them because they wanted food :)

I was able to take this picture with my Dad.  I wish he didn't have a hat on because it makes people think he is still bald,  but he isn't his hair has grown back probably a 1/2 inch or more all over and I think it looks great.  He had the hat on though because he didn't want to burn his head.

I am less scared this time about my dad's treatment, we pretty much know what to expect and I know my dad is NOT looking forward to being sick again but he knows it is worth it to kick cancer's ass. :)  The care he received was top notch and we are looking forward to him being home in 5 weeks.  He has been really lucky that since he has been home from his 1st transplant he hasn't had to take any medicines and has been able to go back to work, golfing and pretty much all the things he loves.  I am hoping the transition from the 2nd transplant will be just as smooth.

I love my dad very much,  he is my hero and has always been there for my whenever I need him.  I was lucky enough to not only be his daughter but be his roommate also for the better part of 6 years and it not only made him my dad but one of my best friends.  When we first started living together our relationship was nothing like it is today,  but without him I wouldn't be where I am today and I wouldn't have the great relationships I have with him, my mom and my brothers.  He is one of the most loving, caring people I know and will give you the shirt off his back and the last dollar in his wallet, even if he himself needs it.  I am so proud to call him my Dad and am so excited to have him done with transplants and back to his new normal. 

 I'll even go see Harry Potter with him if he wants and I don't like those movies :)

Love you Dad and even though you have to be in the hospital on Father's Day, it's worth it so we have many many more....

Don't mind the mess...

I had to post this picture,  my cute little family all sleeping on the couch (while I'm cleaning the bathrooms)  I came out to find them all zonked. 

P.S.  Don't mind all the blankets,  they went swimming and we load the blankets on the couch so we don't get wet dog hair all over!

And Mag's doesn't have freaky eyes like that, it's my camera phone LOL



San Diego Part 2...

Here is a few more pictures I wanted to post of Sea World, the Zoo and the USS Midway.

They have this program with wild animals and dogs,  these two were raised since birth together and were best friends.  They were so cute together.

You could pay $5 and feed biscuits to the giraffe's there was a huge line of kids to feed them

 Ryan laying in the spacious bunks



I can't wait to go back soon but it sure was nice to be home this weekend!  I came out from cleaning in the bathroom on Saturday to find my 3 babes all sleeping peacefully on the couch together.  Those are the moments I love. :)

Ryan and I were able to stop by my friend Anna's little girls 4th birthday party on Saturday, it was so funny because I told Ryan it was a fairy and tutu's party but I don't think he listened and thought we were going to their house.  I pulled into the parking lot of the dance studio called Fairytales and Tutus and Ryan was like huh?  I think he was a little overwhelmed with all the girls dancing all over the place ;)  It's what he has to look forward to some time in the future when we have kids. lol

I then took him on a secret date,  I took him to a restaurant in the Forum shops called Max Brenner's he is a chocolatier and if you have a night free and want to get a good dessert full of chocolate..GO.  Get the sharing tasting menu for the dessert and ENJOY!  We then walked across the street to the Bellagio to watch the water shows, Ryan took me on one of our first dates there, we saw 3-4 of them they were playing every 10-15 minutes.  It was a great night and we came home to our 4 legged children and all cuddled on the couch and watched a movie together :)

Looking forward to next weekend we are celebrating Father's Day early since my dad will be back up in Salt Lake having a 2nd transplant.  He is not looking forward to it, but he responded so well to the 1st treatment that his doctor's feel he should have another one just to kill the cancer even more.  We know what to expect this time so even though it is not going to be fun for my dad we know this is the best thing to do so we can be cancer free in 2012!

And We're Back!!

Ryan and I were able to travel to San Diego over the holiday weekend, thanks to my Aunt and Uncle who gave us use of their time share as part of our wedding present.  Its funny because we have basically had this trip planned since right after we got married, since we needed to give them a heads up of where we wanted to go on the list of available places they gave us so they could make sure it was available.  So we have definitely been looking forward to this trip for almost 10 months! :)

We left Friday after noon and the drive was not bad at all,  by 6pm we were both getting hungry but we decided to just raid the grapes and crackers I had packed in the cooler and eat when we got to San Diego.  We always try to find restaurants we want to go to before we actually get there,  I know I have mentioned this before but we love to eat good food.   Well we looked up the Studio Diner which was featured on Triple D and since we both pretty much hadn't eaten all day we headed there with empty stomachs!   Unless something really pops out at us we normally try to order what was either featured on the show or what is the most popular and in this case we got both.  Ryan ordered the fish and chips and me the monte cristo

The food was huge,  I got through 1 1/2 of the sandwich wedges and Ryan got through a wedge of my sandwich and not even half of his fish.  But man it was good!  

Saturday we woke up early to make it to Sea World when the park opened.   I really thought with it being a holiday weekend it was going to be miserable,  but even though it was packed we arrived 30 minutes early for each show and got pretty good seats.  Sea World is very different now than when I was a kid,  they have like 5 shows now, including one that is pattered after a Cirque show in LV, it was interesting.  Unfortunately the lamest show was the Shamu show,  they do not let the trainers in the water with them whales anymore I guess do to a death a few years ago so now basically the whales swim around do a few jumps and splash water at the crowd.  It was a disappointment, obviously I do not want any trainers getting hurt or even killed but if that is going to be the signature show they need to re-vamp it somehow.

I think the Sea Lion and Dolphin show's were my favorite of the day,  all in all we had a great day and didn't leave the park until around 6:30-7pm.  We rented a movie went back to the hotel and I don't even think we made it through half before we were asleep!

Sunday we woke up early again (I know not very fun for vacation) we wanted to be to the Zoo when it opened.  I have to say the San Diego Zoo is my favorite zoo and if you have a chance to go there I would definitely recommend it.  We took the guided bus tour first which is about 35-40 minutes and it gives you the layout of the zoo.  When I was a kid and we used to go to the San Diego zoo they did not have a few things they have now,  like the Express Bus that you can hop on and off of OR the escalator's that take you up to the top of the zoo,  let me tell you what a difference those two things make.  The zoo is big and on a pretty steep hill so by the end of the day when I was a kid we were tired and would stand at the bottom of the hill and say "Do we really need to see ____?"  But now you still do plenty of walking but being able to hop on the bus at the giraffe and take it up the hill to the polar bears is amazing!

I think the polar bears were my favorite this time,  they were VERY active, we got to see them swim, eat and play with each other.  It was a great day and Ryan and I had so much fun.  We got to watch all the little kids be so excited to see the animals and we can't wait to go back to the zoo once we have a family.

Monday morning we woke up and got the timeshare ready for my cousin Alicia to come use it and then headed out to get some food before heading home.   After we finished breakfast we decided we weren't ready to go home yet, and since it was Memorial Day we headed down to the dock to tour the USS Midway Museum.   I had been there before with my friend Jaime, but this was Ryan's first time.  I think it is a cool museum showing what life above a naval aircraft carrier is like. There were a lot of veteran's there and we talked to at least 4-5 of them about the difference carrier's they flew.  It was very interesting and we even had flyover planes. It was funny because when I went with Jaime we are both very short and had no problems walking up and down any of the hallways or staircases, but Ryan being over 6ft had a different experience.  

SIDE NOTE: I left my camera at home today so there will be a part 2 of this post with all the pictures I didn't get to upload, including Ryan squeezing into one of the officers bunks,  looks cozy :)

Anyways,  we had a great trip.  We are two weeks away from our 10 month anniversary,  time is definitely flying by.   I am so grateful the the opportunities Ryan and I have had to travel in this first year of our marriage,  these are the times we will look back on in years to come and be glad that even though it hurts the pocketbook a little bit that we took the time out to enjoy ourselves and enjoy each other.  Everyday our marriage gets stronger and I know I made the best decision of my life marrying him.