Pet?

20 years ago we found a lizard in the yard. We named him Larry. We kept him in the house for awhile. Eventually he got out of his cage and lived in Carly and Cheri's room for a week. When we caught him we let him go in the yard. We would see him occasionally over the years, but haven't seen him for quite awhile. Last week Melody found a smaller version of Larry the Lizard. We have named him Larry Jr.

Hermosa Fair

"She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah . . ."

This is a Beatles tribute band called: Paperback Writer. They were awesome! The Beatles were a little ahead of my time, but of course I recognized almost all of their songs. After 10 or so songs, they would take a break and come back in different costumes to correspond with another album that the Beatles put out. And then they would sing all those songs off the album. They nailed it. They played for almost 3 hours.

Every Memorial and Labor Day weekends, Hermosa Beach puts on a fair. The Fiesta. Love it! David went down early to run and got the perfect parking space in the structure. I took the free shuttle down a couple of hours later and we met up. The shuttle pick-up is across the street from our home. Up and down the street we went checking out the vendors. Got some bling-y jewelry and enjoyed free food give-a-ways. After listening to the band for a little bit, we laid out on the sand within listening distance and enjoyed the rest of their concert. (It was nice to have the car so close so we could pick up and drop off our beach chairs.) Loved being outside in the sun. Loved the blue ocean. Love Southern California. Kids: come home!!

YW class

As you can see, the YW lesson last week was on Temple Marriage. Because I believe that this is the lesson of the year, I wanted it to be different and more special. So David helped me set up the "classroom" on the stage last Saturday. {Okay, he did all the lifting, chair set-up, and getting tables for me. I did all the girly stuff.} There was also another table in there with the leaders' wedding albums and pictures on it and the girls loved looking through those. The stake YW president came and briefly told her story about how grateful she is for temple blessings. Her husband died in 1989 and she was left with 5 young girls. As sad as that was (is), she is confident in her eternal perspective because they chose to marry in the right place. It was a powerful lesson for those girls.
Those wedding dresses hanging up are Carly's and mine. I thought mine was pretty white until I held it up next to Carly's. That's what 31 years will do! (It's actually not as yellow as this picture makes it out to be.)
Part two of this lesson continues this Sunday -- preparing to become an eternal companion -- but it won't be as "showy" as this one was. I have to say, it was fun preparing for.

Pinkalicious

Girls Weekend 2011

I had a full year to prepare for Girls Weekend. That could be either a good thing or a bad thing. I choose to believe it was an awesome thing. Since the theme was "pink," naturally anything in that hue caught my eye. I filled up a dresser (and more) with pink stuff. So here we go:

SUGAR!!!!!
(Click on the above image to see it up close. What you don't see are the pink lights around the entrance to the dining room. Or the pink chair bows. Or all the pink garland and decorations hanging from the chandelier.)

Kami, Michelle, me, Laura, Carly
(Carly and Laura are pregnant with boys. How cute are they??)
We always start the girlness off with pedicures at a salon. And we used every shade of pink possible. We did our own manicures later that night while we watched "Rat Race." (and laughed our heads off)

This was the breakfast table set up outside on the patio. We had to eat lunch out here too. (The dining room table was "occupied".) And yes, I had to buy new pink dishes for the occasion. Had to.

In our new pashmina scarves, thanks to Michelle.


Cheri wasn't able to join us this year, but she put together this subway art for us. We each had an 8x10 copy and decorated a pink frame to display it in. We also blinged out some pink flip flops during our Arts and Crafts night.

Saturday morning finds us out the door at 5:00 to drive to the Coliseum for the Revlon Run. We work the VIP check-in every year. We have that DOWN!

Here we are with Arjay . {Do you recognize him from the Snickers commercials?} We made friends with him last year and he seemed very pleased that we remembered him this year. His mom even talked to Michelle for a long time. They're best friends now.

Carly and Michael

Michael was lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of the days with us. I mean, with David mostly. Both guys helped us at the Revlon Run. (we need muscles) They were good sports with this totally "girl" weekend. Not to mention that the whole house was turned into a pink show. (The bathrooms and kitchen were redecorated to be pink.) We had way too much fun, ate great food at L.A. Food Show and Saigon Dish, listened to great music, laughed a TON, shopped, (oh my gosh -- we now own new way-too-cute purses {thanks Kami!} and shoes), and we consumed lots of sugar. We were all in our happy place. All weekend. And thank you, David, for putting up with this every year. I nominate you for "Husband of the Year"! Whoop whoop.
I'm thinking about a theme for next year. Don't know how to top this one. Ideas??

Pink

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