GUESS WHERE I WAS LAST NIGHT?!?!

Yesterday I got an unexpected call from my friend patty's brother bob. He said hey rachel are you interested in going to the Police concert. As you all should know by know the 80's freak that I am of course I could not pass it up! So we rocked out last night for 2 hours to the Police. It was so good. Sting sounded awesome! Patty and I were cracking up because some of the people there were probably born after the police. They didn't know the lyrics but none the less we all rocked out! Our seats were awesome as you can tell by the pictures. Plus I got to sit by patty. We had the best time! So thank you Bob Carvalho for thinking of me! Woooo Hoooo!

One Last Surprise

We fly back in to Orange County Saturday evening. Once we landed we headed over to Rob's younger brother Brian. Little did he know that his family had planned a surprise dinner party for him. It was too great! He was so clueless about everything that was planned. Rob usually always finds out and I get so mad but not this year! Here are a few pictures from the party. Our good friends Patty and Al were in town and came over for the party as well. So nice to see them! It was nice to just hang out and visit with family.

More surprises for Rob

I had another surprise that Rob didn't know about. I am happy to say that I truly surprised him this year. Wooo Hooo! So we went to Universal on his actual birthday and then the next day was the graduation. We hung out with robs family most of the day and then bunnie had dinner over at her house. My niece Robyn had agreed earlier that she would keep my kids so she slyly asked rob if she could just have the kids over so she could spend time with him. He bought it and agreed. Then we all decided to go down to the beach and see this photography exhibit called Illume. It was getting late at this point and I was trying not to blow the surprise so I went along. We were staying at our friends spence house and it was a good drive away. I was thinking to myself Oh my heck we have to be up so early tomorrow but kept on. So we got home after midnight and had to be back up at 4am. I got rob up and told him lets go I have a surprise for you. We packed all of our things up and I had already packed an overnight bag for us. We got in the car and left. I finally had to tell him on the way to the airport that I was flying us to San Francsco overnight. So we arrived at 8:30 am and took the bart. What an experience!
I felt like a fish out of water in this huge city. The bart was too cool! Then we went and checked in to our hotel. We stayed at the Westin St. Francis. It was very very nice. Once we checked in we were off down to Fisherman's warf so we could go on the tour of Alcatraz. Alcatraz was really neat. We had a good time there! We went to dinner at a place called the Stinking Rose. It specializes in garlic. It was so good. I like garlic alright, but Rob LOVES garlic so that is why I chose it. Rob smelled like garlic for days!
The next day we day we walked around. Again I was amazed at the buildings. I think this is the first big city that I had been too. It was so cool! I would just stand and stare, people must have thought I was crazy. We went to China town, shopping, North beach (little Italy). We just had the best time spending time with each other and not having to worry about the kids. It was a really quick trip and we were exhasted, but soooo worth it. The best part was that is really didn't cost too much!

Laguna Beach--Season 1

I had to put a post in for this. Rob's best friend John's niece was the one who saved the day and came and babysat for them so they could go to Universal with us. John's niece Morgan was on the first season of Laguna Beach. Laguna Beach was a reality based tv show on MTV. I used to watch it quite a bit the first season. I was cracking up on the way home thinking I have to take a picture of her and put it on my blog as I have friends who LOVED that show. So here it is. She is so tiny in person! She is so sweet and nice and beautiful and a good sport to let me take the picture. When we got home she was watching One Tree Hill which I love...I know I know it is a teenager smutty show but I still like it...anyways she was watching it as it was the season finale and I was like oh my gosh what is happening and we were cracking up because her friend Steven (who was on laguna beach) is now on One tree hill. So Morgan...thanks for being a good sport and letting me take a picture of you!

Relaxing

So after a long day of walking around at Universal Studios we....Brenda, Rita and myself decided to treat ourselves. We saw these huge water massage tables and decided to go in. We had a bit of a wait and so we decided to try a few of their other things. We tried out the scented "pure oxygen" what a bunch of bull. They put hot heating pads on our shoulders and rubbed our backs. We thought it was funny and something fun to try. The smells actually started to give me a headache. The water massage on the other hand was great!

Happy Birthday Rob

I am not sure where to start....We have been so busy these past few weeks. Last week was my husbands big 40th birthday! I still can't believe that he is that old! It doesnt seem possible. Thank heavens I am quite a few years younger! I am not ready to be 40 yet. So we went to california last week because our nephew Sterling was graduating from high school, little did Rob know the many surprises that I had for him! On robs actual birthday we spent it with his 2 best friends and their wives. They both live out in california so it worked out great. We ended up going to Universal Studios. It was so much fun! We timed it great because we didn't have to wait for any of the rides. Here are a few pictures that I snapped. I always get so caught up in the fun I forget to take pictures. The times I thought I had been taking pictures it was actually on Video so I have videos of us but not a lot of pictures.

pioneer trek

Kyle and Kailey went on our stake pioneer trek a couple of weeks ago. They were in separate families. Kyle was with the Lambert family and Kailey was with the Turley family. They seemed to have a really good time. I must say that I was a little disappointed with the whole thing. I was hoping that is was more like the one that I did when I was a young teenager. I wonder who planned this? I don't want to rip on them or anything like that but basically all they did was pull the carts the whole entire time and then had only a few hours to be in "Zion". I appreciate all that went into planning it and for the time that my kids "parents" took helping them with this experience. Way back when.....when I went we got up at the crack of dawn met where and who our families were and started our trek. We did it as a stake and split families up according, so we weren't ward families but stake famlies. This was hard for me because I didn't really know anyone in my family all that well. But we pulled the cart until the wee hours of the morning and was given broth of some sort. We didn't have snacks the whole time. All we had was water, it was brutal. Not to down play my kids experience but they could eat the snacks when they wanted. I am guessing because that was all they did pull. So then the next morning we woke up packed up our cart and pulled a few more hours until we got to Zion. Then as a family we had to pick where we wanted our camp to be. Everyone ended up being in a HUGE circle once everyone arrived and then the rest of the time we had sooo many activities. We plucked chickens, shot guns, made soap, butter, chop wood it goes on and on. Then we would meet together as a family and read scriptures together. We slept together as families not divided girls, and boys. Well the boys had a tent in the family and the girls had a tent. They let older people in the wards go as brothers and sisters who helped chaparone. At night we would all meet down with the stake and dance and sing. We stayed during sunday which was of course the day of rest and we wrote in our journals, read scriptures. I don't know...we just really felt the importance of families and working together. We really bonded. I don't mean to be debbie downer just I was hoping for my kids to experience this and they really didn't. They thought it was alright but all they said about it was "all we did was pull the cart". Not what I was hoping them to get out of it. I guess maybe this is the difference between being in a city and small town. Maybe most people from the city wouldn't want to do those types of things. Ok enough of my ranting....I am posting some before pictures and some after pictures.

Slip and Slide

So we have our very own swimming pool in our back yard. We have had it for years! But somehow my sweet daughter makenna talked me into buying a slip and slide. I said makenna we have a swimming pool and she said but mom it gets boring. Can you believe that? I just chuckled and caved when I saw they were only $7.00 at walmart. So needless to say they have been having a blast slipping and sliding all over. They usually swim then go slide then swim then slide. Good old fashioned summer fun! Mindy came over and reminded me of the ones we used to use when we were little. It consisted of going over to grandma cowley's house, finding a roll of plastic and lay it down on the grass. Then we would go and get dish soap and spread it all over it and add water and ta da you have a getto slip and slide. We loved it as kids. In fact I think I have pictures somewhere of us. I will have to look and post them if I find them. Good times! On a positive note...all the excess water has helped the back yard grass look awesome!

Almost done!

As you can see the closet is almost finished! All rob has left to do is caulk the edges and then paint. I am sooo excited. We will also have to paint the outside of the closet. We have had it textured for awhile but wanted to wait to paint it. It is going to be so nice to have it done and food out of every room! So my hope is the next time I post about this closet will be the finished product! Yeah to rob for working hard this weekend and knocking it out!

Closet pictures

This is the left side of our closet. We made 9 shelves on this side. I am actually using this for small canned items, swim towels, blankets, games etc. I made some larger shelves on the bottom and then a little smaller on top. I also left a place for my vacuum and brooms. It is finally taking shape! Woo Hoo!

Progress.....close to finishing?!?!?!

So this is the right side of the closet. We had to revamp our first idea because the cans wouldn't roll very well. So this is what rob and darin came up with. Each shelf will hold 8 cans. Well the middle shelves will hold 6 but both the other side will hold 8 cans. We ended up with 16 shelves if you can believe that. Our one side will hold 352 cans or 58 cases. Wow! The sad part is, I think we have more than that sitting around. Oh well it is a great start!

Progress slowly but surely

So I took these pictures quite a few weeks ago and just haven't posted them until today. As you can see the closet is taking new form. The lights are all done inside and the door is put on. In fact now it is all textured on the outside as well as the inside. Rob and Darin have been working on it this morning building the shelves. FINALLY I can start to see some progress. I hope that rob stays motivated and gets all of the shelves put in today. That would be awesome! I am so tired of seeing all of my closet stuff, it. blankets, food, games sitting all over my house and in my garage! Just thought you all might enjoy seeing what is taking place at our house today!