A Few Hours at Universal City Walk

Thursday morning mother, Hannah and I drove to Universal City and spent a few exciting and memorable hours there.

When Hannah saw the giant guitar displayed outside the Hard Rock Cafe she decided it would work well for Paul Bunion.

Is that really the way his name was spelled?

Maybe he had serious foot problems because of his size.

There are so many different restaurants to choose from when you get hungry.

They're air conditioned and so refreshing to step into on a hot day.

We chose NOT to go to a restaurant.

Since it was a mere 100 degrees outside we chose to sit outside.

I looked around to find the best area with the most shade so we sat down with our food of choice:

Tommy's! One of the best chili burgers in the U.S.

With music playing so loud that mother and I had to say - huh - each time we tried to visit,

and wiping our brow instead of our mouths because of the heat we sat there and insisted we were enjoying our lunch.............it was kind of nice when the breeze came up.

After lunch we struck out to do some serious shopping.

Mother saw the Incredible Hulk in front of this store and I couldn't keep her away!

I pulled, scolded and begged her to not make a scene but she just HAD to run back and strike a pose with him. I decided she was a lonely, desperate woman, so I just let her enjoy the moment.

By the look on her face - she's really enjoying the moment! Don't you think?

After I finally pulled her away from Mr. Incredible we walked along enjoying each others company and the various shops.

Until mother spotted this prize. If I remember correctly she told him he might have a chance if he would quit smoking, wash his face and do something about that missing hand. He ignored her completely so she moved on. When she saw this cute little man she went right over to him and began flirting again! He just stood there quietly, seeming to enjoy the attention from this attractive red head; so mother took it one step further to the touching phase!!! He must have been extremely shy because he never said a word - even when she put her hand on his so she gave up on him and we moved on down the walkway. Suddenly, King Kong came swinging down from a tall building just behind us. When Hannah turned to see what the commotion was, she was startled by the HUGE ferocious beast and began screaming. Everyone else didn't seem to be too frightened, they just continued on as if there was nothing to be scared of. Poor little Hannah. To get away from this frightening beast we ran into the closest store. OR To get away from the fierce, beastly heat we ran in to BEN & JERRY'S. Isn't it amazing what ice cream can do to restore everything back to being tolerable? Hannah and her newly adopted friend Otis shared a cup of chocolate brownie with me. MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm........... it was so cold and refreshing AND chocolaty.

Mother chose a waffle cone with Cherry Garcia and a chocolate concoction combined.

She said it was really good - of course it was - it was BEN & JERRY'S, what could go wrong?!

Do you know how some people can eat ice cream and look so suave?

I decided to take pictures of mother while she was enjoying her ice cream.

Tell me how you think they turned out. Do you like: The one above????

This one?????

Is it better without the ice cream in her mouth???

How about this one????

Do you think she got drunk on the Cherry Garcia!!

Maybe if she took her hat off it would turn out better. NO, we decided we'd better keep the hat on since it was such a hot day and her head had absorbed all of the heat!

We finally got to laughing so hard about it that I quickly snapped a picture as she was laughing.

I think I like this one the best. Really. What about you?

Before we left to come home Hannah enjoyed the spray from the sidewalk and then we were back in the car fighting traffic on the 101 and 5 freeways in order to get home.

It was all worth it though because I had such a nice day with mother and Hannah.

Desert, Indio & Friends

Last Friday Hannah and I headed down to Indio which is a little bit east of Palm Springs.

As we passed these windmills I couldn't help wondering .............. what if aliens came to our planet and saw these - would they wonder what they are?

Would they know we are generating power - or would they think we are gathering propellers from abandoned aircraft because we like to watch them spin? After we passed the windmills and came into Indio I got off of the freeway and began to look for a place to stay.

We were just spending one night there;

all we needed was a decent, clean looking place in a safe looking area with clean bathrooms, clean carpets, walls and linens that also had little bottles of shampoo and conditioner because I had left mine at home.

Do you think I was expecting too much?

As we drove all around the city of Indio I did not see ONE place that fit into that category. Everything looked old, run down and I could envision a parking lot full of strange people later that night.....not a pleasant thought.

So I got back on the freeway and backtracked a couple of miles to 1000 Palms where I found a Quality Inn and Suites.

This is not the Quality Inn and Suites.

It was the resort where the Claunches were staying and they invited us to come and spend the afternoon/evening with them and swim in those beautiful pools.

So that's exactly what we did!

This is Becky and Don's grandson, Caleb. He and his sister Chloe showed us the pools since they were able to swim earlier that day.

This is Chloe and her mommy, DeeDee.

DeeDee's the one inside the tube ;0)

Later in the evening, Don and Becky bought pizza for everyone and we sat outside enjoying the evening breeze as we ate.

I couldn't help snapping this picture of Don because I loved what his hair was doing.

HaHaHaHa........I thought it was funny.

He's a good enough sport to where I know he won't mind me sharing this with everybody.

This is what Hannah and I were doing while we were waiting for the pizza.

It was called the 'Lazy River' and it was so relaxing.

We had a wonderful time swimming, but we especially liked spending time with the Claunches.

Thank you Becky for inviting us. We LOVED it!

Hannah, What Have You Been Up To?

Well, in August I had my Brownie troop over to my house and we designed two pages for our Brownie scrap books from the various pictures we took of our activities.

These are some of my friends from the troop. Aren't they cute?

Here we are brain storming about how we will do our scrapbooks....or maybe we were just enjoying a little snack before we got started. This was serious work, so it took all of my concentration.

Once I had my page organized I could finally relax and enjoy the moment.

In September our Brownie troop had our final activity. Most of us will not continue with the Girl Scout organization. I have chosen not to continue because I will focus on Primary Activity Days and the goals for the Faith In God program instead. Since this would be our last activity we chose to have a swim party at one of our leaders home.

This is four of us waiting for everyone else to arrive so the party could begin.

It was very hot and humid that day. This lady had a portable air conditioner that people really enjoyed being close to. That's my Brownie leader enjoying the breeze. My mom seemed to stick very close by too.

Mom snapped a number of pictures but I wasn't aware of it here.

Or here.

This cupcake got me excited though and I found my eyes being drawn up above the table.

After we opened gifts and ate cupcakes we headed for the backyard to swim. I was the first one in the pool ...... that's me, the one with the head bobbing in the background.

There's not too many things I enjoy more than swimming.

I think it would be great to be a mermaid.

This was just last week. We had a patriotic concert at school. We had to carry our chairs out so we would have somewhere to sit while our class waited for the kindergardeners through 3rd graders to sing.

Finally it was time for the fourth graders to assemble in front of the audience. I tried out for one of the solo parts and got it, so I got to stand in front with the other soloists.

This was my solo group. We were really nervous at first....

Then it got easier. I think I liked doing it!

After we finished we stepped back and hoped that the audience liked it.

They did!

So we were very happy.

I HEARD IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY

Here's the man of honor, the birthday boy, the Silver Fox himself.

Does he look happy to be turning 65?

This is one of Mike's favorite places to go for a really good steak....Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill. Cara was still at work and Mike was ready for dinner; that's why you won't see Cara in our delicious dinner pictures.

This is how we chose to begin our eating extravaganza: Shoestring fried onion rings. MMMMM..........SO GOOD! Mike didn't used to like onion rings - can you imagine that? Then he married me and has learned to enjoy some of the finer things in life - well, maybe I can only take credit for introducing him to the finer fatty foods.

Mike ordered ribeye steak, one of his favorites.

Hannah ordered every steakhouse's specialty -

macaroni and cheese.

Blake's favorite for the evening was baby back ribs - one of my favorites also. I didn't show what I ordered because it wasn't really exciting. I ordered rotisserie chicken and broccoli, mmmm... :0 {

After dinner, we came home and opened the ONE present he had to open. He had already opened the ones he got before his birthday because he can't stand to wait. He isn't looking too excited about this one is he. It was a cedar plank to cook salmon on the grill. He also got a basket for cooking fish on the grill and some new cinder rocks for the bbq. Exciting huh? Keeley sent him a pocket watch with #1 DAD engraved on it.

Tracey said he had to wait to get his from her because it was too big to mail. Wonder what it could be???

To end the evening we sang happy birthday and let him blow out his candles. He was too full from dinner to enjoy the cake so Cara and Hannah had a piece. Two days later he still hasn't eaten any; and it's his favorite: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Happy Birthday Mike.