Mother's Day Bike Ride by the Bay

Today was Mother's Day and what better way to celebrate the woman who gave birth to you than by kicking her off the couch, and strapping her up to a bike for some forced physical exertion?? Okay, maybe not quite that tramatizing, because it was in fact a beautiful day and a ton of fun.

Joey, myself, Kevin, Trent and my mom loaded up the truck with all 4.5 of our bikes and headed out...

Ready Set Go!

Doesn't my mom look intense? She is.

The boys right to left: Kev, Joey & Trentinator leading the pack

Yours Truly. Trying to look as intense as my mom

Wait for it...

And then I choked on a bug that flew in my mouth

A note about the bug that I ate... I must have been coughing for at least 10 minutes. So much for looking intense.

Me & Momma

 Please excuse the fact that I have no makeup on and therefore no eyebrows. I could write an entire post about my invisible blonde eyebrows, but I'll save that little gem for you to look forward to another day.

Trentinator

Trent & Kev

Me & Joey - right before he eats it.

He thinks he is SOOO cool. Little does he know. NO ONE looks cool in a helmet.

Trentceratops. See what I did there? I combined Trent and Triceratops 

This was Trent's helmet hair after the ride. Too awesome to pass up a photo of this bad boy.

Not a bad little Mother's Day! And mom didn't get hurt, so that's a bonus right? In all seriousness though, Joey and I have a lot to be grateful for with amazing moms, stepmom, and new-mother friends who bring a lot of love, care & certainly good food to our lives. Here's to mom's everywhere! Overworked and underpaid, but certainly never forgotten!

Cinco de Mayo Fun!

Cinco de Mayo finally del on a Saturday this year and this was cause for a little extra celebration, so our good friends Cary and Lucas (celebrity name - Carcus) decided to very graciously host a Cinco de Mayo BBQ at there lovely abode.

Lucas with his Beer & Nacho Cheese

Let me tell you a little about Lucas. It's not a Lucas Wilder party unless there is a gallon of processed canned nacho cheese warming in the crock pot and mexican beer ponchos. This tradition actually has nothing to do with Cinco de Mayo, he just really likes nacho cheese and ponchos. And as gross and terrible as that hydrogenated neon yellow cheese is... no one has the will power to resist it. No one.

Man I'm glad our friends can cook

This was just a sliver of the food we finished off. There was also at least 20 lbs of meat that got BBQ'd.

The bonus of the day was that the Kentucky Derby was also going on...

So once the race came on the TV, in true Derby fashion.... out came the hats....

GT and his Son Brewer... Adorable-ness

Fun with Friends

Me, Trinette & Lisa

We also discovered a new favorite drink... Limaritas! It's a margarita made with bud light lime... I highly recommend it!

The weather gods were obviously aware of the day's events an provide us with a gorgeous California day, so everyone ended up lazing out in the backyard. We live hard lives. Obviously....

Backyard Fun

GT and Brewer decided to camp in the backyard that night, so they set up their twelve thousand square foot tent. OK, no that big but it was pretty huge and awesome. It even had 3 compartmentalized rooms in it. The boys also dusted off the cornhole bean bags and set up a few games...

Cornhole Tournament

More Cornhole

Baby Kendall - She makes hats look good

Baby Evan - too cute!

Brewer & Lisa

Life of the Party - Kevin Shanahan

This picture is awesome because 9 times out of 10 when Joe and I hang out at our friends Lisa & Kevin's place, I end up taking a nap on their couch by about 8pm... Hence the irony in this Kodak moment.

It was a fabulous day with fabulous friends!

The Honey-Do List

If you're married, you know what this is... Every couple's got one. The Honey-Do List... Basically all of the annoying things you need to fix around the house that you are always pestering your "honey" to do.

So what did we do this weekend? The Honey-Do List of course!!! Well, not all of it, but anytime we can knock off any one of those items on that ever-growing list is an accomplishment. The main entree of this weekend's checklist? Getting rid of the doorbell. Why's that you ask? Because it's this big yellowish box that sticks out of the wall RIGHT above our television. Something that I'm sure no one but me has ever noticed, but I could NOT stop looking at it. I mean, come on.

The Doorbell...

Lovely ain't it? Well, it had to go. And no we couldn't just take it out because a) we need a doorbell and b) we are only renting our house, and I'm sure landlords frown upon the removal of common household functions. SO, being the problem solvers that we are, we decided to install a shelf and hide it behind a lovely picture frame. The other added bonus of the Honey-Do List is getting to watch Hubby go to work :) So after a quick (relatively) trip to IKEA and one $30 shelf later, Hubby was installing our hide-that-doorbell-behind-a-frame-that-sits-on-a SHELF!

What's that you say? You love the drill he's using? Why, thanks for noticing. It was a Christmas present from his super awesome wife!

Once the brackets were drilled into the wall (yes we may have calculated that each of the three top screws in each bracket was carrying no more than 20 pounds in tension and was deemed acceptable to our very high structural standards) it was time for the true test... how level was the shelf? Who needs a level when you have unlimited soccer balls sitting around in the garage doing nothing.

VOILA! The soccer ball rests peacefully! As level as it gets! Good thing too cause for a second there I considered displaying nothing but antique porcelain spheres on that shelf.

What else is that you say? Why yes, that drill DOES have a light on it. Which would have been crucial had we needed to install this shelf in the middle of the night during a blackout.

Level!

 And just incase there was any doubt, proof. Proof that my husband is a shelf-installing-professional. What more could a girl ask for? I know, how about this....

Cleaning up his mess

YEP! The true success of this entire day. Hubby was caught on camera vacuuming up the drywall mess that he drilled out of the wall and onto our TV stand. YEP! My man VACUUMS!!!! Never letting him go!

Final Product!

Doorbell? What doorbell? Looks SO MUCH BETTER!

Now I need to hurry up and print that picture of Joey vacuuming so it too can be displayed up on the new shelf ;-)

What Happens in Vegas...

Goes on my Blog of course!!!

Last weekend Joey and I went on Vacation!!! to Vegas!!! with Friends!!! That intro is just way too exciting isn't it? Well, it was exciting. All of it.

My golden birthday was Wednesday (I turned 28 on the 28th) and our friend Lucas' golden birthday was Friday (30 on the 30th) so the universe was in perfect harmony for us and 12 of our closest friends to head to Vegas. Let me tell you a little about the trip...

First... Joey and I flew out on Virgin America Airlines. It was my first time on that airline and trust me, it lived up to all the hype.

Flight to Vegas

Fancy night club lighting and ALL the Mahjong my heart could desire. This vacation was starting off on exactly the right foot!

Once we arrived in the City of Sin, we headed straight to meet our friends at our hotel, the Cosmopolitan. This is one of the newest casino's on the strip and it was unbelievable. Here's what we saw as we entered the lobby.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Yeah. Amazing right? The chandelier bar was pretty self-explanatory. I couldn't stop staring at it...

Chandelier Bar

Two stories tall and glorious. Basically a ginormous work of art where you can order overpriced drinks. So cool.

As if the entire vacation weren't already jaw dropping enough, Lucas booked a super sweet two-story roof top pool side suite for us all to hang out in. Don't believe me?

Lucas' Amazing Suite

Yep. Those are stairs. IN the suite. Whoa. 

So, now that we were all settled in, we could commence our long weekend of vacation celebration.

Vicky, Lisa, Me, Lindsey & Trinette

The Girls: Lisa, Trinette, Cary, Lindsey, Vicky, Me

The Boys: Steve, Dave, Joey, Mike, Kevin, Jameson, Mike & Lucas

Obligatory Prom Pic!

Out on the Patio of the Suite

Tons of fun and I believe Joey and I stayed up until 4am on the first night in vegas. For sure an ultimate record for us. The next day we all lounged around in the pool. Correction... Rooftop Pool. Up 14 stories in the sky, we were bobbing eye-level with skyscrapers. It was crazy.

Rooftop Pool. Not too shabby

Followed by a quick gambling session where I won $140 playing video poker. I'm a natural. And very good at quitting while I'm ahead.

Bling Bling!

With enough napping and 5 hour energy, we were ready for another night! But not without some seriously fine dining...

Papa Johns!

 OK, maybe not your idea of fine dining but this pizza hit the spot and we could all eat and hang out in the suite before heading out for the night.

Me and Hubby. And Luke highjacking the pic as usual.

Love these girls

That night, we we all eager to go see a show. I mean, when in Vegas.... you know... do as the Vegasians do? See a show? OK, maybe that's not a saying, but anyways...

Cary's Awkward Solo Shot

Cary offered to give me a photo op of the show... Isn't she adorable? Yep! And awkward? Yeah. Kinda.

Let the show begin!

 Doesn't this show look cool, and amazing, and exciting? Well, it was. Ask ANY of the girls that were watching. However, ask any of the guys in our party, they will tell you they got the best (and possibly most expensive) nap of their lives. Not one guy stayed awake to see the show. Maybe staying up the night before gambling had something to do with it...

Naps aside, the vacation was incredible. Our first time in Vegas together was a trip we'll never forget.