7th Year Anniversary trip

Well first off let me tell you that I don’t think that I have ever planned a surprise trip for Desirae before, but my memory is shot due to the meds I have been, and am currently on. And I did have a strict budget since I was using my end of the year bonus money that I hid. I tried my best to make it a very special trip because everyone tells me that this is either a lucky year, or an itchy year for us. Well we don’t believe in luck but we do hope it turns out to be a great year. Problem is, I am a broken person, and I don’t always make things the best they can be. Either from medication or disease.

So we got to Big Bear Lake a little early and needed to waste some time before checking in. All we did was drive the main drag and then headed to the cabin.

It was a nice little cabin, as you can see. It had everything we needed. I forgot to take a picture of the bedroom, it was the same size as the living room. I take that back, I did take a picture, but Desirae was asleep in the bed and I don’t think she would want me to post it. This Resort did have cabins with jacuzzi’s in them but this one did not have one. The Resort did, however, have an indoor Jacuzzi that anyone staying could use. They even had a pool, showing here:

But for some reason would not let me go swimming.

Oh well, go figure. We did like the fact that there still was a lot of snow all over the mountain:

Any ways, after checking in we went to a tea house that we had gone by earlier when we were wasting time. I do not remember the name of it, but you cannot miss it. They are very good. We ordered our tea from a man that just walks around and moves chairs every now and then. Then a woman came with the tea and two tea cups, the lady said she had to bring me a different cup because the man did not tell her it was a man and a woman, she thought it was two women having tea. I told her it was ok, “I drink tea all the time.” She insisted and took my cup back and replied, “you will understand.” This is what she gave me:

Now you may think, so what… a tea cup. Well, I will put more pictures, and I want you to compare the size of Desirae’s tea cup to the size of my tea cup. Plus mine had a sail boat on the other side, I guess also confirming it as a man’s tea cup. We also ordered a scone and a piece of lemon cake.









That was that day. The next day we slept in a little and then we went out on the town. We went to the movies and saw Inkheart. Then we went back out to the shops, got some Crème brûlée and Tiramisù gelato. Tried to go bowling but failed at that because it was too busy. Then we went back to the cabin for an evening of fire, milk, double stuffed oreos, and episodes of The Tick. We are so romantic aren’t we?

I forgot. I gave Desirae her gift when we first got there:



She really likes the little mermaid and when I saw that they were selling a trilogy set, I figured she needed to have this. Plus when you have a wife like this:




How can you say no?





After our last night at the cabin, we headed to Disneyland! This would be Monday 02/02/09 our actual anniversary date. And the day everyone texted me to wish me a happy anniversary. Or us I mean, I had told Desirae to leave her phone at home.
Since it was a week day there was hardly anybody there, and no cast members directing traffic so we got a premo spot:

If you visit Disneyland often enough, or have a pass like us, you notice the escalators in the background, and see that there might be no closer spot. So we spent this day at Disneyland and got our Anniversary pins. It was nice having the pins because all the cast members that notice the pins say “Happy Anniversary” and some will ask how long, and it just makes it a even more special trip to Disneyland. We visited both parks and just had fun. Plus I told Desirae that they reopened the Castle and she said she had never been in it before so she got to go through Sleeping Beauties Castle for the first time. Here are some photos:

How do they get their mouths into that shape? We stopped by my parent’s on the way home to pick up the gift that Desirae ordered me, and then picked up a really late dinner and finally went home to have our anniversary dinner at 10:30pm. We enjoyed it and here is what it was:

Asti and In-N-Out, and we watched the new episode of The Office. It does not get any better than that. We even went for the animal style fries and burgers. I was thinking of getting a shake but was not sure how that would go... maybe I'll try it next year. No we were tired and hungry and Desirae had to have Asti on our Anniversary. So that's how it worked out. I enjoyed the Anniversary and I think she did to. I hope I did not bore you. Thanks for your attention.

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Anniversary

Our 7th anniversary is on Feb. 2nd, and so I am taking Desirae away this weekend until Tuesday. If there is an emergency I will have my cell phone with me, but I do ask that you please only contact us if it is an emergency. Although if you do feel the need to text me to wish a happy anniversary that would be fine. Or if you want to send an "Anniversary gift" in the form of money, that would be fine too. (The last sentence about the "Anniversary gift" in the form of money was a complete joke) But I do expect to at least get a text from well wishers. None the less we hope to have fun and take pictures and share the trip with you all some time after we return.
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Another Sofia Picture

Here is another picture of Sofia. Grase and Toby took this picture especially for me and Karson. She is wearing the outfit we got her and next to her is the other part of the gift-Marie from Aristocats. We love Disney...can you tell?

SOFIA ELENA SIRENA CARINGELLA!

Here she is! My little niece. I am so happy I got to spend the first few days of her life with her and her new parents! I got to help with everything. I changed her diaper, her clothes, rocked her to sleep, kept her asleep, help giver her a sponge bath, feed her and so much more. I feel sad now that I am at home. I know I will be out there a lot. I really love being an Aunt!! Karson named me the "baby hog" because I loved holding her. I just wanted to hold her because I live so far away and I am going to be the one who will see her the least. I will be visiting often though. Toby and Grase have been good parents. The first few days are always hard but they have been doing great. Grace is still tired from her long labor but she is still up and about doing all the "parental" things. I forgot my camera but I took this picture off of Toby and Grase's blog. She is soooo cute!!
By the way Karson loved holding her too!!!
Dez

Happy Anniversary!

This weekend we celebrated Jim and Cheri's 36th wedding anniversary (Jan 6th). The whole family went to spaghetti factory on Saturday for a nice meal. We had a nice time and me and Keri even got to eat pasta because they have glutten free pasta at the spaghetti factory!! I was so good. I did not have any bread AND I did not eat the spamoni. Today we went to meeting and then to lunch with the family. Kris and Erica stayed with us this weekend and they just left a little while ago. We had a great weekend. We are still waiting for Sofia to come and it seems she is waiting until her due date (jan 15th). Here are some pictures from this weekend. Bye DEZ

Quinton took this picture at Chris and Connie's wedding almost a year ago. I think it is a great shot of me. Anyways we are still awaiting little Sofia. I am so anticipating a call any time now. I think it will come in the middle of the night so I actually had to prepare a little "Sofia's arrival" bag. For clothes and etc we might need. We live an hour away and I don't want to waste anytime getting a bag ready before we leave!! I know it will happen any day now! In other news I am going to be 30 on the 13th!!! This is a big number for me and I don't care what anyone says I feel old. Me and Karson are celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary on Feb 2nd!! Can you believe it has been that long already!!! Crazy!! If Sofia comes this weekend you might see a post from me for awhile so see ya later!
Dez

Update

These past few weekends have been busy. We visited my family in L.A. on the long Christmas weekend. We got to hang out with everyone. We had a lot of baggage we carried around but it turned out okay. We had our family reunion/gathering on that Saturday. My dad side of the family has one once a year so we can see cousins and uncles and aunts. It turned out well and there was lots of food. We had dim sum on the Sunday we were there and that was an experience. Me and Karson had never been so Chris and Connie took us and Jason came as well. I had food I never had before and so did Karson. We did not get home until late Sunday night.

The new year holiday weekend we went to see Karson's brother and his wife; Kris and Erica. They live in San Diego and we try to go out there at least once a year. I think this year we might go more often. There is so much to do in San Diego. We were on a tight budget but we still had fun with them. I played rock band and it turns out I am pretty good on the drums!!!

Grase can have her baby at any time now but her due date is January 15th which is next week. We are waiting to get that call in the middle of the night!! We can't wait to see little Sofia!! When we were there we put together the swing, playpen, and stroller. It was fun! Her room is all ready for her. I know these last few days are going to be hard on Grase and Toby so we will keep them in our prayers.

Well that is all for now. I moved the Disney Days video to the bottom of the page so if you have not seen that please scroll down.

Dez