WE WILL BE BACK HOME IN MAY!!!!

We are going to be home on May 20th for a few weeks, as we are in between travel assignments!!!  We have quite a few weddings and Sarah (Seth's Sister) is due in June...so we are really hoping we can see our little niece Hope, before we head out again!  We have had so much fun out here, but we are ready to see our family and friends again!

CAKE DECORATING 103....ROSES!!!!

Well, I did it I made my first frosting rose!!!!  It wasn't as hard as I expected, but I still need a lot of work :)  We learned how to make two types of flowers, three different leaves, vines, and ribbon last night!  I really like my leaf boarder around the base of the cake, the leaf tip is very versatile!  I am going to sign up for some more classes for May....I am having a ball!

OUR BAKERY

This is right next to where we live and we like to stop here before we head out on an adventure to pick up a quick little breakfast!  Seth's loves bakeries...we spend forever in there just so he can choose what we wants....he is like a kid in a candy shop :)

SAN JOSE DRIVE-IN THEATERS

This was a random road trip to San Jose to check out this Drive-In theater...it was a little different from Sunset Drive in Aurora.  It had six screens going all at once with double features, so you had to listen from your car radio...they didn't have speakers going.  All screens were playing different double features, so I am sure if we memorized the radio stations we could mix and match our movies :)  It was a beautiful evening and we watched Losers and Clash of Titans...I couldn't get Seth to watch another chick flick...that is really all we have watched here in California :)

NAPA VALLEY IN A 13TH CENTURY CASTLE!!!!

We visited a 13th century Italian castle today in Napa Valley.  The man who made the castle is now a billionaire due to his two wineries in Napa. He loves Mid-evil architecture and building this castle was his life long dream, he also is very tight with his Italian heritage (he still has a home in Italy) that were excellent wine makers so he combined both his passions in one.  What is neat about this castle is the measures this man went to make everything authentic...he had all the ancient bricks shipped from Italy, they only used tools that would have been used back then, no concreted for the grout....mixture they would have used, transplanted 100 year old olive tress, the castles doors were handmade by Italians(Historians said they were about 300 years old....only 13 year old)...I could go on and on...it was amazing!!!!  This Castle had a torture chamber, which real tools that were used (Marcus you would have loved this place:)  It had a room called the "whispering room", made so that you could ease drop on everyones conversation in the room.  I was skeptical, but then Seth and I tried it and it was like his whisper was amplified 10 times in my ear....very weird!!!  They had sheep and chicken just wondering around everywhere, I got to pet the sheep :)  Oh and how they make their wine...I won't even try to explain it...basically they hand pick every grape...grow their own grapes, and do everything 10 times better...or so it seems.  They only sell their wine from the castle, you won't find it anywhere else in the world!   We had a wine tasting in the wine cellar under the castle, of course we liked the dessert wines and the sparkling grape juice :)  But we were both able to say that we could tell a huge difference in this wine compared to other whites or red...we could actually swirl and smell fruity or floral scents,  and I could see how some people could like their Merlot....haha!  We after that we walked down the main strip and found a chocolate shop and Life is Good store.  The chocolate was wonderful...just melted in your mouth, but 1.85 per piece...we only got two :)  On our way home we ate at our Americanized Italian restaurant....Olive Garden!!!

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CAKE DECORATING 102

Last night I was able to frost a chocolate cake with white frosting...without any crumbs, all I can say is Yeah Dog!!!

Yesterday in class we learned star flowers, swirl flowers, 3-d creatures, how to frost cupcakes, shell boarders ( I need to work on that), and making dot boarders. I have a little routine going, I start my cake in class and then I walk it home and finish it while I watch American Idol. I am giving my cakes to the homeless, because Seth and I can't eat all this cake!!!!

LAKE TAHOE SKI TRIP

This is our last day of skiing, our knees were throbbing, we were sweating, our aderenline had been pumping, but we had huge smiles because we just had a blast taking on the slopes!!

Seth did so great on the Snowboard....he was able to pick it back up very fast.

This was after a wipeout, I was really hot trying to get BOTH my skis back on :)

On the shuttle to the Gondala to take us up the mountain to go skiing!

Getting ready for our second day of skiing, not as many layers this day. We got way too hot yesterday! There was one guy skiing backward down in this boxer briefs....he wanted attention!

This is our view of Lake Tahoe from the Heavenly ski slopes.

Getting ready to eat lunch, they had a band playing as you would eat a 10.00 hamburger ( we weren't eating a hamburger though...too much money)

Snow Bunny

Seth is getting ready to take on the California slope, if we went the other way we would be skiing on the Nevada Slopes.

I just love this guy!

Well, we had a blast!!!! Lake Tahoe was very beautiful, the water looked different each day we were there, but it is known for its blue blue water. We went skiing for two days, and stayed at a really nice ski resort for an incredible deal...due to the last weekend of ski season and great deals they were offering!!!! Seth snowboarded while I skied. On our first day we practiced on some bunny slopes, then we were ready to hit the Blues (because there were no greeens) We asked for the easiest one to go down first, and we were misadvised. This Blue was right under the ski lift, and I could already tell that I wasn't liking what I saw up ahead. Yes, there were Moguls...icy moguls...and I had a good wipeout! One of my ski was left behind ( above me on the crunchy icy snow), my husband was below me just watching ( I am sure with a smile), and I also had an audience from above on the ski lift. I literally had to crawl up the Moguls, slide back down, crawl again....I stretched so hard to reach the ski. I finally got my ski, tried and tried to get it back on but since I was on such a steep slope I could get an weight to push down to pop my ski back on. I ended up sliding down on my rear over the Moguls as my ski lift audience gave me words of encouragment....yes....yes....kind of embarrassing :)

However, the rest of the day went really well. The slopes weren't very crowded, which made our ski time more active due to no lines and low ski traffic. Seth and I asked each other when we got so old, because our knees were killing us....good thing I remembered to bring the Advil!!! We ate at a sushi restaurant that evening, we loved it! We ordered the sunburn roll....amazing....it also matched our sunburned faces. The next day we found some new blue routes that were really fun, we got more adventurous our second day of skiing. Seth tried some jumps, and conquered a few and wiped out as well...both were fun for me to watch :) We ate Red Hut Waffle for breakfast, which is like the E's Inn for Lake Tahoe. On our way home we listened to "The Broker", stopped at TJMaxx, and got a sandwich at Safeway. Overall, we made some wonderful memories and had a perfect trip! What a blessing!

BERKLEY AND BLONDIES PIZZA

We just sat at this little table and we were able to look out a open window and watch college life pass us by. I told Seth that we could fit in...but I need to feel more stressed, like I need to not be able to fully enjoy the Pizza because I need to be worrying about a Chem quiz coming up next class :) We were too relaxed to be college students...and I will take it the relaxation any day!

This is what you see as it sets above all other buildings, it is the bell tower. This sounded like MSU bells, that sounded at lunch time.

We were told that we had to try Blondies Pizza, it is just a college pizza joint...but it had a great atmosphere and good pizza! We just drove around Berkley campus, it was very different from Stanford....much more like Missouri State in the look of the campus. We were in that area because Seth had to get his fingerprints made for the Florida licence that we are getting ready to send in. We stopped at an Any Mountain store and bought me some warm gloves for our ski trip to Lake Tahoe.

STANFORD BIKE DAY!

View from the top of the Hoover tower.

Sue and I riding bikes around the round about in front of the Hoover Tower.

Snuck a picture with a girl after she just got done taking her horse out for a ride.

We should have taken off our long sleeves and we could have matched and been Christmas colors....oh man. Our matching shirts are green and our bikes are red :)

This was Diamond...and she wanted a treat!

This is in front of the bells that play about three times a month. However the are broken right now :(

This is at the top of Hoover Tower....named after Herbert Hoover.

Trying to show my husband that I am strong....I might have gained a few inches...but he still has big muscles :) We are in front of the Gates of Hell....very interesting piece of work.

This is where I would have been married if I went to Stanford!!!! It was a beautiful courtyard!

If Seth would have taken off that black long sleeve shirt...he would have matched his wife that day...we bought matching shirts at Yosemite and we would have had the same shirt and same bike that day...it was adorable in my head! Seth lucked out because it was kind of chili that day, so he had an excuse to keep on the black shirt. Though deep down I knew he wanted to match me :) Do you see Sue's cute bike behind us!

It was weird being on a college campus again...and I don't think it should feel weird just yet. Maybe it was the beauty and atmosphere that Stanford had, I just felt smarter being there :) Seth and I rented bikes (Stanford is very biker friendly) and Sue and her boyfriend Luise ( sorry if I spelled your name wrong...my spelling is what kept me from getting into Stanford...haha) ,..... who did actually go to Stanford, brought their own bikes. Sue had an adorable seafoam green bike and her outfit matched her bike, Debbie you would have loved how they matched :) We visited some art work that was on campus, we watched potential Olympic divers practicing between the ages of 8-14 I would guess. That was very interesting, they actually use the trampoline with the harness that pulls you up higher when you jump to help them practice their diving. As well as diving boards that go into a pit of mats. We went up to the top of the Hoover tower, that had a beautiful view of the campus and the bay! We rode over to the stables and got to pet the horses...but after we went through the stables we noticed a sign....guess what it said....you guessed it....glad I didn't see the sign before though because I really liked petting all the horses :) We also saw a girl doing all that horse whispering stuff as she was training her horse that was very interesting to watch...they must really have a tight bond. Then we went to the coffee house and got a Latte...where I saw Chelsea Clinton, Tiger Woods, and Reece Witherspoon picture up on the wall because they also went to Stanford! Then we went home and Aunt Billie made us a pie from her own lemons that were grown out front...we played Skip-bo, watched American Idol and LOST the rest of the night!!! What a great day!!! Thanks Sue for all you have done for us!!!

CAKE DECORATING 101 !!!!

I went over to Sue and Aunt Billie's house and basically took over their kitchen, because I needed an oven to bake cakes that I could then decorate! What would I have done without them??? Who knew you would have to bake cakes to decorate in a decorating class...haha! Just a day in a life without an oven :) Something that I got to experiment with when I was baking was "Bake Even Cake Strips"...they really helped make the sides of my cake raise and bake evenly...giving me a taller more level cake! Today we learned how to hold the icing bag, the positionings for stars, letters, borders. We learned pressure control and how to recognize good frosting consistencies. I call this cake my polka dot with stars cake, I took a circle cookie cutter and pressed it into the cake to make my outlines and then I started in the middles. I am really getting excited about this class....I have been in desperate need to do something creative!

SETH GOING TO WORK AT EDEN!

Seth getting ready to run up those stairs to go to work at Eden Medical Center. That folder in his hands is how he organizes all his paperwork, since charting isn't electronic like it was at COX, he even said that other nurses are impressed by his organization system folder...I was so proud of him :)

This is how our mornings go:

* Seth wakes up and takes a shower

* I wake up make breakfast (oatmeal has been a favorite) and then get his lunch together

* Seth drives to work and gets to work around 6:45am

* I drive back home and get stuck in rush hour traffic :)