It's a Beautiful Day for a Hike!

At my work we are extremely lucky to get a day off for our birthday! Since mine landed on Memorial Day this year I got 2 days off for my birthday! I decided to take the Friday before off and instead of my usual "Sit on Butt at Home" routine I asked my best friend Alycia if she wanted to go on a hike? Of course she said YES! Her and her hubs had recently gone on a hike and it 100% made me want to do one too!!

After checking the weather constantly throughout the week, it said rain from 10 AM to 10 PM on Friday we decided to bump up our time a little bit and I met her at her house at 9:30 AM. We got to Helen Putnam Park (in my hometown) and got to hiking!!

Funny story about our hats! That night the A's played the Yankees in Oakland!! Yes the A's lost but it was not unexpected LOL!!

This is a map of the park! I remember as a kid we went as a family and I HATED every single minute of it! Unless it was soccer or volleyball I HATED physical activity! My parents will definitely back me up when I say I was such a brat when we went! But this time around I was super excited to get going!!

First we had to climb up this big steepish hill! I'm not going to lie to you I was huffing and puffing the whole way up! However once we got to the top (the picture below is about halfway up) it was so beautiful and HOT! So much for rain! We lucked out and it was a bright sunny gorgeous day!

Since we've decided not to move out of California any time soon I've really been trying to embrace and LOVE where we live! This hike definitely reminded me to appreciate the beautiful area we live in!

You can see town from this place but let me tell you, it doesn't feel like you are in town!

My Paps and I are kind of into taking photos of old barns and on the last leg of our hike we came across this beauty! I just had to take a picture and I love how it turned out!

After about an hour and half of hiking (we did the longest route we possibly could) we stopped and ate our healthy lunch down at their picnic area! Well everything but the trail mix was healthy! :)

I was so amazed that I was so happy and so in love with doing this hike! I mean I seriously was a snotty little brat who complained the whole time when I came out with my family, which also happens to be the last time I'd been out here. But I truly enjoyed every single minute, yes even the big hill climb, of our hike!

It was such a beautiful day with a great friend! And bonus - 9I wasn't even sore the next day WOO HOO! In fact my Paps and I went out the next morning to take photos and we went for a walk at another local park :) I'll post those pictures soon for your viewing pleasure!!

Any one else discover a physical activity they HATED as a child that they now enjoy as an adult?

Birthday Bash

Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday Dear Princess Kendall Who's so Amazing!!!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday to Me!

Nope not really my birthday but back in May it was! I just finished up this page and it's a Storyteller's Layout and it is SO AMAZING!! This page is so fun and so springy that not only did it work for a birthday but it worked for the time of year too!!

Even though it was my birthday I actually had brought a gift for my sister who had recently gotten engaged! I got her a wedding organizer and she loved it and I LOVED the cute picture we got of the two of us!

Aren't these colors super fun!!

So happy to have my birthday scrapped, but I have to admit with all my 2011 pages I've been scrappin lately I'm feelin like a bum! I definitely need to wrap up my 2008 album since I have 3 layouts left! Stay tuned for the completion of my 2008 album! Who knows maybe this week :)

Birthday Bash!!

It's BIRTHDAY TIME!! No not really but I was pretty excited to finish up the layouts for my birthday BBQ at my parents last year! Remember the croquet layout? Yup these are all from the same day! But these are ALL ABOUT ME!!

Since I knew I wanted to do something with some cute BBQ stickers and I knew they wouldn't work for my gift pictures I figured what the heck, use the same background paper and solid colors and then have fun! That's exactly what I did, no matchy matchy for me this time!

I just LOVE this page! Not only did I get to use fun paper and a nice picture of my Paps but I also got use AWESOME BBQ stickers! I found these a long time ago and I've been dying to use them!

And then I wanted to do more girly for pictures of me opening gifts! I got these little embellishments from some random pack of cut outs! I love them!

The final piece to a birthday layout is of course the Cake!! I found some awesome funfetti paper awhile back and since my Mom knows how much I love funfetti we of course had a funfetti cake for my birthday! Hello perfect opportunity to use some funfetti paper!!

Beautiful cake right? I know my mouth was salivating the whole time I was working on this layout!

In case you didn't notice (I'm sure you did) this layout is not a Storyteller's pack, it's just my own creativity with my limited supply of birthday embellishments! But because I had to get creative what did I turn to? My cricut of course! I used the DoodleCharms cartridge to create the party hats and then used Star brads as the toppers!

Can you tell that I love pink, green, and yellow! I think for my next birthday layout I'll need to be brave and try new colors!! :-)

Evolution of a Birthday Cake

My Sister's birthday is one week after mine (we are a year a part) and this year I wanted to make her a special cake! I started preparing for this cake a couple weeks in advance by looking up pictures and making a list of what I would need to make it!



On Friday June 4th I begin my preparations! First I made the cake (from a box mix of course LOL) which was a Yellow Butter recipe that I made for the bridal shower that my Sister loved!!

I had to use two boxes to make each part of the cake!

And we made a trip to Nancy's Fancys to get supplies: Food Coloring, Dark Chocolate Fondant, Buttercream frosting, sprinkes (that we didn't use) and some cupcake wrappers for the back up cupcakes I made (just in case the cake didn't turn out)!!

Our house smelled so good once these got baking! I can't wait for next year around Easter so I can make a nice size Easter Egg Cake with those oval pans!

Let the molding began! The hardest part of making this cake was that it was so hot and humid that the fondant wasn't behaving that well. But I had no other choice because I really wanted to make it! Doesn't it look like a big gigantic piece of Tootsie Roll?

I started by making the C's for the cake...I only made four before I had to stop and put the fondant in the fridge!! Are you wondering what the C's are for yet??

While the fondant was cooling off in the fridge I began shaping the cake. I leveled out the tops of each layer and then started to frost!

First I frosted the two oval pieces and stacked them!

Yum look at that frosting! It was SO GOOD!! I love buttercream frosting, is there any better frosting?? I think not!

After I got the two ovals frosted, I went ahead and frosted the base of the cake and covered it in the fondant! And then I added a little frilly "ribbon" to the bottom of the ovals!

Now it was time to add the few C's I got done on friday! And into the fridge it went to cool off overnight!

And saturday I finished it off!! While it may look more like a hat (lesson learned LOL) it is actually a Coach Purse cake! My Sister LOVES Coach and I thought it'd be really cool to create a purse cake for her! Keep in mind this cake was made from my own imagination and it was the first time I had ever made something like this....not bad for the first time! I did check out other Purse Cakes online but overall the idea in my head was better than what I found....only problem I ran into was the strap. I wanted it to stand up straight but it wouldn't!!

And here is a view of it from the back :-)

My Sister loved it and I am pretty proud of it. I think I could have done better (Aren't we all our biggest critics LOL) but all that really mattered was that My Sister liked it!! And I know Chuck was happy that it was over because I kept asking him "Are you sure it looks okay?" "Do you think she will like it?" "Does it look like a hat or a purse?" "What if she hates it?" "What if she doesn't know what it is?" LOL In the end my worrying was over nothing because it was a huge success!! And I am actually really anxious to make another cake...perhaps for Chuck's birthday party (yes about 6 months late LOL) coming up :-)

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Last Friday (May 28th) was my 24th Birthday!! And boy was it a GREAT birthday!! My birthday celebrations started early with a BBQ at my parents house on Sunday the 23rd, then birthday cake at my Tuesday Office, and then another birthday celebration at my Wednesday Office!! And then came the BIG day!!

My coworkers got me cards and also on of them brought me flowers!! So sweet!!!
On the day of my real birthday Chuck and I had BIG Plans!! We spent the entire day in SAN FRANCISCO!!! I love that place!! This time around though we went the tourist route!!

We started our morning off bright and early by taking the Ferry from Larkspur into the city!! Bright and Early...Look at those smiles!!

And of course the first stop on our trek from the Ferry Building to Pier 39 was to get some COFFEE and some breakfast!! We stopped at the Alcatraz Landing cafe and got ourselves some Krispy Kreme donuts and two Mocha Java-Lanches!! They were so YUMMY!!

After we finally made it to the Piers we hopped aboard our first stop...a Double Decker Bus Tour!! We bought these amazing Wharf Passes with so many activities to pick from and I couldn't wait to do the Downtown Loop Tour of SF!!

First of all our Tour Guide and Bus Driver were AMAZING! We couldn't have asked for a better guide, her personality was so awesome and she was Hilarious!!

One of the first places we passed by was the Fog City Diner and it's infamous clock - "Don't Worry"

And here is a view of Coit Tower!!

And here is the Tallest Building in San Francisco, 7th in the World...drum roll please...the TransAmerica Building !!!!!

And here is just a shot of a really TALL, really COOL building in SF!! I loved it!

A picture of the Bay Bridge!

And a shot of the Hearst Building...I wish I could have gotten a better picture but we whizzed right by!!

If you look closely you will see the glass elevator on the outside of the building!! So cool wish I could have ridden it, this was down in Union Square!

Here is the Bank that Patty Hearst robbed!! The Hibernia Bank!

And the GORGEOUS SF City Hall!! It really is AMAZING!

Nope that's not a ledge you see on that building, those are window washers!! We saw them descend a few stories, it was so neat I would love to be up there, but not for too long and I really wouldn't want to wash windows LOL

And here is the entrance into China Town!!

And I just loved this picture!! It was such a beautiful day in the city!!

And this bookstore, City Lights, is open until midnight and is owned by Lawrence Ferlinghetti!!

Apparently this was the place to be!! Mama's was PACKED that morning and the line, as you can see, is out the door. I'm thinking we must try it some day!!

And this is the beautiful church that Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio took pictures after their wedding...not married there but they took their pictures there! And who wouldn't want to, it's gorgeous!! I can't remember the name of the church right now...

After our bus tour we headed straight over to the Red and White Fleet Cruises for a really really cold boat ride!!

The only reason I wanted to take this tour was because I wanted to go underneath the Golden Gate Bridge!! And aside from the cold and the wind it was so amazing!! Chuck took this great picture of me on the boat!!

And here we are going underneath! They were guys working underneath the bridge that yelled and waved at us! It was really bizarre to see them underneath there and then of course the people up walking the bridge!

Here is where the guys were yelling down at us. I tried to get a picture but you can't seem them!

Isn't it just gorgeous! I just love the Golden Gate Bridge! And we lucked out with really blue skies, considering it rained earlier that week.

After our busy morning we hustled it to the Hard Rock Cafe on Pier 39 for lunch!! I was actually disappointed. I loved the Hard Rock's I've been to before but this one was very dull :( But our burgers were pretty good and the service was really quick!

After lunch we went to the Aquarium of the Bay!! I was so EXCITED to do this because I've always wanted to ever since we started going down to the pier! It was so neat, they have underwater tunnels and they had a couple of fish called Striped Bass that get up to 7 feet long!! Crazy!! It was so neat, we saw some sharks, some beautiful fish, some huge fish, and an octopus :)

We technically could have gone to the Wax museum but we decided we didn't want to walk all the way down there again since we had a LONG walk back to the Ferry Building. So our Inner Children came out to join us and we decided to go on the 4D Dino Ride and it was a BLAST!! It was so cheesy but so much fun!!

After we stopped at Le Beastro and the Ghiradelli Chocolate store we of course had to check out the seals. They really never get old, no matter how many times I've seen them!! It was so good to see so many there since this past year they had gone MIA for awhile. And even still it didn't seem like it was the normal amount!

After that we made our 30 minute hike back to the ferry building, we got a coffee and relaxed before getting on the Ferry to head home! And boy was I ready to get home, we were both tired and I had thought we were going out to the bars and a late dinner with friends, so I thought I'd get in a quick cat nap!!

But Chuck had other plans!! First we had to go by Safeway to pick up some energy drinks, a brownie mix (for camping) and spinach dip to go with the bread we bought at Boudin! Needless to say I was gettin slightly irritated inside. I was so EXHAUSTED and just wanted to get 20 minutes of sleep in before people starting coming over and we still had to pick up the dogs!!

Finally we pull into the parking lot and as I walk in the door I was slightly put off by a random purse sitting on our stairs and then out popped friends and family!! Chuck had arranged a SUPRISE party for me and man had he pulled it off. I had no idea and was even embarrassed that here I was my hair a mess, face wind chapped, with just jeans and a sweatshirt on....but I was so happy!! He wanted to make sure I had an AMAZING birthday this year because last years was horrible and I ended up skipping it. And I did have an AMAZING birthday! I got to spend the entire day in a city I love with the man I love and then I got to spend an amazing night with great people celebrating!! I guess turning 24 wasn't so bad!!