Wrapping Up 2007

There wasn't much time to post during the holidays with traveling, company, gatherings and whatnot so here is a catch up pictorial from our end of year adventures. To start, here we are at the Caprice Cafe in downtown Boise having Christmas Eve breakfast with good friends Adam and Julia.

We had a wonderful time in Idaho with Don's family and are always sad to say goodbye, but we had a couple of things to look forward to when we returned home. First, our puppies whom we missed terribly were sooooo happy to see us! They got to spend a few days at Wiener Wonderland - an all dachshund day care in our neighborhood - while we were away. As you can see by the picture, they stuck to us like magnets for the first couple days we were home trying to make sure we didn't run away and leave them again. We did discover though that you can bring little dogs on the airplane with you now so next time we go somewhere we might try to take them with us. We will probably have to sedate Seumas though so that he doesn't cry all the way.

Also, the other thing to look forward too when we got home was that my sister Kristy was in town on a trip with some friends. Kristy's friends had to fly back on Friday the 28th but Kristy stayed with us through New Years and made me get up at 5:00 a.m. on New Years day to take her to the airport! So we got in a couple of fun touristy things while she was here. Our first full day together we went to Universal Studios. Don was pretty bummed that we had to work but I got the deal for SoCal Residents where I buy one day and get the whole year of 2008 free so Don and I can go back together again sometime.

One of the highlights of the Universal Trip was that Kristy knows an old family friend who is an animal trainer at Universal Studios so through her connections we got to meet some of the trainers and animal actors. This cute little guy right here is Archie. How many people in their lives can say that they have ever gotten to hold an Orangutang? I don't even know how to SPELL Orangatang! He was so cute! They even gave us some front of the line passes which made the rest of the day at the park quite a luxury. Instead of having to wait in lines all day we were able to go straight to the front and get the most out of our experience.

After meeting the animal actors we took the guided tour to see the park. During the tour you get to see a lot of different common outdoor sets used in Universal pictures such as the town square from back to the future, as well as some other special effects like this flash flood that left Kristy a little, shall we say, damp?

Other recognizable sets from the tour included the Creepy Bates Motel from the Movie Psycho which I have to say just looks a little less frightening with the set from Dr. Seusses Grinch behind it! And we even took a trip down Wisteria Lane and saw all the homes from Desperate Housewives.

After just narrowly missing being eaten by Jaws, we managed to finish the tour in one piece and saw a couple other attractions before it started getting really windy and I decided to call it a day. Besides Universal Studios, Kristy and I also ended up taking a trip to the Los Angeles Zoo which was a lot of fun also. However, I lamely left my camera at home so you will have to watch Kristy's blog and hopefully she will post some fun pictures of the animals we saw.

Besides Christmas and New Years, we also celebrated my 30th Birthday last week! Wow, a whole new decade. I feel pretty good about being 30. I'm ready to be there. Although I don't have a job at the moment, I still feel good about where I'm at in my career and where we are at in life. I have a wonderful husband, a supportive family, great friends, and two adorable puppies. My needs are taken care of, my life is moving forward, I have good goals for myself, and I am continuing to grow as a human being. And I am happy and Don is happy which makes me happy too. I didn't feel the need to mark my birthday with a huge celebration. Dinner and games with my friends is how I chose to spend the day and I loved every minute of it.

But instead of a huge celebration I did ask Don if I could mark my 30th in a different way - with a wardrobe makeover and he lovingly obliged my wish. So Kristy came with me to a mall all the way down in Redondo Beach to visit a couple of stores that they didn't have closer and was my personal shopper for the morning. I got a few new pairs of exercise pants, a new pair of boots, some new work suits, a new pair of jeans, new bras that fit and aren't all stretched out, some new shirts. But I think even more awesome than buying the new clothes was the very liberating feeling of going through my closet and drawers when I got home and getting rid of everything that didn't fit right, had lost it's shape or faded, was out of season or no longer age appropriate. I definitely have less clothes than I started out with but it is awesome to be able to look in my closet and dresser and know that everything in there fits and I feel comfortable and even attractive wearing. Thank you honey!

So that just leaves New Years Eve which we spent how we spend most of our special occassions these days - at our house with good food, good company, and good times. Don't forget good drinks! Here are Katy and I playing Guitar Hero. If you look closely you can see Seumas trying to get in on the action. I am wearing one of my new outfits - Sweater top with new jeans and boots which you can't see but they are really cute and I got such a good deal! No Katy is not Indian, but she did go to a Bali party right before coming over to our place and so is wearing her gorgeous pink and yellow sari and looking smoking hot! While we girls warmed up on Guitar Hero, the boys closed the year with some stinky cigars on the back porch and then came back in to join us for the countdown. After midnight we decided to play our new Catch Phrase Game - boys against girls of course - which turned out to be a huge hit! We were laughing so hard that before we knew it we had been playing for two hours and realizing that I had to take Kristy to the airport in just a few hours decided we better call it a night. For some H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S video on how Cordy spent her New Year's, you HAVE to check out Camille's New Year's Post on her Blog. Seriously, you don't want to miss this. Happy New Year everyone.