Travel Plan Clusters

I know I been lagging big time with my blog. I been sick and the cord to my camera is missing again!!
Anyways,
Work has been crazy on and off. I feel like I spend just way too much time at work. I was hoping on going to NYC for work but it looks like they cancelled my New York trip...because instead they are sending me to ITALY to work instead....Hey I'll take it! We will be in Pontedera at the Piaggio factory. The closest city near where we will be at to site see will be PISA. We are for sure going to check that out.
Luckily my passport is ready to go and it is awesome I get to travel with my friend and co worker as well.
We are leaving November for Italy and will be gone at least a week. We were suppose to leave October 18th but plans changed yet again.
I never been to Europe before so I am pretty darn excited but not about the long flight and certain jet lag.
I wonder what the weather will be like????

Vroom Vroom

Lately I been thinking about buying a classic car. I see people driving theirs around and it is just so fetching!!
Pf course if I had lots of money and could pick whatever I wanted it would be this Thunderbird!

I am really digging the old trucks too

This one would be great for toting our scooters around in!

I know it is really probably NOT going to happen for sometime but a girl can dream right!

My how she's grown!

Today my friend ally sent me some Photo's she took of Ava's 1st Birthday...

I cannot believe how much she has grown!!
On her Birthday we let her have her first cake all to herself. She was looking at it like what in the heck is this??

She felt it a little

Once she got the taste for it ..that little cake was history!

She was taking huge fistfuls of it and just eating as much as she could

A few days later we celebrated her birthday at the park. Got some great shots of opening presents...she did pretty good

The clothes she just moved to the side.

Some of the bigger cousins helped her out a little

She really enjoyed all the toys though...

I mean REALLY enjoyed the toys!

Ava's friend Evie with mama Vickie and Papa Josh

She had so much fun playing.

Ally made some really tasty cupcakes for the party...cupcakes are so much easier

It was a busy day for her...now time to relax with Grandpa.

Thanks Ally for the pictures! My how time flys!

My favorite season

I am so happy that fall is among us. it is my favorite time of the year. I believe besides the crisp cool freshness of the air, the beautiful colors of the leaves and of course the smell of wood burning from the fireplaces that I really love this time cause the holidays are coming.
My family really loves the holidays. I just love the time shared and the look of happy faces of people I love.
This year I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. I am going to set up long tables with white linens in the backyard and have a good old fashion harvest family dinner outside with all the traditional foods.
With the thought of the holidays coming it also makes me think that I need to get started early on my xmas shopping oh and can't forget to start making those Halloween costumes...even though I will most likely just buy them.

I can't wait for nights bundling up in a nice warm blanket with my kids, making big pots of chili and stews and finally busting out all my cute jackets and sweaters I been dying to wear, not to mention some fun friendly gatherings with friends.

Goodbye old friend

Yesterday I got some sad news in the morning that my best Guy friend had passed away. He was suffering from COPD and has been fighting very hard the past few months to get better. I talk to him on the phone just a few weeks ago and he did have labored breathing on the phone but sounded very optimistic about getting better.

Adrian and I met in high school. We had career guidance class together. He was newer to the school and was a attractive, slim, happy go lucky, class clown! A lot of my gal friends thought he was cute and he was pretty popular with the ladies.
Adrian and I have always just been friends and never ventured out to a route where we would ever consider being a couple. We were just almost instant best friends...siblings really.
The first words he ever said to me was " Hey, Can I throw a ditching party at your house?"..I replied back"ok".
From then on we hung out ALL the time, he was really close to my parents and my brother as well. As a matter of fact after I grew up and moved out of my parents house he still would go stay with my brother and parents house for the weekend. He often came over for the holidays and always said that me and my family were his family..his 2nd family.
I have so many fond memories of him. Long conversations, we would drink and play cards or games, we would go to gigs and hang out. He loved Parker. When we were in a bind and had no sitter for Parker Adrian would take a metro down to Long Beach and watch him for us. Parker LOVED Adrian. We would come home and Adrian would tell us what he cooked for Parker for dinner and the two of them would be playing video games together.
One of those crazy nights hanging with Adrian! He has always had health issues. We knew that he always slept restlessly. He snored so loud like he was always gasping for air. He would fall asleep standing up then wake up and have to eat then back to sleep and then eat again. During the last few times I saw him he seemed to be getting really bad. We always told him to go to the doctor and get checked out and he was just too stubborn to do it.

One thing about Adrian..he was the most caring, non judgemental, fun, loud, outspoken, crazy guy I have ever known.

He lived his life fast and hard and he always knew that he would have a short life. He often talked about death. Yesterday after I got the sad news I called my brother who was also close to Adrian and he came over and we cried and cried..then my mom came over and cried as well and then my dad came over and he was sad as well. We all had a round of stiff drinks and remembered good times and shared funny stories and we played a song he always told me he wanted played when he dies.... I just can't believe he is gone. He had so much more he wanted to accomplish in his life.

RIP Adrian Thomas Lookadoo Feb 2 1977-September 12 2010

You will never be forgotten!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDDJYuvweIU

Birthday 1...Sofia 1st!

I have been lagging really bad on blogs lately so I am going to start keeping up....but to keep up I have to get caught up.
A couple weekends ago Gabe and I had two birthday parties to go too and we made a whole day of two parties and a club later in the evening which i was blown away that I even had the energy to do.
The first party was little Sofia Agrusa's party. When we arrived her music teacher was just starting a circle with all the babies and parents for a little group session of song and dance.

Ava had fun participating!

Everyone did!

After the class session all the kids were up and at it. Ava saw all the party hats on the table and had to have one put on. The whole time she had t on she had to keep checking that her hat was still on her head.

Soon it was time for the birthday princess to have her first birthday cake!

She seemed a little unsure.

She picked at it with such grace and poise. A few of the bigger kids though came to help!

we sat around with friends and had a little wine and food and chatted.

while we all socialized and talked about fun upcoming plans we all need to work on

The kids all played...

Evie and Ava were having a blast together.

We had to get going cause we had another birthday party to run too so we gave Sofia her present and let her open it up. She seemed to like it!

We had such a nice time at this party and got to see alot of good friends.

Civil War Days

On Sunday during Labor day weekend instead of battling our backyard after party mess we decided to go with my brother and his gf and my mom and dad to the Civil War days at a park in Huntington Beach.
We walked in and everyone was dressed in their garb of that era. There was a band playing

and watching the performance we saw Mr. President Lincoln! He gave Gabe and Parker a special penny after they took a photo with him.

There was all kinds of little boys running around with the guns and civil war hats so we bought Parker those too for the day.

We wanted to get a good spot to watch the battle but first not without looking around

We saw a bunch of little boys preparing for the battle...they told Parker to step in line!

Parker got to learn a lot of things from them such as loading his gun, and marching and about face plus tons of other things.

He was doing a really good job at paying attention.

After he was dismiss with the rest of the boys we walked to meet up with my family at the battlefield but took the scenic route.

Then Parker wanted to explore in the woods.

Ava loved trying to climb on the canons which were used in the battle.

we got some lemonade and roasted corn on the cob and went to sit down and the battle began.

It was really loud! They had the fife player and drummers marching through the battle....Imagine....being in a war and your the guy playing the drums....or fife

The southerners...They lost this battle

It was really amazing to watch

Lots of wounded and dead

More and more were defeated

After the battle was over there was a moment of silence while a trumpeter played TAPS in memorial to those that died. Afterwards the crowd bursted with a very generous round of applause for all the re en actors. It was quite the experience that we all felt privileged to watch. What a great time!