"Gramz" is 90!

The whole family took a little trip to So Cal for Grams' 90th Suprise party this past weekend! I swear that she has remained the same for 30 years! She has this amazing Portuguese blood that has this ability to stop any aging at 70 years old! Anyway - we all trucked in from Nor Cal, Tempe, L.A., Moreno Valley, Ontario and Tucson for the SURPRISE! Gramz, Aunt Kathy and Dad! Gramz was in a daze by the shock and surprise!

FISH FACES from myself Angela and Ashley!

Sisters!

All the girls and their along with Brett and Jonathan invaded Gramz' house and had a sleepover. We had a great time looking at old pictures and of everyone including Gramz when she had been dating grandpa!

We also saw the old neighbors houses....too bad only the Allred's are left! :( We even took the old FLOOD corner at breakneck speeds and remembered giving Carrie a nice bath! You know...Dad still thinks that is the funniest joke ever...Someday Carrie will have to have her laugh too!

Joey, Angus and Ashley come for Thanksgiving ...

I totally forgot ... I found these pics from when Joey, Angela and Ashley came here for Thanksgiving.

This is Jon in the Bay of Santa Cruz - wishing he could be out there sailing!Not sure what is happening here - but lets just say it is a big kiss. Here is a pic of Ashley and Angela in Santa Cruz. It was a beautiful day.

I love these next 2 pictures of Ashley...I told her to work it like a model - and the pics are gorgeous!Ashley is going to kill me for posting this one! :)

Of course we had to hit the city - look familiar?... Pier 39!

Joey and Jon got a little side tracked on our visit to Macy's ... we were trying to get into the Christmas spirit...not sure how the polar bear fits in the picture!

When we were all walking to Ghiradelli Square we had the party trolley swing by and the pirate themed party-goers begged for us to take a picture! They were dancing and singing at the top of their lungs the ultimate party song....... yes you guessed it.... Y-M-C-A !! ah come on - now its stuck in your head huh?

A California Bargain!

So all of you who started out in California - you know who you are...Here is a reality check...

This is the 1,000 SF house that we rent - We will not tell you our rent because you will CRY! We really want to buy a house here - and this is so cute - built in 1941 and very cozy...BUT would you pay $750,000...yes you read that right....and that is in a stifled market! So - the last time we checked we were not CRAZY!

Here is the backyard - which is a large backyard by San Jose standards...and our puppy does love it and we are very grateful. So Casey, Carrie and Maren - love your land! We luckily still own our home in TX which was hard to leave since we built it. The good news is that when we were home in AZ with the family in Tucson...we bought a house! Yep - well we are building a house. We are so excited!!!
So now you ask...Are you going to move again?

So here's the reality - we miss our family, we don't want to pay a $1M dollars for 1400 SF, and eBay wants to move me to AZ. Can you believe that? Our house will be completed by November and then we will decide what to do. We do not want to leave this paradise that we just moved to, but we also don't want to pay for it. Sad huh?

Anyway - the family is crazy happy! Mom is already building the network for us because we will be in her stake! She is nuts! The saddest part is that I LOVE my calling as the 2nd Counselor in YW's and we LOVE our ward. We have not felt this kind of warmth in any of our wards before now and we have been in many. So that you don't think we are just nutso - we did have very strong promptings from the Lord to do this - and for us it is an act of Faith.

So in this case our lives have come full circle since Jonathan and I actually met in AZ. Funny thing is that we swore we would NEVER go back because of the HEAT. This just proves...Never say NEVER!

Bread on Steroids!

WHOA - so I decided to make some homemade bread which I had not made since Thanksgiving and we had to run to an activities planning meeting and I thought - the house is really cold and it would take a while for the bread to rise. I figured an hour long meeting would be okay. Well - when we got back we had muffin top bread and so we decided to cook anyway and see how big it would get. This picture does not do it justice - but NO JOKE it was like 12 inches tall - we had to use the turkey carver to cut through! (the toaster was a whole issue itself ) it did however make GREAT homemade croutons! :)

Ooooo....AHHHH....OHHHH the MIGHTY Thunderbirds

Our whole family met in Las Vegas in November to see the Thunderbirds fly and to hang out at one of Dad's favorite places. I think it has been about 8 years since the last time our whole family has made it to an airshow! It was a great time...All were in attendance INCLUDING Ashley's beau Troy.

We had a blast together - the worst part was the SMOKEY hotel that we had to learn to breathe in since we were on the first floor - not such a good place for a family full of asthma! I think my inhaler was exhausted with all 200 possible puffs!

Some COOL Thunderbird action photos:

The starting Salute...

The roar or HIGH PITCH engine warm up...

They take flight!

Here is a picture of Angela and I trying stay cool - of course it is nothing but HOT, HOT and more HOT and this is Dad's favorite weather! We were all dying...10 hours in the desert heat - we were all a bit crispy by the end of the day! Jon is just chill'in on with the gangsta hat! Shhhh... I will tell you a secret...he thinks he is Eminem! Yep - you should see him get down - quite the site... Angela has seen the "real" Eminem in action! Here is a pic of us at the end of the day - we all decided to make this an annual family tradition...it is so much fun to all hang out!

Funny Faces

Still along way to catch up with all the travel ... so more to come...

Here is a funny picture of Dad and I that we took at Christmas while we were waiting for Ashley to perform at Jesterz...We took like 11 pictures - kinda had to be there - but this is one of my favorites!

And - here is a more serious one - the best part is dad just kept laughing and saying - lets do one again...the people behind us thought we were nuts! Here is a pic from Christmas of us with Brett & Alicia.

Ahhhhh- CANCUN-O-ROO

Just 1 day after getting back from Germany - we packed our bags and headed to Mexico for a MUCH needed break! We were especially excited because our dearest friends Kyle and Carolyn sans Avery from Texas were
meeting us there for a week of relaxation and ADULT time.


This is also the first time that we had been back since we had purchased our villa and wanted to still make sure it was real. (We were so scared that we put a chunk of money down...in Mexico)



So here are some fun pics of our vacation...

Through Jon's feet - the view that we enjoyed all week! This is the private beach on the property - and you can walk out like a MILE and only be up to your waste in warm (like bath water) clear blue water. It was beautiful!

Our back porch butts up against this view and in the morning all you hear is he ocean crashing against the rocks - its called "The Kings Bath". You can actually swim around in a little pool like basin in the rocks.

Here is a view from on top of the Lighthouse on the north side of the Island of Isla Mujueres. Look how BLUE the water is behind me!

To the right is a picture of Jon and I outside a sculpture garden and at the end of the park is an old Mayan ruin. We did not go to the end - we were too cheap and last time we were here we went to the actual Mayan ruins down south at Chichen Itza.

This is a picture of Carolyn and I - we had hit the town for dinner - a pretty long day...No make up - just sun fun!

Here is a picture of Jon when we were at a Mayan monument. Pretty amazing stuff that the "potential" Nephites built!

Another view of the island and our last evening there until our next trip...we took a ton of pics on another camera - but they came our horrible- too bad!

We are already counting the time to go back! We think MARCH for our anniversary!

"Stuff" on my Pets

Ok- don't know if anyone besides Angela and Joey who have seen this website (they shared it with us), if not you need to visit it for a good pet laugh. Anyway you can go to http://www.stuffonmycat.com/ or http://www.stuffonmymutt.com/ and it is this hilarious website with literal "stuff on my cat" or "stuff on my mutt"... we have taken advantage of our pets (since we don't have kids ... yet) and have made a couple submissions! We should see them on the website in the next 4-6 weeks.

We have dubbed this one SUPER-pup...but this was not taken for the web - it was just a wet day when Jon came back from a walk with the pup and he dried him with the beach towel and then took this picture and sent it to me at work! How can you not LOVE this guy...and well Jon too!

Next is Satan (aka Palladio) - who has a fetish with toilet paper. When we go away for more than 24 hours you can be guaranteed a house strewn with shredded toilet paper - he attacks the roll and pulls it off the roll and then proceeds to shred. Other than that - he is pretty docile! We found it only fitting to torture him with these goodies! As you can see - he is thrilled!

Here is the sweet spot for our pets...they sit like this all morning while Jon is working! They love it! This picture is one of my favorites!

"The Amazing Race - BERLIN"

Where to begin?

So, I was lucky enough to get to go to Berlin Germany on a 9 day business trip in October. The first comment that I have is that IT IS SOOOOOOOOOO CLEAN - (not morally of course!).

It was a pretty busy trip with very late nights at work, but I did manage to hit the town on a Saturday with my co- worker and friend Jens. He and I both met when we lived in Tempe and both worked for JP Morgan Chase for many years...in fact he is the one who recruited me for eBay!

Anyway - we buzzed around Berlin all day until both our feet and backs were hurting - it was in fact the "AMAZING RACE-BERLIN".

This is the street that my hotel was located on- i t was very romantic...I forgot to take a snapshot of the hotel. Upon arrival I discovered an H&M nearby and got in some good German shopping - did a little damage as the U$D was so weak in comparison to the EURO but I found some awesome clothes (forever my weakness).

Next are a couple of pictures of downtown Berlin:

This is the Kaiser Memorial Church that was bombed during WWII. The Berliners decided to leave it as a reminder of their fight for freedom against Hitler. Yep...that's me - you can hardly see me! That big hole near the top is where the bombs hit - there are bullet holes all over as well - it was an overwhelming site.

Here is me at the entrance to the Brandenburg Gate...not the best picture but mid- day the skies became very grey - which actually seemed appropriate considering the sobering history that had taken place here - many major world leaders have stormed this gate - and it has NEVER been completely destroyed - always some piece has remained in tact - it has however had many new face lifts/clean ups over the years! It was a magnificent!SO here are a couple of pics that are all centered around "THE WALL" - just a little history - so while the US Army was stationed in West Germany - there was a quadrant that was strictly US occupied. There was a sign that I am sure most have seen in any WWII movie or Holocaust movie and the checkpoint to pass through is called "Checkpoint Charlie". Here are a couple of pics...

Here is a picture of me at the actual checkpoint - there is a US Army Guard with the colors of freedom flying there all day and all night. I had to pay 1 U$D for the Pic - but worth a million words looking across at what would have been the West/East border. Words cannot describe...

So...I took a picture of this building with a very heavy heart because it is very significant in the history of Germany. Down this street is where the WALL stood- actually only about 6 feet in front of this building. On this side of the wall was the US occupied territory. From the top of this building women would throw their children to the US officials to save them and often jump after them - most dying while being shot in mid-air. Sacrificing their lives in the hopes that someone on the other side had caught their child. Can you imagine? Talk about the price of FREEDOM...

Here is a picture of the WALL - they have pieces all over the city that they have framed in remembrance of the great day on N0vember 9th 1989 when it came down for good! The artwork on these pieces are exactly how they were found.

In addition to the various chunks of WALL featured around the city there are also the remains of the brinks that were rooted in the ground. They have marked them with the dates that the WALL stood in Germany. Sorry that the photo is not as clear as I would like.

Here is a picture of the Berlin Cathedral - this is as close as we could get since it was undergoing a massive cleaning. It is HUGE!Of course, there is all kinds of cool architecture around the city and I could not miss taking any pics for "my architect"... here is a picture of the Berlin Opera House.
Now - there were so many pics I could only put a few - maybe I will make a little movie at some point. Here is the last one that I will include - Jens and I were walking through the "Embassy District" and came across the Berlin Stake Center. Fitting - huh? We just literally stumbled upon it - in fact we almost walked right past it! Funky steeple huh?This was a crazy trip with a lot of late nights and in some cases sleepless due to jet lag and stress-but what an amazing experience to get to see the world and these pieces of history come to life. Luckily, I will get to go back at some point - but even once is more than I can imagine. Next time, Jon will come too!