Boston, Here We Come!

Wednesday night we are packing our bags and heading to Boston. We are very excited to celebrate Independence Day there. Although I have never been there, Chad has, and he tells me that I am going to love it. I cannot wait to see Joe and Sarah Gerber! They have been living in Boston for five or six years now, and I am excited to see where they live and hang out. It is a long weekend of celebrations because Thursday is Sarah's birthday, Friday is Independence Day, and Saturday is my birthday. It is going to be a blast!

If you have any tips or ideas of things to see or do while visiting Boston, please let us know!

Wine Tour

Surprise! Pete Merola threw a surprise party for Brent's 28th birthday. I was so absolutely impressed that he thought of every detail in this amazing day. Early Saturday morning, 24 of Brent's friends got together at the Merola's looking for some good times. We had mimosas and pancakes as we waited for Linsey to bring Brent in for the big surprise. Amazingly enough, he was truly surprised when he walked in the door. From there we headed onto the party bus, as we enjoyed drive to Napa.

We first stopped at Peju. Alan (the man in the maroon shirt with the tie in the group photo) was our host and he was FANTASTIC! AS he introduced new wines to us, he would rap about their contents. I don't know about you, but this was a first for me. Other tasters were coming over to see our "show: because we were cracking up the whole time.

From there we ate the bagged lunch Pete had individually packed for everyone as we headed up a long windy road to Hess. This was the antonym of Peju; it was for the wine connoisseur, which none of us were that day. We had to sit through a 10 minute video and tour of the vines before we did our tasting. Fortunately for Hess, it is a beautiful place and has wonderful wine.

We decided that we all needed to head back to the creek. We all topped off the night at the Merolas, where we enjoyed more wine, a delicious BBQ, and fun games of cornhole.

Obviously, it was a total success. Great job Pete!!

Benihana

My dad and I have birthdays that are 4 days apart. His is July 1st and mine is July 5th. We often do an joint birthday celebration. This year we decided to do it early. Last night we went to Benihanas for dinner. It is so entertaining to watch the chefs as they take cooking to a whole new level. I am always so impressed that they have as much skills and agility as they do. Dinner was fantastic as always. After dinner, we headed back to my parents house for some cake (my mom makes the best Texas Sheet Cake). The night was a hit!

I hope my wish comes true!

Meeting Ayla

It is always amazing to me when I see newborn babies. It is unbelievable how they know how to eat and breathe, amongst many other things, once they are born. I am mainly amazed that the human body can create something as breathtaking as a baby.

Last night my breath was taken away by Ayla. Mike and Alix Allocco had Ayla on June 18th. Baby Ayla is adorable!! She looks like an Anne Geddes doll (I told Alix and Mike that they need to start her in modeling as soon as possible). All of her tiny features are so cute; I couldn't stop staring at her! The whole time I was there, she did not make a peep. She just cuddled with whoever was holding her.

One of my favorite parts of the night was watching the proud new mommy and daddy talk about their new baby. The sparkles in their eyes were adorable! You could just see how proud they were of the amazing baby they had created.

Hopefully we are all this lucky when we have our own children.

Congratulations Allocco Family!

Adie's Birthday

On Tuesday night we headed over to Adie's parents house for an old fashioned birthday party. We had a great time talking, eating pizza and cake, and watching others jump on the trampoline.

I have know Adie since junior high; she is an amazing girl with a huge heart. I am very lucky to have a wonderful friend like her in my life!

Enjoy your last year in your 20's Adie!

Weekend Get Away in Lake Tahoe

We just got back from a relaxing weekend in Lake Tahoe with the Maddox's. It was a wonderful get away. We couldn't have asked for better weather or people watching. On Saturday, we hung out at King's Beach and watched a man with a metal detector find coins in the lake. That night we went to Sunnyside for dinner and laughed at all of the bachelor/bachelorette parties. One of the highlights from the trip was playing Balderdash. I have never played the game before and I just love it!! It was wonderful to get away.

Happy Father's Day

Sunday we celebrated Father's Day at our house. We had both of our families over for a BBQ. It was a wonderful evening full of great conversation.

We are both blessed to have such incredible fathers in our lives. They are fantastic role models for both of us. We always know we can turn to them for advice because they are always willing to listen and lend a hand. They have shown us how to become the best people we can be. We love them!

Dayna's Birthday

To celebrate Dayna's 25th birthday, all of the LaSala kids got together at the North Beach Festival in San Francisco. It was a gorgeous day to wander around the city. It is so great to have the whole family together. They always tell hilarious stories from their childhood; we all laugh until we almost cry. Happy Birthday Dayna!

Maple

It was brought to my attention (by Chad) that I have not posted anything about our dog. I think that it is pretty cute that he is so in love with Maple, but there are times that I do get a little jealous of all the attention she gets.

She never gets in trouble and she can never do any thing wrong; me on the other hand, well that's another story. She could do just about anything and get out of it by tilting her head to the side. This never works for me.

There have been some occasions where all three of us have been sitting on the couch, and Chad will rub my leg and then say, "Oh sorry!" Sadly, he is sorry because he meant to pet the dog.

I think I am going to watch her a little more closely this week to see how she casts her spell on him. :)

School's Out for Summer!!

Tomorrow is my last day of teaching for this school year! I am so excited to take a break. My goal for this summer is to enjoy summer as I did when I was a kid. This got me thinking... what do I remember enjoying most about summer when I was a kid. Here are a few answers I came up with:

1. My Birthday- My birthday is July 5th. My parents would always throw me the best parties ever! I would get so excited about them that I couldn't sleep the night before and therefore be exhausted for the party. One year, I even fell asleep during my birthday party. My sister opened my presents and blew out my candles!

2. Fourth of July- I don't know what I love the most about this amazing holiday. I am infatuated with every single little detail about it. I love celebrating the honor and freedom of living in our country, watching parades and fireworks, eating cakes that look like American flags, swimming while smelling the bbq; I could go on forever!

3. Swim Team- Although I only vaguely remember this, my mom swears that I wore my swim suit for weeks without taking it off. Apparently I would do everything from shower to sleep in that little thing. Swim team is such a wonderful way for children to spend their summer. I have great memories of friends, practice, and meets on the Walnut Country Stingrays. Goooo Stingrays!

4. Visiting my Gram and PapPap- My mom's parents live in Pennsylvania and we would go to see them every other summer. It was always such a great time. I would play with all of my cousins from sun up to sun down. My grandma is an amazing baker and she would always bake us yummy cinnamon rolls, butter rolls, pies, and just about any other sweet you can think of. After she filled our tummies, we would head down to their pool and spend hours playing Marco Polo. One of my favorite parts were the fireflies; I am still so amazed that their little bums can light up!

5. Sleepovers- As a kid, I always wanted to have sleepover; who didn't? I would beg my mom to spend the night at a friends house. It was always fun to play games, watch movies, and tell jokes or ghost stories with your girlfriends. Unfortunately, more often than not, I would call my parents around 9 and fake a stomach ache because I was too afraid to spend the night. I am such a wimp!

What are your favorite summer memories?

Half Moon Bay

Gorgeous, is how I would describe Half Moon Bay. It is always amazing to me that we can drive a little more than an hour and end up at beautiful location like this.

After sleeping in late on Saturday and taking Maple for a long walk, we got ready and headed out to the coast. We didn't have any expectations of what the day was going to bring us, we just knew we wanted to explore a new town.

As we got close to Half Moon Bay, we saw many different produce and flower stands that would be fabulous to go to. We headed on down to Main Street, which was currently under road construction. It was great to see all of the people wandering aimlessly around all of the cute shops and boutiques.

From there we headed over to the Ritz Carlton, where we strolled along, pretending that we were staying at a hotel where the cheapest room is $500. It is an amazing hotel (the one in American Pie Wedding).

We headed to Moss Beach Distillery to check out it's breathtaking view and have Chad's birthday dinner. It was beautiful. They have a back deck that overlooks the ocean. We sat on these cute wooden rocker benches and gazed at the ocean. It was a crowded day there and everyone was so laid back and kind. Dinner was great! We hope to head back there someday soon.

Look who's 29!

June 4th was Chad's 29th birthday! He has been lucky enough to turn this into a birthday week (who wouldn't?).

Sunday he had his first birthday dinner at my parents house, where he had pepper steak and texas sheet cake!

His birthDAY was great too! He had a teriffic day of being spoiled. He had a fantastic time at lunch with his coworkers at Mexicali Rose in Oakland. Then we went out to dinner at Luna's with his family.

Besides the toothbrush, hat, and shoes, I wasn't exactly sure what to do for his special birthday treat. I emailed some friends, and they gave me GREAT ideas of where we could go for day trips. I gave him a choice between these ideas, and he picked Half Moon Bay. We are going to go tomorrow to celebrate his last year of being in his 20's (Are we really this old?).

I wanted to post the wonderful ideas that he was able to pick from. We are hoping to complete the list by the end of the summer. If any seem interesting to you, please come with us.

Some options for your special birthday celebration:

1. Half Moon Bay-
We can cruise and hike around Half Moon Bay, checking out the beautiful scenery. We can go to the Four Season and/or Ritz Carolton and have a drink, stop by some of the small wineries, and then enjoy an early dinner at Moss Beach Distillery.

2. Sonoma-
We can head to Sonoma for the day and walk around the shops. We can stop by the wineries for a wine tasting, go to the El Dorado for a drink near their fire place, and then head to La Salette in Sonoma Plaza for dinner.

3. SF/Oakland-
We can head to the vodka bar on the water in Oakland to enjoy a drink, then cruise the bay over to San Francisco, where we can site see around the city before we head off to dinner at Myth.

4. Crockett-
We can spend the day in the East Bay, going on a hike with little Mapes. Then we can head to Crockett to have dinner at the Dead Fish. After dinner we can go to American Family and have a dip in the spa and/or a massage.

A big thank you to all my wonderful friends who gave me fantastic ideas for Chad's birthday. I am so lucky to have such amazing friends in my life!