Desert Photos

We drove up to Las Vegas for an overnight trip to celebrate our anniversary.  Also, with the latest news about my job (my last day is 11/30), I needed to get out of town.  Nothing says "I don't have a job" like going to Vegas! LOL

Anyway, we've been there so many times, I really didn't take photos in Vegas. Instead I took photos of the desert, during our drive to/from Vegas.  The desert is so beautiful.  We're surrounded by it, we take it for granted.

Lake Mead (from Boulder Highway)

About to drive over the new Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge

We stopped for burgers at Mr. D'z in Kingman

Joshua trees

The Rock or John Cena?

While Alexandra and I are slaving over a hot stove making home-made biscuits, this is what Anthony and Joshua were up to . . . think WWE.

Anthony was channeling his inner "Rock" and "John Cena!"

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 went as planned.  Anthony cooked a turkey for my mom's house, while I made some mashed potatoes and Tia Martha's famous biscuits.  Alexandra helped with the turkey and the biscuits.

As usual, our first meal was at my Mom's house.  We had turkey, ham, rice (white rice for the Filipinos and "red" rice, too), mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, biscuits, stuffing and I can't remember what else! ha!  Oh yeah, some of the group (not me!) started out with Goldschläger shots! Now that's a party!

A little later we went to Tia Barbra's house to spend time with Anthony's mom and family.  They were still eating dinner when we arrived, but we were still stuffed so we waited for dessert.  And believe it or not, I had Anthony stop at Jack-in-the-Box for tacos on our way home.  I was tired of turkey!

Thanksgiving is a nice "relaxing" holiday.  The only stress I have is trying to spend an equal amount of time at each family's house and, of course, eating too much.

I'm thankful for another year of life and for the time I spend with my husband and kids. I'm thankful for a mom who would do anything for her family.  I'm thankful for a wonderful sister and brother. I'm thankful that I still have my Tata.  I'm thankful for my friends who have been there for us.  It's been a stressful year for many, so I'm thankful that we could come together with with the immediate family plus our cousins to share a meal.

Thank you for the fun times! Now, it's time to get ready for Christmas!

PS I forgot my camera, so I don't have any photos from dinner.  Maybe my sister or mom will share theirs one of these days.

Catching Up

Where does the time go? It's hard to believe that the last time I posted was back in early August, describing our July road trip to San Francisco (and stop in Las Vegas).  So much has happened since then:

• 2011-2012 School has started (Alexandra, 5th grade and Joshua, 3rd grade)
• 3/4 of our little family celebrated a birthday
• Our 13th wedding anniversary
• Fun time with family and friends

School
Hard to believe that I'm now the parent of 5th and 3rd graders. Seriously, where does the time go.  I remember the day each were born like it was yesterday.  And it seems like just last year they started preschool. 

Joshua and Alexandra

Mrs. Ayalin & Joshua

Miss Conaty and Alexandra

1st day of school tradition  . . . Baskin Robins ice cream!

Birthdays

Joshua turned 8 in August.  For his birthday dinner he chose his most favorite dinner ever . . . spaghetti.  Alexandra turned 11 in October.  For her birthday dinner she chose her favorite . . . chicken, mashed potatoes, white rice and biscuits.   Even Anthony turned a year older.  His birthday dinner . . . . beans.  Whatelse would we have for his birthday?  As for me, I'm still 29.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Birthday boy Joshua enjoying his spaghetti!

August birthday babies!
Celeste, Joshua, Andres and Anthony

Happy birthday Alexandra!

AnniversaryAgain where does the time go? Just a couple of days ago, we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary.  We went out to lunch, since it was a school night.  :-)  Married life has been a roller coaster, but I'm so happy that we decided to get on this ride together!  Anthony even surprised me with an overnight trip to Las Vegas, which is where we took the picture below.

Time with family and friends
 It's always fun to spend time with our friends and family.  I look forward to the times I get to see, hug, talk to my nieces and nephew.  Because both my brother and my sister-in-law are divorced, timing doesn't workout sometimes to see their kids, so it's a good time when it all comes together.  I look forward to pizza night with Celeste, Andres and Briana at Nana's.  It's always fun when we see Emma and Danielle at Grandma's. We don't spend enough time with them.  Those times need to happen more often.

We also love spending time with our friends.  We were busy with the SJV Fall Gala, but had fun at the same time.  Funny that the kids think it's fun to go to meetings.  "Oh, it's a gala meeting, cool!"  I look forward to seeing and talking to everyone before and after school.

FNO at Auggie's

Then there are our fun times with the Morenos. That should be it's own topic on this blog.  Cathy talked us in to going to explore a lava cave north of Flagstaff.  It was a tough hour and a half.  But now I can say, been there done that, don't need another cave adventure.  Although Joshua wishes we could go back.  It was a pretty cool experience - climbing down the rocks in to the cave, then walking a mile to the other end of the cave to turn around and CLIMB back out.  Inside it was pitch black so all of us had flashlights.  Some parts of the ground were slippery and there were lots of cracks in the rocks because it's a lava cave, so we had to be very careful and watch where we were stepping. I honestly didnt' think I'd make it.   Thank you to the Morenos and Figeroas for making it such a fun and memorable trip. 

And with that I'm done! =)  Until we meet again on this blog.

Viva Las Vegas ... Time to go Home

The kids really were not impressed with Las Vegas. Here is what impressed them the most... our hotel had a Pizza Hut.  That made it the BEST HOTEL EVER!

We had lunch at our favorite place in Las Vegas, Casa Don Juan (http://casadonjuanlv.com/). Great food and great service!!  We drove up the strip, showed the kids the Eiffel Tower, the Bellagio fountain, the Statue of Liberty and all the big hotels on the strip.  The kids couldn't care less! So, we headed into the MGM then the M&M and Coca-Cola stores.

Lions at MGM Grand Lion Habitat

Joshua and Red@ M&M World

Alex - what.is.he.doing?

The M&M Car!

NYNY in the background - kids NOT impressed

Which M&Ms do you want?

Joshua doing the "cupid shuffle" with Yellow!

High Five!

Statue of Liberty - again kids NOT impressed

Now it's time to end our trip.  We made a quick stop at Hoover Dam, then headed home.  We encountered some sprinkles.  The desert is beautiful in the middle of a monsoon.

Thanks be to God for the time we had together as a family.  We ended our trip with a beautiful sign, a rainbow ( I tried to take a picture, but you couldn't see it, so this is the best I could do!) . 

God is good, all the time!

Road Trip - Vegas here we come!

Our last leg of the road trip was supposed to be a stop in San Diego and Legoland.  Well, outrageous hotel prices caused us to make a change.  Instead of San Diego, we decided to head to Las Vegas! yes, the Mesquitas took their kids to Vegas.  ha ha

It was a LONG drive from Fremont to Las Vegas.  I learned a few things . . . .

1. I <3 Gilroy! We drove through Gilroy to get to Interstate 5.  It is the garlic capital of the world. I'm ready to sell the house in Goodyear and move to Gilroy to run a garlic farm. =)
2. There is A LOT of farming going on  in northern California.  All along I-5 there were farms, farm, and more farms.  And the way Google maps had us go, even off of I-5 the farms continued.
3. DO NOT STOP in Boron, California! There is NOTHING there! Make sure to use the rest area that is located at off ramp right before Boron.  Long story short, we had to use the restrooms at a public park.  Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.  I'm still traumatized from that place!
4. Make sure that between Barstow and Las Vegas, you are the one who gets to rest. While Anthony drove, I slept, which was a good thing.  Anthony said it was BORING.  Joshua asked... Why do people live here??? hahahahahahaha

We checked in out hotel and called it a night to rest for our day in Las Vegas.

McDonald's in Barstow.