The "Mother Ship"

Last week Andy and his brother, Mark, decided to check something off the bucket list.

Surfing.

After doing some extensive research (2 minutes on Yelp & Google), Andy called up the San Diego Surfing Academy.

He talked to the owner of the establishment and got some basic information and was given directions to meet him the next morning at a cross street near a local resort.

"Where exactly should I meet you at the resort?", Andy asked.

"Well, we're not really part of the resort.", Pat, the instructor said.

"Just meet me at The Mother Ship."

and he hung up.

So a couple of hours later, Mark & Andy found themselves here.

and met Pat, their instructor.

Whom Andy insisted looked "just like" the Dos Equis most interesting man in the world.

"No seriously, you have to put his picture there, because that was our guy".

Crystal and I decided to give the guys two hours to brush up their skills before meeting them at the beach to document.

That and we had two kids to handle.

One which nearly gave me a heart attack that morning.

Hint on which one: Her

Oh look! There are the surfers!!!

My kids were neck deep in sand in about 2.5 seconds.

They weren't really appreciating the surfing lesson so much.

And oh my Lord, THIS girl....

I really can't even talk about it.

Let's just say that she picked up a flat beach rock the size of a dinner plate and chunked it into the sand pit, missing her brother by less than an inch.

Oh, and her brother had a little accident in the car and after searching high and low, I realized that I hadn't restocked my emergency set of clothes in about a year, so he ended up wearing this.

Look!

They caught a wave....kind of.

That night we went to dinner at Poseidon to celebrate Mark's birthday.

And while we're on the subject of eating....

we had to document our team effort best dinner ever from the night before.

One more Mark & Crystal post to come.....

Wine tasting.

FYI....it CAN be done with kids in tow.

Quite the accomplishment

Have you ever noticed those oval stickers that accomplished runner put on their cars?

I know they bother some people who may think of them as bragging...

like big deal, you ran a marathon....

Um, if I could ever manage to do that I would most certainly plaster that puppy on my car!

I mean, I'm still working on couch to 5k.

I really think a half marathon is a huge deal.....

13.1 miles. Wow. I really can't imagine.

But you know what I really can't imagine?

Oh my goodness, if I ever completed one of those, which it will never happen. Never. It just won't.

But if....

I would order one of those super-sized and make sure everyone knew it.

Probably get it put on a water bottle, coffee mug, definitely a shirt....

because that would be huge.

But you know what else is also great?

A 5K.

My husband ran one last weekend.

And then he complained about how sore he was for three days straight.

And it made me think.....

that's a pretty big deal too.

Let's celebrate that.

Seriously Andy, huge deal.

We're so proud of you!!!!

Six

Six years ago, you might have found these two....

getting ready for the biggest day of their life.

Six years ago I married my best friend.and then we went on our honeymoon to Jamaica.

and called our travel agent to come home early because it wasn't quite the paradise we had envisioned.

But now....we pretty much feel like we live in paradise. So we decided to take full advantage of our new hometown and enjoy our day.

A wonderful lady that Andy works with VOLUNTEERED to watch our children so that Andy and I could do just that. Can you believe that? Like she wanted to watch both kids FOR FUN while we went out and did pretty much whatever we wanted to BY OURSELVES.

So we started out by going to a crawfish boil thrown by a guy that Andy works with.

I have to admit, at first I wasn't too keen on the idea, but it was fun! We stopped by the store to grab some drinks before getting to the party. Andy was like, "ok, just wait in the car and I'll run in.....OH WAIT. Do you want to come in too? Because we have no kids to sit in the car and wait with!!!!" It's the small things people. We walked around Albertson's for a good ten minutes just taking in our new found freedom.

And then we got to the party.

They had an amazing yard and it was so fun, but after a little while we decided we needed to get on with the DAY-O-FUN.

So onward to Sprinkles. Because we can.

Then we drove up to Mt. Soledad and took in the view.

And then drove on up the coast

to....

to have a drink by the pool before dinner.

Just the two of us. No kids. Thank you DONNA!!!!

We then found a sushi bar on Yelp that we had never been to and had a quiet, delicious dinner

For the grand finale, we saw, "Water for Elephants". In the movie theater.

I say that because it's common practice for me to see a preview for movie or in a magazine and just go ahead an put it in my Netflix queue because there would be no way to see it otherwise.

Let me just take a moment to talk to any Twilight fans.

I've never read the books.

But the whole Robert Pattinson thing......I get it.

I totally get it now.

But I just remembered that this is my anniversary post and I can't really end it like that.

Thank you to my best friend and partner, Andy, for taking me on the best adventure of marriage and life I could ask for. I'm so glad that I get to experience every day with you and am so thankful to God for finding the perfect match for me. I love you!!!!