Girl's Trip

On October 16, 17 and 18, my best friend Erin and I took our quarterly girls trip. This time we went to Sacramento.

Friday after Erin was off work we loaded up and headed over the mountain to Sacramento. We browsed through Ikea and then checked into our hotel.

Down the street from our hotel, probably about 2 blocks or so, was PF Changs. We decided to have them sit us where ever was first available. Turned out, we got sat on the patio. It was really nice weather so we didn't mind one bit! We were able to make friends with a group of firefighters at the table next to us who were there visiting the Fallen Firefighter Memorial. There was plenty of interesting people watching from our table as well.

The main reason for this particular trip was so we could attend the Scrapbook Expo. They have this event yearly and we thought it would be fun to see all the different vendors and scrap booking ideas.

The expo was held at the Sacramento Convention Center. Erin did a great job getting our hotel withing walking distance so we could avoid having to pay for parking. We got up, had breakfast at our hotel, and walked about a mile down the road to the expo where we spent a good portion of our day but not a lot of money! (we still aren't sure how we managed that one!)

When we had seen all that we needed to see we walked back to the hotel and got in the car to head out to our next destination: shopping at the outlet malls in Folsom! Along the way we had lunch and then shopped until we were all shopped out.

Fall is our favorite season and at the outlets there were beautiful fall trees everywhere. We paused so we could take a picture with our favorite fall colors behind us.

After we were done shopping we loaded up again and headed to Placerville. I had never been to Apple Hill so we thought this would be a good opportunity to spend some time there. We stayed in this hotel....it wasn't too bad...just shy of Norman Bates scary. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad but it was definitely older. The bonus was it was just down the hill from all the orchards.

First up was apple picking!

Apple trees were everywhere so we got our little apple picker thingy-ma-bob and headed on out to find us some apples! The apple I spotted was way at the top of course so I made Erin try for it!

Next I was up

I found an apple a little easier to reach for my endeavor

Here we are under the tree after we had collected our apples

We spent the rest of the day going from orchard to orchard. To end it all we went to a pumpkin patch to find our pumpkins. The houses above were on the outside of the orchard. They really have that scary Halloween horror movie look to them don't they? Would you believe me if I told you people actually live in them? Well, people do! A lot of the workers actually use them as housing.

Erin was on her mission to find the perfect pumpkin

I was looking for my own perfect pumpkin....

....and decided this was the one. Almost perfectly round and little blemishes.

Erin ended up finding "twin" pumpkins and bringing them both home

We have conquered the pumpkin patch!

One of my favorite seasonal things to do with one of my favorite people!

This is my new friend, "Ghostie"

Look a pumpkin washing station!

The end of a great trip! After we got our pumpkins we loaded up and headed for home. It was a really nice weekend away. I can't wait until our next trip! Thanks to my friend who goes on all these adventures with me, you make them wonderful!

Anniversary Trip

For our anniversary this year, we chose to stay close to home. It was hard just getting the time off together so we wanted to maximize every minute together. We ended up staying in Reno and doing various activities in either Reno or Lake Tahoe.


To start our trip off we had massages booked at Ahhh Massage in Sparks. It was a couples massage session so we were able to be in the same room together while we got nice and relaxed.



If you've never had a massage you should get one! They are wonderful!


After getting relaxed, it was time for dinner. One of our favorite places to eat isn't a national chain and often times, we forget to eat there. Not this trip! We had dinner at Pinocchio's.

They have site in both Sparks, just down the road from the massage place and in Reno, on Moana.

The food was great!

After dinner we decided to head over and check into our hotel.

Dwayne had booked us a nice suite with two separate rooms, tvs, fridge etc.

The only thing about it was the height of the ceiling and door frames. They were short! Well too short for D, all he had to do was turn his head up and he could touch the door frame. After we checked in, we went and did a little shopping, had some dessert and then turned back in for the night.

The second day we planned to spend in Tahoe. We got ready and drove over to Carson where I first had to take a test, boo, I know, but then we drove on up the mountain.

Look! An action shot! This is us literally driving up the hill....hope he's looking at the road under those sunglasses!

Heavenly has gondolas that run to the top of the mountain with skiers during the winter. During the off season it still takes people to the top and Dwayne had really wanted to take the ride so, we bought our tickets and took our ride.

Before we left the ground

Relaxing while we climb to the top

See the trees going by?

At the top there was a photographer to take your picture for souvenirs.

So of course we got them!

We were at the first stop of the ride. It was an observation deck where you could look all around the area. It was beautiful!

It had snowed but it was really warm on this day and we were very comfortable just walking around

Four years of marriage and another fabulous anniversary!

The ride back down

L-O-V-E

Getting closer...

The last day we went around town and saw a movie, did a little more shopping and then headed home. At one stoplight we shot this picture, this is our gangsta' look! Another great time together. Next year's anniversary will be spent in Rome and Germany and we are so excited!

Just Checking In:

Hey friends and family!

October has proven to be just as busy as ever! I have so much to catch up on and just can't find the moment to blog it all. I will get up some new posts just as soon as I can. There is much to tell about: Dwayne and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary in Tahoe and Reno, I went away on a girl's trip to Cali, there are some changes in school and D is busy with work, school and bowling. Plus: Halloween is just around the corner!

We are doing well and trucking right along! Can you believe we will be entering the holiday season soon? October is almost over! Good thing I've already gotten a jumpstart on my Christmas shopping! We hope you all are doing well and staying healthy in this flu season.
Love and Blessings,
Tiffy and Dwayne

Dwayne's 28th Birthday

For Dwaynes 28th birthday we had a Dallas Cowboys themed party. The decor was the team's colors complete with Dallas stars.


We had it at our house and had pizza from Pizza Barn ( the best!)



Here Dwayne is relaxing in what we so fondly refer to as the "Man Cave" before the party. It's his room all the way. It has Dallas colors complete with fatheads on the walls and ceiling. Most of the game systems are in this room too.


I am on my way out the door to pick up the pizza!



Here are his two cakes, the Dallas star and the Helmet

Although the team lost that day, here is the birthday boy with his cake.

The candles I thought were cool mostly because they were silver and went with the decor. But also because they were the ones that you couldn't blow out. I'm surprised the fire department wasn't called on all the smoke!

Just us being us after the cake and ice-cream. He received some very nice gifts from everyone. It was nice to have everyone at the party.

Like I said, it was Cowboys themed!

After everyone was gone, when it was all said and done and just the two of us and Halo were left.

Happy Birthday Honey! Only two more years and you'll be 30!