The Groundlings

On Friday night we went with Emily, Aaron and Monica to see the Groundlings. Monica was one of Emily's roommates in collage and she now lives in Boston. She came out for a visit so Emily planned lots of fun "Hollywood" things for her to do. She invited us to join them for the Groundlings. I had heard so much about this show but I had never been. As you know, I am a huge fan of SNL. I love it! We watch every Saturday night (well we usually Tivo it and watch it later but still) and the Groundligns is very similar to SNL. Many people get there start there and go on to be in movies, shows and SNL. Right now, the director is Mikey Day. He was on the show Kath and Kim. It only lasted one season but we all watched it and really loved it. Molly Shannon from SNL played Kath and she is super funny. Mikey Day was really funny on that show so we were excited that he was involved. Since he was the director we weren't sure if we would see him or not. He did come out a few times and we were all pretty excited about it. Aaron happened to be wearing the exact same sweatshirt as Mikey, I thought that was pretty cool! I know, I am a nerd!

We recognized a few of the actors from different things but the most exciting one for me was Michaela Watkins who was on SNL last season. She only got to be on SNL for one season which was really a bummer because she is very funny. She had several sketches that we loved including when she would play Hoda Kotb from the Today show with Kathie Lee Gifford. She was sooooo funny, if you haven't seen it you should go watch a clip of it on hulu.

Here's Aaron in his Mikey Day sweatshirt! : )

I tried to take a picture of us watching the show myself...

It was fun to see all the old pictures of comedians who have preformed there over the years. We found Lisa Kudrow and many others. It was so funny, we all really enjoyed it. Sometimes you just need a really good laugh!! If you live in the area or are coming from out of town and are looking for something fun to do, I would totally recommend it... just don't go with out me ok!?!

Pink's

Although I have heard about this place many times, and seen it in episodes of some of our favorite TV shows, I had never actually been to Pink's. It's open all night (I think) and you will see huge lines of people waiting even at 1:00 in the morning for a Pink's hot dog. After the Groundlings, we went just a few blocks to Pink's. It was raining a little which is probably why the line wasn't as long as it could have been. They have these old photographs of when their hot dogs were just 10 cents. Now a regular hot dog there is $3.75 and the specialty hot dogs are more like $5-7.00.

It was fun to see all the pictures of the celebrities who have been there over the years.

I am generally not a hot dog fan but there are a few occasions when a hot dog actually sounds good to me. For instance, I will gladly have a hot dog at a baseball game because I feel it's all part of the experience. I decided that going to Pink's and not getting a hot dog would just be wrong. It was actually pretty good... for a hot dog! ; )

Just For Fun

I love SNL and these two always make me laugh. With this little sketch they pretty much had Josh and I in tears we were laughing so hard. I don't know if I have ever seen either of them crack before and when they start laughing that just makes it even funnier! I love it!

Happy Valentine's Day

Baby Lexi

Last weekend Andy came to stay with us for a few days because he had a meeting in LA on Monday and Tuesday. We had a great time together, hanging out and relaxing. It started off a little crazy as I had to pick him up at the airport in the pouring rain and the drive home was a little scary... but we made it! We had fun watching Friends like the good old days. On Sunday we went to meet our newest little family member, Lexi. Andy and I drove over to Hollywood where Sierra and Michael live now. Lexi was just a few days old and slept most of the time we were there. Andy and I knew that Mom and Grandma would be totally jealous that we got to see her before them! : )

Sierra had her in these cute little knee socks. They were too big for her tiny little lets and kept falling of but they were just so cute!

North Carolina

A few weeks ago we received the news that Josh's Grandma had passed away. His Grandparents as well as aunt, uncle and cousins live in North Carolina. Josh and I decided that we would make the long trip across country to be with the family during this difficult time. Josh is very blessed to have had all of his Grandparents living up until this just happened. His Grandma was 80 years old and her and Grandpa had been married for 60 years. Grandpa is still alive and he is now 83 years old. Although it was a sad occasion it was good to be able to be with the family. We hadn't seen them in several years and I had never been to North Carolina before so it was really neat to get to see where they live. It was beautiful back there but very, very cold. It was actually a record cold for them while we were there!! It was in the 20's and even got down to like 12 degrees at night. For us California kids, that's really cold!!!!!!

These pictures were taken in Grandpa's back yard. There are no fences and the yard leads right up to a little creek.

This is in the front yard.

This is Grandpa and Grandpa Ambrose when they were young, I love these old pictures. I think the one of Grandpa Ambrose looks a lot like old pictures I have seen of my Grandpa.

The Church

This is Josh's Grandparents church in North Carolina. There are churches like this around almost every corner in North Carolina. It was so old fashioned and beautiful that I just had to take some pictures.

It was sooooo cold... this snow had fallen there before Christmas and was still not melted almost a month later.

Biscuits, Biscuits and More Biscuits

I knew that the food in North Carolina would be a little bit different but I really had no idea how popular biscuits really are there. Biscuits and fried chicken are huge back there!!! Right away we were hearing about this place called Bojangles. They serve biscuit style breakfast sandwaches all day long as well as chicken. They also have these things called bo rounds that are kind of like hash brown patties only better... it became this big deal, we had to have bo rounds! I will admit, it was pretty good, I love biscuits so I didn't mind eating them the whole time we were there. We didn't get to eat at Biscuitville but I had to take a picture becasue it reminded me of my favorite Justin Timberlake sketches on SNL... "Bring it on in to Omeletteville!"

I finally got to eat at the world famous Cracker Barrel... Yummy! It was so cute too!

This is Christopher Josh's cousin. He was our ringbearer, he was 5 at the time I think. It was hard to believe that now he is almost as tall as me.

It was just fitting that right next to our terminal in the airport there was a Bojangles... We just had to take a picture!

Just another day at work...

Once a month we have dress up theme days in preschool. The last one we had was Super Hero/Princess day. It was super cute!! I had nothing to wear except these fairy wings that Melissa had left at our house on Halloween (thank you for letting be borrow them by the way). When the kids asked what I was I said I was a Fairy Princess. It worked for most of them but one little boy told me I couldn't be a princess because I didn't have a crown or a wand. So, one of the little girls heard this and she decided to make them for me. It was so cute, she has seen us make birthday crowns for the kids so knew just how to make my crown. My favorite part though was the tinny tiny little wand she made me!!! All of us teachers were just loving it! They were right though I did feel more like a princess with my wand and crown!! : )

Happy New Year 2010

This year New Years Eve was spent in PJ's with my family. It consisted of playing games, watching TV and Dad working in the shop. It was pretty exciting... we did have Sparkling Cider and a pair of 2010 glasses... wild right!!??

I think Buddy wore them best don't you?!?

The Hitching Post with Kim and Evan

Over Christmas we got to have a double date with Kim and Evan, just like the good old days. We took a ride out to Casmalia to have dinner at the Hitching Post. The Hitching post is known for their amazing stakes... soooo good! You may have seen the restaurant in the movie Sideways. There is a second restaurant in Buellton which is the one they actually used for the movie. It was so much fun spending time with Kim and Evan. Even though they live in Chicago and we don't get to see each other that often when ever we get together we always feel like no time has passed.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma

In December my wonderful Grandma celebrated her 80th Birthday and we were so glad we could be there to celebrate with her!

For a special birthday gift my mom contacted all of Grandma's friends and family and asked them to write a letter or special memory for her. My mom put all of the letters, notes, poems and pictures together in a special memory book. On the morning of her birthday my mom presented the book to her. It was such a special gift. My Grandma has touched so many people over the years, everyone who meets her feels like family. It was so much fun hearing some old stories that I had never heard before as well as many memories that I do remember. I love my Grandma so much, I am truly inspired by her and I was so glad we could be with her on her special day.

Later that night we had surprise party for her. She thought we were just going to dinner... then friends and family started showing up, she was very surprised. I gave her a purple scarf to wear because I can always remember my Grandma saying "when I am an old woman I will wear purple." We decided that 80 counts as being an old woman, even though she still doesn't seem that old to me!

My Cousin's son Benjamine really stole the show, isn't he cute!!!