Thursday, May 29, 2008

My Christmas Wish List


i guess i'll start making one early this year! who saw the TURBOCHEF OVEN on the martha stewart show yesterday? OH MY GOSH! here's what the website says about it...

Cooks with 5 Star Results, 15x Faster
Imagine cooking anything - from fresh asparagus in 45 seconds, a frozen pizza in 90 seconds, to a rack of lamb in 4 minutes, or a Thanksgiving turkey in 42 minutes - with five-star quality results and in a fraction of the time. Meats come out caramelized, moist and tender. Baked goods are golden brown, flaky and perfect. Vegetables are crisp, flavorful and nutritious.

COOKING TIMES:

Whole Roasted Turkey
12 lb. in 42 minutes

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
12" pizza in 6.5 minutes

Apple Cranberry Pie
9" pie in 16 minutes

Biscuits
20 biscuits in 1 1/2 minutes
price... around $8000!

this oven would change my life! LOL. i wonder if they finance? LOL jk
and you dont have to get it in orange. they make, red, blue, silver, green etc...

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

FINALLY my Santa Barbara blog!

My mom drove into town with Andrew last Monday. We met Andrea, Jacob, Brydon, and Emily at Marie Calenders for some dinner and pie :) Andrew LOVES to eat lemons. I don't know why, when this is the face he makes after he licks it! LOL.
Mark wanted to make sure we sent him lots of pictures during our trip. So I just had to send the lemon face picture one! Him and my dad were eating at Denny's the same time and apparently papa likes to eat lemons too! LOL

The next morning we loaded up and were ready for our mini road trip to

Santa Barbara!

Photobucket

The drive was wonderful with great weather and no traffic!

OR POTTY BREAKS!

Our first stop in Santa Barbara was the pier for some lunch. You can pay to drive out and park on the pier! That was a first for us we just couldn't turn down!

Photobucket

Photobucket

We ate lunch on the patio at the Moby Dick Restaurant. Which had a great view looking back onto Santa Barbara. It was great to get out of the Bakersfield heat wave that week!

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Our next stop was the ZOO. We were VERY excited for it! The admission price was reasonable, the exhibits were great, couldn't have planned for better weather, and we went in the middle of the week where it was pretty empty. It was a FANTASTIC zoo!


entrance

Photobucket

all ready to walk

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

the "eww" exhibt full of bugs and reptiles

Photobucket


penguins :)

Photobucket

elephants

Photobucket


lion and his woman

Photobucket

Photobucket

cactus garden

Photobucket


lucky giraffe to have a view like this!

Photobucket

Photobucket


Photobucket

this little guy better watch out!

Photobucket

Earlier this year Andrea had told me that she wanted to go to the Santa Barbara Zoo to see the crooked neck giraffe. I had never heard of such an animal! So as we were talking I googled it and found out she had passed away DAYS earlier. We were both devastated! She was born this way and had no health complications with having a crooked neck. And she outlived many other giraffes by years. That's a woman for ya, right?

Photobucket

We were standing on the viewing deck of the gorillas and Andrea was calling out for the gorilla to come out of its cave. It did and this was the look he gave her! He was staring RIGHT AT HER! IT WAS CREEPY!!!

Photobucket

Photobucket

Here's the slippery astro turf hill.

Photobucket

We also rode a train around the outer part of the zoo.

Photobucket

Some liked it :)

Photobucket

Others took a while to warm up ;)

Photobucket

I don't think we could have planned a better trip to the zoo!

Photobucket

Next stop... the hotel! :)

Andrea reserved us 2 rooms at the Hotel Mar Monte. Very spanish style motif and very wonderful! It was right across the street from the beach that had bathrooms and a playground.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

our ocean view room :)

Photobucket

Photobucket

Our room service dinner. Or should I say, MY room service dinner. I ordered a kids cheeseburger with a chicken quesadilla appetizer (thinking my mom would split it with me). The burger was huge and sooo good! And the quesadilla was WONDERFUL and she didn't want a piece. Poor me had to eat all of this!

Photobucket

After dinner we went to the beach. Once again, the weather couldn't have been more perfect! Hardly any wind and it wasn't chilly!

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

After we were back in the room relaxing room service brought a complimentary goodie. LOL. Andrea said it was great tasting!

Photobucket

Then we decided to go swimming :)

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

When we went back up into the room my mom had ordered brownies and hot chocolate for dessert. YUMMY!!

Photobucket

After a packed fun filled day, it was finally time for shut eye.

The following morning wake up call :)

Photobucket

Loaded the car back up and off we went. To where? We didn't know! We just drove! Finally someone mentioned they need to use the potty. We drove and drove and this was the best we could find!

Photobucket

We started to head back home and stopped in Carpinteria to do some antique store shopping.

Photobucket

Photobucket

There were some beautiful stores but nothing that we were looking for. So we headed towards Ventura and stopped in our last shop and finally found mom a birthday gift. Andrea got her a M.J. Hummel (what she collects) plate with a little girl on it holding a birthday cake. It was very cute and she loves it! Andrea also picked me out an aodrable wall hanging that I can't wait to use!

Then we were headed home. It was such a wonderful trip with the girls and I wish we could do it every week!