Fishing with the boys

Started the day off at 4:00 IN THE MORNING!!! I was actually surprised at how fast I got up and out of bed... that NEVER happens! :) Let's just say I love my sleepy time! We picked Mark up and headed down to Newport Harbor. We were the first ones in line to get on the boat. Loren and Mark both got their poles out and started casting off the dock.

Loren was casting and got his fishing wire all tangled up so....
Mark had to help him untangle it! :)

The boat we were on was the Patriot. It was an awesome boat. We had gone on a chartered trip through the high school so we only had about 30 people on board, which made it really easy to cast and have elbow room. We would take off at 6:30 and head out to Catalina Island for some really great fishing... or so we were told! :)

After taking off the first Catch of the Day went to Mark. What a beaut! Seaweed! Can't beat that!

On the way there it was cold. I was a little miserable! I really wanted the sun to come out! It was overcast and misty!
Mark's Mom called. Loren thought we needed to capture a Mark and his Mom moment!

It was a long boat ride! We got a little silly on the way there. I took a picture of Loren just standing there, then Mark and I started doing push-ups on the railing of the boat and squats.

Family portrait! I took this one... It's a wall-hanger!

Mark thought he could take a better one!

Loren caught a sheepshead! It was so cool. I'd seen one the year before while we were snorkling in the bay at Catalina, but they had been telling us all morning that they are pretty hard to catch.

One of the crew guys on the boat was helping everyone take their fish off the line and putting it into their bags. We all got numbers when we got on the boat. We had Potato sack-bags assigned to us with those numbers and the fish you caught were placed into the bags.

Loren grabbed the fish for a photo op and as I took the picture the fish started to wiggle and Loren dropped it. So this is mid-drop!

There we go! That's more like it!

The Sheepshead has TEETH!! Crazy Fish!!

Not too long after that catch, Loren caught a WOPPER!! A Beautiful Bonita! He was so proud! We were for sure going to win the jackpot for the biggest fish caught!

My proud hubby and his fish! A little boy about 10 or 11 caught a Bonita as well, and his was about a tenth of an oz. heavier than Loren's so he won the jackpot! We were happy for him. He was so excited!

After a 2 hour boat ride over and a 6 hour day of fishing it was time to head on back. So what do you do with the time? Take More Pictures of Course!!!!

The Boys started getting silly and messing around. So I caught them in the action!

Best Friends Forever!

Pulling into the Harbor we had to get a picture of the three of us together! We arrived back at 6:00pm. We had a great time. Loren had caught his two fish, Mark had caught 2 Calico Bass and I had caught a big wopping NOTHING, but I still had a blast!

Two boys, their bags of fish, their poles and tackle boxes in hand = great picture!

My 30th birthday... I know a little late

Loren has known that I've always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride. So for my 30th birthday he surprised me and took me to San Diego. It took us a little while to find the perfect spot to launch, but once we did it was amazing.

We got to the parking lot of a shopping center where the hot air balloon company came to pick us up. We got to take pictures before the launch with the Birthday Banner!! :)

When we got to the launching site there were already two other balloons there setting up. We got to see all these workers setting up the balloons and blowing them up. It was awesome how they got them up so fast.

After seeing three balloons take off... it was our turn!!!

This guy was part of our crew. This was our balloon that was finally going up!

Needless to say... Loren was a little nervous about everything. He's not a big "Heights" person! So he was merely doing this for my benefit! What a selfless husband!!! :)

Me on the other hand... I was so freakin' excited!! Kelli had called me to sing happy birthday to me and when I told her where I was she was so excited for me. Loren took a picture while I was talking to her.

It took some time for them to blow up the balloon so we got to take some pictures. Some serious and some......

Not so serious!! When Loren told me to take this picture the guys standing around with their girlfriends/wives/fiancees all came up to Loren and told him how they wished they would have thought of that one!

We had finally climbed into the balloon basket and then while we were trying to get off the ground the basket was slightly lifting and then dropping and Loren really started freaking out. I was laughing so hard and had to get a picture!

This is what you get when you are standing in the basket and looking up

Ready to take off

We started flying over houses and it was such a pretty sight with the sunset

When we were finally in the air Loren was content. It was so peaceful and actually really quiet when we got up a little higher. They had drinks for everyone to enjoy. Loren and I were the only ones that were not drinking chamaigne, but we were fine with water. :)

When we landed we gave a member of the crew our camera so that he could take a picture with us in the light of the fire. It was an amazing experience. One that I will never forget.

Fun in the Hospital

Whenever Loren is in the hospital we always get some pretty gnarly pictures! We like to have fun!! Here are some of the most AWESOME moments!!

The Last time Loren was in the hospital some of his hats he bought online came in the mail. So I brought them to the hospital and we had a fashion show!

He likes this picture cause it makes him look buff!! This picture reminds me of how my nephew Skyler wears his hats! :) I love that kid!!

This one he was getting ready for his sinus surgery

I kept taking pictures and he was getting annoyed

He had just come out of surgery and was a little loopy on the meds! Ha Ha!!

Then the fun began. He was coughing and spitting up blood clots for awhile after his sinus surgery

CF Walk Last month

So I am really bad at this blogging thing. I haven't found the time to keep up with it, but now that summer is here hopefully I will be able to do a little bit more. Here are some pictures from the CF walk. Loren's dad, and my amazing girlfriends Jodi and Amy walked along side me. We had a blast people watching and just talking. Loren was in the hospital and couldn't walk or else he would have been there as well. I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who helped me raise over $2000.00 for the Cystic Fibrosis Organization! Thank you so much to you all for your love and support!

Before we started walking we had to get a group picture (Me, Dad Howard, Amy, Jodi)

Amy and Jodi with their free T-shirts! :)

Dad Howard took me out to breakfast before hand so that we would have something to walk off! :) I love this man!

Starting our walk

Just in case you thought about giving up in the first couple of steps, there were signs to help motivate you to keep walking!

Workin' hard on that road to success!

Only 1/4 of the way down and 3/4 to go... still smiling! (This was a 10K)

Some people got tired early and decided it would be a great time to take a nap

People watching was the best part, especially since this lady's butt kept eating her pants

This sign said Caution Special Event in Progress, so I thought I'd show you a special event!

We got to the point of the turn around and we were all still feeling really good!

We were doing great... at least the signs said we were!

Look... Another Special Event in Progress!! Crazy how these things keep popping up!

There was even a clown at the end... for some people that means fun, joy, excitement... for others that means RUN!!!!

In all, we had a wonderful day and great company!