Happy Belated Birthday to The Man!!

I know it's a little late but I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to one of the most amazing people I know.  I am extremely lucky to have him in my life. He really does make me a better person and is a better father to Jackson than I could have ever imagined.  I can only hope that 26 is as good to him as I feel 25 was. I am really glad that the Man was able to celebrate his birthday back home in Wisconsin.  We had an amazing meal at Royal Tokyo with some great friends and then followed that up with a few cocktails & a classic game of darts at the local watering hole.


While in WI we took Jackson swimming at the local hotel's pool...he LOVED it!!

Josiah feeding a camel at Jim Peck's

Green Bay Packers vs. Cleveland Browns

 Josiah & his Dad

 Josiah's Dad, Josiah, me & my Dad

Admiring Jackson when he was born

Just Playin'

Working on the boat, when he was deployed...he is the one with the checkered helmet

Happy Belated Birthday Love! I hope you had an awesome birthday week and that it continues through the entire year.

San Diego Trip

This past weekend Nicki and I decided to visit a friend of mine down in San Diego.  Part of the reason for picking this exact weekend to go was that the Packers happened to be playing the Chargers there.  So we thought it would be fun and exciting to watch the game together.

The entire weekend was amazing!  We did not have ANYTHING planned besides to watch the Packer game on Sunday.  Oh I lied Nicki and I did have my friend Ali make us appointments to get our hair cut while we were down there.  If you saw how my hair turned out the one time I had it cut in the almost 2 years of living here you would drive any distance to get a good hair cut and eyebrow wax :)

I had to work Friday morning but we managed to leave the house by 1:30 which our ETA was 6:30 or somewhere close to there.  Little did we know ok well we kind of figured but didn't think it would be as bad as it was we hit L.A. traffic at 4 p.m.  So our scheduled 5-6 hour drive turned into an 8 hour trip!  It wouldn't have been so bad except for 2 1/2 hours we drove a total of 18 miles ANNOYING! Even that wouldn't have been so bad except I was tired, hungry & had to pee!  Like every trip we take over 15 min long Nicki and I packed some snacks...I am pretty sure I ate 90% of the snacks we had in that 18 mile stretch and I might have even told Nicki that she was not allowed to eat ANY of my crackers.  Sorry Nicki, I know you were hungry too but at that time I was not willing to share with anyone.

We finally made it to our destination at 9:30 p.m. The next day we went to our hair appointments and we both now feel so much better about life  who knew a haircut and eyebrow wax could do that! Then Saturday night we went out downtown to the Gaslamp District. Nicki got to ride a mechanical bull while having a bunch of random Packer fans cheer her on and was easily the best bull rider of the night at least while we were there.  We went to a few other places and overall just had a really relaxing night people watching and listening to good music at a few different types of bars.

Sunday morning we decided to travel to Coronado to go over the giant bridge and check out Coronado Island.  It was a little on the cold side but other than that it was very fun seeing the ocean/beach and the Hotel del Coronado. We also checked out Seaport Village which is full of all sorts of shops.  And then it was time for the big game!  Happy to say that the Packers won :)

Our drive home was SO much better than the drive there! We made it home in 5 hours and that included 2 stops along the way.  We did have to leave before the game was over to beat the traffic but I think Nicki would agree with me that it was worth it.

I really should have taken some pictures while I was there but it was such a relaxing weekend that it didn't really occur to me.  So sorry that this is such a long, wordy post!

Love for Wisconsin

In case any of you did not know I happen to LOVE Wisconsin.  Now all the awesomeness happening in WI sports just makes me love it even more.

Let's recap the past couple weeks in WI sports:

- Brewers are in the playoffs and I must say they are doing AMAZING only 1 team stands between them and a trip to the World Series!!!  And to top it off I actually get to watch these games and can see the Crew in BEAST mode!

- Badgers are now ranked #4 after destroying Nebraska last week...another amazing game I was ecstatic to be able to watch!

- The Packers are 4-0 and currently leading Atlanta in the 4th so I am making an early prediction of 5-0 


I hope all of you are excited as I am about how well the state is being represented right now. Just wish I could attend one of these games.  Sorry if that was not as good of a recap as you were hoping for I was distracted by the Packer game and really wanted to finish this post!

HUGE downfall

This time of year makes me really happy for a couple reasons: 1.) love the fall weather 2.) getting closer to hunting season & the holidays 3.) football begins

Now living in WI is the reason I fell in love with all of those things and living in CA is making it really difficult to enjoy all of those things!!

 Average high temp where we live is in the 100's with a low in the upper 60's...this does not equal the hoodie weather that I enjoy once 4th of July is over with.  


Now hunting season and the holidays are not even close to the same experience they were just a couple years ago.  No large family get togethers with 10 different Christmas' and 3 different Thanksgiving dinners....just 1 of each and usually with only one or two other people. 


Football season is the reason I wrote this blog entry.  I LOVE to watch Packer & Badger games and now I am stuck watching 3 California teams that I could really care less about.  Which forces me to watch the games online, not exactly the same experience. 

Now What To Do...

Now that the Man is gone I have been trying to keep my self busy it's not working very well!  But one of the things I have been doing is figuring out things that I want to do while Nicki is here.  Now I don't think we will get to do everything on the list and I am sure more things will get added but check out what's on the list so far. these are in no particular order


1. Go to Yosemite National Park


2. Go back to Sequoia National Park


3. See Glee 3D  don't judge I know most of you probably love Glee as much as I do


4. Get tickets to see the Packers play the Chargers in San Diego


5. Go whale watching

6. Check out Monterey Bay Aquarium I know I was just in Monterey but I didn't get to do that and I was told it is really awesome!


7. Check out the Farmers Market in the neighboring town

8. Go to Las Vegas

9. See Motley Crue & Poison in concert

The last two are not really fair to add to the list since we already have tickets to see Motley Crue & Poison in 4 days and I have to go to Las Vegas for work in September