The Tour of California ROCKED Escondido!!!

WOW, what a weekend! We have been looking forward to the Tour of California to come to Escondido for MONTHS! And knowing we were going to party like rock stars in the VIP tent... ahhhhh... we couldn't WAIT! Sunday was AMAZING! Our day began at 9AM at the start line in Rancho Bernardo... checking out the scene... getting some cow bells, chalk, boomers and posters... checking out the VIP tent. We took Anna with us to the start so she could see what Mommy and Daddy were so excited about... she LOVED it!

After dropping Anna back at home with Jessica, we drove about 2 miles from our house to the finish line. We checked out the cool lifestyle fair and then went to our party... SOOOO COOL! Yeah for 3-time winner of the Tour of California, Levi Leipheimer, and Team Astana, who TOTALLY ROCKED! The rest of the story can be told with pictures... enjoy!
Jeff with Lance's bike... the one that was stolen... it's back!

The next 4 photos are from friend and photographer, Dan Kirksey, taken about 2 blocks from our house. Here are the two stage leaders racing toward the finish.

Nice shot of Tour winner, Levi Leipheimer (3rd from back, in yellow)... Lance is right in front of Levi.

Cool shot of the peleton riding on the streets in our neighborhood and all the support vehicles right behind the riders.

Woo Hoo!! Going to our party... :-)

Jeff was drinking red wine while I was enjoying some cold beer. We noshed all afternoon on appetizers, fruit and cheese. They served warm cookies after the race.

That is me (with my back to the camera)... live race feed and stats in the tent, nice company... a great afternoon!

THE FINISH! Top right is the stage winner.

The overall jersey winners.

ROCKING Team Astana! There's Lance, right in the middle.

... and the traditional explosion and spray of champagne.

(again, Lance in the middle.)

Hope DOES ride again, Sweetheart! Can't wait to watch you ride your next century in about 2 months! Thank you for sharing this AMAZING day with me, Sweetheart! I love you!

Last game of the Regular Season - OGHS Varsity Basketball

Oceanside, you can try to swat Chris while he is shooting 3's,

but it won't work... :-)

Last night was the final game of the regular basketball season for our Varsity OGHS Patriots. As I am typing this, we are waiting to find out if we qualified for CIF Playoffs... enjoy these shots of the game and Anna being... well... Anna... :-)

What else do 4-year old cheerleaders do at a game...?

They break out the dolls!

Peyton and Anna... yeah, they are just toooooo cute!

I LOVE this picture of Dor... with the little cheerleaders in the welcome line with the big cheerleaders in the background... SO CUTE!

Come on, Chris, rain some points for OGHS!!!

The big cheerleaders preparing to perform at halftime...

... and the little cheerleaders (and Peyton) getting ready to perform from the sidelines...

Anna doing one of her favorite cheers for the crowd.

Oh, the attitude already... Lord help us... :-)

Tour of California - WE ARE VIP'S!!!

Yes, we have credentials!!!

Can I hear a huge "WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!?" The 4th Tour of California is in already heading down the coast right toward Escondido for the final stage, the highest mountain stage of the history of the Tour, and US IN THE VIP TENT AT THE FINISH LINE!!! Fully catered, open bar, live feed of the race on a big screen TV... I still can't believe we are going to be there! For those of you that follow professional cycling, you know what an INCREDIBLE race this is... first race for Lance Armstrong since coming out of retirement, Floyd Landis' first race after his 2-year suspension, Tyler Hamilton is back, team Astana is ROCKING (can't wait to see them race in France in July!)... The field racing here in California is soooooo strong... pretty much all the big names and teams are HERE!!! It has been a great race so far... weather, not so good... crashes... yep even Lance and Levi have gone down already... attacks... sprint finishes... and Levi in yellow!!!

The final stage will pass right by our house and although we won't be there with our neighbors to cheer on the riders, we have several friends taking pictures of the live race while we party like rock stars at the finish line! Hope you have a GREAT day!!!!

Princess Anna, Princess Catalina and Sir Robbie's Valentine's Day Party

The kids have been asking to dress up for school, so we thought a "Royal Tea Party" would be a lot of fun to celebrate Valentine's Day. As always, Miss Penny did a wonderful job putting together the lesson plan and party to include painting with marbles, making Valentine mail boxes, special Valentines for the Daddy's (shhh, that is a secret!), special gifts for the kids and a lovely tea party with the most beautiful cupcakes! You ROCK, Miss Penny! Make it a GREAT day!!!

FREAK Storm in Escondido... "Snow" and Flooding!

Looks like we live next to a river... No, we live on a corner... there are supposed to be streets and sidewalks under there...

Our poor tropical plants... don't know how they will handle this weather, but they sure are beautiful backdrops for the hail!

WOW!!! Living in San Diego county, our typical weather is... well... typical! Perfect weather most of the time, cooler weather and a few rain drops in the winter, followed by more perfect weather... Even when we are on (Da, Da, Da) "STORM WATCH," we may get some sprinkling with a few minutes of rain, and the storm is over. Which explains why we are in such a serious drought...

So... we have had a pretty decent weather system come through in the past 24 hours (decent for us... nothing compared to what you get back east!). It had been dry for about 5 hours and there was even some blue in the sky. When all of a sudden, this black cloud comes out of nowhere and the sky started falling!!! It started POURING and a few minutes later it started HAILING... WHAT!? Then it started flooding... hailing, rain, and flooding... all the neighbors started gathering outside, hooting and cheering... the boys started talking about "tubeing" down the street... the storm was so fast and so unusual that we were all stunned! Within about 10 minutes, you couldn't see the street anymore... it was one big river. Trash cans started floating down the street... heck, there were currents in the water in the street! It lasted a good 25 minutes or so and it was AWESOME!!! And it was FREEZING... seriously... I was out there in my bare feet taking pictures when my feet started freezing... this is San Diego, what is that about!? The water level came up so fast, we did have a bit of flooding in our office and garage, but all is fine... flooding in the house... SO WEIRD! Jeff, Anna and I had an impromptu "snowball fight"... what a COOL STORM!!! It is starting to cloud up again... can't wait to see if there is more!!! WOO HOO!!!

It sure does look like snow, doesn't it!? :-)

These are not the small, green waste trash cans floating down the street... they are the huge HEAVY cans!!!

Jeff loves "tree" pictures, so I had to take this one of our front median... with a pile of "snow"... where our driveway used to be...

Yes, we have deep curbs, but a current in the river in the street!? CRAZY!!!

I thought this was a cool picture of the "snow" on our grass.

Our neighbors (Hi, Tom and Sandy!) celebrating this AWESOME weather!!! Looks like it is snowing to me!!!

YEP... More Scrapping...

Another layout that I had fun with... 12 x 12 cardboard, Rusty Pickle, and Prima... loving this layout with Daddy and Anna at the park... I cut a 12 x 12 out of cardboard, distressed, inked, and started creating!!! "Swing, Daddy, Swing..." Have a GREAT day!!!