Family Ties....

My family and Tommy spent the day relaxing at Janice and Mark's house in Ladera. Football, food, cards, naps...

Jake knows how to make himself comfortable...

Nick, Dana and baby Mayo in front of the fire.

Mayo thinks that she is a baby and loves to be held just like one!

Can you tell how thrilled Mark is to have his photo taken?

Janice and Mark

A glass of vino at the end of the night. I love my papa!

Tommy flies home to Memphis tomorrow, Dana and Nick are headed back to Portland and my mom, dad and Jake will drive back to Borrego.

It's been a great 10 days and I'm feeling sad that life returns back to normal on Monday. I'm grateful for all of the fun times and memories made over Christmas and New Years. I am so blessed!

New Years Day at The Rose Bowl ~ The Granddaddy of them all!

My beloved Oregon State University Beavers lost their invitation / bid to the Rose Bowl when the Ducks prevailed with a final score of 37-33 in last year's Civil War. BUT my brother-in-law Nick and parents are HUGE Duck fans and season ticket holders. They were able to score two tickets for Tommy and I. Being that I might not ever have the chance to go to a Rose Bowl game again (tickets are hard to come by and sold for over 3x face value) we jumped at the chance to spring for the tickets at face value and enjoy the Pasadena festivities!

Ready to rock and roll! We tailgated and mingled with all of the crazed OSU Bucks and U of O Ducks.

Buck fanatic!

Duck fanatic!

This photo is for all of my Memphis friends! Elvis is apparently a football fan too!

Today was the first time that I got to see my baby sister Dana's prego belly. She's due this June... and has the cutest (tiny) baby bump!

Tommy. me, Julie (Nick's mom), Nick, Dana, a family friend, and John (Nick's stepdad)

The girls.

Captain Sully Sullenberger served as the Grand Marshal. I admire how he became a hero when he was able to ditch the US Airways flight in the Hudson River last January. All 155 people on the plane were saved. Remarkable.

A salute to the men and women serving America throughout the world happened just before the kick off. A flyover of four F-18 jets was performed from Squadron from the Naval Air Station in Lemoore, California.

Our seats were pretty sweet and we had a great view of the field.

OSU's marching band was excellent!

This made me smile.

The first sunset of 2010 was gorgeous. It was pretty breathtaking to see the beautiful hues dancing on the San Gabriel mountains.

The Bucks beat the Ducks. Which, although disappointing for all of the Oregon fans, meant that we got to leave during the last few minutes of the 4th quarter, speed walk on the golf course to my car and leave without having to sit in the notorious crazy gridlock traffic. And this made all of us happy.

Home again, home again... jigidy jig...

Ok, so remember I mentioned that I had a, "slip" while on our Big Sur hike yesterday? Um, yeah. Woke up with a very ouchy backside (think tailbone!) and a massive large apple sized purple/red/green yuck bruise. Good times. It makes for a good story though.

We checked out of our B and B (sad face) and headed to the beach in Carmel with coffee and tea.

The water was a bit chilly for my bathwater temp preference.

The view of Pebble Beach

We drove the 17 mile drive to see the mini Hearst Castles... where the other half live. We stopped at all 21 points of interest of the Monterey Peninsula scenery.

Spanish Bay

Poppy Hills Golf Course. You'd better bring a bucket of balls.

Shepard's Knoll

Being goofy. The engagement photo that Tommy and I will never have! :O) (No engagement!)

Note to self... sitting photos accentuate tummy rolls and require lots of cropping before suitable. Next time stand behind subject.

The lone cypress

Pebble Beach

Tommy has been going on and on about his favorite drink, "bubble tea." We went to four bubble tea spots in Los Angeles and they were all closed between Christmas and New Years Day. So, alas, thanks to my Carmen the Garmin, we found bubble tea.

Bubble tea is characterized by a huge straw and big black balls of tapioca at the bottom of the cup. The balls are also sometimes called boba. The drink originates from Taiwan and is now popping up throughout the US.

I had green apple and Tommy had some self created blend. Is it bad to stay that Bubble Tea isn't my thing? I think I'm more of a straight tea, smoothie or milkshake kind of gal. But I did try it so that's all that counts, right?

The last sunset of 2009. Welcome 2010!

Tomorrow we'll meet my sister Dana, Nick and family for the 2010 Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Tailgating, football and sun? What could be better for the guys? I'll enjoy the people watching, seeing my sister's prego tummy and relaxing. Oh, and being a traitor and rooting for the Ducks instead of the my Alma mater The Beavers, for one day only!