the days after IPOP

The days after IPOP

Well all good things must come to an end. Friday we had to check out of our 5 star hotel. We decided to take a morning swim in the pool & hottub. Drakeston slept in & we decided to do a late check out so we had until 2pm. I was tempted to get back in the pool again, but packed instead.

 We had pizza hut when we left the hotel. We spent some time driving around Beverly Hills looking at the fancy cars & drove down Rodeo Dr. We stopped at The Beverly Hills Garden which has a cool BH sign, & a really big tree that is fun to climb on & carve initials in hearts in. I wanted to show Nana where we had stayed & been on our last visit to CA, that took us to Wilshire blvd in Beverly Hills. We visited the Harry Potter store that is across the st from the original agent we spoke with. So since we were in the neighborhood we went down to The La Brea Tarpits, since there was 4 of us this yr & we didn’t have as much spending money we didn’t pay to go in. We just walked along on the outside. The tarpits are next to the LACMA los angeles county museum. I was trying to be artistic & was taking all kinds of angled building & architect pics. I had told Alex if we ever were back in LA I would show him LA INK. So since we were on LA Brea & that’s where LA INK is we journeyed down to High Voltage Tattoo. I told her to park at the MCDonalds a few blocks from La Ink, & fear of being towed we purchased food, so we would be mcd’s customers, & since we were staying for more than a few mins we decided to connect to the free wifi for a bit. When we were finished walking around & looking at LA INK we drove to our Sylmar, CA hotel. It is only a 1 star hotel. Not bad except its small, only 1 full size bed. We bought a full size airbed for the boys. The bed is a bit uncomfortable, even though we bought the airbed for the boys to share Drakeston has still been sleeping with me & Nana. This place does have a hottub that has eased the back pain I get from sleeping on this bed. We stayed at this hotel for 2 nights before we went to Beverly Hills & have been here since we left BH.

The next day was Saturday we wanted to go to Venice Beach & see where we loved last yr. I didn’t have a specific address, so I kept picking Venice spots on the gps, & I would say it didn’t look familiar so we would drive somewhere else. We kept ending up in Santa Monica & Marina Del Ray, Venice is in the middle of the 2. We stopped for lunch Nana & I had Chinese & Drakeston Had subway, Alex didn’t eat cuz he ate left over pizza in the car. We ended up parking in Santa Monica & walked to Venice which was 3 miles. All of this caused us to get to the beach several hrs later then when I originally wanted to arrive. I wanted to see the midday tide hit the rocks on Venice Beach so we could see the big breaks. We missed that , so the water around the rocks was barely there on the front side. This meant Boo could climb on the rocks & He was crab searching. He collected 16-20 crabs from small to large, he had them in a bucket that we found at Santa Monica. He released them when we left. It was fun to see them scurry off, they left neat little tracks in the sand. I don’t know why there wasn’t as much water where it was the last yr, but there was a lot of seaweed & moss & various other stuff  washed up on the shore, but there were 4 dead stingrays on the beach, there were some big bones from marine animals washed up.  It was kinda gross cuz there were small flys all around. Even with all that Venice is still my favorite beach that Ive  been to.  It has street vendors & artists all along the beach. It’s a bright & colorful place. There are all kinds of music there from mixed cds to bongos & steel drums. The condos & lofts on the beach are all neat to look at. There was one for rent & last yr I said it would be cool to live in that unit. I was tempted to call the # & find out how it was going for but I didn’t want to be sticker shocked so I just let it be. We had to walk back to our car in Santa Monica which was 3 miles down shore, by this time it was dark, & all the st vendors, artists, & musicians were gone. Nana & The boys had walked ahead of me to get to a store before it closed. I was exchanging food we had bought I didn’t like it, & it took forever to get new food. I was taking pics of the sunset while they were eating, so I didn’t know I didn’t like the food when everyone else was eating. I walked almost 3 miles by myself in the dark. Being on the beach at night is a lot different then in the daytime. It was almost scary. We made it back to the hotel just in time to have 10 mins in the hottub before they closed it for the night.             

Today was Sunday we stopped at an In-N – Out Burger which is a famous burger chain in the CA area. It was ok, but not as good as the hype. We then drove to Downtown Disney to shop & look around. Nana & I got some Mickey ears, & the boys built a remote control car at Ride Makerz. I also had a charactercature made up of them. We went back to our hotel decided to find an eating place & ended up at TGIFridays. I hadn’t been there in a very long time. It was pretty good. Then we went swimming in the hottub again. I had checked the temperature before we got in the pool to see if it was gonna be cold, as I have done each time before we swam at a hotel or on the beach. Everytime it had always been around 64-66 & once you get in the water it hasn’t been all that bad, but tonight when I checked it was 84, so I was expecting the pool to be warm. It was 9:15 at night. I jumped right into the pool & quickly got out. It was the coldest water I had been in yet. A guy at BH told us he thought the hotel mustve been heating the water . I guess they were cuz the Sylmar pool was freezing & the pool in BH was warmer, even though the outside air was cooler.  We considered going back to Hollywood after leaving downtown Disney but decided we didn’t want to pay for more parking & just went back to the hotel.

Tommorrow we start the drive back home, we will make it to Gallup,NM.

day 3,4,& 5

Day 3 ,4,& 5

I think I left off with our adventures in the Grand Canyon. Well after visiting the Grand Canyon, we had a 6 hr drive to Barstow,Ca. the last stop on rte 66 before hitting Los Angeles. While in Barstow, we visited the Barstow,Ca train/bus station. The out side is an Mcdonald’s its actually 3 old train cars. The Starbucks was across the st. We ordered 3 frappicinos & they gave us 5. We stopped at a grocery store to get sunscreen & we gave one of the extra drinks to our cashier. We then drove to 6 flags Magic Mountain.  I have been there once before but there were new rides. So it was very exciting. Our 1^st ride out was the X2 for the movie xmen2 . it was incredibly fun & exciting way for the ride. Nana was very nervous. The chair you sit in is like sitting in a rocking chair & then they pull you up the incline backwards. The next ride we rode was probably one of the most fun ive ever been on. Nana even said it was fun & not scary. Its called the tatsu flying at the speed of fear. Its literally almost flying over & through the mountains. The chair you sit in they flip you so you are looking at the ground on take off. Everyone comes off laughing. We rode it once during the sunlight hrs & once during the night hrs. We didn’t get to hit all the rides I wanted to go on but it was still fun. We missed riding the superman, which is different than the superman in Tx, we didn’t get to ride the riddler, & a few others.

The next day we stopped at Ed davis park. We saw it coming home from 6 flags & wondered what it was. My Dad’s name is Ed Davis. It turns out it was a trailwalk in the mountains. We just took a pic of the sign & then headed off to Farrell’s ice cream since our last name is Farrell. At 2 of my jobs Ive worked out we watched a customer service video called give them the pickle, it was based out of the Farrell’s ice cream parlour.  I googled it once & didn’t think I would ever be in a location close enough to visit one, but we were. It was pretty fun. They sound a bell every time its someones bday, all the waiters come out one is beating on a farrells bass drum & they sing a different song for each guest. We had a gold digger sundae. Butter pecan ice cream bananas, pecans, caramel & whipped cream shared 4 ways. After we left Farrell’s we took a scenic drive to Malibu, walked along the pier, then drove down the Pacific Coast Hwy to Santa Monica. We played in the beach for a while then we went on the pier. We were getting Alex & Nana’s faces sculpted. We let someone go in front of us who had a baby, so they gave us their amusement park wristbands. The lines were long & it was dark & 65 degrees so nana was cold. The boys rode the west roller coaster once, then Alex & I rode it once. I wanted to ride the ferris wheel but we didn’t. This was my 3^rd time to Santa Monica, but I have never ridden the roller coaster before. It was something Ive been wanting to do for a long time.

Sunday was the start of our IPOP competiton we had to check in at 3pm, so we didn’t have a lot of time. We took a short trip to Hollywood. We wanted to see a movie at Grauman’s Chinese theatre but all they were showing was a Madea movie & not at the time we were there. We ate at Hard Rock Café instead. Walked around a bit at Grauman’s looking at the handprints, saw a few stars on the walk of fame, then we had to head to Bevrely Hills to check in. It’s a 5 star hotel the hyatt regency century plaza hotel.

Monday we had an IPOP pep rally to get the event started. The boys auditioned for the showcase which is the entertainment for the closing & awards banquets.  They wanted Drakeston to be silly & crazy & sing & dance & he said he wasn’t able to do that, so he wasn’t selected. Later today they will perform there commercials.       That’s it for now, more updates later.

ife is a hwy & I wanna ride it all night long day 2 of rd trip to ca

Life is a hwy I wanna drive it all night

That song was playing when we stopped at The Cadillac Ranch, & then it was playing as we started the leg of the trip close to the az/ca border. We were about 97 miles to the Ca border & 400 miles to Los angeles.

Wow what a quote….. the boys were in the backseat talking about an inapporiate cartoon show. Alex was trying to add lines to a famous from the show. I told him he couldn’t say that. They asked how I knew it wasn’t a part of the quote. I told them I used to watch the show when it 1^st came out when I was young, Drakeston said when was that way back in 1930. I was drinking some green gatoraide & I snorted, it was looking I was able to restrain my self from spraying it all over the computer from laughter…..

Now back to the main events  of the day. Since we got in so late last night we wanted to sleep in & we didn’t worry about setting an alarm, I did want to leave at like 7am  or 8am. I woke up when the sun started peeking through the curtains, my phone said 9am but it was still in tx time, we were in pacific so it actually was 7am. I woke everyone up & we got ready, had our hotel froot loops, packed up the car, & headed out. We detoured to the painted dessert. If I had known I would’ve made a plan to visit the petrfired forest. It was 20 mins before our hotel in Holbrook.

We then headed to the grand canyon. We stopped at bedrock city just outside the canyon. It had a really good lunch menu. & it had recreated the town of bedrock from the cartoon the Flintstones.  Pretty cute but  not  exciting.

We picked the perfect day to go the Grand Canyon. it was between 78-85 degrees at the canyon just depending where you were at. I had been talking to my bf who lives in the OKC area & it was 105 where he was at. I saw a facebook friend's status that it was 109 in Needles. im not sure which state that is in I guess AZ but we were driving through it when I saw her status post about Needles.

Our grand Canyon experience wasnt as grand as expecting & due to impatient family not wanting to listsen to the communication we had to give them, we spent a lot of time bus hopping throughout the canyon instead of actually getting to see different areas of it. It was still fun even though we spent about 2 hrs on a bus for a 4-5 hr visit. We decided we would make a whole trip just to the Canyon as our next trip. They have a lot of neat cabins there, its a nice community. IF we go back we want to take the helicopter tour & go rafting through the Canyon.

We are currently in Barstow,Ca its the final stop on route 66 before you reach Los Angeles. Our hotel is next door to a Starbucks so i will be getting some of that. The Mcdonalds is across the st & its in a train car, so we may go visit that. Today we head to 6 Flags magic mountain near Los Angeles. My pics are uploading as we speak so look for them to come. We have been through every city or town that is known for being on route 66.

i get my kicks on route 66 day 1 rd trip to ca

Well the day before any trip is always long for preparations & such, well this trip was no different. I ended up going to bed between 3:15am & 3:30am and waking about 1.5-2 hrs later. I went to work an hr early so we could leave earlier. We were scheduled to leave at 12:30pm, at 12:45 I called to see where my family was & they hadn’t left home yet. HOME IS 1 HR FROM WHERE I WORK. I could’ve worked my regular shift. We started our trip at 2pm. I was expecting it to be a pretty boring leg of the trip, but it wasn’t. they say the longest part of a rd trip is getting out of TX. That was the case here. I really thought driving through west tx would be so boring & mind-numbing as Alex’s commercial would say. It was pretty had cute painted houses & buildings. Each small town had some cool looking shops. We had planned on stopping at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo,TX,(an art project for a university in the 60’s or 70’s that stuck 10 cadillac cars up right in the ground, & then were painted. It since has become a graffiti park & you leave your mark  so the art is always changing.) but we also decided that the Big Texan steak house was a great photo op, so we turned around & stopped there as well. Those 2 photo stops took 2 hrs. we had only been driving 2.5 hrs at this point. We thought it was an 8 hr drive but we were forgetting the time changes, & it was really a 10 hr drive. I was slated for 4 hrs of driving. I pulled over just after entering into New Mexico. It was just a Love’s struck stop or so we thought. It had a free car museum, so we had to stop & look & take more pics. That 5 min stop to change drivers and get gas .  turned into an hr stop. It was well worth the time.

Our first hotel was in Holbrook, AZ. We had to drive through alberque, NM & Gallup, NM. I started driving again after driving again in Gallup & had a very scary driving rd. I had set cruise control at 75 not knowing that it was immediately gonna turn into a curvy steep area & had to drop from 75 to like 40 instantly. We were driving through canyons. I wasn’t even aware we were in canyons I thought what I was seeing was clouds, & then next thing I knew we were next door to the largest canyon ever. Then it settled back into a normal hwy. we finally arrived in Holbrook,AZ, & entered into pacific Time. Our clocks which was in mt  time said 1:15am, we went inside the motel & it said 12:15am but in TX time it was 2:15 am, so we were on the rdx just over 12 hrs. There was a slight problem with the reservation & took about 30 mins to resolve, then we had sleep finally.

stampaganza time with close to my heart

well im still learning how to cruise the internet on my new phone so ill add a pic lateer just wanted to give a quick fyi public service announcement while waiting for a friend. its my favorite close to my heart special they run. its stampanganza time which means wheny you visit my website scrappedwithakiss.ctmh.com and buy 2 stamps you get one free.you can buy 2 a sized sets get and a you can buy  2 d size setsand get  a d free. u can get any combination with buy 2 get 1 free but the best way to take advantage is to stay in the same size size set you will get the lowest price in your basket for free. go visit scrappedwithakiss.ctmh.com andload your basket up. tell your friendsfamily tell everyone. there is no limit on how many free sets you can get as long as u have buy 2 get 1.

nutella peanut butter crescent rolls

tonight i was watching cake boss, it made me want dessert so i got on my dessert board on pinterest. i made mine opposite of what the original one was made. i used nutella instead of peanut butter and peanut butter baking chips. the peanut butter chips was the best part of the dessert. my mom made preflavored bbq chicken and waffle fries,

 I was typing this from my phone. I had to get a new one over the weekend. i went into the current century & got a new 4g smart phone. ive never had a phone with data before. I was trying to attach the pic from my phone & I accidently deleted the pic. luckily drakeston hadnt eaten his yet. The 1st pic was pretty & looked yummier.

I chickened out, I was gonna make a balsamic vinegar pork tenderloin

I chickened out, I was gonna make a balsamic vinegar pork tenderloin from pinterest instead I made a pre-flavored teryaki pork tenderloin. I have never made a tenderloin, & have never had balsamic vinegar so I asked my mom if I would like it, she said she & my dad would, the boys would not & she didnt know if I would like it or not. I decided I wasnt adventurous tonight. I did use a pretty new pyrex bowl tonight. It is a divided casserole dish, so I threw in some hash browns, butter & parmesan cheese.( my mom added velveeta cheese slices.) Its actually still cooking as I type so I dont know how it tastes yet. I started cooking late about 8:15pm or so & my mom's oven isnt working 100% so it takes forever. We originally had the oven set for 425 and 30 mins, but we have since switched it over to broil & now its almost done. Success food is out of the oven finally. 9:25pm it tastes good.