Day 4: Gold tour & more!

On our last day,we walked to a nearby place called "Orphan" while Ben slaved away at work. We had an amazing breakfast then took a stroll in the neighborhood park. When Ben got off work, we hopped in the car and drove to Sutter Hill where Prospector Charlie took us on a gold mine tour. The tour was very interesting and his stories were both informational and funny-- we even saw gold! We continued our adventure to Jack Russell Brewing Co. by Camino, CA where we sampled 11 of their home brews. After devouring two pizzas at Chicago Fire in Folsom, we headed back to Thunder Valley outside of Sacramento where we tried our luck at the slots. It was a fun way to end a wonderful trip!

Day 3: Sacramento

Ben had to work Monday morning, so the rest of us slept in, grabbed breakfast at Noah's and coffee at Starbucks then headed to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA! Touring Jelly Belly was quite a treat (no pun intended)-- we were on a bit of a sugar high after that! That afternoon, when Ben got off work, we toured the California capital building which was quite interesting, and had Mexican cuisine at Ernesto's. Later that evening we walked around "Old Sac" and checked out all of the little shops in the area.

Day 2: San Francisco

We journeyed to San Francisco for day two of our trip. After walking around Fisherman's Warf and Pier 39, we ate at "Bubba Gump Shrimp" then jumped into "Go Cars" and toured the city on our own (with the help of GPS) for a solid three hours. It was by far the best way to tour San Fran! We had a blast and got to see everything so close up! I would recommend the "Go Cars" to anyone-- the speakers had a talking GPS lady who told us where to go and informed us about all the sites around us-- if we got off path, we had a map to help get us back on track. While cruising around town, we nearly drove right under the Golden Gate Bridge, we stopped by The Painted Ladies and dreamed of being on "Full House" and we drove down the infamous Lombard street, one of America's crookedest streets. Needless to say, we mastered the art of sight-seeing.

Day 1: Napa County

We woke up to Ben making coffee and a breakfast casserole prepared by Kristin in the oven-- they were lovely hosts! The gang ventured to Napa County for a day full of wine tours in the rain! The boys decided they wanted to visit some wineries that they had heard of and weren't outrageously expensive (Kristin and I called it the "white trash wine tour" WT squared!) We started at Beringer, followed by Sutter Home, and then V. Sattui which was my favorite. We stopped for a bite to eat, then continued on to Folie a Deux, Schug, and Cline. I loved wine country and would go back in a heartbeat-- enjoy the scenery below!

Sacramento Night 1

Sacramento greeted us with cool and rainy weather right off the plane...how delightful! Ben and Kristin picked us up from the airport and took us to their little humble abode.

We each had one of these shirts waiting for us when we arrived!

After freshening up, we ate at a restaurant called Jack's then headed to the Sacramento Kings vs Philadelphia 76ers game. The Kings lost, but we were amused by the circus like atmosphere of NBA basketball.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope ya'll wore your green today! Have a good one!

Sacramento Spring Break 2011

Spring Break has officially begun-- I survived the past two brutal weeks of school and I'm flying to Sacramento tomorrow morning-- I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas! Ben and Kristin have oodles of things planned for us, so we will definitely be cramming as much as we can into the four days we are there! I plan on seeing the following while in California...and I will be sure to blog about our journey as soon as I get home, if not while I am there.

Don't Stress the Dress!

My little sister-- who just turned 16 on March 15th, which is still hard to believe-- had been struggling to find the perfect prom dress. She is only a sophomore so she wasn't planning on purchasing her own dress, but borrowing one instead. After trying a few different dresses from friends and family, she decided to attend Don't Stress the Dress. Don't Stress the Dress is an event where (Northeast Nebraska) girls can shop for a prom dress and accessories at NO COST! It is quite an amazing event! People from all over have donated new or gently used prom dresses, shoes, and jewelry. The even took place on two different days above a bank in small town Oakland, Nebraska. All of the dresses were organized by size, there were 12 dressing rooms, a shoe room, tables of jewelry, a waiting room for all of the anxious girls, and several volunteers! I was told that over 100 girls found a prom dress the same day Stef found hers-- I am still amazed at this whole concept-- why not donate your old dresses and let someone else enjoy them free of cost?!

Here is Stef in her dress-- doesn't she look just like Belle off Beauty and the Beast? Beautiful!

scratch that

After writing my previous post on how I was going to give up chocolate for Lent, I visited with my brother about what he chose to give up for the next 40+ days; his answer was Facebook, and he had quite the rationale behind his choice--he said that by giving up Facebook, he hopes to spend more time reading for leisure and school. I started pondering the idea and might have even lost a little sleep over it, and then decided that I too am going to give up Facebook. Scratch the chocolate idea!

As a result of living alone, I find myself jumping on "FB" quite often when I'm bored. I usually don't stay on too long, but I know the time I spend on FB adds up. My time is too precious to be wasted by "stalking" all of my friends, so I am going to attempt to use my time more wisely for class, clinic, and the like.

For you blog followers of mine, you may see a sudden increase of posting on my end now that I am not able to express myself on Facebook. I changed Blake's password last night and he changed mine today, so we will be out of "the social network" until Easter...I guess our friends will just have to contact us the old fashioned way!

As for my chocolate...I haven't eaten any today, and it's not that I don't think I could last 40some days without it, I just feel that I will actually benefit from giving up Facebook because I will devote my time to things of more importance.

Plus, "they" say that a LITTLE (dark) chocolate is good for you : )  Happy Lent!

fat tuesday

Starting tomorrow, I will no longer be consuming chocolate of any kind because I am giving it up for Lent (which will be quite difficult because I LOVE dark chocolate!) While I was at the grocery store today, I made the mistake of purchasing these...

I devoured two of them, and I will be saving the rest...maybe if I'm lucky, the Easter bunny will bring me some more when I am able to eat chocolate again!

my milk toof

Are these not the cutest pictures ever? My Milk Toof is a blog about the adventures of two teeth, ickle and Lardee. These are just a few scenes from their fishing trip, be sure to check out the others if you're looking for a little chuckle.