Happy Birthday Sister!

February 8, Ameilia turned 26 years old! I am so glad that I got to spend her birthday with her. We had so much fun. We headed to Burbank for lunch and it was nice enough to sit outside. This definitely was a no brainer. In the picture above, if you look closely, you can see the WB tower. We choose to eat at Bob's.
And Aimee's first meal being a 26 year old was....?

FABULOUS! Burgers, Fries, and Onion Rings : )

We headed over to the WB Studios to line up for the Ellen Show!

And we were on row 2, which happened to be the row that Ellen danced through! While we were there, we got to see Bradley Cooper (ahhhh) and Emily Blunt. We even made it on the big screen during the airing! If you missed it, her you go:

(our 2 seconds of fame)

We had reservations at Citizen's Smiths for dinner at 8pm. Megan and Jill joined us. Rubin gave me the recommendation, and a few of my AOO co-workers happened to be at another birthday party there. So they were able to "party-hop"! Our appetizers and dinners were amazing but could not compare to these three desserts! Cream Brulee, Red Velvet Cake, and Brownie A-la-mode.

Sis and Jill....
Sis and Me.... Happy Birthday! Love you!
Two of my favorite guys!! Brandon is on the left and Rubin is on the right. I am so glad I was able to see them. It was such a quick trip and I am sorry I didn't get to meet up with all of my LA gang. Next time I am there, I promise we will all get together!
Tuesday morning, it was time to head back South for me and East for Aimee. But what were we suppose to do with this?
We won a year supply of Vitamin Water Zero! We donated our two cases that we got at the show to the Advantage Car Rental employees. Have no fear, Ellen is mailing three cases to our homes! : ) We got the car dropped off, and headed to the airport.

Love you sister! So glad we got to have a weekend trip to LA! Miss you already and hope you have a wonderful week!

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday started out at the Santa Monica Farmers Market! The sun was out and shining BRIGHT!
Here is Megan with her goodies!
Aimee went running to the pier, while Megan and I shopped. I picked up some items for the Super Bowl party that Ray and Curt were throwing for a few friends. Aimee and I were in charge of making cheese dip! It was a big hit with our California friends! They had never had it before. Here is a picture of Ray and us before the guests, Mark, Barry, and Dee arrived. (We had already refilled the cheese dip bowl, but shhhhh don't tell anyone).
My dear friend Mark Sheldon, read about him here from my "Starting the Climb" post, came over for the party. He was helping supervise the brisket cooking on the grill. Here is Ray, Mark, and Curt (left to right) cooking away. They are three of the best people I know, and they prepared a feast for us. We had dips, salad, brisket sandwiches, turkey chili, and popcorn for the super bowl.
Who was I rooting for? I was undecided. I am a Manning fan, but I also wanted New Orleans to win. So I was just hoping for a good ball game, which I got! I was very happy for the city of New Orleans, they deserved this win!

Super Bowl Sunday favorites:

We especially loved the lighting show that occurred while The WHO was playing.
My Favorite Commercial was the Dorito's one with the little boy! 1)Don't touch my Momma 2)Don't touch my Dorito's

The game started at 3pm in California which felt a little odd to me. But we all had a wonderful time, even the dogs. Here I am with Rocket.

Posing

Sleepy!

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on a great win and great season!

East Coast to the West Coast

When I was interning in LA, I went to the Ellen Show to watch the Dave Matthew's Band preform. I was given 2 tickets for the actual Ellen Show for February 8, 2010 (my sister's birthday). So prior to my NYC trip, my sister and I had a trip to LA planned for her birthday weekend. It just so happened that we were able to be on the same 6 hour flight to LA! We arrived in California Friday night. Instead of Aimee seeing "sunny California" it was a downpour when we arrived.

Luckily, all of our bags made it. We were starving, so we headed to my favorite place in Venice, URTH CAFE. My co-workers at TFS got me addicted to Urth Cafe when I was in California. I was so happy to order my Curry Chicken Sandwich, Granita, and Iced Tea!
Then headed to my good friends and Images By Lighting owners house to stay for the weekend. We were greeted by these two boys: Rocket and Bandit : )
Aimee had a rough week at work, so her main request on Saturday was to be able to relax. It was raining in LA, so we went to breakfast at Amelia's on Main St. Then we headed to Culver City, where I use to live, to get our nails done. Manicures and Pedicures have "relaxation" written all over them! The ladies at the nail place were surprised to see me. One even asked "Didn't you move to some other state?" I am not sure if that is a good or bad thing that they knew who I was!

After we got our nails done, we headed to the Beverly Wilshire. Ray and the staff of Images By Lighting were setting up for a wedding there, so we stopped by! Here is a peak inside set-up:
I had never been to the Beverly Wilshire before, so Ray gave us a tour. You would probably recognize it from the movie, Pretty Woman.

Since it was raining in LA, we headed south for the afternoon to Laguna Beach. Megan came with us and we had such a fun car ride. We even saw this rainbow driving down the PCH!
And Finally....Laguna Beach.



We walked and shopped, got lost in the hills, and then ate dinner overlooking the ocean. Can't get much better than that. At dinner, the waiter noticed Aimee's birth date and brought her a chocolate mousse treat! Let the Birthday weekend begin!

NYC: Post 2

If you read my last post, NYC: Post 1 , you will remember me talking about Cafe Lalo. Well, on Wednesday, I went back for a snack and happened to snap a few pictures too! Allow me to introduce you to Cafe Lalo:

Isn't it gorgeous?

Wednesday evening, I walked from the Upper West side (82nd Street) down to Columbus Circle to meet my cousin, Chandra, for dinner.
Chandra gave me a personal tour of the CNN office at Columbus Circle. I was able to see where all of the shows are taped and produced there. She is one of the producers for CNN's American Morning. (If you are up that early, watch her show!) She introduced me to a few of her co-workers too. After my tour, we went to a great restaurant in the Time Warner Center.

Thursday, I explored the big city.....by bus! I headed south to the financial district, down Broadway thru: Columbus Circle, Time Square, Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, Canal Street, Tribecca, then Battery Park.

Why? To meet my sister off Wall Street for lunch. I met my sister, Ameilia and Mike, one of her coworkers, at a cafe. Then headed back up the east side to 5th Avenue. On my agenda for the afternoon was this:

to go ice skating in Central Park!!!!

It is one of my favorite things to do in NYC in the winter time. I considered it "working out" for the day!

That evening, I went to a pottery "byob" class with my sister and her friends! Here is Aimee painting away on her mug.
Pictured below: The girls lost in conversation! They are having to mail me my "to-go" cup so I will post the finished product when it arrives in Arkansas!
After painting pottery, we headed to Hi-Life for dinner. We visited until the early hours of the morning and had such a wonderful evening. It was a great way to wrap up my week in New York. Next stop...California!

NYC: Post 1

On Saturday I went from seeing this....And this....

(Thankfully neither car was ours, we were just traveling to and from the airport, with plenty of time to spare.)

TO THIS.....!

Cafe Lalo! Some of you may recognize this from the movie "You've Got Mail." It is about two blocks from my sisters apartment. I arrived in NYC around 11:30pm and by the time I made it to the upper west side. I was starving. My sister and I headed to Cafe Lalo. I could not believe I haven't been here before- I was in love. My new favorite spot. We got a three cheese plate which came with a sample of fruit wine, the bread platter, decaf coffee, and it was superb.
I wanted to take lots of pictures in there by my sister wouldn't let me. So I at least got one of the menu.
The next morning, we had brunch at Hi Life, then hit the Columbus Ave. Flea Market to see what we could find.
Here's Aimee aka Ameilia posing... You can read about my sister here! It is an article that MSU just did on her.

*Sisters*

This reminded me of my sorority sister, Kirsten Blowers store Riffraff in Fayetteville, Arkansas. After browsing for a while, we made our way to the subway station!

Next stop: The Rockefeller Center
and of course Anthropologie is a MUST if you are in that area. I love their store by the Rockefeller Center. It is AMAZING!
Then we browsed 5th Avenue and bought a few items! Stumbled upon the St. Patricks Cathedral and went in for a look.

The one and only: Time Square!
And thanks to Amy Hannon, I tried John's Pizza for the first time. It is located in an old church right across the street from the Majestic theatre where Phantom of the Opera plays. It was scrumptious.
After Pizza, we headed back to the upper west side and went to Forefront church. It is where Aimee has gotten involved. I loved going there and seeing what similarities/differences it had from christian churches in the south. The funny thing is, I felt right at home, and even knew the songs. It was so wonderful. When we left, we went to see my cousin Chandra. She just relocated from Atlanta to NYC in January. Chandra is a producer for CNN and you can read about her here. She literally moved into her new apartment Saturday. We stopped by to catch up on our way home and had a blast!