Muir Woods Monument

Driving from San Francisco to Napa we stopped at the famous Muir Woods Monument to see some real Redwoods. It was quite impressive. We hiked one of the trails and just enjoyed the weather. It was finally warming up! We have tons more pictures than this, but these give you and idea of what we saw.

As we climbed one of the mountains heading toward the park, we pulled over to get this shot. It was absolutely beautiful!

Todd being a daredevil

The Redwoods... this just shows the height some of the trees had.


This was us getting our picture standing inside one of the Redwood tree trunks.

This picture really shows the size of these trees. They are HUGE!

Todd looking at a map and navigating our way around.

Napa Valley, CA

We spent 3 days and 3 nights in Napa Valley, which was by far our FAVORITE stop! We stayed with Stef's 3rd cousin, Barbara and her husband Bill on their ranch. They took us to all kinds of really amazing wineries and also toured us around the area. For some reason the pictures weren't loading properly and we couldn't get them all on here, but these are a few to give you an idea of the beauty. We can't wait to go back one day.

View of Napa Valley and some of the vineyards

This is where we stayed, Barbara and Bill's home. Morgan Ranch. It was just charming.

Here we are in front of an art sculpture at Cliff Lede Winery. Barbara and Bill are with us here. They sell their Sauvignon Blanc grapes to this winery, which is what we bought several bottles of to bring home :)


Todd in the vineyards at Robert Mondavi's Winery

Napa Valley in the back, we took this shot at the Silverado Winery.

Last Stop... Los Angeles!

Our last stop before heading home was in LA. We only had a couple of days but we were able to see a lot. We went to the Warner Brother Studios and took their VIP back lot tour. Saw sets and background for films and tv shows such as: Without a Trace, Cold Case, ER, Two and a Half Men, The Chronicles of Sarah Conner, Million Dollar Baby, Friends and many more. We also walked Hollywood Blvd and Rodeo Drive. We didn't see any movie stars, but we were definitely watching faces to make sure we didn't miss anything!

These two pictures were taken outside of Warner Brother's Studios

Georgo Clooney's hand and foot prints outside of Graumann's Chinese Theater

The stars were really hard to capture clearly in pictures because of the sun but here is Todd knelt down by Motley Crue's star.

Graumann's Chinese Theater

Even though the show is not done, WB preserved the Central Perk set that was used in the show Friends. It was so neat to see! This is the actual couch they used to sit on. The said the only thing that wasn't original on the set now is Phoebe's guitar, because she took it with her when the show ended.

More of the Friends set...coffee anyone?

This was one of many cars used in the filming of the Dukes of Hazard

This was very cool. This is the outdoor set they use to film ER. It is very realistic and you can even walk into the door about 20 feet and then after that is when they cut the scenes and film in the indoor sets. There are ambulances, cop cars, even the Chicago El train tracks just beyond this picture. Very neat!

Viva Rodeo!

The two of us in Hollywood

Outside the Kokak Theatre where American Idol just finished taping and also where the Acadamey awards are presented each year.

Tampa Fire Rescue Firefighter Cook Off 2008!

This morning Todd and his Captain (and friend!) Larry teamed up for the BJ's Warehouse Tampa Fire Rescue Firefighter Cook off. There were 4 teams, 3 judges and ALOT of food. BJ's donated all the food, a new grill to each Team to take back to their firehouse's, and the winner received a $500 BJ's gift card. They also donated $1,000 to the TFR public education dept. It was a beautiful day and the food was great! Here is the menu of delicacies Todd and Larry cooked up along with some pictures of the event and the Engine 5A Team! Although their Team did not win by the judges, we had people coming back for seconds and thirds. It was a lot of fun!

Menu of what they cooked

Todd, Larry and Larry's wife Charlotte before the cook off started


Todd and Larry

Team Engine 5A

Prepping food

Before the cook off started, Todd made his way to the other tents to see what was "cooking."

This was the front of their tent. I made the sign for them and Larry make the ladders. It looked great!

Latest Renovations to our house!

We have been in our house a year and a half and have finally been able to make some updates we have been wanting. We tore out our countertops, sinks and faucets throughout the house and put in granite, undermount sinks, new faucets and extra cabinets in the master bath and kitchen. It was quite a job but all is finally complete and we LOVE IT!! Below are some pictures of before, during and after the renovations.

This is the in between stage of one of the sinks in our master bath. We added the cabinet on the left where we used to have a sit down vanity. The extra space is great!

Here is our kitchen undergoing demolition.

More kitchen demolition

This was our kitchen BEFORE

Here is our new kitchen faucet, sink and bar area.

Here is the AFTER shot of the kitchen. We added the cabinets above the fridge and the upper and lower cabinets on the far right are new.

More AFTER shots of the kitchen

Here is a shot of the kitchen after the granite was installed but before the faucets were installed. We went about 18 hours with brushing our teeth in the shower because we had no sinks.

New Pictures of Meg...5 months

Meg has been with us just over 5 months now and as you can see in the photos below has become quite comfortable in her new surroundings :) She has found her perch in both of our offices and is quite happy to nap in them or play in them whenever she feels like it. Todd took the two on the bottom of Meg in his Queen Anne chair in his den. They are so cute! She doesn't fit very well, but boy was she comfortable! When she isn't napping, we discovered she can see out the front window better when she sits up there.

Things are good here... happy spring to everyone!

Our First Anniversary

On 2/16/08 we celebrated our first anniversary! To do this we decided to head to St. Thomas/St. John for a long weekend. It was wonderful!! We had a great time and really wished we would have had longer than 4 days, BUT we learned new things about the area and will definitely plan to go back. We stayed on St. Thomas at the Wyndham Sugar Bay, which was very nice. Next time though we decided we would stay on St. John. The people, including the locals were very friendly, the beaches more beautiful and just over all a different setting. We would highly recommend the area. We had 3 days of sun and one yucky day of rain, but it didn't keep us in. We just didn't go to the beach that day. Below are some pictures of our adventure.

Enjoy!

Woody's was a restaurant/bar we went to in St. John the day it was rainy. It was great! They took our picture to place on their website. The address is above if you want to check it out.

The islands were very mountainous and rugged. This was on the grounds of our hotel.

Taken on the ferry boat leaving St. John heading back to St. Thomas

The beach at our hotel.


Inside the lobby of our hotel

This was a tiny beach at the ferry dock on St. John. The water was pretty cold, but I couldn't resist getting my feet wet.

This shot is of the British Virgin Island and was taken at a distance from our hotel property.

Taken on the balcony of our hotel room. Behind me was Sapphire Beach