Wordless Wednesday - Maui highlight

Magical Maui Vacation - Part 7 - Giddy Up

On this day we headed back over towards Hana in reverse to ride horses at Maui Stables. It was a beautiful day and the trail ride was nice. However, I was at the front of the pack and Harrison was almost at the end. They did this based on riding skill and horse preference.  I didn't like that. No pictures of us together or anything. Oh well. I love horses so any trail ride makes me happy.

I can't remember my horses name. Something Hawaiian. Harrison reminded my of Dudley Do Right on his big Clydesdale.

Weekend Recap and Monday errands

It's Monday, so time to reflect on the weekend! Even a weekend where we didn't do much seems to fly by! UGH!

 Friday night I picked Sofia up at the airport. Background: Sofia's Dad lives in TX, each summer she spends 6 weeks with him. This was the first year she has flown (alone) to see him. She flew from PHX to San Antonio so just a 2 hour direct flight. She LOVED it. She got tons of special attention, etc. Anyway, she came back Friday night and I was SO happy to see her! Here she is right after she got off the plane!

She spent a lot of time catching up with her "girls". That makes me and my wallet happy!

 The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent being lazy. Saturday we worked on finalizing our RV trip (we leave Friday), hung out by the pool a little ( I drank too much wine) and then had Thai take out. A lazy but fun day together. Sofia was invited to a friend's house for a sleepover and let me tell you, she could not get there fast enough! She loves her friend Sam - who sadly is moving to Utah this week. Boo! 

 What else did I do this weekend? Well, I made some yummy whit chocolate mocha in the Mr. Coffee fancy pants machine. It was yummy and the recipe is here. For Dinner last night I found this wonderful pin for fruit cobbler. So easy and very good! Of course it's from Southern Living and well, you can't really go wrong there!The Fam enjoyed and I think you will to!

 I've been a Pinterest crazy person the past few days prepping our menu for the trip (which I'm calling: The Great American Adventure). Our goal is to cook/grill every meal with the exception of one or two. We are eating lunch at Old Faithful Inn and that is the only planned meal to be eaten "out". I'm making lists like you would not believe! Then I'm going to whip up a little menu to take on the trip with us, just to be cute! We will also have plenty of snacks and such to keep everyone happy. I hope! So just what is The Great American Adventure? Well, let me tell you! We are leaving our house Friday and headed to Moab, UT. We'll check out Arches National Park after we take a little trip down the river. After Moab, we are off to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Boy do we have some awesome stuff planned for the kids! Bear parks, rafting, zip lines, hiking and more! Can't wait! I so want to see a Moose! Fingers crossed!! No one plans a vacation like My Honey and well, I love to give my 2 cents worth! We make a pretty good team! I'll make all the lists and he figues out the logistics! I handle all the domestic stuff and well he, keeps on track and moving! We are renting the RV (go to Craigslist - NOT one of those overpriced RV rental places)and My Honey got an awesome deal! I'm excited to sort of make it our own little home on wheels for a while! Stay tuned for tons of pics from our adventure! I also did school supply shopping and I don't know about y'all, but our Wal-Mart was not good. So many things she needs, they didn't have. I'm actually going to go by CVS (I've got a coupon) and see if the options are better there. I mean really, finding a red folder with pockets and prongs shouldn't be this hard. Right?

Today after work I took Sofia for a hair cut. She was happy to lose some length.

We then headed back to Wal-Mart (UGH) to start our Great American Adventure shopping. We took care of most of the dry goods. Sofia says "it's SO much!"

We also took a minute to say "Hi" to Willy. I totally love DD. 

Do you menu plan for the week? We sorta do, but I've decided we have to get better. This is our plan for the week: Chiken Divan, Mongollian Beef, Chicken Wings and fries and Thursday night we will eat out or get to-go so we don't dirty up the house before we leave Friday morning!

Magical Maui Vacation - Part 5, 6

Back with more Maui pics after participating in Jenna's fun commenting challenge this week!

This was sort of a lazy day.

We started off our day with a yummy Cinnamon roll from Cinnamon Roll Fair. Huge and big enough to share! Then we snorkeled a little before heading over to Iao Valley State Park to see the needle and then we hopped into the rushing water to cool off and take pics. Thank goodness for the tripod and automatic timer. Even though I do get a little embarrased sometimes as we take lots of pics. But Honey is right, better to take a few minutes with the tripod and get a decent pic that trust that a random stanger will get a good one of us.

The next day had us waking up at 2:10am to go to see the Sunrise at Haleakala. It was beyond beautiful. It was also very cold!!

Jenna's Commenting Challenge Day 5 - Best Meal EVER

Woo Hoo - It's Friday!! It's the last day of JennaBlogs Commenting Challenge. What a great way to get to meet so many other bloggers! I've added tons of folks to my reading list! Be sure to go check out Jenna!
Today's final topic is best meal EVER. Could be restaurant, mom's meal, etc.

Hmmm...where do I start.

Well, I love food! It's about bringing people together. I think it is social. Here's what comes to mind when I think of my best meals ever:

1. My Mom's hamburger steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and gravy and black eyed peas. I hated it as a kid. All it took was moving away from home for many years to realize when I went back to visit, I HAD to have it!  Good ole Southern cooking! YUMMMMM!!!!
2. This past Christmas we were in Sonoma/San Francisco. On Christmas Day it was cold and raining outside. We went and hiked at John Muir Woods National Park and then drove over the GG Bridge into the city in search of lunch. I whipped out the phone and said show me restaurants! The nearest place of any interest: an Indian Buffet. Can't remember the name but I always think about this day because if reminds me of a scene from a movie or something. lol. We ran through the rain and cold, into this cute restaurant with big glass windows looking out at the City, shed our coats and went on to have a wonderful Indian buffet lunch on Christmas Day in San Francisco.  Cost - less than $20 for both of us! We were cold and the spicy meats and sticky rice hit the spot. We stuffed ourselves. It was wonderful. I think back on this day so much I guess because it was our first holiday together and it was the most unique for me!
3. For  our 1 year anniversary, my Honey took me to North Fattoria Italiana here in Phoenix. OH MY HEAVENS. The best pasta and speciality pizza. But beyond the food is the ambiance. The restaurant is like a big barn. It is so wonderful!
4. Just recently (while in Maui) we drove the rode to Hana and had lunch at Thai Food by Pranee. WHOA - the best THAI ever! If in Maui - drive the RTH just to go eat there! The layers of flavor were mind-blowing!

So I think that is it for me. Of course I can think of tons of my mom's meals that make me happy and then there is Big Bob Gibson's BBQ that always hits the spot but, well I'd run out of time if I listed them all. So have any of you visited those places??

Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

Jenna's Comment Challenge - Christmas in July

Hi everyone! I'm teaming up with Jenna's comment Challenge again today, and its all about Christmas! Be sure to check out her blog.

I gotta admit, I'm not a HUGE Christmas fan. I like the decorating and cooking, but am not hugely into it. Not sure why. Anywho, so instead of talking about presents and such, I thought I would talk about 2 of my recent favorite memories!

Christmas 2011, Sofia and I travelled to Decatur, AL (1st time in 4 years) and surprised my family 2 days before Christmas Eve! No one knew!! We showed up on their doorstep around 6:30 (when I knew my Dad would be home from work). We knocked on the door, my Mom answered and we jumped out and said "Merry Christmas". She almost passed out! They were shocked!!! It was a wonderful Christmas. I had shipped presents and Sofia and I had made those knotted fleece blankets for my parents, we baked stuff, it was wonderful! I got to see my neices, siblings and some old friends. Overall one of my best Christmases ever!

And then last year The Honey and I went to Sonoma for the Christmas holiday (our kiddos were with their "other" parents). It was lovely. We laughed, we ate some yummy pastry, we drank some crappy red wine (we don't like red really), visited Alcatraz, hiked in the beautiful Muir Woods, walked across the bridge, and visited San Fran.. It was so much fun and romantic. We got a couples massage and one day in the rain, relaxed in the hot tub (it was in the 40's outside). What memories!