Pirates Dinner Adventure! Arrrgggghhh!!!

I have an awesome bucket list and, every now and then, I get to check something off of it.  Pirates Dinner Adventure in Buena Park was on the list and on Saturday, I got to cross it off!  Scott had gone for his nephew's birthday a couple of years ago, but fortunately, it was a different show this time around.  When we first got there, we checked in and got our seat assignment and, as we entered the building, they took a picture of us.  There was a ship's wheel that we stood by and then there was a little dragon cracking out of an egg.  Neither of us knew at the time that the show we were seeing was called, "Rise of the Sea Dragon" and we were both so confused about why there was a funky looking dragon attached to the wheel.  We were laughing a little bit about it, but posed and smiled behind the wheel anyways.  Then, the lady taking the picture said, "I need you to both put your hand on the dragon's egg."  It seemed SO random to us and we both totally lost it.  Laughing SO hard!  Scott pulled it together at the last minute to smile for the picture, but I was clearly still laughing! haha!  We decided, however, that it was a pretty good picture still and ended up buying it!  

For your viewing pleasure, here we are with the dragon's egg!  Haha!

It wasn't until the salesperson approached us with our picture that she pointed out that the show was about a dragon.  Then it all made sense to us!  ;)

For the next hour and a half, we just walked around the building, indulging on complimentary appetizers, marveling at a very tall man (like taller than anyone either of us had ever seen), and just having a good time together.  Naturally, there had to be a few selfies to document my bucket list achievement:

We were on the purple team!

The show was awesome and alot of fun to see!  Dinner was good, but I have trouble eating chicken off the bones, so when an entire half chicken was placed on my table, I realized I would be going home a bit hungry and wished that I had ordered the kabobs instead.  BUT live and learn!  It was still an awesome night!  Plus, it ended with brownies a la mode, which made up for the chicken situation.  ;)  By the way, if you are celebrating your kid's birthday, I highly recommend this show.  All of the birthday kids got to go up on the ship and also participate in the show, which I thought was pretty cool!  After the show, we asked our server to take a picture for us and she asked if we wanted a picture with our pirate!  Ummmm...YES!!!  So, we went down by the ship and got a picture with the purple pirate, whom we had been rooting for all night.

In the show we saw, the purple pirate is the dumb one and does a whole bunch of stupid stuff the whole time, so that awesome look on his face is entirely appropriate!  After this, they kicked everyone out and, I'm proud to say that we didn't get lost driving to or from the show!  That's quite an accomplishment for the two of us!  It was such a fun night and I'm definitely glad to have gotten the chance to go!

And Then I Turned 29...

This year my birthday was especially special!  I got to share my day with my sweet nephew, Aaron, who was being baptized that day!  Early in the morning, Scott and I drove up to Victorville, followed soon after by the rest of my family.  Here's a pictures of Aaron with both sets of grandparents, and aunts.  His two uncles couldn't make it because Daniel lives in Utah and had to work and Evan is on a mission in Uganda, but we know they both would've loved to have been there, had circumstances permitted.  

After the baptism, we all headed to David and Melissa's house for lunch and birthday cake.

Although Aaron's birthday is on September 22nd, we celebrated together!  

I love sharing my birthday week with this cutie!

After the party had died down, Scott and I stayed a little longer and hung out with David and Melissa for awhile.  Then, we went to Northwoods Inn for dinner.  When we got to the restaurant, we discovered that the wait was nearly an hour, so we walked across the street and browsed a Halloween shop with some...ummmm...interesting costumes and then headed back to Northwoods for dinner.  That place is delicious!!!  They sang happy birthday to me at the restaurant in their unique style, which I love and then we had some yummy sherbet!

After dinner, I realized that we didn't actually ever get any birthday ice cream (sherbet is not real ice cream) and we stopped at a grocery store and got some peanut butter cup ice cream.  We went back to Scott's to eat ice cream and then just had a good time relaxing and enjoying each others' company.  This was seriously one of the best birthdays I've ever had because I spent it with the people that mean the most to me!  

I think 29 is going to be a good year!

The Hills are Alive!!!

September 21st.  The day we had all been waiting for:  The Sound of Music SING-ALONG at the Hollywood Bowl!!!

Some friends of ours had gone last year and said that it was absolutely amazing!  Basically, they play The Sound of Music on a huge screen at the Hollywood Bowl and anytime a song comes on, the words show up on the screen and everyone sings along.  It's basically like a big movie theater where it's perfectly ok to yell at the characters, boo them, warn them, and then break out into song.  An entire arena full of people who have lost their inhibitions.  Aunt Cheryl was the ring leader in getting us all to go and we were glad we joined in the fun!  

Before the movie, though, we decided to make a day of it.  We all met at Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Richard's house in the morning and then went to Travel Town in LA, where we got to see lots of train cars and play on the railroad tracks without any fear of dying!  Not too shabby!  It was fun to be with so much family and it reminded me of the many good time we had as children with our cousins, doing various things.

Then, we all rode on the little train together!

After our train ride, we had a picnic lunch and then headed to the Hollywood Bowl!

It was my first time there and it was a bucket list item!!!

There were so many people there, both crazy and normal ones!  Lots of people were in costume and, before the movie began, they had a costume parade and I gotta say that some people were extremely creative...and maybe slightly disturbed!  ;)  Here are some pictures of our night!!

We had so much fun and can't wait to go again next year!