The Golden Arches

Oh no! It's the Hamburglar!!! He can take the burger but I have the HI AMY! sign!

Officer Big Mac is so excited to say HI AMY! he blows his whistle (and that's what startles Hamburgler into running!)
Ronald Mcdonald is excited! He's always excited!

My first post!

So, this is my first post here. I'm super excited that Laura asked my to contribute to this blog so GO HER!!

Now, lets get started.


Good morning, Amy! My sign is in PINK!!


Me, with my usual :-)


Clay, from "our" CC's says HI. He thinks this blog is totally awesome!


Hayley, Katie and Monica say HI!!


Deano's pizza turtle (at least I think he is lol) say's HI! I think he's super cute.


Our waitress at Deano's took a picture with your awesome HI AMY! sign


Finally, this is what is waiting for you when you get back :-)

Miss you and love you!

Mbongo & Tankins

We went to the San Diego Zoo today! The weather was gorgeous and we hadn't been to the zoo since July 4th!

Mbongo says HI
The sculpture was donated to the San Diego Zoo by Rachel Wegeforth. Mbongo was one of two male mountain gorillas captured in the Belgian Congo in 1930 by Osa and Martin Johnson. He and fellow gorilla, Ngagi, were donated to the San Diego Zoo in 1931 by Ellen and Robert Scripps(yes that's the same Scripps. She apparently donated EVERYTHING to Southern California. Seriously. You see/hear her name everywhere). Mbongo grew to be 618 pounds. The bust of Mbongo was modeled from life shortly before he died in March of 1942. The statue is right near the front of the gate; however, it only gives the sculpture details, nothing about the gorilla himself- it's ashamed it doesn't give more info, I had to look online to find out any details about him.

After visiting Mbongo and Ngagi, we took the Skyfari to the back of the park.
In the lower left of the picture you can see the seats of the Wegeforth Bowl, the amphitheater where they hold the sea lion show. The tall tower(200-foot California Tower) and shorter dome are both the top of the Museum of Man, "the city’s only museum devoted to anthropology. With its Spanish colonial and mission style architecture, the landmark building was originally constructed for the 1915–16 Panama-California Exposition. Today, a key focus of the museum is to create and display dynamic and educational anthropological exhibits about people and places throughout the Americas and around the world." Sounds like something you'd enjoy!

When you get off of Skyfari in the back of the park there's an exhibit of Tankins!
You can see him ontop of the rocks - king of the mountain! I love them!!

Labor Day (with Cows!)

Today was great - it was a perfect way to finish our impromptu Labor Day Weekend Festivities. We went to Disneyland to celebrate - next week is a big convention and neither of us are interested in fighting the crowds.

We did something we've never done before - the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon. It was corny jokes and good bluegrass music..and some Elvis!



For Labor Day (and the start of NFL [and more importantly college football][CAJUNS & LSU WON!]) Chick-fil-a gave away a free chicken sandwich to anyone wearing a sports shirt (Pro/College/anysport). Hence my Saints shirt (Doug wore his Raiders hat). We stopped on the way into Disneyland...and then left a little early to stop on the way back home.

Get it! The Cow is all dressed for a big football game! It's part of their webpage promotion http://chickenwave.com! I'm under bluuth.

Dino Mountain...ROAR!!!

So we belated realized that we had the game yesterday, Wild Animal Park (the sister/companion park to the San Diego Zoo) today and Disneyland tomorrow - for an unplanned Labor Day weekend it ended up being quite the little holiday!

A friendly rhino greeted us near the entrance:



We had to go to Wild Animal Park this weekend to see

which closes tomorrow. Its been up all summer - we just never got around to it.

It's fun! You walk a little path that has 13 animatronic dinos, they move and roar and it's quite cheesy and wonderful. They give you a little Passport to

Join the Stamp-ede! Look for special stamping stations during your trek
through Dino Mountain and collect images of all the dinosaurs.

and you best believe we did (well I did mostly, although Doug did stamp one station)! And have pictures to prove it!

Outside the actual entrance is this little guy:

The very first dinosaur you meet is Styracosaurus (a cousin of the Triceratops). For whatever reason, Triceratops and Stegosaurus always reminds me you.


After many many other dinosaurs (including the wonderfully named Troodon and Wuerhosaurus and the mighty Tyrannosaurus [who had her babies with her! awwww]), we came upon Pachycephalosaurus, Doug's favorite:


And this was just too perfect to pass up:

Love you!

The Loss of the HI AMY! Sign

We had tickets to tonight's game - I think this may have been our only Saturday game! It was fairly full but the fans seemed more into playing with damn beachballs than watching the game. Anyway....Dodgers won!!

As usual we parked in the free street parking (they charge $15 for parking! That's more than our seats!) It just means we have a little walk to get to the game and back...but it's not like the 15 min walk is doing me any harm.

We were there a few minutes early so we went to poke around the TeamStore. The backside of the store lead directly out into the stands and this view...

Doug and I were really confused - if you can get in by walking through the giftshop then why get tickets!? However, a security guard asked us for our tickets, we explained we had tickets for the opposite side of the field and just wanted some pictures. The guard was super nice.....unlike the lady who checked my bag when we were going into the stadium (in the correct gate). She told me I had to throw away the HI AMY! sign even though it had 'another name on it'. I don't know what name it was supposed to have on it. Mind you another guard just saw us take pictures with it, we've brought it to every game since June. I was LIVID. (weird for me to get worked up, I know). However, the game started soon and NO MANNY. That healed all wounds.

And obviously I can make another sign in 5 minutes. It was just the principle.

Mickey Monsters!

In all the stores at Disneyland I've been seeing these little plush animals and they remind me of you. I dont know quite why - they just look like something you'd like!

Mickey Monsters are here to visit the Theme Parks. They try to blend in by disguising themselves as Mickey. Keep an eye open for them. They could be right in front of you!

They all have little stories too! From top to bottom:

Ogg likes to visit the parks. He loves to go on rides. Ogg also likes to eat hot dogs and ice cream – together! But after he goes on the rides – not before.”

Ralf doesn’t talk very much. He leaves all the talking to his best friend Cheeky Bubbles. That gives Ralf more time to eat. If you like to eat, Ralf will be your best friend too.

Keeti likes to dress up. She is always trying to fit in. Sometimes it works – sometimes not. If you play dress up with Keeti she will love you forever. Her sash says, “I’m beautiful.”

Murff likes hot chocolate. If you give Murff hot chocolate he will be your best friend – at least until the mug is empty. Then he will throw a fit. Don’t forget to add marshmallows. Murff loves them.

Eeku loves ninja movies. He also loves to have his picture taken. When he sees a fun family having their photo taken, he uses his stealth to find his way into the picture.

Cheeky Bubbles loves to ride rides. The faster the better! Most of all he likes to ride with his best friend Ralf, because everything is always better with your best friend.