Day #2: We arrive in CHICO!

We used my parent's Magellen GPS and opted for the "fastest route" to Chico. (Our other options included shortest distance, most use of freeways and least use of freeways-- is it just me or isn't 'fastest route' and 'shortest distance' the same dang thing?!) Anyway, the fastest route took us two & a half hours from Folsom, CA (east of Sacramento) to Chico, CA. YIKES! It was a long, long drive. We Hawaii people are not used to driving for long periods of time-- from our house to the other side of the island takes about an hour. Well, as soon as we got ourselves settled into our hotel we zipped over to Sierra Nevada brewery.

After dinner was over we went to Bidwell Park, which was gorgeous. The 'swimming pool' was really a huge pool of water in the middle of the park ... it was rather weird and a little dirty looking.

We took Brooke over to the little kid playground in the middle of Bidwell Park. Vance felt a little weird about Bidwell Park-- he thinks he watched too many CSI/Law & Order SVU episodes and kept getting weird vibes staying there...

When we got back to our hotel, we discovered that they serve FREE BEER & WINE. Amazing.

Here are some pictures from driving around Chico. Aren't the houses adorable!?

Day 3: THE WEDDING.

Snap back to reality :(

Aaaand we're back :( I hate returning home from trips ... there has to be some sort of vacation depression diagnosis. We almost stretched our trip a little longer, but it would have costed us $150 per person to change our flight, which I just couldn't imagine paying for. I'm going to do a trip recap already because I don't want to forget anything.

We left on thursday during the day and luckily scored an extra middle seat for the Bmonster, who was AMAZING on the flight. Here she is sleeping sideways on the chair between Vance & I:

When we arrived it was nighttime, so I didn't get any pictures. The next morning we woke up and I was crossing my fingers hoping that the trees had started changing colors, but no such luck. :( I love autumn! So disappointed. We stayed at my uncle and aunts house in Folsom before making the trek to Chico.

Here's Brooke moments after waking up ...

We headed to a shopping center near their house. Folsom is gorgeous and is definitely a developing community.

First stop was a pet store so we could check out some hamsters and snakes. We don't have hamsters in Hawaii! Those guys are so cute :)

Next stop: Halloween store. Brooke walked around the store with her Elmo trick-or-treat basket and pointed things out for me.

She did not, however, like the scary babies on display. At first she pointed to them and said "baby?," but refused to go near them. Vance and I were surprised to find how quickly they learn what is considered scary


We played a little before eating lunch...

Then we met my uncle and aunt for lunch at Visconti's, where the Bmonster was a real monster. She was insanely tired and cranky and fussed pretty much the entire lunch until I picked her up & she instantly fell asleep

Next day: We head to CHICO, CA!!!!

Concerts

I love going to concerts. I love live music, I love the crowd, the atmosphere, the excitement...

We haven't been to a concert in what feels like a LONG time. Some of this is due to the fact that (1) Hawaii doesn't offer the plethora of musicians and artists like the mainland does and (2) I birthed a child last year and either didn't want to leave her or couldn't leave her. However, "back in the day," we used to jump at the chance to go to a concert-- almost any concert!

Here are a few pictures I managed to dig up:

Hawthorne Heights (amazing)


Matisyahu/Yellowcard and someone else (AAAAAAAAAAAHHHMAZING. It was for Vance's birthday and my birthday boy got insanely drunk and was actually dancing at this concert. It was pretty classic and made for a really good time)


Mr. Matis himself...


Black Eyed Peas for my sister-in-laws birthday (pre-concert)


During concert

Clearly we were having a good time

The last concert we went to: No Doubt. Brooke was a few months old and it broke my heart to leave my poor baby at home with her grandparents but I could.not pass up No Doubt. Nuh-uh, no way, no how. [Tried uploading these pictures various times and they're either pint-size or enormous... sorry]

The fabulous Gwen Stefani

Can I please have her abs? How is it that she has TWO kids and still manages to have abs like that?! Shoot, I didn't have abs like that pre-baby!

We've also been to see Chris Brown (so ashamed of this) but I thankfully couldn't find any pictures. And pre-Vance, I've seen Kanye West & Common.

I'm itching to go to another concert- however, the only upcoming 'good' (quotation marks for a reason) concerts are Justin Bieber and Adam Lamber... hmmm.

Have you been to any good concerts lately?

sweet 16.

I am the proud mama of a sixteen-month-old. A little monster who no longer 'toddles' around the house but runs, jumps, spins and crashes into doors and tables. One who can reach things on the kitchen counter, almost open our front door, climb ONTO the coffee table and takes her frustration of being told "no" by hitting her wonderful mama and papa. Though we are now referred to as mommy and daddy. Luckily, she makes up for it by running to us for lots of hugs and kisses :)

Little monster is talking. A lot. I mean like, I'll say something and then silence.... then I hear the same word I said seconds ago coming out of her tiny mouth. Scary. She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ("Mi?" every time the TV is turned on) and Elmo (which she can say quite clearly). & because I'm not the hugest fan of listing what she 'can' and 'can't' do, here is the little bubs:

Attractive, no?

Waving


After 'helping' me by pulling all of the laundry out of the basket, she climbed in.


Dancing


Mugging

Taken about a month ago, but oh well. We were waiting in the car for my mom... you can see the point at which she spots my mom :)

Stolen

These are all pictures I've stolen from friends' pages off of FACEBOOK! Of all places, right?!

Here are some pictures from a BBQ we went to at one of my best friend's house...

Girls

One of the girls had a little boy about 4 months older than Brooke. He was trying to give her a kiss. Clearly she was not amused.


My friends & I try to get out to dinner at least once a month. I leave Brooke at home with Vance while we eat pasta & drink wine at the same restaurant every month... but we usually end up back at our house so they can visit the little monster

Pardon my clothes... I'm usually changed out of dinner clothes and into PJ's 5 minutes after getting home.

Here are the most recent pictures, taken a few nights ago

Look at how big her teeth are! Ha ha!

She had a blast dragging my cousin's purse around the house.

Brooke and her 'annies' [aunties]. Probably her favorite word.

All of us... me in my PJ's again!

& I finally figured out how to upload videos from my camera! Here we are in the car, headed to the mall. We were racking our brains trying to think of words that she knew... there's a lot of hesitating and pauses, but I'm just glad I figured out how to do it! Once we finished we remembered about 5-7 more words she could say ... maybe we'll try next time.

A makeover of sorts

I am considering re-naming my blog, which will force me to have a blog makeover. I don't think I want it to have "Brooke" in it .. though I did consider "The Babbling Brooke" for a little bit. Then Vance asked, "well, what if we have more kids" (totally hypothetical, we're not seriously considering that quite yet) & that made me think of changing it to something without her name in the title. Any suggestions?

Life with a 15-almost-16-month old is busy, hectic and FUN. It's constantly chasing her around the house, mall, store.. trying to convince her that naps, are indeed good for you, attempting to explain that hitting is not acceptable in our household, reading the same book over and over, getting her out of the cupboards, the bathroom, the closet, refrigerator... you get the picture. The other day she stuck a poker chip in her mouth and tried to swallow it whole. We didn't even realize we had poker chips in our house until we found them in Vance's nightstand (which is blocked-- I don't even know how she got in there)

Little girl has decided that she wants nothing to do with the camera and these are the pictures I've been getting of her:

When she was younger, she would grow and grow and grow... but her growth was horizontal and she just got chubbier and chubbier. These days she's REALLY lengthening out and it's quite surprising how tall she is.


She's also quite the mimic and tries to 'talk' on the phone now

This past week Vance got food poisoning and was out cold for 3-4 days. My mom entertained us while he was sick... we ended up eating at the Old Spaghetti Factory.


Thankfully my hubby is now restored back to health. After vomitting and sleeping for 3 days straight (and not eating at.all), he is now 5 lbs lighter. Typically I would say "Lucky!", but after witnessing what he experienced, I'm happy being 5 ls heavier, I think. We went to Bubba Gumps to eat lunh one day after shopping. Forrest Gump is one of my FAVORITE movies and every time it's on TV, I watch it.

Aren't the decorations so cute?

Here's the sassy little girl who hates sitting in a high chair:

High chair = torture device

But she thoroughly enjoyed playing with all of the dirty, disgusting, filthy toys outside of the restaurant.


Very artistic, no? Haha, that's the best you'll get!

VACATION!! Advice needed..

Vance, Brooke and I will be on our way to NorCal in a few weeks... We'll be visiting here:

I actually went to CSU Chico on exchange for one semester and made the best friends and had the best time EVER. It was an amazing experience. And yes, I DO know what people say about Chico State being a party school. Poop.

My wonderful, amazing, beautiful roommate is getting married here and I can't wait to be there:

& I'm sure we'll make a stop here:

After Chico, we'll be headed to Lake Tahoe so Vance can get some gambling in while we're on vacation. He's thoroughly excited as he loves Vegas and loves to gamble. I'm just excited to see this:


A little disappointed it won't look like this:


Or this:

But moving on ... have you visited Tahoe during the summer? If so, where did you stay?

Here are my criteria:
1. Needs to either be a hotel with a casino, or nearby (within steps) of one. Vance plans to gamble at night while Brooke sleeps and I stay locked up in the room with her.
2. Needs to be NICE since I will be locked up with her at night. Ha ha, I want some luxury or something.

We are looking at:
Harrah's
Harvey's
Montbleu
Embassy Suites
Marriott (I know there are 2 and I wanted some input on the 2)

Any advice?

Also, if you have been to Tahoe in the summer, what kinds of kid/baby-friendly things are there for us to do during the day?

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