July in CA

I love going home to California for my annual summer trip. I normally like to spend about 10 days out there catching up with friends and family and this year meeting all of the new additions! I try to make it to the west coast as much as I can, but if all else fails, I always make it out for my July trip! This year was action packed. It all started with dinner at Heather's house, then it was go, go, go from there.

I spent two days in Lake Tahoe at Marlene's in-laws cabin. It was so nice to get away for a couple of days and enjoy the sun and freezing cold lake. Tracy and Heidi joined us. Thanks Mar and Todd for letting us stay with you!! I also got to meet the newest addition to the Cook family, Katelyn! Both of her kids are so cute!

Ellie & Katelyn :)
Thanks for hosting Cooks!

There was no resting in between Tahoe and my next activity.....THE POLICE at the Concord Pavilion. I loved it. Tracy (thanks for bringing me as your date) Heather, and her co-worker Danielle, Angie and a bunch of people from Tracy's old work headed out to the lawn on a beautiful NorCal night. To our surprise, we were upgraded into pretty good seats and enjoyed the closer view. Sting was amazing. He looked 50 but sounded 25!Getting ready for The Police
Our new friend, Sting's #1 fan. I caught him jumping in the back of one of our group shots, and from then on, he thought he was out BFF! He plays a mean air guitar.
If you've ever been to an A's game then you know this guy! Heather and I love making new friends.

From there it was lunch with Alix and Ayla. Then lunch with Cindy and Logan on Friday. I then had to hit the Nordstrom Sale (we don't have one in Memphis) then went to my brother's softball game. His team was playing a bunch of my guy friends from high school. It was great to see all of them, then head to Rocco's for pizza and beer with the LaSala's! It was so wonderful to catch up with everyone one on one. I find this can be hard on most of my trips. I was thankful to be in town for two full weekends!
How cute is baby Alya

I was also lucky enough to be in town for Angie's son Anthony's 4th birthday party. It was a great afternoon watching the kids swim and play, while catching up with all of the fun people at the party!
Happy 4th Birthday Anthony


Tracy bought Anthony some fake mustaches, we thought they were hilarious and had to show them off! Shelby, Ashley's daughter, though they were pretty funny too!Biker Babes?
This one was too cute not to post. Shelby wasn't even fazed by the sticky furry mustache!

I know

Well, I'm in California with limited Internet access, but I've had tons of fun stuff going on. Pictures and stories coming soon to a blog near you!

4th of July in STL

Shawn and I headed up to St. Louis for the 4th weekend. One of Shawn's best friends lives up there, and has a super fun house with a pool. We spent the whole day on the 4th swimming, playing pool volleyball and bbqing!

Saturday, we headed downtown and went to the Cards/Cubs game. The Cards won with a walk off single in the bottom of the 9th!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th weekend.

Next stop.....HOME!! NorCal here I come.

Congrats John & Michelle

Shawn and I, and the rest of my dad's side of the family, spent a long weekend in Chapel Hill, NC for my cousin Michelle's wedding. We had a wonderful weekend filled with typical cousin craziness and amazing events planned by John, Michelle and their parents!

Thank you so much for making us part of your special day.

Friday my aunts hosted a luncheon for Michelle at Spanky's in Chapel Hill. The food and company were great.

Later that night, we headed to the UNC football field for the rehearsal dinner. It was so much fun to go down on the field and play a little football. John & Michelle had catered food from their favorite restaurants in town.

Maybe my brother should have played football instead of baseball! Nice form!

Saturday morning we took a tour of the UNC basketball arena (including a trip to the locker room!)
Michael Jordan's jersey is top row second from the right.

Saturday night was the wedding at the Carolina Inn on UNC's campus. The wedding, reception and hotel were are beautiful. Here are just a couple pics:

Sunday, Shawn and I headed to Duke. That campus is unbelievable. The Duke Chapel and Cameron Stadium are a must see!

Meg in Memphis

Meg Honey, a fellow Northgate Bronco, was in Memphis for a conference last week. She had a night free, so I went and picked her up from her dorm at Rhodes College. We headed to Bosco's for some apps and a beer. We found that we were talking way more than we were eating, so I suggested we move the reunion to my house.

We chatted for HOURS, finally, around 1:30 a.m. we figured it was time for her to head back to Rhodes (she had a class at 7:15 a.m.)

It was wonderful to catch up and talk about "the good ole days." Meg, thanks a million for making some time to spend with me and come see my house. She is the first person to do that! It was really great! I love having visitors!

NOLA for Mat's 30th

Happy 30th Birthday Mat. We had such a great time with you and Bridget in New Orleans.

Shawn and I have been to New Orleans many time, we love the city for many reasons. I would have to say the main one is the food. We love to eat the New Orleans Creole style food. If you're in NOLA here are a couple of our favorites in the world famous French Quarter:

• Johnny's PoBoy (St. Louis St.) This place has out of this world poboy sandwiches. They also make a great Muffalatta. The seafood gumbo is also worth a try. My suggestion is to split a couple of things. With our group of 4 we split and oyster and shrimp poboy, a muffalatta and two bowls of gumbo. Wash it down with an Abita Amber and you're in heaven! They're only open til 3 p.m. so catch them for lunch.


• ACME Oyster House (Iberville) The NOLA sampler is a great way to get a taste of New Orleans. Oysters on the half shell are great too. I even got my mom to try them on one of our trips!! The prices here are great too!


• Orleans Grapvine (Orleans St.) is new to my list. We went there for something different on Mat's birthday. We decided to split a bunch of apps and an entree. Every thing was amazing and the staff was very knowledgeable.


• Cafe Du Monde (Canal St.) this really isn't a restaurant, but they serve Benet's (SP?) (a french style donut) that are totally amazing and this is coming from a girl who really doesn't like donuts. They also have some of the best coffee. You can get it warm, iced or frozen.

We had so much fun watching Mat ride the bull at some country bar on Bourbon St. It sure was a great way to kick off the 30th Birthday weekend!

If you haven't been to New Orleans, you need to plan a trip. You can always call me, and I'll head down there to spend the weekend with you. NOLA is finally getting back to pre-Katrina shape. We've been down three times since the hurricane, and it gets more "back to normal" every time we go down!

Happy Father's Day

I wanted to wish all of the dad's out there a happy father's day! I'd also like to send a special happy dad's day to my dad in Cali! I love you! Thanks for being an amazing father and role model to me Katie and Kyle!

Sad things happen too

I tend to use my blog to write about the fun and adventures in our lives, but it would be foolish of me to think that we only have ups in our lives. Last week was a rough one in the Bennett house. On June 4th our friend and a great mentor to Shawn, Rob Edgerton, lost his battle with cancer, he was 55.

Shawn and Rob created a close bond while working together at the Redbirds. He was one of the nicest men I have ever met. At his funeral on Saturday, many different people spoke about how much they loved him and what an amazing guy he was. Each person new Rob from a different faze of life, but the all of the stories had the same bottom line. He never met a stranger and treated everyone as a friend. He was genuine and always wanted to hear the latest and greatest from everyone.

His brother told a story about Rob that I can't get out of my head. As a 5-year-old in the late 1950's Rob and his brother were at the grocery store with their mom. There was a brand new water fountain in the store. Rob and his brother were giving each other boosts up to get a drink. Two other brothers come over to the fountain, and they were all giving each other boost and taking turns drinking from the water fountain. A few minutes later, a lady, maybe the store owner or manager came over to the boys. She swatted Rob on the rear and said "How dare you." She pointed to the sign above the water fountain that read "Whites Only." He looked her square in the eye and said, "That's wrong." He wasn't talking about her swatting him, he was talking about the sign above the water fountain. The two other bothers were African-American. That was the prefect example how Rob treated everyone that came into his life. He set a great example that people are people, and everyone deserved to be treated equally and with respect.

We decided that we needed to go to the Redbirds game on Saturday night. I just didn't feel the same without Rob there. It was a really tough night for Shawn, and at times me. I was feeling his pain, and I was hurting for him. The game ended with a firework show. In my opinion, the perfect send off for Rob.

Thank you Rob for being such a positive influence on my husband's life. You meant a great deal to him, and you will live on in our hearts.

I would also like to send my regards and condolences to my great uncle Emil's family (My dad's uncle, my grandma's brother.) He passed away on June 3rd. He lived in California, so we would see him and his wife Carmel on occasion. He was a great man that was loved and respected by many.