Highlights of California!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my trip to California. If you would like to see all of the pictures you can see them here, here, and here.

My mom, me, and my aunt Lynne on Balboa Island.

This was my first time on a Ferry. There were cars, people, motorcycles...very cool. We went from Balboa Island to Balboa Peninsula.

Dairy Queen and Jamba Juice next to each other!

This is Key, the hostess at the Golden Dragon. She was gave everyone a hug as they left the restaurant.

Ella with a panda mask in the gift shop after visiting the San Diego Zoo.

My favorite picture that I took of Ella.

The Polar Bear.

I took over a hundred pictures of the flamingos-this is just one.

This is one of the three pandas at the zoo. He will eat for two hours straight, then sleep for 10.

My first time in the Pacific Ocean.

My mom and me on a Harbor Boat Tour. It was colder than we expected it to be!

Lynne, me, mom, and my cousin Frieda on our last night in California. These were great people to spend the week with!

Chicago vs. California

The weather in Chicago (not enjoyable):



The weather in California (beautiful):

Happy Easter!

Before we left for California we (Rick, my mom, and I) dyed eggs. Here are a few of our pictures. Next year we will using paint instead of dye.

Rick's Birthday Present!

For Rick's birthday I got him a work bench for the garage. He was able to put together quickly and already has his tools on it! So here is a picture of his present taken with my present!

Happy 51st Birthday!

This weekend we turned 51! I turned 25 on Friday and Rick turned 26 today! On Saturday we had our families over for a birthday party. We have plenty of pictures, but none are of the birthday cakes (which were delicious).

Rick got me beautiful flowers--tulips and lily's. They are beautiful. Here is a picture I took with my mom's awesome camera.

Alex brought his own Spiderman Cupcakes. He liked the rings and the frosting!

Alex got his tool set from us and he got the play drill from Cindy from Easter. Rick got out his matching drill. It was so much fun to watch them.

Most of the Hurckes girls that were at the party. Grandma Bonnie, Aunt Joyce, Jenna, and Jackie. Kathleen is missing from the picture.

My side of the family. Rick, my mom, my Grandma, me, my dad, and Gail.

After cake we opened our presents. I got crayons--120 different colors! and Rick got TWO turntables for our TVs!

I also got a new Digital SLR Camera! I was so surprised. The pictures that follow were taken with the new camera. Some by me, some by others!

All of our cards--we have such great friends and family!

This is the card Rick got me for my birthday! This was his artistic approach with me in the background. It took Jenna to explain what he did!

Jenna relaxing on our couch after our walk this morning!

Rick gets a limo service to the airport which is usually a town car, but today they actually sent a limo. It was early and it waited in our drive-way for almost an hour. I really didn't like it but Jenna thought it was awesome.

Right before Rick left for his trip to Alabama. Happy Birthday!

Megan came to pick up Jenna--Jenna took a quick picture before they left!

What we did in our free time!

New Wall Art!

Rick and I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to put on the large wall in our living room. We saw some nice things, but they were pretty expensive. The inexpensive options were not big enough for the wall and the make it yourself option never really happened.

We were fortunate to be given some nice large frames from Cindy. We liked two of the three pieces of art. Luckily Rick had a Rothko print that fit well into the third frame. Here are the results. The room looks smaller now, but it is nice to have something on the wall, finally!