We were laughing so hard when we saw this picture last night. We just HAD to buy it. What do you think? Could Irving be the next president?
The Future President and First Lady? February 15, 2011
A Valentine’s Day Soiree
Last night, Irving and I had such a Romantic evening. We headed up to Simi Valley to attend the ‘Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Dinner and Dance’. It was such a great night, we ate, danced, laughed and talked. It was perfect.
Backing up a little bit, the event started at 6pm, which isn’t easy coming from the Hollywood area. We got dressed in 15 minutes flat!
BEFORE: 
AFTER: 
But we made it just in time. The Reagan Library is really a sight to see if you are in the area. The American History comes alive through their amazing exhibits. They just redid them all for Reagan’s 100th Birthday celebration. 
We had such a great time wandering through the museum on our way to dinner. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce to you the next President of the United States! 
And his first lady, Kelley! 
We’re naturals. And the first task on the job is to make a television broadcast to our country. 
You’re live in 3…2…1! 
Then we arrived at the highlight of the evening. Seeing Air Force One. 
So much history was made on this aircraft. They call it “The Flying White House”. The Reagan Library website says: This Flying White House, tail number 27000, served seven U.S Presidents from 1973 to 2001, including Presidents Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush. 
We literally dined underneath Air Force One! 
To our right, we could see Marine One too (The Presidential Helicopter!) 
We must have been the youngest couple there by almost twenty years, and we LOVED it. It was so nice to look around and see all these older couples still dancing, still happy, and still in love. I can’t wait to grow old with Irving and share these fun evenings with him. I just hope I can dance as well as them in sixty years! 
We were seated at our own sweetheart table overlooking the dance floor. It was so cozy and we had fun chatting. 
My handsome Valentine! 
But ok… the food. Oh My Gosh, The food! It was amazing. We started with some champagne. 
Cheers! To many more! 
Fresh Rosemary Bread 
The Salad: EPICUREAN GREENS with cheese, candied pistachios, sliced oranges and a raspberry balsamic vinaigrette 
I had the vegetarian dish this time: VEGETABLE RISOTTO with parmesan and asparagus spears
And Irving had the Chicken: ROASTED ROSEMARY CHICKEN in a marsala wine sauce with Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus Spears and Carrot Souffles 
And for dessert: FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE with dark chocolate ganache, white chocolate mousse, fresh berries and raspberry coulis 
OHMYGOSH I’ve never had chocolate cake as good as this. NEVER. This was to DIE for. And the saddest part? We couldn’t even finish it. That photo above was per person! We each had our own. I tried to finish it, I really did. But I was far too stuffed. I eventually surrendered and watched the waiter carry it away with a tear in my eye. I will dream about this cake for as long as I live. Seriously.
After dinner, we headed down towards the dance floor. 
There were so many incredible dancers that we were a little intimidated. These guys know the waltz, the fox trot, the samba, you name it, they danced it! 
We found our place in a corner where our two left feet wouldn’t get in anyone’s way. It was fun though. We practiced a few of our wedding dance spins and had a blast. 
To dance underneath one of the most iconic symbols of America was a little surreal. 
Down below, there is a bar that was gifted to the Library from Ireland. It’s a pub that Reagan visited when he was over there. They were going to tear it down, but instead, donated it. So neat! 
It was truly an event we will never forget. We feel so lucky that we have this stuff at our fingertips. 
At the end of the night, we got to take home the flowers from the tables! They were really cute. 
Happy Valentine’s Day, Irving!
And just for fun, here’s a flashback picture of us in this same place back in 2006! 
Where does the time go?
The Eastern Sierras Tour! February 13, 2011
Yesterday afternoon, after blogging, I went for a walk around Mammoth Village. There isn’t too much there, but it’s really cute. I love ski villages. 
Then I took the bus up to the base lodge to see Irving for the last few runs of the day. What a PERFECT day for skiing. I was a little jealous when I heard the mountain wasn’t crowded too. 
Irving is easy to spot with his big yellow jacket. here he comes! 
Hi! 
The mountain closes at 4pm and they had free hot chocolate for everyone at the bottom of the lifts. Even though I didn’t ski, I certainly enjoyed it! Then all 13 of us headed back down to the condo. We promptly put a couple of beers in the snow. YUM! 
We went out to dinner in town and came back and went to bed. We were asleep by 8:30pm. HAHA
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This morning, we checked out and found a great slope for sledding! 
I was talking to someone and I turned back around, and there was irving at the top of the mountain already sitting on his sled. 
It was a wee bit icy for me, so I was the dedicated ‘Kid Stopper’. I was in charge of making sure none of the six kids went over the edge and into the street. Very important task.
We thought this cloud looked like a heart! Perfect for a Valentine’s day weekend! 
Awe! Happy Valentine’s Day, Irving! 
After we tuckered out the kids adults, we started our trip back towards Los Angeles. The drive was gorgeous. 
An hour later, we found ourselves at ‘Erick Schat’s Bakery’ in Bishop. 
Apparently it’s this really famous bakery that has a very good reputation. The lines were crazy long and the place was packed! 
I was amused by all the rules they had. Everywhere you turned, there was another sign posted with another rule. One of them was ‘no photos inside’, so you’ll just have to trust me that this place is worth stopping at. We tried the cheese rolls. And then I went back in for some coconut gelato. 
An hour later, our caravan of cars stopped at Manzanar. This was a War Relocation camp during World War II. 
After Pearl Harbor, the government felt that Japanese Americans were a threat to our country and rounded them up and put them in these concentration camps around the county. Most of them were American citizens, but they didn’t care. It boiled down to racism. A very somber place in our history. 
They have reconstructed some of the barracks so visitors can get a glimpse of what life was like inside the camp. 
A lot of it is overgrown and torn down, but 10,000 people used to live in here. 
They have an auto route where you can drive the perimeter of the camp. At the back is a cemetary where a few people are still buried. 
I have been to Dachau in Germany, and later this year, we will be visiting Auschwitz in Poland. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, imprisonment of innocent humans based on prejudice is just wrong. We felt very grateful to have seen Manzanar and hear some of the stories of the people.
Then we drove another couple of hours and came across the Airplane Graveyard in the Mojave Desert. Apparently it’s a place where planes go to die. Decommissioned aircrafts are brought here where they taken apart and recycled.
Two hours after that, we stopped to do a little shopping. I am going to a fancy event tomorrow night for Valentine’s Day (you’ll just have to wait and see where!) and I desperately needed a new dress. Irving graciously agreed to come along. We found a Dillards off the highway and I spent an hour trying on about 25 dresses. I finally found a great one. Besides prom and bridesmaid dresses, it’s the most expensive dress I’ve ever bought. But it looked great, and I really felt good in it, so I splurged. I’m so grown up!
And because Irving was so patient, I agreed to go to Souplantation with him. I normally don’t like that place. It’s been about five years since I had been there. But it wasn’t that bad. I just made sure not to gorge myself and not fill up on carbs. I think it worked out pretty well. 
And now, we have just 30 minutes left until we get home. What a great way to break up a 5 hour drive. Stopping every couple of hours worked out really well.
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
A Mammoth Sized Getaway February 12, 2011
This weekend, a bunch of our friends rented two condos for the weekend in Mammoth and invited us to come hang out and ski! We’d be crazy to say no to such a great opportunity. We love to get up to the mountains at least once in the winter to get a dose of skiing in. This was the perfect reason to go!
We left after work on Friday and started the 5.5 hour drive up. Since we didn’t know what the roads would be like, we took Irving’s Jeep which gets about 16 miles to the gallon! By the time we got there, he was well below ‘E’ and I was starting to panic. He’s such a guy: “We’ve got at least another hour on this tank. Even though it’s on E… it’s not really on E.” OHMYGOSH!!! My dad always told me to never go below a quarter tank, especially in the winter, in case something happened and I had to keep the car going to stay warm. I half wanted us to break down in the middle of nowhere so I could say ‘I told you so’, but alas, we made it up there safe. Lucky break.
The condo we’re staying in is so cute!
What perfect books for a weekend in the mountains! 
Look at this cute little squirrel! 
My favorite part is the rocking cordless phone, circa 1991! 
Zach Morris? Are you there? 
Within our great group of friends, there are six kids who were there to ski this weekend. This morning, when I woke up, I could hear the pitter patter of little feet descending down the staircase. It was so nice. They say the cutest things too. One of them kept telling Irving how excited he was to ski because ‘Skiing was his favorite’! Awe! Living in southern California, it’s exciting to see so much snow! And PS. seeing little kids in snowpants and ski boots is the cutest thing in the whole world.
All the kids and most of the adults got their tickets to head up the mountain, but I decided not to go this time. Every time I ski, my body aches, my muscles hurt and I want to quit after two runs. But everyone else was super excited! 
When we got to the lifts, my phone told me it was 13 degrees outside. ahhh! 
Good thing I came prepared with my Merrel snowmobile boots. These things are the BEST! 
A gorgeous day for some skiing, I’m sure they all had a great time! 
I said farewell to the group and went on my way to explore the village. 
Mammoth is so cute. It has all the amenities of a huge ski resort, but the charm of a small town.
The first thing I did (after filling the Jeep up with gas — PS. $3.99 a gallon up here!) was head to the Snowcreek Fitness Club. This place is kind of a big deal. It’s where almost all of America’s Olympic runners live and train for their events. The altitude is so high here that if they can run here, they can run anywhere. 
I just finished reading Meb Keflezighi’s book and he kept mentioning this place. After a little research, I found out that a lot of my running idols also train there. There’s an elite group of runners who belong to the Mammoth Lakes Track Club. A few members include Deena Kastor, Jennifer Rhines and Sara Hall. When I was driving along the road, I kept picturing these super fast marathoners running here. It is gorgeous! 
They let me inside and I got to see some of the equipment they use. I was keeping my eye open, but I didn’t recognize anyone. I was thinking about getting a massage there too, I mean if a masseuse is good enough for an Olympian, why not me, right? But I decided against it. It was fun enough just to see it. 
My original plan was to run the 5 miles to the club and back to our condo, but the air is so thin, I could barely walk up a flight of stairs! It’s hard to catch your breath at 9,000 feet. So instead, I spent my afternoon SHOPPING! But before you get all excited, remember that this a town of 3,000 people. The nearest Macy’s is three hours away.
I did find a few outlet stores and got three new sweaters for $20. SCORE!
Then I took my singles party to a café in town. Soup was sounding good at the time. 
I got the Italian Wedding Soup in a bread bowl, but I have to say, it was mediocre. The soup was a bit off, and the bread wasn’t cooked all the way, it was still a little doughy?! EW! The waitress agreed and didn’t end up charging me for it, but my appetite was ruined. Oh well. With the altitude, I haven’t been very hungry up here anyways.
Everyone should be making their way back here soon, might go read a book and enjoy the peaceful mountain air.
Surf City Race Photos February 10, 2011
I love looking at race photos. I only remember seeing two photographers on the course, how did I end up with all these photos? So glad I wore a bright pink shirt, easy to spot in the crowd!
Look at all those guys that I’m passing! Woot!!
I love running in Southern California! Palm Trees in the background!
They caught me walking! Darn! I always try to run when I see the camera. LOL
The final stretch!
Here I come! See me in pink?
Half Marathon #11 completed!
If you want to see the video of me crossing the finish line, click here!
Kelocity.com 