Goodbye for now...

lindsay & mike (aka brother banner) are two of the most amazing people I have ever known.  they were only here for a short year

but

they are friends i know i will have forever...

they helped me so much during some very difficult times with anthony.  their insight & empathy were gifts that i will always cherish. 

when they broke the news they were leaving, i was devastated, so we started partying it up, all in the name of the move!  little did she know that mike had a wild card planned for her 30th birthday...

this is one of my fav all time pictures:  look at the rice that landed on lindsay's face and the look at the expression on brother banner's face... priceless

me & lindsay

the move gave us reasons to eat lots of good food...ramos house, yum!

me & maryam

this food at pei wei was just for the two of us, i know.

THE WILD CARD...

us three geniuses got in my car last week (& hank) to drive to sedona, arizona to SURPRISE lindsay for the 30th birthday weekend.

not one of us had a clue where we were going.

hank decided since he was the man of the group, that he would take the wheel...

he is laughing because he knows that in about 2 hours we would be lost with no cell service on the phone with on star.

enter: psychedelic sedona

it's really hard to explain to somebody that you drove through a page of a dr. seuss book, but, we did, screaming like idiots the whole time.

luckily when we finally arrived at 4:30 we had NO problem checking in.

SURPRISE!!!  we ambushed her card game that she was playing with her aunts, mom & sister...

we relaxed, ate & drove around the sites all in our pajamas.  it was 4 in the afternoon.

red rocks

for dinner we went to the cowboy club, hillary was so mad at me because she wanted an enchilada, what can i say?  wrangler butts drive me nuts!  (just kidding)

birthday cake

we got a little crazy when we had to take lindsay to dr. seussville...

the whole gang, lindsay has an amazing family!

saying sad goodbyes

me & fuzzy bean (the one who always finds the good ones) =)

3 girls luggage for 2 days

and then, the crap hit the fan as we got stuck in traffic for 4 hours in the SAME SPOT on the freeway.  let's just say there were a few incidents:

peeing in 44 oz. cups

fights with minivans

hippies with fiji water

"who's the idiot now!"

almost eating ketchup packets because we were scared we might starve

apologies from minivans

walking on the freeway

but after a crazy fun weekend, we finally got on the road again, back to california.  my loving parents watched my girls for me so i could go (thank you), and then told me i should never try road-tripping it again.  ya think?