BNP Paribas Open 2014

This was my 2nd year heading out to the desert for a little R&R and Rafa stalking (my favorite!)  This year I had one of my good friends from college come with me.  We would hang out with tennis players in the morning at breakfast.  We seemed to be on the same schedule for the lobby as Stan most days. (Stan Wawrinka)  We would then either shop, spa, or catch a practice mid-day and then head out for the matches in the evening!  This year a 2nd large stadium was added with delightful new restaurants such as Nobu.  It was a wonderful long weekend and the weather was perfect.  It is my little guilty pleasure to watch and take photos of Rafa every year and this year I actually got within reaching distance of him.  Being that I am slightly obsessed, I pretty much had no idea what to do when he was 2 feet away from me.  Sadly a glance and a photo is all I got, but I'll take it! I did enjoy watching more of the matches this year as I am getting into tennis more.  I enjoy watching other players and it has made an impact in my house.  Now everyone in my house either plays tennis, is taking lessons, or is about to this summer!  It is a great sport and my dream is to get to go watch it in Europe one of these years!  Possibly even the French Open!

First match against Stepanek

 

Your welcome, ladies.  Fernando Verdasco

Practice

The Joker

 Federer Practice

 Andy Murray breakfast bound.

Huge waves in Hermosa

What a day this was.  March 1, 2014 We had had a couple of days of rainy weather and man did the waves get big.  I took tons of pictures and videos because for us to have a weather event is rare.  Enjoy!

Ski Week 2014

Every year we not only have a spring break, but also a winter break.  AKA Ski Week.  We usually don't do much this week as we are not skiers, but we decided to use our Disney passes an make a weekend out of it.  We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel which was a first for us.  It made it nice to be able to stay and not deal with the hassle of driving home.  Especially since we stayed for fireworks!  The kids also enjoyed the pool.  Since we were there for 2 days we enjoyed a little of each park.  We saw some of the new princess shows at Disneyland and enjoyed seeing Sophia and riding the Mater ride at CA Adventure.  Disney is always fun and every time we got we try an do something new!

Valentine's Day 2014

Valentine's Day is always one of my favorite holidays.  This year my husband was actually home, so we decided to throw a little party and invite our good friends.  I usually just do breakfast for dinner with the kids and chocolate fondue, so it was nice to have something a little more special this year!  I tried to go with a wine pairing party theme where we not only paired wine with cheese, but with chocolate too.  Turns out that to do it right we would have ended up with way more wine left over than we wanted and it would have been way too much food.  So we enjoyed doing a little cheese and chocolate tasting, but the wine we drank by the glasses instead of sipping!

 

Note:  This is the kids cheese/fruit tray.  

 The girls were excited to get Valentines from family with cash and target cards inside.  As always, we spoiled them with roses.