Broncos, baby!

Our friends who have Chargers season tickets were so generous and invited us with them for the Chargers/Broncos game last Monday night. We used to go every year but stopped a few years back, so we were ready to rumble!!!

We tailgated for a while with everybody, had a great time. Here's Dave, Rob, Sean and me.David had fun with shadows:


Unfortunately, the night went downhill for us from there. We were obviously sitting in the season ticket holder's area and were the only 2 Broncos fans as far as the eye could see. We also were "lucky" enough to be sitting in front of a drunk A*hole who pushed Rob unprovoked within about 5 minutes of the kickoff. He got worse and worse, was aggressive in our faces, and eventually, after picking a fight with a fellow Charger fan, got kicked out in the 3rd quarter.

All that to say, we only enjoyed about half the game because of that dude, but certainly the win and being 6-0 made it all worth it. Take that, a*hole! :) Next game we're going to? Thanksgiving night in Denver, can't wait!

We went to the Bates Nut Farm pumpkin patch yesterday with a bunch of friends and had a blast. I know I should complain, but it was hot as hell and it didn't quite seem right to be that warm and do fall activities. I guess it's better than the alternative, but somehow, it would have felt more normal had it been at least a little more chilly...what's a girl gotta do to bundle up, I mean sheesh! I ditched my sweater after about 5 minutes.

First, I had to play in the wheelbarrow, of course. Rob was a good sport and hauled my butt all over the farm. I was dying laughing...too funny. Bet he's stoked I lost all that weight or we might have had to go to the ER afterwards.Then we had a nice, shaded picnic lunch with everybody.

And then we were off to the patch! Oh, wait, first distraction: photo cutouts. You know what suckers we are for those:And then to the patch. Here's Tanner, Dustin, and Jessica:

The Sparks:

Tichy's:

Us, of course:


Bennett had a blast, he kept calling the pumpkins "balls". Close, buddy!


These pumpkins are going to need some serious therapy after Jason's "photo shoot"


Rob and Benny: While Audrey and Tanner did the hay bale maze, I went and played in the petting zoo. You know how I love petting zoo's - can you tell I was the only adult in there without a kid? That's pretty telling.

Check out these little baby goats! They slayed me with their cuteness - they were only a month old! When they were nursing on their Mama, their little tails were wagging a million miles an hour like little puppies. I was hoping to sneak one in my purse as we left, but I figured someone would notice. :)

Despite the heat, we had a great time and picked 2 greats pumpkins for carving - stay tuned for our artistry!

And here's all the pics if you'd like to check them out:

Hana is Heaven part 7 - the last of 'em, I swear.

There's million more pictures from our Hana trip, but seeing as though it's been about a month since our trip, I think it's time to move on. Get on with it! (I'm sure you all were saying that a while ago, but I was still living in denial about being back from vacation. Don't judge me).

Anyhoo, here's some great pics from the guys' golfing outing on Oprah's property. I guess she owns a bunch of ocean-front property but has decided not to build on it...which apparently makes the locals quite stoked.

The locals use her land to "golf" on about once a week - the views are amazing, and really, you can't get better green fees. :)

Look at some of these "holes"!

For one of the "tee boxes", they had to climb up some steep rocks over the ocean.

Each guy had to bring his own patch of grassy dirty with him to be able to rest the ball on something soft...and then they were off!

Too funny - these pics are great. Really, could there be a more gorgeous spot on this planet?

Hana is Heaven part 6 - Horsie Lovin'

Man, I'm really dragging out our Hana blogs! I just haven't had time to sit down and power through the rest of our pics, plus, there haven't been any other photo op's since we got back...so be it.

One of my favorite parts of Hana was the horses on the property next door. We fed them every single morning, they were so sweet. (well, they started out so sweet anyway)
Things we learned that the horses liked: papaya, carrots, and peaches. Things the horses spit right back out: asparagus...guess they're afraid of stinky pee. This guy actually liked asparagus, though. He was my favorite - so sweet and would eat anything. I can relate, buddy.
This blond one was the biggest and at first he was pretty cool. Who knew horses can be jerks, though? He turned into the big bully and started trying to take everybody's food...and chased off the rest by biting at them. Towards the end of the week, we had to distract him while we fed the other horses...lesson learned, bad horsie! :)
The kids even got into it, they were pretty fascinated by the horses.
This one was actually a mama and it was so cool to watch her nurse her little one. Needless to say, I tried giving her most my food.


Good times!

Hana is Heaven part 5 - hikin' fools

While we were in Hana, we didn't just sit on our butts. Well, mostly sitting of the butts and a little activity thrown in there for kicks.

One day, a bunch of us hiked up the 7 sacred pools hike again like we did last time. Love that hike, though, it's gorgeous! Here's a "little" waterfall on the road from Hana to the pools:

Here's some pics along the way:

There's the greatest Banyan tree along the way - it's huge and ancient, such a great peaceful feeling to be near it. I remembered it so vividly from last time, it was great to be back to visit our "giving tree" (except we didn't chop it down like the end of that debbie downer of a book).
2 of the pools:


Crossing the bridges over the lower pools before we got into the bamboo forest:

Walking through the bamboo forest is so freakin' cool....it's super dark and the wind makes the bamboo knock against each other and it sounds like big raindrops or something. Very zen.

Playing in the bamboo:And, we made it up to the top! Luckily there had been some rainfall so all the waterfalls, including the big guy, were flowing nicely.

This gives great perspective of how huge the waterfall is....that's Rob all the way at the bottom getting drenched.

While the guys were golfing on the ocean (see future post), Tara and I hiked up to the cross memorial in Hana. It was built honoring the guy who helped developed Hana into a thriving town all those years ago.

It's a really neat place - the views of the ocean are amazing!
Karen said for Easter Sunday, the local church holds a service at sunrise up there - the torches are lit and she even saw whales last time - now THAT'S a church!
Then Rob and I, on our last day, drove up the Maui volcano, Haleakala. I was amazed how quickly the landscape changes - we went from sea level all the way up to 10,000 feet in a matter of hours. It was so cool, you could see the ocean sometimes until we drove actually up higher than the clouds.

The drive itself was just as windy as the one to and from Hana...which made us greatly reconsider the lunch of delicious sushi and creamy tropical cocktails we had just ingested at Mama's Fish House...blech. *burp*

While we were there, it was fairly chilly (like high 50's, low 60's) considering it is Maui and we were just hot as heck sitting on the beach a few hours prior. Apparently it can get even colder than that, we lucked out having a sunny day. You can see the clouds quickly rolling in, though.
It's so crazy going from green and lush tropical topography to volcanic, barren land. Such a big change!

I laughed when I saw this sign...and then stopped laughing halfway through our hike when I was all dizzy and out of it. DUDE! That elevation change is no joke - I guess I'm lucky neither of us fell off the edge for pete's sake! This San Diego girl isn't used to going up to that elevation so quickly!

The view from the top of Haleakala....at 10,000 feet! Amazing.