London Trip 2008

Titling my blog w/ "2008" means that I hope next year I will be blogging about my London Trip 2009. I love London! I went for a few days when I was 17, and it was alright. By now at my more mature age of 34...I fell in love w/ this city. Culture, beauty, classy, fun, clean, nice people, of course AMAZING shopping...on and on. It started on November 4th in the LA airport when Todd and I met up w/ our traveling buddy...who else? Jimmy G of course!

After 10 hours on a plane sandwiched between these 2 wonderful men I was ready to get going and see the sights! One interesting note, we found out who our President was by a flight attendant announcing it over the intercom...
Once we got in we took a cab ride to Windsor, where we stayed for the first 2 days/nights. What a beautiful town. The Windsor Castle was just amazing, and the hotel we stayed at was right on the river looking at the castle and the bridge over the river to Eton.


More exploring of Windsor...


After our few days in Windsor, off to the main city of London. We stayed right along Hyde park on Park Ave...we stayed at a gorgeous hotel...the best beds ever! The only problem is that it took a long time to get out of bed in the morning...which I guess isn't a problem considering this never happens w/ 2 young boys at home!
Our hotel lobby...

First night a fancy dinner out at Sushi...

The sushi was AMAZING...look below, that is an actual picture of our meal! Too perfect! And it tasted just as good as it looks!

The rest of the time, more eating and sight seeing...
Big Ben... Harrod's at night

Day at Green Park w/ the boys...

Buchingham Palace...

Gotta go to Hard Rock...

A night at the theatre...Billy Elliott

Last night the 3 of us...I'm off to home and the boys off to Munich for more business...

And a final collage of our crazy Jimmy G...our full time entertainment!


Peace out...

Kelly's Birthday

Our dear Kelly Gibson turned 29...so young still! Started off w/ a brunch at Holdren's...
some of the 30+ people below...

Got a beautiful birthday cake...




Me w/ my sweet Kelly, the birthday girl!

Papa Jimmy, Todd, Barry and Dan all there to celebrate...

After a long brunch, off to Tonic for more fun and dancing...

We had so much fun...can't wait until the big 3-0 next year! Love you Kelly!

Disneyland With The Kids!

We had to go to Disneyland for Halloween...


So this time we took the kids to Disneyland...and it is WAY more fun. We met my brother Tyler and his wife and 3 daughers (Grace 5, Caroline 3, and Lila 6 months) who flew down from Boise. We had a great time. The first night was just the Malesky family...we went on a few rides and saw the parade. It was really busy that night, but no worries, Ben still had the best seat in the house 15 rows back on top his 6' 7" dad's shoulders! Nick got an OK seat w/ his 5'10" mom...

The next day we had a few rides just the 4 of us again until we met up w/ the rest of the gang...


The following picture is of the kids waiting in line for the Haunted House! They all did it, no problem!

I love this next picture of the 3 older kids...Ben w/ his cutie girl cousins...

That night we went to a special Halloween party at California Adventure park and we had a blast! Here are my boys...Black Spiderman andSuperman!

Ben and his Princess Grace...

And Aunt Annie getting her girlie fix w/ her sweet Princess Grace

After a few days of fun, Tyler and the crew came back to our house in Santa Barbara for a few more days of fun...here are the older 4 cousins and their nightly ritual of bath time...

We had a great time...we will see you all again at Christmas!

Swim Season is Here!

Both Ben and Nick started up their swim lessons for the school year. Ben has been taking private lesson for 2 1/2 years, now he is doing so well I put him in a group lesson..."swim team". The problem is, he loves to swim under water and not work on his strokes!

This is Nick first time actually doing swim lessons. He is in a group w/ 6 other kids. At his age they have a parent go in the water w/ the child. They do lots of fun songs, games, etc. Since Ben and Nick have their swim lessons at the same time for a half hour, Todd went in w/ Nick and I was able to sit and enjoy my boys swim.

Below is a game they play...the child sits on the edge of the pool, the child then dives of the edge to the instructor, gets up on a big foam cushion (little bigger than the size of a crib mattress), then the child walk across to jump to the parent waiting at the other end. Nick flipped out at first, wasn't sure about jumping into the hand of the instructor...

But once he saw the other kids do it, he got right to it and did a great job! Daddy was very happy of his brave boy!

Adult Day!

Well, Todd and I were able to enjoy a day away from the boys. Just a 25 minute drive up Highway 154 and you find yourself in another world...up in the Santa Ynez Valley. It is so pretty up there this time of year. The weather was perfect, warm, but not too hot. In tow we had our dear friends, Jimmy G, and his daughter Kelly, w/ her boyfriend Ryan. We all share a passion, WINE! We all are members of the Gainey wine club, and every year they throw a "Crush Party". This is to kick off the beginning of the new wine season. And yes, we did "crush"...
I got the crush party started...

Then Kelly joined me...

Finally the boys got enough guts too...

The grounds are absolutely gorgeous up there, the land sprawls for miles w/ rows and rows of vines. Here is the whole gang...

I had to take some pictures that captured some of the beauty of our surroundings...



All in all, a fantastic day with amazing friends. Can't wait for our next Santa Ynez event!