MINI PERSONAL VACAY

I just spent the last hour looking for and scanning pictures so that you could laugh at my frizzy hair from 15 years ago. YOU'RE WELCOME. My mini-personal vacay started just 12 hours from when I walked in the door from Utah. Just enough time to get my kids unpacked and give a few care instructions to Peter... then I was OUT THE DOOR.

I headed to John Wayne airport in Cali to be picked up by my friend of 17 years. We met at UVSC when we were assigned to live with each other as first year Volleyball players. We went to BYU Jerusalem in the winter of '92 and there we met Nicole. I had met Nicole before Jerusalem because she had just moved into my parents neighborhood back in SLC. Jen? Well, I am not sure... so I think that means that she met Claire and became a roommate of ours after our stint in Jerusalem. Here we are in our fabulous apartment in 1993. I wish I could remember the name of the complex.. but it was off of BYU campus. (We were rebels)

Here we are in our little apartment. (You can click on the pix to see them bigger)Here we are all dolled up for a night out on the town. I have NO IDEA where we were going!

Here is Nicole, Jen and I leaving Provo to go to San Diego where we went to the open house for the San Diego Temple. It was our FIRST MINI PERSONAL VACAY.

We stopped at one of my favorite places in Newport...Namely, the CRAB COOKER. It was Nicole's first time eating crab...Um, she is from Hawaii.

Here we are at Claire's wedding. Sorry, I was trying to scan a scrapbook page. Darn those scrapbooks (Don't laugh at the page.. I am NOT a scrapbooker, and this was one of my first attempts about 10 years ago)... Needless to say, we are tight friends... and although we don't stay in touch regularly... when we DO get in touch we always have a GREAT time...

Here we are 17 YEARS later!!!!

We went to the ELLEN SHOW! And believe it or not, it is pretty much a full day activity. We left Claire's house in Yorba Linda at about 10:00 and got to the show and parked. You are then corralled into a number of different lines to "check in" and to "check ID" and then you wait... Our waiting became much more enjoyable when we were selected by the audience department to participate in the "GAME" for the show. After interviews, it was decided that Claire and I were the best "suited" for live TV. (Meaning, we were the craziest, and most willing to humiliate ourselves... pretty much same as it has always been). Alas, once in the show, we were not the ones chosen. You can see who was if you click on this. (Look at Wednesday's show)

As much as I would LOVE to show you pix of the studio, cameras were not allowed inside. If you set your tivo for Ellen, we were on Wednesday's show and Claire and Nicole were shown TWICE in FULL VIEW. (Good job girls, you were showing GREAT enthusiasm)

We had a great time, and of course spent most of our time just catching up with each other. After the show we headed to Jen's request.. THE CRAB COOKER!!! (like we would say no) Here we are 17 years LATER!I probably have 50 pictures of Jen doing this back in the day, things haven't changed much:

But I SHOULD have taken a picture of Nicole eating crab for what I think she said was... the SECOND time. I am honored Nic.. I can't believe I have been with you BOTH times you have eaten Crab.

After our dinner, we had to get a sweet treat and Jen used her Iphone (LOVE THAT THING) and found us a Sprinkles... YUM. You KNOW they are my fav! They were closed but there was someone still in the store. Jen hopped out of the car and knocked on the window and got us a FREE BOX! We had such a great time. Thanks girls for all of the fun. I needed a little break. I am sooooooooo grateful for our friendship and LOVE that we can get together after so many years and still have so much fun!