SD County Fair

Our annual tradition of a day at the fair continued again this year.  Matt has been working a few OT shifts there so he was able to get us a few free tickets. He had to work today as well so we decided to meet him down there and then he joined us for some fun time when his shift was over. 

Taylor invited Andrew to go with us.  He was a good sport!  I'm sure it was a little nerve wracking to greet Matt in full uniform and then have to stop by the Sheriff Dept. trailer and be surrounded by deputies.  He told Taylor later that night that he actually enjoyed the "cop talk" and had a fun day with us!

We listened to this very fun street band and ate lunch in the Paddock while listening to another band play.  

 We didn't try anything new, although this deep fried coffee sounded interesting. We stuck with mini donuts, ice cream treats, a turkey leg and chicken strips/fries.

 Matt joined us after his shift to watch the monster trucks, listen to some music and watch the kids ride a few rides.

The weather was really nice and the sunset was beautiful.  

Happy 13th Reanna

Reanna celebrated her 13th birthday with a fun day in La Jolla.  

 Leslie took all of the girls down for an afternoon of walking by the water and a little bit of shopping.  

 Then it was on to fondue at The Melting Pot.

 Lauren asked Taylor to be her date for the day :)

 The girls had a great time with the cheese fondue and different meats they had to cook in broth.

They finished the night with the delicious chocolate fondue and had a sleepover back at Reanna's.  Happy 13th Birthday Reanna!!

HOBY 2015

Several months back, Taylor was informed that she had been chosen as one of two students to represent her high school at this year's HOBY conference.  She was chosen based on her potential to be a leader and her strong presence in ASB.

 HOBY's Southern California conference was held this week at Chapman University in Orange.  Unfortunately it conflicted with our course in SD, but Taylor left that early and was able to get a ride with Jaden's family to HOBY.  When they arrived, they were overwhelmed by screaming Junior Counselors and Facilitators awaiting their arrival.

 They were each assigned a dorm room with a roommate, a group of 10 to spend much of their time with and a Junior Counselor (a 2014 HOBY Alumni) and a Facilitator (an adult over 21).

Here is Taylor's wonderful group that she can't stop talking about.  HOBY focuses on building relationships, bringing service into local communities and empowering students to believe in themselves.  

They shared meals in the campus dining hall, learned countless cheers, shed lots of tears as they opened up about their challenges and struggles and met with professionals about career goals. 

 I couldn't believe the amount of friends she made in just the 4 days she was there.  When I arrived at the closing ceremonies, Taylor gave me a hug and brought this sweet girl over to introduce.  Kate is from a high school in Del Mar and the two became instant friends.

Taylor talked my ear off the entire trip home!! HOBY influenced her in such a positive way and I can't wait to see the good she does with all of the tools she was given.  She realizes how blessed she was to get the opportunity and we thank the Temecula Valley Women's Club for sponsoring her registration.

Her group has already established a group chat and have been texting like crazy!  I think Taylor is interested in becoming a Junior Counselor at HOBY 2016 so will have to continue to work hard to make that dream come true...

Friday Full of Events

Dr. Esch with his grandson, Thomas looking sharp and ready for a full day of labs, lectures and break-out sessions.

 I snuck up to the lab to get a few shots of the action.  Here is a pod all ready to go with a cadaver shoulder.

 For the first time, I actually spotted a few with full arms and hands!

 The labs, breakouts and excursion to Petco Park all went well today.

 We celebrated another successful course with the faculty dinner.  Dr. Esch has been such a visionary and is so highly respected in this industry.  He will be retiring from surgery in Sept and from his practice in Dec at the age of 78, but will continue to help with this event.  Larky has been the most amazing COO and boss to us ladies.  She provides such guidance and praise and is so mellow and sweet!  She also spoiled us rotten this year with a wonderful evening of massages and steam room last night at the spa!

 The faculty dinner band

We loved this year's specialty drinks

We couldn't ask for a better crew to spend the week with!

 The kids and Poppy even stopped by on their walk back from Joe's Crab Shack.  I think they all enjoyed their week!

A beautiful sunset to finish off the night and week.  Tomorrow, we will have another full day with the physical therapists checking in for their session and then the tear down.  My feet are a little sore and I'm lacking some sleep, but I love this week so much and will be sad to say goodbye until next year.  

Opening Day

Tuesday was busy with registration prep and early registration.  The girls spent time by the pool and the Gaslamp.  It was our one free night to have dinner with them so we went to Lolita's by Petco Park and got ice cream at Ghiradelli.

This morning we were up early to begin registration, but we placed on online donut order last night and the girls walked 1.2 miles each way to pick up this deliciousness from The Donut Bar.  I also said goodbye to Taylor this morning.  She leaves tomorrow for the HOBY so Matt picked her up after work so she could pack and get ready.  She was said it conflicted with the course!

 Today is the official start of the 32nd Annual meeting of SDSI.

 Dr. Esch began the meeting with his opening remarks

to a very crowded lecture hall.

 Throughout the day, there were lectures, labs and breaks in the exhibit hall.

At the end of the day, there was  a dinner buffet at Bayfront Park.  The weather was perfect and so was the food!

I love working with all of these ladies!

Our vendors went all out this year! Tornier had a plane fly by the dinner

 and had water bottle carts

 and pedi-cabs lining the waterfront!

 We had another company put their logo on all of the hotel key cards and another lined all of the elevators with advertising clings.

One of our doctors/board members is the team doctor for the New England Patriots.  He brought his Super Bowl ring along to the course and kept it in his pocket for a few of the events.  Look at that thing!

205 diamonds to be exact!

SDSI 2015

After months of planning and anticipation, it was finally SDSI conference week!  Marci, Wendy and I all met at Leslie's this morning to load all of the cars with supplies and caravanned to the Hilton Bayfront for our busy week of activities. 

The view from our room never gets old!

 Then it was up to Larky's amazing suite for lunch and a brief meeting.  We put the girls to work putting together all 125 of the faculty gift bags.  This year was a San Diego themed basket with a collapsible cooler, Padres beer, Margarita mix, pistachios, Palomar water, sunscreen and some seashell chocolates from a local candy shop.  The girls worked for hours and helped a ton!

The rest of us went downstairs to prep our registration desk.

After a quick change, we walked with Dr. Esch to Donovan's for our annual kickoff dinner.  We were spoiled with cocktails, oysters, mac and cheese and asparagus appetizers.

My dinner was perfect…filet, shrimp, au gratin potatoes, veggies and an Unfiltered Orange cocktail.  We topped it all off with chocolate mousse, a brownie sundae and Creme Brûlée.  Heaven! The final toast was with everyone taking a sip of a B & B in honor of Dr. Esch's father and will likely continue as our traditional toast.  Looking forward to a wonderful week ahead...

I came back to the room and found these two cuties sharing the room with me.  

Boyfriend

I got a text from Taylor tonight that read "I have a boyfriend now"!  Since prom, Andrew and Taylor have really enjoyed their time together.  They have had yogurt dates, gone to the movies, had a few trips to the beach and enjoy texting and hanging out with their group of friends.  Tonight, they were saying goodbye at Oceanside Harbor (after a friend's birthday party) and Andrew pulled out flowers from his backpack, said some very sweet things and asked Taylor to be his girlfriend.  I'm so happy for her and hope we get to spend some nice time with Andrew this summer getting to know him a little better!

School's Out for Summer

From the 1st day of 7th and 10th grade to the last day…these two lovely ladies have had quite a year! Allison medaled in Cross Country, made the middle school soccer team, turned 13 and got her 1st 4.0 GPA!

Taylor made the JV soccer team, ran for ASB President, was nominated by her school to attend HOBY, took her first AP class and obtained a 3.94 GPA!

After all of that work, they deserve a wonderful, fun-filled summer!