April Moments

Here is a random collection of little moment that made April a little more fun.

Work is always super busy in April because of spring break. I always seem to over commit myself because I always want to care for all the sweet animals. So, while I love, love, love all of these precious pets, I'm always exhausted and ready for spring break to be over. Here is a little handful of the cutie pies I got to care for:

The picture above is Raine, she is an 18 year old, grouchy old lady. She always looks so gorgeous and elegant as she stares me down and warns me to not even think about petting her.

These three cuties are the opposite, they want ALL of the love and attention I can give them. They are a lot of work, I give a lot emotionally when I am with them, but I love them so much and always look forward to seeing them.

From left to right:

Mama Roxy and her two pups Jack and Murphy.

I adore this sweet face. I get to see Oscar every day while his parents are at work, and I have bonded so much with this quirky, old soul.

It took me about a year to get Oscar to let me pet him on a regular basis. So, on thee rare occasion that he actually SNUGGLES me, I am in heaven.

Mac the Westie lives two houses down from Oscar. When we go for our walk, Oscar always makes sure to pass by his house and check to see if he is out. It's always a happy day when Mac is out and comes over to say hi.

Ferdinand and Zazu are such gorgeous kitties. They are brothers from the same litter, yet look nothing alike. 

I love it when Cinnabun and Thumper come to stay with me. They are the most velvety bunnies, and they are so silly, they always make me laugh.

Cinnabun is the cuddler out of the two.

Neither one of them were fixed, so they had to have separate outside exercise/ play time. Thumper would spend most of his time giving Cinnabun bunnies kisses through her cage and she loved it. It was so adorable.

Speaking of animals, a new little buddy joined our family this month.

Mrs. Tiggywink joined the Madison family on easter. Beth got her as a surprise and kept her at mom and dad's house until it was time for Easter baskets. Tiggy is a very timid soul, but she is going to be loved so much. Look at her cute little face!

She always sticks out one of her back legs as she begins to uncurl, it's so silly.

April was the beginning of my couch saga. I had used a designer to help pick out some new furniture to update my space. The designer lived out of state but said she would come to my house at the beginning and end of our project. She never came... So all of the furniture she picked out, I never saw in person. They all looked gorgeous on paper.

I had a junk removal company come and take my old couch away. It was an ikea couch that served me very well for 10 years. All of corners had been absolutely shredded by my cats when I first got them, so there was no chance of selling it.

The couch the designer picked out got delivered and it was absolutely stunning! It looked like a magazine and fit the space so well.

However, it was the most uncomfortable couch I have ever sat on. I hated the feel of the cushions and the fabric the moment I first sat down on it. Such a bummer! Also, I learned that while the bench cushions create a beautiful, clean look, they do not wear well over time. I had only sat on the couch a couple of times and you can totally see where I sat.

Luckily, even though this was a custom piece, the company we ordered it from offered full refunds! Whew!

The kitties laid on the couch the first day I got it, but then they didn't really get on it much after that. So, I can only assume they felt the same way about it as I did.

They did gift me with this precious moment though. Dinah and Louis never hang out close by each other, their relationship has a very "sibling rivalry" energy. So, if they ever hang out close by each other it is a moment worth documenting. They took it one step further this time by touching paws! My kitty mama heart was bursting from the cuteness.

Queen Dinah on her thrown of blankets, surveying the land.

We had an epic spring snow storm. The trees at mom and dads house looked so beautiful.

Nora went to her first school dance! The first niece to go to prom! Beth and I went over to help her with hair and make up. I didn't do much, I helped curl her hair, I mainly just wanted to be a part of the excitement! I love that my nieces and nephews let their aunt hang out with them and be a part of their big moments.

Nora looked absolutely stunning.

Beth and I took her kiddos to the tulip festival, we had so much fun. After experiencing the Thanksgiving Point Gardens with a golf cart, we can't ever go back to just walking through them, we get waaaay too exhausted and don't end up seeing everything. So we rented a golf cart and zoomed all over the gardens, we had a blast.

The gardens were previewing their upcoming dino attraction. It was such a funny juxtaposition of having these realistic dinosaurs hanging out among the tulips.

We took a little break to have a picnic lunch in the waterfall amphitheater. They had lots of food trucks to choose from.  We ultimately went with Waffle Love, we wanted to try out their chicken and waffles.

They make it look so cute!

The Secret Garden is always one of our favorite spots.

Thanks for the happy moments April!

San Diego with Lex

In April, Lex and I went on a fun, little getaway to Coronado. We stayed at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort, and this was the view from our balcony, it was gorgeous.

The night we arrived, we ubered to Orange Avenue to go out to dinner. It was about 8 pm and EVERYTHING was closed, we were shocked! We didn't know Coronado was such a sleepy place. Luckily, there was one restaurant still open, it closed at 9 pm.  The Henry was at the top of my list of places to try, so we got to try it out our first night.

Glancing through the menu, I quickly understood why everyone raves about this place, we had such a hard time choosing what to get! We ended up having a three course meal because we just had to try all the things.

We started with short rib pot stickers with sesame, cilantro and ponzu.

We shared the All American Burger for our main course. 

Lettuce, tomato, pickle, charred onion, white cheddar, american cheese, henry sauce

We ended our meal with a Peanut Butter Molten Cake.

With vanilla bean gelato and candied peanuts.

The next day, we were feeling adventurous and decided to go kayaking in La Jolla. We were picturing lazily paddling along as we gently floated in and out of the La Jolla caves. We thought we would be able to bring our phones and our bags and take cute selfies during our ride.

When we got there, we were encouraged to change out of our street clothes, we didn't even wear swimsuits, and wear wet suits to keep us warm in the freezing water. We also started to notice that everyone coming back from the time slot before us was soaking wet and shivering. So, we began to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into....

Lex and I had chosen to do a tandem kayak so we would be together. We were one of the first people they got out into the water, the guides had to push us out over the waves. We were instructed to keep our kayak completely straight, if we hit any waves at even the slightest angle, we would tip.

We got out far enough where the waves were smaller and we started to relax a little bit and even enjoyed how peaceful it was out there. We were wondering why it was taking the rest of the group so long to get into the water, but we couldn't turn to see what was going on because we didn't want to hit any waves at an angle. 

Then all of a sudden a GIANT wave came towards us, we did pretty well staying straight as it hit us, but on the way back down off the wave we tipped and we went tumbling into the ocean. Lex lost her sunglasses to the sea, RIP. Luckily, one of the guides came right out to help us and he informed us the ocean was waaaaaaay to rough to be out kayaking in it and they had decided to cancel our trip. 

The guide helped us get back to shore where we saw an emergency truck and an ambulance. We asked what was going on and discovered one of our guides had been hit in the head by one of the kayaks as he was trying to get them out in the water and it knocked him out. He was conscious at that point, but had a really bad concussion and couldn't remember his name or anything. We had no idea so much drama was happening on land while we were out relaxing on the water!

The kayak company was so nice and gave us all refunds and vouchers to come back when the water was calmer. Duke, our guide who had been hit, was able to walk back to the shop and was doing better by the time we left. 

After our big adventure, we decided to get some lunch on the cute little street we had walked down to get to the ocean.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to shower and relax for the rest of the evening.

The next day was one we were both really excited for, we had rented beach chairs at the Del Coronado beach! This hotel is so iconic, it was thrilling walking up the stairs to the front door.

The lobby is interesting in that it is mainly all dark wood, you don't see much of that anymore.

I loved the wallpaper by the check in desk.

After exploring the inside of the hotel for a little while, we headed out to the beach! The hotel grounds and beach area are so much fun. There were lots of yummy looking restaurants that had wonderful outdoor seating. There was a cute ice cream shop and a cool taco place. 

The gardens were gorgeous! I would love to stay in this historic hotel and just spend days on days on days out in this area.

I loved the fringe lined red umbrellas and stripped beach chairs, they had a fun, vintage feel and looked so cute with the hotel in the background.

It was cool enough in the shade to wear a sweater and I was THRILLED. I loved being bundled up on the beach. 

We ordered refreshing drinks and yummy food, one of the best parts of relaxing on a hotel beach.

In my world, nothing beats being bundled up on a sunny, yet chilly, beach eating a gourmet burger. It is my happy place.

Even though we knew the ocean would be freezing, our day at the beach wouldn't be complete without at least dipping our toes in the water.

We stayed until the very last second of our rentals, we were the last ones to leave. It was the most blissful day on such a beautiful beach.

We walked from Hotel Del Coronado to the well known Moo Time ice cream shop. We had read how amazing the ice cream is here and we couldn't wait to try it out.

It lived up to the hype, we loved it.

The next day we slept in and took it nice and slow in the morning and then we spent a few hours enjoying the hotel pool. We got chips and guac and lunch while we were there. It was a good time.

That evening we went to the Padre vs. Braves game. Lex has been a life long Braves fan and hadn't ever seen them play in person. It was so perfect they were playing the padres while we were there! We made one of her life long dreams come true, and it was so much fun.

It was surprisingly freezing! We knew it would be chilly, but it was so much colder than we were expecting. We loved our time at the game but we couldn't wait to get back to our hotel and jump in the hot tub.

On our last day in San Diego, we went on a 4 hour whale watching cruise. We knew the chances of seeing whales that time of year were slim, we were just excited to be out on the water. The company we sailed with had a whale sighting guarantee where you could come back and sail again for free if you didn't see any whales. We didn't end up seeing any whales, so if we had stayed in San Diego longer, we could have gone sailing again for free!

Even though we didn't see any whales, we did see lots of other wildlife. We passed by the navy training center where they were training bomb sniffing dolphins! I didn't know that was even a thing, apparently the Navy is constantly trying to create a robotic bomb sniffing device so they wouldn't have to use dolphins, but they haven't been able to develop anything that is as smart and as good as dolphins.

The water turned out to be pretty rough again, so our boat was rocking all over the place. We couldn't walk around too much because it was so rough and lots of people got sea sick. Luckily, neither lex or I got sick.

This silly fluff was the highlight of our trip. Her little sweater and life vest were just too cute to handle.

I brought a blanket with me and sat in the sun since it was pretty cold. The warm sun felt so good, I loved being out on the water for so long.

A few of us took naps during our 4 hour sail, it was so relaxing.

After saying goodbye to our beautiful ship and her lovely crew, we headed back to Coronado Island for our last dinner of the trip.

We had passed by the adorable bistro several times, and had even tried to eat there once, but couldn't be seated because their kitchen was about to close. I was so excited to finally be able to check it out.

My honest review is their food and service were not good, I would not recommend eating here. However, their cronuts are 100% worth it. Next time, I will just order one of these for take out and eat dinner at The Henry. The cronut flavors rotate, while we were there it was passionfruit, and it was absolutely amazing.

After dinner, we headed home to do our evening ritual. Every night, we would watch Friends, there was always an endless marathon on, and we were sit in our individual beds, eating our room snacks, chatting and laughing. I loved our nightly routine.

This was such an amazing trip. I loved getting to spend so much time with Lex, I hadn't seen her in so long. We really bonded on this trip and I am so grateful for that time with her.

Love ya Lex!