go madre, its your birthday

Last week was my dear mommy's birthday!

On the actual day we went to dinner at Marmalade Cafe which was both delicious and adorable.

The day after, a few of us headed to Universal Studios for the day...so fun! The weather was perfect and the park wasn't very busy so it was awesome.

There isn't really much to say about either event so here are some pictures...

movie time

In a few minutes I will be leaving for the midnight showing of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2". Even though I am exhausted after a long week of work, I'm excited to go see the show (and will get even more excited when I sneak in my coffee!)

The newest Winnie the Pooh movie comes out tomorrow too. Is it bad that I am more excited for that release? I vote no. You can never go wrong spending some time with your furry, stuffed friends in the hundred-acre woods :)

So which are you more excited to see?

or

?

xoxo,

Natasha

treasure

Found these beauties at the farmer's market yesterday.

It was a good day :)

xoxo,

Natasha

today i dont feel like doin' anything..

...I just want to lay in my beeeddddd

That song has been on repeat in my head all weekend.And even though I was actually really productive, the weekend was super relaxing and just what I needed!

After work Friday Alex and I went and test drove some cars. I am in love with the Ford Flex -- but it is really too much car for me, especially because I don't have six kids haha

Bright and early Saturday morning Jesse and I had our first To Shin Do class (we are going to be niiiiinjas -- pronounced "neen jas". The first class is always a private lesson and it was entertaining to say the least. But I am really excited to continue on with the lessons and earn my yellow earth belt :)

After niiiiinja class we went to breakfast and then home. Alex and I took Rocco to the dog park, registered at Target (funnnn!!!), then went test driving again! After that we went out to dinner which was nice and then called it a night.

Sunday morning we went to church with Jesse and Ashely. It was great to be back at Reality -- I missed it while I was gone! We met Tyler at the beach afterwards and we had lunch at Eric Ericson's on the pier. Soooo yummy. The beach was wayyyy too windy to stay so we came back to our place and went to the pool. Later that night Alex and I just hung around the apartment -- very chill.

We had a BBQ at our place today -- super good carne asada from the Mexican Market down the road, Ralph's macaroni salad, and beer = happy Natasha belly.

I hope you all had a fun, safe Memorial Day weekend!!!

And because I hate leaving posts without any pictures...here is one of me and Alex today!

xoxo,

Natasha

kitchen sink

Last Wednesday was fun.

My morning started off at Downtown Disney with Annie and Samantha (two lovely girls from CRT). We had a delicious lunch at Earl of Sandwich and then went to see the Justin Bieber movie! (Don't judge....it was AMAZING)

After the movie we had plans to meet up with Abby and Brent (two more lovelies from CRT) and Lisa (honorary CRT lovely <3)

For those of you who don't know, the Kitchen Sink is a massively delicious ice cream creation that you definitely need to share. Eight scoops of ice cream, every topping possible, and an entire can of whipped cream is served to you in a kitchen sink (how fitting). The six of us were able to finish it but were SO full afterwards!!!

Unfortunately, we missed Fantasmic because we were too busy stuffing our faces with ice cream but that is ok because Lisa and I are going to go watch it tomorrow night!!

xoxo,

Natasha

nom nom nom

About two weeks ago my mom flew out for a couple of days and we took advantage of an awesome cast-only promotion going on with resorts/the Disney Dining Plan. For 2 days we had the regular dining plan which consists of 1 Quick Service meal (QS), 1 Table Service meal (TS), and 1 snack per person, per day. Then, for another 2 days we tried out the Quick Service dining plan which consists of 2 QS meals and 1 snack per day plus a refillable resort mug for each person :)

I was really excited for this trip because: (a) I missed my mom and (b) I had never done the dining plan before and had been wanting to try it forever!

For the first part of our stay we were at the All Star Music resort (since our favorite, Pop Century, was unavailable) and the second half of the stay we were at Pop Century...yayyy!

I'm not going to go into crazy detail about all the delicious food we ate but the highlights were definitely Cape May and Boma! We already knew that we loved Boma but Cape May was a new experience for both of us and we were very pleased!

Here are some pictures from her trip....

Love and miss you madre!

xoxo,

Natasha

park day

So obviously a big perk of working at Walt Disney World is getting into the parks for free and since I have been here I have definitely been taking advantage of it :)

I didn't realize until now that I haven't really blogged about my park excursions. So I'm going to change that now!! Today I went to Magic Kingdom with Lisa and Katie. It is very rare that so many of us are home at the same time so it was great to hang out together!!

The three of us are on a mission to do every attraction, show, etc while we are down here so we did some of the things that we haven't crossed off our list yet liiiikeeeeee Hall of Presidents, Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, and Snow White's Scary Adventure.

We also got to go inside the castle and then took a picture with Peter Pan!

After we were done at the Magic Kingdom we went to the Polynesian for dole whips and they were OUT! nooooo bueno.

Unfortunately, our adventure had to come to an end....Lisa went to work and Katie and I went home.

It was a fun night in the apartment too :)

xoxo,

Natasha

alex's visit

Alex flew to Florida to hang out with me last week! We had such a good time and it was great to be reunited!! I had to work on 2 of the days -- but only in the morning so it wasn't too bad.

On his first full day we hit up Animal Kingdom and Epcot. The highlights of the day were the safari (DUH), naked mole rats, German beer, and Ellen's Energy Adventure! Ok, maybe not the last one...

When I got off of work on Saturday we enjoyed each other's company, had some dinner, and watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from a hammock on the beach of the Polynesian :)

I worked the morning of Superbowl Sunday but was back at the hotel in time for the game! We decided to stay in our room and watch the game so we could be comfy and we had a nice tv :) For dinner we ordered some Domino's and Alex got some beer from the pool bar. There was a raffle at the bar during halftime so we went downstairs and Alex won a shirt!

Monday it was supposed to rain all day....we never really saw too much of that but we did see some ominous clouds in the distance! We had a few errands to do (like returning my over-priced computer case to Best Buy) so we took the city bus and got them done :) That night we had dinner reservations at 'Ohana. The meal was SO good and we had a wonderful time. At one point we were invited up with a few other couples who were celebrating anniversaries and got to slow dance to an Elvis song :D Our server was awesome and at the end of the meal brought us an engagement cupcake!

Tuesday was Alex's last full day...we spent it in Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. We had a lot of fun at both of the parks even though it was pretty cold!

Unfortunately, our vacation had to come to a close on Wednesday and Alex flew home. It was so great to have a visitor (especially Alex!! :P) and I can't wait for the next one to come!!! (hint, hint!)

xoxo,

Natasha

ellen

Last Thursday we (my mommy, Trey and Anna) went to Ellen!

We were in the riff-raff room (the area right behind the set) which is still so much fun!! The guest on the show was Christina Aguleria -- she sang for us and sounded AMAZING.

During commerical breaks they raffled off tickets to the 12 days of Christmas show and Trey won!! He only got 2 tickets so he is taking my mommy (what a good son :-P)

They are going on December 7th and I can't wait to see what they get!!!

xoxo,

Natasha

day of the child

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of volunteering at the 14th annual Day of the Child. This event is so cool -- they bus in thousands of foster children from all over LA and put on this huge, free carnival full of rides, games, music and other fun stuff that kids love :) As a mentor, I was paired up with one of the little girls and my job was just to take her around and make sure she had an amazing day :)

They had more mentors than children (a good problem to have!) so I paired up with my friend Venina and we were assigned a little girl named Vanessa. When we first met her she was SO shy and kept saying she wanted to go home. We took her on some rides and she quickly warmed up which was great!

Over the course of the day we rode most of the rides, ate tons of carnival food, played a bunch of games, Vanessa got a makeover, and we took a tour of the Star Eco Lab.

At the end of the day, my mentee was up on the stage dancing with a bunch of other kids which was great to see since she was SO shy earlier.

If I wasn't leaving for Orlando in January, I would sign up to become a long-term mentor for one of these children. It was an amazing experience that really opened my eyes.

xoxo,

Natasha

kings

Remember when I told you about when Alex went to the Laker game? They had awesome seats thanks to my soon-to-be-sister-in-law Amber. Well, she was able to get us tickets to the Kings game too!

I was very excited because I love hockey games and I had been wanting to go to a Kings game really bad!

My cousins were going too so we went to their house first to say hi (and dropped off Rocco so he could hang out with his cousins :D)

The game was SO much fun!!!!

Thanks Amber :)

Go Kings!

xoxo,

Natasha

laker game

On Halloween Alex went to the Laker game with his sister (Amber), her husband (Eric), and his Dad. They had awesome seats (15th row!) and the Lakers dominated so a good time was had by all!

Even though I didn't go, I wanted to post some of the pictures. Why? Because I love pictures, I love family outings, and I love Laker games!

Enjoy!

The picture of the truck makes me laugh :)

xoxo,

Natasha

jason mraz

If you didn't already know, Alex is awesome! Towards the end of the summer he surprised me with tickets for us to go see Jason Mraz at the Santa Barbara Bowl :)

Before the concert we ate at this little Mexican place near the venue.

The concert was SO much fun. We had really good seats and the Santa Barbara Bowl is gorgeous!

Mr. Mraz puts on a really good show. So if you ever have the chance to see him live -- DO IT!

It was such a good night <3

On the way home we stopped at Carl's and shared an Oreo shake! mmmmm

xoxo,

Natasha

everyone's got a laughing place...

One day (a few weeks ago) I got off at 12 instead of my usual 3PM so what did I do? Went to Disneyland of course!! This time I went with my cousins Addie, Lily, and Emily, my aunt Regina and Addie's friend Taryn. I know I say this everytime but it was SUCH a great day!!

we started off by grabbing some Chipotle for lunch on the ride there...me and Lily had a picnic in the back of the van :)

Some of the Halloween decorations were up which was so exciting! I loooove Disneyland at Halloween and Christmas...and every other time of the year haha. Just like when I went with my mom the other day, there were basically no lines and we got to go on a ton of rides!

When we were in Fantasyland we stopped at the Mad Hatter shop and saw Kevin Jonas and his wife...this is Lily's reaction (haha)...

Later on that night we were taking some pictures in front of the castle when we noticed this guy proposing to his girlfriend!! It was SOO cute :)

We watched the street celebration, danced for a little while and then headed out of the park. On the way home we met Emily and Taryn's aunt for dinner at Red Robin which was a lot of fun :)

Disneyland twice in one week?! I love my life <3