Plane Rides and Penguins

By this time tomorrow, I'll be on a plane bound for Portland, OR. Woohoo! As many of you know, I was, in fact, born on the planet Oregon. Of course, I haven't been back in 20 years, so I'm excited to visit. Although, I doubt much has changed. I mean, you still can't pump your own gas up there. I'm serious! Communists...

Anyway, our final destination is a mountain resort town called Bend. We went there a lot when I was little and I have some wonderful memories. Since Jer is on his way to Captain status, we figured we'd make use of what might be his last Christmas off in a while, and we planned a week-long family vacation. We haven't pulled something like this off in a very long time. I think it will be amazing...if we can keep from killing one another. HA! Just kidding! (Sort of...)

This is where we'll be staying...

Unfortunately, our little hideaway doesn't have internet access. So... there will be no posts about me running the snowmobile into a tree or Jer falling off a chair lift, etc. until we're safely back in Cali. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we return in one piece and not in popsicle form.

In the meantime, here is a little cold-weather game to play while the blog sits still...

http://n.ethz.ch/student/mkos/pinguin.swf

No penguins or yetis were harmed in the making of this game.

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HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

10,000 Calorie Weekend

Well, it was quite a weekend! I got to spend time with so many friends, it was the best early Christmas present I could have asked for!

We had a slumber party at the apartment on Friday night.
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And, as usual the main focus was the food. I knew a pot luck with this group would be dangerous... but I had no idea just how bad it would be. The twins even brought 2 giant pans filled with desserts. Hello!?

Of course, the damage done the night before didn't stop us from hitting IHOP Saturday morning. I had the chocolate chip pancakes. So goooood!
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Then on Saturday night, Jenell had her annual ornament exchange/eating extravaganza. The woman lives to cook. You really can't beat handmade tortillas and carne asada. I'm not even going to talk about all of the other stuff she had to eat, it will just make you hungry.

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By Sunday, I was 5 pounds heavier than I was 2 days earlier, and thus, barely able to fit into my jumpsuit. After shoe-horning myself into it, I was ready for my first tunnel adventure!

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What a blast! I only had a 10 minute block, but the way they split it up, you really feel like you get a lot of bang for your buck. Erin helped me a ton with my technique. We did drills the entire time. (Sorry for the poor photo quality.)

My friend Mark generously gave up his last 2 minutes so that all 3 of us could play together. Too much fun!

I knew the tunnel would be a good time, but I really had no idea how awesome it would be. I'm hooked! I'll surely be heading back again soon, so if anyone wants to join me, let me know.

My friend Grasshopper met me after the tunnel for dinner, and because downtown Perris isn't a dining metropolis, we ended up at IHOP... where I had chocolate chip pancakes AGAIN! Obviously that took care of any calories I might have burned in the tunnel.

So... fantastic weekend! Fattening...but fantastic! Oh well, I guess a little extra insulation ought to help with the cold weather in Oregon. Yeah... I'll just keep telling myself that. HA!

Less than a week to go until Christmas! I can hardly stand it! Woohoo!

Tunnel Time

Hi.... I'm Lara... My blog sucks, because I lag. Ha ha ha!

Crazy times lately, my peeps. It's been awesome having a full social calendar, but I'm not going to lie, Grandma Lara is having a hard time keeping up. I'm looking forward to a little downtime up in Oregon. (I'll post about that next week.) So... yeah... just wanted to apologize for not keeping up on the blogishness.

Anyway, it's going to be a big weekend, and I'll try and get a recap up on Monday. But I thought it would be fun to throw a little info up about what I am doing on Sunday...

Did you know we have a wind tunnel open to the public here in So. Cal? We do! It was big news when they decided to build one out here, because before, skydivers had to migrate out to FL for a decent tunnel to train in.

Sure, there are a few others out there, like the one in Vegas, but it's not on the same level as the FL tunnel. And there are some fantastic ones on military bases, but...well...you have to be in the military.

Anyway, the tunnel craze has taken off big time and in the year or so since the Perris, CA tunnel opened, another has popped up in AZ and now there are plans for one in CO. They keep getting bigger and better each time they build a new one. At 14 feet wide, the one in AZ can even fit a 6 person team in at the same time!

Now, I did have a few minutes in the Vegas tunnel once, but I've never been in any of the others. So I really haven't had the new and improved tunnel experience yet. This Sunday, they are having a toy drive out at the one in Perris, so I thought, that's my cue. I've booked 10 minutes in the afternoon and I can't wait!

Working on technique in the tunnel is an amazing tool for skydivers. It allows you to really pinpoint what skills you need to work on. My friend Erin is going to serve as my coach that day, and I think she'll be a big part of any progress I make during that session. She is one of the best skydivers I know.

But the tunnel isn't just for skydivers! Quite a bit of their business comes from non-jumpers who want to experience the feel of freefall without having to plummet at the earth at 120 mph.

If you are interested, please let me know! I have friends who work there and they'd be happy to help organize a group outing to the 909.

For more information, check out their site here:

http://perriscam.com/tunnel/tunnel.asp

Food Fest 2005!

Okay, let's be real, every day in 2005 was typically a food fest for me...but this is different. Way back when I worked for the mouse, my most favorite perk was always the Holiday Cast Party. Each December, Disney picks a few nights to close the park early, boot the guests out and bring the cast members (employees) in with family members or a guest.

The best part of this night, other than the relaxed atmosphere, was always that the food was severely discounted. We are talking 50 cent churros. HELLO!? So the tradition came to be that attractions took a back seat to food consumption, and we'd spend the majority of the evening snacking our way through the park.

It's been a long time since I worked there myself, but Tuesday night, the tradition resumed. Kristine and I were able to attend the Cast Party as the Twins' guests.

We got lucky and had the chance to meet up with Joanne and Russell at DownTown Disney before we went in the park. (Our schedules so rarely line up.) So we caught up over coffee because we didn't want to take up room with non-party food. (With all the excitement, I forgot to take a picture. Der...)

Anyway, shortly after 8, we said our goodbyes and headed into a park with a plan in hand.

First up, Bengal BBQ...

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Then we headed on for our churros. This stop brought on discussion about the changing face of Disney, etc. Blah blah blah.... Anyway...Churros were $2 last night (I still got 2.) It turns out that they have actually started setting the food prices to make a profit on Cast night, hence the disappearance of the 50 cent churro. It kind of took the force out of my appetite. (Kind of...)

We still made a few more snack stops...popcorn...apple bites...etc.

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But we didn't end up having anymore complete meals. (Our Mexican food adventure was foiled with an 11 pm closure of Casa/Rancho.) Oh well. BUT! We did make it around to a number of rides, including the newly opened Buzz Lightyear and freshly refurbished Space Mountian. We even made it over to visit with the sleepy reindeer.

I hadn't been in the park in a really long time. So last night was the first time I really had the chance to appreciate some of the special 50th anniversary details. There are gold Mickey ears everywhere. (If you haven't been to see the fireworks yet, you should go. We went one night over the summer just to see the show. I seriously could have watched it 10 more times.)

And I don't know when they added this, but there is now a music and projection element to the front area of Holiday Small World. Very disco! Very cool!

So anyway, despite the not-so-discounted food, we had a great time! Thanks M & M for letting us tag along! Good times!

CReW World Record

I know most of you who check in with my blog aren't skydivers, but every now and then, something in the sport comes along that I think everyone can appreciate in one way or another.

CReW is an acronym for canopy relative work. Basically, it is when skydivers link up under canopy. Recently a new world record was set with a diamond formation of 85 people. It was estimated that the formation was over 275 feet tall, 175 feet wide and weighed over 17,500 pounds! Once complete, they held it for 17 seconds.

This is a truly stunning example of teamwork. I thought you might enjoy seeing a few photos...

I grabbed the photos and info from these sites:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=611 http://cfworldrecord.com/2005/

Celebrating Laguna Beach Style

Tomorrow is my best friend Jennifer's 30th birthday. So over the weekend, we celebrated this special occasion with a stay in the penthouse suite at the Surf and Sand, where partied down as if it was her 21st...as you can see in the photo below:

Anyway, we had a blast! Jenn's husband, Dean, did a great job planning the event, including picking out where we stayed. They were able to check in early, so we got to spend the afternoon relaxing on the balcony. Check out our view of the sunset:

After the sun was down, we prettied up, had a few more drinks by the fire and then headed out to Ocean Ave. where we danced the night away.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENN!

Our Tree At STC

So things have been bumpin' at the office lately, which is good. But I haven't had anytime to get our tree up...until today. Hooray!

FA LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!