I am now back home! The last few days of the vacation were busy, but so much fun. On Friday before the game we drove up to the college (UC Irvine) to scope it out so we knew what we were doing before the game lol (it wasn't far from the hotel, maybe 10-15 minutes away). We bought tickets and found a couple geocaches and then checked out nearby Fashion Island, an indoor/outdoor mall/plaza type thing.it was huge! Most of the clothing stores were nothing I'd like, and amazingly, there was a Barnes and Noble there! I've never seen one in a mall before! I probably spent waaay too much time there, at least two hours LOL..oops. :P I was happy to see a lot of people shopping there <3

After that we relaxed at the hotel and then went back to UC Irvine for the game (and found a couple more caches lol). It was really surreal actually being there! I kept looking for Debbie (Scott's sister), and finally spotted her on the opposite side from us (I sent her a message saying I was coming too). The area was super loud, but it was SO MUCH FUN!! They did really, really well, and it was awesome seeing Scott's famous "Stadick Scream" in person haha. In the second set, they completely annihilated the other team..one player had 3 service aces in a row, and Scott had around 3 blocks as well. They won that set 25-12! (The team they played somehow won one set over Hawaii the week before..no idea how, considering how they played this night..Hawaii is REALLY good.) Before the third set started we went over to where Debbie and her three-year-old daughter Selah were sitting..she was COMPLETELY shocked when she saw us..she thought I was joking when I said I was coming to the game!! We haven't been a huge part of their lives (we first met in 2003), so I thought she'd be like "ehh" about a distant cousin (third cousin, according to my family tree lol) coming to visit, but no, she was very happy to see us! She was sitting in the first row behind where the team hangs out when they're not playing at the moment, and Scott spotted us and waved! (Yay, he remembered us lol.) ( more under here! )

What a great trip! Exhausting, but fun lol. We had a big sale at work on Saturday, so there will probably be a lot of shelving to do :P

( more pics!! )

I have just now heard of the fire at Notre Dame at Paris, and now I want to cry. :( That is so sad!! My heart broke when I saw the video of the spire falling..omg :(

Today I went caching with mom, Bonnie, Debbie (her friend who we went to BOW with) and Michael (Bonnie's son who has autism). Yay! I found like..4 caches in September and was having withdrawals haha. Today was International EarthCache Day, so we found one (you get a cool souvenir on special caching days) and 5 regular ones. It wasn't that cold, so that was nice. We were all hungry after, so we had a nice yummy dinner at a restaurant (caching always makes you hungry haha). Funn :)

( next challenge: live for tomorrow )

The rest of yesterday was fun...they have a game called 20 questions...you think of something and it gives you questions and tries to guess...the 1st time I was thinking Luca Turilli and it guessed 'a celebrity'...I was like OMG...it usually guesses right. Well today we went to the farm place...it was fun! We went into town and got ice cream and I obsessed more over old buildings. Then we went back to the farm and talked for awhile. I saw Debbie!! She is tall!! She grew a lot in 2 years. I talked about Italy and Luca and they wanted to see Luca on my DVD but it wouldn't play. Then when we left they told me as soon as I go to Italy and meet Luca to tell them...haha I shall. Stephanie likes Rhapsody...she listened to part of Queen of the Dark Horizons then later she asked to hear more so she listened to most of the Dawn of Victory album...I got her to do \m/...what a fun day. Stephanie has roller skating lessons tomorrow...ooo

And now...pictures! Only 2 though

( wheeee )

"Dalla vita, dalla morte"--"Non Ho Sonno," Rhapsody