Weekend In Newport

I hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend!  I spent the day yesterday with my brother and sister-in-law in Newport Beach and it was such a great time as always.  

The day began with an amazing breakfast that my sister-in-law made.  She's such a great cook!  Check out these cheesy eggs!

Next, we headed out for our hike, which ended up being about 7.5 miles.

There are so many beautiful wildflowers and the views of the ocean are truly breathtaking.

The way there was much easier than the way back.

This was a killer hill, but check out that view.

These fossils are actually embedded into the rock from 15 million years ago.

After our hike, we headed back to the house for some delicious BBQ (fillet's!)

What a great day!  I can't wait to head back down to visit!

Have a great night...I'm counting down the minutes until I can watch the miniseries on the Hatfield's and the McCoys, since I'm related to both families!

And, if you haven't had a chance to purchase an ad yet, all ads are 60% off until 9 p.m. pacific time, so don't miss out!  Use promo code: memorialday2012

ALL PHOTOS BY MATT/KORI DONAHUE COURTESY OF BLONDE EPISODES...DO NOT USE PHOTOS WITHOUT PERMISSION.

Childhood Memories

I've been feeling a bit nostalgic lately and have enjoyed finding some old photos of my childhood.  I had such a great childhood and can't say enough about my wonderful parents.  Even though they had some really tough times financially, we always seemed to have everything we wanted and more.  I can remember my mom standing in line at Toys R Us for hours to get me a Cabbage Patch Kid...remember those?  I was so in love!  

So, the first thing I was absolutely obsessed with as a child was Scott O'Dell's novel, The Island Of The Blue Dolphins.  My mom would read it to my brother and I every day and to this day it is one of my favorite books.  My mom even found an original edition at an antique store and wrote an inscription to me. This is one of my most cherished things.

How about Maui and Sons?  Does anyone remember wearing those hot pink sweatshirts?  How about Hot Tuna?  

My Little Pony.  My brother snuck into my room one night and cut off all the hair.  So traumatizing.

Every week in elementary school we got to visit the library and check out a book.  This book always went first!  We were so jealous of anyone who got to read it for the week.  Isn't it funny the things that are important to you when you're little?

Old school Nintendo.  We got ours when I was in the 6th grade.  I got a horrible case of the chicken pox, then the hong kong flu.  My brother and I played Duck Hunt like it was going out of style.  Because of all the sickness at once, I got Mono (no I didn't kiss anyone!  I was in the 6th grade)!  I had to stay home from school for 3 months and had a home tutor.

OMG does anyone remember these?  My dad drove us all over town trying to find different packs of them. Why on earth were these popular and why did our parents let us have them?

Safety Pin bracelets.  I had a booming business in 6th and 7th grade with these babies.  I loved making them and made some money at the same time.

And finally those adorable Cabbage Patch Kids.  Who could ever have enough?

I'm not sure how many of you can relate to my childhood or the things I love.  It seems like most of you bloggers out there are in your 20's, so we'll see who actually remembers these things.  I'd love to hear from any of you who loved the things I did or tell me what you loved from your childhood!