Bandana Ranch Birthday Celebration

As my birthday month comes to an end, I thought I should get the last of the pictures posted. I mentioned before that my friends came out to San Dimas the Saturday after my birthday for a country western celebration!

I visited Party City a couple times and got some pretty cool decorations...


Longhorn Door Hanger




It's a Party!




The Saloon Door

 I made a big dinner that followed along with the 'Bandana Ranch' theme. It consisted of pulled port sandwiches topped with crispy onion strings, fire roasted corn, baked beans, coleslaw, and potatoe salad. It was all a big hit!

All of my closest friends were able to make the trip out and I got lots of nice gifts, balloons and flowers.



Red Roses from Amber, Orange Roses from Sarah and Allison





Flowers from John


It was great to be surrounded by so much love and laughter!



Cheers with Dave, Lindsay, Sarah, Kelly, Amber, and Allison




These boots were made for walkin...(Tara, Me, Lauren, Samantha)




John & I in front of the saloon door




Blowing out my candles!

 Finally, we headed to Montana's where I was so excited to show everyone what the fuss is all about!



All of the Girls (Tara, Danielle, Casie, Samantha, Me, Lauren)




Montana's sign and us on the dance floor below.




Trying to figure out the dance so we don't get kicked off. (Not to mention an interesting outfit on the girl in the foreground.)

 One of the funniest things about Montana's is that they are VERY serious about their dancing. If you aren't good enough, you'll get kicked off. And there are some dances where they tell the beginners to stay away. It's a lot of fun to watch. One of these days I'm going to go early so that I can't take the dance lessons they offer for that night.

I can't wait to get my cowboy boots on and go again!!

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years...

Just wanted to say thank you for all of the birthday calls, texts, emails and cards! As always, the love is overwhelming.

I had a great day, (preceded by 9 days of small, thoughtful gifts from John) which started with breakfast burritos from a local place called Classic Burger. I devoured the entire thing! I had to work most of the day but was able to get out a bit early to head to dinner at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, which is a really large, beautiful outdoor mall with all the best shops, music, lights, water show, etc. It reminds me of a larger version of the Carlsbad Outlets.

We ate at Harry's Pacific Grill which had great food. I had pan friend fish over pepperjack potatoes with a Cosmotizzle to drink (see picture below).

John had a soccer game at 8:40 so we headed to Upland Sports Arena next where the team sang 'Happy Birthday' with a tray of chips and salsa with a candle!

After an intense soccer game and a great win, we headed back to my apartment where my roommate had cupcakes and a beautifully decorated cake waiting! How sweet and thoughtful! Unfortunately, she will not be able to make the b-day festivities this weekend because she's headed to Dallas with her lacrosse team today. Say hi to Ky for me!

Tonight, John & I are going wine tasting in Claremont with a friend and his girlfriend. Claremont is another cozy little town in the area with a really cute downtown area that I LOVE! Check out the Claremont City Tourbook Online!

Tomorrow my friends are coming out for dinner and a visit to my favorite local country bar, Montana's which is less than 2 miles from my apartment. To keep with the theme of the evening, I'll be serving pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, baked beans, and fire roasted corn. I'm so excited and swear I should have been born in Texas! Seems like that goes for all the Bassett girls!

I'll share more pictures when I have them available but thanks again for the birthday love!!

What Makes a House a Home

This is a test to see how texting pictures to my blog works. I got a new lamp for the living room and had some fun at ikea trying to decorate it's three shelves!

Tough to see since it's a bit dark but the light is nice and bright and there are three shelves!

A closer look at the shelving decor.

I bought all of these different pieces for cheap at Ikea and then placed them to tie the whole room together.

At this rate, I'll have my own HGTV show in no time!

Bring on Baseball Season

My favorite time of the year has arrived...Spring! Which means lots of birthdays, Easter, sunshine, beautiful flowers, and baseball season!

I was lucky enough to be able to take Thursday and Friday of last week off of work to take a mini-vacation to Tempe, Arizona for some Cactus League Spring Training action. We arrived in Tempe early Thursday evening and checked into the Aloft Hotel which is a new, modern Starwood chain.

We had a huge group of friends with us who traveled out to see Chris Pettit play. Chris is John's best friend who he's known since Kindergarten. Oddly enough, Chris played baseball at LMU, which is how I know him. What a small world. Now Chris is on the 40-man roster for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. (Still such a terrible team name, if you ask me.) He's coming off of shoulder surgery but is getting some playing time and was also able to come hang out with us in the evenings.

The weekend also ended up being a birthday celebration for Chris' sister Allison (Feb 26), Me, and Chris' girlfriend, Lindsay (Mar 5)!

Thursday Night we headed to downtown Scottsdale where we found a fun Mexican restaurant and bar called Dos Gringos.

Allison (Chris' Sister) & I with Birthday Treats

Me, Allison & Sarah (you might remember Sarah as one of my fellow Seniors on the LMU Softball team)

The weather was great all weekend. We were lucky because apparently it was cold with hail and snow the weekend before. Friday we caught the Angels game at Tempe Diablo Stadium. They played the White Sox so we got to see former Pad Jake Peavy pitch. It was so nice to get some sun and enjoy America's pasttime.

Friday night we grabbed a quick bite to eat at In N Out and headed to Fat Tuesday located on Mill Ave in Tempe...which is a long street full of great shopping, restaurants and bars.

Kind of a goofy picture of us but I love our color coordination! :)

Jason, John & Dave (another longtime friend of John & Chris)

Birthday Girls! Allison, Britt and Lindsay

I guess John wanted a birthday treat too.

Got him!

Boys will be boys. Dave, John  & Chris.

John & I considered going to the Padres/Cubs game at HoHoKam Park on Saturday since the Pads will always have a place in my heart and John is a big Chicago fan. But Chris hadn't played since Wednesday so he had a feeling he might start that day. (Apparently, the usual starters don't tend to travel much...even though it's only a 20-30 minute commute.) So we went to the Brewers stadium in Phoenix to watch the Angels play. Chris didn't get in but it was still a great atmosphere and lots of fun.

Manager Mike Scioscia signing autographs before the game

Chris coming out for warmups before the game

Angels owner Arty something mingling with the crowd

Chris #33 & Pete #25

Peter Bourjous (Chris' AZ roommate and Angels starting CF)

Prince Fielder!

Saturday night we did a group dinner at PF Changs before heading to Big Bang which is an awesome dueling piano bar!

John & I before dinner

Lindsay on stage doing the birthday Hokey Pokey! (She's the one in the blue shirt)

Jason, John, Dave, Nick

Dave, Chris, John



We tried to get a picture but nobody could get it together. At least Lindsay had a good birthday!



Since Sunday came and we hadn't seen Chris play yet, we decided to show up early to watch batting practice. The practice fields at Diablo Stadium are set up like a tourist attraction so that you can watch batting practice and infield. It was really cool! Afterwards Chris stopped by to talk with us a bit and we followed him out as he signed autographs.

Chris signing autographs

Chris walking out. Lindsay on his left, John on his right

We had great seats for the game...

ToriiTown for Right Fielder Torii Hunter!

...And Chris went into left field in the 6th inning.

And got two ABs

Dave and John with Chris in the background

John & I (with my awesome new hat from Kylie!)

All in all it was a great weekend and it went by way too fast. This weekend my friends are coming out to San Dimas for dinner and a visit to my favorite local country bar, Montana's! So stay tuned for next week's post!