Today was a sad day :(

Today was the day our two new friends left for home in Alabama. Yes, we do have friends. 

Before the girls left we had a couple exciting events happen here in good ole Modesto!

First, it was Christmas! 

Jenn and I were sitting in bed around 130 AM reading and wishing we had some ice cream.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Hayley was at the door like Santa with bags and bags of goodies!

Hayley and Elizabeth packed up all the crap they didn't need and brought it to our house! Now, you all know how cheap we are so this literally felt like X-mas.

We got things from candy to toilet bowl cleaner, from ice cream to hangers and dressing and a fan and toilet paper and pasta and gogurt!! This was the best! 

  

LESSON OF THE DAY! .. 

One WOmans trash is another WOmans treasures!

Anyways, we had to get to bed because the next day held a full blown pool party for all the residents at our apartment complex. I nice social gathering with free food, prizes, and a raffle. This seemed to be the week of FREE!

The pool party was less than exciting..so we spiked our drinks, sat back and took in the scene that was surrounding us. One man trying to serve hors d'oeuvre will a fork...seemed simple, but not when it is a wrap. The poor guy just kept trying and each time was the same result complete mess on everyones plate. Next, a middle aged man decided he wanted to be the "life of the party" and jumped in the pool fully clothed right in the middle of an intense dance contest! Attention seeking behavior if you ask me. I got played by a Philipino woman who was enjoyable to talk to and even brought us all over pizza. The next thing I know she is making up that some of her other friends were there and she had to go, but before she left she introduced me to a very nice gentleman that I could not be rude and ignore. Great! No help from Jenn and Mindy as they snicker  at the situation. Needless to say it was a good people watching scene. 

While sitting there is all Jenn wanted was a T-Shirt because she is running short on them. So we tried and tried to win her one by spinning the wheel and manipulating it, and trying to snag everyones tickets on the way out ..but nothing was working! Later, we found the owner and simply ask if we can have some damn shirts and she said "Sure! I will drop that by the pool tomorrow!" She knows us sooo well! Perfect!

The rest of the evening was filled with more drinks and laughs until we decided to call it a night because we had to wake up extra early for a farewell breakfast with Hayley and Elizabeth.

                                                                                                          

They let me make cotton candy!!

                           

The wake up call was extra early due to the fact that I can't see and especially can't see in the dark so I accidentally ran into Jenn's bed at 5 am and we never really could fall back to sleep after than because we were hungry..imagine that!

So we got up made a goodie bag for the girls and headed to the Black Bear Diner.  I can only describe what we ate by a picture...

STEAK AND TATERS!!

It was delicious and since it was National Coffee Day we had to get us a souvenir! "Complimentary" coffee cups! This Free week has been really amazing!

 

Before long it was time for the final goodbyes, but not before we a picture with the bears that we all having been trying so desperately to see!

Notice Elizabeth in the window?!?! HA

We will leave you with one final poem that we were inspired to write for the girls before they left!

I feel like we just met

O! But please don't fret!

We will meet again I bet

A quick date must be set!

And we will even bring our pet.

Until next time!

Camping with the Boy Scouts...

After 6 hours of the most draining computer training course, Jenn and I decided that we would indeed take Hayley and her roommate Elizabeth up on the offer to a trip to Carmel/Monteray.

Some background here:

!. Hayley and Elizabeth stay in hotels and Jenn and I camp or stay in hostels
2. Hayley and Elizabeth plan out their activities while Jenn and I completely wing everything.
3. We all like a good case of beer.

Soo, with that being said we packed up our camping gear including 2 person tent, pizza pie iron with ingredients for smores, and of course Airy.

Before we headed for the open road we had to go to the 99cent store to re-inflate Airy due to the fact that she may have made friends in the new neighborhood and is "loose" to the point where she rapidly needs to be re-blown up... Needless to say, Airy is grounded for the time being.

A quick 2 hour drive landed us on the beautiful shores of Santa Cruz just in time for a quick stop at the beach to watch the sunset.

Now it was time to meet up with the girlies and try and find a campsite in the dark. :( We had to meet the girls at a Ross because they had forgotten blankets and after stories of our last trip in the freezing cold parks of Yosemite they wanted to take no chances.

The first campground pulled up on the GPS was non-existant, the second was a KOA (which is basically like humans being hearded into their designated area and NOT a great camping experience), and the third was just what we wanted. It was a secluded area on the beach with plenty of space. The only problem was they were booked up for the night. Jenn did some detective work and found that they were all full with a total of 90 sites, this was crucial to our master plan. We pulled up to the front and told the ranger we were meeting friends and where not positive whose name or what site they had, We rambled off a couple made up first and last names and they searched their list. When none were found she fell into our plan and offered a 15 minute pass to find "our friends" and bring back their site and last name. The challenge was on: We had 15 minutes to drive to the back of the park, make friends, get a last name, and shack up on their site.....Adrenaline was pumping and we were on for the challenge.


We raced to the back, pulled in, did a quick circle to scope it out. We found 3 guys in the very back with a large site and a blazing fire. This seemed like a no brainer, We put our best faces on and asked to share a site...We were immediately turned down and completly dumbfounded. Who could turn us down!!!!

We had little time to fret over the fact that we had been completely rejected and chalked it up to the fact that clearly there was something wrong with these people. Anyways, the next event is pure gold. We can attribute this to my grampa, Big Boy. He always said that a group site is the palce to be with ample amounts of room and usually friendly groups of people. The group site is exactly what we found at sunset beach campground. We pulled up and  had to walk out to talk to those in charge.

We were looking around and asking for the person in charge, no one stepped up except for one man who later went by Prince, as this was not only his last name but the name we needed to tell the ranger in the front. Prince said there was plenty of room, gave us a quick tour, told us the coals were still hot, the fire was blazing and we could drink our beer if we were discrete due to the fact that this was a father/son boyscout camp weekend. 

So we raced to the front told the ranger that "our friends" just happened to be the boyscout troop 42. She looked at her watch, only to notice we had 2 minutes to spare, and gave us our car passes with a quick roll of the eyes. We were in!

We went back, set up camp, made pizza pies and smores, drank beer out of cups we found in the cars and of course shared with the boys and their fathers. The boys (and their dads) really seemed to enjoy the company. They said the head leader wouldn't be here until tomorrow so it was really no problem. The boys told us stories of earning certain badges and merits. They also taught Jenn and I a chant:

L-I-O-N-S

D-E-N we sing 

Lions Den! Lions Den! 

42 is KING!!

With a couple beers in us we decided to teach the boys some of our songs: Down by the bay was the first that came to mind. They thought we were nuts!

The boys had to retreat to bed eventually, some of the dads stayed up for a bit and then all four of us girls and Airy piled into our 2 person tent. Hayley wanted to sleep in the car, but with me pulling her arms and Jenn lifting her legs and pushing her she had no choice but to join the party and sleep in the tent. 

It was more comfortable and warm than you would think..in the AM we heard rustling and snickering, The boys were up. They came up to our tent, knocked on it and said the best words we could have heard that mroning: "Girls. It's time to wake up. We made you breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and fresh fruit." Let me tell you it was a delicious start to the day!  

Knowing that the chief was coming soon we had to break down camp, bid our farewells and head on out. 

Afterwards, we took the famous 17-mile drive through Pebble Beach and Carmel and saw awesome houses and beautiful views. Then, it was home just in time to make it to work!!! 

 More fun to come! I am sure of that!

Time for Pillow Talk!

Beans! Beans! good for your heart! The more you eat the more you FART! The more fart the better you FEEL so eat your BEANS with every meal!!!

 Now that we got your attention we can explain why we are the way we are....

Night shift seems to be in full swing here in good 'ole Modesto, Ca and it is clearly starting to get the best of us. Our good friend Mike on night shift at The James Cancer Hospital started an outrageous addiction to chocolate covered expresso beans and we now realize that those are what got us through those long shifts...soooo Mike, being the AWESOME dealer he is has shipped a bag to us...but we haven't gotten them so we wake up everyday wishing and hoping that today will be the day when those magical beans will appear on our doorstep.

Anyways, since we have not updated everyone on our current job here it goes!...

Modesto, Ca ...

 Hmmm... what can I say...Well our apartment is nice, we have a a pool, washer, dryer, a stove, and a refrigerator. We also decided that it would be a swell idea to save a lil extra cash this time around and bunk up. TWIN BEDS!!! Now most normal people would think this is a damn foolish idea but this has honestly been the funnest part about Modesto. We have created Pillow Talk in which we can discuss various aspects about life and death, goals, dreams, and just pure stupidity. Needless to say we have spent many nights just entertaining ourselves. (Don't worry we will be sure to keep you updated on pillow talk convos).

Now this room is not just made for sleeping. We have created an area where we can do sooo many countless activities. We have transformed this room into a dining room, TV/theater room, workout area, an office (because our "borrowed" internet only works here), and also a reading room. This room is fully loaded to say the least. Soo when we are not spending time in our room of many faces, we are most likely at work.

Work consists of the standard 3 day 12 hour shift schedule; however, we got a slap in the face with endless amounts of computer modules and classes for the new system this hospital is getting. Basically, this puts us at about 42 hours a week...I know it is really wearing on us. The people we work with are Awesome! A fellow traveler took us under her wing and really led the way for us as she introduced to the staff. Hayley is one of a kind..a true southern bell. She has a one of a kind pocket book and trust me there aint no spare change in there! We love ya Hayley! The next person we met was Melissa. Melissa opened our eyes to numerous things here in Modesto. For example, shelac. This is no ordinary nailpolish. This is polish that is thick and stays on for weeks...perfect! But the most important development from Melissa has been the recent knowledge of her having twin brothers who happen to be 24 years old and not identical. We have decided that they may be our soul mates and we will probably be attending Thanksgiving dinner at their house! No one but us knows that sooooo it will be a GREAT surprise. By no means is any of the other staff unworthy of being mentioned, but we don't want to bore you with the gory details.

So far, adventures outside of Modesto have included a trip to Yosemite in which we froze our asses off and did NOT see a bear in the process. :( Airy went with us and  LOVED to camp..a little scared in the tent at night but overall she was a real trooper! ...Since we basically suffered and had no cash to pay for a site we learned a valuable lesson..."sometimes traveling without money is not always a bad thing"

We also took the big jump and went skydiving. It was a THRILL! You basically just have to do it to understand what it feels like because words cannot describe. That was a big check off the bucket list and we are now in search of something new to obsess over..Ideas are welcome.

Welp, I think that is all to update you on for now...we will keep you posted as much as possible...we try not to ever have to many dull moments!