movies, dinners, street preforming can only mean one thing

the fam came to town! we had such a great week. we even got to see don and joanie at the same time. we laughed our heads off, ate ourselves to death, and spent money we don't have. we went to the jimmy kimmel show and saw heidi klum and the rock. they were both even more beautiful in person. we were able to get a pretty good view from the front row! (that is what you get for having a beautiful sister, the p.a. was crushing on her-thanks cown.)

we had so much fun. i am ready for them to come back.

a very happy thanksgiving!

we had so much to be thankful for this year! we had our very first feast in l.a. and our families came up! my mom showed me some of her magic cooking and was such a sport in my tiny 1930's kitchen.

colt and his cute corry ladies

cinthie worked it out on guitar hero!

some of mamma's delights!

we tried to learn some of her ways in the kitchen.

my old man doing a fine job with the carving

i did catch eye of a turkey giblet or goiter or bone. i don't know what it was, but it was foul! (and i don't mean in the bird sense.) i don't eat meat anyway and when i saw that, it was done.

other than that, everything was so appetizing! we had so much fun eating on our assortment of chairs in our little living room. we were so grateful that our friends mary and jake spent the holiday with us!

in fact, we ate so much we were sick! the girls decided to do an exercise video after. we were too full to move gracefully, or really at all. but, we laughed so hard we had to have burned some calories!

breaders cup

we were so excited to go to the breaders cup, but more excited to have don and joanie in town. they spoiled us rotten! colton had been planning to research the horses in anticipation for the big event, but luckily for us don and joanie are experts themselves. it was a beautiful day. santa anita was in her prime. we even got to sit at our own table with an umbrella. the horses were stunning. even more stunning were colton's winnings. he had decided the night before to put some money on 'desert code' whose jockey was dressed in a green shirt with a big toad on it. it was the long shot and we all thought he was crazy, but the joke was on us when the $2 bet on the 32 to 1 odds came in first place. we had so much fun, come back soon.

i wish my parents lived in california

my folks came down for a visit last week. i have been crying since they left........i am not kidding. we had so much fun. the night they came into town we went to the julieta venegas concert at the nokia theater. it was a cultural event. we first ate at taco nazo, we were the only people not from mexico. that theme continued into the concert, julieta is a mexican musician. she doesn't sing in english and my mom and i don't speak spanish. we just make up words to her songs, and this didn't stop us from singing at the top of our lungs.
the fun did not stop there. lucky for us it was dollar day at the santa anita race way. lance could not have been happier. everyone got a hot dog, drink, and ticket for a dollar. we were also able to see a statue of our relative georgie wolf. he was a jockey that road sea biscuit. my mom put a dollar on atticus jack, the horse with the curly hair, and he won!
our luck stopped there since we had to leave for the bonnie hunt show in culver city. my mom has always been a big bonnie hunt fan. it was really fun to see her show and meet her. she was a hoot in person.
what bingham visit would be complete without a stop at disneyland? there were halloween decorations everywhere. it looked spooktacular! here is a photo of why i need my mom here, they remember everthing, even plastic bags for splash mountain!

off to the races!

i felt just like julia roberts in pretty women as we stepped out to the santa anita race track! when, i was little my mom taped pretty women off of the t.v., she would let me watch the race track part and the shopping on rodeo drive. i loved it! (i promise that those were the only parts i saw.) so, this last week colt's dad, joanie, and grammy came out. we had a lot of fun. we went to the beautiful hunnington gardens, disneyland, and the races! the santa anita track is so beautiful. i felt like i was stepping back into the 1920's. the landscaping was immaculate, ladies in dresses and big hats, and the horses were breathtaking! we went down to pick out our choice to win. i fell in love with annie oakleaf. a beautiful, cherry black , underdog. we made eye contact and had a real moment, i knew she was going to win. she came in fourth. i guess i am not the horse whisperer, but i would still put my money on old annie!


here are the experts deciding on their bets



here we are at disneyland on the buzz light year ride. colt, had quite the high score. he was honored with galactic gladiator


while the folks were here, i had some much needed lessons in cooking! grammy is quite the gourmet along with joanie. i should say "don and joanie," they made a wonderful italian pasta called timbolo. we are still eating the left overs and loving it! grammy knows i have a fondness for the lemon and brought me a great magazine full of lemon delights! i made this cheesecake for you joyce, the love of the lemon part 2!

painting easter eggs and swatches

easter away from home......not easy. thank goodness for the carters! they are our family here in the great state of california. i don't know how i would have been able to make the move without knowing they were down the 605. so we had a great weekend together, in fact it couldn't have been better! the sun shone and we enjoyed the 80 degree weather. we went into pasadena and spent a little money at the largest forever 21 in the world. (just imagine the chaos) we had our favorite frozen treat...."frogo," we call it. i am pretty sure we made it up though. it's hard with the language barrier's around these parts to really know what anything is called. we had a nummy BBQ on the veranda. the food was delicious! ladies, i am telling you the way to get a man to cook is a $19.99 grill from walmart. and what is easter without a little friendly easter egg dying competition?

the painting continues with colton.......it probably always will. for one of his classes he has to paint all of these swatches in different hues. how hard could that be? apparently hard. i tried to help but wasn't even capable of that. it has taken him hours. mixing just the right amount of blue, red, orange.....today he dressed according to the next shade on the swatch train.

here comes the sun!

my sweet family came down this last week. (yes i have lived here 3 months and they have come 4 times and i have gone home once, big deal!) we had so much fun! i was leaving utah a few weeks ago and saying goodbye with tears in my eyes when calli said i have spring break in 8 days! and so next thing i knew my beautiful family was here! it was great because it was such a toasty weekend. my dad came a couple weeks ago just to get out of the "damn cold" but, he just came down to have record breaking rains. so i was thrilled to have the sun out this time. chase was able to get a buddy pass and fly down from seatle, such a treat! we hadn't seen him in a while and we had so much fun. he looked so cute and seemed to be doing really well. we were only missing hannah (she is the most studious out of us all and won't miss school under any conditions.) we did what we always do, EAT and go to many, many, movies! we were also able to go to the beach and have a fun dinner right down in the sand in malibu. it was really good to be with the girls and have the boys back together!

a birthday visit

colton's cute mom and sister came out for cinthie's birthday a week ago. it was her wish to spend her day at the magic kingdom, no complaints from me. it is the happiest place on earth and i have had the privilege of going three times within my six weeks here, the yearly pass is now paid for. but we had a great time and we ate dinner at the restaurant in the pirates of the carribean ride. i have wanted to do that since the age of five. it was a total thrill! we also went into l.a. to the marc jacobs store, he is casey's very favorite. we had a lovely time!

visitors

we love guests. (feel free to drop in any time) tara has yet to be too lonely. that could be because her family has been here twice in two weeks and our good friends mary and jake have also stopped by for a weekend. we have had a great time. we are all moved in (as stated in previous entry) we have wined and dined in old town pasadena and even made it to disneyland. I love dland!!!! (this is tara now, colt is teaching me about the blogging world. he says i have to have projects and things to do now, he is very busy and is trying to get me to leave his hot self alone) colt gave me a season pass to the magical kingdom for my birthday and i was so happy, i weeped. i then encouraged my dad to go all out for his twenty fifth wedding anniversary (boonanna) and next thing i knew heidi was my partner to holler on space mountain! if i can't have my weekly matinée with my sweet mom this will have to do. i love her so! we laughed all weekend. she came with calli, hannah, my aunt robin (who threw her disney pass in the garbage can and had to dig it out while being heckled) and my sweet grandma, paki!! paki never goes anywhere, i was thrilled to have her come out! at disneyland we made her get a wheelchair so we could benefit and get to the front of the lines. that made it so much nicer. we may have abused that privilege a bit? it was wonderful because she grew up just down the street in el serino. on sunday we had a tour of her old stomping grounds. we went to her school and adorable house on templeton street. we also drove past the pasadena civic center where she would boogie down with grandpa george. we then had a lovely dinner at the cheesecake factory. i (colton) almost left the restaurant with my napkin around my neck like a bandanna until i was stopped by laughter from the table of ladies. i go by the name of bandito now. paki and robin were staying down the road at the santa anita inn and the rest of the girls bunked here on air matresses. colt was a very lucky man! cousin mel and her four adorable children trecked north from temecula ((the city where tori and dean inn love reality show on the e channel was filmed) we happened to watch both seasons in one day coincidentally)) we had a fun time with baby audrey susan and ry ry, emma and matthew. we had a first taste of the souplantation with them, then came back home for a little contemporary interpretive dance session.it was great to see them. they are going to have to be our replacements for ryan and wendy and the kidlets. (we miss you guys)