patty made it to slc

at john wayne airport getting ready to send off sister ricchio!

here's patty in the slc airport. tomorrow she enters the mtc!

can't wait to hear all about it!

a couple surprises & a little skatin'

we love our brown boots!

cute little mel had a birthday in october and so we all had to celebrate! we wanted the whole day to be a surprise.

first we took her out to lunch: panera

then we blindfolded her and drove her to an ice skating rink where one of the employees was going to hand mel her personal skates. sadly this didn't work very well because there was not an open skating session. our mistake. so we handed mel her own skates and drove to another rink.

this girl was in hea.ven. she couldn't stop smiling! mel also used to be a figure skater so i think it was a job well done. it felt so good to be back on the ice. the next day i was so sore! it's amazing how much of a workout skating really is.

the best bbq i've ever eaten

so i heard about this place in san diego from a couple friends of mine. since i absolutely love bbq, i wanted to go with patty and try it before she was shipped off to brazil.

we had an opportunity to go for dinner since we were already in san diego.

best decision ever.

can i tell you how good this place was??? i think it's been ranked for years as the best bbq in the city. it definitely lived up to the hype. check out what i ordered.

big broham. omg. AMAZING. smoked pulled pork shoulder doused in bbq sauce on a special bun. i was in hea.ven.

patty ordered these amazingly large beef ribs with sweet baked beans and colossal onion rings.

i think this was definitely worth every calorie and mile driven.

bom viagem irma ricchio

.naples ristorante & pizzeria at downtown disney nov 2010.

the time has come.

she is now a missionary for the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints and will be serving the people of sao paulo brazil. she'll even be speaking portuguese.

let's hope these next 18 months fly by really fast. really, really fast.

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”

(Mark 16:15)

visit here for more info on missionaries

beautiful fall morning

one of the cool things about living near the wineries is the plethora of hot air balloons that fly around our house. they take off really early in the morning and then fly over the multiple vineyards and end with a delicious breakfast at South Coast Winery. i have yet to take a trip in one of the balloons, but it's for sure on my bucket list!

quite a sight!

it was so worth it

just one of the advantages of driving with your sister to get her international travel shots.

cafe rio was so worth every calorie and mile driven.

john legend concert

well how do i begin . . . let's start with the fact that we were 8 rows from the stage and i was sitting on the end of the isle. i traded seats with my sister because i was in the middle. BEST decision i made that night. why?

oh because once the concert started, john legend came from the back of the theater and made his way to the stage. on the way down i just happened to stick my hand out and he grabbed it for about 5.2 seconds. ps... i know i was wearing high boots, but john legend is LITTLE!

so, back to the concert. AMAZING. the guy seriously didn't hit a flat note. everything was live. super good pianist.

me and david getting ready for the concert to start

of course i didn't take any pictures of the concert, however david shot a video so i may post that if it's good quality.

siblings

literally 5 minutes after this picture was taken, we were waiting outside for our car when i turn around and see this guy and his family. . . .

barry bonds

he was surprisingly not as tall or big as i had thought. his publicist was going about 90 mph trying to get people away from taking his picture because he was with his family. didn't grab a picture but saw him nonetheless.