Toy Ride 2009

Last Sunday Scott and I participated in the Toy Ride 09 to benefit the Fallen Riders of So Cal and local shelters. It was a charity ride, we brought toys to donate and all of the proceeds from entry went to help these families. All of our club except for 2 people went. It started at Angel Stadium in Anaheim and ended at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. They provided lunch and there was a stunt show and raffle.


Starting point - Angel stadium in Anaheim


Geared up and ready to go


Heart-n-Soul riders


We're excited!!!


Stunt show


Stunt show


More stunt show - this time a burn out

Scott is our club's front road captain, he leads the group on all group rides and is in charge of knowing directions, etc. We had a police escort going from Anaheim to Long Beach, but they needed people to patrol the sides of the long line of bikes, so Scott got to do that. Though I had to ride with Vince, another guy in our club, so that Scott could focus on the group. It was a little weird because the riding position is different and Vince is a bit of a crazy driver, but we made it safely so that was good thing. Overall, it was really fun and we had a great time.

Just an update on the dogs

Here is a little bit on our doggies. We have 5 right now, though Scott and I only claim 3 as ours.


This is Wesley Weiners, he's a puggle (pug beagle mix). He belongs to my sister's roommate Xochie. Some of his favorite things include chewing things he shouldn't, barking, and sniffing Scott's face for an excessive amount of time.


This is Santa (he was a Christmas present in 06 thus he was named Santa), he is a corgi mix. Scott got him from the pound in Riverside. His favorite things to do include pushing the other dogs out of spots that he wants to sit in and sleeping on top of the shoes under the bed.


This is Sammy, he is a terrier of some sort. Kate gave him to us after she had found him following some girls who didn't want him. His favorite things to do include barking, playing loudly with Wesley, and whining at anyone for love.


This is Frederico, he is a Chihuahua, maybe some kind of mix. He is our first dog that we got. We fostered him from rescue in Corona and I fell in love and had to keep him. The rescue would not let us adopt him because our apartment would not allow dogs, so we had our friends Katie and Jesse adopt him and them hand him over to us in the parking lot :) His favorite things to do include sleeping on my pillow and taking up all of the room, acting the alpha male part, and being petted.


This is Harvey Dent (formerly known as Harry) and he is a terrier of some sort. We got him from Travis and Janele Johnson. We told them that we would watch him for a few weeks and then he never left. Its okay though. My mom and Russell like him so he will stay at the house when we move out. His favorite things include being petted for an insanely long amount of time, snuggling up to people and then exposing his belly for petting, and flipping a coin (just kidding, though he is named after a Batman character because one side of his face is brown and one side is white).

That is basically it. We still have Spunky in the backyard, but he is super old and we only see him at feeding time so...scroll down a bit if you want to see the photo of him.

Here is the last photo for this blog...one of my favorites of Frederico.

My first ride on the motorcycle

So Scott and I spent an hour on a Saturday teaching me to ride the motorcycle. It was intense!!! Scott has a 2003 Suzuki Bandit 1200. It weighs 450-500 pounds and is a bit too tall for me. I have only ever attempted to ride this once before about a year ago. I dropped the bike on myself and almost burnt my leg on the tail pipe so I have been too chicken to ride it since.
I just suddenly had the desire to try it again and had Scott take me the church parking lot so I could try. My biggest fear was dropping it again, and I thought the way that would probably happen would be if I stalled it so we spent the first couple of minutes with Scott right in front of the bike to catch it if I dropped it and then I would stall it and make sure I could support the weight.
Next, we worked on turning the bike on and getting the throttle to clutch ratio correct so that I wouldn't stall it. It took me a few trys, but I got the hang of it.
Next, I tried riding from the back of the parking lot to the front (see video). I did really well. The last time that I did it I put my feet on the pegs as well so I was really excited.
I took my permit test a couple of weeks ago though, and failed horribly (14 out of 25 wrong)!!! It was super hard. I had Scott look over it too and he agreed that it was a really technical test with things that you would have had to know and be able to recall directly from the handbook. So I am rereading and going to retake the test sometime this coming week.

LA County Fair

I've never been to the LA County Fair before and we went this year with my family. It was super fun!!! There was a petting zoo, Scooby Doo, rides, sales booths, old fire trucks, miniature towns, and mechanical bull riding. Check our photos for the fun that we had!!!


The mystery machine!!!


Sheep!!!!


Old fashioned fire engine and my fireman (to be) Scott!!!


Mini town with motorcycles!!!


Scott on the mechanical bull!!! He did a great job!!!

West Coast Bike Fest

At the end of August, Scott and I were on our way back to Vegas for the West Coast Bike Fest. It is a weekend of events at Primm (stateline), Nevada including pool parties, stunt shows, and a dance.

This is the 2nd time we've gone. Last year I rode the whole way on the back of the motorcycle with Scott, though this year, it just sounded too terrible, so I drove and our club threw all of their gear into the car with me.



It was a fun weekend, we didn't do the ride into Vegas this year (last year, Scott went with some of the guys in our club along with the rest of the people there on their bikes. It was an eventful trip with the whole group getting pulled over on the freeway for blocking the road, then individuals getting pulled over on the strip for various infractions. The best part was our little group of guys returning without Scott, then getting a phone call from someone who had just passed a Heart-n-Soul rider pulled over alone on the side of the freeway. I was worried sick!!!! When he finally got back to the hotel, it turns out that his registration on his bike had expired and he had been riding a month and a half like that. They gave him a fix it ticket so it was okay, though I was pretty upset none the less. Thus, he passed on the Vegas ride this year, though his registration was current).


It was a great weekend and we loved the chance to just relax and get away.

Vegas portion of Vacation

Well, I thought I would finally end the vacation series of my blog. We left Idaho and headed for Las Vegas, NV. We stayed at one of the new resorts outside of the strip, the South Point. It was okay, not the greatest though. My family loves going to hotels for the pool. Growing up, we didn't have a pool and that was always the deal breaker on vacation hotels, it had to have an amazing pool. We have an above ground dough boy now, but still look for great pools. This one looked great online, but once there, we discovered it overrun with kids, no matter the time of day. That was a bummer.

Saturday night (I think) we strolled down the strip to visit all of the big hotels.
Me, Rosie, and Mom in front of NYNY


Paris hotel on the strip


Bellagio water show


We walked all the way down the strip to see the Treasure Island pirate show...for those of you who have not been to Vegas recently, it is no longer the traditional pirate show...it is basically scantily clad women, horribly lip synching to a suggestive and badly performed song. We made it to the 11pm show, got all the way to the front, and then were trapped by the crowds that had gathered to watch. Literally, Russell was behind me giggling the whole time and the rest of us were just glancing uncomfortably around.

The next day we visited the huge bass pro shops in Vegas and strolled around there for about 2 hours.


There was a OCC chopper for Bass Pro Shops on display that Scott loved.

We also visited a ranch out near red rock, on the way back we saw some wild burros, that was kinda neat.


All in all, vacation was fun, though pretty long. I had a great time, though was glad to get back to regular life, plus I missed my dogs like crazy!