The Amazing Race: Birthday Edition

We had such an AMAZING (get it?) weekend celebrating Qee's birthday Amazing Race style! We were sooo thrilled with how all the clues turned out, how perfectly everything timed up, and, of course, how much Q enjoyed everything!! 

It took us 5 HOURS to get out to mum and Q's with traffic, torture! But we made it out around 5:00 and all frustration was forgotten when the race began and Q opened his first clue! 

Quick explanation of the clues in case anyone hasn't seen the show:

Route Info: directions to the next location or activity

Detour: a choice between two different challenges or activities

Road Block: a single challenge that only one team member completes 

Speed Bump: and additional task assigned as a penalty. These are pretty rare in the show so we only included one in our Amazing Race.

On Friday we organized 3 different challenges:

We gave Q the first clue and then he had to go find the second one hidden in his office!

Clue number 2 was a Detour choosing between Sonic and Chuck E Cheese for dinner with unique challenges for each one! Q picked Sonic and we headed over for some all-American fast food, drive in fun! 

We had a ball! We've been talking about going to sonic for years and it toootally lived up to our expectations! Delicious shakes, great onion rings, yummy chicken - and Q completed his challenge, eating his foot-long chili dog in only 7 bites!! 

The last clue, for the Pitstop, told Q to find the "Girl on Fire" AKA Katniss from The Hunger Games! We headed to the movie theatres in Dos Lagos to watch Mockingjay which we've all been SO excited to see, and it was awesome! 

Really dark and gritty, but stayed so true to the book and was really well done, we were all thoroughly impressed! We headed home for a good night's sleep in prep for the huge Saturday we'd planned!

Q got his first clue of the day at 8:30, and it was a Road Block! 

He had to successfully ID 4 out of 6 donut flavours in the box of Dunkin Donuts we picked up the day before. He did SO WELL! We were really impressed! 

5 outta 6 and he earned his next clue... Leading us to Disneyland!!! Yeeee! We went to the statue of Walt and gave him the next clue.

For this detour we split up - Mum and Q went and got a treat from the candy shop and the two of us raced over to Space Mountain (via Indiana Jones which was shut, lame) to get Fastpasses for later. We met back at the castle drawbridge for another clue..!

The next Road Block task was to find 10 hidden mickeys scattered around the park. We went straight into Fantasyland and started looking! 2 on a mailbox, 2 on the carousel, 1 on the Mad Hatter sign, 1 on the whale from Pinocchio, 1 somewhere else, and 3 on the Matterhorn! Success! 

Next up was another Detour: Small World or Star Tours. Q picked - no surprise - Star Tours! AND in a legendary move, he picked the planet we went to on the ride first guess! Amazing!! On to the next clue..!

Lunch time, yum! We went to New Orleans Square for French Dip, Fried Shrimp, and a Cajun Chicken Caesar salad, delish! Challenge completed.

The next clue took us to the shooting arcade where Q proved that he most definitely could've made it as a cowboy in the Wild West! 

He hit 20 targets no problem and then we were on to the biggest undertaking of them all: one attraction in each area of the park! It was a super busy day so it took us all afternoon to complete but, after Indiana Jones in Adventureland, Winnie the Pooh in Critter Country, Space Mountain in Tomorrowland, the Mickey and the Magical Map show in Fantasyland, then we caught the train around to New Orleans Square for the Haunted Mansion, and last to Frontierland for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! 

In there we also had a second go on Indiana Jones cos it's our fave, checked out the adorable decorations in Toon Town, grabbed jumpers/jackets/scarves to keep warm, saw all the lights turn on in the most spectacular fashion at It's a Small World, and ate the most glorious pumpkin flavoured beignets you can possibly imagine! 

The last clue took us to the Pitstop on Main Street to watch the spectacular holiday fireworks display. 

So magical! We couldn't have imagine a more perfect end to such a wonderful day!

Sunday was Qee's actual birthday and we really brought our A-game! Mum cooked up an absolute storm in the morning making the chocolate tart for dessert later on and a scrumptious batch of scones for the first challenge!

Q was onto challenge #2 in no time.. Locating his presents! 4 riddles leading to 4 presents, the stakes were high! With a couple minor hints, he made it to his gifts: a travel organizer set from Brendan and Sharon, Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirts, the box set of Arrow (it's SO GOOD), and an awesome set of noise canceling headphones from us and mum! 

The next task was a Speed Bump for the two of us to walk and brush the doggies, lucky puppies! We did that, had a lovely sit in the spa, then the race was back on! 

Next challenge: a 32 second lap on the Go Karting track! We headed down to K1 Speed and hit the track!

Q killed it and Han raced as well aaand didn't come last! Haha mum and Luce had a great time cheering from the sidelines and it was good fun to get some adrenaline pumping in the Go Karts! Woo! 

We headed home for a couple slower paced challenges: a super fun game of Monopoly and a cocktail!

We spent the evening with the neighbors, Aaron and Elizabeth and their daughters Mary and Lauren. Q was surprisingly surprised when he got his clue that we'd be eating out!

Because mum had made the chocolate tart that morning, he was convinced we'd be having dinner in - and to further throw him off the scent mum had put some bacon out on the counter, nice. We went down to Wood Ranch for some seeeriously yummy steaks, ribs, and salmon for dinner. It was a really cute place and such great company to finish the weekend in!

The very last clue of the weekend led Qee home for his chocolate tart! Mum made Eton Mess as well and we squeezed those last delicious bites into our already full tummys.

We finished our game of monopoly, a battle to the death between Q and Han. After an intense 45 minutes, Qee won!! Which was probably fitting given it was his birthday buuuut Han never likes to lose haha. It was such a lovely weekend, it really couldn't have gone better! We were so glad Q had a great time and we really couldn't have managed any of it without all mum's help and organization. Such a team effort to make heaps of wonderful memories! HAPPY BIRTHDAY QEE!!!

Change is in the Winds...

Another HUGE couple weeks! With lots of changes taking place and being planned...

Han finished her Monday, the 13th, on Glee and it was a HILARIOUS day on set, wish she could say more! 

Tuesday the 14th Luce had a later call time to work on Parenthood, so we went to Aroma for coffee with Sully in the morning and hung at her place afterwards until Luce had to head out. Sully and Han went to the mall, going on a Clinique makeup spree and window shopping/lusting after aaaall the beautiful dresses Han's heart could desire. Han hung out at Sully's for the rest of the evening until Luce got back from her day on set! They were filming on Wisteria Lane (as in Desperate Housewives!!) and Luce stood right next to Ray Romano!

On Wednesday Han was on a show that she's not allowed to say anything about buuuut it was one of her favourite days EVER on set! It was a period show, 1940's, and after 3 hours of wardrobe, hair, and makeup, Han felt like a million bucks! 

It was a 16+ hour day on set and Han truly enjoyed every minute, can't wait to share more when the show airs!!!

Luce and Sully spent the afternoon hanging out, waiting for Han to get back from set. The three of us had planned to go to Vaucluse that night but Han was so wrecked when she got home that we bailed, another time!

On Thursday we headed out to Mum and Q's again to spend time with mum on her birthday the next day and see all the friends and fam flying in for the party on Saturday night! We stopped at Disneyland to get Mum's pressie - a caricature drawing of Mum, Q, Chewy, Fudge, and the two of us as disney characters. It turned out perfectly, we were sooo happy with it! Then we were out to Corona to spend the evening with Brendan, Sharon, Dane, Wayne, Mum, and Q (and Niell and Wendy later on). It was SO lovely to see everyone and, even though we weren't invited to stay for the festivities over the next couple days, we were so glad we made the effort to come out! That Thursday night also marked the start of some of the changes in the winds, we've been looking at our futures and trying to decide whether they're here in LA pursuing acting or elsewhere following other passions and dreams. We don't want to announce anything until we're 100% sure of our plans, but we had an enlightening, challenging, somewhat overwhelming, but much needed "tough love" talk with Brendan that's really lit a fire under us to take our lives by the horns and live up to our potential. Thanks Brendie!! 

The next morning we gave Mum her present, which she loved, YAY! Then helped with brekkie before our stay was up and we left around 10:30. We had a chill day, totally zonked from a big week and future plan overload, then Sully, Luke, and Greg came over that night to hang out!

On Saturday, Han worked out and babysat for her lovely (favourite, shhh) family, the Steinbergs, who were having a BBQ with 20+ kiddos there! Woah!! It was super fun and afterwards all the stragglers walked a few blocks over to this amazingly decorated Halloween house called "Bony Island". They had an incredible treehouse and their house and yard were completely decked out!

It was a lovely way to finish the party and after that Han was on to the next thing - the two of us finally made it to Vaucluse! After a crazy effort to find a parking space and confusion about whether or not we'd even be allowed in, we got there! 

We had a lovely evening, a cute guy even bought Luce a drink, but after a while the vibe got a little dead sooo we went to Roscoe's for waffles and sweet potato pie for dessert! Perfection. 

On Sunday we had a huge and suuuuper fun day at Six Flags with Sully, Luke, and Greg! 

The park was really quiet so We. Went. On. EVERYTHING! It was crazyyy! We also did it all in the most inefficient way so we walked for miles! We had a ball though - a couple of the roller coasters were INSANE! This one, X-2, was the most mind-boggling experience of our lives! 

There was also another one that was a standing roller coaster and Han had the great idea to tiptoe when it locked in to let her feet dangle. Luce and Sully followed along and we were all feeling very clever until they locked into place aaaand we realized that all we were supported by were our lady parts on the bicycle seats, gaahh! It was a long ride. After two minutes of pounding G-forces and rare moments of relief on loops, we came off seriously worried for our reproductive capabilities. Great idea Han..! The last ride of the night was our fave. It had just gotten dark and this particular ride had an amazing view. There was one moment, where we were suspended upside down looking out over the millions of lights of Los Angeles, in which it felt like time really stopped for half a second. So breathtaking! By 7:15, our feet were sore, our adrenaline was spent, and our bodies were more than sufficiently coaster-addled: mission completed. We decided to head out, also because their Halloween event started at 7:00, we wanted to get outta there before things got too terrifying! We missed our chance. The walk to the exit was one of the most harrowing experiences of our lives..! Monsters everywhere, preying on the weak (us), and completely unrelenting - we were honestly, no joke, petrified. Aaaand we're planning on going the the Halloween event at Universal next week..! Ahhh! It was an awesome day though at Six Flags, we really had such a ball!

Monday was another special day because... Sully moved in to our apartment!!! YAAYY! She's staying with us for most of November before moving back to Michigan then on to New York! So exciting! We cleaned the place from top to bottom in the morning, Sully came over with boxes and suitcases in hand around 12:00, and we went out for a celebratory Dim Sum lunch at 12:30! So fun! That evening we went to a screenwriting/acting workshop that Tim, Dad's old colleague, invited us to. It was really good and we got to hear Tim's screenplay read and he's actually very talented! Which was a relief haha certainly the best writer there and a very funny premise to his story! We went to Milk just around the corner for dessert and headed home for our first night as roomies! 

On Tuesday Luce and Sully hung out and baked pumpkin spiced muffins and got keys cut for Sully - woohoo! Tuesday, as well as Wednesday and Thursday, Han worked on A to Z, and on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Luce worked on a Prom scene on Cougar Town with Courtney Cox. They were all long, fun, uneventful days on set, except Wednesday for Han was super short so she and Sully went to Nordstrom to pick up a dress Sullivan had altered, grabbed coffee at an Aussie cafe called Coffee + Food, and went grocery shopping to make spinach, feta, and bacon stuffed chicken which was toootally delish! 

On Friday Han had a really short day on New Girl and spent the afternoon hangin out an napping like a champ.

Saturday was a monumental effort!! Wow! Han woke up early and worked out, then went to Ralph's for the ingredients we needed to bake up a storm! Meanwhile, Luce prepped the kitchen and mentally prepared herself. We were making dessert for Mum's second birthday party with her childhood friend Robin who also just turned 50. On the menu: chocolate cake with a hint of coffee flavour and creme brûlée cupcakes complete with caramelized sugar topping! We were also helping out at Hudson's (another boy Han babysits) birthday party that afternoon so Luce baked a batch of double chocolate chip cookies to take with. Luce baked for 4 HOURS STRAIGHT! Whatta champ! She made the cakes, they went in the oven, while they were baking she made the cupcakes, the cupcakes went into the oven and the cakes came out, while the cakes cooked she made the cookie dough, the first batch of cupcakes came out and the second went in along with the first batch of cookies, while they cooked Han quick cleaned everything in preparation for the second wave of attack, everything came out of the oven and the second batch of cookies went in, Luce, with Han's help, made the pastry cream topping for the cupcakes (which tasted AMAZING!! Ohmygoshh) and then the last batch of cookies came outta the oven, finally, Luce made the icing for the cake and it was 1:18 and time to fly out the door to Hudson's party! Crazy!! Luce was suuuch a baking legend!

The party was really fun! We watched the kiddos, Luce face-painted, Han was designated swing pusher and shirley temple maker, and we got to eat a couple of the most delicious sandwiches ever!

Job done, we headed out at 5:30, cash money in haaaand! Nice! We went straight home, had the quickest turnaround we could, grabbed the baked goods, and headed out to Mum and Q's (yet again, déjà vu!) for party #2. 

The traffic gods did not act in our favour and we got there pretty late to the party which was suuuch a bummer! Grandma's dinner was absolutely delish though and the cake and cupcakes were a total hit! We all had a lovely time celebrating 50 special years!

It was a super short visit because we all headed into LA Sunday to go to Mosaic together! Also, perhaps even more momentous, was Grandma's first boba tea! Haha it was a lovely sermon, Erwin was speaking, and we were so glad we got to share our church with G'ma and G'pa.

The last two days have been pretty cruisey; Han's been on A to Z and today Luce is on Castle. We're thinking these might be some of the last days of extra work that we do though, so we can focus more on enjoying the city, spending time with Sully before she leaves, and getting our futures on track! It's been a great couple weeks and things are only gonna get better!

Star Wars & Star Treatment

What a wonderful week and a half! We've done heaps of fun stuff, worked a bit, relaxed a lot, and (as always) had soo much yummy food!

We successfully surprised G'ma and G'pa at the airport and had a lovely rest of our Wednesday.

Then, last Thursday we worked on Faking It again, but this time we were out in Glendora - almost an hour away!! What?! Suuuch a drag, especially because we had to be there at 5:30am..!!! Craziness. We made it, though, and ended up having a loooong day outside in the boiling sun! Not so fun.. The plus side was that the direction we'd driven was past the San Gabriel Valley where all the best chinese food is so once we were wrapped, around 6:00pm, we treated ourselves to Dim Sum/Yum Cha for dinner! We were all pumped up and we showed up at the place we went to last time aaaaand they weren't serving Dim Sum that late! Noooo! Feeling very discouraged about our options, the only thing Han could think to do was facebook message a girl, Ning Ning, Han had worked with who lives in the area to see if she had any suggestions. It was a long shot buuut almost immediately Ning Ning replied! And, even better, she had a suggestion for us! She even called up to make sure they were still serving Dim Sum, so sweet! It was only 8 minutes away so off we went to have the most delicious Dim Sum feast we've EVER had! Yes, we said it. Fried noodles, BBQ pork buns, shrimp wantons, and our favourite: egg yolk buns for dessert! SO PERFECT! 

We honestly couldn't have been happier - especially when we got the bill and all that was only $25! Amazing.

On Friday Han worked Bella and the Bulldogs and Luce had the day off. Han didn't start till 2pm and it was a quick day, so when she got home we headed straight out to mum and Q's for the weekend!

On Saturday we went to the Miramar Air Show in celebration of Grandpa's birthday! Uncle Fred (G'pa's brother) and Aunt Lorene (Uncle Fred's wife) and G'ma and G'pa's friends, Ron and Carol, all came out to Cali to visit and celebrate too, so it was a big ol' crowd that made it down to the Air Show in San Diego. It. Was. HOT. And not just because of all the gorgeous Marines walking around! We had a look at all sorts of planes, which was actually really cool, then went into the grandstands to watch the demonstrations. 

(Pics to come)

First was a kind of show (off) and tell of all the different helicopters and planes and things the Marines have, which was pretty intense, then the Patriots Jet team did some absolutely INCREDIBLE aerobatic tricks, totally amazing! Last off we saw the F-35B Lightning Demo which was pretty much a SUUPAHH FAST (and loud) plane flying past a couple times and hovering, very cool. After that we'd all had more than enough of the heat, so we called it a day. On the way out we managed to meet up with Greg and Luke for a few minutes which was really nice! It was fun to see 'em in their natural habitat haha. The only bummer of the day was that Carol had some trouble with the heat and ended up having to go to the medical tent! It all worked okay though, and it wasn't anything Q's BBQ ribs couldn't fix! We finished the day with a huge birthday dinner for Grandpa: ribs, cornbread, hash brown casserole, and green beans, and a yummy cake for dessert! Delish!

We'd barely digested that by the next morning when we went to the Mission Inn for one of the most glorious breakfast buffets ever created in an absolutely enchanting old Inn/Restaurant.

We ate more than our share of pastries, eggs benedict, bacon, pancakes, seafood, cheese, fruit, and an out-of-this-world bread pudding! YUM! After brekkie we went on a tour of the Inn which was actually quite fascinating - it's such a beautiful building and the grounds are gorgeous too, we're actually both quite taken with it as a potential wedding destination..! Now all we need are a coupla grooms...

After looking around the Inn, the two of us said our goodbyes and headed back into LA to spend the afternoon with one of our best friends from high school, Mike, who was in town for the weekend! We met up in Santa Monica and had lunch on the pier with Mike and his dad and brother. It was SO lovely catching up, we totally clicked right back into place and had sooo much to talk about! Mike's such a sweetheart, we're so glad we had a chance to see him! We walked along the beach for a while, chatting and people-watching, and then it was time to say goodbye :(

(Pics to come)

"What is dead may never die" (the adopted Capulet motto that we used together in Romeo and Juliet, the "C"s are for Capulet).

After seeing Mike off we went back to the 3rd Street Promenade area to do some shopping for a few extra touches we wanted for our Halloween costumes the following Wednesday! American Apparel and Forever 21 pulled through for us and we were SO excited to wear our outfits!

On Monday Han worked on Shameless, Luce did some stuff at home, and then we hung out with Sully that night! Not much else to report, a pretty average day in the life.. The only uhh shall we say "above" average thing was our weight..! We both weighed ourselves after out rather gluttonous weekend and we'd gained 3 pounds each - on top of what we've already gained in the last year! Yiiiikes!! Crunch time. Luce googled "how to lose weight when you have no will power" and the best result seemed to be a no carb diet. So, here goes..! 

On Tuesday Han was babysitting in the evening so she spent the morning cleaning and working out, then did a couple errands and headed over to Michele's to take care of Ellie and Jack - love those crazy kids! Luce worked on Bad Judge, the highlight being that she saw Angela from The Office! Cool! When we'd both gotten home, we headed back out to mum and Q's for a very relaxing mini-vacation. Yeeee!

Wednesday was the big day of Mickey's Halloween Party in Disneyland!! SO EXCITING! We've been going through major withdrawal since our passes expired, so we were thrilled to be going! We had a chill morning at home then got ready (we were SO happy with how our costumes turned out, there's now glitter everywhere in the house and it's kind of amazing) and left to head into the park around 2pm. The whole fam did Star Wars themed costumes and we looked GREAT!

R2D2, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Queen Amidala, Jedi Jeanne, Yoda, and C-3PO. So fun!! Going on Star Tours together was a particularly successful adventure!

We rode all our favourite rides, people-watched to our hearts' content, and trick-or-treated our way around the park; we got SO MANY LOLLIES (and some carrot sticks and apples, that was the "trick" part). 

After a fireworks spectacular, Q, G'ma, G'pa, and Aunt Jeanne headed home and the two of us and Mum went on one last ride: Ghost Galaxy..!

Luce was in the car behind and was completely terrified..! To end the night on a slightly less frightening note, we watched the adorable Halloween parade, so cute! Then the three of us headed home as well. What a magical day!

Thursday was rather magical too, in a completely different way. For Grandma's birthday present, we gave her a spa day at the Glen Ivy Hot Springs Spa in Corona, accompanied by all her favourite ladies! The two of us, mum, Jeanne, and Grandma were absolutely in heaven! The facilities were stunning, it's totally unlike anywhere we've ever been and soo relaxing! We started out in a couple different mineral hot spring baths which were totally luxurious then went to 'Club Mud' where we covered ourselves/each other with clay, let it dry in the sun, washed it off in a warm pool, and properly showered afterwards - so fun! 

After all that amazingness, we went over to The Grotto for a special additional treatment. Two people used big paintbrushes to cover our whole bodies with a smooth, warm mixture of aloe vera, shea butter, lavender oil, coconut oil, and eucalyptus oil then we went into a beautiful warm cave to let it soak into our skin. After about half an hour we showered and washed it all off then had apples and tea in another little cavern, such a unique, therapeutic experience! 

After all that pampering we'd worked up an appetite! We had salads and nachos and other yummy food for lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon floating in the pool, perfection!

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we really just hung out at home - except for going out to breakfast at Polly's on Sunday - and played cards (G'pa taught us double deck pinochle), watched TV and a movie (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in honour of our costumes), and had a few delicious dinners (The two of us made everyone burgers on Friday, we had Chinese takeout Saturday, then bacon wrapped prawns last night). Finally last night, after five days of pampering, fun, and wonderful company, we headed back to LA.

Today Luce is chilling at home and Han's on Glee again! AND Jane Lynch just said "Hi" to her..! So cool! The episode seems like it'll be really funny - especially if they use a particular clip of Han in which she was completely terrified of being attacked by something she's not at liberty to disclose haha stay tuned for the full story after the episode airs!