Happy Happy Happy Day!

Friday night, as a big whole happy family, Mom, Dad, Amy, Peter, Orion, Melissa, Brianna, Chebo, Lisi, Amber, Ethan, and I went to Pinnacle Peak for dinner! Afterwards, we scurried next door to Golf N Stuff for mini golf and arcade games! There's me taking a swing at a ball and Lisi goofin off in her cookie monster shirt!!!
After a round of golf Chebo gathered everybody around and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!!!! Totally unconscious of everyone else watching I said yes and jumped in his arms!
Here's us the newly engaged couple! We're shooting for May 1, 2010! :) :) :)

Cute pics from random times!

We found a goat farm! All the goats ran away from us except this baby one! He ran right for us but the poor fellow had a broken leg!

Us goobers at karaoke

My poor kitty Cole "Baby Kitty". He will be missed! :'(

Me and my "DashBird" Buckbeak. Ain't he a beauty?!

A baby horse about 1 month oldA gaurd pony with awesome hair!

ok so maybe I shouldn't have done this while I was driving...lol. But no people, animals, or vehicles were hurt in the taking of this pic :)

Ghosts of Tombstone

Saturday night Lisi, Chebo and I went on some Ghost Tours in Tombstone. We heard about them and were finally able to go down there and check them out. We went on 2 different tours. The first cost more and was shorter but we got to ride around town in a trolley. We rode around to significant "haunted" locations and at one point, got out to take a closer look at Boot Hill.

Here's their website:

http://www.oldwesthistoricghosttours.com/

The second tour cost half the price and was twice the time as the other one. We walked around town to different significant places.

Here's that guy's website:

http://www.spiritsoftombstone.com/

Both tours offered a lot of stories and legends about Tombstone's bloody and brutal past. We all 3 agreed that the second tour was the best. This guy leads his own paranormal team in Tombstone and has been doing so for 10 years. He did all his homework and had a bunch of personal experiences to back-up claims of paranormal activity. He told us about this guy's house in Tombstone hes been investigating. He's been communicating with a ghost there from the 1880s. He learned his name and he learned about his accidental murder of his wife. He was afraid for what he had done and knew the penalty was death so he hid her body in a mine. Now in his death he longs to right his wrong and give his wife a proper burial. On his site under the investigations tab if you click on the Dawanes house link, you can listen to a bunch of EVPs and see pics from his investigations and communications with this ghost!

All night I had my digital camera rollin but upon review of the pics we snapped, I didn't catch a ghost!

Kentucky Derby / Preakness

May 2, 2009: The 135th running of the Kentucky Derby was an amazing event! Mine that Bird, the 50-1 $9,500 longshot, scored an incredible victory against horses worth up to $2 million dollars! After getting bumped at the gates and riding in last of the 19 competitors for about the first 6 lengths, Jockey Calvin Borel took Mine That Bird, rode him on the rail, and brought him all the way home for a shocking win!

May 16, 2009: The 134th running of the Preakness Stakes presented an opportunity for many runners of the Kentucky Derby to redeem themselves and for Mine That Bird to show the world it wasn't a fluke that he won. A threat posed itself on the field when Rachel Alexandra, a filly, is matched up against the boys in this race. Her former owner didn't enter her in the Kentucky Derby because he believed that fillys should run with fillys, and stallions should run with stallions. Rachel Alexandra's new owner's mentality is totally opposite "Champions should run with champions". She was lead into an easy victory by Jockey Calvin Borel becoming the fifth filly to win the Preakness since 1924. You go girl!!! :) Mine That Bird pulled another astonishing move, under new jockey Mike Smith, when he came from the back of the field and came in second.

Simple Salisbury Steak

I always only ate Salisbury steak at school lunch, so my impression of it wasn't very good. But I decided to try it out when all the normal things we cook are getting pretty old. I had a bunch of hamburger meat and searched for recipes that use it and up popped recipes for Salisbury steak. So I thought what would it hurt? Well I did it and EVERYONE loved it!! They requested I make it the next week for dinner!! Its SO simple AND everyone loved it! So I decided to share it here:
(make as much as you think you need for the amount of people your serving...it's very filling)

about a lb or so of hamburger meat
couple tablespoons of steak seasoning (i use McCormick Montreal steak seasoning)
couple tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce
about half of an onion chopped
MIX everything together and make patties just like your making hamburgers

Cook patties in oil over meadium high heat for about 6 minutes on each side.
Serve with Mushroom gravy (I just used a packet of this it's like a dollar at walmart)
Mashed potatoes
and your choice of vegetable!
ENJOY!!!
XOXO AYLA!

Equine Star Treatment

Here is just a random piece of info I found interesting. This one photographer ( I wish I wrote his name down!) decided to spruce up a couple horses and take some fancy photos of them. He did a few different ones, however, I only have pics of 2. Each horse spent about FOUR HOURS in hair and makeup! Check it out though... here are a few of those transformation shots:

The Ever Rare and Intriguing Llama!

In all my adventures and in all of my many searches, I have found that a llama is indeed a rare find. Stores do not find it neccessary to grace their shoppers with the pleasure of toy llamas, wether they be plastic or plush. My many travels brought me to a small place in Arizona. After months of searching, I found what I was looking for when I wasn't looking at all. A Llama farm.
Here is the llama in it's natural habitat.

The Santa Cruz County Derby

The date is Sunday May 3, 2009. The time is 5 pm. All 8 horses are being saddled and led to the track. Denhams Hero, who broke the track record at Saffard and was the fastes qualifier to the derby, makes his way calmly onto track.

After a warm-up lap around the track, one by one, the horses are loaded into the starting gates. The race is 350 yards long and from the get-go guess who is in front?
It's Denhams Hero! (see him there on the right) And he takes it all! Woo-Hoo!!! It was quite exciting!