Category Archive: Lola

Holiday visit to Long Beach 2011

Posted by Lisa On January 1st, 2012

Kevin, Lola and I were lucky enough to spend 9 full days in Long Beach visiting with family and friends over the holidays. Here’s a recap of our visit!

Christmas Eve with the Delmars

We spent Christmas Eve with my family this year so that Christmas Day wouldn’t be so stressful going back and forth between the two families and I think it worked out great!

Jess and Kevin trying to get Mars and Lola acquainted. I’m sure they’ll be best buds before you know it!

We had a non-traditional Chinese buffet for dinner that filled us up just right and a delicious assortment of See’s candies and brownies for dessert. Some photos from our evening…

Jess and Auntie Tina

Jess, Auntie Tina, and Uncle Joey

Me and Tina

Most of the group: Jess, Tina, Steve and his daughter Lacey and his grandson Christian, Uncle Joey, and Derek

Santas Jessie and Derek

Derek and his new ukulele

One of the highlights of the night was when the Delmar kids presented my mom with the gift of a song. Every year she tells us that all she wants from us is a song, no gifts, so this year we took her up on it. We decided to sing the theme song of the old cartoon “David the Gnome” that used to show on Nickelodeon and that we used to love as kids. After a couple days of rehearsing we were ready for our big debut! Here’s the link to the video of us singing on YouTube!

Christmas Day with the Edmonds

We woke up bright and early to accompany Thomas for a drive up the 91 freeway to pick up our adorable niece Sophie to spend Christmas Day with the family!

The little lady ready to celebrate with the Edmonds!

She loved taking photos with my camera, here’s a self-portrait and a photo of her dad Thomas in the rear view mirror (can you see her?)

Goofy picture of me, thanks to Sophie the photographer

Silly photo!

Say “Cheese!”

After making it home it was all fun and games until the feast was ready. Lola sure got a workout with Sophie and Katelyn around…

Sophie with Aunt Sarah and Rob

Me and my adopted kiddos, Joshua and Katelyn

We spent a good hour or so opening tons of gifts…

Kevin with his gift card to Best Buy…such a creative way to give a gift card (from our brother-in-law Luke)!

A few last photos outside before Sophie had to go back home…

Me ‘n Sarah with Sophie and Lola

Sophie showing off her Cinderella toy

Last goofy photo of the day!

Hike in Whittier Hills

Brianne, Brian, Brian’s sister Lisa, Kevin, Lola and I went on a nice long hike in the Whittier Hills the day after Christmas to burn off some of that holiday feasting we all took part of.

B & B overlooking the amazing skyline with Palos Verdes at one end (and Catalina even further off, out of frame) and downtown LA at the other end

Big hills and winding trails made for a very fun (and tiring) hike

A beautiful Buddhist temple in the Rose Hills Memorial Park

A quick little detour we took to visit a huge water tower…

…covered in graffiti.

The “slide” Kevin and Brian took down the hill (just kidding)

More fun with the Delmar family

On Tuesday night we made it to our annual Chinese massage with my mom, this time accompanied with Jessie, Derek, and my mom’s boyfriend Steve too. I didn’t get the full treatment this time around, though, because of the little bebe in utero but the masseuse did a mighty fine job of working out the kinks in my shoulders, arms, legs, and feet. Kevin got beyond the full treatment from a little lady who was working on him (NOT what you’re thinking…he was in the massage bed right beside mine of course). Here’s what I’m talking about…

Linda (yes, her name was Linda) walking all over Kevin

Then we went across the parking lot to chow down on some Vietnamese food (which, unfortunately, was not as good as we had had in years past. I ordered a crab soup and the pieces of meat were anything but crab and Kevin actually got food poisoning from it! Blech.)

On Wednesday I spent the entire day with my mom and Jessie. We spent the morning in LA exploring Grand Central Market–a really neat, open market with tons of food stalls.

Jess enjoying the market!

A really neat chalk drawing at MF Gourmet (where I had lunch)

Can you tell we’re related??

That night we met up with Derek, Steve and his grandson Christian at At Last Cafe in Long Beach for some grub.

The Delmar kids: Derek’s beer, Jessie’s wine, and my lemonade (can’t wait to partake in some yummy, non-pregnant drinks in the near-ish future)

Christian goofing off (encouraged by Jessie and Derek, of course)

Me, Derek, and mama (notice Christian’s photo bomb? Haha!)

Piggy back ride!

After dinner we dropped Derek off at his new place and took a quick tour through the house. We then took a gander at his motorcycle (he’s had it for a while but I had yet to see it for myself)…

Jess, Derek, and Vanna White checking out the bike

My mom: “Jesus, I have a big head” (hahaha!)

Fast-forward a few days…we met up with my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Clay (my dad’s sister) on Saturday morning for a nice visit. We always enjoy spending time with them and we were so happy we were able to squeeze in a quick visit with them. We talked lots about teaching (since they’re both teachers) and also about family history (since Kevin’s really interested in genealogy and my Aunt Kathy is a wealth of information). Afterwards we met up with my mom, Tina, Steve, and Derek for lunch down the street.

Kev, mama, Tina and me

Miniature golfing date with Joshua and Katelyn

Part of our Christmas gift for our nephew and niece was to take them out for a morning of getting their butts whooped in miniature golf (or at least that’s what I told them in the beginning). We used to spend a lot of time with those knuckleheads but since we moved up to the Bay Area we don’t get to spend as much one-on-one time with them as before and I miss ’em a bunch so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with them during our visit.

Mini golf courses crack me up

The creepiest metal monkey you will ever see

Pancho’s Fish Tacos, anyone?

Joshua taking his turn, Kevin looking dapper

My beautiful niece…she’s getting so big!

Nerding it up…me and Katelyn pretending to look out at the pirate using our golf clubs (although it looks more like Katelyn is playing the flute, but I’ll forgive her this time)

Working on my form

Me taking an awesome shot

Kevin and Joshua were obviously impressed by Katelyn’s amazing form

Our group’s rainbow assortment of golf balls

Proof that Joshua’s butt didn’t get whooped too bad (at least by me, anyways). Katelyn, on the other hand…

I love that these three always go along with my crazy suggestions

After a round of golf we met up with almost the rest of the Edmonds family at Lucille’s for a lunchtime feast at one of me and Kevin’s favorite places. Dorothy, George, Judith and Luke met us to enjoy each other’s company at the end of our week’s visit.

Ringing in the new year

We spent a fairly quiet evening at Kevin’s parent’s house with the folks and our good friend Alison as well. We enjoyed some dinner then got started on some board games that kept us entertained (and awake!) until midnight. On the game menu for the evening: Bananagrams and Sequence.

About as exciting as our evening got!

Lola, reluctantly waking up for the countdown

Clinking our glasses of Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider as the clock hit midnight (photo taken by Alison)

After a delicious breakfast of homemade waffles and pancakes (care of George), we packed up the car and made our way up Interstate 5 back home to Oakland. Lola sure seemed to enjoy her new ride…

Snoozing all the way back home

Kevin, Lola and I are very excited to begin a new year and we know that 2012 will bring some very exciting changes our way. Can’t wait to celebrate Christmas/New Year’s at the end of this year with the newest addition to our family!

Lola’s visit to the vet

Posted by Lisa On December 12th, 2011

Last week I noticed something just above Lola’s right eyebrow. At first I thought it was sap or something sticky that got caught in her fur but I wasn’t sure if maybe it was an actual bump. I asked Kevin to look at it and he confirmed it was some sort of bump. A couple of days went by and the bump seemed to be growing pretty quickly! We fussed around with it and it didn’t seem to hurt her at all so we weren’t sure what to make of it.

Kevin, being the good daddy that he is, took her into the vet last Tuesday to get it checked out. The vet knew right away what it was…

IT WAS A TICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The nasty thing bit her on her eyebrow and was growing by the day. I am grossed out just thinking about having touched it and messed around with it. Yuck!!

They removed the damn thing and she’s got a little scar to show for it, hopefully the hair around it will grow out soon so it won’t be noticeable anymore.

The one other thing that came out of this whole ordeal was that we learned she’s about 8 pounds overweight! Poor little thing. Kevin called it the week before, actually. He told me he thought she didn’t look as defined as she used to in her mid-section. Now she’s on a diet, only getting one scoop of food for breakfast and one for dinner instead of the 2 cups we’d give her at each meal. Every night I feel so terrible because she licks her bowl after the food is all gone, just begging for more food. It breaks my heart! But the vet says that soon enough she’ll get used to it and slim down. Our goal is to get her back down to 50 pounds even.

Here’s a cute photo of our little patient for your viewing pleasure:

Fall visitors & a mostly vegan Thanksgiving

Posted by Lisa On December 8th, 2011

A pre-Thanksgiving visit

We were privileged with a visit from my lovable, adorable, stinker-of-a-brother Derek the week before Thanksgiving. We spent a lot of time together, just hanging out and eating our way through Oakland and San Francisco. 🙂

We made a couple of visits to Fenton’s Creamery in Oakland, a cute ice cream parlor, for some delectable ice cream.

We also discovered this awesome ale house in Oakland called Cato’s that Derek likes to describe as a “classy dive bar”. Even though I couldn’t partake in the beer (boo!) the food more than made up for it.

And we spent an evening at Jessie’s pad eating some amazing food and a game night.

Thanksgiving weekend

Unfortunately he couldn’t stay for Thanksgiving, but fortunately for us we had another couple of visitors right on his heels: Kevin’s parents, Dorothy and George. Dorothy flew up a few days ahead of George to spend some time together (and to prepare for the big feast that we were going to make and eat later that week) and it was nice having her around!

One evening that week we drove up to Richmond to visit Point Isabel (where Lola experienced her first open water swim!) so Lola could stretch her legs and so that we could watch the sunset over the SF city skyline.

We were so happy when George arrived from his long drive up from Long Beach and it was doubly nice that Kevin got four days off for the weekend as well! We spent one of those evenings revisiting Fenton’s Creamery for some ice cream sundae goodness (or, in Kevin’s case, pie).

My idea of heaven (and don’t think for a minute that I didn’t scoop up some of that hot fudge from the plate)

George taking a good, long look at his and Dorothy’s chosen treat

Me, Kevin and George ready to dig in!

This was our third Thanksgiving spent up in the Bay Area (the first was spent with the Julian clan and last year’s was spent with Jessie in San Jose) and it was great having the Edmonds family in town to celebrate. Dorothy and I got a lot of the work done the day before but we still got an early start on Thanksgiving day to make sure we were ready in time for our other guests (Jessie, Carleigh and Scott) to arrive. Since Jess and I are vegetarian and Carleigh is vegan we decided to make it a mostly veg-friendly meal. There were only two things that the vegan of our group couldn’t indulge in: the turkey (obviously) and my Aunt Tina’s infamous corn (made with lots of cream cheese and butter). But other than that, all of the sides (including one of the pumpkin pies!) were made with no animal products whatsoever!

Kevin and George spent some time working on Kevin’s bike so that they could go mountain biking together later that weekend.

And Dorothy put the finishing touches on the dead bird…I mean, the turkey.

The group arrived and were ready to chow down!

The group minus George

The group minus me

Overall I think it was a pretty successful Thanksgiving meal, especially given that we were cooking for seven in the teeniest kitchen ever!

We had a really busy Friday, starting off with a long hike through Joaquin Miller park (a place Kevin and I have frequented many a time and were excited to share with his parents).

Dad, son and grandpup

Can you spot Kevin and Lola?

K + Lola braving the log

Beautiful trails!

Surprisingly beautiful mushrooms on a log

K + me

George + Dorothy

We rushed home so that we could meet with up our favorite friends from Irvine, Alison and Seth! We hung out at our apartment for a bit (or until Seth’s stomach yelled at us to leave, haha) and then took them to one of our favorite Mexican places, Taqueria Monte Cristo in Berkeley. It was SO nice seeing them, even if only for a couple of hours!

The Redlands gang (minus Seth!)

That night we were off again…to the Christmas tree lighting in Union Square! Kevin and I had gone in 2009 with the Julians and we knew his parents would enjoy it as well. I think once every two years is about as much crazy Christmas crowds I can handle. 😉

Macy’s all decorated for the holidays

George + us

Dorothy + us

Dorothy + me

It was surprisingly not as cold as it was two years prior but it still warranted my winter fuzzy hat.

This kid had it made: a helmet with straws feeding into two Starbucks’ hot cocoas! Hahahah!

The main event!

Kevin and George ended the weekend off right by spending a morning mountain biking in Joaquin Miller park with Lola. I was a bit nervous about Lola going out with them but apparently she kept up pretty good! Kevin hadn’t gone riding in a looooong time and I’m hoping it becomes more of a habit for him (hint, hint!) 🙂

We had a great 10 days full of visitors and we couldn’t have asked for better people to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with! And now we’re sooo looking forward to Christmas…only 15 more days until we drive down to LB for a week full of family, friends, and food!

A proud moment for doggy parents

Posted by Lisa On November 9th, 2011

We have been so spoiled this fall with warm weather and I could not be happier with all this sunshine we’ve been getting. On Oct 23 we took the pup out to Point Isabel Regional Park in Richmond for some sunshine and, to our great surprise, an open water swim!

Carleigh and I had visited here once with the dogs since it’s a huge off-leash area that has some of the most amazing views. The night we went the sun was just starting to set and it was incredible seeing the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco city skyline with the sun setting. Beautiful! Since that visit I knew I had to bring Kevin here to check it out for himself.

We went down the rocks a bit to watch some of the dogs that were swimming out in the bay chasing tennis balls. Whenever we’ve taken Lola out to swim before she would only go as far as she could touch the bottom, she was never comfortable actually swimming. After a few minutes of watching a Labrador retrieve a tennis ball over and over again, Lola slowly started venturing out to the deeper water and eventually made it all the way out! It was definitely one of our proudest dog parent moments. 🙂

At first she would only chase the dog and not even look at the ball. But eventually when the other dogs left for home and we were standing there with a dripping wet tennis ball, Lola begged us to keep throwing the ball and the rest is history!

Here’s a video of Lola on one of her first attempts in the open water (and if you look closely you may see the Golden Gate Bridge and the SF city skyline in the background).

Lola’s that speck in the center of the photo

Kevin getting ready to throw the ball

Kevin tried to take a photo of her shaking her coat out on the shore:

As soon as we got home Kevin plopped that sandy, damp girl in the bathtub for a desperately needed bath:

Even though bath time is not Lola’s favorite, I’m sure she thought it was a good price to pay for the open water swim she got that day.

Big Sur camping weekend!

Posted by Lisa On October 5th, 2011

Kevin, Lola and I took a marvelous four day weekend to go camping in Big Sur! We met up with our good friends Brian and Brianne from Long Beach and we had a blast!

Friday, September 30

We left at 6am on Friday morning in hopes of beating the traffic and of getting into the Big Sur area early enough to find a camping site. Yes, we were those people that didn’t make reservations.

We are in desperate need of a bigger car…Lola could barely fit in the backseat with all our camping junk! And the other sleeping bag may or may not have fallen on top of her during the ride a couple of times, haha.

Any gloomy morning can be brightened up with a dozen cupcakes! Kevin baked those for Brianne since her birthday was just after our camping trip.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing dogs hanging their heads outside of car windows.

We made a few stops along the way, taking in the amazing views of the California coast.

I truly love this state.

“Hello!“

We drove up and down the coast trying to find the perfect camping spot. After a few sites told us there were 1-2 spots left but either the campground was too expensive ($65 a night?!) or there were too many bugs or it just didn’t feel right it was approaching 12noon and we were starting to get nervous. One campground (Kirk Creek) we had passed previously we had heard some good things about but after seeing the sign “Campground full” we didn’t think much of it. On our way back up the coast in hopes that we could snag one of those spots that we had previously passed up on Kevin said we should just drive through the Kirk Creek campground to see if we might get lucky…and we did! We actually got the last spot in the entire campground. And the campground was amazing to boot!

We set up our tent, took a little nap in the sunshine, and while patiently awaited the arrival of Brian and Brianne we decided to start cooking dinner before the sun started to set.

On the menu Friday evening? Sweet potato chili (recipe here) and cornbread cooked in the dutch oven (recipe here).

Pouring the batter into the dutch oven

Letting the magic happen

We had never cooked anything other than a cobbler in the dutch oven before so we weren’t sure how it was going to turn out. We had to let it sit for 45 minutes to cook so we decided to enjoy some beverages and watch the sun start to set.

Classy boxed wine from Target

Wine in hand, sun shining

Brian and Brianne pulled up just as the cornbread was finishing up so we could dig in!

It turned out perfect!!

We set our chairs out overlooking the ocean and the sunset, eating our giant bowls of chili and fresh cornbread. Not too shabby!

Enjoying the view

For dessert we surprised Brianne with the cupcakes that Kevin had made…yum! We played a game of Rummikub and tried to keep warm by the light of the lantern (we forgot to buy firewood that first night, d’oh!) Kevin, Lola and I hit the hay a little early because of our early morning and because it was so dang cold outside with that ocean breeze. But it was a great first day nonetheless!

Brianne’s birthday cupcakes

Saturday, October 1

We woke up bright and early and got started on breakfast…breakfast burritos with soyrizo!

Kevin cooking up some breakfast! Our campsite only had shade in the late afternoon so at just about 8:30am the sun would rise above the hills and we’d get an early start on our suntans for the day.

We left mid-day to drive up to Monterey to pick up a few things (air pump for the air mattress [kind of important] and firewood) and we had lunch out that way as well. I gotta say, it was a little strange being at a Target in the middle of our camping trip.

We got back to the campsite mid-afternoon and took a short hike down a trail that leads straight from the campground down to the beach.

Beautiful!

Lola is so at home at the beach

B & B climbing the rocks

Brian surrounded by water

Pretty seaweed!

Kevin and Lola always have to climb to the highest point and look down at me for the obligatory photo. This trip to the beach was no exception.

Lola’s paw prints, the ocean, and the sun setting

We found this cool damned-up area that had a small wading pool and a small waterfall that was just Lola’s size.

She spent a good while “fetching” for rocks (they all sank to the bottom but she never stopped trying to look for them!)

Me and Lola

Lola wading in the pool and me in the background

Brian’s dangerous leap-from-one-rock-to-another-over-a-wading-pool stunt.

I love this photo of Lola.

We headed back up to camp to get started on dinner while the sun was still out. On the menu Saturday evening? Cheese enchiladas, cilantro lime rice, and avocado/tomato salad (courtesy of B & B).

Brianne cooking the enchiladas in the dutch oven! We weren’t sure how it would turn out so we kept our fingers crossed.

While B & B were cooking, Kevin and I decided to go sit and watch the sun set (something, we realized, we haven’t done much together surprisingly!)

Those clouds were amazing!

After the sun set we were happy to find out that the dutch oven is the perfect place to cook enchiladas!

Cooked to perfection

Eating by moonlight

Dig in!

That night for dessert we had the ultimate camping treat…s’mores!

Sunday, October 2

We woke up bright and early to find little muddy paw prints on our storage bins and even on the side of our car…crazy raccoons! Luckily they didn’t get anything (that we know of).

After a yummy breakfast of pancakes and bacon (or fake sausage for the veg-head over here), we left mid-morning down the road to Sand Dollar beach and picnic grounds. It was pretty overcast and chilly that morning but luckily the clouds burned off and we had a good dose of sun for the majority of our time there!

View of Sand Dollar beach from the top of the stairs

Stairs down to the beach

Brianne, Brian, Lola and Kevin testing out the water

Brianne at first thought those were bear paw prints until she realized that Lola made them, haha!

I took a few portrait photos, the only one I was missing was Brian!

Brianne

Lola

Kevin

Kevin and Brian braved the coooooold waters and went swimming for about 30 minutes.

Lola watching Kevin and Brian in the water

Eventually Kevin and Brian made their way out and Kevin immediately made a new friend (some other dog, I swear that guy is the Dog Whisperer!)

We made our way back up to the picnic area for some lunch. After eating, Brian and Kevin decided to attempt to hop over a 4.5 foot tall fence. Surprisingly, they both did it (after many attempts, I might add).

Alley-oop!

I don’t think so, sir.

Me taking a self-portrait in between their attempts to jump over the fence.

Success!

Kisses from Lola over the fence

A view from below

B & B!

Back at the campsite we sat and tried to soak in the final rays of the sun.

Looks like I got a bit of a tan from the beach, hallelujah!

On the menu for Sunday night? Burritos with Spanish rice and more of that amazing avocado/tomato salad (courtesy of B & B). And for dessert?

PEACH AND BLUEBERRY COBBLER straight from the dutch oven!! (recipe here)

That crust was so good! Next time we just gotta let it cook a little longer but otherwise it was amazing.

I thought I’d take a picture of our dish-washing station…Brianne, Kevin and Brian hard at work!

Group photo by campfire!

We had such a fantastic time…not only did we score an awesome campsite, the weather was lovely, and the company was superb! I think we should probably put in our reservation now for this time next year at Kirk Creek, what do you say B & B? 🙂

No dogs allowed

Posted by Lisa On October 4th, 2011

Moving to Oakland has been a bit of a culture shock when it comes to having a dog. We were plain spoiled living in San Francisco with their 35+ dog-friendly off-leash parks and their countless other parks that are accessible to dogs on leash. This is one of the biggest things I miss about living in the city.

Oakland has a total of 5 dog parks and just about every other piece of grass in the city is off-limits to dogs. It doesn’t even matter if the dog is on leash, our little Lola is not allowed to set a paw on the grass.

Granted, living in the Bay Area we are still pretty spoiled compared to other cities across the States. Even with our measly 5 dog parks in Oakland, surrounding us are cities that have as many (or more) dog-friendly spots that we’re just a quick drive away from…and we have been taking advantage of those spots!

Joaquin Miller Regional Park

This is an amazing 500-acre park set in the Oakland Hills with miles and miles of winding trails. It’s a great place to let Lola off-leash except we have to pretty careful for the joggers and mountain bikers. Kevin and I have gone to this park twice now and each time we can’t believe that this amazing forest is just minutes from our apartment near downtown Oakland.

Kevin getting a whiff of wilderness (I don’t think he knew I was taking this photo when he bent down to smell that fallen tree, haha)

Sun through the trees

Me ‘n Lola

Piedmont Park

There is a small city surrounded by Oakland called Piedmont and they have a great park that allows dogs to run off-leash. The trails are mostly paved but when you’re in the park you’re surrounded by a huge canopy of trees that no matter how bright and sunny it is at that time, it’s cool and shady in the park. The creek running through the middle doesn’t hurt the view either. Kevin and I have gone walking the trails and me and Lola have gone running a couple of times as well. This is a little gem!

Alameda dog exercise area (aka Alameda dog park)

Now sure why it’s got such an official-sounding name, I just call it the Alameda dog park. This is a huge fenced-in dog park just minutes from the beach on the island of Alameda and the best part is it’s only a 10 minute drive from our apartment. I take Lola here at least once a week and she has a blast running around with the other dogs.

No dogs allowed…

After a trip to the Alameda dog park last week Lola and I drove by the beach in Alameda and I couldn’t pass up such a beautiful sunset so I pulled over, brought Lola out, and had to tie her up to the fence because of the “No dogs allowed” sign that greeted us.

“No dogs on beach”

Lola didn’t seem to mind!

That girl is always happy, no matter if she’s tied to a pole or not.

Sun setting over Alameda

Can you spot San Francisco in the distance??

Edmonds family camping trip!

Posted by Lisa On August 5th, 2011

The Edmonds gang spent months in anticipation for our camping trip to Taylor Creek and the time had finally arrived! Kevin’s family has been camping at this spot for nearly 30 years (!) and this was my third trip to TC. The last time the whole gang went camping together was at Granite Creek in 2009 (just a couple of months after moving to SF and a few weeks after adopting Lola, see the post here) and the last time we as a family were at TC was in 2007 so it was definitely time for another camping trip!

This campsite is about as rustic as you can get: no running water (except for the spring up the road), no cell phone service, and no toilets (not even an outhouse). But it’s got everything else that other campsites are missing: it’s quiet (rarely do we spot other campers when we’re there), there are unobstructed starry nights, we’ve got a private creek and private hiking trails. And that’s why the family keeps coming back after all these years.

Wednesday 7/27

Kevin, Lola and I woke up earlyearlyearly and got on the road at 7:30am.

Lots of fog over the Oakland Hills to greet us

Beautiful views of countryside and clear skies (somewhere off of Hot Springs Road)

Kevin and Lola in the car

We passed a ton of cows on the drive up the mountain…

Mama cows and their babies

Moo.

Lots of meadows–I think this one was aptly named “Big Meadow” (so creative, I know)

Pancake rock!

We arrived (9 hours later!) and were sad to find out that the family’s favorite spot was already taken. 🙁

We drove up the road a bit and found another spot that wasn’t as good but we were pleasantly surprised that it worked out as well as it did. Kevin, Lola and I held down the fort for a couple of hours before the next group arrived.

We read a couple of short stories to each other with Lola listening in

Beautiful day!

The swimming hole right next to our campsite…perfection!

The next group to arrive was George, Dorothy, Judith, Joshua and Katelyn and it was just us until the third group arrived on Friday. Our first evening was mostly just setting up camp, eating hamburgers and hot dogs (and veggie burgers/veggie skewers for the vegetarian in the group!) and hanging out around the campfire.

Kevin and George with the bonfire

Thursday 7/28

The group woke up bright and early for another fun day of camping. Except for this little girl who did not want to get up…

Lola, snuggled up

We were finally able to encourage the tired pup to get up and get the day started!

First thing on the to-do list? Gather fire wood. George, Kevin, Joshua and Lola were in charge of that item (thank you guys!)

Alley oop Lola!

While the muchachos and Lola went to get fire wood, the rest of us muchachas got dressed for some creek time…

Katelyn and her genius innertube

Dorothy and Judith hanging out by the creek

After the guys got back with the firewood it was creek time for them too!

Lola’s favorite thing to do was hop/jump/leap across the creek to fetch her ball (oh yeah, and shake and get all of us sitting on the bank wet too)

Kevin, George and Katelyn (the brave ones) in for a dip

After some time by the creek it was time for lunch and time to put up the hammocks! Kevin and I purchased these hammocks in Nicaragua in 2004 and had yet to use them so it was about time!

Can’t get much more relaxing than this

Bliss.

Kevin squished into the seat hammock (and his butt was about 1.5 inches above the ground, haha)

Dorothy and Kevin relaxing in the shade

Lola couldn’t wait to test out the hammock either, haha

Lola guarding our campsite (her favorite place to be: the kitchen)

Katelyn keeping cool in the shade

Friday 7/29

Another bright and early morning! After breakfast (breakfast burritos, mmm!) we went for a short hike to another swimming hole down the creek.

Pine cones covering the ground

George, Kevin and Lola trying to find us a nice spot to sit and relax

Lola again loved jumping over the creek to catch her ball. We got her in the creek for a bit too, here she is jumping to catch a ball.

Beautiful skies!

Can’t get enough of these rock formations, trees and sky views

Lola looking back at Joshua and Kevin

My favorite photo of the camping trip! Lola in the foreground, Joshua and Kevin in the background.

Can you spot Lola?

Back to the campsite to wait for our third group to arrive (Sarah and Rob!) We spent the time eating lunch and putting reading glasses on Lola (just what any normal family would do, right? You can blame Katelyn for this one, haha)

Lola, the librarian

We were expecting them mid-day so when they hadn’t arrived by mid-afternoon we started getting worried and sent out a search party. Ten minutes later the search party spotted their car and back to the campsite they went.

Just a little after they arrived the group got dressed and took a 20 minute hike to what the family calls “Flat Rock”–a really awesome spot where the creek has a waterfall and it flows down huge, flat rocks making great spots for sitting and relaxing.

Flat Rock

The girls: Katelyn, Sarah, Judith, Dorothy and me

Tall rocks and bright blue skies

Sarah and Rob

Lola biting the mini rapids

Katelyn and Josh building a damn, Lola biting the rapids

Kevin, George and Joshua decided to hike up the mountain a bit while the rest of our group made our way back to the campsite. Here are some photos that Kevin took on the hike…

The view of Church Dome (where we’d be hiking to the following day, yikes!)

I love this miniaturized (is that a word?) photo that Kevin took

Lola with her hiking backpack

After the two hikes and three swimming holes that day Lola was pooped!

Proof of above statement

What makes a good evening while camping? Talking around the campfire of course…

George and Sarah

Dorothy and Kevin

Sunset

Saturday 7/30

Another early morning camping (our last full day, waah!)

Kevin putting on his shoes, enjoying the view out our tent

After breakfast the group packed into two of the cars and made our way upupup the road to the trail head for our hike to Church Dome.

Joshua, Sarah, Kevin, Rob and Lola sizing up Church Dome

Lots and lots of water breaks…

My cute little hiking husband

Sarah and Rob

Family photo! Me, Kevin and Lola

What a view!

Beautiful flowers in between rocks

Kevin and Lola looking out onto the meadows and forest

After hours of hiking upupup we finally made it! Time for lunch.

Group shot at lunch (thanks Sarah!)

While half of the group was satisfied with the hike and ready to make our way back down, the other half didn’t get quite enough and wanted to push on a little farther. Can you guess what group I was in? 😉

While Judith, Dorothy, Katelyn, Lola and I stayed back to take a short nap, the rest of the group made their way up to the top of Church Dome.

Lola digging a hole (first time I’d ever seen her do that!)

She was trying to get to the cooler soil for her nap, so adorable.

From our spot down below we could see a few ants walking at the top of Church Dome–they looked a lot like the rest of our family (click the photo to zoom in; Sarah, Rob and George on the left, Kevin and Josh on the right).

Once the other part of the group met up with us it was time to make our descent off the mountain. But first…a group photo!

Beautiful.

Although the hike down was much faster, it wasn’t necessarily any easier (let’s just say that a few butts slid down the rocks).

Lola was pretty exhausted too. I had never seen her so tired before! Every few hundred feet she’d make her way to a shady spot and lay down. Poor girl!

Lola’s 198th break

So Kevin, being the great dog dad that he is, decided to help our little girl out by giving her a piggy back ride!

She only stayed on for about 10 minutes but I think it helped the tired pup out a lot

View of Church Dome…I can’t believe that just a couple of hours before we were on that peak!

Happy (and tired and sore) hiker Lisa

Not five minutes after backing George’s truck up on the road his back tires got stuck in the soft dirt. D’oh!

The group trying to get the truck out by digging holes and putting in big rocks behind the tires.

When that didn’t work, George had the whole group (minus me and Lola) pile in the back of the truck to weigh it down and hopefully get the tires to grip the dirt to move on out. That didn’t work either! So the last resort was hooking Rob’s Ford Escape SUV up to the front of George’s truck and with luck we were able to pull the truck out of the dirt! None of us could believe that the little Escape could pull out such a huge truck but hallelujah it worked!

No one can say that we didn’t deserve a nice dip in the creek by the time we got back to the campsite and that’s exactly what we did. We can’t say that the creek wasn’t any cleaner after we got out, but at least we were. 🙂

Dinner was massive burritos and dessert was peach/blueberry cobbler (well-deserved after our long day of hiking!)

Judith serving up the cobbler…yum!!

Our last sunset

And we spent our last evening around the campfire enjoying each other’s company…

Joshua, Katelyn and Judith

Joshua, bright fire, and grey skies

Writing with light in the dark–that’s me writing out “Taylor Creek” using a flashlight (I was writing in cursive backwards while Kevin took the photo, see our “Earth Hour” post with other photos like this here)

Sunday 7/31

The rain finally decided to make its full appearance on Sunday morning as we were packing all our stuff up. Although it didn’t make for a very pleasant last morning (especially since we were trying to keep all our junk dry while packing it up) I’m just happy it otherwise stayed dry the whole week!

On the drive home…until next time Taylor Creek!

4th of July festivities/Moving weekend

Posted by Lisa On July 25th, 2011

The weekend of July 4th, Kevin and I packed up our entire little apartment in San Francisco and drove across the Bay Bridge (about a hundred times) to move all our junk to our new not-so-little apartment in Oakland! I don’t know what it is about July 4th weekend but that’s the same weekend we moved up to San Francisco two years ago, remember?

Although we had signed the lease and were planning on moving in July, we weren’t planning on moving quite so soon so it was a bit of an impromptu move. We initially decided to move the following weekend (our anniversary weekend) but after hearing about a potential trip to Reno that weekend with Carleigh and Scott we decided to move the big weekend up some and over the course of 48 hours had rented a truck, packed up (almost) all of our junk, and moved on out of the city.

Some of our junk stacked up and ready for the truck

A blank canvas just waiting for us to fill ‘er up

A lot of photos of us sweating, huffing and puffing are missing since, well, I was too distracted and exhausted to document the actually moving part.

Now entering Alameda County/Oakland city limit

The drive across the bridge (the Budget truck is the second car ahead, that red truck pulled in front of me just as I was about to take a photo of Kev in the truck)

Because our move was so impromptu, with the moving truck we mainly just moved over our furniture and big, bulky items and left a lot of the smaller things at the house thinking that a few car trips across the bridge would do the trick. A few turned into probably 7-8 total and that was definitely the worst planning on our part for this move. It doesn’t seem like it would be that bad but it turned out to be so exhausting moving carloads of junk everyday for an entire week. I’m just glad that’s over!

Photo of Kevin hiking up the hill on one of our last trips

So far we are in love with our new place. Lots of space, soft carpet, beautiful lake, active neighborhood (lots of runners and cyclists and dog walkers, etc.), and amazing FOOD! Here are a few photos of the new place, I’ll do an apartment tour when things are put together a little more.

Kevin and Lola taking a break from all the unpacking

Lola. Wiped.

Our new shower curtain! (Can you tell I’m excited?)

Bedroom. Lots of clothes.

We decided to spend Sunday July 3rd relaxing and enjoying friend’s company instead of unpacking (wise decision!) We went to the AMAZING Lake Anza in Berkeley with Carleigh and Scott for some sunshine and swimming. Who knew that such an amazing lake would be found in the middle of Berkeley?!

Lots of people out enjoying the holiday weekend

Me and Carleigh in for a dip!

Lifeguard on duty

Carleigh and Scott out for a swim

Nap time on the inflatable swan

Me and Kevin (and inflatable crocodile and random dude)

Disco mermaid hanging from the ceiling in the ice cream shop

I was SO happy to have found this lake and I can’t wait to go back!

After going home to wash up we went to our friend Terri and Scott’s house in Concord for a 4th of July BBQ with the grillmaster Scott in charge. Our friends Mika and Matt also came along with their adorable 13-month old Mia! See Mia’s 1st birthday party post here.

We were all just hanging out in the backyard and Terri/Scott’s dog Madeira started paying special attention to Mia, so much so that she tried to herd her! It was so adorable and eventually the two new buddies sat side by side just hanging out…

My favorite photo of the two

“Hmm, I wonder what this pink thing feels like”, haha!

Best buds

Scott and his furry gang plus Mia

Before dinner we went down the street to the local bocce court (what, your city doesn’t have a bocce court?)

Splitting up the teams

Mia and mama

Trying to figure out whose ball was closer

Mid-game shot

Lola patiently waiting for us to hurry the heck up so she could get back to playing with the dogs

The night sky on the drive home

Trip to Long Beach!

Posted by Lisa On July 22nd, 2011

Thursday, June 16

That afternoon I set off on a week-long trip down to Long Beach. Lola and I jumped in the car and made our way down the too familiar 5 freeway. This time, though, we went a slightly different, more scenic route–we went down the 101 until we hit Gilroy and then took the Pacheco Pass (highway 152) through beautiful winding roads and around the San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area until we got to the 5. This was at the suggestion of Carleigh and I’m glad we did it since it made the drive a little more bearable. 🙂

Our only real stop on the trip down was at Casa de Fruta (also at the suggestion of Carleigh) which is a huge compound with a farm, train track, pond, and tons of fruit/nuts/gift shops. Lola and I walked around a bit and then quickly jumped back on the road.

Casa de Fruta farmhouse

Casa de Fruta railroad

Casa de Fruta peacock (that Lola desperately wanted to get a hold of, haha!)

Casa de Fruta rusted and beat-up jalopy

Casa de Fruta carousel

Casa de Fruta’s Casa de Choo Choo

Friday, June 17th-Sunday, June 19th

The main reason I went down to Long Beach this weekend was to join my niece’s Girl Scout troop (the one that I used to be a co-leader for) on their trip to Catalina! I took a ton of photos so I’ll make a separate post for the Catalina trip. Stay tuned!

Sunday, June 19th (Father’s Day)

As soon as I got off the Catalina Express I was off to my in-law’s house to celebrate Father’s Day with my dad-in-law George and my brother-in-law Thomas (dad to Sophie). With me to celebrate were my mama-in-law Dorothy, sis-in-law Sarah and her boyfriend Rob, a good family friend Judy and Sophie! Sarah and Rob had just returned from living in New Orleans and it was so so so good to see them. And I realized that I hadn’t seen Sophie (my other niece) since Christmas 2009 (1 1/2 years!) so it was a special treat to see her after all this time. She has grown SO MUCH!

She had lots of fun playing with her buddy and cousin Lola…

Sophie and her sidekick

Sophie gave Thomas an adorable gift: the card was in the shape of a fish that said “Dad, you’re a great catch” and inside was a fishing pole with a bag of fish bait (trail mix) attached. So cute!

Sophie and her Auntie Judy playing with the iPad

Mmm…strawberry shortcake!

On the way back to her mom’s house, just chillin’

Monday, June 20th

The weekend following the Catalina trip was my 10 year high school reunion so I asked my boss if there was any way I could work from home (Long Beach) during the week so that I could stick around for the event and she graciously said yes! Lots of appreciation for my job that week. 🙂

Here’s my view from my laptop each day in my mom’s dining room:

Aren’t those stools so cool?

My work buddy

I worked a full day (with a few walking breaks here and there with Lola) and that night I met up with Brianne & Brian at Open Sesame on 2nd street. I’ve been to this restaurant a handful of times before and I can’t get over how amazing their food is! Their dolmas (grape leaves) leave a little something to be desired but other than that the food is incredible. It was so nice catching up with two of my favorite buddies too! Lots of laughs and story-telling was shared over dinner as well as plans to catch up again during the week.

Tuesday, June 21st

Vacation detour: I actually came down with a really painful health issue so took part of the day off work to visit the doctor’s office. After seeing the doctor, though, I didn’t feel any more confident about the condition and had to anticipate another doctor’s visit the following day in Norwalk (with Dorothy) and then another doctor’s visit again in Norwalk on Thursday (with my mom). After being bounced around between doctor’s offices and feeling scared because I didn’t really know what was going on luckily the issue cleared up on Friday evening and the rest of the trip was spent much more comfortably. The main lessons I learned from this experience: advocate for yourself with the doctors and receptionists/phone operators and read any online forums about the issue that you can find! That’s where I read about the at-home treatment that ended up helping with the problem.

After going to the doctor’s on Tuesday I spent the rest of the afternoon resting up so that I could meet up with my brother Derek that evening. We went first to visit my lovely Auntie Tina which included a couple of hours of hilarity (both by Derek and Tina and even the nurses at the front desk!)

Tina and her favorite nephew

Wednesday, June 22nd

Like I mentioned earlier, Dorothy accompanied me to my second doctor’s appointment and after getting the run around again we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening together. We checked out a couple of new (to me) scrapbook stores and then spent a couple of hours just hanging out in the garden with Lola and talking. I was invited to dinner with her and George and I had an amazing shrimp and asparagus pasta…mmm, mmm, mmm I can taste it right now! 🙂

Thursday, June 23rd

My mom accompanied me to my third doctor’s appointment and we then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening together. She took me to Ranchito, an AMAZING Mexican supermarket in Westminster. At first we went there specifically to get a giant fresh squeezed juice but then ended up buying a bunch of food and inviting Derek over for dinner at my mom’s house. This supermarket is incredible–they have an entire counter dedicated to the jugos naturales (natural juices). There are a few options available to order–I got the Azteca with orange, spinach, nopal (cactus), pineapple and honey and it was SOOOO GOOD! My mom got the Vampiro with pineapple, orange, beet, celery and apple which was good but a little too beety for our taste. The woman behind the counter throws the entire piece of fruit or veggie into the juicer so no nutrients are lost. I wish there was a Ranchito by our place in Oakland! We’re on a mission to find something like this since it sure beats Jamba Juice!

The huge counter dedicated to fresh juices!

Take yer pick!

Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Although I didn’t buy anything from the meat counter I couldn’t help but take a photo of the HUGE chicharron–they fried up the entire skin of a pig! Crazy and so gross at the same time, hahah.

Friday, June 24th

I had intended to go to my friend Alison’s yoga class in Irvine at Yoga Shakti (she teaches a few times a week, check her out if you’re in the Irvine area!!) but my health issue became extremely painful that day so I slept for a long time that afternoon. When the pain didn’t subside I finally followed the advice on the online forum posts I had found and after taking a second nap the issue had begun to clear up! Again, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of doing your own research and trying to heal yourself naturally.

That night I met up with Dorothy, Brianne and Brian at Judy’s house for some dinner and games. We used to go over to Judy’s to kick each other’s butts on Wii and hadn’t done that in a long time so we had a blast.

Saturday, June 25th

I was so happy that I was down in Long Beach for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Manazar Gamboa Community Theater! I was honored to have known Manazar through my mom (he was my mom’s writing mentor at the Homeland Cultural Center in LB, directly behind the new theater) and it was so perfect that I was able to attend such a wonderful event honoring his life 10 years after his death. Here’s a Press-Telegram article which talks about Manazar’s life and the theater (and my mama’s even quoted!)

Beautiful mural of Manazar on the side of the theater

The entrance

The program–see my mom’s name? 🙂

My beautiful mama

Mom with some of the Homeland staff

The growing crowd

African drummers

A very cool belly dancer who shook her hips while balancing a sword on her head. Now that’s talent.

My mom reading Manazar’s biography and two of his poems

She is at home in the spotlight!

Right after my mom finished talking I had to take off to meet Carleigh at the Long Beach airport! She flew down for the day so that we could go to our high school reunion together. It was lunch time so we rushed off to Open Sesame (yes, the same Open Sesame I went to on Monday) for some more amazing Mediterranean food. Then we took a stroll around Colorado Lagoon with the Lola-meister. It as such a beautiful day and I had never walked around the entire lagoon before!

Carleigh and Lola

We dropped Lola off and went to get our nails done for the event. I’ve only gotten a pedicure a handful of times and I always forget how nice they are! Then we went home to get dressed for our reunion!

Me and Carleigh all dolled up

The reunion was interesting but definitely not the highlight of my week in Southern California. It was nice reconnecting with a couple of folks and I just hope that more people attend our 15 or 20 year reunion. 🙂

Sunday, June 26th

Carleigh, Lola and I packed ourselves into the car and after a quick breakfast at Grounds we were on the road! 7 hours later we pulled into San Francisco to unpack and ready ourselves for another week in the city.

Updates–Kevin’s new job, our new apartment, etc.!

Posted by Lisa On June 16th, 2011

Lots has been going on in the Delmar-Edmonds household that I thought it was worthy of a blog post!

Kevin:

In late May Kevin graduated from the College of Alameda’s Aviation Mechanics program! And after two years of evening classes (Monday through Friday, 4:30-10:30) we’re finally able to spend time together on weeknights!

For months leading up to his graduation we weren’t sure where life would take us–would we stay in San Francisco? Move to the East Bay? Or even move back to Southern California? We were open to any opportunity that life would throw at us, and we were lucky to get that opportunity so soon after Kevin’s graduation. Just a week out of school Kevin’s professor let him know that Rolls Royce approached him and asked for the names of his top 5 students (Kevin being one of them). The following day Kevin got a phone call and was asked to come in for a job interview that same afternoon. He showed up and was basically handed the job offer right then and there! So he put in his one week notice (thanks to the understanding administration at his previous job!) and started working on jet engines the week following our trip down to Long Beach! He’s been there almost two weeks now and comes home everyday with a smile on his face, so he is exactly where he’s supposed to be. I couldn’t be more proud of him or happier for him–he worked his rear off in the program and I am so happy that other people recognize how freakin’ smart that guy is. 🙂

Move to the East Bay:

After a few weeks of apartment hunting we finally decided on a place–a two bedroom apartment in Oakland! We signed the lease yesterday and put our 30 days notice in and we’re getting more and more excited about the move across the bay! Here’s a link to more-or-less where we are on Google Maps. And here are some photos of the new place (they’re painting and putting in new carpet/flooring so it’s not completely done, but you get the picture)…

Kevin found a cool website that lets you create a floor plan for free, so here’s what the apartment basically looks like (click on photo to enlarge)!

The apartment building–it’s a 36 unit complex and we’re on the first floor in the back, right corner

We’re a block and a half from beautiful Lake Merritt!

A drive-by shot of the lake–you better believe I’ll be getting myself very acquainted with this lake for lots of long runs with Lola

Even before we signed the lease they already had our name on the intercom list! So cute.

The front lobby with a really neat painting of Lake Merritt

The first bedroom (the one we think we’ll be staying in)

The window view from the bedroom–the yard area is basically private and we’re looking forward to putting in a garden!

The hallway from the first bedroom looking to the second bedroom (at the end of the hall) and the bathroom to the left/living room to the right

The bathroom–AKA Kevin’s favorite room of the apartment, haha

The second bedroom

The view out the window from the second bedroom, we see right into the patio of our neighbors

The kitchen–this is the one downside to the apartment and I’m not super happy about how stinkin’ small it is. Plus it’s an electric stove. Bleh. But we’ll make do!

Our semi-private patio (where I’m standing taking the photo is the beginning of our neighbor’s patio, it’s a long shared walkway between all of the apartments)

The view from our patio down the walkway to all of our neighbor’s patios

We should be getting the keys in the next two weeks once it’s all painted and the floors are put in so a new update will be coming shortly! 🙂

Me:

The move across the bay means that my commute to work will change a bit, but luckily not too much. We’re a 20 minute walk from the Lake Merritt BART station so I’ll most likely be making the walk every morning. Then the BART ride to the Embarcadero station is about 15 minutes and the walk from Embarcadero to my work is another 20 minute walk. I could take a bus to the BART then a bus from the BART to work but at least on the non-rainy days I think I’ll try my hand at a 40 minute walk to and from work. Luckily the walk on both sides of the bay are beautiful–the lake is gorgeous and the walk along Embarcadero is pretty as well.

Other than the move, not much else is going on with me. I’m going to be looking to connect with the Buddhist group that I’ve been pretty highly involved with in SF but I’m looking forward to making new connections. Last week I got hit with an awful case of the stomach flu or food poisoning (not sure which)–I was out for three days and I had never been so sick in my whole life. I’m just glad it’s all over! 🙂

Lola:

Now that Lola isn’t making her daily appearance on Pet Camp’s blog (because Kevin’s not working there anymore and he can’t take her to work like he used to) Lola’s got a new routine–I take her for a 15 minute walk before I leave for work, then she’s at home for 8 hours 🙁 , then Kevin comes home around 3pm and takes her out while they wait around for me to get home. I’m hoping that once the move is over and we start to notice the bump in pay from Kevin’s new job we’ll be able to hire a dog walker for at least one of the days she’s home alone. With the new place, though, she’ll have a lot more room to roam around so I think she’ll be a happy camper even being stuck at home.

Adventures with Lisa & Kevin