Category Archive: Lola

Weekend of parties in Long Beach!

Posted by Lisa On May 31st, 2011

Wednesday, May 25

Kevin and I got on the road on Wednesday evening with the Lola in tow.  The drive down was pretty uneventful (the best kind of trip down the 5 highway, I’d say!) and we got in at midnight.

Pretty cows out to graze!

Lola was quite intrigued by the cows

Our pretty little girl stretching out her legs

Thursday, May 26th

We were fortunate enough to stay at Kevin’s parent’s house for the trip and were treated to a yummy breakfast of eggs and toast.  We just hung out most of the day, running some errands and soaking in the sun (oh, the sun!)  As Dorothy was watering the garden, she quickly learned how much Lola LOVES the garden hose…

Watering her grandpup! Haha

That evening we met up for dinner at Lucille’s BBQ (our go-to place when we’re in town!) with none other but Brianne, Brian and Brianne’s sister Laura.

Oh how I’ve missed you!

Cutie pie

Kevin and Brian, stuffed silly

Kevin and Lola, posing for a photo at home

Friday, May 27th

For the few weeks leading up to our trip down south I was working with Kevin’s mom and sister Judith to plan a surprise graduation party for Kevin on Friday night.  We had a guest list of around 40 people and were anxious to get the party started!  But first, a lot of shopping and preparations to make sure that Kevin didn’t find out until the last possible minute (and since we were staying with his parents it proved to be a little difficult!)

The plan that afternoon was to have his brother Thomas take him out for a few hours while Dorothy, George, Judith and I prepared the food, cleaned the house, and got the backyard all ready to go.  Unfortunately, Thomas had to go to work at 6pm (the same time the party started) so he had to drop Kevin off at 5:30, so the surprise was a little premature.  Nevertheless, Kevin was extremely surprised and had not idea what we had up our sleeves!

The guests started arriving…

Dan, Judith and Kevin

Jessie and her niece Lola (with Valerie, Vanessa and Rose in the background!)

Dan, Chris, Kevin, Brian, Dominic and Jayme

Same as above plus Dorothy, Loren, Shani, Andrea and Ron

Jess and Brianne

Mmm…veggie skewers! Oh yeah, and burgers & hot dogs for the carnivores

Christian (my mom’s boyfriend Steve’s grandson)

Lola and her new best “friend” Christian (he quickly wore her out [which is not an easy thing to do!] and so she got a little annoyed towards the end of the party since he was still full of energy and wanted to play!)

Me and Brianne

Kev and Jessie

Jess and Matt

After chowing down we brought out the cakes and said a little something about the man of the hour–for those of you that don’t know, Kevin just completed a two year Aviation Mechanics program at the College of Alameda.  It was a full-time program in which Kevin went to school from 4:30-10:30 every night for two years.  He ended up at the top of his class (no surprise here!) and just last week, at the recommendation of his instructor, was offered a job at Rolls Royce working on the V-22 Osprey engine!  It was SO great being able to celebrate Kevin and all of his accomplishments with the people that love him and it was even more wonderful that he was able to announce his new job just a week out of school.  We’re all so proud of you, Kev!

Applauding the guest of honor

The ADORABLE airplane cake the Dorothy baked and Shani decorated

It also happened to be Dan’s birthday so we sang a little song for him and gave him a cupcake to celebrate

Christian said he wanted the candle (not the cupcake, surprisingly) and said he was going to save it to put it on *his* birthday cake

A Cookie Monster cupcake will do that to you

I think everyone who attended really enjoyed celebrating Kevin and his accomplishments, thank you to everyone who was able to make it!

Saturday, May 28th

The main reason we made the trip to Long Beach this weekend was to celebrate with my good friends Kim and Frank on the day they got hitched!!

That morning we met up with my mom, Jessie, the Julians and Matt’s girlfriend Alexis at what other place but The Potholder?!

The whole gang

The wedding was scheduled to start at 4:30pm at the Art Theater in Long Beach–such a cool wedding venue!

The marquee said “A Love Story: Kimberly and Frank”…so cute!!

Jess, Steve, me, Kevin and my Auntie Tina in front of the theater

Me and Jess all dolled up

Me and Kev on the red carpet

Inside the theater they were showing silent films

Steve chowing on some popcorn (they had bags of it in the lobby for people to eat!)

Me and my mama

The ceremony was short and sweet, officiated by Kim’s dad Guy (who actually married Kevin and I as well!)

Kim and her mama Terry walking down the aisle.  What a beautiful bride!

The reception was behind the theater under a big tent…

Beautiful flower arrangement centerpieces

Lots and lots of wine for the masses!

Me and my party dress

Guy greeting my Auntie Tina and Jessie

Kim coming by to say hi

Hugs all around!

Matt and Alexis with the bride

Portrait of the bride…

…and the flower girl Bella

Me, mom, Tina, Jess and Kim (LOVE this photo!)

Me and Shan

Kim and Frank cracking up at Stacey (maid-of-honor’s) hilarious toast

The shoes…so perfect!

First dance

And Bella decided it was her time to show off her firefighter pole slide!

Susuico family dance (Stacey, Jay, Bella and Tasi)

Mom and Frank dancing

Kim and Steve dancing

Dancin’ shoes (mom and Jess)

Mom and Steve

Diane and Dave

Jess and Terry

Pretty sister!

Me and Kev (our obligatory shot)

They had an awesome candy bar for people to fill up little popcorn bags with treats…

The kiddos could be found swarming the table most of the evening

I swear she posed that way on her own! Haha

Their cake was AMAZING–made by one of her girlfriends Diana!  And it tasted better than it looks, no joke.

The adorable orange bride and groom to go with the citrus theme.

The ol’ hula gang!  Sayuri, Cat, Kim, mom and me

Finally warm enough weather to wear something that shows off my tattoo!

The evening was perfect and we felt so incredibly fortunate to be able to celebrate with our good friends Kim and Frank as they start a new life together!!

Sunday, May 29th

After a late night we met up with Brianne and Brian at The Coffee Cup Cafe for some good eats.

Me and Bri

We hung out with them for a few hours trying to distract Brian as Brianne went out to prepare for his very own surprise party, this time to celebrate his birthday!  That afternoon we had to pretend we were saying bye for good and that we wouldn’t be seeing him again until our next trip down, but little did he know that we’d be turning right back around to their apartment a few short hours later to celebrate with him and friends/family.

A video of the surprise!

Birthday banner made by Brianne

Cake!

We got the chance to see our friend Lara and meet her brand-new baby Audrey!  Audrey was a total sweetheart and it was great being able to meet her after only seeing photos all this time.

Lara, Brianne and Audrey

Ted and Lara

Me and the flying baby!

Monday, May 30th

We were treated to a home-cooked breakfast of waffles covered in strawberries and a breakfast veggie stir fry (or bacon if your name is Kevin).  It was nice being able to spend a couple of hours at home with Dorothy and George before making our way back home to SF.

Unfortunately the ride home was nowhere near as smooth as the ride down.  9 1/2 hours later we finally parked in front of our house.  Let that be a warning to anyone who thinks they can avoid the awful traffic on the 5 on a holiday!  🙂

We had SUCH an awesome trip, thanks to everyone who made an effort to see us and we can’t wait to go back!

Lola the movie star

Posted by Lisa On May 31st, 2011

My good friend Beka who I met when going to Redlands is in her second (and final) year of the MFA program at Stanford University–her final project is a 15 minute documentary called “Sick as a Dog”.  You can see the preview of the film at this link (and support her cause by donating as little as a dollar too!)

She had completed most of the filming but wanted to get a  shot from a dog’s-eye-view so asked if she could borrow Lola.  She and Kevin strapped a camera to her itty-bitty head and off to the dog park we went!

I think this could be considered animal abuse, don’t you think?

She was totally embarrassed around the other dogs! Hahah.

This is Pablo. So stinkin’ adorable!  I asked Kevin if we could take him home and, unfortunately, Kevin said no. 🙁

After about 30 minutes of trying to get Lola to run around while keeping the camera balanced on her head, we took it off and let Lola go free.  Then Beka got the brilliant idea to strap it on her head to see if she could get a good shot, haha!

Beka’s film (along with all of the other student’s films) will be shown at Stanford on June 11th and Kevin and I are going.  Hopefully Lola will get her 2 seconds of fame!  🙂  Here’s the info. about the film screening if any of you local folks are interested in going.  I went last year and was blown away by the films and we’re really looking forward to going!

Lola vs. the duck pond

Posted by Lisa On May 2nd, 2011

Kevin and I spent the past amazingly gorgeous and warm Sunday at McLaren park in our neighborhood.  It’s a quick 10 minute walk from our apartment and it really is one of the hidden gems in San Francisco.

We started out with a walk around the duck pond

Lola keeping a close eye on the ducks swimming in the pond

We let her sit at the edge of the pond and when Kevin called her to get her to start walking away with us he said “Okay Lola, let’s go” but of course the only word she heard was “Okay” and, in an instant, she jumped head first into the duck pond!  It happened so fast I wasn’t really sure what happened until I saw Kevin pulling her out of the pond!

Wet dog

Trying to shake off some of the pond scum.  Let’s just say we didn’t let her get close to us the rest of the afternoon and gave her a bath outdoors the minute we got home.

The park has some great trails and boardwalks throughout along with so many picnic tables hidden amongst the trees.

Kev and Lola on the boardwalk

A beautiful old tree

The hillside

Once at the top of the park (it was a pretty steep climb up from the street level) we spread out our blanket in a small field of wildflowers and soaked in some sun.

My idea of heaven, a blanket on the grass in the sun

The view from where we were laying

Me and K trying to get a tan!

A photo I took from an old tree stump–me, Kevin and Lola laying out on the blanket, enjoying each other’s company

Dad & Mysty’s visit

Posted by Lisa On April 26th, 2011

The evening of the same day that we said bye to Thomas and Ashley, we welcomed my dad and his pup Mysty for a few days!  They drove out from Las Vegas and got in around 8:30 pm on Wednesday April 20th.  After catching up for a bit we hit the sack because we were all feeling pretty tired and Kevin and I had work the next morning.

Mysty was a little suspicious of us at first, haha!

While Kevin and I were at work on Thursday, my dad and Mysty made a trip down to San Jose to visit with my sister Jess and check out her apartment and her wine bar.  That night the three of us went to dinner at our favorite Salvadoran restaurant Balompie.  It was my dad’s second time having pupusas (but only the first time eating them at a restaurant) and I think we made a fan out of him!  After stuffing ourselves silly we made our way up the street to El Rico Pan, a Salvadoran bakery, for some goodies and coffee.  The pound cake was TO DIE FOR as well as the churro that Kevin swears by now so we’ll definitely have to make a trip (or two) back here.

All the yummy goodness within El Rico Pan bakery

Me and my dad with our pound cake!

On Friday while I was at work for a half day, Kevin and my dad took the pups to McLaren Park in our neighborhood to get the girls some exercise.  They then made their way to Pier 39 and walked around a bit while I finished up things at the office.  Once I was able to tear myself away, I jumped in the back of the car with the pups and we made our way to Golden Gate Park!

Me with barely enough room to sit with those two doggies in the backseat!

We made our way to (you guessed it!) Strawberry Hill and Stow Lake to take in the scenery and give ourselves and the dogs some exercise.  Lots of nature to be seen…

Ducks, seagulls and a turtle

Two ducks and a whole group of tiny ducklings!

Lola was a thirsty dog by the end of the hike!

A super random little character tied up in the tree.  Not sure what to make of it but felt the need to take a photo!

That night we took it easy, ordered in pizza from Pizzeria Sophia (it was our first time ordering from them…holy moly, such good pizza!) and watched some of the Laker game.  It had been a couple of years since I saw my dad (and a few for Kevin) so it was great spending a few days with him.  Hopefully a visit to Vegas is in the cards for Kevin and I in the near future!  🙂

McLaren Park & Ocean Beach

Posted by Lisa On April 25th, 2011

Lola got her share of outdoor adventures in early April with visits to McLaren Park and Ocean Beach within days of each other.

Sometimes we forget that in our funky little neighborhood is a gem such as McLaren Park.  On April 4 we took Lola for a 10 minute walk and ended up in a beautiful open space to play catch and work her out.

Lola’s glamour shot

Me looking over Lola’s shoulder

I love this girl (can’t you tell?)

And so does Kevin 🙂

On April 9 we were craving donuts like nobody’s business so made a trip to Donut World in the Inner Sunset to satisfy that craving.  I hadn’t had donuts since we moved here almost two years ago and boy was that first bite of the chocolate old-fashioned donut (a favorite for both of us!) like pure heaven.

We then made a drive out to Ocean Beach in the Outer Richmond for some beach time.  It was super windy that day but the skies were clear and the beach was pretty empty so we enjoyed a nice walk along the beach.

Gorgeous!

Lola in action

Such a beautiful beach (if it wasn’t always so chilly!)

Sandy trails

Lola in action take 2

Me and Lola (and my hair, yet again, looks terrible. Thanks Kevin for having my back!)

The funniest thing was that Kevin taught Lola to be obsessed with birds on this walk.  We wanted to get a photo of her running through the birds but she’s never been much of a bird lover so weren’t sure we could do it.  Kevin kept encouraging her “Go get the birdies, go get the birdies!” and after a few attempts she got the hang of it and quickly became obsessed with chasing them.  At one point she even ran through so many groups of birds so far down the beach that we couldn’t even call her anymore, we had to chase her down the beach!

We didn’t quite get the shot we wanted but I guess that just means we’ve gotta try it a few more times (and I’m sure Lola won’t argue with that!)

Lake Merced & Earth Hour 2011

Posted by Lisa On April 24th, 2011

Mar 26–Lake Merced

Kevin and I spent an afternoon walking around part of the huge Lake Merced in the southern part of the city.  I discovered it with a friend when we decided to do a 3 mile loop run a few weeks prior and wanted to take Kevin and Lola there.

I know, we’re terrible doggy parents, always making Lola pose in front of the weirdest statues (this one, if you can’t tell, is of three penguins).

Kevin & Lola at the end of the path surrounded by strawberry bushes.

I know my hair looks terrible.  Unfortunately, Kevin didn’t think to tell me before he snapped this photo!  Hahah.

Mar 26–Earth Hour 2011

The first time I heard about Earth Hour was when we were in Australia in 2008 and although I had never participated in it I thought it might be fun to do it this year.  So at 8pm on the 26th we shut off the lights and hung out by candlelight.

But of course we couldn’t just sit there and stare at each other in the dim light.  We had to do something.  And do something we did!  We spent a couple of hours messing around with flashlights, lasers and the camera to take some cool photos.  Kevin was the genius photographer behind all this and I “wrote” in the air with the light.

The first one was written with me facing the camera so I had to write backwards and in cursive–not the easiest thing, let me tell you!  But I think it turned out pretty good.

This second one we used a laser pointer and I wrote Lola’s name facing her.  The hard part was getting Lola’s body to be lit up so after I finished writing her name, Kevin flashed a flashlight on her for just a second so that her body could be captured in light (otherwise she would’ve been too dark to see).

I’ve determined that we should honor Earth Hour more often so that it will get us off our rears and do something fun like this!  🙂

Hike in Almaden Quicksilver Park

Posted by Lisa On March 6th, 2011

So far we’re 2-for-2 with our goal to hike as many Saturdays as possible!  We went down to San Jose on Sat. 3/5 to meet up with Jessie to explore Almaden Quicksilver Park which isn’t too far from her place.  The total hike was 3 miles and although we could have kept going we had to leave it at 3 miles because Jess had to work that afternoon. We all really enjoyed exploring the small corner of the park we saw and are definitely excited about returning to check out more.

And we’re off! Me, Jess and Lola hitting the trail

Jess and Lola checking out the creek

Kevin got this great shot of the creek

Me and Lola hanging out

The Buena Vista Trail

Jess, Kevin and Lola on the Buena Vista Trail

This led us to the end of our hike: The Buena Vista mining site. We had a good time exploring the remains of this mining site.

Some of the remains of the site, old concrete structures with massive bolts left behind

Creepy look at the long way down the brick wall

Kevin went exploring a little farther as me and Jess took a break and he got this shot of us from the hill across the valley

Then I got this shot of Kevin as he was jumping off the 8 foot brick wall.  Pretty cool!

Here is it zoomed in

Pretty manzanita trees

Berries and blue sky

Lola in flight

Posted by Lisa On March 6th, 2011

Kevin had the day off of work and school on Friday 3/4 so he and Lola came to pick me up from work and we took a little trip to Levi’s Plaza.

This is one of Lola’s favorite parks because there’s a nice, calm river that she loves to run around.  And it’s just at the base of the huge staircase up to Coit Tower so it’s a nice little refuge after the strenuous walk up those stairs.  We only went up about half way this time (see the post from our last trip up to Coit Tower here, includes a video of Lola running around the park) but it was a good little workout nonetheless.

The highlight of the trip was that Kevin took some awesome photos of Lola in flight as she leaped across the river!

I can’t stop cracking up after looking at these photos of her mid-air!  Too funny.

Hike in the Presidio

Posted by Lisa On March 6th, 2011

Kevin and I made a goal to go on a hike as many Saturdays as possible.  So on Saturday 2/26 we went on a 5 mile hike through the Presidio in San Francisco.  The Presidio is a 1,500-acre urban national park at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and although we had driven through it many times when we had visitors in town, we hadn’t explored much of it on foot.  We followed the map in a book we checked out at the library and, although there was a bit of a detour due to construction, we followed it pretty close.

There was rumor that it might snow in San Francisco the day of our hike but, as you can see, it was a super clear day over the Golden Gate Bridge!  We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

There were lots of old canons and army memorabilia out for people to see.  We thought this beautifully decorated canon was quite the sight:

Then we came upon an old army hospital:

Lola went galloping up the stairs…and ended up on the balcony, looking down at us:


So I ran up to join her for a photo opp on the balcony of the old army hospital. 🙂

Around the back of the hospital we found these two cottages which were built after the 1906 earthquake for refugees:

Nice little set up they had there!

I took a photo of Lola from the inside of the cottage and it wasn’t until later that I realized what she was doing at the time.  Nice way to show your respect for a piece of history, Lola!

Lola on the back steps of the hospital

Officer’s Row

Then we got stuck for a few minutes due to construction.  We were going to try to bypass the construction by zipping through the national cemetery but because dogs aren’t allowed we had to come up with another plan.  We decided to hike through the forest behind the cemetery to try to meet up with the path again (instead of taking the 2 mile detour back the way we just came!)  Luckily, it worked out perfectly and we saw some cool sights along the way.

Me and Lola hiking through the forest

We saw a couple of cool churches:

And here’s part of the national cemetery with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background:

Then we happened upon this weird pile of wood.  After contemplating what its purpose was and after Lola climbed on top of it (typical), we finally saw a sign describing it.  Turns out it’s a gray fox habitat!

Then we saw these huge block letters on poles out in the middle of a field.  One line we were able to make out said “resolve conflict with song” and we had no idea what the heck the purpose of it was.

Then we saw another sign which said that it’s a habitat for a bird.  Here’s a close-up of some of the letters, they were filled with straw.

I guess there are a ton of these artistic habitat displays that people can check out and they’re part of the Presidio Habitats Exhibition.  They’ll only be up through May 15th of this year so we gotta check out the rest!

Beautiful old brick building

“I live on the corner of Upton and Upton”–good lord.

A lone crane out in the field

Fallout shelter: Cool, now we know where to go.

Lola found this random mini castle out in the middle of the Presidio. So I had her pose in front of it since she’s like our little princess.  🙂

At the base of Golden Gate Bridge

View of the coast

The last third of the hike was along the Bay Trail which took us through Crissy Fields and along the beach.

Kevin made me and Lola go through this 4 foot tunnel that was filled with about an inch of water instead of taking the long way around. Crazy guy.

I can’t get enough of this view! And the bridge looked even more amazing on such a gorgeous day.

Valentine’s Week & a trip to Monterey

Posted by Lisa On March 2nd, 2011

Like I mentioned in my last post, I arrived at the SFO airport late at night on Sunday 2/13, the day before Valentine’s Day.  Kevin picked me up at the airport and he suggested, since we weren’t going to be able to spend any time together on Valentine’s Day itself, that we do a crazy late night dinner after picking me up.  So at 10:30pm we got seated for dinner at BJ’s in San Bruno and enjoyed a nice dinner together (and shared a yummy pazookie as well!)

We’ve never been big on V-Day or anniversaries either, but Kevin sure pulled out all the stops this year.  In addition to suggesting this cute late night dinner idea, when he picked me up at the airport he gave me a King size box of Junior mints (my favorite!) and the card game Skip-Bo that we had been talking about getting for a while.  Then on Monday (V-Day) I had to go to work but he had the day off so he suggested he meet me at the office for lunch before he drove to class.  He surprised me with some of the most delicious, homemade (from scratch) devil’s food cupcakes I’ve ever had (and even had a few extra for some co-workers).  And lastly, he got me a frame with spots for four photos: he put one of us from our wedding, one of us about 2 years into our marriage, one of us and Lola living in SF, and he left one spot empty for when we have a baby.  What a sweetheart!  Okay, enough of the mooshy stuff.  🙂

The following weekend (President’s Day weekend) we decided to get away for the night and take a trip down to Monterey!  We realized we hadn’t taken a real vacation (just the two of us, and no Long Beach doesn’t count) since we went to Australia in 2008!!  Yikes, we gotta do a better job of getting away more often.  Carleigh and Scott graciously volunteered to watch Lola that night, so we packed up her bag and dropped her off at their place on the morning of Sunday 2/20 for 36 hours of play time with her best friend Bailey!

Looks like Lola on her first day of school!  Her bag was packed with lots of goodies to share with her friend Bailey.

We were recommended by C&S to drive down Highway 1 and we were glad we did.  Such a gorgeous drive along the coast.  Sure makes us appreciate this amazingly beautiful state of ours!  We stopped off for a quick visit to Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Somebody’s a major fan of the lighthouse with their “I Love Pigeon Point Lighthouse” license plate frame

I love old, run-down buildings

Thar she blows! Unfortunately you couldn’t go inside the lighthouse itself.

View off the coast

Ahoy matey!  Kevin sporting his binoculars.

Me sitting on a nicely decorated Pigeon Point Lighthouse barrel (aka a trashcan with a lid, gross).

Before checking into our hotel we drove down to Carmel to get some lunch at Carmel Belle (yummy food but super small portions and a pretty hefty price tag).  We did some window shopping and then walked down to the beach.  There were TONS of doggies out and about and it was such a gorgeous day.  We enjoyed walking along the beach and taking a break to soak in the sun.

Then it was time to check into our hotel!  Our hotel was just a block up from Cannery Row so it was nice to be so close to all the action.  Although working across from Fisherman’s Wharf in SF and knowing that I would never recommend anyone stay in a hotel out that way, I couldn’t help but get excited about being in the middle of this tourist trap in Monterey!  Haha.

Gorgeous mural of a whale around the corner from our hotel

Random old-school scuba gear on display

When Kevin saw this banner of John Steinbeck he jokingly asked me, “Why do they have a picture of Saddam Hussein up?” Hahah.

A really neat mural of fishermen along the beach.

No, we didn’t spend our money at the wax museum (they were closed, haha).

After the mandatory stroll down Cannery Row, we ate dinner at Paradiso Trattoria (pretty yummy food, especially the cilantro spread they have for their fresh baked bread…amazing!)

This was our view from the restaurant.  Gorgeous.

On Monday we woke bright and early, ate the continental breakfast at the hotel, and then checked out to go out and enjoy a drive and a walk along Ocean View Blvd. and the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail–by far the highlight of our trip!

Lots of breathtaking views to be had…

It’s a long way down!

And then, as we were looking out at the rocks and crashing waves, we spotted a furry thing scurrying across the rocks…who knew squirrels lived in the rocks along the beach?

They came up really close to us, probably looking for some eats.

Not only did we see lots of squirrels, we also saw harbor seals basking in the sun on some rocks!

Beautiful rock formations

Kevin taking a photo of the ocean

And tons of seagulls to look at and take photos of…

Seagull in action, leaping across the rocks!

Kevin taking a photo of a squirrel. They became good buds that day.

It was so so so nice to get away, just the two of us.  This being the year of our 5th anniversary of being married and our 10th anniversary of being together (!!!!) we have to take more time to celebrate our relationship and this was a perfect start to that!

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