Category Archive: parks

Sirena’s 1st birthday party!

Here is a collection of photos from Sirena’s first birthday bash! The days leading up to the party the weather was glorious…and then that morning we woke up to the gloomiest June day you could imagine! Super chilly winds, no sun to speak of. We kept the plans to host it at the park in the afternoon but it sure made for a different vibe than we had been expecting! But we all made the most of it, including the birthday girl (who had to cover up her special birthday dress which we bought when we were in Mexico over New Year’s…oh well!)

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Nothing like last-minute cupcake decorating to get a party started on the right foot! We even had to defrost the frosting (which had just about frozen in our ice chest) on the car’s engine. Talk about a memorable experience, lol!

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Me and Bri frantically rearranging the cupcakes as guests arrive.

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The decorations for the day were mostly colorful streamers and ribbons.

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The birthday girl’s special crown (made my Bri!) and her highchair all done up and ready for the cake smashing.

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We made a fun display of some photos of Sirena over the course of her first year with little party hats. We also asked guests to guess what career path Sirena would choose during her doljanchi ceremony (a really neat Korean tradition for first birthdays that we borrowed for the special occasion!)

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We had plenty of park games for the kids and big kids…water balloon toss, three-legged race, and some other fun games.

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Of the 5 career paths Sirena could choose and crawl to she chose…education (just like her mama!) Her second choice was actually mechanical (just like her Daddy!)

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Oh the presents!

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CAKE SMASHING TIME!

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Her royal highness ready to entertain her subjects.

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She’s not so sure about it…

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“Here, Daddy, YOU try it.”

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Family photo

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Delmar family

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Edmonds family

The party invitation I created:

Party invite

The thank you cards we sent out:

Party thank you card

A week of firsts

Even though it seems that every one of the blog posts recently have been about “Sirena’s first [insert something cool here]”, we had one full week of pretty exciting “firsts” that deserves its own post…

First trip to the zoo

I’m sure the words “Oakland” and “Zoo” together don’t conjure up visions of really cool animals but, surprisingly, the Oakland Zoo is quite the zoo!  We met up with my co-worker Debra and her 18 month old son Cruz for a visit to the park and we’re so glad we went!

Getting ready for her first safari

The gang ready to see some animals!

Sirena and Cruz, the little buddies

Happy mama, daddy and baby

Kevin, Debra and the kiddos walking through the park

We saw so many cool animals!  Like a mama and baby giraffe…

Me and my baby with the mama and baby giraffes in the background (awww…)

And a lion!  Apparently this guy never comes out into the open and we happened to be there in the 2 minutes he left his little enclosure…lucky us!

That zebra musta been real scared

Pumba was there

And so was this handsome fella

And this crazy monkey who was putting on a good show for us

We visited the fruit bat enclosure and got up-close-and-personal with some kinda cute/kinda creepy creatures.

Sirena wasn’t too impressed with the bats as you can see here

After all of the animals it was time for a break!

Is he not the cutest thing ever?

A tired and very full baby getting burped by daddy

Family photo outside of the flamingo enclosure

The Oakland Zoo is a gem in the middle of this big city and we would highly recommend it!

First college campus tour

We took Sirena on her very first college campus tour at UC Berkeley (it’s never too early to start, right??)  I have been wanting to go for a long walk on Cal’s campus since before my maternity leave started and I was so glad we finally did it.  Too bad the weather wasn’t spectacular that particular day but that didn’t keep us from having a good time.

It was chilly that day so we put on her going-home-from-the-hospital beanie and it made her look like a brand-speankin’-new baby again

Lola didn’t have to wear any sort of hat with that gorgeous fur coat of hers

Lola going for a stroll with good ol’ “Pappy” (Kevin and I are weird, what can we say?)

This face can only mean one thing…dirty diaper!

And what better place to change a dirty diaper?  On the bench in front of some old building on the campus, of course!

I couldn’t resist taking this picture, it looks like the Invisible Baby or something (I know, I’m a dork)

One of my favorite things about this campus is The Campanile

Sirena with The Campanile in the background (if she ends up going to Cal I think it would be awesome to take a similar picture of her standing in this spot on her first day there. Gah, I’m such a mom.)

First concert

We made it back to Stern Grove for one of the free summer concerts and once again it did not disappoint!  Jess and I went to a Stern Grove concert my first weekend living in San Francisco in 2009 (see post here) and Kevin, Lola and I went with some friends last year (see post here) and I had been looking forward to taking Sirena to see the band Ozomatli before she was born. We met up with Jessie who snagged a great spot right in front and hung out with some of her friends that afternoon.

As new parents we naively brought S to the concert without having thought through how to protect her tiny little ears and we were prepared to sit away from Jess and her group to keep S far from the speakers but luckily the Red Cross booth had ear plugs that we could use and they seemed to do the trick!

Happy baby getting ready for the concert to start!

Ma and Pa enjoying a baby-free moment while Aunt Jessie was dancing with S

Mama dancing with Sirena

Here are two short videos of Sirena dancing with me and dancing with Aunt Jessie (notice how deep asleep she is in both videos even with all the ruckus going on)!

Sirena’s first two weeks

Sirena’s first days of life

A few hours after Sirena was born, we made the trip upstairs to the Family Recovery Room to spend the next two nights getting to know our baby and preparing to go home as new parents.  Over the course of the next 48 hours we spent a lot of time visiting with the family that was in town, trying to get as much sleep as possible which proved to be almost impossible with the constant feeding, changing of diapers (which Kevin did completely while in the hospital, I didn’t have to change a diaper until we got home!), and the constant interruption by nurses and doctors coming in to check in on us, and just being in complete and total awe of the little lady we had created.

My first experience in a wheelchair and I couldn’t have asked for a better chair mate!

Skin-to-skin with mama

Hanging out with mom and dad (and Uncle Derek who came for a surprise visit!)

Love

Sirena was surrounded by lots of loving family members who couldn’t wait to get their paws on her–she was rarely laying down in the bassinet but instead almost always in someone’s arms!

Proud first-time grandma

Kevin and his mom (I love this picture!)

Such a happy Grandpa!

Enjoying time with Grandpa George and showing off those expressive little hands

Getting the special treatment by Aunt Jessie

Uncle Derek made a surprise visit to the hospital on the afternoon of the day she was born–someone knocked on the door and, thinking it was another nurse checking in on us, I told them to “come in” and I was speechless when I saw Derek walk in the door!  Turns out he happened to have an ultimate frisbee tournament in Santa Cruz that weekend so made the drive up to visit with us for a couple of hours before going back.  It was so wonderful having him there to meet his first niece!

The Delmars

The Edmonds

Sirena actually had to have a minor medical procedure done while still at the hospital–I was experiencing a lot of pain while breastfeeding and the nurses who observed me just said that Sirena had a strong latch but that eventually it’d get better.  When I began bleeding and the pain, in fact, did not stop we asked to meet with a Lactation Consultant to see if she could help.  She first observed Sirena nurse and then took a look inside her mouth and said that she believed her frenulum (the membrane that attaches the tongue to the floor of the mouth) was shorter than usual which did not allow her to breastfeed very efficiently.  She told us about the simple procedure of cutting the frenulum and after we said it would interest us she had the attending pediatrician come to our room to check her out.  The doctor agreed that cutting the frenulum would be beneficial and gave us the consent forms for the procedure.  It was surreal having to read through medical paperwork and sign off on something for another human and not myself.  Once the paperwork was signed and the doctor was getting ready I was overcome with some pretty intense emotions–whenever I had heard moms say that they couldn’t stand seeing their child get a shot I really couldn’t understand why something like that could be so dramatic, and yet here I was with a one day old baby who was going to get a very minor medical procedure done and I was overcome with sadness and I began to cry.  I felt so bad for this little person and I couldn’t help feeling guilty, questioning our decision to do this if it was only for a selfish reason (so that I wouldn’t be in pain while breastfeeding).  I couldn’t stand to watch the 2-second procedure and felt awful when I heard her little cry after it was done.  Luckily her cries only lasted for 30 seconds and she barely bled at all but it was the first time I truly understood those other moms and the overwhelming feelings of wanting to protect my baby from any little harm.

The hospital commissioned a photography company to drop by to meet with the new families to take baby’s first photos–although we didn’t order any from the company we did take advantage of the trance-like state the photographer put Sirena in so that I could snap a few posed newborn photos of our own!

Our itty bitty model

Sirena’s first glamor shot

Daddy and Sirena

Our last night at the hospital we got the extra special treatment with a meal fit for a royal family.  Kevin and I had placed our order the previous day so were looking forward to the dinner but when another huge tray showed up covered with five servings of desserts and Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider we were blown away–they not only prepared dessert for Kevin and me but for my mom, her boyfriend Steve, and my sister Jessie who happened to be visiting during that time as well!

The feast (with the guest of honor)!

And here’s a short video of the three of us hanging out in the hospital together

Life with a newborn

Bringing Sirena home

On Monday morning after meeting with countless medical professionals and attending the hospital discharge class it was finally time to go home.  I hadn’t set foot outside of the recovery room for 48 hours so it was strange not only to be going home with a new sidekick but also just to be outside of those four walls in general!  The weather had changed dramatically that day–it had rained early that morning and it was so windy, it reminded us of some tropical location.  She couldn’t have asked for more dramatic coming-home weather!

Proud new daddy

Soothing herself on mom’s finger for her first ever car ride…she was a total champ!

We were both excited and anxious about Sirena’s and Lola’s first encounter.  Lola had been without mom and dad for three days so we decided to leave Sirena out in the hallway with my mom while Kevin and I went into the apartment to greet our overly-excited pup.  It was so apparent she missed us a ton while we were gone and it was so great getting to see her again!  After a few minutes it was time for the long-awaited first meeting: here’s a short video of the two of them being introduced! Lola was extremely curious about the new little person (if she even recognized that Sirena was a little human) and just wanted to sniffsniffsniff her.  We had to tell her to “leave it” when she started getting a little too carried away with wanting to give her kisses but overall Lola did great at their first meeting!

Her first week

Sirena’s first week at home was a whirlwind.  Kevin and I were busy trying to figure out this whole newborn thing and getting used to our new sleep schedule.  We had the company of my mom and Steve for a couple of days at home which was nice to have some companionship and some extra hands to hold her while we tried to get things taken care of.

The only thing we had to do that week was go to our first doctor’s appointment with a Lactation Consultant on the day after we got home from the hospital.  The LC we met with was fantastic and gave me a lot of support and an extra boost of confidence.  Sirena at first weighed in at 7 lbs, 7 oz and after nursing her for 20 minutes she was weighed again and gained almost an entire ounce!  The LC scheduled us for another appointment the following week and said that it was her hope that Sirena gain at least 4 oz within the week.

Here are some snapshots from her first week at home:

Three generations

So itty bitty in her car seat!

My Aunt Tina bought Sirena a cute little Minnie Mouse outfit and a ton of Disney dolls so we wanted to take advantage and take a cute photo reminiscent of E.T.:

Let’s play “Where’s Sirena?”

Napping with Dad (check out the arm positions for both of them…)

Kevin and I made sure to get out of the house as much as possible to enjoy the outdoors and the sunshine instead of being cooped up in the house all day long.  Our first excursion when she was five days old was to Piedmont Park for a nice walk with Lola–while pregnant with Sirena I would take Lola here just about once a week so it was crazy being there with a little baby in tow!

Kevin and his girls

Sleepy baby

Lola checking out the munchkin Dad was carrying around

Her second week

We kept ourselves pretty busy her second week with visitors (Carleigh, Terri & Scott, and Darinee & Harrison came by for visits), a doctor’s appointment, a postpartum doula appointment, and excursions around town.

The doctor’s appointment we had was with the same Lactation Consultant we had seen the week prior–the first thing she did was weigh Sirena and when she found out she weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz (up 13 oz from the week before) the LC said, “Good job, mama! That’s all I needed to know, you’re doing a great job and you can go home now!”  It seems that Sirena and I are a pretty good team when it comes to this breastfeeding business.  🙂

One of the days that week we took a nice long walk to the Lake Merritt farmer’s market.  Since dogs aren’t allowed in the market I sat in the shade with our girls while Kevin went around to get some food–there was a man with his one year old daughter who stopped by to see the little baby in the stroller, he asked me how old she was and when I told him 7 days old he said, “You gave birth a week ago?!”  😉

On the walk home we stopped by the lake to take some photos…

Lola checking in on her sister

Kevin and his three girls

And here are some random photos from the week…

Little Buddha baby (check out those legs!)

She’s such a GRUMP when she wakes up!  We love it.

A visit from Auntie Carleigh (who is expecting two boys in a few months, Sirena’s future buddies!)

At the Oakland Rose Garden

Trying out Dad’s shades

And a little bit about postpartum recovery

With all of the preparation I did for the birth itself I wasn’t quite prepared for the moments and the days after the birth.  Other than a co-worker telling me about her own experience the two days in the hospital after her daughter was born, no one really talked to me about the recovery so I thought I’d mention it briefly here.

Like I mentioned in my previous post with her birth story, the moment she was placed on my chest was incredible.  She was so warm and so big and so unbelievably cute and I just could not believe that she was real and that she actually came out of me.  I was very much focused on her little face and her huge presence but something else was demanding my focus: being stitched up by the doctor.  Turns out I had a second degree tear (which is pretty typical for a woman’s first vaginal delivery) and because I didn’t have an epidural, even though she applied a local anesthetic I was still very aware of the sensations of the stitching while it was happening.  It actually took around 30 minutes for the doctor to finish and it was a lot more painful and uncomfortable than I could have imagined.  Even though I was in quite a bit of pain, during this time I was very much focused on Sirena and I actually gave her the nickname “Honey bear” to comfort her when she would cry or whimper.  I had never thought of that nickname prior to this experience so I consider it extremely special for the two of us and I find myself calling her that now when she’s in the most distress.

Another thing I hadn’t really expected was when I went to use the restroom for the first time about an hour after she was born, Kevin accompanied me and when I got up I told him I was feeling dizzy and placed my arms around his neck and the next thing I knew I woke up on the bathroom floor with a nurse looking over me.  I had fainted because I had lost so much blood (not any more than expected for a vaginal birth but way more than I had ever lost before!) and thank goodness Kevin was there to help lay me on the floor so I didn’t hit my head.  From then on I had to wear a “Fall Risk” bracelet on my wrist and the nurses were extra cautious of me getting up for any reason.  I also had a hard time urinating and ended up having to get a catheter put in for an entire evening–the worst part about this was that the nurse couldn’t put it in so had to ask the head nurse to come in and help her and she also had a hard time putting it in so for about 30 minutes total I had two nurses pricking me in a very sensitive area which I had definitely not anticipated.  Once the catheter was in I felt a huge relief so it was definitely worth it but it was a very trying time while they were putting it in.

More than anything, what I had the hardest time with in terms of recovery was the fact that I was so extremely weak.  I had never even broken a bone before so being in a hospital and actually having to recover and needing nurses to take care of me was very difficult for me.  I couldn’t do a lot of things for myself and I had a hard time letting go and being okay with nurses helping me with some very personal and uncomfortable things like assisting me in the restroom, emptying the catheter, etc.  I now have so much more respect for nurses and all they have to do for their patients having been one myself!  The first two weeks at home were pretty rough with my recovery as well but each day I would feel more and more normal and now that we’re almost one month from her birthday I am feeling about 95% back to normal.

The “baby blues”

Yup, I experienced them.  I struggled with deciding whether or not to include anything about this on the blog but I decided to be honest and share my experience because it seems that it isn’t always talked about and I want other new moms who have experienced them or women who may experience them in the future know that they’re not alone.

The first two weeks were…rough.  Adjusting to life with a newborn was not easy in the slightest, just like everyone had said (but I didn’t truly understand until I was living it!)

Lack of sleep + constant discomfort/pain from recovery + feeding Sirena every 1-3 hours all day long + crazy postpartum hormones = a not-always-happy mama.  I had a hard time accepting the fact that the independence I had once enjoyed every day was now completely gone.  When Sirena was hungry (like I said, every 1-3 hours all day long), I was needed right this instant.  Sleep was constantly being interrupted by a need to breastfeed and/or change a diaper–she’d wake up 2-3 times during the night and be awake for at least one hour at a time.  Our daily schedule was completely flipped on its head and we weren’t getting out of the house and seeing the light of day until around 2pm each day.  My body was no longer my own (not just in terms of breastfeeding but with the recovery too) and I just didn’t feel normal anymore.

All of these things added up to make me feel, in a word, drained.  Even though I genuinely enjoyed so many moments with my new little family there were many moments when I felt inadequate for not knowing what to do at all times, I felt selfish for wanting more sleep and wanting to not breastfeed and wanting my old life back, and more than anything, I felt guilty for having these feelings.  I have wanted to be a mom for a long time–I am great with kids and had expected mamahood to be something I would be a natural at.  So when my first two weeks as a mom turned out to be extremely difficult, I began feeling like maybe I wasn’t cut out for being a mom after all and that was the worst feeling to have.

So what helped me snap out of this?  First of all, Kevin was amazing throughout this experience.  He allowed me to crycrycry it out, he was extremely supportive and was constantly telling me that I was, in fact, doing a good job and that it was okay and normal for me to feel the way I was feeling, and he would do his best to take her so that I could get a 2-3 hour nap in every day.  Getting out of the house at least once a day to enjoy the sunshine and some fresh air has done wonders as well–I can’t imagine what kind of a wreck I would have been if I was cooped up in our apartment every single day.  And lastly, I had to constantly remind myself even during the crying fits and the discomfort and the sleeplessness that I had wanted and dreamed about having Sirena for so many years and that I needed to appreciate the little life that I was fortunate enough to spend my days with, even during the rough patches.

Each day has honestly gotten better and better and even though we’re now approaching her one month birthday and I’m still exhausted, even though I still question whether or not I know what the heck I’m doing, and even though I still cry at the drop of a dime, I know that this is all temporary and that this will all be over before we know it so I strive to enjoy each and every moment I have with her as much as possible.

Our little burrito

City life + swingin’ in the trees

This past weekend Kevin, Lola and I had a completely free schedule so we took full advantage of it.  We drove into the city on Saturday to enjoy what we thought was going to be a super sunny, warm day…

View of the Ferry Building from the Bay Bridge…it was such a clear day, you rarely see this view with such clarity going over the bridge!

Lola anxious to get to our destination

View of the Ferry Building from Embarcadero

Our first destination was North Beach–I still have a SF library card (shh, don’t tell them we moved to Oakland) and so I reserved some pregnancy/childbirth books to pick up at the North Beach branch since it’s so close to work and they were ready for pick up so we figured we’d stop there first to check ’em out.  Then we decided to take full advantage of our location to enjoy some yummy Italian food for lunch.

Kevin enjoying some major sunshine at Caffe Delucchi

Some graffiti art around North Beach

We then decided to treat Lola to a visit to our old stomping grounds…Golden Gate Park!  To our surprise, though, by the time we got to that part of the city the weather had completely changed.  It went from sunny and warm to cold, foggy, and rainy!  Even though we lived in the city for 2 years and experienced this on a number of occasions we still couldn’t get over the fact that a 15 minute drive could get us to what seemed like a completely different part of the country.  We tried to make the best of it though to get Lola some much-needed and well-deserved exercise!

The tip top of the dome of the Conservatory of Flowers

Thar she blows!  Not too shabby of a background for our rendezvous in the park.

Lola’s newest obsession?  Frisbee!  We love the Kong frisbee, it is the absolute best for a sharp-toothed dog like Lola.

Kevin getting a good throw in

Lola being a good girl and bringing it back to us (about 85% of the time, anyways!)

The next day we made a trip to Albany Hill Park to do some exploring on this hill that we had seen numerous times driving around North Berkeley/Albany/El Cerrito/Richmond…it was about time we made a trip up the hill and we are so glad we did!

Be-a-u-tiful eucalyptus trees!

The view from the east side of the hill (I forgot to take a picture of the view of the bay from the other side of the hill)

To our delight, we found a tree swing just hanging out and begging for Kevin to give it a whirl!  He spent a good 15 minutes swinging on that thing and Lola’s reaction to him swinging was so perfect, I caught a couple of hilarious videos for your viewing pleasure!

Kevin up among the trees (and Lola below, freaking out)

Lola attempting to bite Kevin’s ankle upon landing, hahah.

Kevin about to give me a good whack in the face (and Lola trailing behind)…I love this photo.

Lola about to get smacked in the face by Kevin’s big ol’ feet!  I’m surprised she didn’t get hit the whole time they did this.

And here are the videos! Here’s the first time Kevin attempted the tree swing and Lola’s initial reaction to all the action. Here’s another video of Kevin dodging Lola’s attempts to bring him down from the rope swing.  And here’s a quick video of Lola versus the rope swing.

The result of Lola’s battle with the rope swing?…

…one very sleepy pup.

Winter weekends

We’ve been trying to maintain the “adventures” part of the blog’s name as much as possible, I’ve just been slacking on updating about it here.  Here are some fun things we did in February…

I joined Carleigh and Scott for an evening of live theater at Albany High School (just north of Berkeley) to see “The Drowsy Chaperone”, a musical comedy.  Carleigh and I were both active in theater when we were in high school and it was fun being a community member out supporting a local high school’s musical.  It sure brought back a lot of memories for us!

The lobby of the theater

The gorgeously decorated theater

Me being a dork in front of a King Kong mural inside the theater

My theater mates!

The very cute theater (soooo much smaller than our high school’s!)

The finale!

On a bright and sunny weekend Kevin, Lola and I took a long walk through our neighborhood to do some exploring.  It ended up being a 3 mile walk round trip and our final destination was the Oakland Municipal Rose Garden which all you horticulturalists out there probably already know that it wasn’t in bloom this time of year but it still made for a nice walk through the grounds.  We want to return after Mother’s Day which is when they say the roses really start popping.

One of the many neighborhood staircases we climbed to get to the park

Just about the only rose petals we saw that day

The grounds include a beautiful pool and lots of trails

Here’s a shot of the beautiful Lake Merritt which we live just a couple of blocks away from

I honestly cannot get over how gorgeous this lake is and how lucky we are to live so close to it!

See the little gnome?  These little guys have been popping up around the neighborhood for the past few months…they’re hand-painted and nailed to the bottom of telephone poles.  I don’t know who’s behind all of this nonsense but I sure am a fan!

On Superbowl Sunday, my favorite holiday of the year (can you sense the sarcasm of my typing voice here?), we made the trek across the bridge to our old stomping grounds: San Francisco!  It’s amazing how little we get out to the city now that we live in Oakland (only 20 minutes drive from SF with no traffic, though, so really not too far at all).  I’m there too often for work so when it comes to the weekend it’s the last place I want to drive to, unfortunately.  But this particular Sunday we had an excuse…a Superbowl party hosted by our friend Darinee!  We arrived pretty early so decided to spend some time reading and relaxing at Alta Plaza Park in Pacific Heights.

Cherry blossoms in full bloom!  So, so pretty.

We saw this mirror in the park that was installed by The SF Mirrors Project (a really cool public art project, check out the website for more info) and Kevin wanted to take a picture of me in front of it (with a wee little baby bump!)

Views from the top of the park…

And last but not least, this past weekend we spent a glorious Sunday morning hiking in Tilden Park in Berkeley with our friends Terri and Scott and their pups Madeira and Ihna.  The only other time we had been to Tilden was our first weekend in the East Bay for 4th of July weekend when we went swimming in Lake Anza with Carleigh and Scott so we were overdue for a trip back there!

The windy drive to Inspiration Point where we were meeting the gang…Lola enjoying the ride sniffing out the window!

The group making our way up…

…and up and up…

To be rewarded with a beautiful 360 view of the SF Bay and surrounding areas!

We took a little break at the top of the peak to let the dogs rest (oh who am I kidding…it was to let the humans rest!)

Madeira, Terri, Ihna and Lola

Doggies and humans

Kevin getting smothered with Ihna kisses (I swear those two were married in a past life)

Teri and Scott keeping me entertained!

The whole gang!

Lola’s obligatory leaping shot

Madeira looking all majestic at the top of the peak

Lola, looking like she’s in on some inside joke (photo courtesy of Scott)

For some reason I thought these towers looked really neat on the way back down the hill…don’t ask.

Day trip to Albany Bulb

Kevin, Lola and I took advantage of a clear, warm, sunny day to make a day trip to the Albany Bulb (just northwest of Berkeley, right on the bay).  It’s a former landfill (go figure) which is now home to an awesome dog beach, some nice walking trails, and lots of awesome graffiti art to look at.

Kevin and Lola’s favorite past time: playing fetch in the open water

Lola swimming in the bay (see the kayaker and the city skyline in the background?)

Soaking wet dog

This was a memorial of Miss Daisy painted on a rock overlooking the dog beach.  So sweet!

After Lola’s dip in the bay, we took a 30 minute walk to check out the graffiti art and the views of the city skyline.

Me, Lola and the baby bump

Kevin always likes climbing down on unstable rocks/ledges…

…and Lola always follows after him!

Follow the leader

See the giant deli sandwich to the right?  And notice all of the random shoes hanging from the branches?

Lola’s new apartment

Kevin wondering if this note “Not a white man’s b****” was meant for him.

The trails went on and on but with my pregnant self I could only go so far before we had to turn back.  There is so much to explore here!

Our forties photo shoot

As most of you know, Kevin and I went back in time for a forties-themed photo shoot the weekend after Thanksgiving.  A little background on how this came to be: Lindsey, a friend from high school, is now a professional photographer and I’ve followed her blog for a while now.  Some time last year she had a little contest that if you commented on the blog you would be entered to win a free photo shoot…and I randomly won!  I never win anything so I was surprised beyond belief.  Soon after winning the contest she moved back down to Southern California and I was afraid we may never get to have our photo shoot.  In early October, Lindsey e-mailed me letting me know that she’d be in the Bay Area for a few other photo shoots and luckily we were able to schedule a session!  I thought it would be so fun to do a forties-themed photo shoot (instead of us dressed in matching cardigans, haha) and we spent a good month or so researching outfits and putting things together piece by piece either through online stores or local thrift shops.  We were pretty happy with the final result.

And of course I enlisted the help of my amazing sister to do my makeup and hair (because goodness knows what I would’ve turned out to look like if she hadn’t been there to make me over!)  I can’t thank that girl enough for making me look damn good.  🙂

Sisters all done up!

We were pressed for time and were extremely nervous leaving our apartment with only 30 minutes to get to our destination in the city.  Without traffic, we could be there in 20 minutes.  But it was a Saturday afternoon and traffic can be INSANE getting across the bridge at that time.  We got so lucky and arrived to meet Lindsey only a few minutes late.

Our adorable chauffeur

My hope was to take some fun photos on Embarcadero near some of the piers, I thought it would look very timely for our 40s shoot.  But I didn’t realize that at 4pm (my favorite time of day to take photos in the soft sunlight), all of the tall buildings downtown would cast shadows along the piers.  Boo!  But Lindsey made it work and had us take our photos in Levi’s Plaza Park, a great little garden area (Kevin and I took Lola to this park once and had a great time).

We had Coit Tower looming overhead as we readied ourselves for an hour session in the cold (I hope my goosebumps don’t show in the photos! Hahah).

Dorothy and George came along for the ride (or was it for Zante’s Indian pizza we promised them that evening…hmmm?) and Dorothy snapped some good shots over Lindsey’s shoulder…

Leaning in for a smooch!

We had a bit of an audience throughout the shoot as well

I was afraid Kevin might drop me, haha! Luckily, we both survived.

We had SUCH an amazing experience and cannot thank Lindsey enough for her generosity.  I am beyond excited to see the final photos once she’s finished processing/editing them (fingers crossed it’ll be before Christmas!)  If you’re in Southern California and want some amazing family photos, maternity photos, baby photos, wedding photos, or even a fun boudoir session, all you need to do is spend five minutes perusing her portfolio on her website to see her work speak for itself.  We highly recommend her!  🙂

Fall visitors & a mostly vegan Thanksgiving

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

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.

No dogs allowed

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??

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