August | 2009 | Adventures with Lisa & Kevin

Derek visits SF

Posted by Lisa On August 22nd, 2009

My brother Derek made a trip up to SF last week and it was so great showing him our new city because he had never been here before! On Fri. 8/14 he and I did some exploring in North Beach, Chinatown and Ghirardelli Square. It was his last day in the city and we didn’t have time to take him back to my apartment before he left so he had to take his stuff with him. So he had this grand idea of taking photos throughout the city standing with his pillow. So that’s why he’s holding his pillow in every photo! We had a good time coming up with ideas of where to take photos. It was so nice having him up to visit and I can’t wait for him to come back soon!

Derek & Pillow in Chinatown

Derek & Pillow looking at the funky styrofoam bird display

Derek & Pillow in red light district

Derek & Pillow in North Beach

Derek & Pillow with cool gypsy wall art

Derek & Pillow in North Beach

Derek & Pillow in Ghirardelli Square

Derek & Pillow on bus

Derek & Pillow and sisters

Can you believe it, a serious photo with the Delmar kids! (If anyone knows Derek and has seen family photos of us, he’s always making a funny face! 😉 )

Granite Creek camping trip

Posted by Lisa On August 22nd, 2009

The Edmonds family camping trip was a blast. The weather could have been just a wee-bit hotter (the first two days we wore jackets and had a fire going all day!) but the last few days it started to warm up and we spent most of the day hanging out in the middle of the creek on some rocks, building dams and, for the brave few of us, swimming in the cold, cold creek. Lola was just WONDERFUL on the trip. She absolutely loved being off leash for most of the day, running through the forest, jumping on rocks and crossing the creek. She’s a true camping dog!

We took a break along the drive and saw this beautiful view

Kevin, Luke, Lola and Thomas in the cab of George’s truck

Going for a hike

Joshua enjoying some yummy apple chips

Lola playing with her cousin Katelyn (they sure became close friends!)

Katelyn skipping rocks and Thomas hanging out

Nap time with dad

Lola LOVED hanging out on the rocks, she reminded me of a billy goat climbing them the way she did

Katelyn, the brave one who dared to go in the water

It didn’t take long for her to get in all the way! And she kept telling me “Come in, Lisa, it’s perfect!” Yeah, I doubt that Katelyn! 😉

It wasn’t long after that Uncle Kevin joined her

I love this picture, Lola looking on as Katelyn and Kevin go for a dip (you can click on the photo to get a closer look)

Katelyn and Judith hanging out

Time for another nap!

Katelyn enjoying lunch and Joshua enjoying the sunshine

Judith, me, Joshua, Luke and Thomas hanging out around the campfire

Josh was very proud of his find, and it kept us warm all weekend!

Turn’s out Lola’s a pyro just like the rest of the family! haha

Remember how I said Katelyn and Lola became good friends? Well Katelyn loved to play dress up with Lola

Me and Kev making barbecue chicken, corn on the cob and baked beans for dinner, yum!

Can you tell this girl likes to sleep? And she just loved snuggling with us in the tent among all the blankets. So cute!

Edmonds family camping trip 2009

Posted by Lisa On August 4th, 2009

It’s finally that time of year again…camping trip with the Edmonds gang! We’ll be heading out tomorrow afternoon to Granite Creek outside of North Fork in Central California and we can not WAIT! Not only are we going to see the family after not seeing them in a month, but they get to meet Lola and we get to take her on the trip with us!

Plus, we got her a doggy backpack so that she can carry her things on hikes with us (a recommendation by Cesar Milan, star of the show The Dog Whisperer, who feels that all dogs need a purpose, so having them carry their own things on walks will help in that regard!) As you can tell, she is just as excited about going as we are!

Sorry for the bad quality, it was taken from my cell phone…there’ll be plenty more pictures of her with her backpack from our trip this weekend, don’t you fret! 🙂

So we’ll be gone through Sunday 8/9 and I’ll be sure to update the blog early next week. Take care and we’ll see you soon!

Finally, pictures of our home!

Posted by Lisa On August 4th, 2009

Finally, all of the picture frames have been put up and the boxes have all been unpacked (phew!) so I finally felt like our apartment looked semi-good enough to take pictures of and post online. Enjoy!

Probably the most important room of all, the bedroom!

Yes, that is a keyboard…I’ll start playing more this fall when Kevin’s away at night school and me and Lola are left alone to hang out! It’s been a dream of mine for a long time and I can’t wait to get started. 🙂

The second most important room (and our only other room in the apartment to mention!)…the living room

Close-up of our frame display…more to come in the near future!

Lola’s favorite room…the kitchen!

Lola checking in on mom and wondering what the heck she was doing

So as most of you know, Kevin is still looking for a part-time job to work while he’s going to school full-time for Aviation Mechanics at the Oakland Airport, so the past few weeks he’s been hanging out at home and he has become quite the chef! So far I’ve come home to enjoy some delicious dinners, including: tilapia with mango salsa, homemade Naan bread, buttermilk biscuits with homemade butter, Jalepeno Adobo burgers, carnitas tacos (are we drooling yet??) Here are some pictures of some of his creations…I just wish we could live off of one salary for good so I could enjoy this everyday! 🙂

Fun times with the Lola-meister

Posted by Lisa On August 2nd, 2009

I have to say, having a dog of our own is 100% more fulfilling than we could have imagined! We have been enjoying our time together so much and here are some highlights:

Hanging out with her Aunt Jessie

She’s just a big ol’ baby when she’s around Kevin!

She LOVES her Loofah Dog…too bad one week later the dog’s head was ripped off! haha

Hanging out with mom at Franklin Square Park

One of the funniest pictures yet!

In our neighborhood about a 5 minute drive away is McLaren Park. This truly is a gem in the middle of nowhere! It has a lake, a dog play area, and great trails that make you feel like you’re in the middle of the forest. Kevin and I are thinking about becoming “Friends of McLaren Park” where people get together once a month to work on restoring the park and making it more family/kid/community friendly.

One of the best things we’ve found around our neighborhood is St. Mary’s Park, a wonderful dog park about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We’ve taken Lola both days this weekend and she has a BLAST as you can see in this video:

Lola really has been a great dog this past week. She’s got “sit” and “stay” down pat. “Lay down” she knows most of the time, but a lot of time she flips her whole body to get a belly rub so we’re still working on that. There are a few things that we’ve got to work on with her: walking straight on a leash (she’s gotten better, but she doesn’t understand that concept and will sometimes walk right in front of us) and her motion/car sickness! Even on short car rides, she has a tendency to get sick and throw up on the ride. 🙁 So Kevin’s taking her to the vet this week to see if we can get her some doggy Dramamine for our 5-hour car ride we’ve got coming up this Wednesday for our camping trip! We’re keeping our fingers crossed that she’ll be okay! The last thing that happened was last night…she got sprayed by a skunk! So Kevin had to wake me up and we spent an hour trying to clean off the skunk oil before it dried on her. Her face still smells a bit, so we bought some de-skunking wash and are going to give her another bath today. So needless to say, Lola sure has kept us on our toes!