Monthly Archives: January 2011

Day trip to Muir Beach

Posted by Lisa On January 20th, 2011

On Sunday1/16 Carleigh, Scott, Bailey, Kevin, Lola and I piled into Carleigh’s little Jetta and took a day trip to Muir Beach for an exciting day in the sun! We had every intention of spending our day at Muir Woods but were sad to find out that John Muir hated dogs the park didn’t allow pups. So we drove another five minutes down the road to beautiful Muir Beach and were not disappointed!

It’s a short two minute trail walk to the beach–the beach itself is expansive with lots of room for friends, families and doggies to play around. We saw some folks had put up tents to spend the whole day there and Kevin and I would love to go back and do the same some time. The water was a nice, cool temperature (not ice cold like the beaches in SF) and it was pretty shallow water for a good 40 feet or so.

Bailey showing his mama some loving

Lola, the happy camper!

Bailey resting up for the big day on Scott’s shoulder

Lola, the helpful navigator

Muir Beach on a gorgeous, sunny day!

Lola playing with another doggie in the water

Some random kid with a stick

Some random pup in a tent

Bailey boy

After a half hour or so of hanging out on the beach, we decided to take a hike to Pirate’s Cove. We climbed up and up and up some very steep hillsides and when we thought we were finally at Pirate’s Cove, we found out we weren’t even half way there! So we settled for a view of Pirate’s Cove off a beautiful cliff.

Kev, Carleigh, Scott and the pups

Carleigh switched spots with me so I could get in on the photo action

View of the beach we had just climbed up from

Kevin, Lola and I decided to walk out to that ledge for a better view

Can you see Carleigh & Scott? They’re that tiny spec in the middle of the photo.

Kevin and Lola on the ledge

Lola then ran up the hill and we sat down for a photo opp

Carleigh enjoying the views after the treacherous hike!

On our way back we came across two women on horseback with their dog–Lola, turns out, is not the biggest fan of horses.

Scott, Carleigh and Kevin at the bottom of the hill ready to grab some lunch!

Sunset over Bernal Hill

Posted by Lisa On January 19th, 2011

Last Friday, Kevin, Lola and I made a trip up to Bernal Hill for some fresh air and to watch the sunset.

From our front door we look directly across the freeway to Bernal Hill, so it was cool seeing our house from the top of the hill.

“Hillbilly Dental: We Loan you our Toothbrush”

Lola looking regal

There’s our house, in the wee little red circle!

Walking up the hill

Me and my favorite pup

I love this girl.

One of my favorite photos ever.

There’s the hill we were just on, this photo was taken from our front door

Welcome to our new website!

Posted by Lisa On January 11th, 2011

After 1 1/2 years of {fairly} consistent posting on our blog, we decided to grow up and get our own website—welcome to www.lisankevin.com!

We’re excited to have a little more control of the site and we’re super stoked about the new layout…what do you think??

For those of you who have us bookmarked or follow us using Google Reader or Blogger, please be sure to update the link!

Enjoy looking around and thank you so much to all of our followers for sticking around on our adventures!

With lots of love,

Lisa, Kevin & Lola

twenty ten/twenty eleven

Posted by Lisa On January 10th, 2011

2010 was a good year for us. Kevin got another year of schooling under his belt (only one more semester to go!) and he landed a great, flexible job at Pet Camp while he goes to school full-time. I survived a few rounds of lay-offs at work and feel pretty solid in my position at work (they like me, they really like me! 😉 ). I also survived my first two semesters of graduate school (sometimes it felt like I was just barely making it, but I did it!) We developed a really strong, close relationship with our friends Carleigh and Scott and look forward to many more years of hanging out with those two knuckleheads! 😉

And so far it looks as though 2011 will have a lot in store for us. Kevin will graduate from school (WOOHOOOO!) in May and who knows where his first position in the field will take us. And I’m really looking forward to making a plan for becoming a teacher once Kevin’s out of school. In July of this year we’ll also be celebrating our five year wedding anniversary and we’re really looking forward to celebrating our wonderful, happy, quirky relationship.

We hope that 2011 is a happy and healthy year for all of you, dear readers! 🙂

My first tattoo

Posted by Lisa On January 8th, 2011

So what was the Christmas gift I told you I asked Kevin to get me? Well, if the title of this post didn’t give it away…my first tattoo!!

In 2006 on our honeymoon on the big island of Hawai’i we spent a lovely afternoon at Punalu’u Beach and I fell in love with the image below that was found on a monument describing the legend of the beach:

Legend has it that the mystical sea turtle named Kauila had the power to turn herself into a little girl to play with and protect the children of Punalu’u.

Since seeing it I knew I wanted it tattooed on me but never worked up the courage (or the funds) to go out and actually get it. A co-worker suggested the local SF shop One Shot Tattoo and I was happy with the reviews they had on Yelp. I still wasn’t sure, though, if I was brave enough to actually get it.

The following week I received an e-mail from one of those daily coupon websites (Homerun.com) which randomly had a 51% off a one hour session at that same exact tattoo shop I had been referred to! I knew I couldn’t pass up the amazing deal so purchased it right away in hopes that I’d work up the courage to actually set up an appointment sometime in the next week.

On Tuesday 12/28 Carleigh and I met up at Corona Heights dog park for a doggie play date and she suggested we just drop by the shop to get a quote and have them sketch it out…who woulda thought that I’d end up under the needle the same day! I’m happy I bit the bullet and did it that day instead of worrying about it all week (or month, or year!). It honestly didn’t hurt as bad as I thought (though the shading was the most painful) and I am so happy I got it!

Yes, that is a genuine smile!

Seeing it for the first time (happy it didn’t turn out to be a flamingo like one of the other artists joked around while I was under the needle and said it was “an awesome flamingo”, haha)…so happy with it!

The healing process was quick and almost pain and itch free–it was pretty painful the first few hours after I got it but other than that it was like it wasn’t even there! I can’t wait for the warmer weather so I can show it off more. 😉

Christmas: The SF Edition

Posted by Lisa On January 8th, 2011

We were back in town for Christmas Eve–Kevin had to work but I was lucky to be able to spend part of the afternoon with the Julian family who were in town for the holidays visiting their son Brandon (he lives in San Bruno). The Julians are really close friends of my family’s who we spent Thanksgiving with in 2009 (see post at this link). Me and Lola met up with the gang in Golden Gate Park at Stow Lake, one of my favorite parts of the park. We walked all around the lake and up Strawberry Hill for a good hour or so–it was such a nice, crisp day, perfect for a walk in the park!

Diane, Dave and Lola

Just as I was taking a photo of this squirrel, Lola decides to…

Jump in mud. Gross.

Playing fetch with Brandon

Me and my second mom Diane

After saying farewell (we were going to spend Christmas Day with them) we ran back home to pick up Kevin and made our way to Carleigh & Scott’s place for Christmas Eve dinner.

The fixins

Failed photo attempt #1–Totally cut out Scott, oops!

Not-so-failed photo attempt, but not a great photo overall. Oh well! We were hungry and didn’t have any more patience to try it a third time. 😉

Bailey got Lola a squeaky duck for Christmas! Surprisingly, she’s still got the duck but it looks nothing like it did on day one (photos soon).

Pecan pie, straight from Carleigh’s kitchen…mmm!

Carleigh & Scott bought us a new game for Christmas as well called Bezzerwizzer (a trivia game) and we had a good time playing although trying to remember the name of the damn game was difficult because you were supposed to call it out occasionally and none of us could ever remember what the name of the game was, haha.

Pretty much sums up the whole evening!

Christmas day we were able to sleep in and enjoyed a yummy pancake breakfast, just the two of us. Jessie joined us mid-morning and we video-chatted with the Edmonds family to do our annual sibling gift exchange (thanks Rob for the AWESOME vase and New Orleans messenger bag!!) Jessie and I went in on a gray pea coat for Kevin which he absolutely loves and I got myself a little surprise (that I’m sure most of you already know about) that I’ll write a whole post about soon. Chatting with the family was fun–having just been in Long Beach with family it wasn’t as difficult spending Christmas day away from everyone.
That afternoon we met up with the Julians again at an apartment in the Castro where Brandon was house sitting for dinner, drinks and games (Catch Phrase). Lots of food and lots of wine was consumed (no photographic proof but you’ll just have to take my word for it).

Diane, Brandon and Jessie (the three blondies)

Jessie…being Jessie 😉

Photo bomb!

“Act natural”–Dave, I guess, was the only one who follows directions 😉

We ended the evening being treated to a movie by Dave and Diane–True Grit! Most of us LOVED it (Jess wasn’t too much of a fan) and it was a great way to end the Christmas season! 🙂

Christmas: The Long Beach edition

Posted by Lisa On January 7th, 2011

One of the biggest perks to working for a university (me) = two weeks off at Christmas!

One of the biggest bummers to working for business that is busiest during the holidays (Kev) = not able to spend Christmas day with family 🙁

BUT we were able to finagle a few days before Christmas for a quick, shotgun trip down south. We decided to surprise Kevin’s mom Dorothy so she was the only one in our families that didn’t know we were coming down. We had a good week or so of talking up how sad it was that we weren’t able to come down at all for the holidays…if only she knew…hehehehe.

Monday 12/20
After Kevin got off of work that afternoon we jumped in the car and made our way down to Long Beach. We got in around 1am Tuesday morning and after quickly saying hi to my mom, we hit the sack to get ready for our big surprise the next morning.

Tuesday 12/21
Kevin’s dad George helped with the surprise telling Dorothy that he had a doctor’s appointment that morning that he wanted her to go to with him. So our plan was for Kevin to call Dorothy on her cell phone and have her on the phone when we knocked on the door. Here are two videos of Operation: Surprise Dorothy for Christmas 2010! 😉

Kevin trying to make small talk with Dorothy as we prepare to get out in the rain and knock on the door

As you can see, we didn’t plan it out as well as we had hoped but we surprised her nonetheless! If you look closely in the background you can see Lola tear through the house running after their cat Sebastian! Hahah, poor thing!

Thomas was there and Judith, Joshua and Katelyn came over for a yummy breakfast of waffles, french toast, and bacon.

They were enthralled with the story Kevin was telling.

A little gift exchange…

Katelyn showing off her new shirt

Josh showing off his new shirt

Dorothy and George fighting over who gets to open the gift 😉

The bicycle glasses we got them!

Family photo! Kevin, me, Katelyn, Joshua and Judith (and Lola too)

We spent the whole day with the family and enjoyed a yummy spaghetti dinner together too.

Lola relaxing at the Edmonds’ home with Kevin

Wednesday 12/22
We met up with Thomas and his girlfriend Ashley for breakfast at The Potholder Cafe in Long Beach.

That afternoon we spent a few hours hanging out with my mom (like old times!) and then met up with my brother Derek, our friend Brian, my mom’s boyfriend Steve and the Chinese student living with my mom while he studies at CSULB Jeremy for dinner at Lucille’s BBQ (me and Kevin’s favorite chain restaurant!)

Lola and her new roommate Luke

Thursday 12/23
We woke up early so that me, Kevin and my mom could go to Westminster for our annual Chinese massage (annual for me and Kev, more often for my mom!) It was EXACTLY what we needed and we enjoyed it so much. My mom asked the guys to snap a few photos of us for proof, haha!

Kevin, the mummy

My mom and me

We then went to fill up our tummies with some yummy Chinese food at Seafood Cove #1.

That afternoon around 4pm we jumped back in our car and made our way back to San Francisco so that Kevin could be at work the next morning at 6am.

We were in LB right when the crazy rain was happening, but the clouds parted for us on the last day and the sun poked through, seemingly taunting us and begging us to stay! 😉

Pre-Christmas festivities

Posted by Lisa On January 7th, 2011

We had lots of pre-Christmas festivities leading up to the big day–here are some of the highlights!

Cookie Exchange party
I was invited to my boss’ Cookie Exchange party. I had to bring 6 dozen cookies (or the equivalent–I brought 6 pounds of Mexican Chocolate Fudge!)–I shared 1 dozen at the party and then got to take home 5 dozen cookies! Yowzas. There was a taste contest too and my fudge won Most Delicious! Not bad for my first time trying to make fudge. It really did turn out amazing–the recipe is at this link if you’re interested (super easy!)

I made one version with sea salt…mmm!!!

Decorating Carleigh & Scott’s Christmas tree
This year Carleigh got her first Christmas tree ever! Since we don’t have the room in our apartment to put up a tree, I let them borrow some of our ornaments and we enjoyed decorating the tree, eating dinner and baking cookies together–and you know we had to include a doggie photo shoot (with doggie costumes and everything!)

The final product

Lola gave Bailey a pair of antlers for Christmas and they enjoyed modeling them for us

The antlers didn’t last long, as you can imagine…

Christmas card photo shoot
This year we decided to join the club and send out Christmas cards and I knew I had to take a cute photo of Lola to include. I wore her out at the park playing fetch so that she would wear her (homemade, bootleg) antlers and not fuss with them. I posed her on a red blanket on our bed with a little “Reindeer Food” bag I’ve had a few years and -voila!- adorable Christmas card. 😉

Dinner with the Dobsons
Jessie came into town for dinner with the Dobson family–the family she used to nanny for and that we had gotten close to in the process. They’ve got four boys under the age of 10 so any family gathering is entertaining when the Delmar girls join the mix! 😉 Lots of laughs (and lots of wine) made for a wonderful evening.

Dog pile Jessie!

Lola’s special delivery
Among all of the wonderful Christmas cards we received in the mail, there was one that was just addressed to “Lola Edmonds” and we were delighted to find an edible Christmas card for her made out of rawhide! She LOVED the card and thoroughly enjoyed tearing it to pieces. 😉
Thanks Judith and Dorothy!

Christmas in San Jose
Jessie invited us and our friend Lisa to enjoy some Christmas spirit San Jose style.

Mars getting some well-deserved attention…

Festive wear was donned…

First, a hooping show by Jess…

Then a drive downtown…

Nothing says “Christmas cheer” quite like a frightening 8 foot rat

Ice skating…

Not only do I suck at ice skating, I can never lace up my own shoes! Thanks Kev for tying my shoes for me. 🙂

Jess showing off her moves

The only time I wasn’t hugging the wall was when Kevin took my hand. Reminder to self: Save the $20 ticket and shoe rental and just watch from the sidelines next time! haha

Action shot! This picture cracks me up!

Christmas in the Park…

And to end the night? A bottle of champagne at Jessie’s wine bar, Enoteca la Storia in Los Gatos…

All it takes to get Kevin to smile in photos is a little bubbly, apparently. 😉

If our pre-Christmas festivities were any indication of how Christmas itself would actually be, we were in for a good time! 🙂

Mini apartment makeover

Posted by Lisa On January 7th, 2011

In early December I was getting an itch to change things around in our apartment–so one day while Kevin was at work I got to work on moving furniture! That in turn inspired us to go to Ikea for some shelves for our kitchen and before we knew it the whole apartment was changed a bit!

The before photos of our apartment (from when we first moved in) can be found at this link.

Bedroom:
I rearranged the bed and armchair, switched out lamps, moved the bookshelf to the living room, and brought in the side table that had been next to our couch.

Living room:
I brought in the bookshelf from our bedroom and rearranged the corner area a wee bit.

Sleepy head Lola

Kitchen:
I cleaned out all of our shelves (boy did that feel good!), we put up shelving, and cleared off a lot of our counter space. This was after being inspired by an amazing book signing/class I went to in November by Kami McBride and her new book “The Herbal Kitchen”–she inspired me to keep all of the herbs/spices within reach on the counter so that I’d be more inspired to use them in everyday cooking for their medicinal properties.

Top shelf: Flour, sugar, Kevin’s baking cookbooks (The Breadmaker’s Apprentice and The Art & Soul of Baking), pasta, brown rice, cake flour, brown sugar
Bottom: Lavendar, barley, coffee beans, my cookbooks (The Herbal Kitchen, Everyday Food, The Student’s Vegetarian Cookbook), quinoa, honey, barley, tea, polenta

I’m feeling so much better about our living space (isn’t it amazing how little changes can make such a big difference?), hope you enjoyed a mini tour of our apartment! 🙂

Bazaar Bizarre

Posted by Lisa On January 7th, 2011

On Saturday 12/11 Jessie and I ventured out to Fort Mason for the annual Bazaar Bizarre craft fair.

I still had a few Christmas gifts to pick up so I was anxious to see what this fair had to offer–although I only ended up getting one gift (this funny shirt for my nephew!) we still had a good time.

Jessie, not impressed with our host 😉

I couldn’t resist.

Sad, funky little dead animal!

Jessie talking to a shop owner

Random cthulhu ornaments (took this photo for my brother-in-law Thomas who loves that creature!)

Hamburger dolls?

Turd cupcakes

It was a super foggy day and very quiet (other than in the psycho parking lot). Turns out it was 25th annual Tibet Day as well so we enjoyed some Tibetan food for lunch (a first for me!)

On our drive back home we were craving something sweet so stopped off at the Cups and Cakes Bakery near downtown.