Yearly Archives: 2012

A baby story: Week 21

Posted by Lisa On January 26th, 2012

Week 21: Baby’s the length of a carrot!

There hasn’t been too much going on in the baby department this week.  Still lots and lots of kicks from the little miss which are always fun and exciting and Kevin has been feeling her with a lot more strength lately.  There was one morning that I felt a hard lump again on the right side of my abdomen and I knew some part of her (her butt maybe??) was sticking out with full force.  I turned the light on and looked down and…my stomach was completely lopsided!  So creepy (it reminded me of the alien coming out of the guy’s stomach in “Total Recall”) but so awesome at the same time.  Kevin felt the lump again but he got out of seeing my stomach all funky.

So far he’s the only one to feel her, who will be the next lucky one??  😉

In non-baby news: This week is now week three of my new schedule for the spring semester (my life seems to run on the semester system due to my job at a university) and I am just starting to get the hang of it.  I began student teaching this semester to finally earn my CA teaching credential in history–something I started in Fall 2007 at CSU Long Beach and never completed because, at the time, it was not financially possible for me to quit my job and student teach for four months with no pay.  I have been given the amazing opportunity to complete my studies at the university I work for (free 12 unit class? Yes please!) and, in addition to that, to be able to student teach while continuing to work a full-time job.  It is no easy task in the least and although I knew it was going to be rough, I guess I didn’t think it might be this rough.

Monday through Friday my days look something like this: Wake up at 6, leave at 7:30, student teaching from 8-11:30, working from 12-7, (ideally) asleep by 10, repeat.

Last week I was sick in addition to this crazy schedule which added a whole other dimension to it (I can’t take any medicine while pregnant so it just lingered on).  I’m the kind of person that pushes through being sick, though, so I didn’t let it get me down.  But this week I’m starting to feel the effects of the extremely long days with very little rest and a rough time sleeping each night.

The up-side is that my first student teaching placement is at a middle school in Alameda with an awesome 6th grade history teacher.  I’ve been enjoying getting to the know the students by working with them in small groups the past few weeks and I’m looking forward to my first two lessons in front of the class next week.  Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll end up running the show for the entire 2.5 hour class period a total of 9 times, the final week I’m there I’ll be running the show the entire week!  My second placement I’m hoping will be in Oakland somewhere, we’re still working on securing a school site for me.

More than anything, spending my mornings with a group of goofy 12-year-olds just reinforces my strong desire to become a teacher and work with this age group (6th-8th grade).  I cannot wait until I have my own classroom and am able to build a rapport with my students.  But until then (hopefully Fall 2013!) I’m thoroughly enjoying being a student teacher with a great veteran teacher and learning all I can about the profession.

Belly shot!

No Lola photo bomb this time ’round!  She was busy snoozing away after our visit to the park to play some Frisbee…

She sure was camera shy this week!

Other pregnancy updates

  • Total weight gained: 0 pounds!  But the belly keeps on a-growin’ and the girl keeps on a-kickin’ so I’m not too worried about it.
  • Progress on the baby’s room made this week: None…but not by choice!  We finally had the room just about organized, cleared out with crap we want to donate, and ready for some baby furniture but then the heavy rains happened this past weekend and we had a major leak through the wall which soaked part of the carpet.  So we’re back to having the room look like it’s in shambles and I’m anxiously waiting for the problem to be fixed so we can get to work on some projects.
  • Fun baby developments: She’s about 10.5 inches long (whoa!) and weighs a whopping 3/4 of a pound.  Her taste buds are working (hope she likes falafel and fresh orange juice, two things I’ve been really into lately [thanks mama for the juicer for Christmas!]) and she’s already got around 6 million eggs in her womb (crazy!).
  • Days until our next prenatal appointment: 8!

Cities that start with an “S”

Posted by Lisa On January 26th, 2012

In mid-January I visited three cities that start with an “S” within a week’s time–San Diego, San Francisco, and Sausalito.

I went to San Diego for work a few weeks ago for an amazing (can you sense my sarcasm here?) three-day training at our San Diego campus.  The best part of it all was that I was able to make a quick visit with my good friend Heather, her husband Steven, and their adorable pup Jack since they live so close to where I was staying.  Heather picked me up after work and she made us an amazing vegetarian dinner which was enjoyed while telling stories about what’s going on in our lives (she’s a runner and a blogger too!) and commiserating over working at universities.  😉

The best part of the visit (just don’t tell Heather and Steven)?!  Getting to spend some time with Jack!  I met him a couple of years ago and he was just a little rascal then and it was great seeing him in person after following his blog for all this time.  I didn’t realize how small he was, he always seems bigger in pictures (he’s just about the same size as Lola) and he is such a sweet dog!  We’re hoping to get him and Lola together in the nearish future…they would have so much fun together!

Check out those ears! And yes, one of them is always folded over to the side…so cute!

Kevin’s mom Dorothy and his sister Judith came up the following weekend for a visit (and to be present at our 20 week ultrasound!) and we visited two cities that start with an “S” together.  We were only in San Francisco for a couple of hours but those hours were well spent…we went to Zante’s for Indian pizza at the request of Judith who had never been there but heard such good things from my dad-in-law George.  Even though I didn’t take any photos during our shotgun trip across the bridge I can confidently say that we made another Indian pizza convert out of an Edmonds!  🙂

The last city on our tour was Sausalito.  We hadn’t been there since January two years prior when Kevin’s brother Thomas and our nephew Joshua came up for a visit so it was about time to make another trip up to Marin County to take a stroll along the coast.  It turned out to be a gorgeous day and we thoroughly enjoyed our time out in the sun with the yummy and refreshing sea breeze.

Beautiful day in the Bay!

I have like 15 of these candid photos of Kevin…I should make a slideshow of them all, what do you think?? Hehe.

Kevin, Lola and a sea lion statue.

Judith, Dorothy and the San Francisco skyline in the background…it was such a clear day!

Lola spotted ’em first…she’s thinking “C’mon, Dad, let me at ’em!”…

Kevin, Judith and Dorothy trying to get a good look at ’em too…

What exactly were we looking at?

Sea lions!

Relaxing in the sunshine

We ended the day getting some ice cream (or sherbert, if your name is Kevin) and eating it in the sunshine.  Here’s a fun animated slideshow of Kevin and Lola…check out her eagle eyes on that sherbert of Kevin’s!

A baby story: Week 20

Posted by Lisa On January 19th, 2012

Week 20: Baby’s the length of a banana!

It’s official…we’re half way there!  Now that we’ve hit the 20 week milestone I feel like I can breathe a huge sigh of relief since there’s not as much to worry about now that we’re at this point.  And we’ve got so much to look forward to in the coming 4-5 months too which makes it that much better!

We had our big 20 week ultrasound on Tuesday and although it didn’t start off the way I had imagined, it sure ended exactly the way I had hoped…

I was sososo excited in the months and weeks leading up to the ultrasound but then that morning, I started getting nervous.  I was nervous that she was going to turn out to be a he.  I mean, please don’t get me wrong…I would love nothing more than having a son and would have been ecstatic if, at our 13 week ultrasound, we were told we were having a boy…but after 7 weeks of excitement over the news we were having a girl, I knew I’d be at least a little disappointed and I did not want to feel that way.  So that morning I was torn between being overly excited and nervous at the same time.

Kevin’s mom and sister Judith drove up over the weekend to spend a little time with us and to be present at the ultrasound which was a lot of fun.  We entered the room with the ultrasound tech and the first thing she said, without introducing herself or anything, was, “Well, it’s going to be little crowded in here”–I could tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn’t happy we were +2 visitors but I had called the office to confirm they were allowed so figured it was just her own issue.  Then she started asking me all of these basic questions that were already in my medical record and it seemed a little ridiculous and unnecessary to have to recall all of that information.  Then she got started on the ultrasound and we couldn’t believe that she wasn’t narrating anything she was seeing.  She kept looking at things and typing away and although we could figure out what some of her codes meant, it was weird that she wasn’t telling us exactly what it was she was seeing.  At one point Judith asked if what we were looking at was something and the woman just said, “No, it’s such-and-such.”  She seemed cold and uninterested in making it any sort of special experience for us and I was not happy in the least (comparing it with our amazing ultrasound tech at our 13 week appointment).  The one glimmer of humanness we saw from her was when she commented on the baby’s heart and said how “pretty” it was.

I tried to make the best of it, though, and we saw a really cool view of the baby’s legs all stretched out and super long and lean (at least we thought so, not sure if they’re really long compared to other fetuses at this age) and it was so cool feeling the baby move and kick as I saw it happening at the same time on the screen…so amazing!

Towards the end she asked if we wanted to know the gender so she took a look between the legs but told us that she couldn’t confirm 100% if it was a girl or a boy.  She said it looked more like a girl but couldn’t say for sure.

I felt so deflated at that point.  I did not want to leave that appointment feeling less certain about the gender than we did at our 13 week appointment, it just didn’t seem right!  But after getting a couple of photo print-outs and after she told us that was it, I didn’t feel like we could do anything more at that point.

Pretty little profile

Baby got back! See the ear at the top of the head on the right?

She said she had to go talk to the radiologist to show them her findings and would be back shortly.  The four of us were left in the room and we were debriefing a bit…overall it was so great being able to experience the ultrasound with the family but Kevin agreed with me that the tech wasn’t nearly as good as the other one we met with and he was a bit disappointed with the experience as well.

When she came back she said that she forgot to do one thing so needed me to lie down on the table again to complete the ultrasound.  Another brief opportunity to see the baby?  Of course!!  After she finished her task I asked her if we could get a printout of the long legs we saw earlier.  She was trying to see if she could print out a previously saved picture but it ended up being a video she saved so she couldn’t print it out and had to go back in to see if she could get a good shot of the legs for us.  It was at that point that the baby decided to sit at the perfect angle for the tech to see clearly what the gender was and…it’s definitely a girl!!

The only time I will ever post a photo such as this of our child on the internet! Come to think of it, I’ll probably end up taking this photo down in a week or so, haha!

We were sososo excited to hear (and see!) the confirmation..exactly what we were hoping for!

One last piece of fun news this week before I end this ridiculously long post…Sirena’s been kicking me like crazy all week!  I feel her every few hours for about 10 minutes or so at a time.  She just moves around in there so much and it always makes me smile.  And the BEST part of it all…Kevin finally felt her move!!  Tuesday night I woke up when he got into bed after work and I was feeling the baby move so, for the thousandth time, I put his hand on my stomach in hopes that he’d feel her.  I’d ask him, “Did you feel that?” and he’d say “No”, then, “Did you feel that??” and again he’d say “No” but finally he felt a good jab!  Last night he felt her again and it just warms my heart beyond belief knowing that he can finally start feeling his little girl move.  🙂

Belly shot!

Lola was right in the middle of the mix with this shoot! Can’t blame her, she’s so darn cute and I’m sure she knew the blogging world wanted to see her, it’s been too long.

Other pregnancy updates

  • Total weight gained: 0 pounds (again)!  I’m back down to my pre-pregnancy weight which is strange.  One of the pregnancy websites I follow said for this week that “you should have gained around 10 pounds by now”…umm, unless your name is Lisa?  I knew I wouldn’t gain too much weight in the beginning since I’m not super skinny or anything, but now it seems a little ridiculous being half way there with little to no weight gain.  Let’s see how we do next week…

A baby story: Week 19

Posted by Lisa On January 16th, 2012

Week 19: Baby’s the size of a mango!

The baby has gone through a major growth spurt this week and it’s been so fun and exciting feeling her developments…

The bubbles-in-the-tummy feeling has continued throughout the week and towards the end I started to feel a more pronounced kicking feeling.  The last couple of nights I’ve been sitting on the couch reading or watching tv and have felt a lot more action down yonder–one time when I put my hand there I actually felt an external kick!  I’ve tried to get Kevin to feel it but she hasn’t been cooperating too much yet.  🙂  I feel her the most after I eat and before I go to bed.  I can’t wait for Kevin to feel a good kick some day soon!

At one point in the middle of the night on Friday I rolled over and rubbed my stomach a bit like I generally do and felt a really hard spot on the right side of my stomach.  I woke Kevin up pretty abruptly (kinda scared him to be honest, oops) and told him to put his hand on my stomach to feel it and he definitely felt the hard lump which I can only assume is Sirena because it wasn’t there long after he felt it.  It was a little creepy but very cool overall!  It seems that she likes to hang out most on my right side…

Belly shot!

Significant bumpage this week, amiright?

Other pregnancy updates

  • Total weight gained: 2 pounds (finally seeing some action on the scale this week)
  • Number of sleepless hours during the evening: This past week, on average, 1-2 hours per night I find myself wide awake and unable to go back to sleep.  So I find it quite hilarious when people warn me to “get as much sleep as you can now before the baby’s born” since this belly of mine isn’t allowing me to sleep a full night even now.  Not sure this is something I’ll find a lot of relief with in the months to come…!
  • Number of baby showers in the works: Two! We’re having our main one in Long Beach hosted by Kevin’s mom and sisters and we’re having one up here hosted by our good friend Carleigh for folks up this way.  This little girl’s gonna get a whole lotta lovin’ even before she’s born!
  • Days until our big 20 week ultrasound: One more day! Kevin’s mom and sister, Dorothy and Judith, are in town to be a part of it tomorrow morning and we cannot wait to see the lil’ lady on the big screen (that is, as long as she’s still a she).  Pictures to come as soon as we upload ’em!

A baby story: Week 18

Posted by Lisa On January 8th, 2012

Week 18: Baby’s the length of a bell pepper!

I can’t believe it…we’ve made it to 4.5 months!!  So many people have told me that it goes by so fast but I have to admit, it’s been going by fairly slow so far.  I think all of the worrying the first 3-4 months really made things drag on a bit.  I’m kind of a worrywart all on my own but with a little peanut-sized baby in utero and so many unknowns for so long, it started to get the better of me at times.  Even though the first trimester has come and gone and there are far less chances of anything major happening to the baby, I’m sure I’ll never stop worrying about this kiddo (and all of our kiddos) no matter how old they get.

On a lighter note…we’ve had some fun developments this week.

On Wednesday, Kevin and I went to our prenatal appointment.  We’re always surprised with how quick they are (only about 15 minutes with the doctor, and about 5-10 minutes of getting my vitals read [blood pressure, weight, urine, etc.]) but the highlight of this visit was hearing a good 30 seconds or so of our baby’s heartbeat.  That little whoosh, whoosh, whoosh sound may be the sweetest sound we’ve ever heard.  🙂

Kinda strange to have this magnet up on our fridge!  The doctor gave it to us and said that starting at week 20 we can call that line if any issues arise (as of now we can only call the nurse’s advice line).  It’s becoming more and more real as the weeks go by!

Another development is that, although I’m still not outwardly showing too much yet, I definitely feel bigger and I have a feeling this may be the last week of my “normal” jeans.  At work they were just too damn uncomfortable sitting down for hours on end so I think I may have to say goodbye for the next 6-10 months (fingers crossed).

But the BIGGEST development by far this week is that…

…drum roll please…

…I think I felt the baby move!!!!

On Thursday, I was sitting at my computer at work and I felt a bubbly-type of feeling in my stomach.  I didn’t think much of it until it kept happening.  I stopped what I was doing and just paid close attention to what was going on and I realized, although it kind of felt like a gassy feeling, it wasn’t anything I had ever experienced before.  A lot of online pregnancy forums say that many new moms mistake the first feelings for just having gas so I was kind of anticipating that already.  And the majority of websites say that most women feel the baby between 16-20 weeks so we’re just about in the right time for it to happen.  I immediately called Kevin and told him the news and he was so excited!  The next day I felt the same type of feeling around the same time so I’m pretty darn sure that’s what’s going on in there.  All I gotta say is, keep on kicking little girl!

Belly shots!

Thought I’d do a front view this week, you can start to see more of a ball shape forming on my stomach. And if you look closely you can see a faint brown line from below my belly button.  This happens to a lot of pregnant women caused by hormones and will probably disappear a few months after the baby’s born.  (And you did notice Lola in the photo again, right?)

Other pregnancy updates

  • Total weight gained: 0.5 pounds (even with all the feasting during the holidays!)
  • Food I’m craving this week: Falafels…I had them four times this week!  This and hummus has been the main thing that I continue to crave week after week.
  • Number of strollers we’ve inherited this week: Two!  A stroller with an infant car seat and two bases for our cars (from Kevin’s co-worker) and a jogging stroller so that I can get back into running (from my co-worker).  Jackpot!
  • Number of best girlfriends Sirena’s excited to meet so far: One!  Our good friends Kim and Frank are due on February 29 and just found out they’re having a little girl, Amelia Belle.  Yippee!
  • Number of days until our next ultrasound (the big one!): Eight!  We are so so so excited about this ultrasound…that’s when we’ll get confirmation that she’s a she (fingers crossed!) and to top it off Kevin’s mom and sister Judith are driving up to be part of it as well!

A baby story: Week 17

Posted by Lisa On January 1st, 2012

Week 17 (baby’s the size of an onion!)

The majority of week 17 was also spent in Long Beach surrounded by family and friends.  Most people were anxious to see some sort of belly on me and although a few people said that they could see some definite bumpage going on, I think it will be at least through January until an actual volleyball starts appearing.  🙂  I’ll be down for a quick 48-hour trip in February (on work’s dime since I have a meeting at our LA campus on a Friday and I just asked for a flight back from the LB airport on the Sunday following…love it!) so hopefully by then people will be able to see some more development in that department!

This little girl sure made out like a bandit this week for Christmas with lots of very generous family and friends obviously excited for her arrival.  Here’s the loot…

What do you think of our makeshift Christmas tree? I made it out of lights since we didn’t have the time to get a real tree this year (we’re going on year three of no Christmas tree…things will hopefully change in 2012 with little miss in the mix! 😉 )

From left to right: sea horse lullaby doll from work holiday party; “I love my Auntie” bibs and a giant box of diapers from Auntie Judith; rattle, “Daddy’s Little Sweetheart” onesie, and handmade baby blanket (made by Sirena’s late great-grandma Margie) all from Grandma Dorothy; lullaby cd from my Aunt Kathy; smaller bag of diapers from Thomas’ girlfriend Ashley, “La Reina” onesie and “American, with Mexican parts” bib from my mama; and a giant set of bibs from my friend Kimberly

This week my wonderful sister Jessie accompanied me on the ever-so-fun maternity clothes shopping trip.  I am not a big shopper so this task seemed very daunting to me–especially since I will be student teaching 5 days a week starting this month and I will need to dress professionally every single day (up until now I’ve gotten away with wearing jeans to work at least half of the week but not any longer!).  Luckily Jessie had recently accompanied her friend on a similar trip and she learned to not buy so much maternity-specific clothing but instead to buy long tops and flowing tops so that I’ll be comfortable and so that I won’t have to spend a fortune on maternity clothes (since I’ve realized anything labeled as “maternity” is almost automatically more expensive than normal-fitting clothes).  I’m kind of excited to change up my style a bit–cute boots, leggings, and dresses instead of jeans, a boring top, and “dress” shoes (kinda sad that it took getting pregnant to give me a kick in the rear to dress better for work, huh? Haha!)

Belly shot!

Trying on one of my new dresses and Lola in the background (as always…I swear she’s a little ninja or something, always sneaking into my belly shot photos one way or another, haha!)

Other pregnancy updates

  • Total weight gained: I haven’t attempted the scale at all since before we left Oakland due to the overindulgence of the past week with the holidays. Until next week!
  • How I’m feeling: The exhaustion has returned it seems!  Just about everyday this past week I took an afternoon nap because I felt I couldn’t make it through the rest of the day without it.  Luckily we were on vacation so I had the opportunity to but next week when I’m back to work I won’t be able to so easily sneak away for a quick nap.  Hopefully my energy will return soon!
  • Days until our next prenatal visit: Three!  We’ve got our next appointment on Wednesday afternoon and will hopefully hear the heartbeat to make sure everything’s still a-okay in there.
  • What I’m most looking forward to this week (other than the prenatal visit): Cooking meals again! We’ve eaten out so much this past week in Long Beach and I cannot wait to get back in rhythm with my eating. And I’m sure Sirena’s looking forward to chowing down on healthier food as well. 🙂

Holiday visit to Long Beach 2011

Posted by Lisa On January 1st, 2012

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

Christmas Eve with the Delmars

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

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

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

Jess and Auntie Tina

Jess, Auntie Tina, and Uncle Joey

Me and Tina

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

Santas Jessie and Derek

Derek and his new ukulele

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

Christmas Day with the Edmonds

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

The little lady ready to celebrate with the Edmonds!

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

Goofy picture of me, thanks to Sophie the photographer

Silly photo!

Say “Cheese!”

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

Sophie with Aunt Sarah and Rob

Me and my adopted kiddos, Joshua and Katelyn

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

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

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

Me ‘n Sarah with Sophie and Lola

Sophie showing off her Cinderella toy

Last goofy photo of the day!

Hike in Whittier Hills

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

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

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

A beautiful Buddhist temple in the Rose Hills Memorial Park

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

…covered in graffiti.

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

More fun with the Delmar family

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

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

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

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

Jess enjoying the market!

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

Can you tell we’re related??

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

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

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

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

Piggy back ride!

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

Jess, Derek, and Vanna White checking out the bike

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

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

Kev, mama, Tina and me

Miniature golfing date with Joshua and Katelyn

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

Mini golf courses crack me up

The creepiest metal monkey you will ever see

Pancho’s Fish Tacos, anyone?

Joshua taking his turn, Kevin looking dapper

My beautiful niece…she’s getting so big!

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

Working on my form

Me taking an awesome shot

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

Our group’s rainbow assortment of golf balls

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

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

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

Ringing in the new year

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

About as exciting as our evening got!

Lola, reluctantly waking up for the countdown

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

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

Snoozing all the way back home

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

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