Disneyland

We will post more pictures, but here are a couple. Cady really enjoyed her first trip to Disneyland! Thank you, Tita Cionie for the tickets. We enjoyed seeing you!

We also went through the old neighborhood, the house looks great! We are so glad to have a property manager that does a good job. That, coupled with great neighbors who keep an eye on the house, makes landlord ing much less of a headache.

We head home tomorrow, and Cady will start in her new classroom Monday. She asked us to put her on the potty four times this weekend! She is getting so, so big!

Thankscamping Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving weekend camping with our neighbors at Silverwood Lake in the San Bernardino National Forest. We are thankful to have such good friends in our neighbors, especially when we can't be with our families. We are lucky in so many ways, and have so much to be thankful for. We're so glad Cady's first Thanksgiving was something fun and memorable, maybe we'll make it a tradition!

We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving, with friends and family! Here's a few shots of our weekend. Clockwise from top left: 1. The Thanksgiving table with campfire cooked ham and turkey, fried turkey, stuffing, yams, potatoes and gravy, broccoli casserole, corn casserole, salad, green bean casserole, rolls (with homemade herbed butter with herbs from our back yard), pumpkin and pecan pie. 2. Dan with a sleeping Cady at the table. 3. Claire and Chico overlooking the lake. 4. Half of our group on a hike: Maddie, Lisa, Claire, Rod, Garrett, Jack, Mike, Connor, Danny, Kevin and Denise. 5. On the hike.

Cady's First Camping Trip

We spent the weekend at Silver Strand in Coronado. Cady seemed to enjoy camping, which is good since we have three more trips lined up. She saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time, and had her feet in the sand. We stayed Sunday night, which was a first for us. It's amazing how few people are there, it's really nice!

Catching Up...

Cady's 11 weeks old today! Dan's parents were here last week to visit. We had a good visit. Cady's been to the Rose Bowl, although she won't actually go inside until the RB Flea Market in a few weeks. She's also been to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles and the San Gabriel Mission. She's taken a couple of trips to Costco, and is so well behaved whenever we go out! Here are a few pictures to catch us up to her 11th week.

Her first trip to Costco...

Her new glasses for the summer.

A little tummy time.

At the mission in San Gabriel. It was built in 1771, and is so pretty.

Here are the proud grandparents during their visit.

We Took Cady Out to the Ball Game

We took her out with the crowd! No peanuts or cracker jack, but we had a great time. My old audit partner, Chris was in town again and got some excellent tickets to see the Dodgers and Angels play at Dodger Stadium. We met up with him for dinner at The Counter in Pasadena, then carpooled to the game. Cady was so good. She got a little cranky as we were getting ready to leave the restaurant, but she was fine once she ate. Then she slept through most of the game and the drive home. She had three celebrity sightings - Ozzy Osborne, Brian McKnight, and Larry King - who was wearing the weirdest yellow leather jacket.

Dia De Los Muertos

Mom and Pop are out for a visit, so we decided to take them for a train ride to Olvera Street for Day of the Dead.

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico and the Southwest states, and coincides with the Christian All Souls and All Saints Days. On November 1st and 2nd people remember those who are deceased. November 1st is considered the Dia de los Angelitos—the day to remember children that have died, November 2nd is the traditional Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead). Pictures of the deceased are placed on Dia de los Muertos altars (ofretas) with their favorite food and drink. Candles to light their way home, and soap and water to freshen-up after their long trip back are also often placed on altars. Trinkets they were fond of, symbols they would understand, and gifts are left to communicate to them that they are always in the hearts of those they left behind, and that they are still part of the family even though they aren’t physically with us any longer.

Families often spend time at the cemetery with loved ones, bringing food and drink along with all the other necessities for a picnic. However, at this picnic the deceased is the guest of honor. Dia de los Muertos is a time of joy because we know that we are surrounded by those that we love—both living and dead. People often compare Dia de los Muertos to Halloween, and while at first glance there may appear to be a similarity, in truth the two celebrations are quite different. Halloween is a European holiday that is based on their concept of death, which is vastly different from the original Aztec meaning. The Aztecs beliefs were very similar to the Aboriginal beliefs of Australia. This life is considered to be a dream and when you die, you awake to your real life. Halloween, on the other hand, is celebrated with witches, demons and monsters and none of these are shown in a positive light.

October

This month, Dan did the Race for the Cure with the neighbors. We introduced our survivor Deneen to the race three years ago, and it's something we try to do every year with her. Unfortunately, I came down with a cold and couldn't make it, but Dan went to represent our house!

Jeanine, Dave, Dan, Mike (co-survivor), Deneen, and Jesse.

Mike and Deneen on the course...

Jesse, Dave and Dan on the course...

August

In August, we went to McGrath State Beach to camp with Ciara's family. Denise, Andrew and Ciara stayed with us in our camper. Jen and Ben came down with Nate, we were so glad they could make it. It was Nate's first camping trip!

Dan's Birthday Weekend

We went to Lake Skinner this weekend with the neighbors for Dan's birthday. It was a beautiful weekend, it looks like summer is almost here!

Here's the new camper, Casa Tres. We really enjoyed it, everything worked great!

Dan and the guys did a bit of fishing, but Kevin was the only one who caught anything (a large mouth bass).

I finally flew my elephant kite that Dan bought me while he was in San Diego a while back. It was a lot of fun. I had forgotten how much fun that is!

We hooked Chico up to Cody so they could run around on the trails. It was so funny, Cody would lead for a while, then they'd stop and Chico would lead for a bit.

Dan and Mike took the kayaks out for a sunset paddle.

Camping at Silver Strand

This weekend we went camping at Silver Strand. It's a little strip of land that connects the island of Coronado with Imperial Beach. We went with the neighbors, as usual! It was such a great time. We got down there on Friday and spent the evening out by the fire. Saturday we rode our bikes to Coronado, past the Hotel Del Coronado, up to the Coronado Brewing Company. CBC is one of our favorite places to eat in the San Diego area, and their beer is great. I'm a big fan of Neptune's Nectar, and Dan likes Mermaid Red.

Valentine's Day at Olvera Street

For Valentine's Day, we took the train downtown with the neighbors. We went to Olvera Street for lunch, and to do a little shopping. It was such a good time.

The indigenous people of the Tongva nation, the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles Basin had long been established near the river when King Carlos the III of Spain ordered the settlement of the territory by Felipe de Neve thus sending 11 families (44 people) on the long journey from Mexico to Alta California to start the pueblo de La Reina De Los Angeles in 1781.

Olvera Street is located on the general site of the birthplace of the city of Los Angeles (Mexico), near the Plaza, and the Plaza Church. Originally called Vine Street, in 1877 it was renamed after Agustin Olvera, the first judge of the county of Los Angeles (then USA).

This cross is across the plaza, at the beginning of Olvera Street. It reads "The town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels," now known as Los Angeles (the angels).

Surf City Half Marathon

We spent this morning in Huntington Beach, Surf City USA : ). I did the 1/2 marathon and Dan rode his bike on the beach. Actually, it's my dad's bike that he bought while he was here at the Mission Tiki FM. I finished the race and raised $500 for the Free Wheelchair Mission in the process. Last year, it was cold and rainy. This year, the weather was gorgeous. It was a perfect day to be at the beach. Unfortunately, I think I will lose a toenail again (not my big toe this time, the second toe, and maybe the small 5-toe too - as that toe turned into a big blister about 2x the size of the regular toe). Regardless, it was a beautiful day in sunny California!

Wine in the Woods Weekend

This weekend was the first (of what will be many) "Wine in the Woods Weekend." We went to Silverwood Lake with the neighbors for a camp out and wine tasting. It was so much fun, we had a whole cul-de-sac of campsites for our group. We went out on Jesse and Jeanine's boat, did a little hiking, the guys went fishing while the girls did wine tasting, and we all finished up the night singing around the campfire. Awesome weekend!

These are some of the wines we tasted, everyone brought a bottle to share.

Here's our camper, our little home away from home.

Here's Pat and Jesse playing bass and guitar for our camfire sing-a-long.

One of the best things about camping...smores!

Deneen being the fashionista camper in her Prada hat.

Lisa enjoying her wine in the woods.

Looking good Laceys!

Here's part of the group, from left, Pat, Kevin, Denise, Dan, Cathi, Lisa, Dave, Hardy, and Maria Elisa. Cody is one of Dave and Lisa's dogs.

Jesse driving us around in the boat.

Silverwood Lake, with snow on the mountains in the background! Only in Southern California can you be out boating, looking at the snow, all just about an hour and a half from the beach!

Dan all bundled up on the boat. It was freezing by the marina, but once we were out on the lake, it was really nice.

Christmas Came a Little Early

We've been eyeing these kayaks for a year or so. We finally found a good deal on the exact models we wanted (both made by Ocean Kayak), so we went up to Santa Barbara and picked them up yesterday. We can't wait to use them!