Weekend Fun

Last weekend we took our puppy boy to the vet for his booster shots.  He handled it like a champ :)  We have been struggling with a name because we got so used to just calling him "puppy" during his first few nameless days.  We tried Oliver for a bit after having my sister and one of Josh's co-workers say h looked like an Oliver, but it didn't stick. Now we are trying Calzino, Zino for short.  It was a name Josh originally liked.  It means sock in Italian which works because he has three brown legs and one white leg that looks like a sock :)

We also went to downtown Long Beach for a Latin Festival and parade.

And we did lots of hanging out at home and going on plenty of walks.  We also found out that the puppy dog doesn't like it much when we give attention to anyone other than him... so we had some fun messing with him ;)

It was a very mild weekend and I loved that after the last month and a half of action packed days.

Chase's Visit

Friday, September 2nd, I met Josh's sister, Marnie, in Thousand Oaks so that I could take our nephew Chase home with me.  We had a nice time at the mall there including a trip to the Cheesecake Factory--always amazing-- and a stop at a tea shop where an overly eager employee made us all feel a little awkward, hehe.

I took Chase back to Long Beach and then he immediately left with Josh to go to a USA soccer game.  They went with some of Josh's co-workers and all had fun.

We went to a Greek Festival Saturday and tried some yummy homemade Greek food and chase played a carnival game where he won a very squeaky blow-up sludge hammer ;)

That night we watched some movies and had fun just hanging out and eating mac n'cheese with hot dogs (I'm an amazing cook ;) The boys stayed up a little later than me but everyone was asleep around 1 maybe 1:30am.  Around 2am we were all startled awake by the fire alarm going off in the complex.  It was intensely loud and not only are there alarms going off in the halls outside the apartment but inside the apartment as well.  Josh ran out to make sure there was no real threat and found nothing.  We were all screaming at each other trying to communicate so we, like many other residents, decided to head way downstairs in our pj's to get out of the complex and the noise.  Our doggy was freaked, his poor little ears didn't like that either.  It probably took 15minutes before the fire department arrived.  We watched them drive past the place a few times before they figured out where we were, not very comforting if it were a real emergency :/  Then another 10 minutes to secure the place before turning the alarm off.  And the sprinklers turned on while we were sitting on the sidewalk, but don't worry, they only got me.  After that we were wide awake and watched another movie... I think it was 5am before we slept for good.

We also went to the International Street Fair in Old Town Orange.  They do it every labor day weekend but this was the first year we have actually been in town to go.  It was pretty cool and pretty crowded.  They had different streets that were themed to different countries.  We tried a Hawaiian pulled pork sammy, an Irish banger (which is pretty much a sausage hot dog with grilled peppers and onions), Native American fry bread (my fav), American buffalo wings and monkey bread.

After that we headed to downtown Disney and Chase wanted to check out the Lego shop.  Chase found a lego set and went to buy it.  When he came back he seemed a little out of it... I was trying to ask him what he got and he just said he was ready to go. It was kind of hot and muggy in there so I could see why.  When we got out he started walking ahead of us and next thing we knew he dropped his lego bag and staggered over to a bush.  We were concerned and were asking if he was okay when the vomit came.  We were so surprised because he hadn't mentioned not feeling well but immediately after he puked... twice... he says "okay, I'm ready to go now" lol! Just like that he was back to normal!  Now I don't have kids so maybe this is how it works but after he puked I was thinking "oh no, he is sick, how bad is this? will we need to carry him? we should call his mom"... but no, he was fine.  I couldn't help but laugh... that's it?!

We had a very eventful weekend.  We loved getting to spend time with Chase, we don't get these chances that often.  He is such a fun, entertaining, smart kid :)

We met Marnie and Ciera in Santa Barbara and were able to spend a little time together at La Cumbra Plaza before heading back from another great weekend!

PUPPY!

August 28th we went to the Downey Animal Shelter to "look" at some dogs and came home with this:

We had been thinking of getting a dog for a while but had a few concerns.  One of which was wondering if our little apartment would be a good enough home for a dog.  Then we found out about the Downey Shelter and how they start euthanizing dogs after 6 days because they are so over-crowded.  We knew that our little place was much better than death so we took a look and fell in love with our little guy.

He was a little sick when we first got him so we had to give him an antibiotic for a week, but within 15 minutes of being out of the shelter he was perking right up.  He had been sharing a cage with some hyper puppy that was jumping all over him and another dog when he just didn't feel good... no wonder he looked so depressed!

We have been giving him lots of walks... which has been good for us too, and he is just as happy as can be.  A little needy, but happy :)

 Our "Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus" pose

Brian Wilson and the Boys

My dad, David, and Jamie came down August 26-28 for a Brian Wilson Concert (leader and main song writer/composer of the Beach Boys).  My dad is a huge Beach Boys fan... like big time... and he wanted to make sure he saw this concert since Brian Wilson is 69 years old and may not be performing any longer.

They got in Friday and I was able to spend the day with them.  Of coarse we hit up Cafe Rio... a must when they are in town :)  We also went to the movies that night... Dad and I saw Columbiana and Josh took David and Jamie to Captain America.

Saturday, while poor Joshy was working, we went to Seal Beach for a walk on the pier, then took a drive down PCH to Newport Beach, and hit up Sanchos Tacos in Huntington Beach on the way home.  We all agreed that Sanchos had the best fish tacos we had ever had, so flavorful and delicious! I need to go back :)

Saturday evening we ate at Elbows (that gourmet mac n'cheese place) before heading to the Cerritos Performing Arts Center for the concert.  The venue was so nice and our seats were really good!  David, Jamie, and I enjoyed knowing the words to all the songs courtesy of our Dad playing them over and over growing up ;) 

The trip was short but lots of fun.  We have enjoyed having all these family visits recently and look forward to more in the future!

Grandpa Visit

Thursday, August 18, I went up to Santa Maria to spend some time with family and see my Grandpa Cragun.  He had been diagnosed with bladder cancer... again!  Apparently it is a very common cancer to reoccur.  He had already been getting chemo and radiation therapy for a few weeks and I wanted to see him and show some support.  Grandpa was handling the treatment so well, even the doctors were impressed with him :)  He is such an amazingly strong man and we have all been so blessed to have his influence in our lives.  It was so nice to spend some time with him and with Grandma... even though I don't think she will remember it :(  I don't get up there enough and I was happy to have had the time to do it.  About two days ago I found out that Grandpa had a PET scan and two of the three masses were gone and they are confident that the last one will be taken out by his last treatments.  They also found no cancer cells!!! It was great news!  I am so proud of Grandpa for fighting so hard, and so happy to have his battle almost over.  We love you Grandpa!

David and Jamie Visit

Two days after we got back from Canada, David and Jamie came down to see us!  They had one weekend left before David started class so we said come on down.  They got into Long Beach on Wednesday afternoon and stayed at our place til Josh got off work.  He took the boys to a cool area of town called Belmont Shore for some dessert and exploring.  I got off work around 7pm, and came down to meet them.  We stayed in Wednesday night and watched a movie at home.

Thursday I took the boys to Power Station where we played some laser tag, Bowlingo, and Arcade Basketball. Then we stopped off for some lunch and waited for Josh to get home so we could go see Cowboys and Aliens (great movie!)

Friday we went to the Lakewood Mall and shopped around and made sure to hit up Cafe Rio!  Then we went into Los Alamitos for Jamie to look for a strobe light for his Melbourne Shuffling :)  They didn't have one though, lol, but we found a cool laser light thing... it was tight. 

Saturday we went to a park for a game of basketball, I played one game and a game of HORSE but I have to admit that I sat out the last game... it was hot and tiring haha.

Then we went to Granada Beach to check out a sandcastle competition... even though they were pretty amateur.  Next was back into Belmont Shore for some Thai food :)

Then we took the boys to the narrowest house in America.  Apparently this guy owned a small plot of land and his friend told him he would never be able to build a livable house there.... he rose to the challenge.

That night we went to Seal Beach for some New York Style thin crust pizza, some Cold Stones, and a walk on the pier. 

We had a blast, thanks for visiting David and Jamie!

OH CANADA

The day I got home from Paso we also left for Canada.  Josh's dad is from Nelson, British Columbia and they have big family reunions there every so often.  Josh and I drove to Utah to meet up with his parents and his brother, Brandon's, family to caravan the rest of the way there.

We stopped at Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana upon Josh's request on the way there.  It was where the largest battle was fought between the Nez Percé and the US government forces as the Indian tribe was trying to escape to Canada.  They had a cool walking tour that showed you different sites of the battle and different stories from both the Indians and the US soldiers.  Unfortunately we showed up pretty late in the day and there were crazy mosquitoes everywhere and giant ants that made the stop unpleasant. 

Saturday, after the Big Hole Battlefield, we traveled into Missoula, MT and stayed the night at a hotel that had water slides for the girls to enjoy.  Sunday we started the last leg of our journey into Canada.  We got to the Kootenay Lake Ferry to cross into Balfour (just outside Nelson) at just the right time... we were one of the last few cars to make it on board, thankfully we made it! 

We finally made it to our Cabin Sunday evening and get all situated.  We had rented out a lake house for the week with an up/down stairs to fit us, Josh's parents, Brandon's family, and their cousin Todd's family.  We went to town and ate some Chinese food before heading back for the night.

Here is our cabin

View from the balcony of our cabin.

The stairs leading down to our lakeside backyard 

Crazy Jewel on the stairs 

Monday we went to try this hike that was supposed to have amazing views but when we got there we found out that there was low snow fall from the late winter that blocked the road you drive up on.  We were only able to get as far as Sandon, which is a ghost town that used to be a booming old mining town.  Josh, Jewel, and Loretta went to check out the museum in Sandon while the rest of the group went to see how far we could hike up to since we had driven over an hour to get there.

The "hike" got into some wet ground and a few of us decided to skip it, so we had a few groups kind of doing there own thing. 

Afterward we drove across the river to see the "tin house". 

 Josh even found the Sandon Cemetery hidden up a hill on the side of the road... he will never miss an attraction if he can help it ;)

We passed this beautiful lake on our way down and I forced a stop for a picture. 

We stopped in Jasper for a quick stop to see the S.S. Moyie 

Then we made a run to Nelson to Lakeside Park for some french fries with vinegar and some Dairy Queen, which we would get a few more times before the trip was over. 

Tuesday we headed back into Nelson for some of our must see sites.  We went to Gyro park for some great views of Nelson and some wild salmon berries and sascatoons picked by Gary :) The salmon berries, aka thimble berries, have a raspberry like appearance and the sascatoons look like a blueberry and taste like a pomegranate.

Then we went down to Cottonwood Falls which is a gorgeous waterfall right in town!  Nelson is built right into the side of a mountain completely covered in trees and greenery so nature is never too far away.  

Josh, Loretta, and I went back to Nelson later that night for a little sightseeing.  We did an architectural driving tour around town that talked about some of the historic old buildings and then we took a trolley ride from Lakeside Park.   

Wednesday we went on a hike up to Kokanee Lake.  It was about a 5 or 5 1/2 mile hike round trip and it was absolutely gorgeous.  You can see in the pictures how densely the mountains are covered by trees.  We saw high mountain lakes, waterfalls, snow covered trails from the late winter, and chunks of ice in a lake in the dead of summer!

The snow on the trail was a trip because it didn't feel cool enough for the snow to be there.  Everyone was wearing tank tops and shorts and were totally fine.  I just can't get over that, lol. 

 I love this picture because Brandon got an impromptu shot of me exiting the port-a-potty.  He knew I would have a disgusted look on my face from the nasty bathroom and he was right.  I don't know if you can tell here, but it cracks me up.

By Thursday the reunion was full swing.  We had Carters from all over meeting up at Marv's place (Josh's Dad's brother).  I think I heard that Friday there was around seventy people there! Everyone just hangs out at their lake house, goes in the water, plays volleyball, eats, and chats. 

Friday Josh and I slipped away for some one on one time in Nelson. We went on a walking architectural tour of the town. This was our favorite building because we have been to one on Victoria Island, B.C. that looked very similar and turns out they were designed by the same guy!

Saturday was our last real day in Nelson before we left.  We packed a lot into this day.  We went to Fletcher Falls in the morning to check out the waterfall we had heard about. 

Here is a shot of me and my cute lil nieces, Jewel and Aspen. 

Saturday was also family pictures and the meal our group was responsible to make, Sloppy Joes.  It was a hectic process to get all the food ready, but it was a hit.  Gary, Loretta, and Leandra carried the weight of this one and they did a great job!

 Here is Josh and Aspen enjoying some dessert before the reunion ended. 

 Then we did clean up and headed back to our cabin.  We had a few more good rounds of catch phrase before the trip was through!

Sunday morning we finished packing, got a last couple pictures and headed for Utah.  We drove the 15 hours to Utah and slept a few more hours before our 10 hour trip back to Cali on Monday.

Another Great Trip!