Wednesday, January 07, 2009
24 Days
As Lee pointed out, I have another large gap in my blog. Rather than waiting to get pictures, here is a summary of some things that have happened since I returned from Finland.
- Uneventful trip back home - as it should be! No serious delays, the entertainment system worked on the plane, and I had an aisle seat instead of the middle seat for the London - LAX flight!
- Celeste's Suburban needed some major repairs. We are not ready to downsize the car due to school and Girl Scout transportation requirements, and we are not ready to purchase another large vehicle. So we fixed it.
- Joined Hayley with her Sea Scout ship (the one she will officially join when she is 14) in the Newport Harbor 100th annivesary boat parade. The boat had problems, so we dropped out of the parade early. However, that let us watch the parade close up from the deck.
- My brother and his family (the "Colorado George Family") arrived for their Christmas visit. They stayed with my mom for a week before visiting the other family in San Diego.
- Semi-annual teeth cleaning and check for Celeste & I. All is well.
- For the second year, I got a work break around the holidays. This year, the company closed down (with pay) from Dec 24 to Jan 2.
- The girls (Celeste, Ina, Bethany, Hayley) and I visited Knott's Berry Farm with the Colorado Georges, my mom, Andrew, and Ina.
- Christmas celebration with Colorado George family, my mom, Celeste's mom, Andrew, and the family at home (including Ina) on Christmas Eve.
- Christmas Day celebration with Andrew, Celeste's mom, the the family at home. Ina was somewhat homesick, but she got a lot of gifts from both the Norway family and her American family. She made Celeste cry on Christmas Day (in a good way, that is a story for another day). We went to see the movie Marley & Me which was very different than the ads led you to expect. We generally liked it. Andrew claims that the movie made me cry. He can't prove anything.
- Celeste, Bethany, and Ina went out for day-after-Christmas sales with Celeste's mom. Hayley and I stayed home to play games together. Hayley and I were lured into having lunch with everyone at the new Ruby's that opened at the Irvine Spectrum and then we joined them for a little bit more shopping.
- Celeste, Ina, Bethany, Hayley, and I went to visit Hollywood for a day. We stalked some movie stars homes and then visited the area around Hollywood & Highland. This turned out to be one of the highlights of Ina's visit to America due to the brush with fame and lots of photo opportunities.
- New Years Eve was pretty low key. Bethany went to a dance at a local church with some friends and had a great time. We played some cards with another family at home. We popped some streamers at midnight and then I picked up Bethany and a few of her friends from the dance.
- New Years Day was an outing day, but it was cool and foggy. Celeste, Ina, Bethany, Hayley, Rachael (Bethany's friend), and I went to Corona Del Mar State Beach ("Big Corona") to let the girls play and take pictures on the rocks and jetty. I think that the last time that I was at this beach was with Shoo and Lee when we used to meet there by taking the Route 57 OCTD bus from each end (Lee and I from Costa Mesa, Shoo from El Toro). We stayed about 2 hours and left when we decided that the fog was not going to clear. We went to see the movie Bedtime Stories which got mixed reviews from the family. Andrew was not there to accuse me of unmanly emotions.
- Hayley and I have been playing the Xbox game Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliances together. We spend and hour here and an hour there. At one point we lost our save and had to start over. However, we finally finished it. It was a fun experience and I am proud to be raising a Gamer Grrl! Now I need to find a cheap copy of the sequel so that we can take the next step.
- Jan 5 was back to school and back to work. A general sense of dread was felt by all at the loss of freedom.
OK, now I need to go find some pictures to better document some of the events listed above. I will not wait 24 days for that.
- Uneventful trip back home - as it should be! No serious delays, the entertainment system worked on the plane, and I had an aisle seat instead of the middle seat for the London - LAX flight!
- Celeste's Suburban needed some major repairs. We are not ready to downsize the car due to school and Girl Scout transportation requirements, and we are not ready to purchase another large vehicle. So we fixed it.
- Joined Hayley with her Sea Scout ship (the one she will officially join when she is 14) in the Newport Harbor 100th annivesary boat parade. The boat had problems, so we dropped out of the parade early. However, that let us watch the parade close up from the deck.
- My brother and his family (the "Colorado George Family") arrived for their Christmas visit. They stayed with my mom for a week before visiting the other family in San Diego.
- Semi-annual teeth cleaning and check for Celeste & I. All is well.
- For the second year, I got a work break around the holidays. This year, the company closed down (with pay) from Dec 24 to Jan 2.
- The girls (Celeste, Ina, Bethany, Hayley) and I visited Knott's Berry Farm with the Colorado Georges, my mom, Andrew, and Ina.
- Christmas celebration with Colorado George family, my mom, Celeste's mom, Andrew, and the family at home (including Ina) on Christmas Eve.
- Christmas Day celebration with Andrew, Celeste's mom, the the family at home. Ina was somewhat homesick, but she got a lot of gifts from both the Norway family and her American family. She made Celeste cry on Christmas Day (in a good way, that is a story for another day). We went to see the movie Marley & Me which was very different than the ads led you to expect. We generally liked it. Andrew claims that the movie made me cry. He can't prove anything.
- Celeste, Bethany, and Ina went out for day-after-Christmas sales with Celeste's mom. Hayley and I stayed home to play games together. Hayley and I were lured into having lunch with everyone at the new Ruby's that opened at the Irvine Spectrum and then we joined them for a little bit more shopping.
- Celeste, Ina, Bethany, Hayley, and I went to visit Hollywood for a day. We stalked some movie stars homes and then visited the area around Hollywood & Highland. This turned out to be one of the highlights of Ina's visit to America due to the brush with fame and lots of photo opportunities.
- New Years Eve was pretty low key. Bethany went to a dance at a local church with some friends and had a great time. We played some cards with another family at home. We popped some streamers at midnight and then I picked up Bethany and a few of her friends from the dance.
- New Years Day was an outing day, but it was cool and foggy. Celeste, Ina, Bethany, Hayley, Rachael (Bethany's friend), and I went to Corona Del Mar State Beach ("Big Corona") to let the girls play and take pictures on the rocks and jetty. I think that the last time that I was at this beach was with Shoo and Lee when we used to meet there by taking the Route 57 OCTD bus from each end (Lee and I from Costa Mesa, Shoo from El Toro). We stayed about 2 hours and left when we decided that the fog was not going to clear. We went to see the movie Bedtime Stories which got mixed reviews from the family. Andrew was not there to accuse me of unmanly emotions.
- Hayley and I have been playing the Xbox game Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliances together. We spend and hour here and an hour there. At one point we lost our save and had to start over. However, we finally finished it. It was a fun experience and I am proud to be raising a Gamer Grrl! Now I need to find a cheap copy of the sequel so that we can take the next step.
- Jan 5 was back to school and back to work. A general sense of dread was felt by all at the loss of freedom.
OK, now I need to go find some pictures to better document some of the events listed above. I will not wait 24 days for that.
Labels: Andrew, Bethany, Family, Hayley, Ina
# posted by - Rob @ 9:49 AM 
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Growing up my folks always went to Big Corona. They would park and the top and I would burn my feet getting to the sand down that driveway hill.
I spent more time in the Cave then in the water.
I recall spelunking through the jetty rocks with shoo.
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I spent more time in the Cave then in the water.
I recall spelunking through the jetty rocks with shoo.
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