Griffin and Moose Jam Session – 2009 January 17, 2010

Over the holidays, we spent some time in Bakersfield. Griffin and Chris got some serious quality music time together. Chris showed Griffin his acoustic bass along with every other guitar he had in his house. Griffin pulled out his new mini guitar and the two jammed for awhile in the livingroom.

A Week in Washington December 29, 2009

…just flies by.  We stayed in for the most part, only venturing out to shop a bit and rent movies (yep you can still do that in person).  Griffin has had a blast being Daddy’s little boy.  We’ve gone for little walks around the neighborhood and managed to play on the school gym most days.  True to form we have eaten our way through a plethora of scrumptious dishes.  We have been saving the best for last: Silverdale Brew Pub for dinner tonight!

Mom and I tried our hand at some fabric stamping.  The verdict is: the stamps are better on paper but the backs of leaves make pretty patterns.  I ended up free-handing a tree on my shirt – pretty and autumnal.

Tomorrow we head home to our Bay Area but I’m not ready.  I’d love to spend another week up here just relaxing.  Oh well,I look forward to seeing Glen and Jess and the pups soon.  Thanks to Eric, Sherie, Janine and Erika for watching our furry family members.

In the meantime here are some pics from our trip (click on the picture to the left).  Of course they are laden with the adorable and incomparable Griffin Connor.  Happy 2K10 to all and see you in Bakersfield next weekend!

Rebecca, et al

Home Again Home Again, Jiggety Jig July 30, 2009

So the last leg of my trip was in a hotel with $10per day Internet service and I am not going to pay for that.? Sorry for the delay in updating here, but I got home and collapsed for a couple of days while Griffin had viral strep throat (fun!).? But we are both recovering from our extended vacation and happy to be home.

Where did we leave off?? Ah yes – going to LA from Bakersfield.? It was sad to leave the little man for the next week but fun to have some time with grown ups as we traversed the famed Garment (Fabric) District in LA for $1/yard gems in a sea of fabric.? And I do mean an absolute sea of fabric.? Anything and everything you could hope to find.? I must go back with my Tax ID # so I can really put a dent in my wallet.? I found heaping bags full of fabric – each strip with?a purpose?in mind.? Luckily my Mom and Georgia were with me to help carry my loot.? Mom got a couple of yards too – we’ll see what she makes of them soon, right Mom?

Georgia’s house was lovely – great condo with quite a nice pool that she has never used!? I took care of trying it out for her before we headed off on Wednesday for a morning of Hollywood Star Walking and then it was off to a lovely Italian restaurant in Venice Beach before saying goodbye to Mom at LAX.? The trip back to Georgia’s was a little loner than I’d hoped (2hours) but I guess LA had to prove to me it really does have bad traffic.? I’d been way to lucky on our previous trek he week before.? I made it to Georgia’s and headed out to San Diego at 5pm.? Even managed to get to my hotel in the Gaslamp by 7:30, so not too bad with Georgia’s route suggestion to avoid I-5.?

My next big trick was to score our 4 Comic Con badges while being the only there – no problem for this seasoned traveler.? I picked Joe up at the airport t 10pm – finally got to see him after a week of?vacationing and no husband.? Boy had I missed him!? There wasn’t much time to relax as the Con started Thursday AM and I had planned a full docket for myself.? First up:? Middleman Lost Episode cast reading.? Turned out to be my favorite panel of the whole trip.? The entire cast was present to read the un-filmed last episode of Middleman – AWESOME!!!? I loved every subtitled second of it (yep the subtitles are just the nutty bits on top o’ this giant banana split’s worth of yummy goodness).? Afterwards Joe and I were able to see 2 of the main stars (Wendy Watson herself and Lacey – her young photogenic artist roommate and best friend in their illegal sublet).? There they signed the comic along with creators of the show and original comic – thanks guys!? Wish there could be more show to look forward too.

There is so much to talk about from Comic Con – from Farscape to Dr. Who to Joe’s own panel for City of Heroes: what a blast it all was.? I’ll talk more about things later, but for now this is something to keep you interested.? And for those in love with all things SciFi and geeky, please google Comic Con – you’ll have loads of entertaining videos to watch.? You might even feel as though you’d been there yourself.? But only an actual trip to Dick’s Last Resort can give you their ribs, shrimp, catfish and Big Ass Glass o’ Beer, sorry.

Last Day in B-Town July 20, 2009

What a ride!? And I thought Disneyland would have me jaded by now…? We’ve been to see just about the whole family and actually had a few days to do it instead of trying to fit everyone into a 24 hour period.? Highlights include:

Lunch with everyone at Luigi’s (Kathy and Frank too!): I tried a new combo from the menu: Giovanna’s Gourmet salad,? pickled tongue and a sausage – yum, yum, YUMMY!

Night out with Mom and Aunt Carla to see the Subterranians play (Chris’ band).

F&M Fabrics where Mom lost her cell phone backing but then managed to find it the next day.? I had to buy more fabric just to celebrate!?

Seeing Marti’s fabric stash and beautiful gourds along with their museum like front room of racing accouterments.?

Dinner at Chris Moose’s house: Griffin thinks Chris is named Moose because he keeps using both his hands as antlers and saying “Moose” to him.? Being that my child is psychic, he even started calling for “Moose” on the way to his house.? He does the hand gestures as well which makes it super cute.? Dinner was a bit sad though; I had to say goodbye to my baby boy for the next week.? I plan on seeing him before we leave Bako, but then nothing until next Sunday!? Joe has been missing him something awful.?

We squeezed in a video chat with Dad too – lots of fun to watch him make crazy faces at G-Man and see G just light up like a Christmas tree while clucking around the house because Chris taught him to speak like a chicken.? Ah, kids…

Harry Potter was a great highlight too – well done movie!? I know they can’t fit everything from the book into the movie, but what they chose to keep and how they edited everything together had a great flow to it.? Joe and I are going to see it again in San Diego – bonus!

So sadly today is our last day in Bakersfield, but it is not the end of our trip.? We plan to hit a couple of antique stores downtown, one last shot at F&M, have lunch with Roxann again, go to the farm one last time and maybe pretend to have a drink at the Padre (wishful thinking).? Next up is the Garment/Fabric district in LA.? Stay tuned…

Summer in the City…Bakersfield that is. July 18, 2009

Today’s forecast: 106 degrees, YIKES!? Also on today’s forecast: lunch at Luigi’s with the family, hanging out with Jer and Alanah at Aunt Carla’ house and tonight: Chris’ band is playing at the Lone Oak Inn, assuming I can find a suitable babysitter.

We are having a wonderful time on our vacation.? Yesterday we started things off right with breakfast at the farm and then lunch with Roxann, it was Griffin’s first time meeting her so that was quite a treat.? It was a treat for me because my fajitas were killer!? I’m hoping will get to see Roxann (and Robbie) again before we leave since Griffin was in meltdown mode at lunch.

Dinner last night was like going to a hot weather retreat: Rosemary and Chris had set up their pool in the backyard with chairs all around it to stick our feet in the cold water and keep our temps low amid the sweltering heat.? Dinner consisted of 4 types of salads and was followed up with ice cream and strawberries!? I feel so pampered and I’m getting used to this!? Emily and Griffin were splashing in the pool and playing with the cats in the backyard Elizabeth looks lovely, it was so nice to see her after all this time.? It feels like it has been longer than it really has, but every time I see Elizabeth I wish we could see more of each other.? Someone just needs to invent a space-folding-machine so travel between San Jose and Bakersfield is like stepping into your backyard, that would work for me.? Plus you could step into cooler weather anytime you like.? I just hope you don’t wind up squishing all the people you have to fold between the two locations, that would sound really gross.

Okay, Griffin is down for his morning nap and I’m off to work out – we need to combat all this fine dining (pickled tongue!)?preemptively.? Luigi’s here I come!

BTW – stop by our photo gallery to see pictures of our trip thus far by clicking on the words above.

From the land of 90 degrees fahrenheit at 8am: Rebecca, Griffin and Paula/Mom/Nana

Nana & Mama + Thurs Mornin’ July 16, 2009

The Adventure continues?. . . ?

Rebecca and Mom were able to take the evening and go on the ‘adult’ rides! After getting a sitter for G’man, we were?off to see, do and ride!? We rode Star Tours, Matterhorn, watched the fireworks including zip line?Tinkerbell and Dumbo!? We finished our big girls’ night out with Splash Mountain, Indian Jones’ Adventure, Thunder Mountain, do-over on Jungle Cruise and a late night Haagen Daas sundae.??We walked home through the clear night to Wonder Tower (cue music from? Wonder?Woman).

We woke to Griffin’s smiles and went to a ‘Character? Breakfast’ with great fruit, salmon, and COFFEE!!!? Not sure why but Disney?is not so much with the free flowing coffee.? We have packed and gotten the bill and sent for bell? service and?- our last events?? The pool for G’Man and Downtown Di’ney for Nana to get presents.? Whoo – fun, fun, fun!!

Now? that we’ve? seen Disney and been victorious, where are we going?? Bakersfield!!!!

Nana/Paula posting from her?embedded position with Summer Vacation ’09

Disneyland Do Over July 15, 2009

Day one of Disneyland did not go so well.? I started Griffin off on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (the first ride he went on a year ago) and?terrified him.? He was clinging to me so tightly afterwards and Mom said his heart was pounding like mad.? So we tried a different approach – Dumbo’s Flying Circus.? This makes better sense: he loves elephants, flying and it’s open to the outdoors/not too loud.? No go there either.? We ended up walking around a bit, jumping on the Jungle Boat Cruise?(elephants) and then taking him back to the hotel for a nap (1 hour).? On the way back to our hotel we ran into the Queen of Hearts, Alice and the Mad Hatter.? Griffin was enthralled with the queen and even shook her hand.? So not a total loss.

After his nap we went for a second attempt via the Monorail (not sure he liked it).? We went on the easy boat ride?through Storybook Land – he seemed appeased so we continued to the Alice in Wonderland ride and the Mad Tea Cup Ride – both went alright.? It was Toon Town he really loved – not really any rides, just Goofy’s yard and Mickey’s house.? Lunch was the Rainforest Cafe and they sat us right next to the animatronic elephants.? He wasn’t pleased but managed to trumpet back to the elephants whenever they stopped moving.? It completely wore him out though.? We brought him back for another nap at 3:30pm and he stayed asleep until 10pm!!!? Mom and I ordered room service and watched the fireworks from our window, this time with beer.? Mom extended our trip a day so we won’t feel like we missed out on half of our Disney trip?- yippee Mom!

All in all we had fun but I wasn’t sure how Griffin was going to fare the next day going back to the most Magical Place on Earth.

He woke up at 6am a changed kid – smiles, giggles and ready to start the day.? We took the Monorail into the park which he remembered from the day before and hit the Autopia right off – he enjoyed going for the ride and even held the wheel a bit.? We proceed to go on plenty of rides each more exciting than the next.? He actually tried to get out of the boat on It’s a Small World to stay in the ride!? A great time was had by all and now we are back at the hotel for another nap and round of work outs for the grown ups.? Once he wakes up, we’ll head down to the pool for some water play.? We’re planning to get a sitter tonight for the G-Man and see the park just us grown ups till midnight turns us into pumpkins – Woot!

Wish us luck! – Rebecca

Griffin Takes Disney Hotel by Storm July 13, 2009

What a lovely day!? We had breakfast with Erika and Aunt Carla and then headed south to LA LA Land for Mom Time.? We met up at Wendy’s house and got to see both her and Tyler (briefly) before heading over to the Disneyland Hotel for the beginning of our stay.? We arrived early and our room wasn’t quite ready so Griffin decided we should take a stroll along Downtown Disney and proceeded to pick a lovely lunch spot for us to eat cheese and sandwiches outside.? Afterwards, he pushed his own stroller all over the property and we ended up soaking our feet in the pool for a bit until our room was all set!

The room is FABULOUS!? We have a direct line of sight to the fireworks inside the park and that was just a topper to an evening of dinner with Georgia and Ricky (burgers, yum!).? I must give props to the bell service that brought up all 10 of our bags!? Jeezy Creezy how did we manage to bring so much crap in a tiny hatchback?? BTW, my Versa is getting great mileage and still fit my mounds o’ crap, Mom, Griffin and Me quite nicely.

Side note: we are staying in the Wonder Tower of the Disneyland Hotel and ever since they told us I can’t stop shouting it like “Wonder Woman!”? whenever I say where we are staying.? It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s Wonder Tower!!!? Lives up to its name with that view I’m telling you.? I should have topped watching the fireworks long enough to grab the camera but I was too in the moment to care.? Griffin stayed up until almost 10pm so we’ll see how tomorrow goes.? Wish us luck!

Vacation Day One July 13, 2009

Had a lovely evening in Bakersfield with Erika.? We got to her house and Griffin was automatically at ease with her mom, Janine.? The dog door to the backyard was of particular interest, being just Griffin’s size.? He followed both her dogs around petting and talking to them.? We gave Erika her birthday present early which Griffin proceeded to play with while jumping on Erika’s bed over and over.

Then we went for a bit of antique shopping downtown before meeting up with Rosemary and Chris.? Griffin proceeded to run around the garden with a bucket, stepping into a huge puddle of water.? Right before we got there Griffin had poured his water all over himself so he ended up running around their backyard with socks and no pants on – HOT!

We ended the evening with dinner at The Orchid (also a lovely wine bar).? The food was amazing and I have to come back here.? I had the roasted duck in curry sauce with steamed vegetables and brown rice. CRAZY GOOD!!!!? Finished it off with a Snapdragon Cabernet and the best lemon cake I’ve ever had. Note: there are two Orchid restaurants in Bakersfield, this is the one on Brimhall with the wine bar, unlike the other one sans wine bar.? I mention it because our waitstaff was particularly helpful and the ambiance was just the right amount of casual while still having the vibe of a special locale.