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Earthquake Country! November 30, 2010

Filed under: Family,San Francisco — Kelocity @ 2:00 pm
Tags: Family, Fun, Point Reyes, San Francisco

Sunday, we all wanted to get outside and get some fresh air!

We gathered up the family and headed out on a 1.5 hour road trip to Point Reyes.

What a good lookin’ bunch, yes?

The drive up north was great, so much to look at. This is San Quentin prison! Yikes!

We finally got up to our destination!

Welcome to Earthquake Trail!

This was a half mile educational loop filled with all kinds of info about how Earthquakes work. (All of us nerds loved it!)

EJ proclaimed: “Take a picture of this sign and we can read it later”. lol

The hike itself was more of a stroll, but it was nice.

And then we found this!

Those blue posts mark the San Andreas fault!

All I kept thinking of was Land of the Lost when they fall into the earthquake crack. LOL

The best part was seeing this fence. This was once connected, but in the early 1900s, the plates moved 12 feet in less than a minute!

Here is all four of us demonstrating how far apart the plates moved!
Point Reyes 2010 004

After our geography lesson, we headed over to a history lesson!

They have an old Indian Village that has been restored to it’s original form.

This used to be how they lived!

And they had Teepees too!

Then we went inside the “Sweat Room” (not quite sure what that was for. lol)

EJ running out of the Sweat Room. HAHA

Then for some reason, I decided to jog back to the car.

It was a fun way to spend the day.

So much of this great state to explore still.

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The Anti-Black Friday… November 29, 2010

Filed under: Family,Food,Thanksgiving — Kelocity @ 10:25 pm
Tags: Costco, Family, Food, Thanksgiving

We didn’t head out to the stores like the rest of America on Black Friday… But we did relax during the day and then ventured to Costco in the afternoon. (We joked that we are a family of Costco Lovers!)

Irving tried out the new 3D TVs (candid shot!)

After, we went to Sports Basement and scored an AMAZING deal on sneakers! The exact shoes I run in were $130 marked down to $75! I tried to buy two pairs, but sadly, they only had one left in my size.

Dinner was another fantastic (and slightly healthier) meal! Roasted Veggies, Salad and Beef.

With Wine of Course!

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Saturday, EJ, Sarah and Mona went down to Monterey and Irving, Julie and I went into a vey rainy San Francisco to see the De Young Museum. It’s such a great museum.

Check out this Church that was built out of guns and bullets!

So Interesting!

We really enjoyed the traveling Post-Impressionist exhibit, but you couldn’t take pictures in there. We saw lots of Van Gogh, Cezzane and Renoir paintings including Van Gogh’s The Bedroom. He actually made three of these paintings and I saw one of them in Amsterdam in 2003!
vangogh
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When we got out of the Museum, the rain had cleared and the city was gorgeous!

We stopped for lunch at Picante in Berkeley! It was SO yummy! The Watermelon juice was the highlight for sure!

Northern California is so pretty. It really reminds me of New England!

Stay Tuned for more later as we take a side trip to Point Reyes!

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A Year to be Thankful for…

Filed under: Family,San Francisco,Thanksgiving — Kelocity @ 10:13 pm
Tags: Family, Museum, Point Reyes, San Francisco, Thanksgiving, Travel

Thanksgiving was a blast this year. It’s always fun when families from all over the country can get together to celebrate family. This time around, we headed up to San Francisco to Irving’s mom’s house.

We left late on Wednesday night to ‘beat’ the traffic rush. We hit a little bit on the grapevine heading out of Los Angeles…

But after that, it opened up and it was actually a really nice drive. Per usual, we stopped at Harris Ranch for dinner. I love that place. One of these days, we’re going to spend the night there, it’s just so cute.

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On Thanksgiving Day, we woke up, and the cooking began!

I made my favorite Sweet Potato Casserole (the recipe from my Aunt Donna that I make for Thanksgiving every year). It’s so good!

Awe!

Before we knew it, EJ (Irving’s sister) and her wife Sarah had arrived…and jumped straight into the kitchen!

Sarah’s mom Mona and Nini struck up a conversation and entertained the cooks.

Irving also helped prepare our Thanksgiving meal…

Don’t worry…we woke him up to carve the Turkey!

Sarah made a fantastic Pecan Pie!

All the siblings-in-laws (is that a word?)

Our Turkey was AWESOME! I am not a huge turkey eater, but I really enjoyed this one.

Ok.. ready for the menu?

Wine & Rolls

Cranberry Sauce with Cream Cheese and Pecans

Sweet Potato Casserole

Peas with Pearl Onions

Gravy

Green Bean Casserole

Pineapple and Cheese (I need to get this recipe, it was sugary goodness!)

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Happy Thanksgiving!!

My Plate:

Cheers to a great family, all together!

And if that wasn’t enough food… perhaps we should have dessert? We had a whole bunch of treats including the Peacn Pie, Pumpkin Cheesecake and these chocolate covered dates we brought back from Dubai!

We finished off the night with a fun game of ‘Apples to Apples’. Even Nini played, it was so fun!

And then I think we all fell asleep with food comas. What a fun day!

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In Anticipation of Christmas! November 16, 2010

Filed under: Family,Happy — Kelocity @ 1:30 pm
Tags: Christmas, Family, Food, Happy

Whew! That was two full weeks of travel, exploring and adventure, but I am definitely happy to be home. Here’s a round up of what we’ve been doing since we got back.

This week, Irving and I geared up for our annual Christmas present game (we like games). A few years back, I came up with an idea to make Christmas shopping more fun and meaningful. We came up with about 100 adjectives (things like ‘Something Red’, ‘Starts with an R’, ‘Batteries not included’, etc.) And we put each thing in a bag and randomly pull out five cards. Then we have to buy gifts using three of the five cards for the other person.

This year, we flipped a coin (from Dubai) to find out who got to pick first…

Ready for the coin toss..

Tails! I go first!

Have to make sure you pick a good one!

Yes! That one is a winner! (But the cards are top secret, so I can’t reveal to you just yet which ones I picked since Irving reads the blog!)

Irving’s turn…

I think I got good ones… stay tuned after Christmas to see how it all turned out!

On Sunday, I went over to see Ashley’s new baby, Hudson! He’s adorable, I can’t believe he’s here!

Then Erika and Timmy and Irving and I went to Honey Kettle for lunch.

Dipping sauces required.

Last night, my friend Janet came over to teach me how to make real tea. I picked up this amazing tea from the Dubai Spice Market and I was dying to brew a cup.

We heated up the water in my Keurig machine…

And Janet brought her teapot to share.

It was a DELICIOUS cup of tea! (Thanks Janet!)

Tonight, Irving and I made grilled chicken sandwiches!

With all the fixins’.

Mmm Steamed Veggies! I was CRAVING these!

We dined next to the beautiful flowers Irving bought for me this weekend!

We’re also loving these alabaster tea light holders we got in Cairo. They are so pretty when they glow.

Whew, that was a long one! Stay tuned this week for another round of the Arabian Contest!

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Columbus Day Weekend at Home October 12, 2010

Filed under: Dogs,Family,Food,Happy — Kelocity @ 9:21 pm
Tags: Dogs, Family, Foo, Happy, Home, Sisters

After Linsay’s shower, I spent the rest of the long weekend hanging out with my family and enjoying the beautiful weather.

I was SO excited that Shelby drove out for the weekend too. She’s the proud mama of the adorable Harper.

I saw her in July, but she’s already grown SO much since then. It’s just crazy how fast they grow!

She got passed around a lot when she came over. Mikaela got to hold her!

And my dad! (I think he misses little baby girls!)

Even my cousins wanted to snuggle with her too!

Thanks for coming over, Shelby! I miss you!

My grandparents came over for brunch on Sunday. It’s always nice to catch up with them in person.

So anyone that knows my mom knows that she can’t sit still for three minutes (in a good way!) She always has to be doing something. And when the weather is nice… that means working in the garden!

She made me grab a shovel and till the garden for the spring.

Gardening is NOT my forte, but we did a great job!

One night, I was puttering around looking through some of my old childhood things, and I came across some old floppy drives. I put one in an old computer and the files were STILL there!!! I was SO excited. I thought i lost some of my old stories I wrote (circa 1993) but they were all still there!

It was a story about a Brain Transplant, and for 5th grade, I thought it was pretty good. HAHA It was over 20 pages long!

It’s silly, but I’m glad I found it! PS… how amazing is this orange text? Technology has come a long ways, my friends!

Monday morning, I met my friends Courtney, Steph and Katie for breakfast at Friendly’s. I hadn’t been to this one since high school! (We used to go after the Football Games I think)!