San Diego - the Colossal Photo Post

We just got home from 6 days in San Diego, California. What follows is a whole lotta photos from the trip. Believe it or not, there are more on Flickr. You have to be a Flickr friend to see them so if you are not, just let me know.

Somewhere between Regina and Denver we had a beautiful view up above the clouds.

We arrived late Thursday night so in the morning we scouted out a place for breakfast and found some cool photo ops around the resort.  We stayed at The Lawrence Welk Resort in a beautiful condo (bigger and nicer than our house, I never wanted to leave).

There are these rocky hills on all sides.  They make for stunning views and backdrops for photos of brothers who like to annoy the snot out of each other.  As you can see, Kamden is not amused.

A note fountain.  Ha.  Neat and good for tourists to take photos of.

Day 1 we took in Lego Land and true to form, these guys did not go on one single ride.  They do not take after me.

They did enjoy the Star Wars exhibit however.

Over 10,000 pieces went into this Millennium Falcon.   It was about 3 feet long.  That's a lot of Lego.  And also, how do I get a job playing with Lego?

Captain Rex is a favourite of these two. They are Star Wars fans but they really love Star Wars The Clone Wars best.  What the difference?  I haven't a clue but they sure seem to know.

There was a mini San Fransisco and I enjoyed Lombard St without having to actually walk it.  Boot camp on the hill anyone?

We got a kick out of the nerd glasses.  Or 3D glasses whatever.  Also note Kamden.  Always with the poses, that one.  You will see a theme.

For Granddaddy.  He's even doing the hand thingy.

Day 2 we hung out at the resort because um, they had this, beside a beautiful pool surrounded by hills and it was a beautiful day.  Oh yes.  It was lovely.  The boys loved the spray apparatus above.  It had 6 pails up in the air that would fill with water and randomly dump it over their heads. Personally, that sounds like hell but what do I know?

9am.  We had the place to ourselves so I relaxed on a lounge chair whilst they frolicked in the pool.  (I may be channeling my inner British side)

They only got out to eat.  And when their eyes were bloodshot.  Even the salt water pools irritate the eyes.  And it dries the tar out of our skin. We have to shower and slather on the  moisturizer. Is it just us?  I thought these salt water pools were supposed to be so much better.

Later that night, we took a drive to the coast to see the ocean.  It was not swimming weather, rather what I would call chilly.  I see why people wear wet suits to surf in California.  We kept chuckling that it was hotter back home in Canada than in California. 

I love how sometimes pictures do not tell the real story.  We probably only spent 15 min at the beach and I have the most pictures from there.  It's was cold so we went off in search of ice cream and for me?  Fish tacos.  Oh yes.  I am currently obsessed with fish tacos and where better to get them than a California beach town.  They were good and I even shared them with Jay.

Apparently waves are exciting.  If that doesn't make you laugh, I don't know what will.

It wasn't much of a beach, more of a jetty.  High tide I think?

Can you guess who was less than thrilled about posing for a family photo?  So using this one on his wedding day.

Day 3 we had to bid our glorious condo goodbye.  The conference I was attending was downtown, more than an hour's drive away so we moved to that hotel.  It cost the same and we had one room, two queen beds vs. two bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room and kitchen.  I guess you pay for location?

The zoo happened to be on the way so we spent the day touring around and saw about 1/3 of it.  It's huge!

Our favourites were the elephants and the giraffes. So neat to see them up close and personal like that.

I was in awe of the plants or in this case the cactus.  That is the size of a tree.  Honest to goodness a first for me.  The ones that grow on my parents land are the size of a small ball.  I love experiencing the differences in landscape when we travel.  California is really beautiful in so many ways.

These were in the lot as we waked to the car at the zoo.  The flowers look like daisies but the plant is not like the daisies we have.  So pretty regardless.

This was on a tree and the bloom is the size of my hand.  So neat.

A view of our hotel downtown.  It was located adjacent to the San Diego Convention Center which was hosting Comicon.  We saw some, um, interesting people that night.

And about 5 Batmobiles.  There was one for each Batman movie ever made.  I think they were the real thing, but really who cares, so  neat to see.  I couldn't care less about Batman movies but even I thought this was cool.

I swear that guy is the Penguin.  Jay didn't think so but now that I see the picture, I think it even more.

Snapped this one on my phone while lounging in my hoodie by the pool.  Too cold to swim for me!  The breeze off the water was chilly.

The boys however, had no trouble swimming at any time.

This is already Day 6.  I was in the conference on Day 4 and 5 and apparently I am the only one who takes pictures.  The boys hit SeaWorld, the Science Center and the Museum of Space and Aviation without me.

The last night we headed over to Petco Park to watch some MLB - the boys first game ever. 

The Padres won and it was a pretty exciting game.  We all enjoyed it.

It was our first time in California and we enjoyed it.  I have to say that travelling is so much fun with these three.

June, the Rest of the Story and Well July too

Another month gone, another birthday celebrated.  Kamden turned 8 and we celebrated in between his end of the season flag football and soccer tournaments.  He slept really good that weekend as you can imagine.

We almost had a tornado too.  Nothing touched down but we had these really neat clouds (Mammatus clouds) which only appear after a tornado type storm.

Pretty neat and much less frightening than the cloud I was driving towards that looked like it was forming a very large funnel.  It didn't, thank goodnesss.

I also prepared for and passed the practical portion of my personal training certification.  It's all done, I am certified and on ward ho.  It was stressful but so worth it.  I am looking forward to this new addition to my life.

I also bit the bullet and traded in my Blackberry for an iPhone.  I was skeptical but I am a full convert.  I just couldn't believe how much better it could be but it really is.  Email and internet are 100 times better and makes my work use of the phone so much easier.

And the camera kicks my Blackberry camera's butt to Portugal.

I got all dudded up to go out and celebrate my birthday with a good friend.  Also a busy friend.  It took us two months to find a day that worked for both of us.  Life is full and busy and good.

And we laughed till we cried.  Twice.

There ain't nothing better.



And that brings us to July.  The weather has been unbelievable and on the weekend we hit the beach to enjoy it.  We ran into Jack's good buddy from school and the boys got a tube ride out of the deal.  Living less than an  hour from about a dozen beaches is something for sure.

It's been a great summer so far, here's to the rest of summer.

Learning New, Unexpected Things

This past weekend was a learning experience for me and not really in the way that I expected. Fourteen days ago, I decided to challenge an exam in order to obtain my Personal Training Certification.

(Pictures completely unrelated to post - but he such a sports nut and I love it!)

Fourteen days to learn a thirteen chapter textbook.  Did I mention that by trade, I am an accountant?  This is an exam that someone with a Kinesiology background would have no trouble acing with that little time to study.

Why the rush?  The next exam isn't being held until October. 

The time pressure stems from the fact that I was asked to begin teaching one of the classes that I attend weekly starting at the beginning of August.

I am pretty passionate about fitness and would love to help others on their journey so I thought, why not?  What have I got to lose?

So I dusted off the study techniques that helped me graduate with great distinction from University and I set out to do it. 

And I lost about 5 lbs solely due to stress and anxiety.  This is humorous to me.  By the way, the funny bone is called that because the upper arm bone is the humerus.  I actually didn't know this (perhaps I shouldn't admit that.) so I did learn something.

The reason the level of anxiety is funny is because after university, I obtained my professional accounting designation (Chartered Accountant).  To do this, I wrote a 4 day exam.  Yes, four days for a total of sixteen hours.

This exam was 3 hours and half of it was multiple choice.  Which if you don't know the material are no easier than any other type of question but you do have a slightly better chance of guessing than a short answer.

So basically I should be able to write an exam like this in my sleep and maybe I could, if it was about accounting.

I made it though the material and reviewed, reviewed and then reviewed some more.  I even learned to spell gastrocnemus and vastus medialis and a bunch of other fun medical terms.  And I am a terrible speller.

I also learned about how your body creates the energy to move and it was really interesting.  I still don't know why I can't run faster but maybe I'll figure that out someday too.

The other half of the exam was a series of short answer questions that created a fitness program for a fictitious client.  This is the part I was worried about.  I could only guess what type of things they would ask and I was a bit off. I am not sure the person who marks my paper will be able to read it on account of the shaking my hand was doing. Some stuff I thought I knew, didn't seem to make sense for the client I picked so I modified as best I could.  It remains to be seen how hard the trainer who grades it will laugh when she reads it.

When I was done, I was tempted to walk out and just be done.  But I thought, you got this far, check it over, you might be able to add something.  So I did. And I didn't add a thing.  I did change a multiple choice answer but knowing me, I had it right the first time.

So now I wait.  We are supposed to know pretty quickly so every time I get a personal email, my heart goes in my throat.

What I learned over the weekend though has very little to do with anything I studied.  Rather, the whole experience reminded me that I have a pretty amazing life.  I love my day job, and that's the kicker, I have a great job,  I don't need this.  I have a great family and I spent the weekend watching my younger son play football and soccer.  Life is good.

So if this doesn't pan out and I *gasp* fail, well, I tried, and I am going with the idea that it isn't meant to be.

And I keep dancing around the house singing, "I don't have to study, I don't have to study" because in case you don't remember, that's a pretty stellar feeling.

UPDATED: I PASSED!!!!!!!!

June So Far

June, it's here and almost half over already. We've been busy. Kamden is playing both soccer and flag football. Here he is lining on the defensive line.  I don't actually know what I am talking about but I fooled you there, didn't I?

The day I brought my camera he got a tackle (ie ripped a flag off the ball carrier) in the first few minutes of the game.  He was also about 5 feet from me and my zoom lens.  When you look at the picture below, envision his arm extending above the top of the photo holding the yellow flag.  Then look at his face.  He was proud.

He also went to a birthday party and got his face painted.  Adorable, no?

Then we had a birthday.  Jack's 11th to be exact

This card had Phineus telling us what I breath smelled like.

I love the look on Kamden's face!

I found this book while browsing in the books with Jack. Kamden and I managed a covert operation to get it to Dad at the till without Jack's knowledge.  Mom's got some stealth.

Jack, being my son in every way, only wanted to invite three friends to his party plus his little bro. They battled with Nerf guns for three hours in between pizza and cake. Good choice Jack, good choice. Next up, Kamden's birthday.

May Roundup In Photos

Can anyone explain where May went? I think I blinked and now it's May 28th. What? We started out the month celebrating.

I am now 38 years young. And two years closer to a big trip planned for the year I turn the big 4-0. It will be somewhere hot, sunny and involve beaches (Caribbean) and umbrella drinks. February or March 2014. Who's in?

Jay and I also celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. Jay is not much for material things so instead of buying him clothes like I usually do, I made his favourite meal, meatloaf. I am not even kidding. He loves the meatloaf at Montana's and it's so good even I like it. So I did a quick search and found a recipe for Braised Mushroom Meatloaf and I coupled it with this meatloaf recipe, minus the carrot - too lazy to shred it.

And oh my word, you guys, it was amazing. And it was meatloaf. I swear.

And I don't even like mushrooms. Cooked button mushrooms make me want to hurl. So I used fancy mushrooms.  Not the ones the recipe called for but something kind whose name totally escapes me now.   They were good though.

I talk about food a lot, don't I?  I kind of like it.

Then there was Mother's day weekend.  I ran a 10k race that weekend and was slower than I liked and much slower than last year but I didn't almost lose my lunch at the finish line.  It was a very warm day and sunshine is my cryptonite so I finished in 1:01:45.  Not my best time but it was a good run and I never walked once.  And my lightening fast friend, Terry-Lyn walked back after she finished to run me in.  I gots me some awesome friends. 

And no pictures because our hubby's were both at flag football with our 7 yo sons.

We opted to see our mom's for Mother's day the next weekend.  In between Kamden's football game and practice.  Did I also mention he is playing soccer?  Dude is all about the sports.  Also, we have two calendars to try and keep track of everything.

After brunch with my mom and brother's family (Pop was out at the farm seeding), we took some snaps.

Oh Kamden, seriously, you of the funny poses.

Me, my mom and my big bro - he is older anyway, taller, well, we's short in this famdamily.

And here it is, the elusive shot of me and my mom. I am not sure if there are any others to be had out there.  (my hair is rather red, and clashes horribly with train car behind us but ah well)

I got my mom some flowers, because she loves them and I love Blossoms.  They did my wedding flowers and quite honestly, I have never seen another wedding bouquet that I loved as much as mine.

And that brings us to this past weekend. I took a quick solo trip back up to Saskatoon to run in the 10 k SK Marathon race with Jen. 

I picked up my race pack and was really excited to see that our numbers had our names on them.  Just like the big league races!  It's the little things that make me happy.

Jen ran such an amazing race.  She paced herself perfectly because someone, not mentioning any names, KAMI, didn't properly set her Garmin to display our pace.

Her goal time was around 1:10 and we finished strong in a time of 1:09:45.

She sprinted into the finish and as I ran with her, I was so proud of her that I got a bit teary.

Congratulations Jen, you did it!  I knew you could, never a doubt in my mind. I enjoyed it and can't wait to do it with you again next year.

Here we are post race, avoiding the pizza that was provided to racers once they finished.  Pizza?  At 9am?  No thank you.  (if you know me, pizza at anytime is a big no no, unless you like your eyes watering a half hour later)

And that is May.  Bring it June!  We have two birthdays and a whole lot of soccer and flag football to keep us occupied.

Emotional Purge

A number of years back, there was an incident that still to this day make me ill to my stomach when I think back on it. I have never written about it because it was too raw, there were too many other people involved.   It's now been 6 years and I need to write about it.  This may change your opinion of me but it's part of me so out it goes.

It's the only time in my life that I have ever been looked at with such hate and vehemence. I won't forget that. EVER.

I'll start at the beginning.

About 6 years ago, I met a girl, about my age at a mutual friend's birthday party. She lived in the same city as us, had a child close to Kamden's age (at the time - babies they were!) and didn't know a lot of people as they were new to the city.

We hit it off and I invited her to be part of a splurge group I was part of. We were just finishing a round and had open spots.

It seemed perfect. A new friend, very exciting. I am not a very outgoing person and don't meet and hit it off with people that easily.

She brought another friend into the splurge and it all seemed to be going reasonably well. Though there were observances of eye rolling and such when some of us talked about our older children. I chalked it up to the fact that preschoolers just give more fodder than toddlers and thought, whatever, they'll understand later.

It was the first time in my life that I was part of a large group and felt comfortable.  The ladies were all wonderful, we had fun, we ate good food.

A well known fact about me, for those who know me, is that I am not a bubbly outgoing social butterfly.  Nope.  More of a wall flower, much more at ease in one on one or two on one situations.  Always have been like this and my children are every ounce the same.

After a while the fact that either of them could never bother to RSVP to a gathering was getting to many of us.  It was always requested.  Never once did it happen. Personally, I find such things rather rude and down right uncourteous.

People are busy yes, but too busy to write a one line email, c'mon.

I was quite subtle (oozing sarcasm) when they showed up at the gathering I  hosted having to frantically find chairs for them, I believe I even said, "oh I wasn't sure you would be coming as I never heard from you."  Oh yes, that subtle.

It was either too subtle or as became apparent later, they just thought the whole idea of RSVPing was so not 2006. 

Then came the kicker.  The event that triggered a fall out that even the most pessimistic Kami could not have predicted.

A good friend was organizing a team for the an all night relay event for charity.  Naturally she invited the group to join.  Via email.

Most of us responded.  Via email.  A foreign concept for 2006? I don't think so.

Long after the team was established, said girl asked if she could still be part of it.  The first question from the organizer was, didn't you get my emails?  She let her know that she wasn't sure at that point if we could add another but she would do her best.

I have no idea if this played a role in the fallout or not.  I had nothing to do with this part so probably  not.

Later, when it came to collecting the money, again, no response from this same, now infamous girl.

By this point I had it.  I mean REALLY? Is common courtesy gone by the wayside?

The funny thing is that in person, she oozed friendliness and courtesy. 

*Cough*  "Act* *Cough* *FAKE* *Cough*

Sorry, there I go again. I guess I still haven't learned my lesson.

I made a comment in an email to the team thanking the friend who had done all the work to organize us and collect the money to deliver.  It takes work to do this even when everyone is on their game and when they are not, well, it's more work topped with frustration.

The comment I made was something to the effect of thanks, who knew it would be this much work to organize a bunch of adults.

Was it the truth? Damn straight.

Was it okay to say?  Probably not.  And I was told as much by one person.

All in all, it wasn't the best way to handle an already bad situation.

During the charity event I sensed serious animosity from said girl.  I wasn't surprised, I knew she wouldn't have liked my comment. Of course, THAT email she read.  Murphy!
The kicker though was at the end of the very long night (it was an all night event. ) I chased after her to give her something she had forgotten.

She looked at me with such hatred and venom that it still makes me ill to think about it.

I simply turned on my heel and walked away. I wasn't going to deal with at that point.  No sleep.  Not going to happen.

So I didn't deal with it.  The next group gathering was at her place the week following.  I wasn't going. I mean, why would I?  It was clear she loathed my guts. I wasn't putting myself through that.  Also I have zero ability to be fake and act like nothing is wrong.

Selfish.  Yes, because when I wasn't there, she attacked my good friend who had organized the whole thing.  In front of the entire group.

That's right folks.  I still cannot believe that happened.

And this friend is one of the nicest, most loyal people I know.  She did not deserve one word of the hate hurled at her.

I wasn't there so I only heard about it second hand.  But from people I love and trust.  It got ugly.  Like into the nitty gritty about about why she felt there was no reason to RSVP to the gatherings -  she didn't care how many people would come so why is it necessary.  Etc. Etc. Etc. 

I have not seen this girl since she looked at me with hate.  And if I never see her again, it will be too soon. The whole situation is not something I can ever forget.  Forgive sure, but forget, never.

She never turned up at another gathering, and if I recall right, her gathering was the end of a round.  I stayed in the group one more year but the whole thing left such a bad taste in my mouth and I was no  longer comfortable with the whole group setting.  I loved each and every one in the group, I just preferred to see them individually or in smaller groups. 

After writing all this, I am not sure what my point even is.  Just that it stays with me.  I think I understand why it all happened but I am just making assumptions about her that are either true or false but it helps me forgive her and myself.

It's over.

And I hope I have learned that stating the blunt truth is not the best option.

Peace out.