The Wombles have Invaded

A Picture of the wombles, they lived on Wimbledon Common (London),

I am not sure if they played tennis.

On a recent trip to San Diego, I was surprised to see that the Wombles had moved to California before I did. The Wombles were a popular Kids TV series in the UK back in the 70s. Although I was born in 80s, I have a vague recollection of them. Anyway, some how they managed to get a street named after them in San Diego. This is the Wikipedia definition: The Wombles are pointy-nosed, furry creatures that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways.

A street named Womble!

Santa Ana - Cemetery Tour

Jamie arrived back home on Friday night, a bit exhausted but glad he made the trip to England. He made it back just in time for the cemetery tour held every year in October. It was on Saturday and it's put on by the Santa Ana Historical Society. This year the topic was Place Names in Orange County. It is done in conjuction with the Orange County High School of the Arts - Thespian Club. Each year the students participate and act out skits. The tour is really worth it and it's great to see the little skits, it's definietly more entertaining than reading a handout or listening to a lecture. Plus the origin of street names and places is always interesting.

Here's a picture of one of the skits. This one was about Prentice Park (a.k.a. the Santa Ana zoo). Apparently, Judge Prentice loved monkeys and had quite a collection of them at his home. He granted the city the property as well as a $100,000 for animals and upkeep. There was a catch of course. The zoo had to have at least 50 monkeys on the property at any time. The city agreed and that is how the zoo got it's start. Recently, the monkey population went under 50 monkeys and a decendent of Judge Prentice quickly pointed out the need to acquire more monkeys (of course any other primate does not count, it must be monkeys) Luckily there was a birth of twins that year and the zoo was again keeping it's promise!

The tour is held at the Fairhaven Cemetery in Santa Ana. It's about two hours and you do walk all over the cemetery. It helps the historical society and educates us on Orange County history. I also enjoy it because it is the start of the Holiday Season; i.e. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We haven't decorated the front yard yet with Halloween decorations but I think that is a must for next weekend. Luckily, we did learn from last year and have started stocking up on Candy as we have an army of trick-or treaters in our neighborhood :)

Granddad

Last Sunday, October 4th, Jamie's Granddad past away. He had been battling lung cancer. He was an amazing man and we are all going to miss him greatly. I've decided to post some pictures of him, not only as a memorial but for us to always remember the good times and many memories.

In August of 2006 Jamie, his brother Mark, Myself and Granddad did the 3 peaks in the Yorkshire Dales.

This was at our rehearsal dinner.

At our Wedding in 2005 with my Grandpa.

"To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die."

-Thomas Campbell

Groovy Retirement

Saturday night we went to my Aunt Michelle's retirement party. She is retiring from the school district and had one psychedelic party. The party was held at my Aunt Milissa's house and was a 60s themed party. Michelle loves music from the 60s. They had a live band, great food, and lots of black light bulbs and headbands.

Michelle had a great time and danced the night away.

Here she is with my Dad.

Here we are...Not looking very 60s.
My cousin Valerie looking very cute as always.

And my Mom and Dad.

It was a fun night and the band was pretty impressive. Much better than the band who played at our concert in the park...I think we may have to suggest them to our neighborhood for next year!

Happy Birthday's :)

Another weekend has come and gone. On Saturday, we went out to dinner to celebrate my Dad's belated Birthday (Happy Birthday Dad) at BJ's Restaurant and then went back to our house for cupcakes, ice cream and a concert. We had our annual concert in the park, which featured classic rock by the Undercover Girls. To be honest the band wasn't the best and unfortunately butchered some really classic songs but we had a great time and it was a nice evening to be outside. Although it is definitely getting cooler on an evening and the mess of leaves in our front yard is signally summer is at end :(

Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures but imagine a stage near the baseball diamond, a huge dance floor, lots of round tables with chairs and plenty of blankets on the ground with kids running, rolling, cycling, skipping, and roller blading around every piece of the park and you have a pretty good idea of what it looked like. I have to say that being able to sit in your driveway and have a perfect view of the stage is pretty awesome.

On another note, today is a day for celebration or maybe a day to try and figure out where the last year went. Exactly one year ago today we started this blog. At first we weren't exactly sure where it would take us or how often we would use it but looking back over the last year and having a time stamp of everything we have done and all that has happened is pretty amazing. We now wish we would have started one earlier!

Happy Monday!

Labor Day Weekend

This last weekend was a 3 day weekend, so we decided to make the most of it and went out for the day on Saturday. We drove down to Oceanside (which is south, towards San Diego) to see the Mission. California Missions are each a days ride apart, so this would have been a days ride from San Juan Capistrano. Luckily for us it only took an hours drive to get there.

The Mission was founded in 1798. It has been renovated and slightly modified from it's original state but it is a beautiful complex. Although outside the Missions grounds could have used some watering.


The gardens looked amazing but it is now used as a retreat facility so we were not allowed to view them. It was really disappointing to only be able to see them from behind a fence.

Apparently, across the grounds they had statues from the Stations of the Cross. I thought this was a great idea, it beats having to look at tiny pictures within the Church but unfortunately we couldn't see all 14 stations because many of them were within the gardens.

Jamie and I found this stone piece pretty fascinating. The tour called it a gargoyle but to us it looks more from Native American artwork than European. This is where the 'Indians' washed their clothes, called a Lavandaria. They are now in ruins but even so they were pretty impressive.

After the museum, we drove down to San Diego to the Cabrillo National Monument. It is on a peninsula that overlooks the coast of San Diego. It wasn't the clearest day but it still offered an amazing view. In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo set foot on what is now the West Coast of the United States. He is attributed as the first European to arrive and a statue now commemorates this. There is also the first lighthouse in San Diego and a military base located within the park.

We did a small hike and enjoyed watching the sailboats and yachts go by, with the occasional fishing boat being followed by crowds of seagulls. We enjoyed the day and the weather.

I can't believe Labor Day has come and gone. It's the unofficial end to summer which is a bit sad but with all the uncomfortable hot weather we are looking forward to Autumn this year.

Wedding Anniversary

This weekend we finally got to celebrate our 4th Wedding Anniversary. Ok, so it's 4 weeks late but better late than never. We spent the day in Newport Beach, kayaking around Back Bay and enjoying the amazing weather (especially since it was about 20 degrees cooler there than at our house!)

Later, we went to dinner at Jason's Downtown. It's an amazing restaurant, the food was perfect and the jazz music made the evening a night to remember. If you haven't been to Jason's you should definitely make it down there.