Feel the burn!

Sunday was the greatest weather for hiking around Lake Miramar - no small task particularly when it's hot and sunny. It's was kinda cloudy and breezy and was the perfect day to get outside and move our butts.



Galileo was in heaven - I love his smile while the wind blows through his fluffy hair.

We stuck to the path as far as we could take it - it's so peaceful there!



Lots of wildlife sightings:



What a great hike!

POW #23 The "Little Oma" Edition

This picture of the week comes to you all the way from "the homeland". In 2005 we went with several friends to Europe and one of the countries we visited was Croatia. My Paternal Great-Grandfather had come to America early in the 1900's from Croatia and we still have tons of family there. We had written them a letter in advance and the one cousin who spoke english would translate it for the whole family and write back some very sweet letters letting us know we could come stay with them anytime.

I remember so vividly my nervousness as we were about to meet my relatives and there was absolutely no reason to be nervous! Truly one of my top 10 life experiences was meeting them. Despite the fact we were meeting for the first time EVER, they welcomed us with open hearts and open arms to their home and my ancestor's beautiful land. We made gestures and spoke broken English to each other while my one cousin Tony from Australia feverishly translated for us all day - the poor guy was exhausted by the end! There was lots of laughter - like when the family, so fascinated by my blond hair (they're all really dark) shyly asked if my hair was real - and some really amazingly emotional moments, like when my cousin pulled out all sorts of family pictures of my American relatives...we learned my Grandpa and Great-Grandpa had been very good at keeping our Croatian family up to date on our happenings. My cousin said "you may not have known about us, but we've always known about you and were waiting to meet some day". BOOHOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!

The family literally stuffed us with amazing home-grown food - prosciutto to DIE for and tons of fresh meat, veggies and wine all raised and grown right on their land. We never had empty plates, the adorable Grandma "Oma" and the elderly aunt (both wearing the traditional black babushka designating their widow status) were constantly plopping food on it and telling us to eat. We like to laugh that we were so full all day we had the "meat sweats"...but seriously, we really did. No, seriously.

We can't wait to go back, what an incredible experience it was to meet my amazingly loving relatives, be welcomed with such hospitality and get to see the birthplace of my Great Grandfather! This picture capture the day so perfectly, despite meeting each other for the first time, we all just seemed to adore each other instantly like only family can. I sure love that Oma.

By the way...

I've had lots of people ask about our new picture up top - it's actually an old school pic brought back from the dead. That's in Venice in 2005 from our big trip to Italy, Croatia and Slovenia....it's funny how we look so young there...3 years has apparently been tough on Beth, ha!

Stay tuned for more scanned old pictures o' the week - have I mentioned I'm in love with our scanner?

So THIS is why the Warrens live in San Diego...

Our friends Trent and Christine (hollar!) were out here for a wedding this weekend and we met them for breakfast at our favorite little beach dive, Kono's. It was great to show them just exactly WHY San Diego sucked us in and kept us from ever returning to our home land, Colorado...particularly right now during the winter months. It was gorgeous today and after breakfast we chilled at the beach for a while enjoying the weather.

It was so great to see their little peanut Mckenzie grow! I was tempted to create a distraction and steal her away permanently - what a cutie!

Rob practiced "The Heisman" hold with her...Trent had the baby bjorn thing perfected:

Fun times at the beach:

Marissa kept herself totally entertained - it's so funny how EVERY kid universally loves making sand castles - it's like they could do it all day long. Much like me and spending time shopping for shoes, but enough about me, ha!

It was great to hang with those guys - we miss you, thanks so much for coming to visit us! We'll catch you at Disneyland next time... :)

POW #22 the "We Come From France" edition

Our poor little dude was sporting a conehead all week and it's all our fault. They took a little lump off his eye while he was under anesthesia for teeth cleaning anyway (just to REALLY make sure he hates the vet with all of his little white furry guts). To make sure he didn't get at the stitches, he had to wear the cone AKA the Bane of our little guy's existence. It's so pitifully adorable how immobile he becomes whenever the cone goes on - he just freezes and then makes little spazzy movements around the house invariably running into walls and tables further perpetuating his hatred of the cone.

He's all better now - cone is off and this week has been much less of a Bichon SUCKFEST, but I just had to post a cute little pic of Galileo in misery. He's perched up on his couch watching the world go by (notice I say "his", I've finally surrendered our custom made fancy-pants couch to He Who Sits On The Cushions And Makes Them Droopy). His face says it all: rescue me!!

We have the Cubans to thank for mojito's

Rob's work holiday party was last night at Anthology downtown and it was such a blast! We literally closed the place down and got kicked out at closing time by the staff. That is such a great venue for anybody looking for a fun night out - we had a great time. Pancho Sanchez was the musical act and the whole night's theme was Havana Nights.
It's always so fun to dress up, and I was stoked it was finally "chilly enough" ( I know that statement may just piss you Colorado folks right off) for me to finally get to bust out my fancy coat I bought in Boston...and have literally worn once since.

We didn't bring our camera in so we were stoked when we saw they had a photo booth (as you may recall, we have quite a collection of these from various places and we consider ourselves regular connoisseurs of the fine art of photo booth-dom).

The last picture cracks me up, we tried to switch places but couldn't do it fast enough. Very flattering photo of my 5 chins, methinks.

They had an "artist" (we think more like, an intern) doing free caricatures for everybody so of course we had to get one. We were DYING when he handed this to us, it looks nothing like either of us! Rob looks like Jay Leno and I look like some kind of crazed, hypnotized Bonnie Hunt. Rob did tip the guy 5 bucks for giving me good boobs, though, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Rob got a bunch of free cigars, too, so that was the icing on the cake for him. Good times all around!

Beer floats are just plain wrong...

Our friend Dave's birthday was this weekend and we celebrated with him at the Stone Brewery. Good eats, good drinks(with the exception of that beer float, ew!) and lots of laughs - what a great day. Happy Birthday Dave, you're the best!

Every nursing student needs a male nurse action figure

Outside in the brewery gardens