Monday's mumblings - a surprise in the mail and a review of a family day.

I will start off with a little show and tell today...lookie what the post person put in my mailbox today:

It is the first ornament from my ornament swap group...it is from Lisa V in Austraila. Isn't it beautiful!!! It is stitched and finished so beautifully! And I thought that hanging it on my orange tree was the perfect place for a photo of an ornament...especially one from "down under" where it is winter (huh? anyone follow my train of thought?) Anyway, I am not sure who the designer is or what the pattern is...it kind of looks like 3 different ones, but I am sure that Lisa will let me know :) Thank you again, Lisa, I love it!

Yesterday...Sunday...we had a family day and not all of it was spent at the store. My morning started out with a wonderful 12.9 mile jog/run. I went out about 6am and caught a mommy turkey and Jr hanging out on our street (which I tried to get a photo of with the camera on my phone - wish it turned out a little better). It has been a long time since we have seen the flocks of turkeys. Since we have moved here the flocks have definitely have grown in size and it looks like we have a new generation...

After the run, I came back home in plenty of time to get breakfast around for the family before going to get cleaned up so that we all could go into Store #1 together. There was a little fruit prep and one arrangement for early delivery that we wanted to help get out before...before we let our employees run the store.

WE TOOK A DAY OFF AND HAD A FAMILY DAY!

We left the store in capable hands and took off west...to the ocean...to Half Moon Bay, CA to be exact. During the last two summers we use to take day trips to Half Moon Bay (it is only 45minutes to an hour away) to explore the rocky beaches and eat at our favorite restaurant: Sam's Chowder House. Home of the famous Lobster Roll:

...which is what DH and Robert enjoyed. Matthew had fish and chips while I had a Crab Louie salad - this is after we enjoyed the Captain's Platter (which had oysters, mussels, cocktail shrimp, tuna poke, etc), a Shrimp Cocktail and a Seaweed Salad for appetizers. It has been a long time since we have splurged like this, enjoying food and family time.

After the wonderful meal, we went outside to walk around on the beach and the rocky break (a wall of rocks built by man to create a little calmer body of water to keep boats). The boys liked looking in the cracks and crevices, spying starfish and crabs. It was a nice day to walk out on the beach - not too warm and not too cold (another not-so-good photo taken by my camera phone). Slightly overcast, but the majority of the morning fog had burned off. Perfect!

Between having a full stomach and a nice walk in the ocean air...it was time to get back in the car and head home for a nap! It was so nice to get away, if only a few hours.

I hope that you had a nice weekend too! Until next time, remember:

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often! Lisa

Summer Vacation: 4th of July weekend-Day 3

I hope all my US blogging friends had a good 4th of July holiday...and all my blogging friends had a good weekend. We are certainally taking advantage of a weekend without any hockey obligations - which has been filled with fun, love and laughter...and yesterday was no exception.

OPTIMISM is a HAPPINESS magnet.

If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.

~Mary Lou Retton

Once again, we followed what has become known as the "morning routine" yesterday morning - everyone getting in their exercise and their hockey shot practice. The plan was to drive over to Half Moon Bay for lunch at our favorite: Sam's Chowderhouse and then to settle at a beach there or maybe even travelling further up the coast to another beach we haven't been to. Starting out from our house around 10:30am, we had clear warm weather already...assuming the same for the coast everything for "a-day-at-the-beach" got packed up in the trunk of the car except for sweatshirts.

Leaving a little later than typical for a drive to Half Moon Bay, concern regarding traffic is always on our minds; for after crossing over the San Mateo Bridge you eventually end up on a divided road (basically a one lane going our direction) which usually backs up quite a distance the later you start out. And it did. There was traffic...it was backed up...and moving like an inch worm.

Thoughts of a crowded restaurant and a crowded beach started swimming in my head. I could feel the anger building - about leaving so late - and resentment of having to wait for "the guys" to finish their morning routine, while I was done; because I have been "forced" to get up earlier and get mine overwith. But I took a deep breathe - exhaled - took another...the smell of the eulypticus trees filled my lungs reminding me to "...relax! It is vacation time!" With the boys entertaining themselves with their iTouch games, DH & I were talking over the plans for the day...check in at the restaurant first. Even with the traffic, we were OPTIMISTIC that be able to get up there around 11:40 or so, which is still a little early for the main lunch rush. Well, we did arrive there and while they were busy, we put our name in for a 20 minute wait...not too bad...and the food was pure heavenly, made our tummies HAPPY. For if you ever find yourself in Northern California and have a craving for a good Lobster Roll, which was voted as one of the top 5 sandwiches on the Today Show, or just great seafood, you have to go to Sam's Chowder House!

During lunch, we were bummed as the fog hadn't lifted by the coast and the temps were in the mid50s...not great for playing on the beach and definitely not good for getting in the water. And...we forgot sweatshirts for the boys. So, throughout our enjoyable lunch, Robert (older son) was negociating the purchase of the $45 Sam's Chowder House sweatshirt in order to go to the beach in Half Moon Bay (he is the one that should go to law school!) Since I had done a little research on the beaches around this area, I knew that there were a few more State Beaches north of Half Moon Bay - all of which we had never been to and might be interesting to drive to. It couldn't be any cloudier or colder than it was where we were...so by the time were were overly stuffed with good seafood, bread and salads, I stated my idea of getting back in the car and heading further up Highway 1. Pointing out on the maps I had in the car, there was Montara and Pacifica up there...and as we started to drive North, I could see blue sky...so I was OPTIMISTIC that we would see some sun if we went to one of the other beaches. It was on the Pacifica Beach, where HAPPINESS over took "the guys" as we found the beach to play at, where the sun was shining at the warmth of temperature was wonderful!

(Again, I apologize, as we left the camera in the car so we didn't have to worry about leaving our spot if we would take a walk on the beach...so no photos.)

This beach was filled with local families celebrating the holiday and surfers...for the waves were perfect for the sport. Robert and Matthew brought their little swimming pool kick boards in hope to slide them along the surf...but it just didn't work like they had hoped. They would throw the board down into the surf and then do a belly flop on it when the surf when out...only to stand up laughing with a sore belly. It was comical. After several tries, they surrendered their kick boards for a frisbee. Playing frisbee in the ocean didn't last too long, as they came back empty handed and got the soccer ball. This provided a lot of entertainment and enjoyment- for you throw or kick the ball into the ocean and the waves bring it back. They also played in the sand and jumped in and out of the waves for quite a while. This beach proved to be a fun place! Around 4pm, we packed up our belongings, cleaned off the boys and allowed them to change into dry clothing (which they had to do the "old fashion way" with DH & I holding up towels while they stripped off their wet items and put on their dry items by the car in the parking lot. This proved to be a very comical experience, which caused loads of laughter and sometimes dropping of the towel).

We arrived back home around 5:30pm - the boys showered while I quickly fixed them a little dinner. After showering off myself, we all congregated in our little room to watch "Grease". I worked on my Ornament for the Ornament exchange and the rest of the "guys" played games on the multiply laptops/computers we have in this room. We relaxed this way, until it was time to climb the hill to our vantage point to see if we could spot any fireworks around the city. We took the dog with us so that he would be able to get in his evening walk. Some of the neighbors were setting off their fireworks inthe street, which Bruno (the dog) didn't really like and seem to coware over to me when the big ones exploded. We were able to catch some of the big displays in neighboring cities, but mainly just enjoyed the night air and the twighlight sky. It was a wonderful way to end a wonderful holiday.

Today is the last day of our 4 day weekend. I think that we will probably just find ourselves staying home...I think that we are sort of beached out, tired of eating out and have some things around the house that need attending to before we start the back to work/camp routine (like getting the breaks on DH's car looked at and buying a new garbage disposal for the one that died over the weekend).

Take care my friends...and thank you for reading about my family weekend. Remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa