Great Fourth of July

After almost five years of marriage we have very few 'Ian and Stina family traditions' established. On holidays (with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas) our plans are usually spontaneous and some what random. We were even having trouble remembering what we have done each year for the fourth of July since we have been married. Last year our spontaneous plans took us to the Mount Laguna Lodge the day before the "4th." Well, this year, our plans were set in stone a few months in advance and this rare act of planning proved to provide stellar results.

The day began with sleeping in! As you get older this becomes such a luxury whether you have kids or not. Life just seems to require more and more early mornings.

At noon we left for our first San Diego Padre Game of the season. Super excited for this game, not only because of the great family we were hanging out with, but because Tony Gwynn Jr. would be playing. It was wonderful and nostalgic to hear that name announced at a Padre Game again. We got free beach towels when we walked in the gate. They sported an American flag with the slogan "BEAT LA" on it. Something we chanted a lot during the game!



Well, the game was fantastic! It was a sold out game with action packed innings and the Padres beat the Dodgers 7-4!

We then drove over to our friends' house in El Cajon. Great food, great conversations with old friends, and perfect seats in the back yard to watch the fireworks from Kennedy Park.

It was a lovely day and we couldn't be more thankful.

A Drive from Los Angeles

The lack of posts indicate how busy life can get. Lately, I have been preparing for summer camp with the middle schoolers, which took place last week. Ian has been preparing for a student event, DCLA, which also took place this past weekend.

That is why immediately after church yesterday, I hopped on a train headed to Los Angeles to meet Ian. We decided that today would be an adventure day around L.A. We had a few options in mind, although we found out our first choices like The Getty and the Griffith Observatory were both closed on Mondays. That left us to plan B: stop at as many beaches as we could.

Below is a photo diary of the wonderful day:

Before leaving L.A., we needed a good meal:


Driving by some beautiful houses:


Santa Monica Pier:


Venice Beach:


Continue down the coast to Newport Beach:


Ate dinner at Charlie's Chili on the Newport Pier:


Then made it just in time to see a beautiful sunset at San Clemente:


A trip that usually takes about two and a half hours took us nine today, but what a wonderful day off!

Thank You!

Because of all of your votes, we won! Thank you so much for helping us out. As soon as we receive all of our lawn equipment, we will clean up the yard and host a "Thank You BBQ!" Keep watch for your invite! You can come over earlier, we just might put you to work:) Thanks everyone!

The Deadly Foxtail(s)

This next post could not be more ironic as we are trying to win Yard Maintinance Equipment from Lowe's (which by the way, we think voting ends tomorrow, but not too sure.)

Our busy weekend was interupted Friday Night with a dog in sever discomfort. After church service, I did a routine ear rinse with her since she has been dealing with a double ear infection for the past two weeks. After the ear rinse, she went berzerk. She began flapping her ears violently and then rolled around the grass. In attepts to calm her down, we brought her inside and she could no longer walk straight and began to whimper. After the parental debate, we decided to drive her to the Pet Emergency.

A particular thing happened next. As were were walking Darby to the car, she continued to whimper and flap her ears. Once we got in the car, all was calm. She sat up straight and looked out the window ready for her car ride without a single ear flap. We continued to the hospital and pulled up and parked out in front. As we were becoming more and more disheartened watching all kinds of animals being rushed in by panicked owners, Darby mearly looked at the excitment as an opportunity for new friends. We decided to head home and take her to her normal vet in the morning.

Ian was woken up that next morning at 3am. She began the shaking of her head again and so much so that she began bleeding out of one of her ears. Ian took her to the vet and was told she was have to be sedated to see what was going to in those ears. After six hours, we got a phone call saying they removed four foxtails from her ear.

It was a pretty intense 24 hours, but now we are home with a sedated and drugged dog. She is actaully doing very very well, and we are super thankful.

We now though, need that lawn mower, weed wacker, and rototiller more than ever. We even considered making a new video submission about how our yard is life-threatening for our dog, but we decided we would wait for these results first.

Thanks everyone for voting!!! We really appreciaite it!

You Can Help Us Win!

We are officially one of the finalist for the Lowes Spring Dream Challenge! You can help us win gardening equipment by visiting this website and giving our video a green thumbs up. To find our video a little easier, go to the category "Outdoor Mantinence Made Easy." Then you should see the video we posted in the previous posted.

Not sure how many times you are allowed to vote or even how often, but there does not seem to be a limit, so feel fee to vote like crazy. Thanks so much!!! We will let you know when we hear results! If we win, you will be invited to a BBQ in our backyard after we have had a chance to spruce up our yard.

Help Us Spruce Up Our Yard

This weekend Ian and I worked on a video in efforts to win Lowe's Spring Dream Challenge and gain some lawn care equipment (mowers, edger, ect...)

Here is our final product:



We will let you know soon how your votes can help us win!!

The 'Secret Stairs' of La Mesa

Today, our friend Holli and myself went on an adventure. Our goal was to find the famous 'Secret Stairs' of La Mesa. I came across a map to them on the City of La Mesa Website here.

With the Rocky theme song playing in our heads, we were able to make it up all of the stairs. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn home, and lost one of the sets of stairs making our walk that much more adventurous.

Holli and I both use Twitter. Although when we walked back to our separate homes, our simultaneous tweets about the same adventure were very different.


Can you tell who is in better shape?