June Activities!!!

The last couple weeks have been jam-packed with so much fun!!! First of all, my cousin and his family - Marvin, Ila and Izzy - came to visit for the first time in forever! This is the first time I met Izzy, so it was a lot of fun!

We all got together on a Sunday and visited the Oakland Zoo. It was a lot of fun, and the first time WE were part of the parents and grown-ups. Marvin had his daughter, his sister, my cousin, Presmarie brought her two adorable girls, my sister had Savannah, and my brother and the very pregnant Angela were there as well. We essentially had kids (all girls) of all ages - almost 10, about 4, almost 2 and almost 1.

The hubby and I were the only ones without any kids!

It was fun, though, chasing the kids around, passing the babysitting duties around to the closest adult to the escaping child... VERY different environment and life than what I was living just within the last couple years! I know some people enjoy a life free of responsibilities to others, unburdened by kids...but I've never been that. I enjoy spending time with my family since I grew up with large family gatherings, paper plates instead of china, and dodging the occasional game of indoors "tag" while maneuvering my way to the family room. Its exciting to see how us "kids" are now starting to be the adults.

Here's a picture of the fam! (backrow) Izzy, Marvin, Ila, Eliasib, (frontrow) Jun, Angela, Abigail, Brad and Savannah)


Here's a picture of the hubby and Angela. Cute!

The hubby loves to be in the air...free-falling, if possible, but since it was not possible, we opted for those sky/ski-lift things. I am not going to admit that I was still scared of heights while riding, though the picture of me cringing may give that away a bit. =)



June 3, 2009 represented our two year anniversary. Could you believe it? It feels like just last year I was posting pictures of the wedding and honeymoon...crazy!

So, to celebrate our anniversary, we planned a nice, local trip. I took three days off of work and we had such a wonderful time! We started out exploring San Francisco a little more. We had lunch in Berkeley at this yummy Japanese restaurant. On our way into the city, we stopped by and spent a couple minutes enjoying the great weather and views.


We also stopped by the Japanese Tea Gardens. If you have not gone, go! It's a little small thing, but everything is so wonderfully cultivated and kept! After following the path around, you end up where you started - at this little place to order and sip tea while enjoying the beautiful scenery. Imagine and very content Eliasib and Val sipping tea in that hut-thing. Fun!

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the day and night in San Francisco. For our anniversary dinner, Eliasib brought me to this awesome restaurant up the block from our hotel named Asia de Cuba. Fitting, no? Get it - Asia de Cuba??? hehe... unfortunately, no pictures since it was dark and oh, so romantic in there, but the food was VERY good!

After dinner, we went and saw Spamalot. Oh, it was quite silly and fun! I like Monty Python, but its not everyone's humor. Still, even Eli, who normally doesn't thoroughly love MP, enjoyed himself a lot.

The next morning, we hopped in the car and drove down to Santa Cruz. We met up with my sister and family before reaching the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I have memories of going there when I was younger. I remember our 8th grade trip to the Boardwalk... we had so much fun running around, riding the rides...ah, memories. Anyways, here are a couple pictures of the gorgeous day! ...And to think that the weather people were forcasting rain and a dreary day!

Here's a picture of Brad and Eli stretching before getting into "THE VAULT!" When you go in the next room, it is all black with lazer beams criss-crossing throughout the room. The point of the game is to make your way to two specific spots without touching the lazer beams. I took video and tried to upload...but for some reason, its not working. It was hilarious watching them on the monitors trying to wiggle their way around those lazer beams!

Awww... here's a picture of Eli carrying his niece, Savannah. Look at her, all protected from the sun in her cute little hat! Oh, and no, Eliasib didn't all of a sudden get white hair - that's sunblock!

Another "awww..." picture with Savannah and mommy!

Oh, yeah - couldn't NOT take a picture of the hubby and his dark socks and flipflops.

The boys chill-axing!

The next day, we all went to see the Winchester Mystery House. The house was large and odd. There were several theories on why it was so. The most prevalent one is that Mrs. Winchester, who married and then was widdowed by Mr. Winchester of Winchester Rifles, felt guilty for receiving a lot of money as a result of the success of the business - selling Winchester Rifles! She was very into spiritualism, and was supposedly told that, if she was constantly constructing something on or in her house, she would receive absolution from those many, many people killed by the Winchester Rifles.

So... she started building...and building...and building! Her house was not one I would consider beautiful. It was, odd! There are so many peculiarities about the house that it is now known as the Winchester MYSTERY House. There were stairs build up to ceilings, doors leading no where...I think it had something like 160 rooms, though many of those rooms were tiny! Here are a couple pictures:

Since she was a very rich woman, it didn't seem like cost was a hinderance to her. Here is the room where very expensive stained glass and other things were kept. Lots of Tiffany's windows... pretty!

Here is the happy group quickly taking a picture on the tour.


Stairs built up to a ceiling! See... definitely odd!
Marlows in the garden room...


Abigail walking up this very odd stairway. Mrs. Winchester was very short (not above 5 feet) and had arthritis, so she built all these little tiny steps that were probably three or so inches high. Eliasib had fun ducking throughout the whole house since the ceilings were very low in a lot of areas.
Here they are looking up into...who knows! Here's a "window..." or door to the story below???

We had a lot of fun that week. This week was my birthday. My camera died right after we took this picture during my birthday dinner, but it was a great birthday!!! Now I"m looking forward to my 31st year. Yay!

Long time!

So, its been a billion years since I've posted. The reason is because I like to post with pictures, and since my hubby's had the camera for a various number of reasons and I haven't taken any pictures lately, I haven't had anything to post!

However, I imagine I'll have stuff to post about soon enough. June looks like it'll be my last month o' fun before I get slammed with work. Just looking at my calendar today, I am scheduled out at clients all July, all of August, September, October (except for Mondays and one week each month...so far)...and who knows about November.

But, June will be fun. I have a couple things to look forward to! Birthday, anniversary, family trip to Tahoe (oh, can't wait for that!!!) and another long-ish trip down south.

So, I hope everyone is doing well out there!

Oh, and since I can't post a picture, I'm posting this YouTube video that someone recommended on Facebook...its fascinating! A bit, um...weird looking, but what talent!

Hello!!!

...so I'm sitting in my hotel room watching American Idol, and I thought I'd just blog about...whatever! Right now, my husband is probably asleep after a long, hard day on the construction site and helping out with VBS and the adult meetings in Chile.

Yup! He's on a mission trip to Chile with our church, and whenever I hear from him, he's excited about what's going on down there. He also says that they're treated like celebrities! I completely understand what he's talking about since when we were in Korea my senior year in highschool for concerts, even though we were just little 16-18 year olds, the korean kids were still asking for our autographs and stuff.

Anyways, I miss him TONS, and I can't wait to see him on Sunday.

Oh...on a sad note...

My sisster's friend, Kristen Ching, and her family died in a plane crash this last Sunday. It is really awful thinking about how young and beautiful she was. Her kids were young and she was pregnant with her third. This just shows how short life is.

What constantly sits on the back of my mind is just that! Life is short...what do I want people to remember of my life? What do I want to look back on my life and see I've accomplished, what I've done? What do I want to lvea behind? Work done? Lots of pictures with my family? Memories of what???

*sigh*

Well, anyways...

Jim's Wedded Bliss

So my last post was SUPPOSED to be in conjunction with Jim's wedding - the REASON we took our fabulous road trip down to southern california.

Jim, er...Jeremiah...is a good friend of mine who I met at PUC and then spent the next couple years with in Orlando. He was my continuity from being a young college student with no responsibilities to a young single professional girl starting out on her own across the country.

Jim is unpredictable, an instigator, a bad influence, a quarter of the OG's and a great friend. I always told him I would be there for his wedding, and I didn't want to break that promise. So, when Jim told me he was getting married to the amazing Liza, I knew I had to be there!!!

Jim and Liza are unique, fun people! So when I found out that they were going to be married at the San Diego Zoo, I was excited! I asked Liza why the zoo, and she said it was the first place he brought her when they visited San Diego for the first time - Jim's home town.

It was a small, intimate wedding with family and close friends. Before, during, and after, the guests had an opportunity to roam the zoo. It was the first time for both the hubby and I, so that part was tons o' fun!

So...back to the wedding. Here is a picture of the bride and groom. Everyone now...AWWWW!!!

Here we are with the happy family. That was the OTHER thing! It was the first time I was able to meet Jim's daughter, Thea! She was an absolute doll!!!

A picture of the family...seriously...AWWW!!!

Daddy Jimbo!

...and Thea!

Here's a picture of the figurine on their cake.

Finally, I was able to get back in connection with two friends from the past - Karem and Mandy. Karem and her husband, Doug, I knew from PUC. They recently had an addition to their family - adorable little Luna! I also was able to catch up with a friend from Orlando, Mandy! She currently lives in Cali, but she's a Floridian. It was great to catch up with these girls.

Here's a picture of the Thompson and Pederson family. Who would've thought in college that I would be posting this picture.....

Hearst Castle

This weekend, the hubby and I are driving down from Northern California to Southern California to attend my good friend Jim's wedding to the ever lovely Liza! They are such a precious couple, I can't wait to see them at the wedding on Sunday!

Until then, however, I'll document our trip!

We left Thursday evening after work in San Francisco. We drove all the way down to within five miles or so from Hearst Castle, our planned activity for Friday!

Hearst Castle is a wonderful place to visit if you love architecture and luxury. Here's a link to the Hearst Castle website.

William Randolph Hearst, as many of you may know, was VERY rich. He had the moolah to build this castle which cost roughly $10,000,000 back in the 1940's (I think. I was snapping almost 200 pictures during the tour). It took 20+ years to complete, The stats of the house were crazy - something like 50+ bedrooms and 60-something bathrooms...or was that fireplaces? It felt as if there was a fireplace in every room!!! He started building in his late 50's with the help of architect Julia Morgan.

(By the way, the hotel we stayed at Thursday night was The Morgan Hotel. It was very quaint, cute and affordable. Obviously it was named after Julia Morgan, the Hearst Castle architect).

This is the view on our way to Hearst Castle from our hotel. I love the coast of California. I'm not a beach person, but I'm an ocean person. Does that make sense?

From the visitors' center, our tour group took a bus up to Hearst Castle. It was another five miles up the hills/mountain to the castle on windy roads. On the way, we found out that Mr. Hearst loved animals and kept, at one point, the largest private zoo in the world. He had lions, tigers, bears... =) no, seriously, he did! His animals roamed the hills as well, and we caught a glimpse or two of deer while driving back down after the tour.

I am not going to post all my pictures of our Hearst Castle tour. I'll just post enough to give you an idea! We took pictures from one of the many, many grand views from the house. Could you imagine having that type of view?

This is a picture of Neptune's Pool. At first they were just going to make a family pool, but when it became apparent that the house was constantly going to be full of people - movies stars, politicians, etc., they ripped out the pool twice-ish and finally settled on this pool. It is AMAZING!!!

Here's another view of the pool from above.

Here we are outside of the Casa Grande (the main castle portion). Doesn't it look like a church?

Here's another shot of Casa Grande. That's the front door of the house.

The Hearst Castle Living Room. Check out the giant fireplace! I asked the tour lady if Citizen Kane was filmed at the Castle, and it did not appear so.

Hearst loved art and architecture which was a result of an earlier year and a half long trip to Europe with his mother. His estate had tons of art all over.

This was his dining room. Not too shabby! By the way, if the pictures aren't the clearest, it is because I wasn't able to use a flash (Castle policy), so I did the best I could without a tripod!

Since Hearst also made movies and stuff, he had an actual theater in his house.

This is Mr. Hearst himself. I guess back in the day, movie theaters did more than show movies. This is Mr. Hearst's public appeal for people to support US industry.

Our tour conlcluded with an indoor pool. It was an amazing thing as well.

Apparently, the floor had gold in it. Here's a picture of Eli and I standing on gold.

The indoor pool also had a diving platform. The pool was only 10 feet deep, though. Not sure if I would've jumped from it.

It was a marvelous house, really! They have four tours. Ours did not entail the second floor or Mr. Hearst's bedroom. They also have evening/night tours during certain months. If you have the chance, definitely drop by! Oh...I'd recommend budgeting a couple hours and getting your tickets ahead of time.

Happy Birthday, Manang!

Happy Birthday, Manang!!! For my sister's birthday, we all got together and did what we are all good at - EAT!!!

Yummy food at a Mexican restaurant (can't find the name on google! Crazy! But it was soo gooood!)

I can't post about my sister without posting about my beautiful neice! Here she is with the bear. She's the same size as him, if not bigger! She's so going to love all these pictures we're taking with her and the bear. =) But seriously, aren't they cute???

Awwwwwww...............

Tourists!

Two weekends ago (I think), the hubby and I took a trip down south. My company was throwing one of the partners a retirement party down south. It was fortunate that we were able to combine the Saturday night event with a conference I had to attend the following Monday - Wednesday.

We flew down Friday afternoon and drove around until we found our hotel. This was our view at night:


Sabbath morning, we did a little exploring and decided on attending the Vallejo Drive church in Glendale. It looked like a mini Angwin church! The service was really nice, and I wouldn't mind attending again.

Saturday night, we got all dressed up and attended the party which was held at the California Club. I definitely felt out of place next to the giant fireplaces and ritzy...er...everything! But we were able to relax with some coworkers and have a lot of fun. There were tributes given and dinner and dancing to an awesome live band. Here are a couple pictures:

I really liked the ceiling. I think I'll make it my wallpaper...
The main room for the party.
Sunday, we slept in and took our time moving out of our room and on to the next hotel for the next couple days. On our way, we stopped in Hollywood since the hubby hadn't seen it before. We dropped by the Chinese Mann Theater where a lot of movie premieres are held. We saw the movie Inkheart there. (I liked the movie, but in the same vein, I liked Stardust better.)

We also were in the same place as the Kodak Theater - ya know, where they hold American Idol Hollywood week and the Oscars.

We stayed at a hotel just within walking distance from Universal CityWalk. It was fun to go visit. I'll write more on the conference (hopefully) since I really enjoyed it.

oh, by the way, since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I'd include in this post pictures of our visit with one of my favorite people - Stacey! Stacey is one of my dearest and most precious friends from MBA. Although we don't see each other nearly as much as we should, and we don't keep in touch as much as I'd like, she is still a very, very dear friend. When I received RSVPs back for my wedding, I shed tears only twice when I found out someone wasn't able to come. One was for my cousin, Marvin and the other was when I found out my friend Stacey couldn't come.

I completely understood the circumstances, but the wedding did feel a bit incomplete because these two weren't there.

Anywho...Stacey and her husband were down visiting family over the Christmas/New Year's holiday, and we were able to meet up with them for a couple hours. Here are some pics:

Stacey, I miss you, and I hope to see you sooner rather than later!!!

Holiday Season #2

So, this year, my mom wanted Christmas portraits...so we all dressed up and went to get some pictures taken. Maybe I'll post of those pictures! In the mean time, here's a pic of the hubby and I in the waiting room.

Here's another...wait a minute...who's taking this picture on my camera??? =)
For Christmas, we all went to my auntie Eding's house. It was another small crowd, but it was one of the most fun Christmases we've had in a couple years! For one, the TV wasn't turned on once during the evening, so we definitely had some family bonding! We bonded through food and games. Here's a picture of everyone there right before opening presents. Our family members absent due to distance, we miss you all!!!

Here's a picture of my (back row), Jun, Eli, Neil (front row), Angela, Jeremy (filling in for me since this is, apparently, a married couples picture) and Faith. Faith and Neil, our newest married couple in the Patricio family are becoming Hawaii residents in less than a week. On the one hand, we're going to miss yet more family around...but seriously, THEY'RE MOVING TO HAWAII!!! Hopefully we can take them up on their invitation to visit. =)

Ah, yes, the head of the family - Inang and Tatang! Love my grandparents. Aren't they cute???

Ooooo!!! Caught the hubby sneaking food before we officially starting eating. Busted!!!

The hubby getting the Patricio family history lesson while looking at some pictures from many, many moons ago.

Here's Savannah's first Christmas with Auntie Eding. She had a good time though didn't quite make it to the presents time since we wait until midnight on Christmas Eve to open presents.

We also had a small family get together at my sister's house. Here are the parentals.

Eli...helping my sister cook? That doesn't seem right...oh, wait, I think he just popped over for the picture. Okay, that's more like it!

Oh, yes, and here's the proud parents showing off how their daughter can now sit up on her own. Well, its either that or they're grooming her for a life in the circus...one of those...

I love this picture of my sister and Savannah. So cute!!!

It was so nice to spend so much time with family. I look forward to New Years, too!

Florida 08

I'm loving the month of December! It was packed full of stuff, and I'm happy to report, not much working going on! =) hehe... people are too busy with the holidays to schedule audits, and that's fine and dandy with me! It has allowed me to take some time off GUILT-FREE and visit with family and friends and ... wait for it... RELAX! Oh, it has been so great to be happy and not stressed. It has done wonders for me! I feel more like myself, and that is always a good thing, don't you think? In December, I have not worked a full week yet! Here's what I've been doing:

December started out with a trip down south for the weekend with the hubby and my brother's birthday (see below post).

On December 11, the hubby and I flew out to Orlando to be with his parents and family for his parent's 40th anniversary. What they wanted for their anniversary was for everyone to be together, so how more together can we be than on a weekend cruise to the Bahamas?!?!?!?! It was a lot of fun...other being sick for the majority of the weekend and that we were denied our second stop because of bad whether and had to stay on the boat a full extra day!

But, honestly, I only have good memories of the cruise. Here are a couple pictures:

Valerie & Eliasib on the last night of the cruise in the theater waiting for the last show to start.

The Ruban family during the dress-up dinner (Valerie, meanwhile, was sleeping a fever off in her cabin and didn't get to wear her pretty, new dress - boo!).

Picture of our cruise boat. What a pretty day in Nassau!

Valerie & hubby on the first night at dinner.

Carrie & Ruben at dinner. What a cute couple! They were so happy just to be out of freezing, snowy Chicago! We're looking forward to seeing them just before New Years, too!

The happy couple celebrating their 40th. Wish we could live closer so we could spend more time together!

Glorybell and Ivan - my sister-in-law and "future" brother-in-law.

When we got back to Orlando, we had a couple days to do errands and hang out with the family and friends. Here's a picture of dinner with some of our bestest friends:

Sean & Eli. Eli misses his partner-in-crime...er...I mean, his buddy.


Elizabeth (and Ethan) and Kristen...miss you girls! It was so nice to see these two who I miss so much. Wish we had more time!

All in all, our Florida trip was fabulous. Wish we could it more often and for longer!!!

Holiday Season #1

Well, I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! In order to not fall behind, I have posted a couple things in this post:

Brother's turning OLD! Hehe...although he will obviously be younger than me and be my little brother, he's nearing the 30 club! Jun turned 29 this year, and we celebrated at a very yummy restaurant and ice cream cake afterwards. Here's a picture of the birthday boy!



Here is is "eating" one of his birthday gifts. For all you non-filipinos out there, adobo is a very popular filipino dish - chicken adobo is yummy! Cool shirt, Jun!
I couldn't resist taking this picture of Junior trying to lay the guilt trip on Tammy for some ice cream cake...smart dog!

In other news, the comopany flew the hubby and I down south for our Christmas party. It was tons of fun with food, dinner, dancing, gifts! Somehow, though, I came away with no pictures of the company christmas party and only with these couple few:

Christmas on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills:

View from our morning breakfast in Long Beach, CA:

Palm tree in Long Beach:

Thanksgiving was fun this year! Dulce came up and helped us vege around the house all weekend! Great fun! Here's a picture of the family eating and enjoying each other's company:

...and here's a picture of my grandma next to the traditional Filipino-American Thanksgiving spread: Turkey, yams, pancit, mashed potatoes, fish, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, bibingka...ya know, all the regular dishes! =)