california adventure 2 :: part 2 the reunion

((( sorry for my absence last week, life... i am back on track now, and will be finishing up san diego and all of my california adventure posts this week... finally )))

On Saturday (7/6) I got a chance to meet up with pretty much the entire Blechman side of the family at a little park by the bay in San Diego. 

I had not seen most of these people since I was a little girl, I am talking four or five, and some I had never even met. This was kind of a once in a lifetime experience, especially seeing my Grandpa Rodger and both of his brothers (one of which is older) together in person. I am glad that I could be a part of it, and reconnect with that side of my Dad's family, who I had been feeling a bit disconnected from prior to this summer.

A thank you to my older cousin Nicole who snapped a ton of pictures throughout the day.

[[ my grandpa (left) and his two brothers. picnic. ]]

[[ my uncle steven talking to his cousin jonah. cousin rachel and her two kids sawyer & sydney. ]]

[[ my dads aunt sylvia and her oldest son noah looking at old albums. ]]

[[ cousin amy and her son sebastian. ]]

[[ the little ones playing in the sand: jayden, sawyer, sebastian, lilly, dest, & cameron. ]]

[[ seagulls. the quick shade incident... ]]

[[ me & ashley. sail boats. cousins. ]]

[[ sylvia, grandpa & grandma trudy. jonah & amy, siblings. ]]

[[ uncle steven & aunt rebeccah. first cousins: me, ashley, & nicole. ]]

[[ kiddos playing on the swings. ]]

[[ dad and his cousin playing football. grandpa and his brothers. ]]

[[ the whole group. bruce, sylvia, and their family. ]]

[[ grandpa and his brothers. the boys. ]]

[[ the ladies. me, cousins, and grandma trudy. more cousins. sylvia and her girls. being silly. more cousins. ]]

[[ siblings: jonah, amy, rachel, & noah. grandpa & his brothers once again. ]]

((( tomorrow i will throw up pictures from our day at the pool and trips to the beach )))

happy 18th baby sister !

Sorry for the silence this week... it might continue until Monday with how busy I have been. i will get back on track to finish up san diego soon...
promise.

In the meantime, I wanted to take a very brief brake from work to wish a Happy Happy Birthday to my baby sister Meagan who is 18 today! 
Love you Mamushka!

[[ my favoritest really real sister. ]]

california adventure 2 :: part 1.2 san diego (continued)

sunday (7/7) :: day 2

My little sister Meagan came in on a morning flight and was picked up from the airport before breakfast. (My whole family came and went in shifts). We spent almost the entire day Sunday poolside, or playing in the bay, which was right on the resort my parents were staying at. The entire family met up for breakfast before playing at the pool. I have a ton of pictures of our adventures, but again, I am going to save these for their own post later on. We even rented paddle boats, which is something I have always wanted to do! ...For some reason. It is kind of a workout!

[[ bloody marys poolside. playing in the pool. ]]

After a full day of swimming we had dinner reservations at a place called The Fish Market. Jenna and Tabi left before dinner as well as some of the other family members, so our group was a little smaller. Unfortunately me and my cousins did not have enough time to shower or anything, so we had to run to the hotel, freshen up, change, and then meet up for dinner. It was delicious. I insisted on making our waiter provide us all with bibs to eat with, and he was thankfully very cooperative. Me and Meagan had a lot of fun playing with our food as well. After dinner and saying goodbye to everyone the cousins and I were dropped off and decided to enjoy our hotels fire pit and a glass of wine before bed. The sun definitely wore us out, so we were sleepy and in bed pretty quick. 

[[ crazy trees outside the restaurant. dinner. me and little sister playing with our food. ]]

[[ our hotel. wine and fire pit. weird statue. posing with weird statue. ]]

monday (7/8) :: day 3

My parents decided to take the little ones to Sea World with some other family members, which did not sound all that appealing to us, so me, Ashley, Nicole, and Meagan headed for Coronado Beach instead. It took us quite a while to get there but it was a really nice area, so we played down in the sand for a while, tested out the water (which was far too cold for swimming), and took some pictures before heading up to the shops for some lunch. We found a little place called Leroy's with a lot of beers on tap and split some small plates to share. Then we explored the boutiques a little bit for some souvenirs and of course got some ice cream before heading back to the hotels. I am grouping the majority of these photos in with the pool day but here are a couple to start off with. 

 

[[ relaxing on the beach. lunch time. clayton's coffee and ice cream stand. ]]

My cousins were leaving on an 8pm flight, and I was supposed to as well but my connecting flight in San Francisco got cancelled, so after dropping them off at the airport, I spent an hour and a half on the phone with customer service and FINALLY ended up having them book me a direct (and more expensive) flight with another airline for the morning, free of charge. What a nightmare. The upside was that me and Meagan got on the same flight, and of course, it was direct. The downside was that I had to miss another half day of work and do a lot of early morning traveling. 

Once we finished dealing with all of this business it was starting to get darker out, so we walked along the bay by my parents hotel, where we were both staying for the last night, and watched the sun set. We met up to eat some dinner and then went to bed fairly early because of our morning flight. Luckily we got one of the beds this time.

tuesday (7/9) :: day 4

4:45am, alarm. Snooze button. More alarm. Up. Shower. Comfy clothes. Gather belongings. Head to the airport. Issues with tickets. Finally resolved. Run to security. Beg to be let through quickly because our flight is boarding and Meagan is a minor. No dice. Lots of dirty looks. Finally let through. No issues. Literally running to terminal. Very last people to board. I move to Meagan's seat. Tomato juice. Delirium. Pictures. Magazine. Land. Bathroom. Bags. Coffee. Picked up (thank you Dean!!!). Dad's house. "Hi Landen". Get in my car. Drive straight home. Lunch. Work. Home. Sleep. Five or more hours of commute time. Yuck. 

[[ sunset on our last night. ]]

[[ boo morning flights. ]]

((( pictures from the reunion and the pool/beach days to follow. )))

california adventure 2 :: part 1.1 san diego

The week me and Pat returned from our own California Adventures, I decided to purchase plane tickets to visit San Diego with my family two weeks later. My dad's side of the family had gotten together and decided on a little reunion, so I felt that if I did not go I would be missing out on seeing/meeting a bunch of people that I had not been in contact with since I was a toddler. Plus, my Grandparens and cousins were pretty insistent, so I bit the bullet, bought the tickets, and after a week and a half home, I was at PDX boarding a plane for California once again. 

((( Because my descriptions are so lengthy, I am going to split this overview in to two posts, followed by one for the actual reunion, and one for our days at the pool/beach. )))

friday (7/5) :: night 1

After working all day, I drove straight to Portland with my bags packed and ready to go. I met up with my step sister Jenna and cousin Tabi who were also heading down at the same time, and my friend Megan took us to the airport. We had time to grab a sandwich for dinner and then were at our seats and taking off. The flight seemed pretty short because I was working the entire time on my laptop, while the other two played with their phones. I of course had to take some pictures before getting started. I am extremely thankful for my Urbanears over the ear headphones because for the entire duration of this flight the infant across from us was screaming her little head off. (Listen up lady, your baby probably does not need her little shoe shoved on her foot when she is mid temper tantrum, all you are doing is increasing that kids volume. I am not sure if you notice, but the rest of us certainly do). Obviously, I do not have any children... or patience...

[[ views from the plane on our night flight to san diego. ]]

We landed and got to the Hilton where my family was staying pretty quickly only to find that there were only two beds, one of which was being occupied by the parents, respectfully, and one by the two seven year olds... So as Tabi crawled in between the little girls, me and Jenna went on a scavenger hunt for something more comfortable to sleep on than the tile floor. (Mind you, this was sometime around 1am). Being the resourceful lady that I am, I could not help but notice some extremely comfortable looking cabana cushions outside most of the hotel rooms. Unfortunately said cushions were not on our own hotel room patio, so I felt that a little reconnaissance mission was in order. After about ten minutes of scouting and another ten of execution and giggle fits, me and Jenna had managed to "borrow" two cabana cushions large enough for each of us to have our own little beds. (*evil laugh*). In the morning we, or rather Tabi, returned them to their proper rooms. We did however inherit a badminton ball somehow... sorry room down the hall...

[[ in flight entertainment. bored. jayden demonstrating our sleeping situation. ]]

saturday (7/6) :: day 1

This was the day of the reunion, so after grabbing some breakfast with my Grandparents and uncle, and picking up the cousins from the airport, we were headed for a bayside park to meet up with everyone else. I was seriously kind of nervous, and it was really overwhelming. When we got there people were hugging me and at first I was not sure who anyone was, except for a few people who looked familiar. I am not even positive that I had ever met my Grandpas older brother or his family, who live on the East Coast. It was really great getting to see everyone though, looking through old albums a few people had gotten together, and seeing how happy my Grandparents were. This event went on for the majority of the day and we took a ton of pictures, which I will save for their own post tomorrow.

[[ grandpa (in the middle) and his brothers bruce (younger, left) and arlen (older, right)

While we were at the park me, Ashley, and Nicole decided to meet up with my dads cousins ( are in their 30s), for some dinner and drinks later on. My dad dropped us off at the hotel that we were staying at called the Dana on Mission Bay, which was not quite as large or fancy as the Hilton, but was still a really nice hotel right on the water. Personally I would not have minded a nap, but we all got ready and went down to the hotel bar for a drink instead. While we were down there some guys who were at a wedding (there were two wedding going on at once) came over to us and started inviting us to come dance with them. Thanks but no thanks boys. A little while later while we were waiting for our cab by the water one of the guys came back and tried to get MY number for his buddy... to which I responded "Sorry, I am engaged". He was pretty persistant though and I literally had to be like "dude... don't you think it would be inappropriate for an engaged woman to give you her number? Have fun though at your wedding." I guess I was looking good that night, and I never mind a little flattery, so ego boost for Jenn. No harm done.

[[ "happy hour" at our hotel. ]]

Our taxi came and we got to the restaurant, which was called Wang's. I was expecting a standard Chinese food restaurant, but this place was a fusion and it was actually really cool, and delicious. Us ladies got a few greyhounds and Noah ordered a bunch of family style dishes for all to share. Another of my dads cousins picked up the bill, which was extremely nice, and then the older few took off for the night, while the rest of us decided to stay out a little longer. 

It was at this point that Jonah suggested a Kava bar up the street, and since none of us knew what in the world it was we agreed. I still don't fully understand what Kava is, but it is some sort of Fijian beverage (Bilo) that is prepared by grinding up the dried kava root, mixing it with water, and serving it in a halved coconut shell. It is supposed to have calming properties and numbs the tongue... Honestly I think it made us all a little "high" and it tasted just awful, but it was definitely a funny experience. At one point the guy serving asked if we had been drinking, to which we responded yes... and he said that if you mix it with alcohol it can make you hallucinate, so we all started laughing and Nicole got a little paranoid. We were sitting in this corner table and there were a lot of interesting books, including one about the "Red Headed Sea Serpent of Southern California". Amy grabbed one that was sort of a fortune telling book and read all of us our fortunes based on birthdays. Maybe it was the Kava, but I found all of them to be extremely relevant, including my own which stated that I needed to stop working so much and spend some time with myself... hmm...

[[ fuzzy pictures from our taxi ride. me and ashley. changs. sea monsters. a story about me. kava. fire. ]]

At this point we split up and me, Ashley, and Nicole found a little dive bar for some more food (munchies?), and a couple beers before calling it a night and cabbing it back to our hotel to sleep. 

((( I will post the rest of the overview tomorrow before I get in to my image heavy posts. )))

joyeux anniversaire

I have my second batch of California Adventures to start posting, but first I wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my bestest friend Meguenther!!!

I made her this glorious card this morning (pardon my French if it is incorrect, I took Japanese in high school, so I know not). I kinda like this one. Perhaps I will try more like it.

[[ birthday card for megan. ]]

See you this weekend my love.
butta.

california adventure 1 :: part 6 the drive home

On Sunday (6/25) me and Pat got up early, said our goodbyes, grabbed some food and headed out on our long drive home from San Jose, CA to Corvallis, OR. 

Instead of going the way of San Francisco and catching a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge, our GPS had other plans and we were soon in the middle of nowhere approaching a toll booth with no cash on hand. We pulled off in a random town, who's name I cannot even begin to recall, and thankfully found an ATM outside of a bank I had never heard of. We were somewhere near a bay because there were sail boats down the street, but we were on a mission, so it was back on the road to pay, and across an unknown bridge to continue on the journey. Everything from here was pretty much just rolling hills, farm land, and watching the terrain gradually become more green and sprinkled with pines. Driving up through the Shasta area was gorgeous so I snapped several pictures. As we finally got close to the boarder I was expecting some sort of "Leaving California" sign and was disappointed to find none, but across the boarder we went and I at least got some shots of our very own "Oregon Welcomes You" one.

As I mentioned before we took a pit stop in Ashland, which was by far the highlight and most nostalgic part of my day, before heading out on the final stretch home. We pulled in to our driveway sometime around 8:30pm I believe which marked the official end of our Summer vacation together, and California Adventure part 1 (though at this exact time I did not know I woud be returning quite so soon).

[[ pictures from our drive back to oregon from san jose. ]]

Though this was the last event of this portion of the trip, this is not the end of my California Adventure posts... I will be posting more for at least another week.