August in San Diego

It is already back to school time for most of my friends and their kids. Even though I am not teaching, it is hard to believe summer has gone so quickly. For me living on the West Coast, the most obvious sign is how early the sun sets here. We wonder how we will exercise Hana in the evenings when dusk comes earlier and earlier.

This past weekend we picked up the new kayak and realized paddling tandem is much different. We will be working on this and will be sure to share our stories and pictures. :)
We also got to spend some time with our good friends, Lynn & Dave, who are now residents of AZ and realized they should have moved one state further west in order to enjoy summer outdoors. It was a great day poolside catching up with friends.
While we were with friends, Hana went to a new daycare to meet her own friends. I think she loved it - she was completely exhausted when she got home. She had been outside running for about 6 hours and even waded into the salt water pool to keep cool. I am hopeful she became a more confident dog due to her experience and won't shrink back at going again. We even picked a daycare with a web cam so we can check on her and check on the facility. As another dog friend put it, you want to make sure the tour you get is the same for the dog and they aren't throwing them in a kennel somewhere.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today we celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. It has been a beautiful day here, which we started by having breakfast together and walking Hana. G took the day off so we could pamper ourselves a little bit by having lunch and wine at the winery where we were married. I added our wedding album on the blog for those of you who might not have seen pictures- this is not all of them but a good representation of what a beautiful day it was.

Everyone always asks if it feels like 2 years. When we were at the winery I can say it feels like a long time since we were there and the second year of marriage has been much different from the first for many reasons. However, at the end of every day I still know how lucky we are to love each other and share our life together.

Yoga Challenge Complete!

I completed the yoga challenge yesterday and received the month of August free for my efforts. I promptly took today off! :)
I am really proud that I stayed dedicated- thanks to my hubby for his encouragement as well. I can see a difference from when I started and that is the big payoff. I am going to try to keep up going five days a week before I begin yoga teacher training in September. It is exciting to focus on something while I continue my job search and hope that teaching yoga will go along with the online tutoring to support what I spend on my puppy!

Julianne's first trip to the West Coast & Happy Birthday Linda

Julianne, our niece who will turn 1 in August, made her first pilgrimage to California. Of course it couldn't be the easiest trip for her, as they were delayed over night in Atlanta. She came with Cara and Linda for Linda's birthday. It was so great to see how much she has changed, losing her baby rolls as she busies herself crawling. Hana's reaction to having a baby here was pretty cute too but more on that later.

We took Julianne for her first trip to the Pacific Ocean the day she arrived. Her initial reaction was dislike for sand and the quite chilly water but she grew to love it. We took her to Coronado Beach the next day for a couple of hours of fun in the sun (or cloud cover as the marine layer hangs on again). She was so cute in her all American swimsuit and delighted in picking up the sand and watching it dissolve through her fingers. She wanted to put it all over the blanket too.

Julianne loves the zoo so off we went for an early morning stroll at the World Famous San Diego zoo. She watched a Malayan tiger gnaw on a bone, a giant Panda- Su Lin- chewing on bamboo while her sister, Zhen Zhen slept in a tree high above, and polar bears splashing and playing. Jules visited some local attractions like In-N-Out burger and Lamont St. grill, where she was very well behaved! We miss her so much already and wish she wasn't so far away.