Family Time with the Lockridges

We went up to Merced to visit Dave's family this last weekend. His brother Charlie was in town from Virginia for two weeks and we wanted to make sure to get in some quality time with the Lockridge clan. We got to go up to Mariposa to see Christina's (Charlie's GF) parents house -which is AMAZING- go fishing in the pond where Dave caught his first fish in 20 years, go rafting on the Stanislaus river, and just enjoy time spent together. We had so much fun!

Here is Dave's brother Charlie, Charlie's GF Christina, Dave's dad (also Dave!), Dave's mom Sue, Me & Dave. Charlie got to kayak down the river and the rest of us worked together to get us through the 8 miles of river. Despite a few close ups with some trees and a continued zigzag pattern, we managed to finish the trip and had fun doing it.

Special thanks to Bryan for getting us on the river!!!

Doing Fine in 2009

2009 is almost half way gone and I'm just getting around to updating the blog. Whoops! It's been a very busy year so far with a wedding to attend/be in, a new nephew being born, lots of friends babies being born, rugby, rugby and more rugby! I'll try to catch you up on some of the highlights...

Christmas was amazing as usual. With our families living so close, we are able to travel back and forth from Merced to Modesto and try to spend as much time with everyone as possible. Here is Dave's dad and brother Charlie with their brand new Ashland longboards. 

 On February 28th we celebrated the marriage of my cousin Amy to her husband Joel. What a great party it was!

Dave & I at Amy & Joel's wedding.

The Harden/Lockridge family at the wedding.

We also took some trips with the rugby team to support LARC. 

Our good friends, Jonathon & Lacey Baker traveled to Santa Barbara with us in March.

Here we are eating ebelskivers in Solvang on our way home!

The Hardens made a couple of trips down to the South Bay. Here are the boys enjoying some fire and cigars on Easter weekend.

This year we used our tax return to pay for a company to paint our downstairs. Our ceilings are VERY high and it was something we have wanted to do ever since we painted it ourselves three years ago. We chose the safe color "Richmond Bisque" and love it every time we walk in the door. If you haven't seen it yet, you need to come and visit!

In April, our nephew Jackson "Jack" was born. This is the sort of thing that makes living out of town so hard! We missed his birth, but loved getting to know him over Mother's Day weekend.

Recently, we have spent most of our weekends out on the piers and beaches nearby. A few weeks ago we were walking on the Hermosa pier and saw these men sitting at Hennessey's with their Ashland Longboards leaned up against the gate. We couldn't pass up the photo op! Hope they had a good and safe time at the pub skate!

We found a new, great restaurant in Manhattan Beach with Matt & Becky. It has great burgers and french fries and lots of atmosphere. We even took my folks back last weekend!

This past weekend my dad, mom and brother came down for some business/fun time at the Lockridge house. We went had a great LA weekend of a Dodger game, Seaside Lagoon (for my end of the year party for school), Pink's Hot Dogs, the Getty Museum, watching The Proposal and lots more. What a fun way to start the summer!

You're all caught up! 

Rugby Saturday

Dave is starting his 4th season playing for the Los Angeles Rugby Club and he had his first home game today. It was against a team from Arizona and they kicked their butts! :) LARC won like 48-15!!! It was freezing cold outside so Ashley, another rugby fan, and I bundled up as much as we could and still see the game!

Here's Dave, my little #5!

Here is Dave participating in a "Line Out". He's #5, the guy on the white team, way up in the air. And he caught this ball, by the way!

Once the holidays are over, rugby season will start in earnest. He plays his home games at a field in Palos Verdes and he'd love for you to come out and watch a game. His team is really good (they've gone to the national championships the last two years and finished in the top 10!) and so the games are usually really fun to watch. Let us know if you want to come out and root for LARC!

Dave's new endeavour

Dave and his good friends Matt, Erik and Tim bought a  longboard skateboard company a few months back and are ready to launch the new products and website to the public. They have put a lot of time and energy into this company and we are all super proud of them. Please check it out and pass it on if you know anyone who wants a board. www.ashlandskateboards.com

New Restaurant in town

Dave and I went out on a date last night and tried a new sushi place a couple blocks from our house. It is so new that it hasn't even taken down the old restaurant's sign yet, but it is where the old Sonoya used to be on Artesia. It was taken over by a Japanese family and they've remodeled the inside and were having a soft opening this week. We highly recommend going here and supporting our local economy... and try the "Hulk" roll and mochi ice cream, it was amazing!

I'll try to post a picture and the actual name and location of the restaurant when they get the new sign up because I'm not even sure what their new name will be! .

Shout out to a great chef!

My sister Sarah has always been a great cook. She got a head start with it as a kid because she got to spend time with our Grandma baking while the rest of us were at school. Her favorite thing is baking but she's branching out and becoming a great cook as well. Here is a shout out to her accomplishments....

Most people come to visit us and just want to go grab some bagels and coffee... not Sarah! She (and Dave) had been craving these banana macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup that we had in Hawaii this summer. So we made them a few weekends ago!

Sarah's crowning achievement is her sweet potato casserole that she serves at Thanksgiving. It was especially awesome this year so I had to take a picture of it. 

Way to go Sarah! Keep it up because someone has to learn all of Grandma's pie recipes too!

Thanksgiving with the Hardens

We were able to go home last week and enjoy Thanksgiving with my (Megan's) family. We were able to see some good friends (Jim & Amanda) and go wine tasting in Lodi with Mike & Crista (pictures to follow). We ate a ton of good food and just enjoyed being able to spend time relaxing with family. 

My family has a tradition (ok, ok, they have LOTS of traditions) but every year on the day after Thanksgiving we drive to Twain Harte and chop down our own Christmas tree. We've been going to the same  place for like 20 years. We actually stopped buying trees there about ten years ago because they resemble the Charlie Brown trees, but we continued to go because it was a fun day outside and we took our commemorative picture on the "big rock". This year we vetoed the fake-cutting-down-a-tree/drive-a-long-way-to-take-a-picture-on-a-rock to instead drive a long way to walk up and down the streets of Columbia! We always have a great time and even found some new places to take pictures in front of. 

Do I feel another tradition coming on??? :)

Here we are in front of the very popular "red wagon". How fun!

The crazy Harden kids by the lovely gazebo.

There are many rocks to be climbed and Dave did his impression of Cliffhanger/I'm dying.

The whole gang.

Fun times. Thanks everyone for such a great trip home! Love you all & miss you!