An Ikea sort of weekend...

Talk about a full weekend...

The New Ikea Setup
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

So Saturday we get up and Lisa heads out to the Lavish Women's Conference. Justin has a nice dinner and play to goto this weekend so we need to get hime some new threads. So Justin and I get ready and go to Mervyn's which is going out of business in Lodi. We get him some new dockers, dress shoes, belt and socks, and later a haircut. Then we head home and grab to grab his Halloween costume. We meet up with Lisa around noon and do some trick-or-treating around downtown Lodi where all the stores are giving out candy to kids. So we finish up early and have lunch at La Fuente; this great little Mexican food joint we found near Lisa's work. Shortly thereafter we get Justin to his dad's place and Lisa and I decide to head up to Ikea for some new living room furniture (after a stop at Starbucks of course :o).

Now for Ikea this was a relatively quick trip, but we ended up leaving with SEVEN new pieces of furniture, totaling 8-boxes of furniture to put together. We got a new TV stand, with a matching bookcase, tall glass cabinet, a 'topper' cabinet to go above the TV, a new coffee table and two new side-tables. We got home around 7 or so and managed to get coffee table, two side tables together as well as half the TV stand. Then I spent ALL EFFING DAY Sunday finishing up the TV stand, the glass cabinet and bookcase.

I still have the 'topper' cabinet to build and mount to studs in the wall, but it's amazing how good this new stuff looks!

A couple good movies...

We watched a couple cool movies lately...

This past weekend, along with the other activities we also watched You Don't Mess With The Zohan which we Netflixed.

Then last night, we caught a preview of M. Night Shama-lama-lan's latest flick, The Happening with John Liguizamo and Marky Mark.

Apple Hill and Fireproof

Marley and I in Apple Hill
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Lisa and I had a fun weekend together. Saturday we packed up Marley and headed up to Apple Hill. Now, either I never realized just how popular this place is, or EVERYBODY decided to go up there on the same day. Highway 50, and all the roads up and around the area were absolutely PACKED. We had a chance to check out three or four different 'ranches'. We bought a cute, little, handmade blanket for Andrew that had zoo animals all over the front, and monkeys with bananas all over the back. It was perfect. Lisa found some handmade snowman earrings. We stopped and had lunch at Jack Russell's where I got to try some micro-brew and we had burgers and tri-tip. All the while, Marley was very well behaved, though we were very glad we had him in his Halti training lead. Though he's had very little experience around other animals (other than Georgie our cat), he was extremely well behaved rarely barking at other dogs, and LOVING the attention he got from all the people. And, with so many people and other dogs at these places the Halti worked like magic, allowing us to weave with him in and around other people quite easily.

Sunday was a chill out, clean up the house type day, though we did go to Stockton later on. Lisa bought some maternity clothes while shopping at Target, then we had a great lunch at the Elephant Bar before heading to the movie theater there to watch Fireproof. Now there's something to be said about this movie. Kirk Cameron (yes, he does still exist), plays a fireman who is married to a cute PR rep for a hospital. Basically, he's a stressed out jerk and she's detached and fed up with his bulljive so they're gonna get divorced. Ultimately he finds God with his dad's help, does a complete 180 and they live happily ever after. Now, I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a complete chicks movie with an overdose of religion; which could have easily happened; but it was actually quite well done. First there are just some kick ass fire-fighting, rescue scenes. But honestly, it does a great job of illustrating that no matter how bad a marriage can get, putting each other first and allowing the Lord to help you with your stressors that there is hope. And it's done in such a way that even a guy can relate to. I'd recommend any couples with any inkling of faith, go and check this one out, you will be stronger after seeing it.

Lisa's got two months and change before it's baby time! She's starting to get big and we can see the baby moving around quite a bit now!

Del Osso Farms Corn Maze

Del Osso Farms Corn Maze
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Saturday, Lisa, Justin and I, along with Mike, Jennifer and Bella went to the Del Osso Farms corn maze and pumpkin patch near Tracy, Ca. I'd been to this probably ten times over the years, but nobody else had ever been, and we had an amazing time. I've watched this park (so to speak) grow from a simple corn maze with a dirt parking lot, to the all-day, Toyota-sponsored event it's become today with new activities added every year. Parking is still free, and there are free activities for the young kids like a small hay-maze, and tire stacks to climb. Now, along with the usual corn maze, pumpkin blasters and haunted house, there are pony rides, three different tractor hay rides, tons of great food, an old west town/gold mining activities for the kids, a giant tricycle racing track and more. If you live in the norcal area and haven't had a chance to check this place out, your have thru Halloween to do so. They're open till about 8 or so each night; check out the website for details.

California Academy of Sciences

California Academy of Sciences
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Today I had to opportunity to take a day off work and go with Justin on a field trip again to San Francisco. This time to visit the new California Academy of Sciences. Come to find out, this is actually a very new place to visit and was absolutely packed with people. Asside from the huge mass of people, it actually did have quite amazing exhibits. The major areas to visit there are a planetarium, a rainforest biosphere, a huge hall of african wildlife which was capped with an amazing penguin exhibit, a great aquarium, and a 'living roof'. This living roof was a state of the art roof of the building, complete with solar panels, retractable sky lights, and nearly all of the roof was a giant flowbed built to retain rainwater and probably regulate heat. It also had a good cafe and 'moss' restaurant that served good, but very diverse food selections. Here you see Justin on the third floor research library with one of the many hands on exhibits.

San Francisco Zoo

Sacramento Zoo
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Lisa and I went with Justin on a field trip yesterday to the San Francisco Zoo. We had a great time and lisa made this new friend... :o)

Marley's New Bed

Marley got a new bed...
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

Monday, Lisa did a Costco run and got Marley a new bed. He's now watching TV in style in the evenings. :o)