This Joy’s Life

Went walking around the little neighborhood we are staying in yesterday afternoon. The “Somebody’s House” (as Clara calls it) that we are in backs up to a canyon and a park:

Laguna beach is SOOO vane

a kids-eye view

one of many palms

a great tree for climbing in

Later in the evening some friends drove in from the San Diego area for a casual dinner at Somebody’s House and good conversation:

Tim

Matt

Ryan

Chad

We are on a family vacay in Laguna Beach and I wanted to share some of the pictures I’ve been taking in all my relaxed free time. I hope you enjoy them as much as I’ve enjoyed taking them in this sunny, warm, beachy, seaside town!

House on the cliffs overlooking Dana Point Harbor

Caution!

Citrus inspired tree

Public Restroom tile work

seaweed

swim at your own risk

surf's up!

who needs sunglasses?

what's that?

splish, splash, more fun than a bath!

these waves are makin me nervous

the ladies' man

On Tuesday we got to the Atlanta airport an hour early so that we could quickly meet Nicole and Brayden for lunch. Brayden has just turned 1, which is amazing to me. Tempus fugit. Them Latins said it best!

NicoleBrayden:
Clara and Nicole:
Choy:

Have I mentioned I’m not really a fan of the snow? Which is a shame because I used to love it as a kid, especially since we rarely saw any in Georgia. But, as an adult, you realize snow = lots of work; Lot’s of wet clothes to be washed, floors to be mopped up, effort to layer everything on, shoveling to get yourself and the cars out of the driveway, etc. Ba-Humbug to Snow!

Still, it does make everything, even garbage cans on the curb, look prettier. Here’s the ice sculpture the Snow made for me with my hanging flower pot out on the front porch:

And our new split rail fence took on a real photographic quality blanketed in snow:

I took those as Chad, Clara and I walked over to JackGwen’s house just to get out in the fresh air and for a change of pace after being couped up for so many days. Got a couple fun pictures of Jack doing his best “Shiloh Jolie-Pitt” and Chad doing his best “Jolly Ol’ Elf”:

Can you read that? It’s a bar graph that Chad created in his journal on October 31, 1987 and the ripe old age of 12. As he clarifies in his summary paragraph, it is a graph of candy bars. That’s bars, now, not hard candy or m&ms or any other type of candy but candy bars. He really racked up on snickers. They must have been highly discounted in the area that year.

Luckily, he provided the complimentary “Other” bar graph so that we could see how he did on other types of candy like smarties and starburst. Wow! He got enough tootsie rolls to last the remainder of 1987 and maybe even take him into the new year. It’s off the chart!!

If this was not evidence enough for his parents that he was going to grow up to be a CPA, I don’t know what is.

The sincerest form of flattery, they say, is that of imitation. Here’s Clara trying to compliment her father as he paces the backyard engrossed in phone conversation:

Sincere Flattery from Joy Fisher on Vimeo.

Sometimes I like to mix it up a bit.

Brunch at Chinook’s at Fisherman’s Wharf today to celebrate the ‘hood. Fatherhood, that is.

Ganpa, Uncle Ryan, Dad-dee. I can’t beleive it’s not butter either, Ryan.

Ganma and her baby, Dad-dee.

The pilgram . . .
And the dunce. Oh, come on, you know you laughed.

Got milk? “Okay.”

Faster, dad-dee, faster!
Six Flags Over Seattle.
More? All done.

If I’ve never mentioned it before, Chad is worse than I am when it comes to spilling sauces and condiments on his clothes. I was seriously notorious for this kind of thing growing up. You can confirm it with my mother, but I don’t believe there was a single day from the time I started school until the time I left for college that I didn’t come home with mustard, ketchup or both on my shirt. Well, I met my match in Chad. Just tonight, in fact, we ordered a (free! can you believe it?) pizza from Papa John’s and somehow Chad managed to spill the sauce all over himself.

I would think it was funny if I wasn’t drowning in laundry these days, but here is what was funny about it. When Clara saw it she said, “Fish” and pointed to the biggest blob on the right. Fish! So, we counted up to 3 fishes on dad-dee’s shirt. Three fishes that mommy will get to work on scrubbing out of there. “Oh boy!”

It is kind of fun to stand back and play the “ink blob” game. Personally, I see one flying fish and a speedboat, but then I’m tainted by Clara’s seeing the fish. Play along and tell me what you see (besides a mess).

****

On an different note, last Friday Chad and I went on a college date because we are broke right now. This was during those days that spring was supposed to be in the air but it decided to snow sporadically anyway. Chad took me to the UW campus to show me the notable sites – where he took his classes and hung out, etc. Then we went to “The Ave” and found a good, cheap place to eat. It was all very lovely.

The UW campus has this area called “The Quad” that has a long row of cherry blossom trees and to reassure us that spring was indeed supposed to be in the air, they were all in full bloom. It was a beautiful site:

Summertime means playtime for the House of Fisher. See for yourself . . .

Father/Daughter Swing in Leavenworth:
Me holding 5 week old Evan Ling last week at Greenlake:
Click over to the Ling Family Blog for more pix of our recent playdate at Greenlake with Angela & Ava, Jenn & Evan, and Gwen & Jack too!

And today we went to Carter Christiansen’s first birthday party. Fun times!!

You’ll shoot your eye out, Carter! (There wasn’t really a gun in there, just Carter’s grandpa teasing the parentals :>)

Jenn & Evan:
Josh & Nadia:
Amy & Josie:
Nicki & Addison:
Not sure who they are:

And, the newly engaged, very soon to be married couple – Jenny & Justin. Their wedding is on the 8th, so I’ll no doubt have pictures to share from that big event in a few weeks:
But the fun doesn’t end there, oh no. On Friday, we are off to Seaside, Oregon for our annual trip with the 3 other families of Chad’s pre-school group. Not aware of this annual trip for us? Well, here are some “blast from the past” pix to give you an idea of what’s in store for us . . .

1999:
2000:
2001:
2003:
2004:

Chad and I watched a great documentary last night – The Heart of the Game. It’s a basketball documentary that follows the Roosevelt High Girls Basketball team out here in Seattle. The coach was Chad’s Tax professor in college and one of Chad’s all time favorite teachers, so he was really excited about seeing the documentary and it is really great. Here’s the synopsis:

Attending predominatly white Roosevelt High because her mother thinks she’ll have better opportunities under the school’s successful coach, gifted black hoopster Darnellia Russell puts herself and her coach through the wringer. Shot in a suburban Seattle high school ovr a seven-year period, director Ward Serrill’s stirring documentary explores the complicated relationship between gender, race and organized sports.