The Lopez, Jr. Family
As we say goodbye to 2011 and usher in 2012, I felt it would be nice to put together the highlights of the year and share some of the memories we made along the way. Best way to enjoy this is on a computer, but I'll try and find a way of sharing this for mobile users very soon. (I promise!)
Hope you enjoy it!
- Michael
January
Snowpocalypse Now(?)
The year was supposed to start out with the Lopez, Jr Family heading back to California after a nice long week in NJ. But the Blizzard of 2010 (aka, Snowpocalypse 2010) ruined those plans. On the bright side of things, at least we didn't get stuck in NJ or at any of the airports, because flights were delayed for weeks! Little did we know that on January 2nd we'd encounter our very own snow storm in sunny California!
Yep, that's snow you're seeing. Not a lot of it, but to folks out here, it was like a mini Snowpocalypse. It was all over the news; the coverage was almost as intense as if it was a real blizzard. We got a good laugh from it.
A Real Yahoo!
Another notable event which occurred in the month of January was my last days at Yahoo! as a contractor. My contract had lapsed and I was out of work again. There was promise that I would return, but I was skeptical. Luckily, my job hunting skills really paid off and within a couple of weeks I was lining up a potential position with a company called Online Resources. It was a full-time job and not a contractor position, but for a smaller, lesser known company.
Shortly after my interview with Online Resources, I got a call from the manager at Yahoo! telling me that they got me an extension. I wasn’t too thrilled but I knew that if Online Resources wanted me I would be happily leave Yahoo!. Then on my second day of being back at Yahoo! I got the call from Online Resources… I got the job! I was happy because it was full-time work and with good benefits. Working as a contractor at Yahoo! didn’t offer me good benefits, just good pay, which was not enough for me to stick around, so I accepted the offer.
It came time to break the news to my manager at Yahoo!, he was a pretty cool guy and I knew he would understand the reasons. The meeting started out with me explaining how I was grateful for the opportunity to work at Yahoo! but as I was about to get around to the bad news, he stopped me. “Wait, if you can give me some time, I think I can work something out for you.” I told him that he had a week. In two days, I was given an offer I couldn’t refuse! And that’s how I became an official Yahoo! A week later I received my Official Yahoo! Welcome Kit...
Video Link: Miguel gets his Official Yahoo! Welcome Kit
February
Victoria at the Gardens
The month of February was all about getting adjusted. And in order to get adjusted to living in out here, we need to do stuff. So we went out to places. Among the places was Descanso Gardens, where we gave Victoria the opportunity to do plenty of walking. And walking she did…
Video Link: Victoria at Descanso Gardens (XVID)
March
The Surprise Visit
Since we couldn’t visit New Jersey in December, I had decided to make a solo attempt to visit in March for my father’s birthday. The plan was to take a red-eye flight to land in New Jersey early morning March 4th, just in time for my father’s birthday. It all worked out better than I had anticipated as I arrived at my parents house at 6:30am, I made a phone call to my Dad, while I approached the house. Here’s the video of that moment…
Video Link: The Surprise Visit
The Pilgrimage
It’s amazing that the entire state of California has just about everything BUT a Dunkin’ Donuts shop! I haven't been at Dunkin’ Donuts for almost an entire year and going back to my favorite DD shop in Union was practically a spiritual experience. When I passed through the doors, I was hit with the smell of coffee, pastries and a subtle hint of bacon and egg cooking… it was intoxicating! You never know how bad you want something until you’ve been deprived of it for a good long time.
April
Easter 2011
April rolled in and this time around, Victoria can walk. So we celebrated an Easter with the Valencia family. Here are the photos from that holiday…
View: Easter Slideshow
May
Mother’s Day 2011
This year Tonya wanted to celebrate Mother’s Day by eating crepes for breakfast at The Original Farmers Market near downtown LA. Then we walked around, checking the shops at The Grove. And we ended the day driving up to get a view of the Hollywood sign. The drive was long, narrow and winding… not exactly the best place to live in my opinion.
View: Mother's Day Slideshow
June
Father’s Day 2011
This Father’s Day we went down to San Juan Capistrano, where we enjoyed a brunch at the El Adobe. Then we went on to the Mission where we toured the gardens and explored the ruins of the old Church. Although Tonya claims I was a grouch (I was drowsy on Benadryl), I still managed to take a lot of nice photos and video.
View: Father's Day Slideshow
Tonya’s Birthday 2011
This year we celebrated Tonya’s birthday at the Market Street Caffe in Burbank with her parents. Victoria got a little grumpy but she finally settled down when she saw the big cow statue near the entrance of the restaurant.
July
Victoria’s 2nd Birthday
This year Victoria celebrated her birthday party at the Valencia family home. It wasn’t a big party, but it was a beautiful one, with lots of nice gifts for the birthday girl.
August
Summer Vacation at NJ
We finally made it to NJ. This time there was no snow storm to delay our journey. In fact it was a pretty smooth (red-eye) flight. We were happy that Victoria was able to handle it well. When we arrived we settled in and allowed Victoria to rest some more. The first day of our visit was to prepare for a small party for Victoria and then a trip down to Wildwood for some summer fun...
Victoria’s NJ Birthday Party
Victoria’s 2nd Birthday party celebrated in NJ was much bigger… and more chaotic when you see the photos. But overall it was good to see Victoria with all her cousins playing. While I was freaking out about the craziness, Tonya was handling it quite well. In the end, we all had a good time and plenty of photos to show for it.
Trip to Wildwood
After the birthday party we prepared ourselves for the big trip down to Wildwood. We
spent 4 days there doing all sorts of stuff. We strolled the boardwalk, rode the tram car, rode bikes, watched fireworks, ate at a bunch of restaurants, played at the water parks and oh yeah,
went to the beach. It was pretty exhausting near the end, but it was definitely a time to remember. I only wish more family could be with us to share the experience.
View: Wildwood Trip Slideshow
September
Victoria’s First Day at Pre-school
This month Victoria got to go to pre-school. At the school she learned arts & crafts and socialized a little. It was a great experience for her.
View: Pre-school Slideshow
October
Halloween 2011
This year for Halloween, I carved my very first Freaky Freddy pumpkin. It was a lot of fun and I was quite impressed with the results. For costumes, Victoria was dressed up as a cat girl; she really liked playing the part too.
View: Halloween Slideshow
November
Thanksgiving 2011
This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Valencia family home where Victoria had a lot of fun in the garden with Grandpa Valencia. In the evening, we enjoyed a delicious dinner.
View: Thanksgiving Slideshow
December
Christmas 2011
Unfortunately Christmas this year some of us got a little sick. So we kept it small and simple, but Victoria got plenty of gifts from everybody. I got to enjoy a solid 11 day vacation, which gave me the opportunity to share this Year in Review with all of you. Hope you enjoyed it. Next year I plan on making this website a lot more up to date with new stuff. In 2012, we hope to have some family visit us out here in California so we can share all of the fun stuff we got going on over here.
View: (slideshow and video coming soon!)
Write a comment
mercedes lopez (Wednesday, 28 December 2011 18:25)
love it!
very nice, love your writing!
looking forward of things to come!