Sandoogans' Log

New Year, new me. Ehhhhh j/k First off, happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great time ringing it in. It was a very low key one for us this time around. We spent it at the parental units house, with my brother, uncle and cousin. It was nice and chill. We played some board game and ended the night with an intense couple of games of UNO. This year I decided not to do any resolutions. I usually don't anyway but had started up with them a couple of years ago. I don't buy the hype of "new year, new you" bullshit. I feel you don't have to wait for a New Year to make changes in your life that you feel need improvement. If you're about that life, props to you, I'm just not one of them. I had already started making minor changes prior to the New Year anyway. I've been staying off of facebook a lot lately. I'm not anti-facebook, or anything, it's just it was consuming a lot of my time. I was going to bed feeling guilty, about not spending more ...

Blessed. Emma. Preem Supremes. Dad Duty.  Ready for Disney! 1 Party People! Birthday Kids. I can't believe I haven't blogged about anything since February! I think it's combo of laziness, not having much to talk about and having my best ideas at night when I'm about to go to bed lol. Some cool stuff has happened for me and my family. We had some birthdays (Mr. A, Emma and my pops) and Sami went off to rock camp. The birthdays this year were pretty rad. We went out to eat for Mr. A's birthday as is tradition now. That's probably one of my new favorite things that we do now as a family. We get together (parental and siblings included) and go out to eat somewhere. We do the usual embarrassing thing by the telling our server we have a birthday so they can embarrass the birthday kid. Except me, I'm always down for birthday shit. This year Sami finally got to go to rock camp. We had been waiting for this moment for quite some...

My 1st Birthday. Not sure how many of the people in this picture are my actual cousins. Whatever happened to everyone being  your tia and tio? Everyone being your cousin. I remember when I was a kid being amazed at how huge our family was. It got to the point that whenever we went to family parties I just assumed that everyone was my relative. My dad would always be like, "Estes tu tio fulanito..." and then proceed to introduce me to "my cousins." I miss that. I want that. I noticed that I don't do that with my friends. I remember when Sami was younger she would call everyone tia/tio. I thought it was the cutest and sweetest thing ever! Sometimes I corrected her and sometimes I didn't. I wanted so desperately for her to think they were truly her family. Well, not EVERYONE, of course, just my closest friends. Some of them thought it was adorable and some of them were a little weirded out. I think Sami kinda understand nows but she still kind of does it. ...

I had such an amazing time this year for my birthday celebration. I basically did what I wanted to do last year: karaoke, local spot and cheap booze. It was great! I also loved the fact that it was raining all day. Quite the glorious gift from mother nature. Fortunately for me the rain didn't stop my nearest and dearest from coming out to celebrate my born day. We laughed. We sang. We drank. We were merry.  I don't exactly know why, to be honest, but somehow this birthday meat a lot. Perhaps because I expected nothing and felt like I got everything. I appreciated all the rounds, all the gifts and all the memories. Most importantly, I appreciated everyone who showed up. I love you all and felt the love you have for me. Thank you. Cheers to you!

Our joint ornament. I fell in love with it as soon I as saw it, I knew it was perfect given of where we go married. Our first family of four ornament. This makes my heart smile. I love Christmas. I'm sure I've talked about this plenty of times in the past. As soon as December 26th comes around I get a little bummed knowing that we'll soon have to start packing up the Christmas decor. We usually hold out until January 6th for El Dia de los Reyes. In keeping up with  tradition , this year's ornaments are quite special. I still need to get the girls their individual one, but Mr. A and I are content with sharing this year's ornament. This is the first year we got a joint ornament being that it's our first official Christmas as a married couple. We were also pretty stoked about getting our first "family of four" ornament from Hawai'i. Each time we go to Hawai'i we make it a point to get a family ornament with all our names on it. It m...

Picking up our first Christmas tree as a family of 4. It's not the best pic, or tree, but we were being rushed because they were about to close. I personally love the tree, it's our Charlie Brown Christmas tree! Christmas time! It's here! Sami and I have anxiously been awaiting for this season to arrive. I've caved a few times and let Sami break my personal tradition: no carols till after Thanksgiving. I won't lie, I didn't mind too much. This year is our first holiday as a family of 4. It feels pretty amazing celebrating with our new family member. I'm looking forward to shopping for this year's keepsake ornaments. I wanted to get a pregnancy ornament last year but opted to wait. I'll be sure to get it this year, even if it's for last year. It still counts, right? 

Sami's in a great mood considering she had to wake up super early. They knocked out on their own, I didn't have to drug either of them. Dole Plantation train ride.  Throwing that shaka sign. Our daily lunch spot. I think this is, by far, my favorite picture of our  entire vacation.  Testing the waters. Don't mind the photo  bomber in the background. I love them. I'm fortunate enough to say that this is my 3rd trip to Hawai'i, and probably my favorite, so far. They all hold a special place in my heart, but this vacation just seemed perfect. It was long overdue. Sami had been doing the Hawai'i countdown since we booked our trip. We didn't do much this time around other than bum it at the beach. We skipped the luau because we had done it the previous two trips. We did the Dole Plantation and I did the maze for the first time. It was a lot of fun. Sadly the maze won us. We didn't finish it ...

Evening ride. Man down! I realized today that my family is a bit odd. All summer not once did we do anything outdoorsy. We stayed in doors for the most part with the occasional trip to Disneyland. No bike riding or evening walks. As soon as summer was officially over we started going out for walks and finally put our beloved bike rides to use. True, we live in amazing Southern California where summer never really goes away, but still. I just find it quite silly and to be honest, I really do dig it. Most people who know me well know that I've never been one to color inside the lines. It's nice to say that my little family is the same way. 

Today is your last day being in the United States and then you'll venture off to your motherland. I want to thank you for allowing me in your life. I love you so very much my friend. I shouldn't even call you my friend, your my brother. Your my compadre. Your someone that will never ever be replaced or forgotten. I know I was being a total dickus with you these last days, I just didn't know how to deal with you leaving. We have so many memories in such a short time. I know we'll eventually see each other again but, not having you around is going to be hard. Thank you for always having your ears and heart open when I went to you with my problems, thank you for not judging me. Thank you for laughing at my stupid jokes and always being down for a drink or a smoke. Thank you for being honest with me and thanks for picking fights with me! I cherish all these moments. I will miss our drives to work with our coffee and chismes always ready to go. You'll always have a hom...