A great Weekend with the Haleys!!!

On Thursday, Marie, Joe, Veronica, Tyler, Samantha, Brealynn and Brenna arrived to spend a couple days with me. They got here at about 4:30. We walked to this restaurant called Noodle City for dinner. After dinner we took a walk around the U.C. Davis Arboretum then went to Crepeville for dessert.
Friday morning, I rented an 8 passenger SUV and we went to San Francisco for the day. Our first stop was Golden Gate Park. It is so large, you could spend a few DAYS and not see everything. We then went the beach. It was COLD and windy, but the kids has a TON of fun playing in the waves and sand. When we finished there, we went to a cute cafe for lunch.
The next stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. We took a walk across part of it and enjoyed the sights. We then continued on to Lombard Street, which is known for the small stretch of sharp switch-backs.
Our final stop of the day was Fisherman's Wharf. Our first place to visit there was Ghiradelli Square where I ordered the "Earthquake Sundae" (see pictures below) for the kids' dinner! We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the street shows and other sights around the Wharf.
Saturday, we went over to the city of Winters and ate at Putah Creek Cafe (previously shown on Dinners, Drive Ins and Dives" where we had an AMAZING breakfast. We also went to my office there so I could show them and Joe replaced a leaking faucet for me. When we arrived back in Davis, we went to the Farmers Market and wandered through and tried some the samples that were being given away. When we finished there, I took them to Yolo Berry Frozen Yogurt for lunch (yes, Aunt Vera gave them ice cream for LUNCH this time!!!).
After getting a few things ready, we went to Joe's friends house to have a barbeque
and to visit for the evening.
Sunday, they got up and left for more adventures!
I am sure Marie and Joe will post some of the same pictures I have on here, but there will surely be many more as well!
Enjoy some of our fun times in snapshots!!!


Golden Gate Park






















Even Joe had to be one of the kids for a bit (don't ask how we got him out of that seat...)!!!


The Carousel at the Golden Gate Park. It is one of the few that have the original wooden animals (rather than the current plastic ones).












The kids REALLY wanted to go to the beach. Even though it was WAY cold and windy, they had an absolute BLAST!!!






Samantha was ECSTATIC about being at the beach!


They loved the beach sand!


Me with the Haley kids at the Golden Gate Bridge.


The Haley Family at the Golden Gate Bridge.


We drove down Lombard Street which is known as "crookedest [most winding] street in the world" (although the actual fact is contested). It is famous and we can now say we have been there!!!






Just finished driving down Lombard Street.


THIS, folks, is the "Earthquake Sundae" from Ghiradelli Square. Come visit and I will get one for us to share!!!


Do you think they were excited about eating it?!








I told them I wanted to see with their smiles how much they liked it!!!


Wow, we polished that off!




One of the entertainers along Fisherman's Wharf!


Alcatraz in the background.


Do you think we wore them out in San Francisco?!


Yolo Berry frozen yogurt for lunch (yes that is two meals of ice cream in two days - hey when you get to visit Aunt Vera, it is ALL GOOD!)!!!




The kids posing around the sign to my business!


Checking out my bike!




After two-and-a-half days of pure fun they were, again, exhausted (sorry about the quality, I took it with my cell phone and it was semi-dark in the room)!!!

Audi Best Buddies Challange

I recently found out about this event called the Audi Best Buddies Challenge.
Best Buddies is an organization that gives opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
This is a fund raising event. I pledged to raise $1550.00. Anyone can contribute and I have decided that the funeral home will match 100% of all donations made.
For a direct link to my personal page, click here.
Any and all donations are greatly appreciated!

Out with the old, in with new!!!

At the beginning of March, my old cold storage broke down on me. It would have cost me a very MINIMUM of $1000.00 to fix. As it was, around $300-$500 were being put into it every 4-6 months to refill it with freon. I was fortunate enough to have a friend lone me a small two person cooler to help give me some time to decide what to do. After MUCH though and research, I finally decided to have a walk-in cooler installed. In the long-run, it will be much better for me in MANY ways! Here are some before, during and after pictures!!!


The old cooler before the crew started to take it apart.


The old cooler half-way disassembled.


The old cooler in pieces.


The new cooler on the truck waiting to be put into place.


The exterior of the finished product!


The interior of the finished product!

Crazy Afternoon

This afternoon I had a little bit of excitement here at the funeral home. I had just gotten back from a funeral and was in my office eating lunch while doing some paperwork to get ready to meet with two families that I had scheduled to come in and make arrangements. I heard a loud crashing sound like someone's car hitting the building. I looked out my office window to find just that. I went down stairs and checked on the driver. She was fine, so I called the Davis Police Department and asked for an officer to come over to take a report. The lady said her car just took off on her. Since I didn't see it happen, I can't say for sure. All I know is, it did a fair amount of damage. The best way to tell you about it is in pictures!:

The view from the sidewalk looking down the driveway. She somehow managed to drive her car from the parking lot to the left, through/over the brick wall, across the driveway and into the building (and yes, that is the entire brick wall that fell over).


The front bumper of her car on the corner of the building.


Looking from the parking lot she was trying to park in toward the funeral home.


Tow truck driver preparing to pull the car out (he couldn't get it out the same way it went it).


Ugh, the poor Magnolia Tree. It may have to be replaced - not to sure if it will be able to recover.


Damage done to the flowerbed after the tow truck pulled the car out.


Luckily, this is the only damage done the building, it self - at lease as far as visible damage, someone with a trained eye will need to come look at it to be sure.


The hole her car created in the brick planter:


Driveway after the car was removed:

Famous?!!!

Famous? - No not really. As part of an advertisement I did with Sacramento's News10 web-site, they came into the funeral home and filmed me giving information about our services, then took quite a bit of film of the funeral home to use in the video. This is the final version that is published on their site under our funeral home. It is quite obvious that this was my first time doing it and I am nervous, but overall, I think it turned out fairly well!!!
Please feel free to share on your blog, Facebook, or any other social network you are with!