Some news ...

New year is tomorrow!
We were able to enjoy those holidays together ... Joseph was able to only work on morning and then come home once the work was done. So it was nice to spend some times together.

Joseph is now working on the Buffet we bought at the last auction we went to in England. He is sanding it and we will be able to paint it and vernish it this afternoon.

Levi had his first visit to the Vet, to start his series of shots. The Vet told us that he is in really good healt, his heart is good and no problem to the hips (I was afraid of Hips dysplesia). He got his rabbies and cough kennel done. He is now 32 pounds and still growing. Actually we saw a Adult great Dane last day at the beach. Huge! And to think that Levi will grow to that .... Help!!! looks like a mix between a horse and a dog!  But so beautiful to see run on the beach!





Riley and Joseph picked up the lemons on our lemon tree in front of the house. And here is the result! ...

 

 

And we had a weird one ...

Levi at the Dog Beach in Del Mar

Last Saturday we took Levi for a walk at the dog beach south of Del Mar. It was like a Disney Movie : bunch of dogs running around, free, playing with their owners or others dogs, without any incident.
Levi was kinda shy, but he liked it and at the end of the walk he was starting to wander around without us.
Here are some pictures of the afternoon.

An Afternoon at the Beach

We had a gorgeous day at the beach yesterday. The Sun was up so we were able to take off the top from the Jeep for part of the afternoon. Levi had his first walk along the beach. He is so shy that it took us some time to go from one point to another, but he was able to meet bunch of other dogs and people.
Here are some pictures of the afternoon ...

The beach 

Levi

 

 

Sunny Day ... top Down!

Levi is curious : why he cant go to the beach!

 

Napping on the drive back!

 

Exhausted!!!

 

The New Member of the Crazy Crain Crew

We've been talking for some weeks about adopting a dog in our family. After going to some shelters with Joseph and Riley last friday evening, we decided that we would spend most of Saturday visiting other shelters and rescue and would make a decision at the end. Our first stop on Saturday morning was to meet Denise who was breeding Great Danes and ... that was it! We stopped there and fall in love for our new puppy right away. A 3 months and a week old Great Dane. Grey (almost black) with a white splash on his chest. We decided to name him Levi, short for Leviticus.

Here are some pictures

 

The appointment to the Army Vet at Camp Pendleton is set for December 30th. The vet will check his shots and will check that everything is ok with our little puppy. We want to make sure that he grows not to fast so that he does not hurt himself. His legs are already long!

Here is a picture of Levi's Dad!

Out of the Dark

It almost never rains in California, but I guess that when it actually rains it's hell on earth? we had a big storm and rain yesterday all day long and around 4 pm we ended up on the dark with no power in the whole neighborhood. The power came back only today at noon. We were able to find some candles that made it through the move from England, borrowed our neighbor lighter and we had some light for the rest of the evening. Joseph had the pleasure to enjoy a cold shower after pt this morning.
This week, Joseph is "teaching", he is the chair of the second class petty officer leadership classes. So he is overseeing 2 1st classes that are running the program and 30 different instructors that come there and teach all day long.
Poor Riley, I arrived one minute after she finished school yesterday, and it was enough for her to be completely soaked with the rain!
As we did not have much to do yesterday evening, we sat under blanket on the living room, and start joking about how we would name our dog. We are going to a shelter in Riverside this Saturday to look for a dog.
Here is the link to the place:
Gentle Giants Rescue In Riverside, CA

The program for the rest of the week would be Homework for Joseph (he has 2 weeks left on the 2 courses he is doing for his master, and he will start 2 new courses after Christmas), And Riley is doing Lacrosse on Thursday (She may be trying the Girl Worship Evening at Church tomorrow evening).

I almost forgot, we tried to find a church last Sunday,

We went to the Vineyard Church of Oceanside at the 9 am service. It reminds us a lot of the one in Truro in England. Really nice family  church.
The Vineyard Church of Oceanside

And as we were going out, across the street was the Calvary Chapel (much bigger, huge). So we decide to try their 11am service. They actually have a High School Service with their own Pastor, so it was cool for Riley to be with people her age. (the Vineyard Church is too small and only one other girl was Riley's age). This one is so big that they have their own worship Band that cuts its own CDs. And that is our concern, the service was as perfect as it could be, everything has its place, lots of attending... Really big. So it's kinda like going to the movie, you sit and enjoy. And it's not really what we are looking for.
The Calvary Chapel of Oceanside

So that's it.

Pictures of the new house for those who did not see it before.

Ok, I received a comment asking for our new house. So here are some pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures from the New Crazy Crain Crew Car!

The car was finally delivered Friday night! It was more than time! Our old english cars were dying on those Californian hills!

 

 

Riley is playing La Crosse!

Riley starts playing La Crosse! Here are some pictures!

December Nights in Balboa Park

We went to  December Nights at Balboa Park yesterday evening! Huge event in San Diego to start the Christmas Period. Our friends Ben, Chara, and Stacey and her kids join us there. We had fun, bringing the kids to the rides (I include Riley and Joseph in the words "kids"), eating some tasty-greasy-1000calories-food, lemonade, and visiting some museum.

Here are some pictures.

The whole Group

The Crazy Crain Crew Blog is on and running!

Hi Everyone! We would like to share our life in California with our family! So here it is! I will try to update as often as possible!