Oakland Zoo is Fun!!!!!

We went to the Oakland Zoo, here are a few of our favorites! Don't miss the flying monkey video down below. The little one above is known as the Meerkat, they love the camera! Dan asked the Zoo if he could buy one, thank God they said "no".

I adore the elephants and giraffes, they simply amaze me. Gentle Giants!

Its me! Another gentle creature.

Piggy back rides anyone?

The Lion picture is not all that great, but I was in a sky cart, if it broke at that very moment, that would be my landing spot. Yeah, I was having a hard time enjoying the sky cart. LOL. Sweet kittie kittie...

This big guy had a healthier breakfast than I did. Hmm, time to move to the Zoo.

Well, I tried to get them to do the Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil thingy but apparently they were on a break. Frickin Chimps! I could do their job better than they can!

Sorry folks, the Meloy Ant Farm recently got out of control. We now have a MAJOR infestation and these suckers are HUGE! That's the last time I feed zuchinni bread to an Ant. Photo taken at the Oakland Zoo, yeah, they made it that far!

Sweet little Honey blogging away on the laptop!

Del Valle Regional Park, we love this place!!!

This is our 2nd trip to lovely Del Valle, which is tucked away in a cute little wino town known as Livermore! Great for fishing, camping, swimming and hiking. A year ago, I found this place for a company picnic I was in charge of. When driving there for the first time, I simply fell in love with how close it was to town and yet are far it seemed.

Recently Dan and I took a 2 hour hike on a trail called the Dog Run. No, we did not take Honey, if she sees this blog, I am in so much trouble! Sweet Honey was over medicated due to shots the previous day, but another time! We hope to take another hike there this week and a quick camping trip. Stay tuned for more, we are going to the Oakland Zoo tomorrow!

Look, I found Dan-Bo!

Its me!!! Oh how I love California!!!

"Wait for me baby! I hear something following me!!!!"

Our Del Valle motion picture show!!!

Meloy Ant Farm progress!!!

These ladies are going to town! Its been two weeks now and they are still kicking, I mean digging!

Meloy Ant Farm Exhibit

Day 1 Video of the Meloy Ant Farm. We have one very large Ant with wings. Typically this is a female, the Queen, or it could possibly be a male, the Prince. We think she could be pregnant as she has a big round belly, walks slow, spends most of her time alone, often tries to escape, drinks a lot of sugar water and she doesn't get involved in the digging. I apologize for the blurriness and odd background noises, we are a young production company. LOL!

3 hours later!!!

8 Hours Later!!!

Dad and Shirley visit the Bay!!!

We love you both so very much, thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the journey to the Bay. We miss you both!!!

Alisha and Dad after a very long golf game...tons of fun!!! I love you daddy!!!

Alisha and Dan with beer and golf, we are a happy couple!

A pretty little picture off of the club house patio. We played 18 holes at the Las Positas Golf Course in Livermore.

We chose this course because it is right next to the Livermore airport, dad loves the planes. A great way to distract his game!

A baby Red Fox plays along side us as we were putting. This creature was terribly cute to see in person. I got to enjoy seeing her play with a little stick just as Honey would do...she had many sweet puppy ways about her, it was adorable!

Bye Bye sweet fox!

And of course a visit to Dublin always entails a journey to the local historic sites just a block away from our home. And we got some exciting news about a park they are adding right next door which will include additional historic monuments and sites to share with all of our weary travelers. It was an extremely hot weekend in the Bay but beautiful as always!!!

Dad enjoying the journey!

Dad taking personal interest in this tree. It has an impressive trunk, smooth to the touch, a very unique tree.

Honey thought it was a rather warm day as well. She loved walking with the pack!

Shirley enjoying a shady tree in the Dublin Cemetery, next to the Dougherty lot. Yes my visitors are always brought to the special grave site...lol.

And for the first time ever in all of my trips to this grave site (there have been many), I found a stone shaped as a heart.

How could it be that I have not blogged since Christmas?!?! Life is going well, I hope all the goodness the world has to offer is presenting itself to you!

A couple of weekends ago, we went to the A's game for uncle Gary's Birthday. I am typically not a baseball fan (that comment probably just got me ousted from the Newell & Miller clan) but we had a great time. A game in person is so much cooler than on t.v. I knew the fans were really into this but man, its so great to see them in action.

Me, Dan and Uncle Gary. I really hate my arms in this photo, I still got a lot of work to do...

Cousin Aaron, looking smashing or smashed...LOL

Look how close we are...better to see the baseball butts from this distance! 10th row from third base...hello fly balls from south paw hitters.

The A's won!!! Shaking hands after the game.

Life is still grand in the Bay but many changes are taking place in 2008, we hope to see some silver linings soon. Dan and I are both in search of work, again. He was recently laid off and I will be let go sometime this summer. The company I work for is coming closer to the end of the merge and I.T. is the last to be let go! But this end is only a beginning to a new and fun journey for both of us...we look forward to pool side days this summer. Winchester Mystery house visit photos will be posted shortly!!! Love to you all!!!

A sleepy Honey wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! With a face like this, it's no wonder she is spoiled.

The Meloy Family tradition continues in 2007 with two new ornaments purchased to represent "monumental moments" in the lives of us.

A Raiders helmet for Dan the Raiders fan. In 2007, he got to see the Raiders lose, giggles the 49'er fan.

And of course, we had to have Santa playing golf (pictured below) to represent one of our latest and greatest past times. See you on the Greens Tiger!

Alisha and Dan enjoying a swanky dinner at a swanky place in a swanky town with some swanky people. The drinks were swanky too! Seriously, this was by far the best meal of 2007, Forbes Mill Steakhouse is Fab!

From my blogs below, you can see I had a pretty good opening act for my 32nd Birthday. I knew it was going to be a good day because we had tickets to see a comedian we like named Dat Phan. He is the orginial winner of Last Comic Standing. When we arrived at the comedy club, we were full of champagne and pizza, so we were feeling pretty good. We were seated in the VIP section even though we did not have VIP tickets, SWEET!!!! I even won tickets for another performance by going on stage and shaking my ass with a bunch of other November Birthday party goers!!! Luckily Dan was having trouble snapping that photo!

I'm drunk, Dans not amused!

Some guys doing a strip tease for free tickets, they are kind of pricey so it was worth taking off your clothes and shaking your booty.

Comedians #1 and #2, sorry, I don't recall their names.

And Dat Phan himself, he was awesome!!!

But the best part, I got to talk to Dat Phan himself, tell him how proud I was of all of his success. Being a comedian is not easy work, it takes dedication and humiliation and lots of it, its great to see someone succeed!

And then we became best friends!!!

How we spent our Black Friday:

We live near a few Historic sites in Dublin. Its always fun to give visitors a local tour as I slowly increase my knowledge of the History that this great town has to offer. We live across the street to the left of the First General Store in Dublin. The Green store was built in 1860 by John Green. John Green came to Dublin from New York. Mr. Green purchased Michael Murray's farm and built a mercantile store and hotel. He became Dublin's first and leading businessman. By 1870 Dublin had two hotels, a store, a wagon and blacksmith shop, a shoemaker, a school, a church, a Sunday school and was the crossroads for Bay Area travelers. By 1878 the community was officially named Dublin, after Dublin, Ireland.

This is Old St. Raymond's Church, built in 1859, is the oldest Catholic Church in the valley. Old St. Raymond's Church is the oldest Catholic Church building in Alameda and Contra Coata Counties. The land was donated as a church site by Michael Murray and Jeremiah Fallon who was one of the recuers of the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierra.

Mom and Val between the church and school

Alisha and Val looking rather festive!

In 1856 the Murray School District was formed and Murray School was built on Flanagan Way. It was soon apparent to the settlers that the ground it was on (which is where the Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton is today) was subject to flooding. Soon thereafter, horses and oxen moved the schoolhouse to Dublin Canyon Road. Here it stood for 100 years. Eventually there were too many children for the one-room schoolhouse so more schools were built. With the widening of I-580 in the 1970's the schoolhouse was moved to a third and final destination in what is now the Dublin Heritage Center. It now serves as a museum.

Typically I don't take pictures at Grave sites but I do want to share this place with others as I found it to be very peaceful, simply Historic, so I snapped a quick picture. I journey to this place ever so often and I even wrote a poem about my first day embarking on all of this history just a few steps from my front door. Its the only time living so close to a grave site actually felt good. There are over 50 grave sites full of men, women and more children than you can imagine. These people survived conditions we only read about. My Poem:

I took a special walk today

A corner of the town seemed so far away

But something lurked along the way

The pull was a feeling I could not free

So I took a special walk today

The path presented history

stones with moments inscribed

I learned along the way

This corner of town was all for me in a special way

Old structures at first it seemed and then

Stoned crosses, marbled tomb stones became visible

I smiled as I knew I was embarking on a peaceful place

Where lives once lived now lay at rest

This was no place for the common man

This was a place for those who made this place

I faced each tomb realizing I was greeting those

Who simply paved this place

I took a special walk today

To a place where others forever rest

I never felt more alive as I did today