Best Cities to Live, Work and Play

No. 8: Sacramento, Calif.

Population: 2,067,117
Population Growth Since 2000: 13.1%
Percentage of Workforce in Creative Class: 34%
Cost-of-Living Index: 121.7 (100 being national average)
Median Household Income: $56,953
Income Growth Since 2000: 19.1%

Everyone who knows me know that I love the community that we live in. Sacramento has so much to offer... it's like a hidden treasure! And most people who finally come and checks it out leaves with a warm & fuzzy feeling. So imagine how happy I was to see someone else, especially a nationally respected business magazine, agree with what I've been saying all along! Every year Klipinger picks and publishes the ten best cities in which to live and work. They look for places with strong economies and abundant jobs, then demand reasonable living costs and plenty of fun things to do. I just like the place... it feels so right! People are warm, so much to do outdoors, two rivers cross the city, beautiful Lake Tahoe literally in our backyard, quick drive to some of the most beautiful places in the world; i.e. San Francisco, Napa, Monterey as well as handful of National Parks such as Yosemite, Mammoth Lake... list can go on and on.

Anyhow, see the complete article the top ten list at the following link http://www.kiplinger.com/money/bestcities/

Sacramento may be at #8, but it's also the only city in California that has made the list. Now you see, it's a wonderful place to live. Don't you wished you lived here too?

A Day in the City...
... San Francisco

As you know, kids are out for the summer. Eddie usually takes a week off right after kids get out for the summer for a much needed R & R as well as spend some quality time with the kids. This year as we tried to plan for our "vacation" we realized how much more difficult it has become. We now have to look at their schedule as well. Anyhow, instead of "going away" this time, we decided to take a day trip out to San Francisco and do R & R later at home. This way Eddie will go back to work fully "rested". It also helps that we are so close to many wonderful places. San Francisco is only an 1-1/2 hour drive from us which is great since it is one of Eddie's favorite place.

Our first stop... Conservatory of Flowers. We didn't actually go in, just admired the landscaping & flowers in the front.

rare photo of just Eddie & me
in front of the Conservatory of Flowers

We didn't go into the Conservatory of Flowers because our plan was to go to the Japanese Tea Garden. Believe it or not for some reason I had never been to the Golden Gate Park... thus have never been to many of the wonderful places. Well, it is about to change... one venue at a time. First on our list... Japanese Tea Garden.

Here's Eddie with the kids
We lined them up by height...

Here's Lizzy & Rachel in funky yoga poses

rare family photo in front of the
"japanese temple"

one of the many Japaneses bridges at the Tea Garden
notice how steep it is?

One of our favorite sights... Golden Gate Bridge

I thought it would be quite interesting to post & compare pictures of our kids when we first moved back to California. We moved to Sacramento from Cleveland, Ohio in July of 2005. One of the first place we visited was San Francisco. Here's some picture from that outing.

kids with Alcatraz in the background
July 2005
they look so cute... and small

Eddie & the kids on Pier 39
notice how short Chris & Jeff looks next to Eddie?
family photo with Golden Gate Bridge background
kids really grew during the last 3 years
(mom & dad also aged quite a bit in those years)

Swim Season Has Begun...

Time Trials, May 2008

All four of our children has been swimming since they were very young. But it wasn't until three years ago that they joined a swim team. Although the swim team is a "recreational" team, our children swim every day and take each meet very seriously. We have had the pleasure of watching them grow in many ways through this sport. They are by no means ready to sign up for the Olympics, or even think about sports scholarships, but they all have come a long way. They are very strong swimmers, and above all enjoy the sport. To them swimming comes naturally and they gladly sign up every year.

The swim season officially begins in April but the meets actually start at end of May/beginning of June every year. This weekend was our first dual meet against another local team. It was not our conference meet, which means it's more for fun (practice), so for our team it was to be our "time trials", meaning we use the swim time on this meet as the gauge in which we measure ourselves against. With four kids in different age division, you basically have to be on the deck all day long. Between all four of our kids they swam over 20 events!!! Fortunately for us, Uncle Curtis came up to see them this weekend which explains the beautiful photos displayed below. He took soooo many pictures... hundred of them! But not to worry... I've only displayed few. There are many more pictures of our oldest, Christopher, because he had to swim EVERY SINGLE EVENTS... 8 events in all. He was exhausted by the time the meet ended.

Chris, keeping warm after signing in

Our children brings things to do to keep themselves busy between events
Here's Jeffrey with his Gameboy DS

My girls... trying to keep warm

Rachel getting ready for warm up

This is Rachel's favorite stroke - Butterfly
She was in a medley relay, and you guessed it...
she swam the butterfly stroke

Elizabeth during her freestyle event

Jeffrey was awesome today...
here he is during his freestyle event

Chris' least favorite stroke is the backstroke.
Unfortunately he had to swim it couple of times...
and Uncle Curtis was able to snap this photo just in the nick of time
pretty impressive abs, huh?

Besides swimming the butterfly stroke in the medley relay
Rachel also swam the "butterfly" event
For a little girl she has a strong upper body strength
She is able to bring her body way out of the water...

Rachel watching her siblings and teammates swim

One of the most beautiful stroke is the butterly
Done right it is just magnificent
Here's Chris during his 100IM
(100 meter Individual Medley)

This is the 3rd portion of the IM... Breast Stroke
This is Chris' favorite stroke

Lizzy with her friend
she was at the poolside cheering for her team all day

Jeffrey with his breast stroke

After the meet ... Chris was quite exhausted