Camping at El Capitan, Santa Barbara and Having Fun In Honor of Pablo

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This post is dedicated to Pablo Castelaz. Pablo was a six year old boy I came to learn about working at the Foundation at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Pablo's family keeps a beautiful blog about Pablo and their journey, as a family, through his childhood cancer. http://getwellpablo.blogspot.com (see my blog list "Pablog"). Though we never met Pablo, my family fell in love with him through the stories and pictures the Castelaz family posted on their blog. On Friday, while getting ready for our family camping trip, I learned that Pablo was going home from Children's Hospital for the last time, with only days to live. So, it was with a very heavy heart that I left for our trip.

I wanted to honor Pablo and his family and their tremendous struggle, by trying my very best all weekend, to stay in the moment with my family. I enjoyed my beautiful boys; their laughter and silliness; their energy and sense of adventure. I focused only on the positive and let my heart fill with gratitude for those moments.

We had a beautiful view of the ocean from our camping spot (we saw a whale!) and Sean even warmed up to the idea of actually camping on asphalt! I was in heaven……NO DIRT TO CONSTANTLY SWEEP UP!

We biked and hiked. We built sand castles and played cards. We spent quiet time together looking out on the ocean and just being with nature. We were silly together and Nathan even wanted to dress like a pirate.














We had a nice, relaxing and loving weekend. I was tremendously saddened to learn upon our return that Pablo had passed away. I can't imagine the pain a parent must go through to lose a child. It truly makes these moments of family fun and quality time together all the more potent and meaningful.

I know that I will never forget this little boy named Pablo, who I’d never met, but who has taught me so much about enjoying and loving my own spirited boys.

RIP Sweet Pablo!


The Pablove Foundation was formed in Pablo's honor, to help fight childhood cancer. The Pablove foundation will make an annual contribution to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. To read more about The Pablove Foundation or to make a donation please visit:

http://www.pablove.org/ (see my blog list)


Love, Lisa

A Beautiful Easter

The Hickey family had a fabulous Easter in beautiful Santa Barbara at Sean's sister, Roxie's home. Made all the more fabulous surrounded by our wonderful family members.

Roxie, Gigi, Rhonda and Shelly

Blair, Megan, Erin and Julie

Dee, Aunt Pat, Ryan

Ralinda and Shelly

Peter, Ralinda, Deanna

Todd and Brian

We shared a delicious Easter feast prepared by all, sitting around a lovely garden table. Roxie's organic garden is gorgeous!

Tristan and Nathan were exteremly excited to spend some time with their cousin Cole, and of course all of their other cousins too!

Rhonda, Cole, Nathan and Tristan

And then Aunt Roxie brought the eggs out for the egg toss. Wow, they really had a great time! I didn't get a shot of it, but trust me, they were real, raw eggs and a couple of people got it pretty good!

Adam, Nathan, and Cole

And the winners were the father and son team. Tristan looks so proud.

Sean and Tristan

The gang of cousins, all boys, got their bags and the instructions from Aunt Roxie regarding the treasure hunt.......

.......and the hunt was on.

And then it was over and the boys all sat down to look over their loot.

Based on the facial expressions, I think Nathan and Aiden found some good stuff!

Since our kids have one of the best Aunties in the world, the fun was not over yet. Aunt Roxie had more fun planned for them with a pinata filled with Easter sweets and she got them all fired up to take their best swings for the treats.

These are memories my family will cherish for a lifetime and so I'm going to take this time right now to tell all of you We Love You. Thank you for the memories.

I tell myself everyday "Life is here to be lived fully and authentically.....go ahead just take a huge giant bite out of it" Sometimes, I find it hard to follow my own advice, but Aiden - well, it looks like he knows exactly how to take a bite out of life!

Love, Lisa

A Merry Christmas at the Hickey's

Leading up to Christmas Day, Nathan could hardly contain himself. He was counting down the days, literally bouncing off the walls, and driving me crazy. On the "big day", Tristan and Nathan woke up early and started opening their gifts before the sun came up. They both got new decks (skateboards) from Uncle Jim. They couldn't have been more thrilled. The family got a Wii game which was a big hit for everyone. Uncle Jim made us a wonderful breakfast as we opened gifts, listened to Christmas tunes and had fun playing Wii. Our baby boy, Tiger had to be part of all the action and couldn't have been more cute hanging out on the couch watching the boys open all their gifts.







This was a very special Christmas for me because I had all my brothers here to celebrate with me and my family.



Mitch was here with his girls, Taylor and Rilee.



JB and I were thrilled to be able to celebrate Christmas with our two younger brothers Matt and Benji.



Matt moved to LA back in August and is making a go of it in Hollywood. I hope I don't embarrass him too much, but I have to say, you all better keep your eyes on him because before too long, we'll be reading about him as People Magazines Sexiest Man Alive. I'm really, really happy he's here and that we are able to participate in eachother's lives. I hope he stays awhile and makes LA his home.



Benji came out from Georgia, where he is a teacher, for a Christmas visit. My boys were thrilled to see him. We're working on him to make the move to LA, but somehow I think Benji will always call Georgia his home.



It was alot of fun for all of us to hang out together.







I did not have the special opportunity to spend much time with Matt and Benji growing up. I grew up here in LA and they were raised on the family farm in Georgia. I'm beyond thrilled that I've had this chance to spend with them and get to know them alittle bit better. They are wonderful young men. I love them very much and I'm very proud of them both. I'm really looking forward to spending more quality time with both of them and truely hope that we can all be more present in eachother's lives.



At the end of our Christmas Day together Mother Nature blessed us with this beautiful Christmas rainbow and I took it as a sign that more good things are surely to come in 2009.



Happy Holidays! Love, Lisa