Thursday, July 29, 2010

Teams I Root For

Many people ask me what teams I root for. For college sports it is easy. But for pro sports, I have a hard time answering that question, because I have lived in four metro areas: Sacramento, San Francisco, Indianapolis, and Los Angeles. So to finally answer that question, I will list my two favorite teams in each sport.

NCAA Football
- Cal Bears
- Indiana Hoosiers
NCAA Basketball
- Cal Bears
- Indiana Hoosiers
NFL
- San Francisco 49ers
- Indianapolis Colts
MLB
- San Francisco Giants
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
NBA
- Golden State Warriors
- Sacramento Kings

For the NFL, the only other team I can root for is the Raiders, but they got too out there and have ownership issues. For baseball, I can't like the Dodgers because I like the Giants. The A's are just OK since they never have big name players due to small payroll. For basketball, I hate the Lakers (who doesn't outside of L.A.), the Clippers never win, and I never really liked the Pacers, probably because of Reggie Miller.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Bouncy Birthday

Loving the cooler temperatures this weekend. Saturday we went to a birthday party at a park .4 of a mile from our house, so we decided to walk. We took the wagon; k walked there and rode back (n rode both ways). The birthday girl, who is so sweet, turned 6. We went to the bounce house first thing, which was perfect since k gets intimidated when there's other kids. It was pretty big, and k had fun. She even went down the slide once the birthday girl showed her how it is done. For lunch there were six foot Subway sandwiches and cupcakes for dessert. It was nice to enjoy some time outside in the shade, but we were really tired after walking back.

homestead park

bounce house

For dinner we went to Sushilicious with another dealperk coupon. Our favorite rolls were Little Miss Sunshine and Supercalifragi-(something, I can't remember). We ordered a chicken teryiaki bento first thing, but it was taking a while. I reminded the waitress and she had forgotten to put in the order (hmm...not sure if their i-touches really served their purpose). Anyway, she was nice and gave us a free dessert. We chose tempura mango ice cream. We were also reminded why it is so difficult to take n out to eat. He is so squirmy and likes to throw utensils on the floor. He was charming the waitresses/waiters by constantly waving at them, but I'm sure they didn't enjoy the cleanup from our huge mess.

This week will be busy...k's first time at VBS!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Running Errands

This past weekend wasn't too busy, mostly just running errands.

Colorado Rockies Mickey
Look who we saw outside of Sports Authority!

Ikea rocker
Ikea: Looking forward to the 2011 catalogue next month.

Chicken Maison
Chicken Maison: Our newest Yelp find, by South Coast Plaza. Must try the spicy lemon garlic chicken...so good. We also had a gyro, not pictured, which was also very tasty.

chillin'
It's been pretty hot recently, but it cooled down nicely today. n, D and k all hang out without their shirts on, but n was the only one that seemed appropriate to take a picture of.

Oh yes, for those of you not on Facebook, we saw Jason Lezak at Pick Up Stix on Saturday night. You know, the gold medal Olympic swimmer that beat the French guy in the 4x100 freestyle relay in Beijing? I wouldn't have recognized him, but after D pointed him out, I could tell it was him. He was waiting for his food to go, so D struck up a little conversation with him.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Fun @ Target

Target cart
Yay for the new double-seat carts at Target. I think it is kind of funny that Target has these, since they are useful for such a small percentage of the population. However, they serve me well, (until n gets restless) and I am grateful.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Busy Weekend

Usually our weekends are pretty relaxing around here. Last weekend, however, left D and I pretty tired. On Saturday we went out to lunch, then went to look at houses at Woodbury East. They were having a free barbecue (hamburgers & hotdogs), so we took some food over to my sister's place. They have their hands full, so I think the food was appreciated.

nephew
This is who is keeping them busy: our new nephew.

Our next stop was the Great Park's anniversary celebration. There were a lot of freebies, but it was kind of hot.

petting zoo

camel & zebra
Random animals for a petting zoo, don't you think? There was also a tortoise that was stepping on all of the rabbits.

Next we went to a swim party/BBQ at our new small group leader's house. They have a huge backyard, which I didn't even think existed in Orange County.
backyard slide
k loved the playground equipment. She said, "They have a park!" and she was right. Apparently it took 4 days to build and had over 150 types of parts.

Sunday we went to church, a country fair in the afternoon and a piano concert at night. D was so tired he said he couldn't wait to go back to work. Haha.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

BoardWalk Ice Cream Co.

Boardwalk Ice Cream
Since we had the day off on Monday, our adventure was to go to the Spectrum. I wanted to use the coupon I bought from www.dealperk.com for BoardWalk Ice Cream Co. The deal was $2 for 2 ice cream bars. The normal price is $3.75 each. They have vanilla ice cream bars, they dip them in your choice of dark or milk chocolate, and then you can have them rolled in unlimited toppings. D chose dark chocolate with oreo crumbles and I chose milk chocolate with coconut, waffle cone pieces and sprinkles. We were both careful not get anything with nuts so the kids could share with us. I guess the concept is based on the Balboa bar, which we've never had (we had the frozen banana). Anyway, is was very good, but you cannot help feel bad about eating it, at least I couldn't. I also wanted k to ride on the ferris wheel, but it was closed for refurbishment. It is supposed to open up later in the summer. Boo.

hug
In other news, n has developed some new "tricks", some good, some bad. Good: He likes to give k hugs. He loves to wave at people and point at babies and dogs. He holds up one finger when you ask him how old he is. Bad: He scratches our faces with both hands and thinks it is funny. He climbed out of his crib yesterday (it is now on the lowest notch...hopefully that will keep him in for a while longer). He likes to throw things (anything) off of the top of our stairs.

Monday, July 05, 2010

4th of July in Tustin

For our first 4th of July in Tustin we went to Tustin High School to watch fireworks. We arrived just after 5 p.m. We were planning to park in the school lot for $5, but D missed the turn-in. We kept on going, and found a spot on the street for free, and it was not too far from the stadium. There's one side for bleacher seating, and the other side was for the picnickers. We brought sandwiches for dinner, blankets, and the wagon. Unfortunately, D didn't wear enough warm clothes. We'll know for next time. It was a lot of fun! I enjoyed how you could just spread out the blankets and eat and wait for the fireworks. People brought books, card games, balls to toss around, etc. They were selling hamburgers and hot dogs, but most people seemed to bring their own dinner. There were also port-a-potties which weren't too bad. There was live music at 6:30; fireworks started at 9 p.m. The parking situation wasn't as crazy as Irvine High School. Both kids were still up at 9...although n fell asleep during the middle. When he was up, he seemed to enjoy it, though. He raised both hands to they sky and just watched in awe. k said she loved the fireworks, and had fun naming the colors after they exploded. It was a pretty long show, and I was not disappointed. We'll definitely come back, although it is always better when July 4th is on a weekend (no work the next day).

blue-raspberry
k likes making her special raspberry-blueberry combinations.

tustin brownie
We bought a brownie for $1 from the cheerleaders. I appreciate their presentation efforts. It was a good size, moist, chewy (albeit probably from a mix) brownie. The football players were selling glow sticks for $1, but I had k bring her own glow in the dark toys from home.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

OC Kids Restaurant Week-Beachcomber Cafe

We have had a good 4th of July weekend so far. Yesterday we were able to meet our new nephew. (Haven't asked my sister about posting his picture yet, so we'll hold off on that). D & k were also able to go to the pool before dinner. k blew some bubbles in the water, and she is getting better at holding on to D and kicking.

Today we went to Crystal Cove for the Beachcomber Cafe's OC Kid's Restaurant Week. I looked on our blog, and the last time we went to Crystal Cove together was pre-kids, in 2006. A lot has changed since then, as the restaurant didn't exist back then, and I remember the beach being pretty empty. And we have two kids now, that's a big change too!

We parked in the Los Trancos parking lot, East of PCH. There is a Beachcomber bus for $1 each way per adult, but we decided to walk. It wasn't too bad. You go through a tunnel with artwork, underneath PCH. Our 3.5 year old made it fine, and D carried n. So, the deal for Restaurant Week was at the Beachcomber Express, which is the takeout shack. It was $40 for 2 kids meals, 2 adult meals, 4 drinks, 2 beach chair rentals and 1 umbrella rental and voucher for the parking, which is usually $15 (ouch!). The Beachcomber normally validates the parking with a $15 purchase, so I would suggest buying $15 of food, since you would be getting it "free". For the kids we ordered grilled cheese and a BBQ chicken wrap, and for us we ordered a kobe hamburger and grilled chicken caesar salad. D and I liked the hamburger the best (brioche bun, red onions, etc.). Surprisingly, k liked the salad (specifically the lettuce) the best. n ate some of the grilled chicken. They weren't too into the kids meals, so D and I ended up eating a lot. The drink choices were just water, green tea or soda (I thought they should have had some sort of juice option, since it was KID'S restaurant week, but k and n seemed to enjoy the fancy water bottles). All in all, it was kind of expensive for what we got food-wise, but it was more the experience and beach atmosphere that made it worth it. We set up our towels, chairs, and umbrella and then they brought the food out to us on the beach. D chatted up this young family that was set up nearby because the dad was wearing a Cal hat. Turns out that he graduated a year before D (two years before me) and they live in Irvine. Anyway, we spent about 2.5 hours there, the weather was nice, and fun was had by all.

@ the beach

Miffy
Miffy came with us to the beach. (Souvenir from Japan).

Beachcomber Cafe

D + kids

sunscreen

I tried calculating how much our outing would have cost without the family promotion, and I think it would be close to $80! That seems kind of outrageous to me. Even $40 was on the high side, but I guess we can consider it as a staycation. Aren't we lucky that outings like this are less than 30 minutes away? Maybe we'll try the actual restaurant during a regular Restaurant Week someday.

For dinner we went to my parent's house and had the Summer Wellington that D's dad won a couple of weeks back. We weren't too impressed...not sure how anyone can be vegan. But, luckily my cousin who is vegetarian, came to dinner, so she was glad to take home the leftovers!