More Fun in the Bay

Saturday we packed in a lot of activities. In the morning we met up with D's parents at Country Way the Original in Fremont for breakfast. The building is in the shape of a Swiss chalet or Weinerschnitzel, take your pick. D's parents had huge omelets, which they shared with us, and we had blueberry pancakes and french toast.

After breakfast we went to D's brother's new place in Fremont, which we hadn't seen before. Our friend Janelle's boyfriend happens to live in Fremont, too, so they stopped by despite their busy schedule.



k playing with her only cousin.



After they left, D's cousins came over. We talked a bit and then we walked to a Chinese restaurant nearby. There was a lot of food, including this lobster:


We went back to the hotel and everyone was able to take a (much needed) nap this time. Our next activity was a birthday party for the three year old daughter of one of my friends from college. It was at Gold Star gymnasium in Mountain View. I wasn't sure if k would participate, but she did!



k's favorite: the rope swing!
(Note to self: Don't dress k in jeans the next time she goes to a gym! I don't know why I didn't think about that.)


n had fun too. I think he'll be the type to really enjoy these kind of places when he's a little older. He is already showing daredevil tendancies.


I think D was the only parent that participated too. He is truly a kid at heart. Later told me he wanted to do a backflip on the trampoline but thought better of it. I'm glad. :)

For dinner we met up with D's cousins again, this time in Sunnyvale at a Mediterranean restaurant called DishDash. D had beef kabobs and I had a chicken schwarma salad. We also shared the mixed appetizer plate. k liked the falafel. Probably the best Meditteranean restaurant we have been to. If D had a Mediterranean category on his list, it would be on there. When we got back I looked it up on Yelp and there are 742 reviews (4.5 stars)! There must be more Yelpers in Northern California. I don't know of any restaurants in OC that has that many reviews. It was also nice to be able to talk more with D's cousins, whom we don't see too often.


So that was our trip. We made it home in six hours!

A Visit to the Bay Area (500th Post)

We just returned from a quick trip to the Bay Area. It was a nice little vacation and good to spend time with family and friends. And of course, good food.

First of all, we borrowed my dad's GPS, and I'm so glad we did. That will definitely be our next purchase. It was so helpful since we were going to a lot of different places in (somewhat) unfamiliar territory. Yeah, we missed a few turns and heard the dreaded "Recalculating..." but it saved us a lot of hassle and arguments, I'm sure.

We drove up at 5:50 a.m. on Friday morning. First stop was Porto's, a Cuban bakery in Burbank. We ordered the egg & chorizo sandwich on cuban bread, a medianoche sandwich, a mango smoothie, guava cheese pastry, chocolate croissant and raspberry mousse. We've been here a few times, and it never fails to impress. It isn't surprising that there was a line, even before 7 a.m.

We made two more stops and arrived in Fremont at 12:20 p.m. The kids were OK--not too bad, but not too great, either. I'm not complaining about 6.5 hours, though. That was pretty good.

We had lunch at Sala Thai, a Yelp find.
We ordered the pad see ew and crispy garlic fish. Very flavorful. It made D's List!

Then we checked into our hotel, the Hilton in Newark/Fremont, which we booked through Hotwire for $55/night (around $65 with taxes). Although you can see it from I-880, I couldn't hear the freeway from our room. As D noted, it served a very "eclectic" clientele. After D checked in, I was carrying n and k was walking in front of me, and one of the hotel clerks called out to me, "If you're interested, there's a Chuck E. Cheese next door!" I thought that was funny.

After unsuccessfuly trying to take a nap in our hotel room, we picked up D's cousin in Santa Clara. She is visiting from Singapore, and is the main reason we made the trip up north. It was the first time I had ever met her, although we've hung out with her brother before. We warned her we wanted to eat early and casual because of the kids, and she was game. We ate at Lawrence Plaza food court in Santa Clara, which is located in a Little Korea. I ended up ordering teriyaki chicken and japchae from BBQ Town (not very Korean, I know, but I was sharing with the kids, so I didn't want anything too spicy, alhtough it did come with kim chee), while D had bimbimbap and his cousin had spicy tofu soup from the stall next door. D's cousin had stopped in New York before coming to the Bay Area, and brought some gifts for k & n. k liked that she walked with them after dinner. It was nice hearing about all of the sightseeing she had done and plans to do and hearing about D's other relatives that we don't see too often, if at all.

There's a dessert place with funky seating. We decided to take pictures there.

How Not To Celebrate Your 6 Year Anniversary

D and I had grand plans to go out to brunch on Saturday morning to celebrate our six year wedding anniversary. (Nice restaurant that we've been wanting to try, babysitting lined up, etc.) However, on Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat. The kids had been sniffling away all week, so I'm pretty sure I caught it from them. When D came home from work, his throat was starting to hurt, too. Saturday morning I woke up pretty miserable, and D wasn't too much better, so we cancelled our plans. I took some Tylenol and felt functionable, but not celebratory. We pulled out our wedding album, though, and showed the kids. k was confused as to why she and n were not in the pictures.

I sent D out for takeout Japanese food for dinner, but it was nothing to write home about. I felt bad, since it was my suggestion, but D insisted it was not my fault. Meanwhile, our home became littered with tissues and quite messy since we spent all day inside, with the exception of a short trip to the park. This, in turn, makes me all the more grumpy. We did watch couple episodes of D's new favorite show: The Travel Channel's Food Wars. D ended up going to sleep at 8 p.m. Not too exciting.

I was sad, since it is not often that our anniversary actually falls on a Saturday. However, I guess I should not get so hung up on a certain day since every day should be appreciated, right? The good news is that we are all on the mend and looking forward to a short week!

Easter Celebration

Well, it looks like we're almost caught up with our updates.

Our bunnies!



D put a Cadbury mini egg in each plastic egg and hid them in our living room and family room on Saturday night.


k had four egg hunts this year, so now she's an expert.

k was supposed to sing an Easter song during service. As you can see, she wasn't too thrilled about participating. At least she went up on stage, which is more than we can say for her Christmas performance. She loves singing at home and in the car...maybe next time.


Looking dapper in his button down shirt.

Checking Out San Clemente Beach

After we ate breakfast and cleaned up a bit around our campsite, we took a walk down to San Clemente beach. I actually don't remember ever going to that particular beach before. D had wanted to go bodyboarding and Uncle K had his surfboard all ready to go, but there was a sewage spill earlier in the week, so that didn't seem to be a good idea. However, that didn't seem to stop the many others that were in the water.




The train tracks go right along the shoreline. Going on an overnight train ride with spectacular scenery is on my bucket list.

San Clemente Overnight Camping Trip

One family activity/tradition we would like to establish is camping. We had gone once before, to Malibu Creek State Park, pre-n (k was 1.5). Now that n is one, we thought we should try it again. This time we decided to go to San Clemente. We went on Good Friday, since D had the day off. We invited my sister and BIL along too. My parents joined us for dinner.


Our campsite was more spacious than last time. Plus, it had a distant ocean view. Nice. I enjoyed the cooler weather too. I think we'll probably stick to camping in the spring and fall, if possible. Car camping is the best since I'm not a big fan of lugging everything on my back (plus, that would be pretty much impossible with small kids). Also, both of our trips have only been one night, so we don't really worry about skipping a shower/bath.

My BIL planned both of the meals: chicken/beef fajitas for dinner, campfire apple pies for dessert (plus smores); egg casserole for breakfast. We are spoiled going camping with him, since he is the expert at camp-cooking. We tried to take notes, though, so we should be able to do it by ourselves (although it probably won't be as fancy).




Sasa + n


Enjoying a s'more.

Campfire Apple Pie=apple pie filling sandwiched between 2 oatmeal cookies, wrapped in foil, warmed in the fire, topped with a dollop of Cool Whip.


My favorite part about camping (and k's too) was snuggling in our sleeping bags/blankets, and just feeling close as a family in the great outdoors.


Yes, n still woke up in the middle of the night, and I didn't get all of the sleep I would have liked, but it was worth it. In fact, we have already booked our next trip, at the same site, for October! (The spaces fill up really fast).

n's 1st Birthday Party

March really flew by for us. Here's the recap of n's first birthday party. We had it at my parents' house. The theme was Paul Frank's Julius the Monkey and the colors were supposed to be light red and blue. n wore an outfit that one of my college roommates had given to n (thanks j!) We had hotdogs (Nathan's!), chili and rice (how JA, I know). My dad also bought some sausages from Mattern Sausage & Meats in Orange. My mom made a mini cake for n, and there were also cookies, cupcakes, rice krispy treats and finger jello. There were a lot of little boys, and they seemed to enjoy exploring the house/yard. One tried to escape over the fence. My sister found them in the laundry room and asked what they were doing. They responded, "Making plans!" Hmmm...

We set up a sandbox in an underbed storage box.


Would you like a sand cone?


A different college roommate helped me make these toothpick flags. (Thanks, l!) She really came over to watch basketball, but I put her to work :)

D's Anniversary

April marks my anniversary at Mazda and more importantly marriage.
--April 12th: 4 years at Mazda
--April 17th: 6 years of marriage

Running anniversary...
--March 12th: 4 years since I signed up for my first half marathon

Finally, a milestone...
--May 18th: Will have completed 5th year of Bible Study Fellowship (BSF)