Kogi Date Night

I'm not sure of this, but I think our last date night was in March. That's pretty sad. I've been wanting to try the Kogi truck for a long time, but it was never at a time/place that was convenient. However, Friday night it was in Irvine, so we dropped the kids off at the grandparents' house and checked it out. It was supposed to arrive at 6:30 and we were there before 6. Since we didn't see anyone in a line, we went into the K-1 indoor race track and looked around. Then we went back to our car to wait, but D soon noticed that there was a small group of people waiting in a corner of the parking lot. We got in line (we were instantly recognizable as noobies because we accidentally went to the front of the line, instead of the back). Soon there was a long line behind us as more people showed up. The truck came on time, but when it arrived, it parked pretty far away from the line! Everyone was kind of looking at each other, and I told D to get prepared to run, under my breath. But, some people behind us told the people in the front of the line that we should all just move together, and we all civilly moved closer to the truck. I had read in other places there is just a mad dash, but this is Orange County, I guess.


Anyway, D left the ordering up to me since I had done my research. We ordered 1 short rib taco, 1 spicy pork taco, 1 order of Kogi sliders (short rib meat, 2 per order) and 1 spicy pork burrito. Oh, and a piece of tres leches cake for dessert.

Once the truck set up, we got our food pretty quickly since we were only about 5 people back from the front of the line.

We ate in our car, which was kind of messy, but fun. The tacos definitely have more flavor, but the burrito is what will fill you up. My favorite was the sliders. Actually, that and the tres leches:

Definitely not your traditional tres leches, it had chocolate cake, with a crunch peanut brittle top, condensed milk on the bottom and tapioca in the middle! There was also a hint of cinnamon in there too. Very interesting. Our dinner came out to just under $20 (we brought sodas/drinks from home :)). I like this food truck craze.

Happy Campers

For Memorial Day Weekend, we made last minute reservations to go camping at O'Neill Regional Park from Sunday to Monday. We invited our friends to join us this time. They have two kids, too, so there was a 1 year old, 2 year old, 3 year old, and 4 year old! The mom/daughter just hung out with us during the day and came back the next day. Maybe next time they can all sleep over. :)


We kept it simple: hot dogs for dinner, s'mores for dessert, scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns for breakfast.


Snacking on apples.


We have found that bringing chairs is pretty essential for camping. The other family had a cool double chair that was like a loveseat.

The campsite was nice because each site had its own water faucet. Too bad it was so close to a noisy road, though. Also, shouldn't there be a rule that RVs cannot run their generators past 9 p.m.? Those things are LOUD! We were also close to the RV dumping station, but it was not as bad as I thought it would be.


This guy kept on waking up at night and had a hard time falling back to sleep :(


But, he had a nice nap the next morning!


The moms took the kids to the playground in the morning while the dads cleaned up camp and packed. The playground was pretty nice...zipline, sundial, wobbly bridge/balance beam, etc. I thought it was funny when a boy who was older than k went down the slide head first, and she said, "Be careful, little boy!" Someone didn't want to walk back.

It was nice camping with another family. Plus, they brought fun stuff like a notebook for k to color in and glow sticks for night. We're looking forward to our next camping trip in October. I think this will definitely be one of our family's traditions.

Recent Outings

Last weekend we checked out Pioneer Park in Tustin Ranch. It has a Western theme and there were three "covered" wagons. It looked like a nice place to have a birthday party (and someone was having a party when we visited).




There are also two pretty tall/steep slides. I screamed when I went down with k.

Yesterday we went to another birthday party at a gymnastics center. The party was for two brothers, a one year old and a four year old.

"Airplane Arms"


k liked this little trampoline, but didn't want to try the big one. She also didn't want to jump into the foam pit. However, she seemed to have fun just running around on the bouncy floor and n did too.


Two cakes for the two brothers.


D the gymnast (with a black mouth).

Bible Study Fellowship (5 yrs)

Lessons from BSF that are memorable or changed my thinking...

1st year (Genesis)
Submission to God results in promises and blessings.
(Abraham's faith more than his skills set him apart)

2nd year (Romans)
There is a triangle that shows the following...
Jesus --- Propitiation --> God (Left side)
God --- Justification --> Us (Right Side)
Jesus --- Redemption --> Us (Bottom)

3rd year (Matthew)
I always thought that in the parable of the hidden tresure, the tresure is Christ Himself. But another interpretation that the "man" throughout the parable is Christ and the treasure is Israel. God in the Old Testament often described Israel as His treasured possession. For this tresure, hidden within the world, Jesus gave everything to redeem the whole world.

4th year (Life of Moses)
Reading the Bible to children during the first three years of life is very important and something they take with them through out their lives.

5th year (John)
Five tests of Assurance:
The Test of Obediance
The Test of Fidelity to the Apostles' Teachings (False teachers cannot sway true believers away from the apostles' teachings. Granted by the Holy Spirit)
The Test of Moral Purity
The Test of Love
The Test of Faith
That second test one was really interesting.

Three more years of BSF to go, with Isaiah coming up...

Tanaka Farms: Visit #4

So today I took the kids on our annual trip to Tanaka Farms with my moms' group. This was the first time that n went on the tour and ate strawberries with us, though.

Although the tour has remained essentially the same all four years, there are little changes. For instance, they now have the saying, "Bottoms on Benches!" when the wagon is moving. I think that is a new one. Also, I learned that only two ears of corn grow per stalk. Interesting.

Cornfield

The farm rotates their crops so as to not deplete the soil. So, where we picked strawberries last year, they are now growing cabbage:



The tour guides must eat a lot of vegetables!

k wasn't too keen on eating the celery, bok choy, and green onion that they offered along the way. She did, however, enjoy the carrot.


But, of course, we were all looking forward to the main attraction: the strawberries!

I'm not sure if this is true, but the strawberry field that they let us loose on for 15 minutes of all you can eat strawberries seemed a little more "picked over" than in years past. I think these tours are getting a lot more popular. There were still plenty to eat, though, and all three of us certainly got our fill. This was the first year that k picked her own strawberries (I still took off the stems for her, though).


Strawberry mouth!


After all that healthy eating we went to Chick-fil-a for dinner to redeem our coupons. Peach shake...yum! Yes, that is n wearing a UCLA shirt.

Distance to Sports Stadium/Arenas

I was thinking the other day about all the places I have lived at least a year and how close I was to professional sports stadiums/arenas (excluding Windsor, Ontario which is by Detroit).

Closest by Sport:
Baseball
Angel Stadium is less than 8 miles away from where I lived in Anaheim (4 yrs) & Tustin (1yr)
Hockey
The Honda Center (Anaheim Ducks) is less than 8 miles away from where I lived in Anaheim (4 yrs) & Tustin (1yr)
Football
Oakland Coliseum (Oakland Raiders) is less than 13 miles away from where I lived in Berkeley (4 yrs)
Basketball
Oracle Arena (Golden State Warriors) is less than 13 miles away from where I lived in Berkeley (4 yrs)

Berkeley Dog

I credit living in the Bay Area for seven years for turning me into a foodie. As in all college towns, there are certain institutions that every student must visit. One of these places in Berkeley is Top Dog.

Last week I read that there was a place called "Berkeley Dog" that was opening in Mission Viejo. Although not officially affiliated with Top Dog, it is endorsed by, and supplied by the same people as Top Dog. They were giving away free hot dogs on Saturday, so we decided to try it. D and n wore their Cal shirts to show our school spirit. When we arrived, D chatted it up with a guy who seemed like the owner/manager, who is a Cal alum, and he gave D a card for a free sausage on another visit. I think we arrived at a good time (around 4:30) since there was no line and we were able to find a seat. I guess earlier in the day the line was out the door.

My full review can be found here.


She's drinking lemonade, not soda! (n can officially drink out of a straw now, too).


Love the bun.