just us.

headed to the Bay.

It's been a while so I figured an update is in order.

I was on vacation last week so Keira and I flew up to Northern California to spend some time with my parents and brother.  We didn't see much of Ryan since he was in the middle of finals, and more or less spent his time in the school library.  My parents, on the other hand, alternated days off so that they could hang out with Keira and I.

Breakfast at Tina's Place in Pinole.  pretty good food and good value too.

a little playground time.

picking snow peas with grandpa.  I still remember harvesting my dad's garden as a kid, so it's nice to see Keira doing it as well.  We ended up eating the snow peas for dinner that night.

my dad thought it would be fun for Keira to ride BART.  We hopped on in El Cerrito and rode all the way down to Fremont and back.  It was just under an hour each way, and probably just a tad too long for Keira.  We headed to Costco afterwards for some hot dogs and then home for a nap.

Mike was on his way up to the Bay Area (he drove) and got to my parents' house in time to head out to San Francisco to pick up my mom from work.  We headed back into the East Bay to take Keira to her first baseball game!

The Oakland Athletics played the Detroit Tigers, and it was over pretty early on.  I think the Tigers scored 8 runs in one inning, which took about 45 minutes to play.  I originally wanted to go to a Giants game at ATT Park, but they were out of town for the week.  The novelty of being at a baseball game wore off pretty quick, so we left around the 5th or 6th inning.

Friday was another leisurely day.  Ryan had his last final of the week, and my mom had the day off.

breakfast at Meal Ticket in Berkeley.  Mike and I saw it featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.

 

Ryan's birthday present.  He is a whopping 32.  a much needed nap for the both of them right after.

Mike and I made reservations at Fleur de Lys in San Francisco, to celebrate our 5-year wedding anniversary.  We are both fans of Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, and have always wanted to eat at one of the restaurants.  Since we were already in the Bay Area and it was our anniversary..AND we had willing babysitters, we figured...why not?!

we headed into SF early and walked around Downtown SF to kill some time.  the weather started to turn cold and we didn't know where else to go, so we headed back to the car and watched a little Harry Potter on Mike's dashboard.  We thought the 3 block walk to Fleur de Lys would take us a while but we ended up getting there 50 minutes before our 830pm reservation.  Apparently, it didn't matter because they seated us right away and our fancy foo foo dinner began!!

I didn't take a single picture of anything we ate.  I felt a little awkward amongst all the fanciness of the place.  Most of the men were in suits and ties, and the women in fancy dresses.  Mike and I were afraid we were underdressed, although some people came in later wearing jeans.  We each ordered the 4 course menu selection, getting different things so that we had more to try.  I think our favorites of the night, were the artisan foie gras and smoked duck breast (the foie was so smooth!), the trio of lamb loin, shank and merguez meat ball, and the bacon crusted sea scallops. We also ordered the dungeness crab salad, the kobe beef cheeks (we had our first taste of sweetbreads..and Mike nearly lost his dinner), hawaiian swordfish, plum souffle and apple tart for dessert.

Overall, we liked the dinner but were not completely blown away.  I am glad that I can now say I've eaten at Fleur de Lys, but wouldn't necessarily go back.  Mike and I are going to try to do a dinner out, just the two of us, every so often.  I am on the look out for the next "Top Chef" restaurant to try.

Saturday morning, I took Mike back to Tina's Place for breakfast.  My parents were in Alameda picking up a bicycle, so the three of us had the morning to ourselves (my brother was at work).  After my parents came back, we headed up to Sacramento to spend time with my extended family there for the afternoon.

Keira wasted no time getting into my uncle's swimming pool.  My cousin Renita's two boys came not too long after us and the three of them had a good time.

we barbecued salmon, tri tip and hot dogs, along with potato salad, fruit and dessert.  My cousins and I had a good laugh watching the younger generation play waiter with the "old people", complete with a senior menu of oatmeal, prunes, and Ensure. good times with family, good times.

Sunday, we had dim sum with my parents and Ryan before heading home to So Cal.

 

The drive home took us a little bit longer than usual to get home.  Between potty breaks, gas fill-ups and food runs, it took us 8 hours total to get back to So Cal. I learned how to eat pumpkin seeds without crushing the whole thing and Mike did a majority of the driving.  We managed to watch almost 2 full Harry Potter movies on the way home and saw just one CHP too.

Thanks for the good times family Ko!

December?! Really?!

since the girl is still asleep, might as well post...right?

speaking of the girl, she is on day 5 of some viral bug going around.  it all started on Friday with a few vomiting episodes and then 3 days of oozing diarrhea.  She has a nice cough probably due to post-nasal drip, and really hasn't been eating much but drinking like a fish.  I hope she is on the upswing of this sickness, it's really the sickest she has ever been.

our tree is up, and has been since thanksgiving weekend.  this picture here depicts the aftermath of a leaking tree base.  we checked and watered for a whole week before discovering the leak, which lead to the unwrapping of several presents including one for Mike that he didn't know about and a playdoh set for Keira.  We subsequently let her play with it, since she does so at school, but have now decided we are going to hide until she is older.  Playdoh + carpet + toddler not understanding that she needs to keep it IN the tray = not a good thing.

our December family photo. I can't believe I managed to do this for a whole 12 months.

We were lucky enough to get a visit from our friends Fiona and Eric.  Little N has grown so much and come so far since we last saw her in July.  and big E is such a ham herself.

Oli and Keira.  Up to no good.

30% off holiday ornaments at the Disney Store + a mama shopping kid-free = 3 princess ornaments for the princess lover at home.  Belle and Snow White currently grace the tree, and I'm waiting for another "special occasion" to give her Rapunzel.  Or Tangled as she calls her.

Holiday gift exchange between Oli and Keira. oh, can you FEEL the excitement?  Linda and I have both learned a lesson: if we want the kids to behave and eat their lunch, do the exchange AFTER lunch, not before.  This is also the day the vomiting started (sorry LB).

an hour or so worth of manual labor by the homeowners (yes, I helped too!) led to....

this!!

Mike is beyond himself when it came to holiday decor.  This is our first house that we could actually do something to, so we went out with a bang.  I just hope our neighbors don't think it's tacky.  Either they really do like what we've done or they are just being nice.

pancakes for breakfast on Sunday.

holiday card making by the family.  Mike cut and I sewed.  And we let Keira "help" too.

so that's that from our neck of the woods.  Christmas sort of snuck up pretty quick.  It seems that once Halloween comes to town, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are right behind.

iPhoto fun

I was organizing months worth of photos yesterday and came across these from my brother's visit in early June.

Uncle Fu Fizzle and his sidekick Keira as color-coordinated superheroes

gotta love iPhoto.  the photo booth is pretty fun.

silly people.

July 4th weekend

I never did share what we did over the 4th of July weekend.

We spent a few days up in Malibu, at the beach house of a friend's dad.  There were 3 families total, and we had a fun and relaxing time.  There's nothing like falling asleep and waking up to the sound of waves crashing.

we spent Friday on the semi-private beach.  It was nice not having to fight with other people for sand space.  Keira had no fear of the water, and would run after it as it receded back into the ocean.  She came back with half the beach in her swimsuit bottom.

Keira playing on the beach with her godsister.

painting rocks gathered from the beach.

our July family picture.

I had to work on both Sunday and Monday, but we were having a block party when I got home.  The 6 houses in our cul-de-sac cooked tons of food, played some games and shot off fireworks.  It was nice to get to know our neighbors a little bit better.

On the preschool front, today is Keira's third day at school.  She's not quite used to it yet, as evidenced by her proclaiming that she doesn't want to go. Yesterday I had Mike drop her off, and she said that she wanted to stay home with me.  As much as I wanted to keep her home, I knew it would be a step backwards.

She seems to be doing well there, not crying for very long and doing a lot of things that we haven't done with her yet.  She has been doing art projects and having music time, and she's even eating things she probably would've refused otherwise!  Yesterday, she had a turkey dog for lunch...with ketchup (which she called "the spicy sauce") and a bun too!!  She came home with an abrasion on her elbow too, her first school owie :(

I, on the otherhand, have no clue what to do with my free time.  I miss the girl, and wish she were home with me, but I know this time away is good for all of us.  I'm still looking forward to the day she happily walks through the classroom door.

Keira with her first princess doll.  She was allowed to get one toy for her trip up to the Bay Area this past weekend, and this is what she chose.

Girly girl is in the house!

first things first

our first Sunday paper.

Keira's first Easter basket, filled with Max & Ruby stuff and my dad's first visit since January 1st.

Keira's first Easter egg hunt where she actually understood the concept of hunting for eggs.

She is also wearing my first homemade two-tiered simple skirt.

And here she is wearing my first pair of homemade pants.

I showed my mom how to make continuous bias tape...it was her first time.  And I tried showing her how to do mitered corners too.

We also celebrated our nephew Jacob's 2nd birthday, at which I didn't take any pictures but thankfully my dad did.  And this was the first time Keira blew out birthday candles and wasn't afraid to.  Yes, we know it wasn't even her birthday.

Monday

for lack of a better title, I'm just going to give a run-through of what we've been up to.  I can't seem to blog more often than once a week, so for now this will have to do.

1. I took advantage of having some flexibility with my work schedule last week, and was able to go to a Kings game on Wednesday with Mike and Keira.

This was the first time that Keira wore her jersey and we bought ourselves the Kings' third jersey as well...at 40% off!  and to top off an awesome night, the Kings won and secured themselves a spot in the playoffs!

  2. Keira turned 26 months on Thursday and I completely forgot to take a picture of her before I went off to work.

thankfully, Mike took a bunch when he went to pick her up and sent me this picture.  All 3 cousins, bathed and in their pajamas...the sweetest picture I've ever seen.

3. On Saturday, Keira and I went to my friend Melissa's baby shower.

It was held at Back Home in Lahaina, where we dined on Chinese chicken salad, macaroni salad, bacon fried rice and hawaiian beef.  It was all so good!  Keira got to decorate her own onesie for a contest and helped write a special message for Baby Derek in his memory book.

One thing I forgot to do was take a picture of all the things I made for Melissa's gift.  I realized it on Sunday while at work, and I was so mad at myself for forgetting!

4. Mike (finally) took down Keira's crib this weekend.

I'm not even sure why we put it up when we moved into the new house.  She hasn't slept in a crib since she was 11 months old, and never took to it when we converted it into a toddler bed.  It took up so much space in her room that once it was gone, the ideas of a reading or play space started dancing in my head.

5. Mike got to go to another hockey game on Saturday...his second within the same week!

He had a VIP pass to go "behind the scenes"...I was so jealous!  The icing on the cake?  Mike is going to a playoff game too!!  He was able to get a pair of tickets for him and his coworker to watch the Kings play the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the NHL playoffs.  Lucky guy!!

7. Mike and I have been reading to Keira before bed each night, and tonight we heard Keira recite her own version of a few nursery rhymes.  My heart practically melted hearing her "read", I'm hoping that this turns into something she enjoys.

8.  I'm hoping to check out a possible preschool for Keira this week, since we're getting a sense that she may be ready for it.  She doesn't take as long to warm up to unfamiliar kids and will even leave our side to go play.  I really want her to expand her social horizons and get used to being around other kids.

9. My parents and brother are headed to town this weekend for a short visit.  I'm hoping to do something fun with them while they are here.

that's that!!

vacation is great

I am currently blogging from our cushy studio suite at the Westin Monache Resort in Mammoth Lakes, CA.  nevermind that I probably have to work an 8 hour shift to pay for it, we're on vacation so that's that.

let's rewind a little...

on Friday 2/25, Keira and I headed to Disneyland to meet up with my cousin Renita, her husband Marc and their two boys Brandon and Kyle.  They were in town for a mini vacay, so we jumped at the chance to see them.

They've never had the Disneyland turkey legs and corndogs, so I was more than happy to introduce them to it!

 
Brandon and Kyle inhaled their dogs, and Keira surprisingly ate half of hers.  We rode a few kid-friendly rides, waited out the rain under some Main Street awnings and did some shopping at the World of Disney before heading home for a dinner of pho and rice.

I had to work Saturday, and it was pretty busy.  By the time the afternoon rolled around, I was ready to get the heck out of there!  We planned on heading out on our road trip after I got off, so I was getting pretty antsy and irritable by the time 5pm rolled around.

We made a stop in Riverside to pick up keys for our friend's condo at Lake Las Vegas and then headed out on the highway towards Sin City.  Despite outfitting the truck with a DVD player and Kai Lan DVDs, Keira was getting antsy for a good portion of the drive.  She fell asleep at some point and we got into town around 1130pm.

We loved the condo we stayed at...just loved!!  It was so much more than what we expected, we thought about staying longer!!  We really didn't need to bring anything with us, because everything we needed was already there.

Sunday morning we headed to the Strip, where we had Sunday brunch at the Bellagio.  You can't go to Las Vegas and NOT eat at a buffet?!  Even Keira had her share of food!

 
 

after the Strip, we headed out to see our good friends, Teri and Reggie.  This would also be our first meeting of their newest love...Drake!!

 
I've forgotten what it's like to hold a newborn...so small compared to our little monster.  I had a few hours before dinner to whip out another sewing project...a hooter hider!

 
I found a tutorial online and sort of followed it.  I opted for a slightly wider one and pockets that went all across the bottom interior instead of just the corners.  It came together rather quickly, taking probably an hour in total for the whole thing.  Teri is gonna try her hand at making one herself and a Boppy pillow cover too.

We bid farewell to Las Vegas Monday morning, but not before having breakfast at BabyCakes Cafe. Teri and Reggie recommended it to us, and it happened to be on our way out of town.

 
BabyCakes is known for their red velvet pancakes, topped with fresh whipped cream and chocolate crumbles and cream cheese syrup on the side.  I ordered the short stack (3 pancakes) and inhaled 80% of it in less than 10 minutes.  The last 20% was a struggle, but I did it.  I guess you can say it was that good.  Mike got the Spam Scramble, which was a bit on the skimpy side.  We got the chicken tenders with fries for Keira.  Overall, we liked the place and would recommend it to others.

From there, it was a long 5.5 hour trip to Mammoth Lakes, going through lots of dessert, windy roads, chilly weather, snowy backdrops and few cars.  I counted a total of 10 cars on the 266 -> 168 -> 395, one of which blew passed us and later got stopped by the highway patrol :).  Too bad for him.

Keira slept about 3 hours of the 5.5 hour drive and watched Princess Kai-Lan at least 3 times.  She did much better on this leg of the trip.

some random pictures along the way:

 
 
crossing back into CA.

 
Mike wanted a picture of his truck in the snow.

 
 one lane highway going through a pass.

 
fresh powder farther than the eye can see.

 
keeping warm next to the outdoor fire pit across the street from the hotel.

another random: our car keys were locked IN the car by the valet when we got here.  Thank goodness for AAA, who came quickly (less than 20 minutes?) to slim jim our door and let us in.

We are hoping to make the most of our stay here in Mammoth.  We plan on just being here overnight, long enough for Keira to get her first taste of a snowball fight before she becomes a frozen popsicle.

twas a jolly good time

 
Christmas came around pretty quick this year.  It seemed like as soon as Thanksgiving was over, Christmas waiting right around the corner.

We spent Christmas Eve with Mike's family.  I was pretty excited about the gifts I got for the kids, because I thought it would make for a good photo op.  We don't have all 6 grandkids together very often, so this was a nice time.

 
in birth order: Ashley (9), Nicole (7), Matthew (2y 3m), Keira (22m), Jacob (20m) and Tyler (8m).

all the girls have snowgirls and all the boys have snowmen on their shirts, and I had their names put on each one.  I ordered them online and am pretty happy with the quality.  I bought at least a size larger than what the kids are wearing now, so that they can wear them for a bit.

some other favorites from C. Eve:

 
 
 

Christmas Day was spent at home, and we opened gifts with my mom, dad and brother.

 
Keira most definitely understood the whole concept of opening presents.  We handed her one at a time, and she would look for a seam and start ripping.  Each gift got bigger in size and she would say, "this one is BIG!!"

 
this year, we had a bit of a theme going for Keira's Christmas gifts....Ni Hao Kai Lan.  She's pretty much a superfan, so we looked high and low for whatever Kai Lan stuff we could find.  She scored a Kai Lan DVD and doll from my parents, the whole set of Kai Lan Beanie Babies from my brother, clothes, another doll and the mother of all Kai Lan toys from Mike and I:

  
a Kai Lan tricycle!!  Mike was in a little bidding war to get this and he won!!  and because this is our kid, we had to make sure she wore a helmet too :) 

my extended family came over later in the day for dinner, along with Mike's family and a few of my brother's friends.  It was another record number of people for our house, I sort of lost count.  We had turkey and prime rib, salad, grilled veggies, satay chicken, eggrolls, chinese sticky rice, hot links and dessert (red velvet cake, chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies).

Mike bought us a pretty cool family gift...an XBox Kinect.  I had a suspicion that he got it, but he hardly plays his XBox so I figured why waste money on it.  But it turned out to be really fun, and we played with it a bit after everyone left last night.

so that's that.  My dad flies back home tonight to work a few days and then flies back into town Thursday night to spend New Year's with us.  My mom and brother are both off, so they'll be hanging around for the week.

2011, here we come!!

gobble gobble

I didn't take a single picture on Thanksgiving Day.  Well, actually I did, but none of the actual festivities.  My memory card was full, and I was too lazy to unload it for more room.  what I did manage to take a few pictures of was this:

Mike inherited the family boat this weekend.  My dad was thisclose to selling it, but Mike opened his mouth and said he would take it off my dad's hands.  My mom was more than happy to oblige and now Ryan has a space to park his car in the garage.

you should've seen my dad instructing Mike and Mike trying to back that thang up (haha) into the driveway.  My brother could be heard yelling at my dad to hush up and let Mike try it on his own.  ah, gotta love when the family is in town :)

Mike claims this is a "starter" boat for him.  yea, we'll see about that one.

anyone wanna be her Gilligan?

as for Turkey Day dinner, Mike and I donned our matching chef jackets and got down and dirty.  well, actually just Mike did, I didn't really do much at all.

rather than spend $80 on peanut oil to deep fry a turkey, Mike spent $70 on a new fandangled infrared cooker.  no oil = way healthier.  the bird turned out pretty nice, juicy and not blackened to a crisp like years before.

there was prime rib too (from Costco) and that came out good as well.  Mike pretty much was the master chef that day, I'm so lucky I married him :)

He made stuffing and gravy, while the vegetables, mashed potatoes, and ham were made by the rest of his family.  My mom prepared appetizers and chiffon cake too.  We had a pumpkin pie and our Julian apple pie for dessert...can't forget the ice cream too!

I love that I was able to put a cute Thanksgiving-ish dress on Keira.  the shoes are from a recent trip that my mom took to Hong Kong.  she even left that clip in her hair the whole night.

(before I forget, most of these pictures were taken by my dad.  I would feel a lot worse about not taking pictures if I didn't have my dad around.)

I was hoping to get a Christmas-card-worthy picture from the weekend, but it didn't work out.  The one moment my dad had to take some for us, the sun was setting and neither Mike nor I were picture ready.  We both looked a hot mess.  so it looks like it might just be one of Keira this year...she is the only one that matters right?

he did get this really cute one of the 3 toddlers.  Matthew was Mr. Cool, Jacob was Mr. Old Man and Keira was Miss Mommy.

so that was Turkey Day in our household.  We're gearing up for holiday parties next...this Saturday with my pharmacy school friends and then Christmas Day with the extended Ko clan.  it's a good thing I don't mind too much trying to keep this house clean :)

weekend getaway to San Diego

since I was on vacation last week, I had hoped to be able to go to Vegas for a few days.  But with Mike busy at work with a project deadline, we couldn't really make plans.

but then I saw that Michelle was going to be at a handmade craft market in Del Mar (San Diego area) and the light bulb went on.  Why not go to San Diego for the weekend instead?!

So in a matter of minutes, I got the okay from Mike, booked a hotel room, bought tickets for Sea World and started packing!  and lucky for us, Michelle decided to stay at the hotel too...along with her hubby and kids!

We packed up the car as soon as Mike got home from work (and Keira woke up from her 2 hour nap), and got to the hotel after a 1.5 hour drive.  We hit commute traffic on the way down, and ended up at the wrong hotel initially because I didn't put the right one into the GPS.  oops!  We found Michelle and her family and headed out for a late dinner at Milton's.  Keira slept pretty good the first night...she fell asleep later than usual at 10:30, but didn't wake up until the next morning.  love it!

We had a quick breakfast at McDonald's the next morning and headed back to the hotel so I could shop a bit at the market.  I managed to find myself a few cute handmade things, but since Keira was getting antsy, my shopping time was cut a bit short.  we said goodbye to Michelle and made our way to Sea World.

It has been more than 10 years since I was last at Sea World, and Mike's never been.  So it was a first time visit for both him and Keira.  We decided to go see the Shamu show first.

Keira could be heard oohing and aahing at the things going on, but would get scared when the whales swam by.  Keep in mind the whales were nowhere near her, but I'm assuming they just seemed huge in her eyes.  She did learn to say Shamu though!

I was pretty excited to learn that there was Sesame Street Bay of Play, since Keira still likes Elmo.  There were a few rides, which Keira could go on as long as one of us went with her.

First stop, Elmo's Flying Fish!

I took Keira first, and she was pretty excited to be sitting inside the Elmo car.  But as soon as the ride got started, she held on to my arm tighter than I've ever felt before.  Once the ride stopped, all she could talk about was how she was flying with Elmo.  Mike took her on it again later on, and it was more of the same.

we took her on Abby's Sea Star Spin next, which is like the Spinning Tea Cups at Disneyland.  I don't always do well on rides like this, so I admit I was nervous.  I had to warn Mike NOT to spin it while we were on (yes, I know I'm a party pooper).

I think she might've like this one a little bit more.

how tall is our girl?

just about 34 inches!! (each line was an increment of 3 inches).

We saw another show, Blue Horizons, in between our visits to the Bay of Play, and saw a few exhibits as well.  I think we were all getting tired and had our fix of Sea World for the day.

but not before sharing a Shamu ice cream :)

before heading back to the hotel, we went in search of Lucha Libre Taco Shop to try the highly recommended Surfin' California burrito.  My brother said that this burrito was featured on Man Vs Food. 

you'll have to check out the ingredients for yourself.  it was mighty good!

on Sunday, we decided to head out to Julian CA to check out their apple pies.  I heard way back when during one of my rotations that Julian is known for their apple pies.  Lucky for us this past weekend was the last one of their Apple Days Festival, so we made the 1.25 hour windy road drive out there.

I didn't take any pictures of us in town, but had to get one of our breakfast for the day:

an apple dumpling, with a side of vanilla ice cream.  Mike and I ate the whole thing, Keira didn't want a single bite!

We brought home a frozen apple pie to enjoy for Thanksgiving dinner next week, and a gallon of raw apple cider.  I've never had hot apple cider before, but after our trip to Julian, I'm now a believer!

on our way home from Julian, we stopped in Escondido to see my BFF Jeanine and her family.  I wish I had taken pictures while we were there.  They have a new house on a HUGE piece of land, and while we waited for them to get home from church, Keira and I took advantage of their playground and outdoor trampoline.  We enjoyed a lunch of KFC, chatted for a bit while the kids ran around (Keira included) and bid them farewell so we could get home early enough to wind down.

as nice as it was to get away for a few days, it was nice to be home.  now its back to reality...and work!