Super quick trip to Utah to see this little guy.
All three aunties, fighting over who rocks the most;)
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Blink, and You'll Miss It
Saturday, February 9, 2013
I Love Joe.....and Golf;)
For Valentine's weekend next week, we are going to be in Utah to see my new nephew - so we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day this weekend.
Guess where we went?!!!
Seriously, is there anything more romantic?;) Check out the view.
We were very lucky, because the sponsors of the tournament had invited military members and their families to attend the event for free this year. They had a huge tent set up right on the 15th green. We actually did not spend any time in the tent though. We got there later in the afternoon, and as we were walking past the 16th tee, we saw BILL MURRAY! I snapped a picture of him, even though they said no pictures;) - he's on the left with his caddy.
We watched him play through that hole, and then followed him over to the 17th. He walked past us, just 20 feet away from us, but I didn't dare take another picture then, because we were surrounded by officials tellings us "no pictures". Oh well. Bill is sporting quite the mutton chops these days - kind of like it:) He was really playing to the crowd, and having fun. He threw a bunch of hats to people, and even pulled some of the spectators onto the fairway to walk down to the green with him. On the 17th, he hit the ball into the sand on his second shot, then on his third shot he hit it right back to the same place he'd hit it from on the second. But on his 4th shot he chipped it right into the hole (for a bogey)....and celebrated with some pretend six-shooters, and some hip thrusts. We didn't stay with him to the 18th hole because it was sooooo crowded.....and I'm short.....and I can't see over the heads of people. After that, we walked over to the military tent, but they were closing things up by that time. They still gave us drinks and hats, and invited us back tomorrow (too bad we have church).
Most of the time we were there, we were just walking, walking, walking, but it was still so fun, and a dream come true for me......and Joe, right honey? Happy Valentine's Day - I love you!
Guess where we went?!!!
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Our San Francisco Treat
We decided (on a whim, like we always do) to go see if San Francisco has better things to offer than Rice-A-Roni;)
We really liked all the shops down at Fisherman's Wharf - it made us nostalgic for Korea. In fact, we even bought some souveneirs at a shop owned by Koreans, and Joe got to practice his Korean a little.
We liked this guy, who created this painting with nothing but spray paint, cardboard, and a scraper-thingy, all in about 10 minutes start to finish. It was pretty impressive. Alex was especially fascinated, and made sure we stayed to watch the whole thing.
Friday, February 1, 2013
If I wasn't Laughing, I'd Cry
So Joe and I just got back from date-night, and the WORST food we've ever had the privelege of eating at a restaurant. I felt like I had to capture the experience in a blog post, so we can laugh about it forever;)
Right before we went there, I said something like, "In order to find new yummy restaurants, you have to be willing to eat at crappy restaurants." Sure, it's safer to just go to restaurants that have really good reputations/lot of good reviews, but that's not very adventurous. And Joe and I have found a lot of places that we LOVE just by driving around and randomly trying places we see - places that nobody else seems to know about, so we never would have found them otherwise. But this does involve a lot of risk, because you never know what you're going to get, and sometimes you come away feeling less than satisfied.
Tonight, the risk did not pay off.
Oh my goodness, I don't even know where to begin.
We chose a little Italian place, established in 1957. You'd think that if a place had survived that long, then they must have decent food....but you'd be wrong.
As soon as we walked in, we both second guessed our decision. The place smelled more like a nursing home than it did Italian food. Oh why didn't we leave?!!!
But when we sat down, they were serving other people food, and it actually did smell good as it was passing us, so that made us regain hope.
We ordered some cheesy garlic bread to start our meal, and I was scared when they brought it out. It was actually cheap hoagie buns (I kid you not - I should have taken a picture), cut in half, with cheap mozzarella melted on top, sprinkled with dried parsley (I assume there was a little bit of garlic powder sprinkled on top too, but I couldn't taste it).
For the main course we ordered two entrees to share.
First up was Chicken Parmigiana, which consisted of a very thin, dry, breaded cut of chicken, which I'm sure was previously frozen, and barely resembled chicken to begin with, along with cheap spaghetti noodles toped with what Joe is sure was canned marinara sauce.
Second was another pasta dish with Italian sausage, peppers, and mushrooms in another marinara sauce. The marinara sauce was different on this one. I'm sure it was cooked down with some kind of wine, and lots of olive oil. It was.....interesting. But the sausage was cheap and gritty, and the pasta was a combination of cheap spiral noodles and cheap shell noodles (what the?). It was just weird.
The combination of these two did not leave a pleasant aftertaste. Ugh.
And the cost. Good grief. This must be the secret to their "success" and why they've managed to stay in business since 1957 - they are making BANK! Pretty sure they're shopping at Walmart, but charging enough to fly to Italy every week and buy fresh ingredients.
We didn't eat much of our food, and when they asked us if we wanted a to-go box we almost laughed.
We joked about sueing them, just for the price of our dinner, and we'd even give them the food back, in whatever form it was expelled from our bodies;)
But really, we are not the type of people to demand our money back for yucky food, or to make a big scene about it either. The service was very good, and everyone was very friendly. There might even be people who like their food, and come back for more (bless their little hearts). So the whole time I was praying that nobody would ask me how the food was, because I didn't know what I would say.
The only thing I can compare it to was when my friend Kimberly and I ordered bibimbap (simple Korean dish with rice and veggies), and it came with muscles and fish eggs in it. Oh. My. Heck. Even though I had previously found us some amazing restaurants, I don't think she trusted me after that;)
Ahhhhh, memories:)
Anybody else have a horrible food story they'd like to share?
Right before we went there, I said something like, "In order to find new yummy restaurants, you have to be willing to eat at crappy restaurants." Sure, it's safer to just go to restaurants that have really good reputations/lot of good reviews, but that's not very adventurous. And Joe and I have found a lot of places that we LOVE just by driving around and randomly trying places we see - places that nobody else seems to know about, so we never would have found them otherwise. But this does involve a lot of risk, because you never know what you're going to get, and sometimes you come away feeling less than satisfied.
Tonight, the risk did not pay off.
Oh my goodness, I don't even know where to begin.
We chose a little Italian place, established in 1957. You'd think that if a place had survived that long, then they must have decent food....but you'd be wrong.
As soon as we walked in, we both second guessed our decision. The place smelled more like a nursing home than it did Italian food. Oh why didn't we leave?!!!
But when we sat down, they were serving other people food, and it actually did smell good as it was passing us, so that made us regain hope.
We ordered some cheesy garlic bread to start our meal, and I was scared when they brought it out. It was actually cheap hoagie buns (I kid you not - I should have taken a picture), cut in half, with cheap mozzarella melted on top, sprinkled with dried parsley (I assume there was a little bit of garlic powder sprinkled on top too, but I couldn't taste it).
For the main course we ordered two entrees to share.
First up was Chicken Parmigiana, which consisted of a very thin, dry, breaded cut of chicken, which I'm sure was previously frozen, and barely resembled chicken to begin with, along with cheap spaghetti noodles toped with what Joe is sure was canned marinara sauce.
Second was another pasta dish with Italian sausage, peppers, and mushrooms in another marinara sauce. The marinara sauce was different on this one. I'm sure it was cooked down with some kind of wine, and lots of olive oil. It was.....interesting. But the sausage was cheap and gritty, and the pasta was a combination of cheap spiral noodles and cheap shell noodles (what the?). It was just weird.
The combination of these two did not leave a pleasant aftertaste. Ugh.
And the cost. Good grief. This must be the secret to their "success" and why they've managed to stay in business since 1957 - they are making BANK! Pretty sure they're shopping at Walmart, but charging enough to fly to Italy every week and buy fresh ingredients.
We didn't eat much of our food, and when they asked us if we wanted a to-go box we almost laughed.
We joked about sueing them, just for the price of our dinner, and we'd even give them the food back, in whatever form it was expelled from our bodies;)
But really, we are not the type of people to demand our money back for yucky food, or to make a big scene about it either. The service was very good, and everyone was very friendly. There might even be people who like their food, and come back for more (bless their little hearts). So the whole time I was praying that nobody would ask me how the food was, because I didn't know what I would say.
The only thing I can compare it to was when my friend Kimberly and I ordered bibimbap (simple Korean dish with rice and veggies), and it came with muscles and fish eggs in it. Oh. My. Heck. Even though I had previously found us some amazing restaurants, I don't think she trusted me after that;)
Ahhhhh, memories:)
Anybody else have a horrible food story they'd like to share?
Friday, January 25, 2013
Seaside Success
After our hiking experience, we felt like we needed a more successful family outing for our long weekend, and we knew we couldn't go wrong with a simple trip to the beach:) So on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we headed over to Salinas River State Beach. We'd never been to this beach before, but I heard that you could find sand dollars there, so I was excited. Of course, all the kids really care about is playing in the sand;)
Alex, who has spent the majority of his life in Korea, is converted to the idea that you use an umbrella to shade yourself from the sun, so he brought his spiderman umbrella with us. Joe and I borrowed it for a bit;)
The first thing we found at the beach, was that it was covered with the remains of crabs.....just the remains, no live crabs for dinner:(
And I found some sand dollars:) Some of them had other shells attached to them. Weird.
Oh wait! I'm going to add a short video. If it's been a while since you heard the waves of the ocean rolling in, then you might enjoy this. Sorry I can't add the smell;)
Everyone was happy:)
The End.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Our Pheiffer Phailure
Remember a couple of months ago when we went to Pheiffer Big Sur State Park to hike up to the waterfall, but we couldn't because we had taken Bo with us, and dogs aren't allowed on the trails? Well, we decided to give it another try, this time sans the dog.
Can you say DRAMA? Can you say FRUSTRATING? Can you say PAINFUL?
You know, we've done a lot of hiking with our kids, and WAY tougher hikes than this one. Sure, there's been complaining before, but I would never say that any of our hikes had been a failure.....until now.
Sooooo much whining. "I'm tired." "I'm thirsty." "I'm hungry." "I want to go back to the car." "I want to go home." "My legs are burning." "My legs are going to fall off." "I can't find a walking stick." "I want to be carried." "This is a waste of my time." "This is the worst day of my life." ALL the way to the waterfall, and ALL the way back.
And one of the kids, who shall remain nameless, literally burst into tears at the sight of the waterfall, completely inconsolable, because it wasn't as majestic as he/she had imagined it was going to be.
Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!
Joe and I tried our darndest. We told them to breath deep. We told them to look up from the dirt trail in front of them, and enjoy the view around them. We took things slow, and stopped for rests. We talked about how cool the Redwood trees were. We showed them where some of them had been damaged by fire, but were still able to survive. We pointed out some saplings and told them that even though the Redwoods put off millions of seeds every year, very few of them survive. We pointed out erosion, and birds, and moss, and mushrooms, and fallen trees, etc. We gave encouragement, held hands, gave hugs and kisses, talked about the rewards of hard work and doing things that are hard/challenging, we talked about what a unique opportunity this was, and how beautiful the earth that God created for us is, and how that shows his love for us, and how grateful we should be, etc.
But there was no stopping the drama.
At times, we were not so paitent. There's only so much complaining you can handle on a measly 1.4 mile roundtrip hike. I may or may not have called my kids sissies.....in the most loving way possible, of course.
At the very end of the hike, Joe joked that we were going to turn around and hike back to the waterfall again. He almost had a riot on his hands. Too bad we couldn't have left the kids in the car and hiked back up it ourselves. But I assume that since the park rangers won't let you leave your dog in your car unattended, they wouldn't have been too happy about us leaving our kids either.
Funny enough, the ride home was quite pleasant. We talked, and joked, and enjoyed the view, and nobody got car sick. It was the vacation after the vacation, so to speak;)
But even a few days later, and the kids are still describing the hike as "horrifying". Did I already say drama? Whatever.
I don't know if any of the kids will get any joy out of the pictures that I took, but maybe you can;) They're nice, and everybody's smiling for the most part. You'd never know from the pictures.
Can you say DRAMA? Can you say FRUSTRATING? Can you say PAINFUL?
You know, we've done a lot of hiking with our kids, and WAY tougher hikes than this one. Sure, there's been complaining before, but I would never say that any of our hikes had been a failure.....until now.
Sooooo much whining. "I'm tired." "I'm thirsty." "I'm hungry." "I want to go back to the car." "I want to go home." "My legs are burning." "My legs are going to fall off." "I can't find a walking stick." "I want to be carried." "This is a waste of my time." "This is the worst day of my life." ALL the way to the waterfall, and ALL the way back.
And one of the kids, who shall remain nameless, literally burst into tears at the sight of the waterfall, completely inconsolable, because it wasn't as majestic as he/she had imagined it was going to be.
Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!
Joe and I tried our darndest. We told them to breath deep. We told them to look up from the dirt trail in front of them, and enjoy the view around them. We took things slow, and stopped for rests. We talked about how cool the Redwood trees were. We showed them where some of them had been damaged by fire, but were still able to survive. We pointed out some saplings and told them that even though the Redwoods put off millions of seeds every year, very few of them survive. We pointed out erosion, and birds, and moss, and mushrooms, and fallen trees, etc. We gave encouragement, held hands, gave hugs and kisses, talked about the rewards of hard work and doing things that are hard/challenging, we talked about what a unique opportunity this was, and how beautiful the earth that God created for us is, and how that shows his love for us, and how grateful we should be, etc.
But there was no stopping the drama.
At times, we were not so paitent. There's only so much complaining you can handle on a measly 1.4 mile roundtrip hike. I may or may not have called my kids sissies.....in the most loving way possible, of course.
At the very end of the hike, Joe joked that we were going to turn around and hike back to the waterfall again. He almost had a riot on his hands. Too bad we couldn't have left the kids in the car and hiked back up it ourselves. But I assume that since the park rangers won't let you leave your dog in your car unattended, they wouldn't have been too happy about us leaving our kids either.
Funny enough, the ride home was quite pleasant. We talked, and joked, and enjoyed the view, and nobody got car sick. It was the vacation after the vacation, so to speak;)
But even a few days later, and the kids are still describing the hike as "horrifying". Did I already say drama? Whatever.
I don't know if any of the kids will get any joy out of the pictures that I took, but maybe you can;) They're nice, and everybody's smiling for the most part. You'd never know from the pictures.
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