A Little Trip Down South

Rick, Emi-chan, Grandma and Grandpa, and I flew down to LA-LA Land for Mi-chan's belated birthday and dedication. Most of our friends (the So clan, Nate and Selena, and Vince) also joined the us down there.

We stayed at the Radisson, which was CRAZY busy because of a body builder's convention and the cable show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was being filmed there, and something else was going on there. I would have been more impressed if it wasn't so STINKING CRAZY trying to get into the FREAKING hotel!!! But once we got in, it was alright.


The next day, the ladies took Yumiko out for a quick brunch and left the kids with the dads and the single men. I think they had fun :) The ladies went out to a eatery called the M Cafe. It was a macrobiotic cafe. Everything was healthy, mostly vegetarian, only fish and fake meat. The men would have starved to death there. The place was very light, airy and the food was good (more on the food blog). Most of all, the mommies were glad to have a little break from the kids and hubbies.

Isn't macrobiotic food wonderful?

After we went back to the hotel for refreshing and a nap, we all went to King's Hawaiian Bakery and Restaurant to make-up for the healthy choices the ladies made earlier in the day. We were able to get into a little room for the 15 (or was it 18) of us. We gorged on good, stick to your ribs food. Carbs and protein rule!

Macadamia Chicken Bowl

Then, we had guava cake to celebrate Mi-chan's birthday. She was a trooper.

On the other hand, Emi-chan was not.

Emi-chan was much better once she found Uncle Vince's earphones and iPod.

Ted and Mi-chan (I think Ted's
ready for another nap)

The next day, we went to Ted and Yumiko's church to see Mi-chan dedicated to the LORD. It was a sweet service. I had to watch most of it from the cry room upstairs because Emi-chan spent the service, well, crying. Actually, she didn't cry much in the beginning. She spent most of it singing songs from Sesame Street and the Totoro movie. She cried when she whacked her head against the pew. I left with her when people began to give us the stink-eye.

After the service, we went out to lunch at the Soup Plantation (like a Fresh Choice).

Emi-chan hanging with Uncle Craig

At least most of us did. Rick, his parents, Vince, and Julie ate at an outdoor cafe because Grandpa couldn't make the walk to the restaurant :( After lunch, the friends left to go back North, and we headed back to the hotel to rest up. In the evening, we spent time with Ted, Yumiko, and Mi-chan. We left for the North the next day. It was sad we couldn't see them again in the morning.

It was a busy, hectic trip, but we wouldn't have missed seeing Mi-chan for the world. And, oh yeah, it was good to see Ted and Yumiko, too.

Last Day of Summer School

Last week...or was it the week before?...I can't remember...was Emi-chan's last day at summer school. It was a 3 week program, two times a day, 2 1/2 hours a day. It was at the school she went for the Parent-And-Me class. It was a lot of work (it's a parent co-op school), but loads of fun.

Emi-chan cried A LOT when she couldn't find me at school. Plus, she couldn't foloow most of the directions, like sit down during circle time, share, etc, but on the last day, she had no problem. Of course, she would finally get the rules on the last day. Oh well. Maybe she'll remember some when school starts again.

Usually, Emi-chan hates making craft items, but she actually made a few items:

An ocean of stickers


A whale
(The original version looked like a whale.
Emi-chan's doesn't)

A fish
Kind of reminds me of
The Simpsons fish

The three weeks went by really fast, although both Emi-chan and I were exhausted on the days we went. I'm actually looking forward to the school year (we'll see how long that lasts).

Happy Fourth of July!

...two days late. We had a good time. The family went down to Monterey to help out a friend and hang out. It turned out that we were pretty late to help out with some manual labor (darn!). We redeemed ourselves by making an offering of food stuffs. The rest of time, we hung out, played with the kids, ate, and goofed off.

Emi-chan and Rick had fun playing dress up with Uncle Vince's "pimp" hats.


Right before we left, Rock Band was brought out and Rick and the boys had a blast playing a few songs on the game.

Notice, Nathan is the only one cleaning up. Everyone else is playing Rock Band, or lazing around. Good man, Nathan.