Browse Category: outta here

Christmas Break 2016

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Christmas Break has come and gone but we had such a nice time with the family. On Christmas morning, Jes went over to Jason and Jia’s to start the roast. They used a blowtorch to brown the outside (as recommended by Thomas Keller himself) and the twins had a front row seat to all the action.

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Then the grandparents came over and the kids had fun playing with them.

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Jes made his tasty standing rib roast complete with all the fixings. These are the Yorkshire pudding pop-overs. Yum.

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We also managed to get a family photo with everyone looking at the camera!! Too bad Peanut smudged the lens and I didn’t bother to check until AFTER the photo was taken. Oh well.

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The rest of the week was spent just hanging out with the family.

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KK and Alice got lots of play time together. They can play for hours now with hardly any tears.

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KK spent an afternoon with Jes’ parents while Peanut napped and had fun catching fish and baking cookies.

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Peanut got a bunch of new outfits for Christmas including this handsome ensemble.

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KK also went out to breakfast with my parents on her own while Mama and Peanut slept in.

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One evening, we had dinner with my side of the family.  I love these traditions. It always starts with a Thai feat and ends with a frenzy of presents for the kids.

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One morning, I wasn’t feeling well and the house didn’t have electricity so the kids went out for a walk at the mall while I slept.  It’s so nice to have family around to help.

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We got to take KK to see Moana while Peanut went to a party with my mom and dad. Parts of the movie were funny and others were so scary they made her cry. Fortunately, she was able to stay in the theater the whole time. It’s an improvement from her first movie (Finding Dory) when she actually had to walk out of the theater and come back in with a lot of coaxing.

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We also took KK and Peanut to Knott’s Berry Farm for the first time. Unfortunately, it was extra crowded that day and the lines were horribly long.

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We did, however, got some photos with Snoopy – even Santa Snoopy!!

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On our last day, we had a full day to spend with the family before driving through the night.

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These funny kids loved the dry ice that comes out of the mixers at Creamistry.

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Here’s our annual family photo. Can’t wait to add Brother’s new baby girl to the photo next time!!

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As usual, we got a photo of the kids with the grandparents in front of my childhood home.

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Before heading out, we had dinner with Jes’ family. We got a cute photo of the kids with their Uncle Jason. So sweet.

The drive back was pretty quick. We left at about 7:30pm and the kids passed out right away. The only scary part was thick fog that we encountered mid-way through the drive. The visibility was poor and we had to drive 40 mph for a good 8-mile stretch. Luckily, it didn’t last the whole way and we were home by 1:40am. Not too shabby.

Disneyland 2016

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We went to Disneyland again on Christmas Eve!

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I’d have to say that Peanut had the most fun out of all of us. He loves music and everywhere you go in the park there’s something to dance or clap along to.

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We had some really nice weather complete with blue skies and puffy white clouds.

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On this year’s trip, Jes and I got some bits of alone time too. While the kids watched the parade, we used our Fast Passes and went on Indiana Jones and went up the treehouse too. Check out the view from the top!

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KK loves the rocket ship ride and we managed to squish all three of us in one rocket.

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Here’s the view from the ride.

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Disneyland at night is already pretty magical but it’s even more so during Christmas time. This is Sleeping Beauty’s Castle (above) and It’s a Small World (below).

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At about 8:30 pm, the kids were asleep and my parents were tired. So, we drove them back home, tucked the kids in, and then went back to the park for another two hours to ourselves. We rode all the fast rides and got to walk around without a baby bag or stroller. Ah…I felt so light!

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It was a nice way to end the day at the Merriest Place on Earth.

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Oh and I also got a churro on our way out and I didn’t have to share it with anyone. Yesh!!!

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Oahu 2016

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Ah…Hawaii…this year’s trip was just days after Thanksgiving. The flight went as well as it could with a squirmy 15-month-old without his own seat.

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He took two naps and played in the aisle after the meal service was over.

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We hung out with Yoon and the family a lot more this time around. On our first night, they met up with us for dinner so we could borrow their pack-n-play and other essentials.

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I just love staying at the Sheraton Waikiki. It makes those early-morning wake-up calls from the kids so much more bearable. Just look at that sunrise!!!

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The Tsaos were on the same exact trip this time around – including same flights and same hotel. The girls had such a great time together.

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This little guy had the time of his life too. He love the pool, the sand, and even the ocean!

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These two are my favorites from the trip. The top one will definitely be Christmas-card worthy. The bottom one is gonna get blown up and put up on the wall at home.

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On one of the days, we visited Aulani and the lagoon/beach that is open to the public.

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We found the Stitch statue and the kids had fun wandering the grounds.

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For lunch, we ate at the resort and Janie’s kid’s meal came with an ice cream sundae with Mickey Mouse sprinkles!!

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We spent a lot of time at our own pool and caught some really sunny days along with a few passing rain clouds too.

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During this trip, KK conquered her fear of putting her face underwater. By the end of the trip, she was floating around with her ears submerged and playing in the shallow pool without her floaties.

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Speaking of poolside, it was nice to have an old friend to hang out with while the kids napped. We had our fair share of mai tais and other rummy drinks.

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This one was a diy drink compliments of Ranee. It was our last day at the pool and SOMEONE had to help her finish off the rum they had bought at the store.

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Here’s another one of my Mai Tai photos along the way. It included a watermelon-grubbin’ cherub in the background.

IMG_9187We discovered a new pork joint next to Leonard’s. It’s called Kono’s. Their original one is on North Shore and they recently opened one in Waikiki. Jes said it was the best pork sandwich he’s had in a long time.

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The kids ate well on this trip too. Peanut and I went to Marukame Udon three mornings that week to pick up breakfast.

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KK LOVED the Spam musubi and finally started eating the whole thing. In past trips, she would eat the Spam and hand back the rice and seaweed. This time, she would wake up and ask “can I have sushi for breakfast?”

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The girls also had plenty of Baskin-Robbins this week. There’s a store in the hotel and it was the perfect treat for new accomplishments at the pool and in the ocean.

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On our last night in Hawaii, we went on a trolley ride through downtown to see the City Lights.

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It was a fun ride through town with Christmas music blasting along the way.

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I also bought these outfits for the kids at the ABC Store. I couldn’t resist.

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We had another fun vacation at our Hawaii House and it’s always sad to say “see you later”.

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As usual, we said “aloha” to Yoon and Kurt on our way to the airport. We did our drive-by at their office to drop off their stuff and give one last hug.

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I’m so happy that we were able to continue our annual trip to Hawaii and we made some more memories as a family. This is what keeps me going to work every day.

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P.S. Hawaiian Airlines has a new line of cocktails and this one is pretty dope.

P.S.S. Peanut got compliments on our flight home. WIN!!

Los Cabos, Mexico

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We spent 4 nights in Los Cabos this past weekend and it was so much fun. It’s not Hawaii but it was still a great trip for us. We flew out on 8/31 and returned on 9/4 with Labor Day free to unpack and unwind.

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We flew free on Jes’ United miles and stayed free with our SPG points.

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We stayed at the Sheraton Grand Hacienda del Mar, which is a HUGE property with 5 pools. KK literally swam in a different pool each day.

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I also booked a round-trip transfer ahead of time that included carseats for both kids! Score!

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Unfortunately, Peanut had a hard time on the flight over. It wasn’t horrible but the 20 minutes of waiting before the take-off was pretty painful. He cried and carried on until we were off the ground and luckily for us (and everyone around us), he fell asleep. Ugh…boys are crazy.

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The weather was warm and humid, which was nice when we were in the pool but a little uncomfortable sometimes because there wasn’t much of an ocean breeze during the day. The property was right on the beach so most of the pools had a really nice view of the ocean.

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I just drank margaritas the whole time and the servers were very efficient in taking our orders at the different pools.

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Our room had a view of the ocean and a patio to hang dry out swim suits each night. The room also had enough space for the four of us and the A/C worked really well. It was perfect for our mid-day siestas each day.

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Speaking of siestas, I actually got to take a nap on two of the days.

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While everyone was asleep and/or playing with the iPad (KK didn’t nap much), I was also able to read a magazine that another passenger on the plane gave me, sip some wine, and snack on Cheetos. So nice.

There were only two inconveniences on this trip: 1) the fridge was not very cold so we used bags of ice to help keep all the milk cold (worked out well!) and 2) there were these pesky little black bugs that were tiny and gave us bug bites in the evenings.

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Otherwise, the food was decent, the staff was really friendly, and it was SUPER empty! When they said it was low season, we had no idea how empty it would be. They also had golf carts that could take you from place to place if you wanted.

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We went to the buffet for breakfast each morning and I stocked up on beans, rice, and fruit for the baby so that he’d have lunch for the day. They also served soy milk so that Peanut could have some milk after I ran out of his lactose-free milk. (Don’t know if he’s allergic but I took dairy out of his diet for a bit to treat his eczema). The best part of the buffet was that unlimited champagne/mimosas and bloody marys was included!!

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The beach was gorgeous and very empty. Not only was it low season but they had black-flag warnings posted to not swim in the ocean because the conditions were too dangerous.

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Oh well, at least the kids were still able to play in the sand and KK found a water spout for her sand castles.

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What a fun family trip! As expected, it wasn’t as relaxing as a typical vacation without kids but it was good enough.

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Family Time in Cerritos

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We flew to Cerritos for a long weekend to spend time with the family and to get our taxes done.

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Peanut was up early every morning and luckily there was a Starbucks and donut shop that we can walk to.

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It was nice seeing Jason, Jia, and the twins again. We’ve missed them so much since they moved.

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We also went to Brother and Joy’s new house. The kids broke in their newly renovated livingroom with lots of noise and drool.

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The girls had so much fun together that we left KK there to spend the night. She ended up asking for me in the middle of the night and Brother slept in the room with her that night while Alice went to sleep with Joy.

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On one of the mornings, I went to the Farmers Market to pick up hula popcorn for KK. Yummy.

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On Saturday, we threw a small birthday lunch with just the family at Sweetee Thai where she got her own fresh coconut and her favorite Tom Kha soup.

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After her birthday lunch, some of us took a walk to the park. It took us across the 605 freeway, which was pretty cool (and a little scary).

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On Sunday night, KK had another birthday celebration and we got a rare family photo together.

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The kids had a fun time in Southern California and luckily they’re good travelers.

Back to Tahoe

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With so many dry years, we just had to get up to Tahoe once this season to see the snow. Unfortunately with two small children in tow, we didn’t make plans to do any skiing/snowboarding. Instead, we booked a suite at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel through the HotelTonight app for $139 and headed up on Saturday morning for a 24-hour turn-around trip. The drive was easy and took about 3.5 hours not counting a stop at McDonald’s and a gas station. When we drove on Hwy 50, there wasn’t much snow. However, it was good to see that the creek was full of water.

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Once we got to the summit, there was some leftover snow from the last storm. KK said it looked like North Mountain. Then down by the lake and Heavenly Resort, there was absolutely no snow in sight. So depressing. It looked like Spring!! So we checked in, changed into our snow pants, and headed back up to the summit. We tried to go the Adventure Mountain for some sledding but it was at capacity by the time we arrived.

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So we kept driving and found a sno-park with lots of snow. It was just enough snow for KK to play and build a snowman. We played right next to the car and didn’t have to do any trekking.

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Thank goodness since Peanut is not a lightweight baby. It’s crazy (and sad) that KK is almost 4 and this is her first experience with snow.

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For lunch, we went to Verde Mexican Rotisserie that had a really good guacamole and my fish taco was stuffed to the top and really tasty.

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In the afternoon, we went to Happy Hour at the hotel. They were serving $2 drinks and had free snacks and drinks for the kid.

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Before dinner, I took my little girl ice skating for the first time. What made it even more special was that it was snowing. We both had a good time and I managed to stay up on my skates even after a few drinks. Heh heh.

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The next morning, we were surprised to see that the snow had stuck and it covered the whole parking lot and our car.

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It was a nice change from the spring conditions we had the day before.

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Another extra perk at the hotel was free breakfast complete with eggs, bacon, oatmeal, yogurt, cereal, and all the other usual breakfast buffet items. That was great considering both kids were up early and I was starving.

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Before heading home, we took KK outside for one last play in the snow. I love how simple it was for us to find snow just outside of the hotel and KK was pleased as punch.

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Our drive home was a little sketchy but we managed to get over the summit with just our all-weather tires on our 4wd car. We thought about pulling over to put on our chains a couple times but we lucked out with adequate road conditions and lots of trunks in front of us crushing the ice in our path.

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Our last stop was in Placerville where we found a place called Hog Wild BBQ. It’s a no-nonsense BBQ joint that makes a tasty brisket with a gorgeous smoke ring on the meat. The pulled pork and ribs are also really good. It’s definitely going to be added to my list of places to eat on the way to Tahoe next time.

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For such a quick trip, it was very doable. So glad we had clothes for the kids and it was nice to pull out our old gear again after so many years of being in storage. Maybe next time we can figure out a way to get on the slopes. I’ve been itching to break out the skis again and can’t wait to get KK on skis too!!! Let’s hope that El Niño keeps going for a little longer this season.

Also, thanks for the tip on the hotel, Ranee! It’s crazy how cheap it is considering you get a 1-bedroom suite with kitchenette, free breakfast, and it’s literally next to Heavenly and the casinos. You can’t get much better than that!