Browse Category: friends

Yay! She’s back!

My good friend Ranee and her family have moved back to California from NYC!  We met up on Labor Day to do some catching up and to watch Sophie and Kumquat play.  I must say it was really entertaining to watch and exciting to see my little girl interact with another baby. I’m also amazed at how much Sophie’s changed since I first met her 5 months ago.

Ranee’s not going back to work just yet and it makes me wish I was still at home.  Ah…that would be so fun.  We’d have play dates and lunch dates every week!

Welcome back, Ranee!

Visitors from Hawaii

Last week, Yoon and Kurt were in town.  On Thursday (8/16), we had a mini BBQ and enjoyed hanging out with them in our Club Room.

We ate some tasty rib eye sammiches, drank wine and martinis, and watched TV!  I always forget there’s a TV with free cable down there!

On Saturday (8/18), we drove up to Napa and took them wine tasting.  We started at Duckhorn and it was my first real day in wine country since being pregnant last year.

Jes even decided on his own to be our DD for the day and didn’t get a tasting for himself.  Gosh, how nice.

He just hung out with the baby and luckily for us Kumquat was on her best behavior.

It was also Yoon’s first trip back to Napa in many many years.

For lunch, we went to Farmstead.  My favorite dish of the meal was the grilled peach salad.  We had a delicious meal and Kumquat slept through the whole thing!

The next stop was Bremmer, which is way up in Howell Mountain.  It’s a smaller winery that doesn’t distribute to stores and we got a picnic table to ourselves.  Kumquat got to have a bottle of milk while we all tasted whites and reds.  It was a warm day and it was nice to be outside.

Sly Park

This weekend we met up at Sly Park Recreational Area for our annual camping trip.   Jes had already set-up the campsite on Friday with the boys and then everyone else arrived later that day. I left the house around 8:30 am on Saturday with the dog and baby in the car along with a trunk filled with camping gear.  It’s just outside of South Tahoe and it took me only about 2.5 hours to get to the campsite. It was a balmy 90 degrees by noon but the mosquitoes were under control with the help of two citronella lamps.  Kumquat and the dog did great on the drive up and Kumquat was in a really good mood the whole afternoon.

We spent the early afternoon hanging out in the shade and Kumquat seemed to enjoy her new surroundings.  We then walked over to the “beach” area to check out the “lake”.  The reason for all the quotations marks is that it was actually a dried up wetland covered in goose poop and a muddy reservoir.  Jack and Tessa seemed to enjoy the water but we chose to hang out under the canopy to enjoy the breeze and mosquito-free area.

Kumquat even managed to take a nap while we were out there.

The biggest difference in this year’s camping trip was bedtime.  Everyone was in their tents trying to get their kids to sleep by 9 pm.  We were actually the last family to settle down and it was interesting to hear the other campsites partying-it-up until midnight.

I didn’t sleep very well since I was overtired from my first week of work with a baby who wasn’t sleeping through the night.  We managed to get all three of us in the tent rather comfortably considering it was a tiny two-man tent barely big enough for the two of us and a duffel.  Kumquat slept in our portable bassinet for most of the night but at 2 am she woke up crying and her hands were freezing.  I moved her into my sleeping bag and she slept so peacefully for the rest of the night.

In the morning, I let the baby and husband sleep in while I got the dog out of the car (that’s where he slept) and took him for a good long walk.  I’m not sure if Koa actually enjoyed the trip since he had been either tied up or in the car the entire trip.

He pretty much hung out catching flies or dealing with his little stalker, Rowan.

After breakfast, we hung out and it was fun watching the kids play.  We left the campsite around 11:30 am and stopped at In N Out on our way home.  Despite Kumquat’s great mood throughout the past 24 hours, she was super grouchy once we got home and needed a lot of attention to help calm her down for the night.

Overall, I’d say that we had a successful camping trip with a 3-month-old.  I am, however, glad that it was only 24 hours long.  It was just the right amount of time that both Kumquat and I would have been able to tolerate the heat, mosquito threat, and dirt.

Here is this year’s group photo, which shows that the number of children is catching up with the number of adults. Camping is never going to be the same as it used to with our carefree days and late nights.  We probably won’t be burning as much stuff and the boys probably won’t be taking the same ridiculous number of shotgun beers.  It’s a little sad but pretty cool to see our families growing too.

Here are the photos from our past trips.  It’s pretty fun to see how the 6 of us (Ryan, Michelle, Vyl, Bang, Jes, and I) have changed and aged over the years.  It’s also been cool to see that we’ve kept up with this almost-annual camping trip for almost 10 years now.  I’ve also been able to visit some of the most beautiful places in our country.  Yellowstone is still my favorite and we have many more places left to see.

Big Sur, August 2003

Yosemite, August 2004

Emerald Bay State Park, South Lake Tahoe, August 2005

Yellowstone National Park, July 2006

Sequoia National Park, August 2007

Emerald Bay State Park, South Lake Tahoe, August 2009

Lassen National Park and ReCamp, August 2010

 

Mr. Mom goes to Tahoe.

Week 1 of Jes’ Paternity Leave is coming to an end and it started out well.  He really stepped it up and it’s made going back to work a little easier each day.  I don’t know if he has a greater appreciation of our little pipsqueak or being a caregiver but it’s great to see him so involved.  When I get home, he recounts all the blowouts she’s had, the walks that they take, and the little tantrums she’s had that day.  It’s also cute to see Kumquat give him a big smile in a way that tells me that she’s had some good quality time with him.

My mom is also here this week, which has been helpful with the transition and so that Jes could go to Tahoe today.  He went with his college buddies to see their old friend/roommate perform in his band on the big stage.

Everest is opened for Neil Young tonight and they were invited to watch from the pit and backstage. Here’s a photo of Joel being a rockstar.

By the way, they’re on a Corona commercial that was played during the Super Bowl this year.  Joel is the one on the right bouncing around with his guitar.

We’re also going on our first camping trip with Kumquat this weekend.  Everyone will be there tomorrow but since I’m working, so I’ll be driving Kumquat and Koa to the campground on Saturday morning.  It should be fun but also an interesting challenge to have a 3-month-old on this year’s trip.

Birthday Outing

For the second year in a row, we celebrated Nicole and Stephanie’s birthdays at House of Curries on Thursday evening.

This time we had a few more people around the table including Kumquat, who was only a bundle of cells this time last year. As Patty was saying last night, we’ve come full-circle.

They all went out for a 4-mile run beforehand and Kumquat and I met up with them once they finished.  Oh, I hope I can be back to their running level soon.

The food was delicious and I got a taste of all my favorite dishes.  We also stopped for ice cream at Ici afterward.  The burnt caramel flavor was so yummy.

It was so much fun hanging out with the gang again and they couldn’t stop telling me how excited they were to have me back at work on Monday.  *sigh*  As much as I’m dreading the end of my maternity leave, I’m glad that I have such a great group of people to welcome me back.

Aaaaah…

We made it to Hawaii yesterday with much less stress than I had anticipated.

She slept through most of the flight and I even got to enjoy a Mai Tai.  She just had a bit of fussing 20 mins before landing but no one really gave us a hard time about it.

When we arrived, Yoon picked us up and took us to lunch at Nico’s. I had a yummy furikake pan-seared ahi with mac salad.

When we checked in, we got upgraded to an Ocean View Room!  Woohoo!

I unpacked and washed Kumquat’s clothes while the two of them took a nap.  She had a blowout in the plane and Jes just threw all her clothes in a bag.

It was quite a sight seeing Jes return from the lavatory with a naked baby (diaper only).

By the way, the new plane had a changing table over the toilet and a USB charging station on the seat!

For dinner, we had shabu shabu at Hot Pot Heaven where you can bring your own alcohol, order two different soups, make your own dipping sauces, and choose your veggies and other goodies from a refrigerator.

This morning we had breakfast at Eggs ‘n’ Things and Jes held her in his lap with the carrier in the hip carrying position. Awesome.
Right now (yes, blogging on my phone) we’re on the beach hanging out with Yoon under our rented umbrella for the day and Kumquat is napping on her floatie (best $7 I’ve spent lately). Life is pretty good right now.