Belated Celebration
This evening, we celebrated Mommy’s birthday, which was last week. Before dinner, we stopped at Huntington Beach Pier. 
It actually felt like fall this evening – especially after a morning of rain and the puffy clouds were still lingering above in the clear blue sky.
The waves were pretty high so it was fun to watch the surfers play too.
For dinner, we went to Sushi on Fire where they hooked us up with complimentary sake, appetizers, and mini ice cream for the kids.
This is the Albacore Mediterranean: albacore tuna, fried garlic, jalapeno, and ponzu.
For dessert, they brought out ice cream with a giant sparkler on it.
http://youtu.be/t1-BlwNYYcQ
We flew down to Southern California this morning and went to the Halloween Festival at Regional Park this evening. Instead of Trick-or-Treating, KK played games and received candy from each of the booths.
For some reason I seem to appreciate this more than going door-to-door begging for candy. It was also just the right amount of activity for our little piglet.
We had a fun time in Southern California this past weekend and Kumquat was a great little traveler both there and back. 
On Saturday, we flew down to Southern California for a wedding. It was going to be an evening of no kids and our first night without the kid since she was born. After settling down in the Magical House, we drove up to Culver City where we checked in to the Four Points Sheraton. Everyone had already arrived and we all met them at the hotel bar, which we had asked them to open outside of their regular operating hours.
Joel had warned us they were serving an all-vegan dinner so after a couple drinks, we piled into one car and went to In-N-Out for our pre-wedding meal.
Since there were 6 of us and an SUV, Jes rode in the trunk all the way up to Topanga Canyon. He said it was actually pretty comfortable back there. It was just funny having to let him out the back when we pulled up to the valet at the ranch.
The wedding was outdoor in a little ranch but it was pretty warm out there – a balmy 95 degrees I think.
Everything was beautifully decorated with those little personal touches that make their wedding special.
Joel was dressed in all white and all the boys were in black panchos. Those poor boys. 
The bride was in a crocheted dress and the whole set-up was very hipster – just like our Joel the Indie Rockstar.
It was an open bar and their specialty drink was a cactus margarita, which matched my top perfectly.
Here is my plate of vegan lasagna with “faux sausage”, “faux carnitas” made out of jack fruit, and a kale salad that was the best thing on the table. I should have gotten more salad.
After the wedding, we were all starving so we made a stop at Johnnie’s Pastrami for an awesome after-party meal.
James and Sylvia invited us to join them on their week in their Tahoe timeshare. We stayed with them last year and the condo was the same configuration but we had a much better view this year. We went for a long weekend (August 9-12) and had some good family time outside.
During the drive, it was clear and sunny outsdie. When we arrived, it got increasingly gloomy and as soon as we parked and walked out to the lobby, it started to rain and it was followed by lightning and thunder. What a fun experience! I didn’t realize how much I had missed rain. This drought is getting ridiculous.
At the lobby, we had a couple drinks while we waited for our key to be ready. 
Once we checked in and unpacked, we spent the rest of the evening indoors watching the clouds and rain roll by and cooked dinner. The girls got reacquainted and the grown-ups got to stay up late drinking and playing Sequence.
The next morning, we made breakfast and then we took the girls out to play for a bit.
Then it was time to pack up and head out to the beach.
We went to Camp Richardson where the sand was mixed in with rocks and pine needles but the water was calm and we had a nice BBQ and picnic table for lunch. Can you see our little one siting all by herself in front of the big set of blankets? She was THAT well-behaved at one point in the day.
Kumquat needed a little time to warm-up to the water but by the end of the day she was bold enough to just walk out to the water on her own – NOT cool, kid. That’s when we had to stick to her like glue.
Toward the late afternoon, I noticed a big gray cloud in the distance that was moving toward us as if Eeyore was headed in our direction. The others also noticed so we quickly packed up and headed back to the condo. We made it just in time as the rain came down pouring and everyone was scurrying for shelter.
For dinner, we ordered pizza and once the girls went to bed, we did some more drinking and played some more Sequence. It was the second night in a row that I didn’t go to bed until past 1 am.
On Monday morning, I was packing up to go home when Jes got on a work call and came out saying that he made arrangements so that we could stay another day. Yippee!! Good thing I didn’t give that day back to work.
I’m so glad we stayed because we spent the day at Zephyr Cover (same beach as last year) and it was epic. It was raining off and on that day so the beach was pretty empty.
We also had James’ big canopy set-up and any time it started to pour, we sat under the canopy and enjoyed the sound of the thunder and rain. The sand was really nice and the water was super calm that day.
Kumquat had the time of her life and because we had the beach to ourselves, it was easy to supervise her from farther than an arm’s length away.
We left in such good spirits because there’s something so fun and exciting about being out on the beach in the middle of a thunderstorm one minute and then the sun shining bright the next. 
When the sun came out each time, we could see steam coming up from the sand as it dried. Jes even went out to swim in the water during one of the downpours.
For dinner that evening, Jesse made steaks and we enjoyed one last night of drinking and games.
I have to say that it was a pretty relaxing weekend. Kumquat somehow figured out how to keep herself entertained enough that I actually got some rest and time to myself for bits at a time. It was like my brain got a recharge after a weekend of less incessant “Mama mama mama mamas”. It was fun to see my little girl having so much fun and it was nice to be able to stay up late hanging out with friends for a change. What a fun weekend!
We met up with Brother, Joy, and the parents in Monterey for a long weekend. We drove down on Thursday afternoon and stayed in a house that we rented through airbnb that was complete with a big kitchen, lots of bedrooms, a playhouse in the back, and media room downstairs.
It was fun hanging out with the family and seeing Kumquat and Alu playing together.
The weather was also warm enough to go to the beach after dinner on Thursday.
Kumquat was initially scared of the waves again but warmed up much quicker than usual.
On Friday, we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium. Thanks for the passes, Jimmy!!
It was Kumquat’s first time and it was fun to see it through her eyes.
They had some really fun slides there.
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