Magical House Grubbin’
We spent Sunday at The Magical House and it was awesome. Brother and Joy spent the night and had brought some of their homemade French macarons. They were DE-licious!
In the morning, Mommy made some Kanom Krok for us and I was so happy.
While Jes and I were at church, Brother and Joy went to Redondo Beach to pick up some crab and clams for our tasty lunch.
Jes and I made clam chowder from the Hog Island Oyster Co. recipe and it came out quite well!
We ate the steamed dungeness crab with a special sauce that my mom made.
She cracked all the shells for us so we were grubbin’ at a record pace.
It was the shortest day of the year but the longest drive ever. On Saturday, we left the house at 11:30 am. The drive started out well but then as 1-580 was merging with I-5, it became a bumper-to-bumper nightmare. Here’s a photo of Kumquat when we stopped for lunch at Panda Express.
Luckily, Kumquat did well on the drive down. However, at about the 7-hour mark, she was done. We were all done. Fortunately, traffic was moving past Kettleman City but it took us about 6 hours to get half-way down and then a total of 10 hours to get to Cerritos. *sigh*
When we arrived at the Magical House, it truly was magical. My mom had prepared a tasty Chicken Rice dinner and had ice cold Singha waiting for Jes. Thanks, Mommy!!
This past weekend, we took Friday off and flew down on Thursday (9/20) night to Southern California to visit the family. Kumquat was an awesome little passenger and we surprised the pants off my dad when we arrived since my mom decided not to tell my dad we were coming. Both my mom and dad were super excited to see Kumquat and it was nice to be able to enjoy my Chik-fil-a in peace. Unfortunately, Jes and I didn’t sleep very well because it was SO hot in my old bedroom. I guess this is was a fitting way to end the summer.
In the morning, I got a special treat for breakfast. My mom made Kanom Krok again and it was delicious.
I also got to taste one of my dad’s mini mangoes that grew from the tree in his backyard. It was so small but sooooo sweet!
Later that day, we had dim sum with both sets of grandparents and Jes’ parents barely ate because they were so preoccupied by their precious granddaughter. Very cute.
For dinner, we went out of sushi with Brother and Joy. It was an early birthday celebration for the two of us since Brother and Joy were going to be in Europe on the actual day.
We went all out with an omakase meal complete with a variety of raw fish, roe, and a chawanmushi too! Yay! We enjoyed the ice cold beer and the little surprises that were in store for us with each dish.
Later that night, we met up with Dayantha, Krissy, Roy, Huy, and Matt. It was fun to be with the old gang again. We didn’t get home until about 2. Ah…it’s so nice to have free babysitting.
On Saturday, Holly came over to meet Kumquat for the first time. It was also her birthday and it was so nice to hang out and catch up a bit.
For lunch, Brother picked us up and we had Wahoo’s in Huntington Beach. It was the first day of Fall and a balmy 90 degrees outside! 
We caught a bit of the volleyball tourney that was going on and then Jes and I grabbed a few drinks at the local tiki bar while Brother got his hair cut at the barber down the street. 
I had a refreshing mai tai and then a scorched pineapple margarita. Tasty.
On Sunday morning, we went to church. Everyone was so excited to meet Kumquat and she was even whisked away to the front of the congregation for a word of prayer for her. By the time we knew it, service was over and it was time to head back to SF.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This afternoon we went to the Aloha Festival to watch my hula sisters perform on stage. Kumquat hung out in the carrier while we ate lunch on the picnic blanket.
Here is one of the Keiki groups. The youngest little dancer just turned 4 years old! So cute!
Here’s Dot in one of the performances. It was hard to get a good shot of her because there was a pole right in my line of sight of her on stage.
This is the whole group during “Aloha Oe”, which is usually our final song and made me miss dancing with them. One day I’ll figure out how to make time for hula again.
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