In mid-April we had contemplated going to a conference in Hawaii for our annual pilgrimage, but with things being as busy as they are with three kids, we decided against it and opted for a road trip to So Cal instead. Even though Nik and I always say that we won't leave packing for the last minute, it always feels like a scramble to the finish. Fortunately, we're fast packers, but packing for three kids is no joke and when you leave things for the last minute, you always forget something (this time, we forgot our soft carrier.. but we were able to borrow one from Mauri and Lauren).
Instead of putting the kids to bed that evening, we plopped them in front of the TV so we could pack and load up the car, and when we were finally done, we buckled everyone into their car seats for the long drive down. Fortunately, Jad fell asleep quickly, but the kids were too excited about the impending vacation, and both Sora and Kai took over an hour to fall asleep. We arrived in LA at 3 am; fortunately, Brian had everything set up for us and we were able to set up our beds up quickly and got everyone back to sleep for a much needed rest.
The next morning, we headed out to Santa Monica Pier. While Jad took a nap, Kai and Sora played in the surf and sand. We then headed over to the Pier and afterward, had a late lunch at Tsujita with dessert at Blockheads.
Well-rested after a nap, Jad enjoys the ocean breeze and view..
.. meanwhile.. this is why we always carry an extra set of clothing.
The merry-go-round was the only attraction at the Pier which wasn't prohibitively expensive
That's my girl: slurping the tonkatsu broth like a pro
Alicia, Ophelia, Sue, and Anne came over for dinner. Anne brought take out from Porto's. Honestly, take out is the best way for us to eat with friends and have a somewhat meaningful conversation where we're not just struggling to manage our kids.
Mmm.. cheese and guava rolls..
Storytime with Uncle Brian
The Natural History Museum was our primary destination the next day. We drove to the nearby Metro station and took the train. Perhaps our kids were spoiled by the Natural History Museum in NYC, but they were completely uninterested in the exhibits and just wanted to play with the interactive touch screens.
21st century kids. "Who cares about the mammoth skeleton when I can look at this screen?"
The interactive Nature Lab was more of a hit
And the highlight was the fountain.. this is where that extra set of clothes comes in handy again
After the museum, we headed over nearby USC for lunch with dessert courtesy of the Sprinkles cupcake ATM (conveniently located next to the student store!).
After another evening of takeout and hanging out with our LA friends, we started our trek down south. We met Catherine and her family at the Irvine Spectrum, we had lunch, rode the Ferris wheel, and wandered around together.
Sora really need to work on her cheese face
Working our way down to San Diego, we stayed over with Mauri and Lauren while we were in Orange County.. they rolled out the welcome mat with a big BBQ/pool party on Saturday evening, the kids loved the pool, and Clooney and Charlie. Vivi promptly fell in love with Jad.
The next day, we headed over to the Uyehara's to meet my UCLA friends. We finally got to meet Jo and Tom's twins, Brandon and Allison, and Nik competed against Kari (at drawing) and Kiryn (at Memory) and lost badly. We also did a little egg hunt with the kids since it had been close to Easter.
Drawing competition! 1-2-3.. FIGHT!
Kane is posing with a sleeping Kiryn, you can tell who the veteran parents are :P
After another night with the Castellanos' we drove down to San Diego, we stopped for fried chicken on the way down. Sadly, in spite of the cool, hipster vibe, the chicken wasn't any better than Popeye's (admittedly, it's tough to beat Popeye's). We met Matt and for dinner, he showed us around his stomping grounds at La Mesa. The kids enjoyed climbing around the old steam engine near downtown.
Sora inherited two dress up dresses from the Uyeharas.. she insisted on wearing them immediately
You take the kids to a chi-chi restaurant and what do they eat? Mac and cheese. Thank goodness humble mac and cheese is trendy nowadays
San Diego is a good town to get brunch and the kids were very impressed by the s'mores French toast. Afterwards, we headed to Cabrillo NM to check out the tide pools and meet with Tiffany. The kids enjoyed seeing the numerous hermit crabs, and although Tiffany didn't arrive until we were getting ready to leave the tide pools, we ended up spending the rest of the day with her and Matt. We went to the pool to swim and (it was Tuesday, after all), went to Old Town to get tacos.
S'mores at breakfast time?! Say what?
Kai was intimidated by the size and depth of this pool, so he was a little freaked out. Sora, on the other hand, declared that she could swim on her own (with floaties and Uncle Matthew's assistance :P).
Serenaded by a mariachi band
Just an aside to say that we really enjoyed our Airbnb rental in North Park. It was well-appointed with kids' toys and even a baby chair for Jad! I slept with Sora and Jad in one room, while Nik slept in the other room with Kai. Fortunately, with a full agenda every day, the kids slept fairly soundly with us in bed with them.
Hanging out with a bottle of stout after the kids go to bed
The next day we headed out to Balboa Park. Our first stop was the Model Railroad Museum. The exhibits were meticulously crafted with a lot of attention to detail. The kids loved it, and so did Nik and I!
The exhibits were amazingly detailed.. very entertaining, even for an adult!
After the museum, we met up with Matt for a quick lunch and took the free tram around the park. The kids enjoyed the "jerky, bumpy ride." Afterwards, we wandered around the botanical building.
Not bad for free diversion!
The kids were pretending to be tigers in the forest. Kai's "rwar" face..
.. versus Sora's. You can tell that girl's a feisty one. :P
For dinner, we had Thai food with Suzanne and her kids.
The next day was decidedly low-key. We had brunch and headed over the to Waterfront Park. Inexplicably, they tell you that you're not allowed to block the water jets, but the water jets are just perfect for blocking off and playing. Guess our kids are just rebels without a cause.
See what I mean? Completely irresistible
For dinner, we picked up anaçaí bowl from one of Matt's local faves and brought it over to the Carnitas' Snack Shack for dinner, their Triple Threat sandwich was not as awesome as we had hoped, but their pork belly was pretty good.
Triple Threat sandwich.. looks impressive, but only meh
The following day was the main event: the San Diego Zoo. The kids' priorities were seeing the otters and penguins (undoubtedly influenced by our trip to Monterey). The animals were surprisingly active and we watched the river otter swim back and forth. The new penguin enclosure was pretty neat, it was awesome to see the penguins swimming underwater. Though we met up with Mauri and his family at the zoo, it was difficult to coordinate the interests of four kids, so we ended up touring most of the zoo on our own, though we reconvened for dinner.
Back in the day: dating and goofing off with statuary (circa 2008)
And today: married and three kids later, still goofing off with statuary
The zoo is huge, and after all the walking and the heat, Sora passed out in the stroller..
.. which meant lots of choice pictures with Kai
Awake and smiling again
The only way to get a picture of all four kids: park them in front of screens
As if we didn't have enough wildlife the day before, the next day we met Luis and the boys at the Living Coast Discovery Center. It was actually a nice change of pace after the zoo. It was small and intimate, with a lot of hands on exhibits that were just right for young children. I'd never seen a sea turtle up close like that before and the ray exhibit was really awesome.
Hands on with a ray(?) egg
Demonstrating waste water run off
After visiting the Discover Center, Lizette made us feel right at home with a home-cooked meal and a water balloon fight. It was great to just hang out and we caught up while the kids watched a movie.
The next day was the final day of our So Cal trip. We visited Jennifer and Ethan for lunch, and learned about the magic of the rice roll (turns out, Kai will eat a lot of rice, as long as it's rolled in seaweed).
Since we had a bit of time in between social visits, we decided to kill time at the park and get a frozen treat.
We closed out our trip with visiting Dana and Yop at their home for dinner. Kai, Sora, Eli, and Noelle are all close in age, so they had a great time playing with each other. Eventually, when it was time to take a group picture, we handed the camera to the oldest kid.. and he took a surprisingly decent picture.
Not bad, Eli!
We attempted an all night drive back home as we had done it on the way down and it was significantly worse. Mind you, I'm now writing this five months after the fact, but I remember no one sleeping while driving through the Grapevine, a bunch of crying kids, and Sora having the pee in the middle of nowhere at midnight. We ended up exiting on a random off ramp and I had to hold her up as she did her business on the side of the road, while I tried not to get peed on. Fun times. Maybe it's better that I don't remember the details anymore.
Anyway, I'm closing off this monster post with a video. It's only taken me over five months to finish this post and it's easy to remember the good times and forget the bad. But a lot of moments in our trips are like this:
It's not all rainbows and rose petals, but you still have enjoy the present while you can.
So after years of saying that we wanted to enroll the kids in some extracurricular activities, we're finally somewhat getting our act together. This past summer after hearing that Micah would be attending the same class, we had Kai and Sora in a two week intensive swim camp. It was a challenge the hustle the kids over to the class in Willow Glen every morning before preschool for two weeks, but the kids did amazingly and by the end of the two weeks, the kids were not only ducking their heads underwater, but they were swimming a few feet on their own! The best part was that we had a church outreach event at Cull Canyon the weekend after swim camp, so the kids had a real world chance to use their newly acquired skillz!
The first day: Kai was hesitant at first and freaked out and was crying during the last 10 minutes of the class
Lots of fun with Micah
Monkey walks
.. and after two weeks: swimming!
Before swim camp, this sight would've freaked me or Nik out
We also had been talking to the Rongs about enrolling Kai and Ethan in martial arts together, and so after a year of talking about it, we got our act together and enrolled the boys in a Brazilian jiu jitsu class. It hasn't been easy and the first week was a disaster: on Tuesday, Kai had a meltdown and left early, and on Thursday, Ethan refused to join the class and left early. Since the first week, it seems to have gotten a little bit better but it still hasn't been perfect. Kai freaked out during one class when another student pinned him down and hurt his arm. We'll see.. I hope the boys stick it out, they certainly love wrestling with each other at church. :P
Not one to be sexist, I had offered to enroll Sora in BJJ as well, but she flat out refused. So on a whim, I decided to look into a nearby dance class for Sora. It turns out that it was the first day of their school year and after trying it out, we decided to enroll Sora. Our tiny dancer is a natural and loves it. It doesn't hurt that her pink leotard has a skirt and sparkles, amusingly, most of the other little girls in her class have the exact same leotard from Target, so I know it's not just Sora.
About a week ago, after watching David and Dylan biking around Kai expressed interest in using a bike without the training wheels.. perhaps it was a combination of being comfortable with gliding on a glide bike, practicing pedaling on a bike with training wheels, and just being ready, but he got it! I was actually really amazed at how quickly he picked it up. Literally two days ago, he could barely ride across our patio in the backyard and today he biked all the way down the street! In fact, he inspired Isaac to ditch his training wheels too!
