A long night's drive and Portlandia

We got back from our Oregon roadtrip on Monday evening. Tired from poor sleep and travelling, and lots of cleaning up, laundry, and unpacking to do as we try to get into our summer groove at home.

We started off our trip with a red eye drive, hopeful that the kids would sleep through most of the ride. Unfortunately, Jad is not a great car sleeper and was up every one to two hours. We made it up in one piece, but ended up arriving earlier than expected to our planned destination, Wildlife Safari. Since the park didn't open until later, we had time to kill so we grabbed breakfast at McD and found a nearby waterfall hike.

The hike wasn't planned, but it was great! The forest was beautiful and lush, and there were lots of plants and critters around to distract the kids from the distance and elevation gain. Though Kai was not feeling it anymore midway through, we made it and the waterfall at the end of the trail was a nice bonus.

One of the many fun little bridges along the hike

The kids found FOUR 4-leaf clovers on this hike.. Nik and I had never found one in our lives!

The upper tier of the 2-tier waterfall at the end of the trail

The bottom tier was pretty too

We then returned to Wildlife Safari. It was a fun drive-thru and the kids enjoyed spotting various animals on the drive. It was nice to see the animals in a "natural-ish" environment, though the park's cheetah breeding program recalled some of the cringey bits of Tiger King. The kids' favorite part of the drive was the "feed me" section where you could purchase a cup of pellets for $5 and feed animals through your car window. It was definitely fun to have a hungry elk or bird poke their head through your window. :)

"Feed meeeee..."

The park had a small zoo to explore in addition to the drive-thru

After a brief lunch stop at Costco, we then continued our drive up north to meet Nik's old friend, Ashley (from High School!). It was a brief visit, but we enjoyed their family's warm hospitality and feeding their chickens!

No mask at Costco! A milestone moment worthy of a picture :)

Backyard chickens!

We then checked into our Airbnb and met Joe and his family for a Chinese take out dinner while the kids reacquainted themselves. We were pleasantly surprised with how well everyone slept in our stylish basement rental throughout our stay in Portland.

Bed jumper approved

The next morning, we had a waffle breakfast with Joe, Michelle and Ryan at their home. Any plans for the day were put on hold due to the unexpectedly (to this Californian :P) rainy weather. We did find a brief break in the rain to go out to a nearby playground where the kids weren't deterred by slippery slides or wet play structures. In the evening, Nik and I explored the hilly neighborhood near our rental and the kids enthusiastically hiked the neighborhood stairs.

Jad: "What's with this water falling out of the sky?"

Bonding over screentime

Stairway walks

Many of the big hillside homes cover up the nice views of Portland. We eventually found an open spot with a seated viewing area.. so fancy

We explored Forest Park the next day and hiked along Lower Macleay, a relatively easy hike since Joe parked on the opposite end of the trail, so we only had to walk one way. We spent the afternoon at OMSI, which was unfortunately not fully open due to COVID. They did have a good animatronic dinosaur exhibit and the kids enjoyed exploring the parts of the museum which were open. Before heading back to our Airbnb, we drove up to the Pittock Mansion to take in the panoramic view of Portland.

Stone House along the trail

"I have no energy..."

Our dinosaur crazed toddler surprisingly did not want to take any pictures with the animatronic dinos. Maybe they were too realistic?

Our last day in Portland was spent at Westmoreland Park, where the kids played and climbed, and eventually hit a few balls with Nik and Joe. For lunch, we visited a nearby food truck pod and in the afternoon, we went to the Portland Rose Garden. Dinner was homemade okonomiyaki by Joe.

Just a couple of monkeys monkeying around

BBQ, fried wontons and fried chicken for lunch.. hard to go wrong

No trip to Portland is complete without a food truck meal

Not super impressed with the roses

Ryan's lofted bed became the kids' fort

Homemade okonomiyaki! The kids were fascinated by the moving bonito flakes and actually ate it!

The next day we were off to the Oregon coast! To be continued in my next post...

Sora Lost Her 1st Tooth / Summertime shenanigans / Farewell Dinner with Matthew

Sora has been wiggling her loose front tooth for over a month now.  The permanent tooth actually already came in a bit recessed behind it 🙁 so she's been working to get it out.  I finally threatened to pull it so after one last week of vigorous effort, it finally popped out one night.  Yay!

She wrote a nice thank you note to the tooth fairy and got $3 in trade

In their first full week of being home, in addition to getting more screen time and swimming, Kai and Sora have been up to some tomfoolery at home..

A teetering totem pole of Lego legs, bodies and heads

They planted marshmallows on a tree in the backyard and told Jad that they were ripe.. Jad was so happy and said, "God put them there!"

Amy also did an every street challenge, where she picked an area near our house and ran every street in that grid.  11 miles!  

She did get lost and miss one street.. then went back later to get it.  Yep, she's pretty crazy :)

We also managed a dinner with Matt before he moved down to SoCal.  We'll miss him a lot but he will be married soon and walk his own path so we wish the best for him.

Hard to tell but the kids are jumping on Matt for one more dogpile

Then we started our road trip to Oregon with an overnight drive.  With these three in the car, wish us luck..

Next stop.. Oregon!

Summertime! / Valley Crew Reunion / Cherry picking

School is finally out and now it's summer time for the kids.  We're really looking forward to a restful summer :) 

I always think it's silly to do these pictures when Amy pulls the kids for them..

.. but honestly, it's super cute to have these memories. Thanks, Amy! :)

We celebrated the last day with a pizza party with our neighbors.

Pizza followed by swimming at the pool

Last weekend, we had our usually hangout with Mia and Joyce. Really nice to have a chance to have these conversations about being a parent, talk about faith and everything in between.  Hope to continue getting together even as they split off from our small group.

I do like how we can talk about both serious and trivial things

We also had a chance to meet up with my friends from Internship.  We met both Wei and Ray's babies for the first time and the Mukesh and family came all the way from Sac.  The kids had a great time swimming in Lin's pool, even Jad.  It was really awesome to see everyone :)

Getting the band back together

Monkey walking in the hot tub

Lastly, we went cherry picking on Monday in Brentwood.  Took advantage of Kai and Sora being out of school and pulled Jad out of daycare for the day.  Lots of fun though it felt like we walked a half mile into the orchard before we found any trees with cherries

Til next week!

1st post-COVID illness / Memorial Day / Last Week of School / Jad's bed upgrade

This week:

Last week, Kai picked up some sort of viral illness (just a runny nose and mild cough) then promptly passed it along to the rest of us.  We've all gotten over it already but it did seem somewhat momentous as our first illness as our society gets going back towards normal. 

A truly epic post sneeze snot-fall

Memorial Day weekend was nice and warm.  I worked a lot but Amy and the kids spent much of the day at the Villa Sport pool.  Our neighbors were there too which was a nice bonus.

Lunch at In-n-Out before hitting the pool

This current week is the last week of school.  Thank goodness for the end of this weird school year.. I hope we are back to normal in the Fall (assuming COVID numbers stay down).  I think we're all looking forward to a mostly carefree summer.  We're planning a road trip to Portland in June and Kai (maybe Sora) will enroll in a new jujitsu gym but otherwise, hoping for a mostly carefree summer!

Kids attack!

Lastly, Jad finally asked us last week if he could take the side rail off of his crib.  He's been it in for much longer than Kai and Sora so we said ok.  It has taken a week of restless sleep but I think he's now used to it.  Littlest is growing up .. a bit 😢 but mostly 😃

Restless nights..

Kai's besties birthday / new friend dinner / rejoining the fancy gym

 Let's see.. what happened this past week :)

We've been hard pressed to keep the house orderly over the last year, mostly because Amy and I have not had the wherewithal to dedicate ourselves to cleaning.  But last week, we finally did some spring cleaning and got the house back in shape.  

Kai also had a birthday party this Saturday with his friends from church.  Four families got together and it was really nice to see all the kids running around together.  I thought they would just play Switch all day but actually much of the day was spent running around. 

That's a brownie and  mangos Amy arranged into his name :)

A friend of mine from work also invited us to their house for dinner.  It would have been easy to say that we were busy but Amy and I both consciously made an effort to go.  Honestly, we haven't been to a new friend's house in many years so it was really nice.  Rohit has two teenage boys who were just so caring and engaging towards the younger kids.  Hope our kids are like that when they are older.

They also had a hammock which the kids rolled around in

One sad thing is that Kai's jujitsu class is ending.  I think there were just too few students who had come back and his coach had to move to another job.  Sad because we really liked him.. sigh, another toll of the pandemic. 

Lastly, we joined the nearby gym for the summer because they have a pool and we wanted the kids to be able to get back into swimming.  It's more expensive than the 24hr fitness but we figured it would be worth it as the kids aren't in any summer camps (which are expensive too!)  The kids have gone swimming a couple of times already and they love it.  The other good thing is that a lot of our  neighbors and friends have joined too so we can meet up with people there.  Also, I've restarted working out myself which feels really good after a whole year of low physical activity.

They are old enough to be in the hot tub now!

Take care, everyone!

Some pictures to augment Nik's post

First day of school jitters.. in April

Top of Bald Peaks on my 2nd MUTT Half try.. I ran the open course 3 times :)

Zoom classroom birthday celebration for Covid times

Neighborhood birthday cupcake celebration

In-person extracurriculars are back: Sora is back to piano and Kai is back to BJJ and soccer. Dining indoors and going to the gym for the first time felt transformative, complete with many selfies to document the momentous occasions. We also went to an indoor church service.

A Case of the Mondays (and Tuesdays)..

 Looking at the title, you would think maybe something bad is happening but actually this is good news :) 

I have just recently begun to work more in the Kaiser minor injury clinic.  This means that about two days a week, most Mondays and Tuesdays, I'm working in the clinic .. the schedule is more consistent, it's not as stressful as the ER and the clinic staff is great to work with.  As an added bonus, since the clinic is about 6 miles from home, I can bike to work!  I'm still in the ER but about half as much as before and no more overnight shifts.  It's a bit of change but I think it'll give me more time to focus on Amy, the kids and myself.  

Since I'm in front of the computer more now, I'm also going to try to update the blog weekly.  Though this last year has been tough, things are looking up.  Amy finished the trail half marathon that she had been training for and is already looking forward to the next one.  Kai's 8th birthday was last week and we had a good time celebrating with friends, family and neighbors.  Kai and Sora are back in school for two afternoons a week.  It's short but they really enjoy seeing their friends and teacher.  Jad remains rather opinionated for a 3 year old but we're trying hard to be firm and not indulge him too much.  The weather is basically perfect right now here, warm in the daytime and brisk at night.  We're trying to keep getting outdoors and took the kids rock climbing outdoors with some friends this past weekend.

Take care, everyone!

-Nik

My (shared) office with commute bike

Learning the ropes, literally