We are back from a 5 day, 4 night, 1100+ mile trip to Zion, Bryce and St. George. It was quite an adventure, which I will document here, of course. For now, here is a sneak preview:
As you can see, I had some fun playing around with pixlr-o-matic.
Vacation List
As L and I approach eight years of marriage and the kids are at the age where they will start creating long lasting memories, I have been thinking about vacations. Since I like lists and categories, here is one for you. I decided to break the vacations done into week long vacation (6 nights), near week vacations (4 nights), and long weekend vacations (2 nights).
Without further adieu; here you go…
Tier 1
Oahu/Maui (2004)
Big Island (2007)
Big Island (2010)
Japan (2011)
Tier 2
Vancouver (2005)
Utah (2012)
Tier 3
Napa/San Francisco (2005)
Napa/Berkeley (2006)
Napa/Oakland (2007)
Mammoth Mountain (2008)
San Diego (2008)
Monterey Bay (2009)
Napa/Sacramento (2009)
Napa/Berkeley (2010)
Las Vegas (2011)
Monterey Bay/Big Sur (2011)
Napa/San Jose (2011)
I am planning our 2013 vacations, suggestions anyone?
Bowers Kidseum
After church this morning we checked out the Bowers Kidseum. Today was a Target-sponsored free admission day (first Sunday of every month). Last time we went to the Bowers Museum we didn’t go to the Kidseum, so I wanted to see what it was all about.
The exhibits are designed to be very hands-on, which is good for kids, of course.
The museum is quite small, and I think we saw everything we wanted to see in literally less than 15 minutes. I would not recommend paying the separate $6 admission fee, but admission is free to those who have a ticket to the Bowers Museum. In that case, it is worth stopping by.
Since admission was free at the Bowers Museum today too, we checked out the new Sacred Gold exhibit.
Interesting tree outside.
In the courtyard, they were setting up for a Japanese Cherry Blossom festival. That would have been interesting to attend, but we were too early and didn’t feel like sticking around.
Happy National Sourdough Bread Day!
Easter Egg Fun
My moms’ group had an Easter party for the kids on Friday.
There was a puppet show where the Easter bunny made it clear that Easter is NOT all about him.
There was an Easter egg hunt.
Winnie the Pooh tattoos.
Thank you gift from Thailand. I don’t think I have ever tried these before, but they were pretty good! The kids liked them too. 
Aria
This past Sunday we checked out Aria, an international supermarket that just opened up near Costco. The store is HUGE and carries a wide variety of food. Its main focus is Middle Eastern, I think, but there is also Mexican and “American” food as well. I was excited to find that the bakery has sangak, fresh out of the oven. 
As you can see, it is quite large, and is only $1.99. We ate what we could with some hummus and I ripped up the leftovers and put it in the freezer. Just microwave for about 30 seconds and then stick it in the toaster oven to crisp it up a bit for a few minutes.
Unrelated, here’s n giving us a Sunday matinee performance. 
Miniature Golf Par-Tee
On Saturday we went to a miniature golf birthday party for a boy turning 8. I hadn’t realized this, but according to our blog, the last time we played miniature golf was in 2007 (at the same course, in Anaheim). So k was just a baby and n wasn’t born yet.
The party split up into teams, but no score was kept.
The kids had fun. k had some pretty good shots, but the holes that were surrounded by “hills” frustrated her.
D pretending to fall into the water.
D playing Super Mario Kart
Birthday boy and dad
Golf ball cupcakes by birthday boy’s mom. So cute! She was inspired by Pinterest. 🙂 We also had pizza and salad for dinner.
Sports List v2
Since my first edition of the “College Sports” List, I made two big changes. First I added the San Francisco 49ers, since that is the one professional sports team I follow the most. So I had to change the name of the list to just “Sports” List! I also changed the categories from “first” and “second” most memorable, to “all-time” and recent history. So I could include the best accomplishments of that team historically.
Even though it has been less than three months since version 1, there have been many updates.
#1 Aaron Rodgers was named 2011 season MVP
#2 Jim Harbaugh was named 2011 Coach of the Year
#3 Indiana Hoosiers got to the Sweet Sixteen
#4 Cal Men’s and Women’s Swimming are NCAA champions in 2012
Note: They also both won in 2011 as well.
I am definitely looking forward to the 2012 London Olympics. Only 123 days to go!
Here is the list…
Sports List
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Spring Cleaning
You could say I’ve lost my blogging mojo this month. In an effort to catch up, here we go…
We enjoyed Auntie Anne’s free pretzel day. Hope they repeat this next year.
Celebrated National Poundcake Day on March 4 by baking these for a friend that recently had a baby.
Finally finished painting the kitchen/family room.
Before:
After:
Added some decor to k’s bedroom wall:
Tried ebelskivers from Trader Joe’s frozen section. Pretty good. D has never been to Solvang, so we’ll have to go someday.
The kids slept in the tent the night of n’s birthday party. 
Curiosity got the best of us and we ordered some free fries from BK. Green ketchup is not so appetizing.
Friends that couldn’t make it to n’s birthday party brought over this yummy cake from Bon Epi–thank you!
Celebrated National Ravioli Day on March 20th (with some of n’s birthday presents in the background). 
This month we’ve also been dealing with some difficult losses in our church family. It really reminds us of the brevity of life and to live every day that God gives us for His glory.
Happy 3rd Birthday n!
Friday was n’s third birthday. At his request, we had spaghetti for dinner…he is so easy to please. 
For the past couple of weeks, n has also been very good about expressing his thankfulness. The first time occurred after dinner, when I was resting on the couch to digest my food. Out of the blue he came up to me and said “Thank you mommy, for making me dinner.” That really melted my heart because he wasn’t copying anyone, and just said it on his own, without any prompting. Since then, he has been saying “thank you” for everything, including his vitamins–haha. He also said thank you for his birthday party, which we had on Saturday.
It was a camping-themed party. We were planning to have at least part of the party in our small backyard. Unfortunately, it was raining (it rained before when we had k’s party at our house too). However, we had contingent plans. D barbecued Trader Joe’s Korean beef under our retractable awning and we set up our tent in the living room.
I also picked green for the theme color since it was also St. Patrick’s day.
This was the sign at our front door. As you can see, one of our guests left a note on the way out.
I forgot to take a picture of the s’mores kits we handed out as favors to each family. They looked cute in this wooden CD holder.
For lunch, we bought chap chae, kim chee and beef sushi from Zion. Chicken meatballs, chicken potstickers and salad were courtesy of Costco. Very easy.
While playing in the tent, one girl was feeding mini marshmallows to a very willing and compliant n, one after the other. I’m not sure how many he ate, but another little girl estimated the number was around 20…eep! Of course, I put a stop to it, but I just had to take a picture first.
We kind of went overboard on the desserts.
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes (made by my mom)
Not sure what these are called, but they are made with pretzels-hugs-m&ms. Fun to make because you can use different colors for different occasions. The coconut m&ms are made in green, brown and white, so they went with our theme.
S’mores Tower
S’mores on a Stick
And last, but not least, a Camping cake, made by my mom:
We also had Girl Scout cookie ice cream in Thin Mint and Samoa flavors.
It was a fun time, and we are looking forward to the next year of development for n.
Glee
On Sunday our church had the privilege of hosting the U.S. Naval Academy Women’s Glee Club. They performed both during our worship service and at a concert Sunday night. Although we typically do not go out on Sunday nights, we came fully prepared with toothbrushes and blankets for the kids. The concert was quite enjoyable and I’m glad the kids were able to go. One of the first songs was Enya’s “Orinoco Flow” aka “Sail Away”. I thought that was such a great song choice and the arrangement was so creative. (I think the next addition to their repertoire should be Christopher Cross’ “Sail Away”, a personal fave). I also liked their rendition of Sara Bareilles’ “King of Anything”. D even wants to see Wicked after hearing “For Good”. (I see it is playing next year at the Segerstrom Center, so maybe we will!)