September 15, 2011
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Last day of August, I celebrated my 37th birthday with my girlfriends at Sergios, a cozy Italian restaurant. The food was great – I had the Antelope Osso Buca, and there were many other entrees I wanted to try in the future. Thanks to my girlfriends for taking time out of their busy schedules to celebrate with me – especially Karen for organizing the dinner and Kathy for the delicious cake!
Friday after work, we went to Sam and Melissa’s house to check out their new entertainment center (and eat some pizza). I’ve seen other people try to retrofit the old style TV space for the newer flat screens, and I could definitely tell the difference between a professional vs DIY job. Very, very nice!
Sunday, I went on a 4 mile morning run with my coworkers and Zachary. Earlier this year, I was consistently faster than Zachary, but now that soccer practice has started up, he is beating me again. Ugh. It’s depressing how much faster he can ramp up compared to me … and I don’t think 37 is that old either! Anyway … I digress. After the run, we drove to the Sonoma Coast. Salmon Creek beach was overcast and a lot colder than I expected. It was quite beautiful though, and it was nice to not worry about how much sun we were getting.
Zachary enjoyed running away from the waves. We hiked up and down sand dunes, and James dug a big hole with the kids. The highlight was when a rogue wave washed someone’s belongings into our hole … which swirled around like a washing machine (top loader) until everything was buried! After a few hours of playing on the beach, we headed to James’ parent’s home. Zachary and his Grandpa stayed home for frozen pizza while the rest of us went to Thai Pot for dinner. Calie’s favorite was the Tom Yum soup!
The next morning, we made a pit stop at the local farmer’s market before heading home. That evening, we had a few of Zachary’s soccer friends over for a barbecue dinner. Zach had a good (and very sweaty) time playing with Andrew, Christian, John, and their siblings.
Labor Day was pretty laid back. Zach and I went to EDH for a morning jog with Sam. Then we had a Labor Day BBQ playdate, where Zach and Calie each got to pick 2 friends to invite. We’ve been enjoying smaller get-togethers lately, where I can actually socialize instead of run around playing hostess.
I’ve been getting freebie vegetables from one of the stands at the work farmer’s market for being a loyal customer. The previous week, I received a few stalks of lemongrass and an Asian squash I was not familiar with. So Tuesday at soccer practice, I gave them to Sam … who turned it into a grilled lemongrass chicken dinner with side of opo and Chinese broccoli stirfry. Somehow this power couple is able to host dinner on a school/work night. Only downside is that we had to leave early to get the kids to bed, and they definitely wanted to stay longer to play with Alex’s new Kinect!
Good thing I brought over Pinkberry because dragon fruit was not my favorite dessert! ~shiver~
A few pictures of Calie … while she plays with princess dolls, she wants to be a super hero. And yes, that’s what she wore to school, pretty much all week.
Since my sister Alice is living in Las Vegas (20 minutes from the strip) for a month for job training, my parents, Sophie, and I decided to visit over the weekend. We had an awesome mini vacation – it had been too many years since we spent time together, just the 5 of us. Sophie and I flew in late Friday night, within 5 minutes of each other.
Saturday: First stop… Stratosphere. We took an elevator to the observation deck, but due to lightening, the outdoor viewing area and rides were closed. We got our money back, and the view was pretty decent from inside anyway!
Next stop … Adventuredome inside Circus Circus. We opted out of the rides, but had a blast with the midway games. I can’t remember the last time we laughed and cheered each other on so hard!
We worked up quite an appetite with all the jumping and screaming, so it was the perfect time to head over to Rio for their Village Seafood Buffet. Everything was delicious. I loved the fresh sashimi, and the crab legs were sweet, unlike some of the cheaper buffets I’ve been to. The dessert spread was probably the best of all the Vegas buffets I’ve eaten at. Highly recommend their carrot cake and creme brule.
After the buffet, we headed to the Palazzo to see the ‘Jersey Boys’ musical. It was a fun show (story of the Four Seasons) with lots of great music and good looking actors. You might think we headed home after the show, but you’d be wrong because my parents are real troopers who have more energy than most people their age. We went to Freemont Street!
There was a stage, where bands played 80s music. And the street was covered with a video screen, so it was hard to tell it was dark and past midnight.
Sunday: The next morning, we went to Chinatown for brunch at KJ Kitchen. They had authentic Chinese entrees like spicy beef tendon, duck tongue, and blood tofu (pinyin) soup … and yes, we ordered those dishes.
Then it was off to Madame Tussauds, where I’ll let the pictures tell the story:
We spent the last few hours before heading to the airport at the outlets. My flight was delayed and I got home close to midnight – refreshed and ready to head to work the next day! (Not really)
Back at home, James took the kids to Alex’s house for a Kinect playdate and pizza dinner on Friday. He also took Zachary to his first soccer game of the season, where the Mighty Midgets won 3 to 2. No goals yet, but he’s more aggressive this year and attempted three times.
Saturday evening, James took both kids to Arielle’s Pirates and Mermaid themed birthday party at Tricks. Happy 7th Birthday Arielle! And Sunday, the weather was nice so James took both kids to Fairytale Town.
In summary – my family and friends ROCK!
Comments (1)
Great post, as always! So nice to see you having fun with your parents and sisters.