Mio has made some more friends in the neighborhood lately, and they are so cute together! The moms are Japanese and talk to their kids in Japanese, so it’s great for Mio to get more exposure to the language, too.
These are from almost a month ago, but I thought I’d post them anyway because they are so cute…
Yes, I’m that mom… who shamelessly dresses her kid to match her own outfits. Hey, I can only do it for a few more years before she starts protesting and exercising her right and ability to say no, so I’m taking advantage while I still can! 😛
This is not a twinsie photo, but a snapshot I took in San Francisco earlier this week when I got to have some “me time” in the city while Grandma graciously watched Mio. It’s so refreshing to get even half a day to go out and about and just relax! As much as a mother loves their child, I think it’s healthy to have some time away once in a while… and getting that space will make you appreciate them so much more!
Mio loves riding the swing whenever she goes to the park. She can’t stop smiling!
Lately, I’ve been trying to be better about taking her to the park more often. She always has so much fun that she gets exhausted and conks out on the walk home. Here she is, asleep in her stroller.
Our wedding anniversary is July 26th, but because we’ll be on a plane to Hawaii that day, we decided to celebrate it early this weekend with a dinner date at La Fondue in Saratoga. We drove down to the South Bay and dropped Mio off with the grandparents (since they live in San Jose now) so that we could enjoy a lovely evening to ourselves. It had been a while since we’d had a date night, so it was so nice to just have that time together as a couple, knowing that Mio was in good hands.
Friends had told us about what an amazing dining experience La Fondue was and how it was the perfect restaurant for a romantic dinner and special occasions. I’d been wanting to go for years but we hadn’t because it’s kind of far from the East Bay where we live, and it was too fancy for us to just swing by on past occasions when we did happen to find ourselves in the area. But this year, since we needed to drop Mio off in the South Bay anyway, we decided that it was the perfect opportunity to finally visit what is easily the best fondue restaurant in the Bay Area.
We decided to go with the Fondue Feast, which is a four-course meal that includes a salad for each person, appetizer cheese fondue, a main entrée fondue with meats, and dessert chocolate fondue. Good thing I went hungry!
For the main entrée, we could choose a selection of six meats, so we chose Polynesian chicken, Pacific Catch (mango shark), tiger blue shrimp, sea scallops, alligator tail, and wild nilgai antelope. It came with some vegetables, too. This was the first time trying alligator and antelope for the both of us!
We opted for the punsch cooking method, which is spiced red wine with cloves and rosemary.
After much deliberation over which chocolate fondue we wanted, we decided to go with The Decadent One, which is a dark and milk chocolate bowl, mixed with espresso, kahlua, and creme. The array of desserts they brought for us to dip into the chocolate was very impressive! There were strawberries, bananas, grapes, apples, marshmallows, cream puffs, wafer cookie sticks, cream cheese balls, cookie dough, pound cake, and even Snickers chocolates! And you request extra of your favorites afterwards. (I was too full at the end, but Dan requested extra strawberries.) Even Dan said that as much as he hated to admit it, the dessert was his favorite part of the meal!
Our waiter even brought us some champagne on the house for our anniversary! 🙂
It was such a memorable, romantic, and delicious dinner! The ambience, the food, the service… everything was so perfect. We both agreed that this was probably our favorite anniversary dinner yet. It’ll be hard to top this one, but we look forward to many more anniversaries together.
Marriage is not always easy — in fact, it can be a pretty bumpy ride and at times unbelievably trying — but it’s been a wonderful journey thusfar, and we wouldn’t change a moment of it. We’re not perfect and don’t pretend to be; marriage is a constant work in progress, but I believe that’s what makes it so exciting and worthwhile. There’s no better partner I could imagine weathering life’s challenges and experiencing all of its wonders and joys with. I’m so thankful every day to have Dan by my side, knowing that he’ll be with me wherever life takes us. Happy (early) anniversary, Dan — I love you! ♥
Yesterday, we met up with our friend Jamie to have a picnic lunch at Lake Merced in San Francisco. The weather was a little brisk for summer, but we still had a great time eating and catching up together. Jamie always impresses us with her delicious cooking, and she brought us the most tasty tuna sandwiches ever (even one specially made for Mio!), and we brought some homemade Bakesale Betty-style coleslaw and cherries as sides. After lunch, we walked around the lake — it was Mio and I’s first time seeing Lake Merced!
We had a lovely time at the lake with Jamie! Thanks for the delicious sandwiches, and for taking such good care of Mio! 😀
