July 26th marked our five year wedding anniversary, and while continue to have daily nausea and am not really able to enjoy food these days, we still wanted to keep with our tradition of going to a nice anniversary dinner to celebrate. My parents volunteered to watch Mio while we dined at Nostos, a delicious local Greek restaurant in Tysons Corner.
My favorite was the perfectly seared sea scallops!
Fried fresh calamari with lobster tomato sauce
Enjoying our first dinner date out sans Mio in months! I could only eat a little of each dish, but it was all delicious.
Meat sampler of biftekakia, chicken skewers, lamb chops
The handsome hubby! Happy anniversary ♥
I’m so happy to be celebrating five years since our wedding, and a decade since embarking on this journey together! I’m so grateful to have such a wonderful husband; especially these days when pregnancy fatigue and nausea have flattened me like a steamroller, he takes care of Mio when he gets back from work so I can get some extra rest, goes on late night runs to bring me whatever food I might be able to stomach even when I don’t ask him to, and just picks up the slack wherever I am failing. Thank you Dan for being the best husband to me and father to our children, my best friend, biggest supporter, daily foot-masseuse, personal cookie baker and sandwich chef, and just being my favorite person in the world. To many more years together… I love you! ♥
On Saturday, we went to Ekoji Buddhist Temple’s annual Obon Festival in Fairfax Station. They had a variety of Japanese summer festival activities and games for kids, arts and crafts for sale, as well as a lot of Japanese food for sale — everything from somen, gyudon, mabodufu, chicken teriyaki, spam musubi, shaved ice, mochi, and other desserts! The area was decorated in traditional matsuri style with lanterns strung around and outdoor tables and stations for the various vendors.
Arriving at Ekoji Buddhist Temple’s Obon festival.
When we got there, the festival was already bustling with tons of people!
Mio and I making our way over to the shaved ice stand for a cool refreshment.
Daddy says “open wide!” for the kakigori.
Enjoying some melon-flavored kakigori (shaved ice).
There were lots of games for children.
Instead of the traditional game of scooping live goldfish, they had kids scoop plastic toys and rubber duckies that they could take home with them.
During the ring toss, Mio didn’t understand why everyone was purposely making it hard for themselves by throwing the rings. She kept going over and carefully placing the rings on the sticks.
She still won some bubbles and a whistle as prizes!
A lot of people were dressed in yukatas and jinbeis, the Japanese festival garb.
Mio of course sported her own jinbei and got a lot of smiles and compliments from strangers!
We ran into our friend Mimi at the festival. Thanks for taking this picture of us, Mimi!
There was also Yo-yo tsuri (fishing for water balloons).
Later in the evening, there was bon-odori, and a lot of people joined in the dancing.
Some video of the bon-odori dancing:
Nen Daiko also gave an awesome taiko performance!
Here is Nen Daiko performing “Satori no Michi.” Mio started yelling along with the drummers towards the end, much to our dismay…
We left shortly afterwards as Mio was getting really rowdy and we were worried she’d disturb everyone’s enjoyment of the taiko performances. At the end of the Obon festival, they supposedly had a candle memorial ceremony to remember loved ones who have passed on. Maybe next time, we’ll be able to stay for the whole festival! 🙂 It’s great that our children will be able to experience and take part in these Japanese traditions even while they live in America. Even as Americans, it’s a valuable thing to get exposure to your ethnic heritage and its traditions so that you can develop an understanding and appreciation for them. I think going to Obon will definitely be a family tradition for us in the years to come!
Happy Father’s Day to my husband, the best Daddy ever! Thank you for your continued unconditional love and dedication to our family. Can’t wait to share more adventures in this wonderful journey together. ♥
Dan loved his Father’s Day gift – Pilsner mustache glasses!
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my own father on this special day. Happy Father’s Day Papa! Thank you for everything. 今ã¾ã§ã‚ã‚ŠãŒã¨ã†â¤ ã“ã‚Œã‹ã‚‰ã¯å´ã§ã‚‚ã£ã¨è¦ªåè¡Œã§ãã‚‹ã¨ã„ã„ã§ã™ã€‚
My Papa and I, circa December 1985.
Hope everyone had a great weekend celebrating all the wonderful fathers out there! We had a delicious dinner celebration with sashimi, lobster and crab. 😀
We hadn’t made any real plans for Memorial Day, so we were delighted when our friends Pat & Theo invited us to go with them and their daughters to the National Zoo on Monday. It’s no secret that Mio loves animals, and although she’s been to the Oakland Zoo and the San Francisco Zoo, this was her first time going to the Smithsonian National Zoo! This is the zoo that I grew up going to, and boasts 163 acres which serves as a home to 2,000 animals from 400 different species. As one of the nation’s oldest zoos, it’s part of the Smithsonian and therefore doesn’t charge admission. We decided to take the Metro over to Woodley Park together, and walked to the zoo from there.
Sitting down for lunch upon arriving at the zoo.
Hungry girls! 2 year olds Mio and Anna, both April babies!
The girls on their Daddies’ shoulders.
Looking at the red panda.
Mio had such a good view!
A fishing cat resting on a branch.
The two cuties on the Asian sloth bear statue.
Mio: “CHARGE!!!”
The cutest girls at the zoo!
Male panda Tian Tian at the National Zoo, munching away on bamboo.
Female panda Mei Xiang at the National Zoo
Adorable Anna atop the red panda statue. “Sifu!!!”
Mio and I with the red panda statue.
The Asian elephants at the National Zoo. Such grand animals!
Mio and Anna walking hand in hand through the zoo.
Holding hands. I can’t handle the cuteness! They’re such sweet friends!
Mio on top of the anteater statue by the small animals exhibit.
Anna reaching up towards the statue.
Mio conked out towards the end of the afternoon at the zoo. Anna was like the Energizer Bunny and just kept going and going…
The Nguyen-Cao family, including 2 month old Cara. (She had just turned 2 months that exact day!)
Thanks for inviting us along to the zoo! We had such a great time and Mio loved seeing all the animals and spending time with Anna and Cara. 🙂
Sending love to all the wonderful mamas out there, including my own wonderful mother and mother-in-law. ♥ I still have a lot to learn as I’ve only been a mom for just over two years, but I have such amazing women to look to as examples. Happy Mother’s Day!
I received a Mother’s Day corsage in the morning! 🙂
The weather was beautiful, so Mio and I took some pictures outdoors.
Sweet Mio handing me a buttercup she plucked.
Thank you for showing me all the joys (and challenges!) of motherhood, Mio! You make it all worth it.
Our little family on Mother’s Day.
My mom came by just then, so we got a picture of us together, 3 generations! Happy Mother’s Day mama!
Afterwards, Dan and Mio surprised me with an adorable card and gift — Cupcake Diaries, which features many of the delicious recipes from Georgetown Cupcakes of DC Cupcakes fame. I can’t wait to try making them!
With that, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes about motherhood…
