Although our time staying in the East Bay was short, we were glad we could see some of the faces we have so missed since moving away! There were new babies to be held and kissed, delicious restaurants to be visited (both old and new!), and a lot of catching up to do with dear friends.
Lunch in San Leandro with the Kims! Our two girls + their two boys was a crazy mix! It was great seeing them and how much Jinwoo and Sunwoo have grown!
Can’t contain our excitement over Burma Superstar!
Mio and I while waiting for our table and for Uncle Ted & Auntie Jackie to meet us
We so missed their samosa salad! Just seeing this photo of it makes me salivate…
Garlic noodles and shrimp
After our dinner at Burma Superstar, we drove over to Castro Valley to have some ice cream with Aileen and David!
Mirei behind the wheel at Knudsen’s Creamery in Castro Valley
With Aileen at Knudsen’s Creamery. It was so great seeing her again, and we have to also thank her for bringing us to this delicious ice cream parlor!
We finally got to meet Aileen’s boyfriend, David! He’s the first other Yokoyama I’ve met (beyond my own family and relatives). Yokoyamas are all awesome, naturally.
This wasn’t exactly meeting up with a familiar face, but we have definitely missed our favorite taco truck! We had to make a stop in Oakland to get our fix of those amazing al pastor, chicken, and carne asada tacos (plus lengua for Dan).
Revisiting our favorite taco truck!
While we were shocked to see how much their prices have gone up in the past two years, the tacos definitely hit the spot!
Up there among our top most-anticipated moments of our visit was seeing a couple of our dearest friends, Tarrin and Jason, and their newborn son Theo! He was only two months old when we got to see him, and I was euphoric holding that teeny baby and sniffing his head. That newborn smell is so intoxicating! (Before you write me off as a complete nutcase, I urge you to try sniffing a newborn head sometime — I’m pretty sure you will agree with me.)
Meeting baby Theo for the first time. Tarrin and Jason make a pretty cute baby!
After eating dinner at Mintleaf, they took us to a new (to us, at least) dessert place in Alameda called Cookiebar!
Vietnamese coffee ice cream at Cookiebar. Amazing.
Mirei was loving the ice cream!
Going in for another bite!
We miss you guys so much! You can bet I had a hard time letting that baby go… I almost carried him off with me to our car.
Selfie with Mirei when she refused to go to bed that night.
On our last day, we spent the evening with Dan’s family after we came back from Fairyland in the afternoon. Mio had fun helping Grandma prepare dinner for everyone!
Mirei at the San Lorenzo house, after we came back from Fairyland on our last full day in NorCal.
Mirei thoroughly enjoying her yogurt.
Yogurt-mouthed little lady.
Helping Grandma making California rolls for dinner
Mio and Grandma in the kitchen
Family dinner on our last night. Dan’s mom prepared quite a feast!
Mio saying goodbye to Grandma. She misses her so much!
…as she does Grandpa, too.
Mio messing with Mirei. I think she wanted Grandpa all to herself!
Saying goodbye to the grandparents
Saying goodbye to Uncle Ted the morning we left for Los Angeles. Thank you Ted & Jackie for being such great hosts for us during our stay!
We grabbed an “It’s It” at a rest stop on our drive down. We couldn’t leave Northern California without eating one!
I’m finally wrapping up on posting on our trip to California from earlier this month! Besides getting to spend a lot of time exploring San Jose, Monterey, and the San Francisco Zoo with Dan’s parents and visiting our dear friends in El Cerrito, we got to also spend some time seeing some of our favorite familiar faces in the area and eating at our favorite spots! There were some delicious eats that I had seriously been missing and craving, so I’m so glad we could get a fix while catching up with some of our dearest friends!
Catching up with Uncle Ted in Alameda over lunch.
The samosa salad at Burma Superstar. Never disappoints!
Another favorite from Burma Superstar: garlic noodles with BBQ pork.
Checking out the toys at Tot Tank in Alameda.
Bay Area newcomer Junko trying pho for the first time!
I’m so glad we could see Junko in Sunnyvale! We hadn’t seen each other in almost five years, since our wedding back in 2008!
A trip to the Bay is not complete without a visit to our favorite taco truck in Oakland!
It was great visiting the Kims so we could catch up with Sung Kook and Kayo…
…and see their adorable sons JinWoo and SunWoo again!
Sung Kook loves Mio, and she can tell… she was stuck to him the whole time we were there!
I really missed their pomegranate chicken, among their other delectable bites…
And since we were on College Avenue in Berkeley, we had to stop by Ici for their amazing frozen desserts!
So happy to be reunited with Tarrin in one of our favorite spots in Berkeley… 🙂
Lovely foil stamped labels for my baked goodies, cherry blossom pen, and macaron-shaped trinket case, all wrapped in matryoshka doll wrapping paper to boot! Thank you Tarrin for somehow gathering all of my favorite things. â¤
We also got to try the awesome yÅshoku restaurant Usagi in San Mateo and see some of our favorite faces from Nakayoshi! Special thanks to Sam for organizing the dinner and making the reservation.
ボンゴレ（ã‚ã•ã‚Šã®ãƒ‘スタ）~ Some of the best vongole pasta I’ve ever had!
We missed this beautiful couple!
Mio with Uncle Graig. Probably one of her most favorite people in the entire world… 🙂 She’s always giggling and smiling ear to ear when she’s with him!
Loved seeing everyone again!
It always feels like our time with friends is too short (especially taking into consideration toddler bedtime), and we wish we could have stayed longer with each of our friends, but we were so happy that we could see them again even for a short time! We are truly sorry for all of those who we were unable to see because of our limited schedule, but rest assured that we will be back soon enough to visit again! :) Thank you also to all of our friends who showered Mio with such thoughtful and generous early birthday gifts… it was totally unexpected and so sweet of everyone. ♥ Our family is so blessed just to have the pleasure of knowing all of you!
Today we spent the earlier part of the day at Marina Park in San Leandro, picnicking and BBQ-ing with friends. Here are some pictures and video of all the Memorial Day fun! (We forgot to take our camera, so they’re all from my camera phone, but better than nothing!)
Mio sported some fabulous bell bottoms for the occasion.
I baked green tea cupcakes to bring to the picnic…
Matcha green tea cupcakes with green tea frosting.
Eating at the picnic table.
Mio chowing down on some watermelon.
Good food and good company!
As usual, Mio had a grand time on the swing.
JinWoo was pushing around his toy car, when Mio (in her typical bossypants fashion) hopped onto the seat. Luckily, JinWoo was a good sport and pushed her around the picnic area, taking Mio for a joyride. It was quite a cute sight for everyone to see!
Ohhh I can't take the cuteness!
Of course, the adults had to chase them around to prevent some potentially dangerous crashes…
They're such cute friends! Thank you JinWoo for pushing Mio around!
I’m sad that the long weekend is already coming to an end, but I’m glad that we could spend it in good company with friends! 😀
On Saturday, our little family took a trip to the Oakland Zoo! I’d never been, and had been telling Dan that we should take Mio once the weather got warmer — since Saturday was surprisingly warm, we seized the opportunity to finally go! Our friends Kayo and Sung-kook and their 16-month old son Jinwoo also happened to be free that day, so we invited them to come with us.
I grew up going to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, which is pretty impressive and much larger, but I really enjoyed visiting the Oakland Zoo for the first time. It was very clean, well-maintained, and very child-friendly — there were lots of open areas where children could run around and climb onto animal sculptures, and a petting zoo where they could actually touch some of the sheep and goats. I think the more intimate size of the zoo actually works in favor for parents with young children, because you can get through the whole zoo (or a lot of it, at least), without getting too exhausted but still be able to see all the animals that kids love to see (monkeys, giraffes, lions, tigers, elephants. etc.).
It was of course Mio’s first time at the zoo, and although she’s a little too young to truly appreciate it, she definitely seemed intrigued (and at times, perplexed) by some of the animals at the zoo. Here are some of my favorites from the photos we took at the zoo!
Showing Mio the tortoises
16 month old Jinwoo
Jinwoo saying hi to Mio. "Long time, no see!"
Mio and Jinwoo playing with the "snake eggs"
Mio and Daddy at the petting farm section of the zoo.
Mio looking at the sheep.
A very cautious Mio petting the sheep.
Daddy took Mio right up to the goats.
She looks quite apprehensive...
Brows furrowed to the max!
The giraffes at the Oakland Zoo
A family picture.
Kayo, Sung-kook, and Jinwoo... soon to be a family of four!
A tiger with magnificent stripes!
We ended our trip with the lions - the king of the jungle!
You can see the full set of photos we took on our outing to the Oakland Zoo in the slideshow below:
Mio got to attend a friend’s birthday party for the first time this Saturday when her friend Jinwoo turned one year old! We had a great time celebrating Jinwoo’s first birthday with his family and friends.
Taking a look at all the adorable photos from Jinwoo's first year.
The birthday boy with his grandma.
Mio with her signature pouty face, about to cry. (I think she was alarmed by all the people.)
Getting lots of love from Grandma and the other ladies at the party.
Daddy taking good care of Mio.
Jinwoo is twice Mio's current age!
As part of the Korean tradition of doljanchi celebrating the birthday of a one year old, Jinwoo dressed up in Korean attire and chose an object that would foretell his future.
Objects for Jinwoo to choose from, which will foretell his destiny.
Jinwoo looking oh-so-handsome in his Korean traditional attire.
Kayo explaining the doljanchi tradition.
Jinwoo walking over to choose his object.
See what he picked in the video below!
He chose a calculator! Meaning he will be a mathematician or scientist!
The Japanese have a similar tradition... I wonder what Mio would pick?
Jinwoo's cousin Emme... the most adorable three-year-old!
Mio and I while playing Bingo.
The birthday cake!
Jinwoo with his new Cookie Moster doll, one of his birthday gifts!
Jinwoo likes to clap these days... it's the cutest thing ever!
The older kids attempting to bring down the pinata.
Mio was too young for the pinata, so she stayed indoors sitting pretty.
Daddy's Girl.
John and Megumi are expecting a baby girl around Christmas time! Can't wait for their little one to arrive!
Snapping a quick family photo.(We don't have very many of the three of us, since one of us is usually behind the lens.)
Mio was pooped after all the partying. She passed out just before we left the birthday party.
Special thanks to Jinwoo and his family for having us over for his first birthday party! We had a wonderful time, and we can’t wait to see all the wonderful ways in which Jinwoo will continue to grow. 🙂
