We had a very busy Saturday on Easter weekend, as we went to two Easter egg hunts! The first one was at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax, and then we headed over to the Lee’s for their now-annual (?) Easter egg hunt event!
Arriving just in time for the egg hunt to begin!
Mio’s ready to get some eggs!
Meanwhile, Mirei is pretty oblivious, happily held by Daddy…
Rushing the field to pick up the eggs!
After the egg hunt, we took some time to let the girls run around and play, as Van Dyck Park has a fairly large playground! It was so windy that morning!
Mio peering through the window on the playground
Mio dashing around the playground!
Mio climbing the rock wall at Van Dyck Park
Some of the climbing action!
Mirei with her Easter eggs:
Lunch at Tequila Grande after Van Dyck Park
Mirei learned how to dip her French fries into ketchup!
After lunch, we headed over to the Lee household for the egg hunt they organized with all their family friends! We had so much fun with them last year and the year before, so we were excited to join them again this year!
Ready for the second egg hunt of the day!
Listening to the egg hunt rules from Stephanie
Let the egg hunt begin!
Mirei participating, too!
Mio showing us the eggs she found.
Picking flower lollipops…
Group photo with all the kiddos at the egg hunt
Uh oh, Mirei’s got a lollipop…
“Look what I found!”
Sticking the whole lollipop, wrapper and all, in her mouth…
Mio & Mirei together after the egg hunt
After the egg hunt, we enjoyed a delicious Easter-themed lunch and snacks prepared by Stephanie and Chwan, and they kids enjoyed playing with all the toys inside! The grownups had a great time chatting and catching up while the kids had their fun. On the short ten minute drive home that afternoon, both the girls fell asleep and continued to nap for a couple hours when we brought them inside. They were tuckered out from all the excitement!
Last weekend was the last one of the summer, and the weather was beautiful so we spent our Saturday at Clemyjontri Park with our friends Pat, Theo, and their little girls Anna and Cara. We each brought food and picnicked on the grass and let our kids run around on the playground and ride the carousel. We always love seeing them, and we had a great time catching up!
On the carousel at Clemyjontri Park
Cara is now one and a half! She’s grown so much!
As usual, Mio was a blur running and climbing all over the park!
Mirei fell asleep being held by Daddy. Dan is tired too from Mirei’s heavy weight!
After our weekend in LA, we flew up to San Jose to stay with Dan’s parents for the rest of the week! It was a short five days that flew by, but it was so nice for Mio to see her grandparents again and spend some quality time with them. When she got off of the plane at SFO, she was really cranky and crying, but as soon as she saw her grandparents who came to pick us up, her face broke into a huge smile and she reached her arms out to them! She remembers them from all the times we spent together while we lived in California, as well as all the video chats they’ve been doing via Google Hangout since we’ve moved out here.
Here are some snapshots from when we had a family outing and lunch at Edenvale Garden Park in San Jose…
Mio trying on Grandma’s hat.
On the swing… her favorite!
Hanging out by the trains.
Love is the coal that makes this train roll.
She’s looking so grownup these days. I can’t believe she’s almost two!
Today, we went to nearby Borge Street Park for a couple hours as a little family outing and to give Mio some time to play on the playground to her heart’s content. As usual, as soon as she saw the playground when she got out of the car, she squealed in delight and ran towards it!
I mentioned before that Mio is getting more affectionate these days, and we caught one of such sweet moments on video! Here she is, giving a kiss to Daddy and then blowing Mama a kiss.
Mio with her “Dadoo.” Definitely a Daddy’s girl…
On the big girl swing with mama. She squeals “whee!” while she swings! 🙂
It’s been almost a week since we returned from our family vacation in Maui, and I’m finally getting around to uploading pictures and videos! We got to do a lot of things while we were there and there are so many photos we want to share, so I’m going to split the trip up by days, like I did with our previous vacation in Hawaii. Two years ago, Dan and I got to experience Hawaii for the first time when we traveled to Oahu and Kauai for our belated honeymoon, and we fell in love with the islands! We’d since been dying to go to Maui, as a lot of our friends (including friends who were originally from Hawaii) had told us that Maui was the most beautiful island in Hawaii — some even told us it was the most beautiful island in all of the Pacific Ocean! After spending a week and a half there, we could understand why. Maui has such a rich variety of different landscapes and gorgeous views! Last time we were in Hawaii, we felt like we experienced two opposite ends of a spectrum, with Oahu being uber-touristy and Kauai being much more rugged and rural; I enjoyed both, but a lot of friends had told us that Maui was a great balance between the two, and they were right. There are definitely resort-like offerings there, but very rugged and undeveloped terrains as well, and I really appreciated that multifaceted experience.
Our trip to Maui was also markedly different from our honeymoon trip two years ago, as we invited along my three siblings from Virginia, and because we had a toddler in tow. It was definitely a very different experience — it changed the type of lodging we stayed in (we opted for private cottages with kitchen and washer/dryer, instead of hotels), how often we ate out, what kind of vehicle we needed to rent (a minivan for our party of six), and what sort of activities we planned. Last time, we really packed each of our days full of activities, but this time, we focused on only one or two major activities/locations per day, and didn’t adhere to a strict schedule. It ended up being a really memorable and relaxing family vacation, and while we definitely faced certain unforeseen challenges of vacationing with a young child, we’re so glad that we went!
On the first day, we took an early morning flight out of Oakland airport and arrived at Maui’s Kahului Airport in the early afternoon. My siblings’ flight wasn’t coming in until the evening, so we had several hours to kill while we waited and didn’t have anything planned, so we mostly wandered around and took Mio to the local park and beach, and went shopping at Costco and other stores to gather groceries and supplies.
Our first order of business upon arrival was lunch! We couldn’t wait to grab some poke from one of the local markets…
Shoyu-marinated ahi poke… amazing!
Dan also got some wasabi ahi poke.
Mussel poke flavored with kimchee. This was also delicious!
Dan showing Mio our first look at the ocean upon arriving in Maui.
Walking on the beach in Kihei.
Mio seemed sort of stunned and overwhelmed. She just stood there, taking it all in.
Wading in the water and getting all wet!
Picking up seashells with Mio.
After some beach time, we took Mio over to the nearby playground.
As usual, she loved the swing!
Already trying to climb trees…
“How did you get up there?”
A gorgeous afternoon in Maui.
Look at this chubster’s smile! She went down the slides over and over.
Mio made friends with one of the local kids!
It was nice for all of us to stretch our legs after the 5-hour flight!
Walking around more of the beach.
After spending the afternoon running around the beach and playground, we treated ourselves to some shave ice!
wSurfing Monkey Snack Shack in Kihei
Dan can’t wait to dig in!
Mio got a taste, too!
Later in the evening, we went back to the airport to pick up my siblings (who were understandably exhausted after over twelve hours on the plane) and drove over to our lodging in Lahaina, where we’d stay for the next three days. Stay tuned for our adventures in West Maui! 😀
