Kids first 1000 piece puzzle

Isabel and Alexis did it today. Just felt like doing it. They have such patience when they want to and when it's self initiated.

A lovely bday weekend for me

It was relaxing - lunch by the bay, 2 pool days, 2 cakes and a tart, flowers and chocolate but most of all lots of quality time with family and friends. 🥰

Alexis drew this with her left hand

I cannot do this. I guess she is ambidextrous :-)

A long weekend trip to San Diego

We haven't travelled in 18 months since covid started. We had planned to go to puerto Vallarta for a week. Given all the warning against traveling there, we decided to change our flights to go to San Diego for 4 nights instead.

Gaslamp has changed a bit for the better with many restaurants with built out decks and tons of places with 4+ stars Yelp reviews. We had a great time eating around town and did a few touristy things as well.

Here are the touristy highlights
- Thursday: taco tour and went to three places at Point Loma, ocean beach and Logan. Pretty fun
- Saturday: little Italy also got built out a bit. We had lunch there and walked to Embarcadero to visit the port side pier and kissing statue. We took the train there and rented scooter to get ourselves back
- Friday: hanging a day at the roof deck pool. Played corn hole and just lazed around to get some color.
- Saturday after dinner : played dominos and scrabble at a cool bar at Moxy hotel. It wasn't crowded and was playing great music while we played. My first time playing scrabble if you can believe it. 🤪

Food highlights were plenty
- full moon sushi for a large exotic sashimi platter. Still so good with fresh uni and chilled oysters as well. The fresh wasabi was also a delight
- happy hour at the pool house wed. Trendy scene reasonable prices for a five star hotel
- late night crepe and panini at chocolate creamery. Broke our no late night eating ritual but was worth it 😋
- meze light dinner where the Filipino waiter told us stories of his saga to find a black members only jacket that jaime was wearing that night. Also gave us great recommendation on the food. Salmon stuffed with spinach With lemon caper cream sauce was divine.
- ironside lunch at little Italy. Bloody Caesar with oyster and shrimp was just what I wanted. We also had Brazilian seafood stew. 😋
- water grill dinner with isabel and long who drove 30 min to see us. We had a deluxe cold seafood platter. I was surprised how much I liked the raw clams. Never had it before
- happy hour at la puerta on a sat 3-5. Half price apps and all drinks. Amazing. Had chicken quesadillas. I even liked their margarita.

We didn't go clubbing anywhere as most people seemed to have stopped wearing masks in San Diego at the gaslamp. We didn't feel comfortable going into any crowded places. We enjoyed our day time and early night activities and was in bed by midnight or earlier. Also was able to nap almost everyday. Was nice to get lots of rest. ☺️

We still love San Diego and especially the food scene and temperate weather. It was 72 degrees everyday. Hope to come back with friends next time.

Big girl Alexis makes her own breakfast

She loves loves avocado toast. Since it's summer, agnes asked her to start making her own breakfast. She is tall enough to reach everything she need but the plate.

We celebrated our anniversary yesterday with ...

A second shot of the COVID vaccine Moderna.
A surprise chocolate bund cake from our neighbor - it's for isabel birthday but we double celebrated
Two nicely drawn cards from the kids. This one is from Alexis. Apparently accordingly to this I proposed to daddy. She is so cute.

Spending a day in bed today recovering from the shot but happy to be more protected soon. ;-)

Happy birthday to Isabel from Alexis

Alexis drew this card for her big sis. Alexis knows she loves stitch. This is super cute. So glad I decided to have two kids. My girls are such a great joy in my life. 🥰

“Wedding of the century”

Isabel and Alexis are quite creative and created a whole scene for their LPS and a wedding between Desiree and Jake, two LPS characters they named. They made costumes for the bride and groom and all the guests and set this scene up to conduct the wedding. This includes the backdrop blue sign and the arch. Basically everything. Amazing what kids can do when they are bored or have a lot of time at home. 😬

Alexis daily duties

Alexis is super responsible and goes around making sure all the plants are sprayed and watered.

Amazing food in Sonoma

LaVier in San Rafael 

https://yelp.to/zHu9Lozkcfb

Jacob's restaurant.  Better for take out than eat outdoors for a party of 5. 

https://yelp.to/4VUYljFkcfb

Santé at the Fairmont sonoma for lunch - we had two Travelzoo coupons for 2. Amazing deal. 

https://www.travelzoo.com/local-deals/San-Francisco/Restaurant/365299/Dining-Fairmont-Sonoma-Mission-Inn

Tasca Tasca awesome Portugese food for dinner

https://yelp.to/1JVJ04Ukcfb

Cline cellars - winery was good for kids. 

https://yelp.to/PxlpOHZkcfb

Sent from my iPhone

First vacation in 14 months.

It's been 14 months since the family went anywhere. So it was really nice to getaway to Fairmont Sonoma for two nights.

We had amazing food, made s'mores by the fireplace outside on the beautiful grounds of our hotel, scored some good loot at a thrift store in downtown Sonoma and visited Cline Cellars on the way home. Amazing 80 degree weather. We lucked out as it's back to 55 degrees now. We had connected king rooms which was really fun for the kids.

New puppy neighbor

We met laika last week. she is a 3 months old shiba inu and so affectionate with our girls. I think she will get more stand offish later as she gets older. Her owner is Rose and she just started teaching my kids digital art which is super nice as well. So happy to accidentally meet them on the 3rd floor plaza.

Thanks
Lei

Pancake before bedtime

Last week, Alexis asked if she can have pancakes. It was 8:50 at night. Yes at night! Since I am happen to feed her any healthy food as long as they are not sweets, I was happy to make some. It's been 5 days and they have been having pancakes every night around 8:30pm. A new tradition! Jealous of their metabolism. Look at these happy face. See photo.

It’s a good day for democracy and decency

I am relieved. I can finally breathe again and have hope for our nation.

My wise Alexis.

I don't know about you but I have been in quite an emotional rollercoaster since last night watching the elections. Alexis just gave me this to help me cope. See photo. She is so wise and sweet!