Category Archives: Family Oriented

Weekend in Pictures: Anniversary Get Away To Palm Springs

A couple of weekends ago, my hubby and I had a lovely little get away to Palm Springs. The first time we went as a family was back in 2011 (post here). This time it was to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. We didn’t have a set plan on what to do or where to go, other than Deon’s scheduled tee time (of course). If you’re wondering, I slept in while he played, then hit Downtown for a little shopping. We winged it the entire weekend and simply aimed for relaxation. The result was one of the best little mini-breaks we have had in a long time, filled with good food, good shopping (we even found a record store), and of course alone time with the love of my life. Could anything be better?

Our cute little room at the Days Inn Palm Springs.

How beautiful is the Escena Golf Course?

Art representing life…

My hubby’s first time eating escargot at Lulu California Bistro. I’ve had it before, so I knew what to expect. I think the jury is still out for Deon on the whole edible snail thing!

The “Best Bloody Mary Ever”, a Ruben sandwich and Patty Melt at Peabody’s Café. The food was definitely delicious, and that Bloody Mary was pretty good, too!

We spent quite a bit of time in here…our haul in an upcoming post!

Our final breakfast in Palm Spring was at Rick’s Restaurant (and across the street is Rick’s Desert Grill). Forgot to take pictures because we were getting ready to hit the road!

One of my favorite pictures of the two of us, taken at Hair of The Dog English Pub. Can’t you just feel how relaxed we are? Such a fantastic weekend!

Absolutely Fabulous: The 2014 San Diego County Fair

It’s that time of year again for The San Diego County Fair, and this year’s theme was called “The Fab Fair” featuring all things Beatles. Of course that made me happy because it meant lots of British references, and I’m all about anything that brings me closer to the UK! It took two days with my family and one day with a friend/co-worker to get through the San Diego Fair this year. As it happens every year, we were able to partake in the sights, sounds, rides, games and of course the fab food. Next year, I’m going to take my family on a Tuesday to take advantage of “Taste of the Fair”, where some food vendors offer a sample portion of one of their menu items for just $2, which is worth the price of admission itself! I spent just $10 on food that day and was able to sample five different items. I hope the pictures speak for themselves of what a great time we had at this year’s fair. The San Diego County Fair is open until July 6th, 2014, which gives you just a few more days to enjoy one of San Diego’s finest traditions, including the 4th of July!

Inside “The Fab Fair Experience”. It was a wonderful, musical feast for all of the senses.

This was an awesome interactive display of Abbey Road!

Old school records, speakers and a display on how records are made. So nice to give the younger generation a wonderful musical education!

“A Hard Day’s Night” is one of my favorite Beatles albums.

One day, we will take Dominic to England to experience everything my husband and I have. I know he’ll love it! (Crossbody purse by Bagjunki)

Food and fun await!

My boys at The Transformers display through Chevrolet. Bumblebee has always been my favorite.

My hubby is so happy to know our boy is growing up a daredevil and will ride pretty much anything with him!

Dominic said, “Dada, help me kill zombies!”

Our little snake charmer!

Prizes we won each other: Deon won Dominic the minion, Dominic won me the donut, and I won the “Coon-munk” for Deon (we didn’t know what to call that cute cross between a raccoon and chipmunk)!

Dominic was ready to try some awesome fair food…

But none of us were brave enough to try the Triple Decker Krispy Kreme burger!

My first two dishes of the day: Deep Fried Cream Cheese with sweet chilli sauce and a Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese Melt. The deep fried cream cheese was fantastic and everything I hoped it would be, but the pulled pork sandwich left much to be desired. Oh how I wanted it to be good!

Next on the menu: Deep Fried Birthday Cake and the Spaghetti & Meatball Sandwich. The spaghetti sandwich was quite good. I think I was hoping the deep fried birthday cake was a cake pop dipped in batter and deep fried…hmmm, maybe a new recipe I should try out?

Weekend in Pictures: The 21st Annual Sicilian Festival

Hope you’re had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We had a lovely day filled with being with family, remembering my father and his service, ending with a fabulous barbecue dinner, courtesy of my hubby and his new grill. But a couple of weekends ago, Deon, Dominic and I attended the 21st Annual San Diego Sicilian Festival in Little Italy. It was another fantastic street fair, consisting of great food, entertainment, sites and tradition. We almost didn’t go because we weren’t aware of it, but my mom said she saw it on the news and thought it would be a fun event to attend. Dominic especially had fun because of the little kiddie area and bungee jump. It’s definitely something we would like to come back to again annually, but I’ll let the rest of the pictures really tell the story of what a great time we had!

Alfa Romeo anyone?

Had pizza & a sangria at Landini’s Pizzeria (our new favorite pizza joint in Little Italy), then Sfogliatelle from Busalacchi Restaurants. Yum!

Dominic catches some air!

Getting some last-minute goodies at Mona Lisa.

Weekend in Pictures: Easter 2014

I’m putting together a post about our Record Store Day adventures from this past Saturday, which will be posted later this week (I’m so very excited to share my vinyl treasures with all of you). In the meantime, here are some Easter pictures, both from our family get together on Easter, and a few of my niece’s Easter outfit. Honorable mention goes to one of my cousins who made those “Peep Pops” in that top picture (don’t know who made them). Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend!

Getting ready for the egg hunt!

Mei-Lin used The Beatles bag I got for her from Record Store Day to collect her egg hunting treasures.

Dominic paused for just a bit before grabbing more eggs (wearing H&M shirt & sneakers, Zara hat).

Quite the haul!

Mei-Lin’s Easter outfit for her picture with the Easter Bunny. I’m telling you, she’s a natural for a future blogger!

(All pictures of Mei-Lin were taken or provided by Rholnna Jiao.)

Our Dapper Little Gentleman

For Dominic’s picture with the Easter Bunny this year, I decided to style him in a newsie style, right down to the bow tie. I love that my son is up for anything when I dress him, but I guess it’s because he’s only five and wholeheartedly trusts me as his mother. My hope is that when he’s older, he can look back at these pictures and can appreciate that I was just trying to ensure he had an incredibly fun, yet stylish childhood.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend and happy Record Store Day Eve!

A bow tie can make any situation a dressy affair, even when having a corn dog and fries!

Dominic’s outfit: H&M shirt, bow tie (which came with another shirt) & high top sneakers; Calvin Klein vest; Zara hat; Walmart pants

Happy 5th Birthday Dominic!

Today is the 5th birthday of our fantastically awesome son, Dominic. We have a small celebration at home planned with immediate family and a Spongebob Squarepants cake. This weekend, we’re planning a day at Legoland with his cousin, Mei-Lin, weather permitting. The contingency plan is a day at the mall with lunch at John’s Incredible Pizza Company followed by “The Lego Movie” (which will be the second time for everyone). As you can tell, Lego is definitely the theme, and Dominic just can’t get enough. You can follow our adventures on Instagram to see where the weekend takes us.

Happy Birthday Dominic, we love you very much!

One of the many Lego sets we have built with Dominic in the last three years (both in San Diego, and in Las Vegas). This one is from “The Lego Movie”.

Emmet and Wyldstyle

Happify Shares the Science Behind a Happy Relationship

Happy Valentine’s Day! I don’t think I’ve shared this with you all, but I am a Happify Pioneer. Happify believes there is a science to being happy as a person. They measure your personal “happiness” through personalized daily activities, where you will learn valuable skills to help you feel more motivated and excited about your future. According to Happify, if there is a science behind being a happy person, there is also a science behind a happy relationship. I’ll share a couple of takeaways from this graphic, and you can check it out yourself by clicking the link at the end of this post.

One thing I know my husband I do continually is talk and laugh. We were friends first, so we talk a lot, several times a day, in fact! Not a day goes by that we aren’t in some kind of communication with each other, even if it’s just to say hi during lunch or a break. Then we still have so much to say when we get home, because we just want to share all of the funny, scary, sad or frustrating parts of our day. A large part of that communication for us is laughing, and one of the things that made me fall in love with my husband is his sense of humor. There are times where we have belly aching laughs, and those are the absolute best.

Another part of the science behind a happy relationship is to have five positive interactions for every negative one with your partner on a daily basis. This can be in the form of a compliment, doing something nice for the other person, showing appreciation (no matter how small), or reliving a fun memory. My husband and I both agree that Valentine’s Day is a time where we do something special for each other, rather than making a huge grand gesture. So tonight, he’s cooking one of my favorite dishes (shrimp scampi), and I’m going to enjoy it!

If you want to learn more, just click on the following link: The Science Behind a Happy Relationship. Cheers and have a wonderful Valentine’s Weekend!

Weekend in Pictures: Discover the Dinosaurs

A couple of weekends ago, my mother-in-law was in town for a Saturday conference. So on that Sunday, we decided to take Dominic to the “Discover the Dinosaurs” interactive exhibit at the San Diego Convention Center after he saw the commercial on TV. The dinosaurs were quite large and vivid, and the kids could animate them by pushing buttons. Between the dinosaur exhibits were fun interactive parts, like The Really Big Dinosaur Dig, a scavenger hunt for prizes, and the inflatable park. While we were in line for the second inflatable park, he screamed as loud as he could, “Mama, this place is AWESOME and I’m having the best time EVER!” I guess that says it all, doesn’t it? If you want to take your kids to this awesome exhibit, they are still touring the US, and maybe you can catch it at a venue near you (calendar can be found here)!

Taken right at the front of the exhibit.

Deon and Dominic nearly escaping an attack (sort of)!

Grandma getting ready to take some pictures (like the one below).

Dominic really enjoyed the Dino Dig (there were at least three sandboxes).

There were plenty of interesting things to read posted all over the exhibit. These tidbits and facts were also used in the scavenger hunt, where Dominic spun a wheel to win cute little prizes.

Dominic pushing buttons to make the Hypacrocsaurus (high-pack-crow-sore-us) move about. Some even made sounds!

Dominic’s favorite part: The Inflatable Parks. That blur was the best picture I could capture of our little dynamo!

Our souvenir picture. Pretty much sums up our fun and adventurous day!

Give Thanks, With a Grateful Heart

The holiday season is always a wonderful time to give thanks for all the blessings you have. I’m thankful every waking moment for a wonderful and loving family, from my immediate nuclear family to my extended family of friends and relatives, and also to my blogging and social media friends. I’m blessed to be gainfully employed, which I wasn’t last year at this time. I’m also blessed for myself and my family to be relatively healthy (although we do have history of diabetes and asthma).

Heather Von St. James is a mesothelioma cancer survivor, who was originally given only 15 months to live prior to her treatment. She is now an 8 year survivor and has asked me and other bloggers to think about what we are thankful for, and to share her story to spread hope and awareness for others who are going through the same thing. You can read her amazing story here. Thank you Heather for reaching out to me, and I would like to wish you, your family, and everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Smile for Santa!

Each Christmas season, we take Dominic for his annual photo with Santa Claus. This year, we decided to try out the Simon® Santa Photo Experience at Fashion Valley. From the crowd gathered outside of Santa’s quarters, it seems to be quite the popular photo spot! Although there was a bit of a wait, the results were well worth it. My favorite is where Santa’s helpers directed Dominic to have a chat with Santa, which ended up being an Iron Man wish list.

Below you’ll find the remaining dates and hours of Santa’s stay at Fashion Valley, before he takes flight on Christmas Day:

12/13/13 Friday 10:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/14/13 Saturday 10:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/15/13 Sunday 11:00 AM 8:00 PM
12/16/13 Monday 10:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/17/13 Tuesday 10:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/18/13 Wednesday 10:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/19/13 Thursday 10:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/20/13 Friday 9:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/21/13 Saturday 9:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/22/13 Sunday 9:00 AM 8:00 PM
12/23/13 Monday 9:00 AM 9:00 PM
12/24/13 Tuesday 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

(Santa typically breaks from 1-1:45pm and 4-4:45pm daily. Hours and break times are subject to change.)

FTC Disclosure: I received a gift card as a courtesy to enjoy the Simon® Santa Photo Experience, but not as compensation for this post. Although I did receive a gift card, the opinions in this post are strictly my own.

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