we just got back from a long weekend in san diego.  we flew down there for auntie barbara’s graduation and decided to stay and make a mini-vacation out of it.  auntie barbara earned her masters in nursing, she is a member of a couple of honor societies, and she did all that while working full-time. i have the smartest auntie ever!  and now that she is a nurse practitioner, she can write me prescriptions for some good stuff

here’s a quick recap of my san diego trip.

5/19 (thursday): mama, daddy, and i met grandma, grandpa, and uncle randy at the airport and we all flew to san diego together.  dropped off our stuff at auntie barbara’s house, and then we all had lunch at the cheesecake factory.  went back to auntie’s for a nap.  mama woke me up so that we could catch the end of auntie’s grad reception at the mission bay yacht club, but it was over by the time we got there

5/20 (friday): attended the school of nursing commencement ceremony.  went to lunch at maria maria (carlos santana’s restaurant).  i slept through the entire lunch, but i heard it was delicious.  after my nap, we went to sea world for about 5 minutes.  we thought it closed at 10pm, but it turned out that it closed at 6pm.  we decided to leave and come back the next day.  so instead, we went to kate sessions park where i played in the playground, ran around the grass, and made friends with some dogs.

5/21 (saturday): sea world!  i loved the penguins, life-size elmo, and elmo’s flying fish ride.  (i even got to make our elmo pig fly by pulling on the lever.)  i hated the beluga whales and other giant sea creatures when they got up close and personal.  (it was okay to see them swimming around at sea level, but when they swam right next to me in the underwater viewing area it sort of freaked me out).  i was indifferent about shamu and the sleeping polar bear.  i wish mama had brought my swim clothes to sea world because there was a water attraction that i really wanted to play in.  she said she didn’t bring it because the weatherman told her that it was going to be overcast and cloudy.  he lied.

5/22 (sunday): flew home.

my san diego highlights:

• getting to spend the whole weekend with grandma, grandpa, auntie barbara, and uncle randy (who i usually only get to see for a couple of hours at a time)
• the big pile of presents that were waiting for me when i arrived at auntie barbara’s house!  i thought she was confused because it wasn’t my birthday or anything but she said she wanted me to have things to play with while i was visiting.  (little did she know that her coasters, refrigerator door, and rock band drumsticks were all the entertainment that i would need.)
• riding on (shuttle) buses to and from the airport parking lot, terminal, and car rental place
• swinging on the bid kid swings!  (mama always thought i hated swings, but i just hate baby swings.  i love swinging by myself on the bid kid swings!  ’bout time that she figured that out.)
• making daddy chase me up and down the big grassy hill at park.  i wore him out
• taking the elevator in auntie’s building up and down from the underground garage to her condo
• getting to share a room with mama and daddy.  i even got to sleep in their big bed for a little while.  (auntie got me a pack ‘n play to sleep in, but it was cramping my style.  so mama put me to sleep in the big bed, and she moved me to the pack ‘n play after i was conked out.)

my san diego lowlights:

• no koda.  i missed him a lot and asked about him all day, every day.
• sleeping through auntie’s reception at the mission bay yacht club
• not having my sun hat at sea world.  mama didn’t bring it because the weather man told her that it was going to be overcast and cloudy.  it was warm and sunny for most of the weekend.
• not getting to take a photo with elmo or even give him a high five.  the line was closed by the time we got there.  at least i got to wave to him and big bird.
• getting stuck on the tarmac for 1.5 hours before our plane ride home.  good thing i had lots of snacks to eat and bubbles to play with.  (who blows bubbles on an airplane?  mama is so silly!)

people in san diego are so nice.  like, when i went to the bathroom (in the airport) with mama, all the ladies in line in front of us offered to let us go ahead of them because they thought that i had to go potty and they didn’t want me to have an accident.  and, when mama dropped her jacket at sea world, she retraced her steps and found it hanging on a post right where she dropped it — with her iphone still in the pocket!

we had such a fun trip to san diego.  thanks for letting us stay with you, auntie barbara.  and congratulations on earning your masters degree — we are sooo proud of you!

we’re baaack!  i just spent a week in a tropical paradise.  warm.  sunny.  beautiful.  maui.  i went with mama, daddy, logan, auntie cheryl, and uncle greg.  we lived like ballers at the westin in a 2 br / 2 bath villa with a full kitchen and an ocean view.  thanks auntie cheryl for booking such fancy digs for all of us!

hope you all missed me!  here’s a quick recap of what i did all week.  (and here are a few teaser photos.  uncle greg took some more, and maybe he’ll let me post a few after he gets around to uploading them.)

11/13 (saturday):  flew to maui.  aloha maui! with the time change and all, we didn’t have time to do much besides shop for food/supplies and pick up dinner.

11/14 (sunday):  swam in the hotel pools.  (one of them even had a pirate ship in it!  it was supposed to be just for us kiddies, but mama and uncle greg went down the water slide with me and logan, anway.  how come they don’t follow the rules?)  walked around the lahaina center and downtown lahaina.  lunch at longhi’s.  took a long stroll along the beachwalk to whaler’s village and had dinner at cane and taro.

11/15 (monday):  played at the beach.  took a drive to kihei to find some good waves for mama to surf.  ate lunch at pita paradise.  by the time we finished lunch and made our way to the beach, the surfboard shops were closing.  no surfing for mama   on the way home, we stopped at foodland for more snacks and supplies.  dinner at puleho, a restaurant in our resort.

11/16 (tuesday):  smashed my fingers in one of the heavy doors in our villa.  bad bad door.  my fingers turned purple and i wasn’t moving them (and i was screaming for a looong time), so mama was worried that my fingers might be broken.  went to a nearby clinic to get checked out.  was referred to a orthopedist for x-rays, but the wait was several hours long.  so we left.  went back to the villa to get the tai clan, then drove out to wailuku.  lunch at beach bum’s and spent the afternoon at maui ocean center (aquarium).  back to whaler’s village for dinner at leilani’s on the beach with mama and daddy’s friends (auntie ev, uncle john, and uncle john’s sister jackie).

11/17 (wednesday):  lunch at aloha mix plate.  walked around lahaina cannery mall.  kid swap (i hung out with the tai clan while mama and daddy went scuba diving, and logan spent the evening with us while auntie cheryl and uncle greg went out for a fancy romantic dinner).

11/18 (thursday):  shopping in lahaina.  shave ice at ululani’s (where mama and uncle greg were filmed for a travel segment and got free shave ice!).  lunch at star noodle.  played on the beach.  dinner at hula grill.

11/19 (friday):  packed up.  picked up lunch at whole foods.  flew home.  aloha, maui!

i know what you’re thinking.  yes, we ate — a LOT.  and while it’s true that between my naps and logan’s naps, we spent a lot of time relaxing around the resort, we did lots of other stuff too.  here are some highlights (and lowlights) from the week.

my maui highlights:

• playing in the water (pools, fountains, ocean waves, doesn’t mater — i love water!).
• fire (tiki torches everywhere)
• hanging out with birds (one even came in from our balcony into our villa!)
• visiting the giant koi fish in the pond
• morning strolls with daddy
• staying up waaay past my bedtime almost every night
• trying lots of new foods (cheese bread, jalapeno corn bread, seared ahi pita, spicy BBQ sanwich, etc.)
• making friends everywhere (i smile and wave and everybody, so everyone is extra nice to me.  the flight attendants even gave me a banana and a carton of milk, and washed my juice cup — without being asked!)

my maui lowlights:

• the bad bad door smashing my fingers

mama and daddy’s maui highlights:

• watching me have the time of my life splashing in the ocean surf
• scuba diving with a giant sea turtle (daddy says that the turtle was bigger than him and that it tried to eat mama!)
• mama getting to be a movie star and getting free shave ice!
• all the yummy food
• mama’s spa outing with auntie cheryl
• spending quality time with the tai clan
• evening with my practice little brother (a.k.a. samurai tai)
• long flight being easier for me than anyone anticipated
• me adjusting to the time zone pretty easily (i didn’t wake up at 4:30am — yay me!)

mama and daddy’s maui lowlights:

• bad bad door smashing my fingers
• sunscreen causing a yucky rash all over mama’s arms and legs (mama knows she’s allergic to sunscreen, so it’s her fault for rubbing it all over herself!)
• no surfing for mama
• daddy’s first time to maui, and he didn’t get to see any of maui’s must-see sights (sunrise at haleakela, road to hana)

being a kid, traveling by airplane is awesome.  you get to fly for free.  you get to bring drinks through the security checkpoint.  you get to gate-check your stuff instead of having to go to the baggage claim area.  you get priority boarding.  you don’t have to wear a seat belt on the plane.  the only bummer is that you have to check-in at the ticket counter — no mobile or web check-ins.  i guess most kids don’t have their own iphones like i do!

our family trip to socal was so much fun.  here are the highlights and lowlights from the weekend.

highlights:  staying up past 10pm two nights in a row!  freely opening dresser drawers (no child-safety latches).  eating grown-up food all weekend long (since mama couldn’t bring the special organic food that she usually makes for me).  petting sharks and stingrays with sierra at the aquarium of the pacific in long beach.  brunching at duke’s with auntie cindy and uncle tim.  but the highest highlight was having a big sis for the weekend — sierra was constantly checking to make sure i was okay, sharing her snacks with me (we even split a smoothie at bubba gump shrimp co.!), and picking up my crayons and juice cup every time i dropped/threw them on the floor.

lowlights:  southwest airlines breaking the wheel off my stroller

mama’s and daddy’s highlights:  daddy getting to see auntie jenny get married (where he also rubbed elbows with chuck “the iceman” lidell!).  mommy getting to spend quality time with auntie jo — two days in a row.  complimentary crib use and baby toiletries from the hotel.  free rental car upgrade with XM radio.

mama’s and daddy’s lowlights:  unforecasted cold weather (daddy had to go buy warm clothes).  daddy cutting his finger and having to go to the ER late at night.  delayed return flight causing us to miss uncle john’s wedding reception.

this socal weekend was sort of a trial run for our trip to hawaii next month.  these are some of the things we learned that we’ll keep in mind f0r future travels.

• airport check-in can take longer than you think.  airport lines on friday and sunday afternoons are long.  non-ticketed passengers (like me!) have to check in at the counter.  it could take a few tries to get through security (since i had so much stuff, the TSA guys dumped everything out of my bag and re-ran it through the x-ray machine).  strollers have to be collapsed and sent through the x-ray.  drinks have to be x-rayed and specially tested (the tests were different at SJC and LAX).
• schedule flights around nap times.  i sleep well during plane rides, except for when other kids scream loud and wake me up.
• bring/rent a booster or high chair whenever possible.  it’s nearly impossible to feed me when i’m not buckled into a chair.  i make mama and daddy chase me around with a spoon.
• i won’t sleep when mama is RIGHT THERE.  why would i want to go to bed when there are other people around to play with me?  mama had to hide out of my field of vision until i fell asleep.
• my sleep schedule is flexible.  mama and daddy have been dreading the hawaii time change because they just know that i’m gonna wake up at 4am every morning.  but i think if they let me stay up later, i’ll sleep in later.  we’re all crossing our fingers on that one

thanks to everyone who made our weekend so much fun — auntie jenny and uncle peter, auntie jo and sierra, auntie cindy and uncle tim, and of course… uncle henry and kiara for inviting koda over for a sleepover while we were away!  XOXO.

i’m getting ready for my first airplane ride. we are off to LA. wish me luck! (mama and daddy say that they are the ones that need luck!)

i am love-love-loooving having koda, mommy, and daddy home with me all day.  for now, at least.  but someone — anyone — better start working soon so that we continue to have money for all my clothes (which i outgrow sooo quickly), diapers (which i continue to consume so many of), and toys (which i need a lot of to keep me entertained).  i vote for koda.  anyone want to hire a crazy puppy?  he’s really good at finding hidden treats, unstuffing plush toys, giving “big hug”s, and he just learned how to “dance”!  is there a market out there for those skills?

anyway, we decided to take advantage of our family time together and took a mid-week trip to monterey/carmel.  it was our first family trip, and we were all super excited.  i am proud to say that of everyone, i packed the most stuff!  (it turned out that i had waaay over packed, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, right? )

we were bummed out on our first day because it was raining cats and dogs.  but mommy and koda didn’t let that stop them from running around at the carmel dog beach and playing in the surf.  they are crazy!  they got soaking wet, but they had fun.  daddy and i were much more sensible, and we hung out in the car where it was warm and dry.

when we checked in to the mariposa inn in monterey, we were pleasantly surprised with a free upgrade to a room with a fireplace.  yay!  we are a fire-loving family — especially mommy and koda.  we had the fire burning every second that we were in the room (even while we were sleeping).  and there was a nice big bed with plenty of room for all of us.  yup, i slept with mommy and daddy during our trip.  point, kyden!

because it was raining so hard, we didn’t get to stroll around town like we had planned.  but it was a blessing in disguise because we ended up enjoying family time by the fire and catching up on some much-needed sleep. we did, however, make it out for a candlelight dinner at portabella, a quaint little restaurant in carmel by-the-sea.  the food was good (chanterelle risotto, paella valencia, lemon-scented capellini) and the service was outstanding.  but the coolest thing is that koda got to eat with us!  the restaurant accommodates doggie diners in a special room that is completely covered and heated.  they even served koda his own doggie bowl on a fancy dinner plate with a linen napkin!  it was so wonderful to have a dinner out with the entire family.

the next day…  out came the sun and dried up all the rain and itsy bitsy kyden went out to play again.  thank goodness that the weatherman was wrong!  we headed back to the carmel dog beach, but this time, all of us went out to play.  it was my first time at the beach, and i was mesmerized by the waves crashing on the shore.  but i don’t know if it really counts because i didn’t get to build a sand castle or swim in the ocean.  mommy and daddy said it was too cold for me

we spent the rest of the afternoon in carmel valley.  we had a late lunch at allegro gourmet pizzeria where daddy said his pizza was made with the freshest ingredients ever.  that’s saying a lot because daddy has eaten like a kajillion pizzas.  and mommy said her chicken cacciatore tasted like it was homemade.  that’s saying a lot, too, because mommy loooves the chicken cacciatore that she makes.  nobody shared their food with me   after lunch, we stopped at carmel valley coffee roasting company for mommy’s daily latte (mommy said she would rather have had starbucks), and then we were headed home.

so basically, we spent the last couple of days eating, sleeping, and playing at the beach.  that’s my kind of vacation!  it was a perfect way to spend time relaxing with the whole family.  and how nice that it was only a 1.5 hour drive away.  i sure hope that we get to go on more trips like that a lot more often