summer memories, part two.

while the kids and i were still at the grandparents' house, my dad wanted to take us (mikey and i) deep-sea fishing.  it was something my dad and i used to do together pretty often when i was in high school and something we both enjoyed.  and when phil entered my life in college, it became the thing the three of us did whenever we visited my dad.  unfortunately, phil does get pretty seasick (but that never stops him anyway!), and so we weren't sure how mikey was going to do on the boat.

turns out, he inherited his mommy's sea legs and did great!  he had a fabulous time on the boat.  we all did.

thumbs up to a new adventure- this time out on the open sea.

see ya later, morro rock!

mikey announced he was hungry so the first order of business was to order him a breakfast sandwich from the boat galley.  i don't know why, but food from a boat galley is THE BEST!  apparently mikey thought so too and ended up eating nearly the WHOLE sandwich.  save for the two bites i managed to get him to share.

before long, grandpa caught our first fish of the day!

mikey was fascinated and especially happy about the fact that we got to keep the fish this time.  then he wanted a snack.  do you recall that giant sandwich he downed less than an hour ago?  apparently, it wasn't enough.  so i gave him a granola bar to tide him over until lunchtime.  sheesh!

not sure who enjoyed the day more, but i'm pretty sure they loved being on the boat together!

lunchtime came sooner than i expected and the boy was hungry AGAIN.  seriously, something about that boat galley food and the open sea air...

meanwhile, back to fishing...  we had been catching only small rock cod the whole morning (yours truly caught 8!) until grandpa hooked a big one.

mikey thought this guy was pretty impressive.

but alas, he was just short the minimum lawful length and no amount of stretching him out would get him there.  mikey was rather disgruntled about having to let him go.

so it ended up not being a super successful day in terms of the fish we caught, but it was definitely a winner of a day in other, more important ways.  :)

as we headed back to the dock, the crew began cleaning and filleting the fish.  and the sea gulls began descending.

like crazy.

and for dinner that night...  delicious fresh fish on the grill!

thanks grandpa for a really fun day that mikey still talks about even now!

summer memories, part one.

i still can't quite believe the summer is gone already.  call me slow to adjust, but how can three whole months be gone in just the blink of an eye?  at any rate, i'm just going to pretend that these next few blog posts are about things that just happened yesterday and pretend i'm not two months behind...  because in my mind, they DID just happen yesterday! cuz it's still early august, right??

alright, so phil had taken a week off of work in order to study for his upcoming boards.  in order to help him really study and not just spend a week helping me take care of our kids, i decided to take the kids to my dad's house for the week.  i figured it was just a matter of my getting us there and then my dad and step-mom would handle the rest.  and it worked out beautifully.  in fact, i felt like i was on vacation for the whole week!  they took care of the kiddos- fed them, entertained them, cleaned up after them...  it was awesomeness personified.

incidentally, that was also the week i found out i was pregnant again.  but i decided to wait until we were back home before i told phil.  mostly so he could be undistracted while he studied.  but keeping that secret for the whole week was tough!

anyway, so it was a pretty chill week with time just to relax, spend time with the kids and grandparents, and do nothing in particular if we didn't wanna.

we didn't even go out much this time around.  though we still did squeeze in a fishing expedition or two.  cuz that's just how my dad rolls.

we spent one afternoon at the pond near my dad's house.

grandpa and mikey conferring on a fishing strategy for the day.

this time, she wasn't going to be left in the stroller the whole time.  she was gonna fish too, by golly!  it might have helped some to actually put the hook in the water, though.

but then again, maybe not since she managed to catch a pretty good sized fish all on her own!

trying out a different spot.  and conferring some more.

and for those not so interested in fishing, there was always the option of swinging from branch to branch.

but before long, the boy got back on the job and caught one!

this time he even wanted to hold it himself.  much to allie's amazement.  or is it disgust?

not to be outdone, the little one trotted down for her turn.

and they caught one too!

following her big brother's lead...

and quickly changing her mind.

aw well, maybe the stroller's not such a bad idea after all.


mikey and grandpa managed to catch (and release) several more fish before we called it a day and headed home.  to eat steak.

a fair day.

last weekend found us at the la county fair.  we had gone to it last year and as soon as we walked onto the fairgrounds, mikey said, "hey, isn't this where i got my toy army gun a long, long time ago?"  the things he remembers still amazes me.  and the things he forgets (two minutes after i tell him) amazes me still more.

anyhow, we got to experience a little of everything at the fair...

we started off the day by letting mikey play a game and win his own prize.

and where he goes, she must immediately follow.  with a little help, a LOT of help, from daddy.

and where they go, this one must now follow too.  good thing everyone's a winner at the fishing game!

hooray...  three more stuffed animals to add to the tsai family menagerie.  did i mention that we're moving in less than a year?  just sayin'.

then we put the kids to work and had them do the family food shopping for the week.  a girl can dream, right?  heh heh, love how lauren's too short to look over the top of the cart, so she made do with her own lookout.

ralphs junior.  the kids loved this!

lauren took the job of putting her cart away very seriously.  even when the cart started rolling backwards into her.  she kept at it, trying to shove it into the other carts.  she didn't give up.  until finally her delinquent mommy took pity on her enough to put down the camera and come help her out.  but it was so darn cute to watch!  : p

settling down and getting ready to watch...

pig races!

and a duck-duck-duck-goose race!

before long, we found ourselves in this pink princess house where little girls could dress up and decorate their own princess crowns.  for a dollar a pop.

and like i said before, where the bigger ones go, she must invariably follow.  but she does like to keep it real with her dinosaur tat.

my girlie girls.  daddy did a good job decorating lauren's crown, no?

thankfully, the princess house didn't forget about the brothers who would be dragged in.  there was a corner full of knight dress-up gear for them, too.

we didn't ride hardly anything this year.  getting a family of five into this thing, for instance, would have cost pretty much an arm and a leg!

but lauren did manage to persuade her daddy to take her on the merry-go-round.

and where she goes, this one must invariably follow.  wait, isn't that backwards?  allie didn't notice at first when lauren and daddy slipped away to get on the carousel.  but she insisted on going too once she did notice.  and since i was still dealing with nausea, lucky daddy got to go on twice.

resting her tired dogs on what allie calls the "pah-pah-pah-pah chair".

not to worry, we did our fair share (get it?  nyuk, nyuk) of adventurous eating.  we warmed up with fresh-cut potato chips.

then we ventured into the chocolate-covered bacon realm.  and i started thinking going down this road may not have been such a good idea as i was beginning to not feel so good...

but on we must go!  right into this deep fried krispy kreme jelly donut/chicken patty sandwich.  ugh...

and on into this deep fried white castle burger.  one bite in and we knew a good thing was ruined.  (btw, you must know that the last two selections were all phil's doing.  i had no say in the matter as the kids and i were sitting in some shade waiting for daddy to come back with food and the above was what he presented us.)

topped off with two giant corndogs.

two street tacos and a torta later, and the fair food foray was done.  and so was i.

well, now we're good on fair adventures for another year.  see ya next year at the fair!  :)