12

Last month, we celebrated anniversary #12.  Since we got our little getaway back in June, we kept it nice and simple- just spending the day all together with the kids.

He slipped out in the morning and brought this home.

And that evening, he put this delightful seafood spread together.  That's bacon wrapped shrimp.  Anniversary celebrations were on his mind.  Specifically, our tenth one was on his mind.

We love celebrating big around here.  But sometimes, a nice and simple celebration is just what the doctor ordered to help us remember just how wonderful our life together has been and continues to be- past, present, and future.  Thank you Lord for blessing us with 12 years of marriage and we pray for many more to come.

Love you, honey.  :)

The 4th

Very belated now, but better than never, maybe?

Our annual Old Navy flag t-shirt family pic.  Except I got excused from the flag part.

Phil thankfully had the day off, so we decided to spend it as a family day together.  It's what often happens when both your parents are kinda introverts.  Ask Mikey, our resident extrovert.  He can tell you how it is.

We visited our town's Fourth of July celebration/carnival/shindig and came across this flying bathtub ride.  Ask Allie, our resident thrill-seeker, how it was.  She'll tell you she loved it and wanted to ride it again.  While Mommy was pretty much one and done.

Then came the giant slide, which they had always declined in years past at various carnivals and fairs.  This turned out to be the highlight of the day and they spent the rest of their ride tickets here.

Even the little guy was a fan.

Father, older daughter, youngest son.  All three had the same expression going down each time.

Again! Again! Again!

Unfortunately for him, we were out of tickets.  Fortunately for him, we stopped by 7-eleven for giant icees.  Also Trader Joes for stickers.  And a lollipop.

We were going to do the whole grilling thing for dinner but decided we were too tired.  So we let everyone pick out what they wanted to eat for dinner at TJs- cheese pizza for the boys, mac n cheese for the girls, and a salad, chips, and guac for the parents.

That night, we tried out a new spot for fireworks and had just concluded that it was kind of a bust.  Much to Allie's disappointment.  But just as we were leaving, the fireworks display we thought we'd missed started up right in front of us.  So we plopped the kids on top of the car to watch.  Jonah was pretty much done by this point, though.

Allie, my fellow firework fan, was quite pleased with this arrangement.

They all were.  Except for our baby party pooper.


Hope your fourth was great too.  :)

The Dorm Lunch

Our sweet friend from church invited us to come have lunch with her in the UCLA dorms before she graduated.  A chance to visit our favorite college campus AND hang out with a super cool girl?  (Who I actually thought was already post-college as she seems so much more mature than I was, er, am now.  Ahem.)

Yes, please!

We got there a little early for lunch, but not quite early enough to do the errand Phil was hoping to do, so we did a little walking around first to see all the changes at our favorite Under Construction Like Always campus.

The brand new Pauley Pavilion.  I asked Mikey what he was doing.  He answered, "being cool."  Uh, okay?

My kid who I happen to think is pretty dang cool without his even trying.  :)

And this girl who fills up my whole heart.

Also this girl who is my whole heart.

"Really Daddy?  You can just take as many fries as you want when you come to college?!"  (I think the Freshman 15 is still a thing, isn't it?)

Man, dorm food SURE HAS CHANGED since we were there (why I feel SO OLD??) and I'm thinking my "freshman 15" would've easily been "freshman 300" with all these food choices!  Jo Ana sent me links the night before to check out each dorm's menu for lunch and each were completely different with THEMES and GENRES of food.  Wow, I was actually having a tough time deciding.  Pho! Mussels! Antipasto! White wine something!  We ended up choosing the one with the most kid friendly fare which suited our kids just fine.

Strawberry milk!

This guy, post chocolate milk.

After lunch, Auntie Jo Ana offered to show the kids what her dorm room looks like.  They were endlessly fascinated.

Thank you, Auntie Jo Ana for showing our kids a bit of the college life, the great lunch, and the even better company!

After we said our goodbyes so that Jo Ana could finish her last final (Eek! Sorry we took up so much of your study time!), we swung by the UCLA store so the kids could spend Their Very Own Money that they brought along.  Allie "accidentally" brought a $20 instead of a $10 and so got to upgrade her purchasing power.

It took a bit of time to figure out how much he needed Daddy to spot him.  Thankfully, our cashier was really nice and patient and said we were her favorite transaction of the day.  :)

Thanks again for a great day, Auntie Jo Ana and UCLA!

The Old Ballgame

Time for the Tsais (aka the Angels' number one fans) to attend our once-yearly baseball game!  Woo!

(OK, so this might have taken place before school actually let out (it did) so technically doesn't count as summer fun, but actually still does in my book.  Thankfully it's never been about technicalities around here.)

Our Angels baseball game outing always begins with a stop at Sonic drive-in.  Because it's sort of on the way.  And since it's also sort of on the way on the way back, we stopped here again after the game for their 2-for-1 milkshakes.  This way we avoided paying $6 times 4 in order for each kid to have an ice cream at the game and instead only paid $3 times 2 in order for each kid to have a milkshake after the game.  I love math word problems.  (So not.)

In any case, we had a very happy camper on our hands.  Make that four.

And it was rally wig day!  Except the kids couldn't be convinced to wear the rally wigs.  So we wore them and let them miss out on the fun.

The kids are still too young to be embarrassed by their parents but that day will soon be here.  I plan to be prepared.  (Mikey took this one and the one above.)

Jonna not happy with the rally wig.

In fact, Jonah wasn't too happy with the crowd and the noise and didn't get what all the fuss was about so he stayed like this for the first half of the game.

He's rarely ever this cuddly anymore so I didn't mind his staying parked on my lap one bit.

In spite of all my efforts to not buy anything at the game (see Mommy's Milkshake Math above), they somehow still ended up with these.  I'm fighting a losing battle here, folks.

Because you see, he's no match for two little daughters. 

He was already a goner the day the first girl was born.

See?  Goner.

This also happened that night.

Lost in a sea of rally wigs. Except for Jonah.

The final count.

So did the crazy Tsais and the rest of the crowd make it in to the Guinness Book of World Records?

We did!

She (and he) thought that was pretty cool.

And look, he finally warmed up to the whole baseball experience!

OK, so we only made it through the seventh inning stretch of what ended up being a scoreless game, but was still a whole lot of fun memories for us.

Thanks Angels and see ya next year!  :p

Here we are at last year's game.  We didn't make it the year before that since Jonah was just born and all.  But here's the year before that.

Post Script

I almost forgot the kids' favorite part!

Grandpa had this set up in the garage when we got there.

Please notice the sign.  Spelling has never been my dad's strong suit.  Then again, he spells way better in English than I can in Korean... or any other language for that matter.  :p  Allie noticed it right away but said, "No big deal, I can add the missing letters."  And she did.  And I love everything about this sign.

The girls were pleased as punch with their very own tent.

There was also another sign for the boys on the table behind this tent along with another tent all ready to be set up.  But Grandpa hadn't yet done it because he said he needed "Mikey's help to build that one."  (Read: teach Mikey how to put up a tent.)  But Grandpa was shirtless (because it was HOT) while they were setting up the boys' tent so no pictures here of that (you're welcome).

Mikey was pretty pleased with himself after putting together the boys' tent.

Jonah, too.

After playing in their tents all afternoon, they decided they wanted to sleep in there, too!

All ready for bed...

Now they just needed to fall asleep.

It kind of took a while though.

Because sleeping in tents in the garage at Grandpa's house is about the Best Thing Ever!

But they finally did manage to fall asleep and were up again at the crack of dawn.  Groan.

Which is why this kind of stuff only happens at Grandpa's house.