Summertime BBQ's

One of the things we love most about summer are the long days, warm evenings, and bbq-ing!  Thanks to John's Father's day presents - a charcoal grill with a smoker and new gas grill - we've been enjoying many evenings with bbq.  Our Friday nights used to be going out to dinner after work, but have morphed into amazing meals that John (with the help of Landon) has bbq/smoked.  He has become really good and has discovered some really amazing recipes.  He's learned to start putting random things together that mold into great flavors.  Shani loves coming home after working all day to the smell of bbq smoke on the boys (and charcoal smudges on Landon).

We've also enjoyed the time of bbq-ing with friends.  Just a couple weekends ago we had a Tri-tip weekend with friends.  We say Tri-tip weekend as John smoked a tri-tip Friday night for dinner, we then had tri-tip for dinner at the Michelle and Peter's, then had tri-tip sandwiches with Karin and Zach.  We are not complaining as we love our red meat and each was prepared differently.  It's just funny how things work out sometimes.

We had a blast getting together at Michelle and Peter's with Liz and Josh and the kids.  It had been quite awhile since this Cal Poly gang had spent time all together.  The kids are getting so big and it was so much fun watching them play together.  It made us nervous as we all talked about adding more children to our group but also the realization that us adults might soon be outnumbered.  What a scary thought!  Although we don't get enough time together as we stretch from Ripon to Roseville, it's these special times together that make up for the lack of time we do get.

Landon, Claire, and Lucas

John and Landon playing basketball with Lucas

Sophia, Lucas, Landon, and Claire

It was also a great bbq with Karin and Zach and our kids.  We swam, ate a lot of food, and relaxed.  Since we were at Shani's parents house the kids have endless things to do outside which allowed us to sit at the table and chat while they did their own thing.  The boys can be so adventurous and independent, which is adorable but can also be scary. 

Playing at the drinking fountain

Landon loves his corn

August and Landon up at the gazebo by themselves

As you can see we've done some fun summertime bbq-ing!

Landon helping Nonni with our yard

Landon, August, and Georgia riding to the park

Landon found his new car while shopping with Nonni (on clearance hence the pink)

End of June, 4th of July, and Our 8th Anniversary

It’s already the middle of July, sorry again for the long delay.  Here’s what’s been going on in the last month. 

Landon is 17 months old!  He is weighing about 24 lbs (we think that’s what our scale said the last time he stood on it) and is about 31.5 inches tall.  He still only has 8 teeth, but one of his molars is trying to make its way through.  He continues to get up 2-3 times a night which is no fun, but that’s even something we are used to now (but wouldn’t mind changing).  He’s starting to talk more and more but most of the time only those of us who are around him all the time can understand…and even then it’s tough.  Our favorite sayings of his are “uh-oh,” “there it is,” and “one minute.”  His “ya” with the shake of a head is very adorable too.  Not that we don’t enjoy some of the other things he says, these are the cute(est) ones.  Our big boy also loves to point where Mochi has gone "poo-poo" which has led him to telling us when he's either going to go or has gone poo-poo.  With this, he has been going "pee-pee" before his bath on command.  We've decided to buy him a little potty with the hopes to start the potty training process.  We aren't pushing it, but are going to go with it since he's showing the signs.  He continues to love swimming and anything having to do with water (messing with Papa’s sprinklers).  We also love watching his imaginary play.  He loves “cooking” with us and at times by himself when we aren’t doing it, stacking blocks, and pushing his trucks around the house.  Lando’s also continues to copy-cat everything: climbing up the ladder with pvc pipe like Papa did to put up misters, pretending to use our camelbaks as a hose, washing his motorcycle rocker like we do the car.  So many fun things that we love watching him do.

Handing Papa the hammer

Getting a ride on Nonni

Washing his motorcycle while we are washing the car

Yogurt face

Go Cal Poly!

End of June:

BBQ with the old soccer girls: A few of us from our old soccer team got together for a BBQ. We decided to have a swim party but of course it was the crazy weekend in June that was quite cool and swimming didn’t sound like much fun.  The boys did jump in for a bit, but otherwise we just sat and relaxed.  We wish more of us could have gotten together, but we still had a great time.

Liz, Paco, Giovani, Jenae, Marcos (Kelly and Levi had already left)

Hoe down at Chris and Kat’s:  Since it had been awhile since going to the Folsom Rodeo, Chris and Kat decided to have people over for a Hoe-Down before heading to the Rodeo.  We passed on the Rodeo but had a great time hanging out with everyone.  Yes, dressing up was required.  Thanks to Landon’s babysitters who are cowboy boot fans, Shani was able to borrow a pair and John waited an extra day to cut his hair so he could style it "correctly."  Landon then joined in the cowboy attire for a few pictures.

Our Little cowboy

McKinley Park with Sophia and Liz:  It has been ages since Shani has been able to get together with Liz and Sophia and it worked out perfectly to meet at McKinley park.  The last time Landon and Sophia had seen each other was probably before they were walking and maybe crawling.  Thankfully it hadn’t been that long since we’ve seen Liz, but it was still much too long.  The kids had a great time at the park together as did the mommas!  Our little signing buddies kept signing “more” for the swings.  So cute!

"more" swings

Landon and Sophia

Sac Zoo with Michelle:  Landon’s wonderful babysitter took him to Sac zoo when she watched him one day.  They had a great time running around and going on the carosel.  Landon loves the birds since they move often and usually make a lot of noise.  We are sad Michelle will be leaving us at the end of summer, but she’s been a huge part of Landon’s life for the past 5 months and we couldn’t be more thankful!

4^th of July: 
As always we spent of the 4^th of July around the pool (and volleyball court) at Nonni and Papa’s house.  This year was a much more relaxing year for us.  Not sure if it was because we had less entertaining to do or if Landon being older made it easier.  Who knows, but we had a great day.  Great Grandma Hori and Uncle Bry also made it up for a visit.  We haven’t made it down south in awhile so it was so much fun having them up.  Plus Landon’s grown so much since his 1^st birthday when they were here last.  Happy late 4^th of July and God Bless America!

Landon riding Kobe

Landon getting Japanese crackers from Great Grandma Hori

Great Grandma Hori, Uncle Bry, and Landon

Kelley Cousins: Wes, Amber, Chris, Kat, Misty, Steve, Marcie, Cole

Parker, Grace, Landon, Gabby, and Avery playing with ice

8^th Wedding Anniversary: 
Although we don’t officially celebrate until the 17^th, we had an early anniversary trip together as family.  On July 5^th we headed to San Luis Obispo for the night.  We stopped by our winery in Paso (for Shani) then Firestone Brewery in Paso (for John), before heading to Thursday night market in SLO.  This was our first visit with Landon and we were so excited to make it on a Thursday.  Although the time in SLO was much shorter than we would have liked, we at least made it.  Aunt Margaret drove up to eat dinner at Farmer’s with us which was a lot of fun.  Landon (and John) went down the bouncy slide that was actually fairly tall (two stories?).  The first time Landon went down with John and the second time he went down on his own.  He kept signing more but we couldn’t spend all night at the slide…well he could but John was getting tired climbing up to the top.

Thursday Night Market with Auntie Margaret

Farmer's Market Food!

The next day we woke up and hiked Bishop’s for ole-times-sake.  We also needed a little work-out because the hike we were doing later wasn’t quite “hard enough” to be a work-out.  We didn’t spend much time at the top--we remembered having more space to walk around up there but when you have 16 month old there isn’t much space.  After that we made it to Firestone’s for tri-tip sandwiches and off to Big Sur for back-packing.  We decided to take Landon back-packing overnight where John proposed.  For us it has been 9 years since we’ve been there.  It was just as beautiful as we remembered, but there was much more poison oak.  We survived without getting it thankfully!  The hike was a nice little one (although a bit tougher than we did remember) and also a great time as a family.

Our little hiker (Daddy insists on bring Woody, not Landon)

Bishop's Peak

Landon pretend cooking

Landon helping Daddy start a fire

The river we had to keep Landon from falling into

Big Sur

We then got up Saturday morning to drive to Monterey.  We stopped and walked around Carmel a little bit before checking in early for Landon to nap.  John was sweet and booked a room at the Monterey Hotel on Cannery Row.  We never usually spend that much on a hotel but for the first time we actually felt we got our monies worth.  We checked in early, showered, and took naps before the official check-in time plus we were walking distance from everything we planned on doing.  We walked Cannery Row, Landon put his feet in the sand, and we had an amazing dinner (thanks Grandma Hori and Nonni and Papa).  The dinner was at a bit fancy restaurant and lasted way too long for having Landon with us (2 hours!) but he actually did great.  The next morning we woke up and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Landon had a great time although it wasn’t looking at the things we felt we paid the money for, but what did we (Shani) expect?  He loved the sardines swimming around in circles, the kelp tank, and the touch pools except he wanted to pull things out and they had to stay in the water.  He also had fun looking at the otters with daddy. He could care less about the penguin feeding and jellyfish.  His most favorite part was chasing a pigeon outside which had nothing to do with the aquarium.  Oh well. It was a very fun and quick trip down and then up the coast but we had a great time.  We’ve really enjoyed spending more time as a family lately...and in a relatively stress-free way. It's been perfect.   It’s so nice to feel like we are in a smooth rhythm of things lately.  Hopefully we can keep this going for a bit longer!

Landon getting used to walking on sand

One of Landon's favorite exhibits at the aquarium

Loving the touch pools, but breaking the rules

"there it is" -Landon pointing to the penguin

Lastly, we just got back from a quick overnighter backpacking trip in Desolation Wilderness area (near Lake Tahoe) to Sylvia Lake.  We are trying to get as much back-packing in as we can this summer.  We figured once more kids are added to the mix it will be awhile before we can go again (no more kids yet!).  The trip started off great with breakfast in Placerville with Nonni and Papa then to the trailhead.  Nonni and Papa joined us for a couple miles before heading back home.  We then hiked the last three miles in.  It then started getting rough.  There is nothing more Shani really hates while hiking than mosquitoes (well maybe rattlesnakes) and we were getting swarmed (by her standards).  We tested out our new “natural bug spray” which actually worked well.  But they were still everywhere.  Add that to a headache and being tired, it was almost going to be a no fun trip.  However, John found a place to pitch the tent that was about 30ft higher up the mountain side and 100 feet off the lake that was almost mosquito-free.  Yay, Daddy saved the day!  We then had a good dinner and headed to the tent to keep from being mosquito dinner.  We got up bright and early (5:45am) the next morning thanks to Landon and packed up to hike out.  Definitely another fun trip as a family! 

Papa, Nonni, and us at Lyon's creek trail

Where we set up camp at Sylvia Lake