Category: family

Happy Valentine’s Day, Supreme Computer Overlord!

Happy Valentine’s day! We’re keeping it pretty low key today: E is having a party at preschool so last night I dutifully wrote his name on a bunch of Cars-themed valentines and made him some dairy-free, egg-free treats so he would have something fun to eat.

Having a two week-old baby kind of put a damper on any plans to go out on the town so tonight N and I will probably get some take-out, hang out with the kids, and then settle down and watch Jeopardy!

Even though we’re total geeks we actually don’t habitually Jeopardy! but beginning tonight N’s brother Ken is going to be playing against IBM’s Watson computer. Who will win–my snarky brother-in-law or our future supreme computer overlord (or the other guy Brad Rutter)?

Check your local listings and watch to find out!

Fun with cousins

I have an aunt and cousins who live in Pusan and luckily we were able to spend some time with them while we were there. We had a lot fun hanging out with my cousin Young-shin, her husband Ji-soo, and their super cute little girl Kon-young. E was besotted with Kon-young and doggedly followed her around everywhere.

Kon-young and E

My cousin Young-shin and her daughter Kon-young

Ji-soo working the grill at a awesome bulgogi restaurant they took us to.

Ji-soo snaps a picture of Kon-Young and E at a buddhist temple.

Young-shin and Ji-soo are thinking about moving to the states, specifically Utah. I hope they’ll be able to make it work out–we’d love to have them close by!

Uncle David

My older brother David lives in Omaha so we don’t get to see him that often. But luckily he was in SLC on business earlier this week so we got together at my sister Jan’s house and stuffed our faces with Korean food and caught up.


When I was little I thought he was the coolest ever. While his fashion sense has changed a bit since then he’s still pretty awesome.

Marination

I hope you guys aren’t too sick of my vacation posts yet. Don’t worry, this is the last of them.

One day when I was in WA I took E and we drove up to Seattle to hang out with my sister-in-law Mindy and my brother-in-law Ken, two of my favorite people. They know how much I like Korean food and how I adore street food so we headed downtown to catch the Marination Mobile, a food truck that specializes in Korean/Hawaiian fusion food. It was AWESOME.

I had a kimchi quesadilla, a SPAM slider, AND a kalbi taco. (Hey, I’m pregnant–so not a word!) Ken and Mindy tried the pork sliders which are also in the above picture. The quesadilla was incredibly (and surprisingly) delicious and the slider was super tasty (Yum, SPAM!) but I thought the kalbi taco was a little too salty.

We took our food and walked down to the sculpture park and then down to a little beach where the kids had fun throwing rocks and sticks in the water.

E gets his sunglasses at the same place Bono does.


It was a lot of fun. I had a great time chatting with Mindy and Ken and E had fun with his cousins. One of the worst things about living in Utah is that we only get to see these guys a few times a year. (And that there are no awesome Korean fusion food trucks.)

At the beach, WA-style

My sister and her boys came up to WA to visit while E and I were there. As usual, E got a kick out of following his cousins around. One day we all decided to drive out to the coast but unfortunately we also all neglected to check the weather at the coast. It was 80 degrees+ in Olympia but at the shore the temperature dropped to 50-something degrees with a biting wind.

But after two hours of being stuck in the car the boys were not to be denied so they played in the sand using the van as a wind break.




Even with the uncooperative weather it was still fun.

Portland Japanese Garden

When I was up in WA we drove down to Portland for the day. It was a last-minute trip and we didn’t have a set itinerary planned but it was still really nice. We visited the lovely Japanese Garden which a photographer’s dream and then spent some time wandering around Powell’s books which was both awe-inspiring and mildly disorienting.




My mom and brother were really nice about hanging on to E so I could snap pictures to my heart’s content–thanks, guys!

Home Again

I love visiting my family in WA but home is where N is and it’s really lovely to be home. Never mind that it’s already after noon and I still haven’t showered and I have a pile of laundry to do and a kitchen in sore need of restocking. E and I had a lazy morning but now we’ve got to going.

When I was in Olympia my mom and I took E to a local playground. It’s in a great park and we like to go every time we’re in town. E remembered it from last time and immediately ran to the swings, his favorite. He had a blast.



Well, this weekend will probably be pretty low-key for us which sounds wonderful right now. We’ll be playing a bit of catch-up around the house and enjoying being together as a family again (and watching a bunch of shows saved on our DVR). After a busy week it sounds heavenly.

I hope you have a great weekend!

A Small Announcement

So…I’m pregnant! After the early miscarriage I had at Christmas I’ve been fairly nervous about this pregnancy. But I had an ultrasound at 10 weeks and the fetus looked okay, like an tiny dancing gummy bear. And now I’m at 14 weeks and finally starting to relax a bit. I know plenty of things can still go wrong but it’s less likely now and frankly I’m tired of guarding my feelings and bracing myself for disappointment. It’s been exhausting in a way.

So I’m finally letting down my guard and just going with the joyful assumption that come February we’ll have a new baby in our family.

We are SO excited.