van.nurse@gmail.com – Page 26 – The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Ichiriki

Hi friends! I love this place:) After a long day of doing touristy things at Spitting Cave and swimming at Waikiki beach, Ichiriki was the perfect place to end the day. I’ve never been to a hot pot type of place, even though I’ve seen this type of resto around the Seattle area. I’m so glad my sis and bro In-law suggested this place because I really enjoyed this type of dining. Casual and relaxed and good food! Delicious and filling:) I highly recommend going to Ichiriki if ever you’re in Honolulu ( we went to the Ala Moana restaurant).

attempting to watch the sunset at Waikiki

Side Street Inn

Hello friends! Our first dinner with our Hawaiian family, they suggested this place for a reason. I loved the ambiance (despite that it was really crowded) and the family style eating. No wonder this place is a fave of the locals. We ordered their famous kimchi fried rice and it didn’t disappoint! Our (my hubs and I) favorite was their kalbi short ribs, so much flavor and oh so tender! I could have it every week! YUM! Their famous pork chops were very tasty too. I’m getting hungry right now just thing about the food we had in this resto. We plan to come back here if ever we’ll be in Honolulu again. The night ended with our family and my sisters friends giving Mia her bday gifts. We so appreciate their generosity.

Mia’s bday gifts from family and friends!

Back From Our Vacay!

Hello Friends! We just got back from our 12 day Hawaiian Vacation! Nothing beats a tropical vacation with family. Pure Paradise! This was Mia’s 2nd birthday celebration, we skipped a children’s party this year. We had a little brunch celebration with my In-laws the day before we left though . She got lots of birthday gifts from our Hawaii family too. Thanks to our families for their generosity. I’m so proud of my MiaBoo for being a good girl on our 6 hour flight (Seattle to Honolulu). A couple of passengers on the flight mentioned it too. Way to go Boo:)

Thanks to our Hawaii family, especially my Sis and Bro In-law for taking the time to be with us. Lots of beach time and food tripping! I will surely post more of it in the coming days. For now, I hope you enjoy some of the pics that Hubs took! He got a new phone so he’s been playing with his new gadget. Off to do some laundry folks! HA! Have a great weekend:)

Thank you Boo for being a good traveler!

Dinner at Side street with our Hawaii Family!

Give me all the Poke! Fresh Catch has the best Poke selection.

With the whole gang! Dinner at Roy’s Hawaii (last night before everybody leaves)

Happy First Day of Fall!

Hello Friends! Happy First Day of Fall! It’s finally fall here in Washington State, raining the whole day and some of the leaves are changing color. I’m looking forward to it actually because I like the coziness of the season. I’m a homebody, fall season is the perfect time to be home! I plan to make lots of soups this season. I made a list of the hallmark movies I’m going to watch, and goodies I want my husband to bake! HA..my hubs is the baker in the family 🙂 He usually will make the recipes I find! Thanks, Ga:)

We’ve been a little busy these past weeks. Riley had a surgery because a mole on his leg was getting bigger. We decided to just remove it. His vet ended up removing 4 moles. He’s recovering really well! Thank You Lord. I hate it when he’s not comfortable.

We attended a family friend’s birthday party. It’s always fun to be with friends! Hubs and I watched my favorite Christian Artists, Lauren Daigle and Zach Williams! Love them! Their music really speaks to me:)

I started car shopping because I want to upgrade my car. We plan to buy probably next year (we will be paying cash,we sort of follow Dave Ramsey’s baby steps! #debtfreeliving).

I started MOPS at my church this week. Looking forward to being with other mommies in our community:)

Hubs cooking our Sunday brunch! Mia wanted him to wear his Mickey hat! He can’t say NO to her!

Mums to welcome fall! Excuse the dirt, it was too cold for me to be cleaning outside!HA

Dinner earlier, she had fun eating ketchup!HA

I hope you will have a wonderful Fall season friends! Blessings to you and your family always:)

Bye Summer!

Hello Friends! Summer is over (sort of) they say after Labor day weekend (unofficially). I’ve been seeing lots of fall decorations all over the place and I already enjoyed a pumpkin spice latte. I’m not a big fan of it…but the hubs loves a white chocolate mocha with a pump of pumpkin spice added! It has been such a joy watching our little Mia-boo grow up. She has taken a liking to water, like most kids. It has been hard to keep her out of her little kiddie pool. Perhaps she’ll even be ready for some swimming lessons next year! I was just commenting to the hubs how early it’s getting dark again….so sad! I hope you all had an amazing summer….here comes the fall…..kids are already back to school (at least where the teachers aren’t striking ;)…before you know it we’ll be welcoming the trick-o-treaters 😉

My fave summer salad: greens,candies pecans,blue cheese,strawberry

Weekend Fun:Desert Aire

Hello Friends! We had a little road trip we took this past weekend at Desert Aire, WA! It’s a 2 hour drive from our place. It’s a small town with a pretty view of the mountains and the Columbia River. We had fun together with our friends swimming, playing card games and just hanging out/catching up. Mia loved their community pool because they have a kids section that’s just perfect for her size! Thanks to Auntie Juju for taking care of Riley and the house this weekend:)

Photo credit: our friend Lena! Thanks Lena:)

Blueberry Picking!

Hi Friends! Happy Monday! I wanted to share something we did last week, blueberry picking! Aunt Candy (Hub’s Auntie) invited us along with her friends to do some blueberry picking. She’s been doing it for many years now and thought that little Mia might enjoy doing this. We all did! It’s my first time to do this (I’ve done apple picking before) and I had so much fun. Mia enjoyed it at first (picking and eating) but after 30 minutes she went back to her stroller and rested! HA! We picked 16 lbs. and already shared some with family and have the rest in the freezer for future use (we will use it for smoothies, pies,pancakes). Aunt Candy was nice enough to prepare lunch too, we had sandwiches and fruits! Can’t wait to do this again next year!

Weekend Fun!

Hello Friends! How was your weekend? The Hubs and I watched the movie Mission Impossible last Friday night (a very rare event since we had Mia) my In laws watched her. So nice to watch and had a dinner with the hubs! What an action packed movie!

The Blue Angels performed in Seattle this weekend. We’ve watched them before and it’s really fun, would be great to have Mia watch them perform but I think she’s too young for that right now. We saw a couple of them though while we were in the mall parking lot. We wanted to bring Mia in the mall and let her play in one of the bouncy / play area kiddie place but she fell asleep in the car on the way to the place! HA! We ended up eating in the car so as not to disturb her.

My drink while watching Mission Impossible!

Mia got a new toy! A little grocery cart!She is so loving it!

Saturday evening, we had to bring Riley to the vet. His allergies are back with a vengeance! He’s OK now but we have to give him ear drops for 2 weeks. This has always been an issue for him. Mia wants to be there for her fur brother, Riley! They’re frenemies!

We had brunch with my In laws after church! I had Salmon Lox Benedict! YUM!

My Hubs cleaned the yard and cleaned Mia’s kiddie pool! Thanks Ga! You’re such a good daddy:)

Have a great week friends!

Weekend Fun!

Hello Friends! How’s your summer going? We’ve had a busy weekend with family and friends! We got to enjoy our friend’s beautiful backyard, had s’mores and other yummy summer food! We don’t get to hang out often but it’s always a blast every time we get together. We also celebrated my Sis In law’s birthday and Mia had fun with every body. She particularly loved visiting Aunt Candy’s (our host) garden. She loved picking her raspberries! So much fun to watch her do things for the first time.

Happy Birthday Auntie Juju!

Our local Park had a kids festival and we checked it out too. Lots of activities like a petting zoo, food trucks, live bands! We stayed at the beach and let Mia hang out in the water for a while! She seems to enjoy watching the ducks. We’ll have to go back sometime and swim and have barbecue.

Another hot summer day here friends, have a good day!

Summertime!

Hello friends! It’s officially summer here in the PNW. It’s been hot outside and as much as I enjoy this weather, I don’t want to stay outside for a long time. It’s so nice to have an AC, one of the best decisions my hubs and I made regarding our house. We have been doing a lot of house updates these last couple of weeks. We had our house and fence painted and we really like the colors. The painters are done now (thank God!) Riley’s been barking nonstop at them. He’s so territorial. Very protective of us. Love our Riley!

My Hubs got a Traeger Smoker and he made beef brisket for our 4th of July celebration. He spent so much time on that thing, and I’m glad it turned out so well. I hate to see him disappointed when he puts so much effort and time into a slab of meat!HA..

Our little Boo is spending a lot of time in her kiddie pool! She loves to splash and chilax in there! Her Grandma watches her every Wednesday and they go to McDonalds because she really likes their play area!

making sure she got enough sunblock!HAHA

Playtime with Grandma!

Have a great summer friends!