Posts Tagged ‘Eulji’

Hazel is 2 years old!

Posted by Greg on June 6th, 2011 with tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Playing in the backyard

The months keep flying by – 6 months since my last update brings Hazel to the 2 year mark! She’s a total blast and sure keeps us moving! Hazel had a busy birthday week last week as we hosted Yenari’s friend Eulji in a week long trip from Korea. We spent the three day weekend in Santa Cruz, played on the (windy and cold beach), met up with Rebecca and Ewan, did lots of shopping, ate way too much food, and celebrated Hazel’s birthday. Hazel looooooves Eulji and had so much fun running around and playing with her, but somehow I didn’t get a photo of them together – drat.

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz

We’ve had a lot of visits and trips in the 6 months since I’ve last wrote…a month long visit from Yenari’s mother, a visit from my mom, many visits from my father, and a trip to Boston and Connecticut where we saw Liza, my mom, Duncan, and my grandmother. Many other things have been keeping us busy too – Yenari started a Master’s program in nursing in January, she switched from the cardiac unit to the mother/baby unit (just yesterday!), and my company was just acquired…so we each have (somewhat) new jobs even though we’re both working at the same places.

Hazel is at that stage where every day brings new words, new understanding, and just plain figuring things out that no one tried to teach her. She hasn’t moved on to full sentences, but she’s practicing her parrot routine – trying to say everything that we say and practicing lots of words.

Here’s Hazel with one of her favorite birthday presents, her bad-ass trike:

New Trike! Thanks Papa!

She hasn’t figured out how to ride it the ‘real’ way yet, but she happily scoots around our living room on it.

Hazel has become a slide aficionado, content to repeat the cycle of climbing up the playground steps, making her way as fast as she can to the slide, then sliding down…exclaiming ‘weeeeeeeeeeeeee’ each time she swirls down:

Slide slide slide

Slide slide slide

Slide slide slide

Slide slide slide

Hazel is still sleeping in bed with us, something we haven’t been able to shake. She did finally stop breastfeeding though – at the ripe old age of 23 months. While two years is still the World Health Organization’s recommendation, it sure is a difficult thing to keep up for that long – Yenari is finally free! This also makes life easier for me when I take care of Hazel at night, because she no longer holds out on eating until Yenari gets home from work. Here are a couple photos of Hazel getting her stuffed animals ready for bed:

Bedtime for Hazel and Friends

Bedtime for Hazel and Friends

Bedtime for Hazel and Friends

And to round it out, a bunch more photos from Hazel playing in our backyard…

Playing in the backyard

Playing in the backyard

Playing in the backyard

Playing in the backyard

Playing in the backyard

Playing in the backyard

Yay Hazel! Happy birthday (not so) baby girl!

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Second Stop, Waikiki

Posted by Greg on October 7th, 2010 with tags: , , , , , ,

After our activity filled trip to London, we had two days back at home and back to work before heading off on our vacation to Waikiki on Oahu.

Our trip was broken up into two phases:

  1. the first day when we were on our own with Hazel
  2. the rest of the trip when we were joined by two of Yenari’s friends from Korea – Eulji (who visited us in California the month Hazel was born and who we saw many times when we were last in Korea) and her friend Gohwoon

We arrived early on our first day and walked the couple blocks to Fort Derussy Beach where Hazel had her first fun playing in the ocean and on the beach. Even though we live in California Hazel had only seen the ocean, she hadn’t been in yet. Here she is, enjoying her time in her bikini on the beach:

Playing at the beach

Playing at the beach

Over the course of the 6 days we were in Hawaii Hazel played a lot on the beach and managed to get sand just about anywhere possible…her favorite routine was face planting into the sand right after having her sun block applied and her daily attempt at eating sand. She was initially scared being in the ocean…particularly whenever the slightest drop of water touched her face, but over the week she started really enjoying it and having fun with us.

Around lunch time on our second day Yenari’s friends showed up at the hotel. We had a big suite and all stayed together as a big, happy, Hazel-watching family. Hazel almost immediately became best buddies with Eulji and Gohwoon – I think by the end of the trip she was convinced that they were HER friends who were there for her entertainment. Here are the girls (minus Hazel who was passed out in her stroller) sampling Mai Tais on the beach:

Cocktails on the beach

The next day we went out for our first non-eating, non-beach activity – a trip on the Outrigger Catamaran to go snorkeling. Here are some photos of the day:

Snorkeling catamaran trip

Snorkeling catamaran trip

Snorkeling catamaran trip

Snorkeling catamaran trip

Most of the time on the little excursion was spent snorkeling – it was fun, but not nearly as good as the snorkeling we did on our honeymoon in the Cook Islands. After the snorkeling they let out the sails and started cruising…Hazel got totally nailed by a big wave that crashed aboard the boat and was not a big fan of the bumpy and windy ride. Here she is hiding from all the excitement:

Snorkeling catamaran trip

We had many great meals on this vacation – many driven by Yenari’s desire to eat any and all ramen in Waikiki…a place that has a lot of ramen joints – I think we ate at four ramen places in our 6 days. We also ate some other great meals…the winner was definitely Morio’s Sushi which had raving reviews on Yelp. We called early in the afternoon to try to reserve a table for dinner and they asked us to call back at 8:30pm…maybe they’d have room. We ate a late lunch to prepare for a potentially late dinner and called them at the requested hour….when they said they’d call back by 9pm if they had a table…which they finally did. By the time we made it there Hazel was passed out:

Morio's!

Morio’s is a BYOB kind of place (SWEEEEET) and it seems that all of the diners take advantage of that and bring booze not just for themselves, but for Morio and the two others working there. It is a tiny place, but the booze still adds up. We were at the sushi bar talking with chef/owner Morio, and since the night was almost over, he had quite a few free drinks already…enough that he started giving away all his extras to us – in addition to the bottle of wine we brought we drank another 4 bottles of sake from Morio. The sushi was incredible (including all of the leftover toro at the end of the night) and it was probably the most entertaining sushi dinner I’ve had…primarily filled with Morio hitting on Yenari and her friends. We stumbled back to the hotel a little more intoxicated than we had planned, but took these photos first:

Morio's...delicious!

Morio's!

The rest of our trip was filled with a lot more food and a lot more beach time. Hazel had so much fun with both the beach and with her friends. Eulji and Gohwoon were both so great with her and kept her entertained everyday until she passed out:

Hazel and Eulji take a nap

Thanks to both of them for choosing to spend their vacation with us and for putting up with all of Hazel’s inquisitiveness and all of her requests to play. We had a great trip and we all planning where the next trip will be. Here are some more photos from our trip to finish it off…

Waikiki beach

Waikiki beach

Sunset from Waikiki beach

In the hotel

Fort Derussy Beach

Kayaking

On the way to the beach

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