Aloha Festival

We spent part of Sunday at the Arizona Aloha Festival in Tempe Beach Park. We’ve never been to either the festival or the Beach Park, so I thought it would be nice to do both in one visit.

I was looking forward to one thing, and one thing only…

Hawaiian Shaved Ice!!

Terrence got blueberry-watermelon and I got strawberry-mango. It was delish!! Perfect for the hot and sunny weather.

Can you tell I enjoyed it a lot??!?

I am banning myself from the use of jeans between the hours of noon and 7 p.m. It is just too hot to wear jeans now at those hours. I would have been more comfy in a skirt or short dress (and Miggz and Daddy in shorts). FYI, Sunday’s weather in our part of the world was in the upper 70’s. It had been cooler days earlier though…even up to Sunday morning, so we didn’t think too much about wearing jeans at the festival.

As you can see in the next pic, our entire party all wore jeans. Too hot!!

At the Aloha Festival, Miggz got to hang out with Auntie Anna and Uncle Jon…

Miggz tried on some Bruno Mars-type hats at the Hawaiian marketplace with Auntie Anna.

At the Beach Park (it was actually a lake), there is fishing and paddle-boating and all sorts of watercraft. Miggz and Auntie and Uncle and Daddy went canoeing…for FREE!! I passed on this activity–I did NOT want to be in the sun doing all that work! (I must remind myself to throw in the sunscreen in my purse from this moment onwards.)

They seem to have enjoyed it!

At the festival, we got to sample some Hawaiian coconut oil and body soufflés made of cocoa butter that smelled of sweet gardenia, plumeria, mango, and other scents.

Of course, we took some home!! Spring might have just started, but gardenia soufflé on my hands first thing in the morning just fast forwards everything to summer.

And if you live in our part of Arizona, summer’s not just fast-forwarded. It has begun!

Snow Day, Fun Day in Flagstaff

We’ve wanted to go on a snow trip to Flagstaff for a while. This was a short one…just a day trip to take the kids sledding.

Flagstaff greeted us with some fresh snowfall upon arrival (it was awesome to see winter again…as it should be: snow-covered pine trees, powder-soft grounds, white-capped mountain tops). Even though our target destination–Wing Mountain–ended up being closed, the day made for a quick wintry escape our whole family enjoyed.

We–along with other families who drove up hoping to play at Wing Mountain–had to settle for one of the side lots along the road leading up to Snowbowl. There was ample parking for all, but not enough hills to sled. We had to make the most of it because of our two-and-a-half hour journey. I saw that most families with their kids also did the same. All in all, we had a blast (but we are hoping for more snow on our next trip).

I purchased our sleds from Amazon. They came in a pack of three for around $36, but I see that they have gone cheaper ($32 for a three-pack as of this post).

We didn’t get to do much damage on the sleds as we were in a very modest, toddler-friendly hill most of the day. They held up even with the grown-ups having a go on the sleds. I’m glad we’ll get more use out of them on future snow trips.

Here are some photos from our fun Flagstaff day trip…

Until our next adventure…

The Pumpkin Patch, Year Two

What’s an adventure day at the pumpkin patch made of?

For Miggz it meant…

– having unlimited viewing rights to the “baby chickens” while waiting for Auntie and Uncles to arrive

– being able to roll off as many (and as big) pumpkins as he can from the hay bales

– seeing Mommie rock some shorts in this sunny (and rather silly for Fall) 80-degree weather

– climbing up on some hay stacks (by himself!) and getting to hang out with Auntie Anna and Joci

– showing his cousin how a farm tractor works

– picking the best one-oz pumpkin from (what’s left of) this lot

– NOT wanting to wait around for the hayride pick-up

(so Daddy took him and Joci to the little kids’ maze while we waited)

– getting on the (super ghetto) hayride with the best people in the world

– NOT remembering about the super-ghetto part

– being able to run free and go through “tunnels” (when he could barely run on his own last year!)

– and finally, coming home to Gramma’s AWESOME-as-always cooking

It was a good day.

It was a good day, indeed.

We Missed the Train!

Last weekend we had planned on seeing Thomas the Tank Engine out in Globe, AZ (about one-hour drive from us). Miguel just started getting into the Thomas the Tank toys and TV series, and it was timely that Terrence had found an ad in the newspaper for this a week ago:

Who Knew? Thomas the Tank Engine was in town last weekend.

But we missed the train! Lol. Actually, we didn’t get to book tickets in advance (me being the culprit). It would have been a fun family day. I hope they come to Arizona again next year…

In case you’re interested, the tour is still ongoing. Click on the links below for more information…

Thomas and Friends – Leader of the Track Tour

TicketWeb – Day out with Thomas 2011 Tour Dates and Locations

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

 

Life should not only be lived. It should be celebrated.

—Osho

Today ends more than a week’s worth of celebrations in my family. It started with my husband’s birthday, followed by my youngest sister’s two days later, and then followed by mine five days after.

My hubby celebrated a significant birthday—his 35th. On the evening of his birthday, we went with the whole family to The Keg Steakhouse and Bar. It was a nice place…great food, excellent service. He always chooses great spots to eat, and this one is definitely worth coming back to. After dinner we headed home and lit his “3” and “5”candles atop a red velvet cake we got from Costco the day before. What a find it was! Very yummy…I’ve had different red velvet cakes/cupcakes from different places, and Costco’s is definitely a winner…the icing was not too sweet, and the cake was just nice and moist. I don’t usually eat a lot of cake, but after that night, I’ve had leftovers of that cake for breakfast (with coffee), and also as a midnight snack. So bad, yet so good.

My sister is in college, so she did what typical college kids do and threw a party at her off-campus apartment. We were not there of course LOL. Who invites family at their college parties?!?! That would have been funny.

I celebrated my 29th a little early…we picked up my Louis Vuitton travel tote last Sunday. And then yesterday, my parents cooked what to them was a normal dinner, but it certainly felt like a feast to me! Dad made sopas (macaroni soup in chicken stock with chicken, vegetables, and milk), mom fried some lumpiang shanghai (Asian egg rolls with seasoned ground meat and vegetable filling), and dad also mixed up some cocktails (vodka with orange and cranberry juice garnished with maraschino cherries). Honestly, THAT could have been my birthday dinner. But being that my two sisters live away from home, they were not here to enjoy all of that (and my little sis called mom early today asking, “what are we doing for Ate’s birthday?”). We really made no plans until today, and decided we should try Kona Grill. My siblings have been there before, but Te and I haven’t, so I figured this would be a good time to try it and bring the whole family. Food was good too, but the service was so-so at this place. I’m a little biased because we really had such great service at The Keg last week…I guess those are really hard to come by these days. So at Kona Grill, I had my first try of hot sake (I got light-headed shortly after drinking a tiny bit, and this was after my meal…LOL. I think at 29, it’s too late to break me in. I don’t—and will probably never be able to—handle my alcohol well. At the end of dinner, I got a hefty slice of…guess what, more red velvet cake, which was soo yummy-looking, but I barely had the stomach space for. Thankfully, everyone else took a bite. We didn’t even get to eat the Harry & David Chocolate Mousse Cake waiting at home that my sister-in-law sent for our birthdays. It’s okay…that means there will be more cake waiting to be eaten tomorrow 🙂