Sleeping

Evie has been a pretty good sleeper, but we hear that this is typical of a 2 week old and that the 3 week mark is when everything changes. Most of the time, she'll fall asleep in the bassinet on her own, but she's getting a bit fussier now and wants to be held in order to fall asleep now. Here's a few videos of Scott and me trying to get her to sleep! She's such a cutie, especially when she's sleepy.

From Evie

From Evie

Summer Solstice

Yesterday was the longest day of the year and we had beautiful summer weather to mark the occassion! We took advantage and took Evie for her first walk around Greenlake in the evening. She did really well and didn't cry or fuss except for just a little when we stopped for some photo ops.

Beautiful night on Greenlake

Proud Papa showing off his baby

Evie not liking our stops one bit.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the papas out there! And a very special Happy First Father's Day to Scott, who is the best new dad there is. I think it's the cutest thing to see how little she is compared to him, and how protective he is of her already. He's going to have a heck of time when she's a teenager! =)

Daddy time!

Scott loves being with his little girl. He gets his exercise walking around the house trying to calm her down, and once she's quiet, he likes to hold her while he's reading, playing on the computer or watching TV. It's super cute to see!

Happy 1 week birthday Evie!

It has been too too long since we last posted but we figured we haven't been doing too many terribly interesting things that you would want to know about... until we had baby Evie last week! Now we have a good reason to update this blog again. We'll try to update it regularly with new photos and videos of the little one.

Our little chick-a-dee is 1 week old today! She was born last Thursday, June 9th and 6:55pm. She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and measured 19.5 inches. We went to the doctor yesterday and she's lost some of her birth weight and is at 6 lbs 7.7 oz right now, but has grown to 21 inches already! Since we see her all the time I am not aware of the changes she's going through but when I look at pictures from last week, I can see how much she's already changed.

She's starting to smile now although it's just in her sleep and at random times. It sure makes for some amusing times where we all try to get her to smile when she is awake!

Here's a pic of the little girl, all wrapped up in the beautiful pink blanket and hat that PohPoh (Grandma Ada) made for her.

Happy birthday Evie!

Fish Tacos

I've complained about the lack of good Mexican street tacos here, but I'm pretty sad too at the quality of fish tacos. Fish and chips are great, but that hasn't translated to good fish tacos. So, I decided to take the challenge and make my own. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision while we were in the market. Unfortunately, I didn't know what the cream sauce/salsa that normally goes with fish tacos is made of so didn't buy any ingredients for that. The upside is, I ended up making a killer salsa! Scott will even agree that it is the best salsa I've ever made - and that's saying a lot considering all of the salsa we make at the Yu summer bbq's. Anyway, dinner was a snap since we used the tried-and-true George Foreman grill to cook up the fish. For sure, this will be going into our dinner rotation. Next time, I'll try to make the cream sauce too!

Rainier snow shoeing

My folks made the long haul this past weekend and drove from Los Angeles to Seattle. After 24 years my parents decided to pass over the reigns on the '86 Volvo wagon to May and I to keep the White Flash alive and in the family.

Saturday we had fun visiting with Scott and his family. After pizza we went on the farm and home tour - always a good time with the little kiddies. We then visited Chateau St. Michelle in nearby Woodinville and then next door to Redhook brewery for brews and Olympics.

My parents have been curious about our interest in snow shoeing so Sunday we rented some gear and headed over to Mt. Rainier. It was a long drive, about 2.5 hours but it was well worth it. We went to Paradise area and went hiking down to a waterfall. The snow was deep and it made for an intense workout combined with the steep slope. Throughout the afternoon the weather morphed from light snow to sun to intense snow flakes. All in all very fun.

Happy (belated) holidays!

It's been awhile since we posted to our blog, partly due to a busy schedule. Without further ado, happy holidays! For Christmas and new years May and I went down to LA to visit family and friends. It was a busy week juggling all the families and friends, but we had a good time.

Some highlights from our trip:

• Explored the tide pools in Palos Verdes... tons of star fish and other creatures
• Move.com mini-reunion over Indian food
• Hot-pot feast at the Yu household
• Campbell hall reunion at the Kriegler's home
  
• Building a gazillion Ikea cabinets for Kin's new house
  
• Portland weekend trip...mmm Stumptown coffee & Voodoo donuts
  
• Tahoe mini-college reunion trip
• Frozen Green lake in Seattle

Celebrating Winter Solstice

Our favorite local pub, Naked City, has finally started brewing its own beer and can now truly be called a Brewhouse. Since we hadn't tried them out yet, we decided to walk over and toast the Winter Solstice. We thought it would be a nice way to send off Winter, and welcome the longer days, no?

I started with the Naked City Drifter - very light, slightly sweet. Kinda watery even. Reminded me of Coors Light! Scott had the Naked City Hoptricity, which he said was only okay. It's an IPA, but because it's made from rye, it threw him off. After those, we moved on to schooners of the Black Raven Wisdom Seeker IPA (Scott's favorite of the night), Russian River Pliny the Elder (too piney for me!) and the Rogue Mogul Madness (a nice winter beer).

I think the best part of beer is all the funny names.

Bench project

After a few hints from May saying, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a bench in the laundry room to sit on while putting on your shoes?" we finally acted.

This weekend we built a little bench to fit the small spot in the corner of the laundry room. First we trekked to Home Depot and bought some pine wood cut to size then over to Jo-Ann Fabric to get the foam and batting for the seat cushion. I had a ton of fun playing around with the dowel bit set that I got for the project. Each leg now has 2 dowels securing them. In no time the bench was glued and screwed together. Next we sanded all the corners in preparation for paint. After 3 coats of bright white pain we stapled the foam, batting and an old curtain that we used as the bench cloth.

I got flack for the 'architectural detail' I added to the bench legs (notches), and while they aren't 100% symmetrical they do add quite a bit of charm if I do say so myself. Very neuvo-Simpson.

All in all it cost about $25 make. Except now May has ideas for other furniture she wants to make for the bathrooms :)