Thumbs up to Mommy

Er, actually it is a big-toe up to Mommy. You see, it was Daddy's 40th birthday last week and Mommy went all out. To start with, Mommy took the whole day off from work to play with Daddy; they drove out to Byron, CA to go on a surprise skydiving trip. Yep, skydiving, jumping out of a perfectly functioning airplane for the thrill of the fall from 10,000ft. Mommy did it too, but it was old hat for her - she had done her first jump years ago.


Later that evening, after the adrenaline had worn off and a short nap. Mommy took the initiative on a new Churrasco restaurant in Palo Alto. This is a Brazilian style of eating, whereby the waiters keep bringing skewers of meat to your table until you can eat no more. I am pretty sure all manner of barnyard animal was represented; lamb, beef, chicken and pork in addition to the sausages and extensive salad bar.

To top it off, Mommy organized a backyard barbecue (on Saturday) with many of their friends (who fortunately brought all of their kids to play with me). Grilled meat and a giant pot of chili accompanied the roasted potatoes and asparagus. It was a big week for food. Of course there was a cake but respectfully, no candles. It would've surely been a fire hazard. Daddy is grateful to have Mommy as his partner. I am happy to be their son. Thumbs up to Mommy.

Water in Florida

I thought so. It's a good thing we found some water down in Orlando. It was uncomfortably hot and sticky humid every day. Lucky for me, many of the separate resorts (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom...) had built-in water parks like this one. The fountains of water were randomly programmed to squirt up. It was my job to find out which ones were going to be active and put myself into the stream. These water activities were probably my favorite part of the trip. Oh, these and the hotel pool. The pool had a water slide and shallow entry area. I could've stayed there all day if only Mommy and Daddy would've let me.

I was happy to see all of my relatives from around North America. Uncle Ru, his wife Soomi, and cousin Toshi came down from New Hope, PA; Auntie Maria and her husband, Lawrence with cousins Akio, Maya and Sasha from Montreal, Quebec; Uncle Misha and his new fiancee, Melanie from Springfield, OR; Grandpa Tetsu and Grandma Linda from Mahwah, NJ; Grandma Mira and Great-Uncle Kevin also traveled down from New Hope. A large group for sure, but we managed to find time to ourselves.

Anyway it's good to be home. We ate in restaurants all week. Yep, that's right, three square meals plus two snacks a day were included on our premium dining plan. We tried our best, but still had left over credits by the end of the week. Lots more photos of the trip on Papa's Flickr account (see link in sidebar). Stay cool.