Going To Mexico With The Boys

We have been so busy during the summer with swimming classes and now preparing to move this Saturday to South Pasadena I have not been able to really spend quality time with the boys. So this past Monday we were driving around and Justin saw one of those traveling carnivals on 3rd and Rampart. He expressed how it looked really fun and would like to go. The area is totally ghetto, but I have an adventurous spirit. So I told him we would go. I went to the ATM and got some cash knowing that these places are a total rip off. We then drove back and entered the carnival. I realize that there is a smart way to go these carnivals. I don't read Spanish, but I figured out that on Mondays you can either get a wristband to let you ride all the rides for free from 3pm - 9pm for $5.95 or what I decided to do is get 2 tickets for $1 and ride all the rides for 1 ticket. You have to know that even some of the crappy rides are 3 tickets. So I bought $10 worth of tickets and let the kids pick whatever rides they wanted to ride. Here are the boys about to embark on their carnival experience. The first ride we get on is the called the Dizzy Dragon. Imagine the Spinning Tea Cups at Disneyland, but smaller. The first thing you have to learn is that when you pass the gate to enter one of these rides it is a total free for all. The ride controller does not ask how many people to your party, but instead just starts letting people in. You have to run and fight for your ride. We quickly learned and just started moving to the nearest Dragon and hopped in. The Dragon we were going for was jacked by 3 Mexican kids who cut in front of us and got on. I wasn't going to let myself and kids be left out to hang dry. So I grabbed the boys and immediately just got on. The 3 kids looked at us if thinking, "What the heck are these Asian people doing?" Once we got situated 3 other kids who were friends of theirs also got on. Here is a pic of Justin and 2 of the kids we rode with. The kids were cool because I worked really hard to make the dragon spin and afterwards said, "It was a pleasure riding with you guys." The next thing Justin picked was the fun house. Here are the boys going through the maze of mirrors.

Here are the boys enjoying the funny mirrors on the 2nd floor of the Fun House. The good thing about boys is that they generally do not have much fear about doing things. Here are the boys posing on the 2 story slide that you go down after getting through the mirror maze. Here is a view of the top of the slide before you go down.The best part of these carnivals to me is the food vendors. Because I think cotton candy and popcorn is generally a waste of money I was able to convince the boys in partaking in enjoying one of the greatest creations Mexican street food vendors brought to Los Angeles. The bacon wrapped hotdog with grilled onions, bell peppers, and jalapenos. All topped with ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. Pink's Hotdogs are great and one of the biggest icon spots to Los Angeles, but I know if I ever moved back up to the Bay Area...one of the biggest things I would miss about Los Angeles is the bacon wrapped hotdogs sold on the random street corners of LA. Another one of my favorites is the street vendor Mexican style corn on the cobb. They take a whole ear of corn that is steaming hot...cover it entirely with Mexican cheese, then with butter, and finish it off with chili powder. Who thinks of these things? It sounds totally glutenous and maybe gross, but let me tell you it is sooooo good. The boys liked it on the first bite. As you can tell Dylan is speechless. Here are the boys and I posing with our dirty faces and the last of the corn. After we finished our grub on we then proceeded to go to our next ride. The next ride Justin picked was the bumper cars. The only problem with this ride is that there are only a few bumper cars and a ton of people waiting to get on. Here is Justin waiting in line to get on. Here is Dylan singing and goofing around while waiting also. This line moved too slow and our time was ticking so I convinced Justin to pass on this ride. The next ride was a lot like the Dumbo ride at Disneyland that spins around and goes up and down. Here is Justin and Dylan waiting for their turn. The good and bad thing about these carnivals is that they do not necessarily adhere to the height requirements. Dylan was easily shy of most height requirements on the rides there. Here is the 3 of us riding together on that ride. The final ride Justin chose was this super duper slide that is at least 3 stories high. You walk to the top and sit on top of a piece of carpet which is supposed to reduce friction. Hence you speed down the slide at a greater speed. I am a firm believer that you have to finish what you start. Justin climbed all the way to the top and went down one bump, but stopped himself because he became afraid to finish. I was on the top with Dylan and had my hands full. Yes...Dylan and I went down the slide too. I originally was not going to go up and just let Justin go down, but I saw some other Mexican parents taking up their young kids and sliding down together. So I thought...what the heck...if they can do it so can I. I knew Dylan would be down for it. So back to the story...I knew I couldn't get to Justin safely with Dylan in my arms with no one to hold Dylan or help me at the top. So Dylan and I went down the slide and as we got to Justin I just helped him by grabbing him and taking him down the slide with us. Looking back I realize that was not the smartest nor the safest choice, but in the end we all safely got to the bottom and had a blast. Dylan was loving every second of it. Dylan truly has a daredevil mentality. Here are the boys posing in front of the slide. By the time we got home we were all dirty as if we had been walking around the streets of Tijuana. Our feet were nasty because the kids had Crocks and I had worn flip flops all day. If you click on the pic you might be able to see the dirty feet. It didn't turn out as apparent I had hoped for. All in all we had a pretty good time. We could have gone to a carnival on Mars and we still would have had a good time. I can honestly and safely say though that we were the ONLY Asians at this carnival. Not even a Filipino. In our tired state...when I would look around to get my bearing...I could have sworn we were in Mexico. No one made it a big deal, but I'm sure people were wondering what are these guys doing here. It would have been different if we had been in Koreatown, but for all of those who are familiar with LA...Rampart and 3rd...you don't see any Asians living there. I am hoping that somewhere in their young memory banks that they will remember and cherish this day that their old man took them to a carnival and spent a fun day with them.

5 Years Ago We Were Blessed With Justin

This past Saturday we celebrated Justin's 5th birthday. His actual birthday is August 21st, but we figured it would better to celebrate early than late. Of course Justin picks his favorite place...none other than Chuck E Cheese's. To start off his birthday week Nancy took Justin over to Toys R Us to go on a shopping spree with the money he received from my parents, my sister, Nancy's mom, and us. He was allowed to buy whatever toys he wanted up to a $100. Right now Justin is into Stars Wars...so he spent everything on Stars Wars gear. Here is a picture of all the things he bought. As you can tell by his smile...he is more than content. So Saturday morning we all get up around 8am and start to prepare ourselves to make the trek over to Chuck E Cheese's in Cerritos. We pick up one of his friends...Custo...on the way and arrive around 9:30am. The good thing about getting to Chuck E Cheese's this early is that no one is there so you basically own the place. The bad thing is you have to wake up so dang early. When we get there our party planner sets us up with tokens and we make our choices on the food. After that we just follow the schedule they have set for us and hope all the kids have a good time. Here is Justin and Custo riding one of those virtual roller coast rides. Of course boys would not be boys if they didn't play some sort of shoot em up game. And of course driving games as well. Here are the Pak brothers racing each other. The reason for Justin's awkward positioning is that he cannot reach the pedals of the game. Eventually, I had to do the splits like an Olympic gymnast and push both pedals for them. After the boys played for a bit we called them over to eat some food. Chuck E Cheese made his personal appearance to wish him a Happy Birthday. I think Justin was just amused by him. Again the best part of getting here early was the individual attention we received. Here is a little trivia. Do you know who is the founder of Chuck E Cheese's? The answer is the Nolan Bushnell...the founder of ATARI. One thing we did different than prior years was not getting a cake. No one really eats it and our party was so small we opted to just get cupcakes and add candles. Justin didn't mind. Here is the party planner singing to Justin and doing the Chuck E Cheese Birthday song. Here is Justin blowing out his candles. Here is some of the footage of us singing.

His two other friends Brandon and Logan arrived during the song. Here is a group picture with Custo, Justin, and Brandon.Nancy and the kids goofed around on the Chuck E Cheese TV.Here are some more pictures of people just eating and hanging out.Some random Korean kid asked Nancy to play air hockey with him. Nancy being the nice person she is obliged and proceeded to have no mercy on him and kicked his butt. Just kidding...she tried her best to not win.A picture of the future sibling rivalry.Dylan's perspective of the table.Dylan and I goofing around and playing some air hockey.All in all the party was a success. Justin enjoyed himself. Because of his party all three boys experienced Chuck E Cheese's for the first time and I'm pretty sure they all enjoyed themselves. The adults pretty much relaxed...which is always a good thing. So another kid's birthday party out of the way and now we start planning for Dylan's birthday in September.

Nancy's Pre-Birthday

Nancy's actual birthday is August 13th, but because I have to work all night on Wednesdays we celebrated her birthday on the 12th...which is actually my brother -in-law Albert's birthday. Happy Birthday Albert!!! Unfortunately, I had to skip out on my men's group bible study at the last minute because I was not able to finish up Nancy's dinner and cake cutting in time.

I started off the evening with a home cooked meal. Nothing too fancy. I baked a salmon with some garlic salt, lemon pepper, fresh cracked pepper, a little salt, and smothered it with some basil butter. For the vegetables I took some fine asparagus and sauteed them in some virgin olive oil, minced garlic, thinly sliced ginger, seasoned with salt and garlic powder. I then finished it off with a mango chutney on top of the salmon. Here is what the final product looked like. Even the kids got a mini version of it. Justin ate most of it except he didn't care for the mango chutney. Dylan just played around with it, but I let him eat a bunch of fresh pineapples earlier because he was so hungry waiting for Nancy to come home for dinner. If he was hungry he probably would of eaten all of his up and maybe even try to steal some from his brother. After dinner I prepared the birthday cake. It's funny because on my birthdays we get a Baskin Robbin's ice cream cake because Nancy likes their cakes. On Nancy's birthdays I get her a Carvel ice cream cake because I like their cakes better. Here we are singing Happy Birthday to Nancy.


Ultimately, it's the kids who really enjoy the cakes and candles. Dylan was mad at me all day because I wouldn't let him touch the cake after we bought it. He thought the cake was for his enjoyment. Justin wanted to sit in the middle and blow out the candles, but I had to tell him he should let mommy sit in the middle and he can help her blow out the candles. Here are a couple of more pics of the family eating their cakes.