Staycation

Before the kids, Sean and I used to take mini vacations as often as we could. We love to

travel and venture out new places. Skye experienced her first trip when she was 8

months old, we took her to San Diego and she loved it. Since then, she's already been to

Seattle and Vancouver in Washington State, Portland, Hawaii, Singapore, and

Indonesia. She loves to travel, experience new things, and try different kind of cuisines. We want Summer to have the same experience, so we took her for her first trip to Palm Springs last weekend and stayed at Ritz Carlton. It's such a gorgeous resort and from the start, they really treated us like a royal family. As soon as we arrived, they offered a chilled fruity drink and there was a guy with a big cart full of toys and Skye could choose a few for her to play with. Everyday between 12-5pm, they have a very cool candy bar, even the adults love it! The room itself, is just beautiful. We got the view of the gorgeous Santa Rosa Mountains and the bed is just ahhhhhmazing. The girls loved it and they slept late, which is unusual. We spent most of our time at the hotel and just relaxed by the pool in a cabana. You can rent the cabana the whole day and it really helps when you're travelling with kids since you can put all of your belongings inside and they also have a safety box, TV, and a ceiling fan. The weather was brutal, around 105 degrees, but we still had a great quality amount of family time.

Of course, travelling with kids is not that easy, but with more and more experience, you'll get the hang of it. You just have to plan and pack right and have lots of fun.

I have some tips on how to make travel more bearable with the little ones.

• Find a good hotel/resort that is family friendly
• Locations also play an important role, find ones that close to restaurants and markets, so when you need to buy necessity things or food for the kids, it'll be so much easier and save time 
• Pack light and bring snacks
• Call the hotel and ask if they provide cribs for the babies. Some hotels even have toiletries for the kids
• Book in advance, it'll save you quite amount of money
• Bring lots of water bottles for the room
• Don't forget to bring chargers for phones
• Entertain them with toys and books in the room
• Have fun and ENJOY!

I leave you with pictures from our first getaway as a family of four :)

Xoxo,

Lishya

About Me

It's been a while in a blogging world that I haven't post anything. Life gets a little hectic around here with two hands full of kiddos. I'm juggling in between making sure both kids are happy and well taken care of, taking Skye to preschool, gymnastic and dance class, doing house chores, preparing for our first weekend getaway as a family of four this weekend, and just recovered from food poisoning.

I think it's time to introduce myself ... Here's a little fact about me:

• I was born in Indonesia and moved to LA right after high school in '99 for college. I was about to go back for good to Indo, then I met my husband ... I'm stuck and it was the best decision ever :-)

• I have the best job, being a Stay-At-Home Mom and watch my 2 girls growing up and educate them about life. It's not easy, they always challenge me every day, every week, every month, but I'm up for it ... Always.

• I'm a clean freak, I take a bath twice a day, in the morning and at night before bed. I cannot not taking a shower and wash my hair no matter how late it is and how tired I am. One night during college days, I came home from clubbing and found out the water heater broke. I still took a shower at 3am with the cold water ... Haha, crazy I know!

• I used to do a lot of crazy stuff in high school and college and now, looking back, I was like, holy camoly, God was watching over me all those time and He still is.

• I'm a foodie. I asked my husband to drive 120 miles (it's a four hour drive round trip) away just for a slice of pie. I love looking for new places to eat and don't mind the drive. 

•  As much as I love sushi and can eat fish everyday, believe it or not I CAN NOT touch the living fish. It scares me to death. My husband thinks I'm weird ... Lol, yeah ... I'm weird like that.

• Some people thought my husband and I met in college. Actually he's 12 years older than me ... SCORED, lucky me!

• I'm good at profiling people, I can tell from the first impression if that person is sincere and personable or not.

I leave you with those for now, and will share more in the future. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of my family ...

Xoxo,

Lishya 

Hello, September

A new month, a new beginning ... Specially for our near and dear friends, Hiro and Utako from Sushi Koyo.

33 years ... That's how long Sushi Koyo was in business. It's a hole in the wall sushi place, very simple and quaint. Sean used to go there 3-4 times a week when he was a bachelor and when we were dating we used to go there twice a week and after kids, we went there every other Saturday. This place holds a special place in our heart.
Hiro-San and Utako-Chan are such a genuine couple. We are like a family, they're really caring about their customers above and beyond.

Hiro-San did everything himself, from buying the fish to making his own salad dressing. Every morning, for 33 years, he went to the fish market in LA at 4.30am. He chose his fish, cut, and served to his loyal customers. He also made his own ponzu sauce, salad dressing, and miso sauce. He had the best sushi rice and hand rolls, specially his famous Blue Crab Handroll. We will miss this place for sure, specially Skye.

Sushi Koyo is Summer and Skye's first restaurant. Skye loved it here, usually she ordered New Zealand Salmon, Pink Scallop, Blue Crab Handroll, and Ankimo (Monkfish Liver). She's also a trained helper. As soon as she's done with her dinner, she loved to help Utako with the customers. She knows how to give napkins and chopsticks to the customers, put away dirty dishes, bring oshibori (wet hand towel offered to customers in places such as restaurants and sushi bars in Japan, that is used to clean one's hands before eating), and give customers their bills.

Over the weekend, they held a private party for their long time customers and it was one of the best parties I've attended. We had fun, the kids had fun, and of course we enjoyed great food and drinks as usual. It was good to spend time with friends that you've known for years.

Congratulations Hiro and Utako! We are sad because we can't go to Sushi Koyo anymore, but also very happy to know that now you can travel all over the world freely and spend more time with your grandson. Cheers ...!

Enjoy some pictures from the party :-)


Xoxo,

Lishya