Let the celebrations begin...

This weekend we headed down to the O.C. to see Mari's Family as this week is Mari's birthday (Thursday the 16th) and we wanted some yummy Mama food and to see us some cute kids.


Speaking of cute doesn't our nephew Sammy look like a big boy in this photo. The only thing that clues you in to how little he is, is Steve's hand in the left side of the photo. I wonder what it would look like if I miniturized this...

Not sure that worked, but Steve's hand looks huge and Sammy looks even more angelic.



We also took a photo of Mari holding Anna, and after Steve and Sammy joined in, we joke that Mari was standing in for Mina...

Or what we often hear, that Sammy and Anna could be ours... Why is the photo with me in it so creepy? I like how silly my head looks on Steve's body.

We had all this photo fun with my new phone that I got a month ago (after losing my Treo).

The Blackberry Pearl, the phone is great, I would highly recommend it. The camera is pretty good in natural light, and the web browser works great.

Mari received a number of great early B-day gifts from the family and count them, 3 birthday cakes during the day. A yummy chocolate ice cream cake, Midnight Delight from Cold Stone Creamery , a super moist and tasty chocolate frosted cake made by Yumi, and a artifically colored green and purple acid trip cake from our friends, Su and Huay.

Mari's most special gift was a beautiful drawing from 5 year old Anna.

We accidentally left the drawing at Mina and Steve's when we drove away. We were only two blocks away when we received the call that poor Annie was crying from our gift receiving faux pas, and swiftly returned to pick up the framed drawing from a now smiling Anna waiting at the curb. Upon arriving at home, Mari discoverd that she too had forgot the another gift, the Kasutera that Mama gave her, she is holding back the tears.

Later that night, our celebration continued with Huay and Su, as we went out for Korean BBQ. You can see there tummies in the photo of what was left of the food.

The BBQ was perfecction, if in LA I would highly suggest stopping by Soot Bull Jeep for some tasty morsels. Their marinade is fantastic and they use real wood charcoal grills not gas at each of the tables. Which makes for an extra tasty, but extra extra smokey experience.