Going to Knotts Berry Farm

Later this morning we will be heading out to Knotts Berry Farm (it is now 1:45am as I am typing this). SIL's volunteered donating blood every time her company has a blood drive. This time her office honoring these volunteers by inviting them and their family for a day at Knotts Berry Farm. They will even serve lunch at the picnic area.

This can be said the first time we are visiting somewhere as a big family (MIL, FIL, SIL and us). They seldom want to go anywhere when we suggest to go out. Sometimes I would bring up suggestion to go out eat dinner together but MIL almost always reject the offer. They prefer to eat at home, she said. They are kind of boring actually. Initially, FIL has insisted on going for this event but SIL talked him into it. Well, will see how the day go.

Met my uncle at Disneyland

My uncle (ah pek), my father's oldest brother, and his wife came for holiday in LA and SF. They arrived on Oct 11th at LAX. The next day they followed their tour group to Disneyland. I told my Hubby to get off that day so we could go at least meet them at Disneyland. It was going to be difficult to meet up outside their tour iternary as they are jam packed with activities everyday.

So we did! We bought our annual passes to the theme parks and went to Disneyland on Oct 12th. I was a little nervous that we may not be able to find them. Fortunately, we set the place to meet the night before and at 930am they came and we met and went around the rides together.

Sorry to say that they ditched their group while they joined us. But later that day, they rejoined their friends as we had to leave the park early. Brandon was a little tired though he had a nap there, but he didn't want to take the cold milk so we had no choice to leave to go home. If we found out earlier there was a baby center at Disneyland, we could have warm the milk there. Well, next time we know.

Too hot for Disneyland

Today Hubby's Friday off. We were planning to either go to San Francisco for the weeken or Disneyland for today. We picked Disneyland. Another main reason was my client who is looking for business opportunity told me that he might be in town this weekend and I would like to be available if he calls me.

Disneyland was fun. Only one complain today - the hot weather. It was probably in the high 80s. Although I was wearing a white teeshirt but I was carrying a dark backpack so my back was all hot too. I forgot to bring a hat and sunglasses so I had to squint my eyes all the time. My head was all hot too. Lines wasn't that bad. We went to both, California Adventure and then stopped at Disneyland for the Small World Ride. Left around 1pm.

Peacock at LA Zoo

Whenever we go to the LA Zoo, we sure get to see the peacock. It roams around the zoo without any leash. Sometimes we see it inside the compound with other animals (not lion or tiger though). I think there are two of them but not 100% sure.

Above pictures were taken one time when it was right in front of the chimpanzee's compound and the peacock spread its fanlike feather. Many people took out their digital camera and start clicking away. Me too. So beautiful, don't you think?

Why Brandon loves going to Sam's Club

My son loves going to Sam's Club warehouse store. Whenever we enter the parking lot, he will say out loudly, "YEH!"

His word version of 'yeh' means FAN. When daddy is pushing the shopping cart to the refrigerator section to get the whole milk, Mommy will be pushing the stroller with Brandon in it to this aisle (see below).


He loves looking at the fan turning and he keeps saying 'YEH' happily pointing at the FAN. Occassionally he will also point to the light beside the fan and say 'DANG'.

Went to MP

Today we went to the 'new' Chinatown in LA, Monterey Park & Alhambra. It was a long time ago since my last time there. Could be a few months. We had lunch at a Malaysian Restaurant, Yazmin. Will blog about this restaurant in my LA blog once I downloaded the pictures.

We orderred curry puff, nasi lemak and curry laksa. Too bad, my camera was out of battery when the appertizer arrived. This place offers one of the best Malaysian food around LA. Can't beat the price, if you go on weekday there are lunch specials that you can order. But today is weekend so no lunch special for us. Our bill was $21.xx. Add some tips ... charged it to my credit card loh.

While driving to the chinese market, Brandon fell asleep. We were in the car less than 5 minutes and the little boy dozed off. He was tired.

Saturday outing

Can you guess where we went today? Ikea at Costa Mesa. We drove all the way down there, about 30 minutes, to jalan-jalan (walk-walk). We like going to this location more than Ikea at Carson. This store has more items and their show rooms are a lot nicer. May be because we seldom visit this store compare to the one at Carson which we go every other week.

Today, we bought another addition to our growing kid's furniture collection. Will blog about this later. So look out for my post.

Whole Foods Market

We love visiting Whole Foods Market, especially the new location at El Segundo. We frequent that store to get our organic produce as well as the baby yogurt for my boy. My Hubby likes their juice station, he never miss a change in buying it while we are there.

I love the checking out all their products. Usually before I visit the store, I stop by Whole Body Podcast to check out the news of Whole Foods Market and also if there are any new recipe so I know what ingredients to purchase while I am at the store. Also they will be publishing a 3 parts podcast series on "Back to School" on how to get your child to be healthy. The series include Probiotics, Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) and Nutrition. Remember to stop by their podcast for these informative articles.

A Day at Los Angeles Zoo

We went to LA Zoo last Saturday with Hubby's cousin, Rhoda and her daughter, Kristin. She carries the annual pass and she has a few extra guest passes that she used for us. Actually we only used one pass as the annual pass allow the member plus a guest.

We went together in one car. Two car seats at the back (see first picture below) with me. Brandon was having his morning nap when we drove over to them pick up. It was good as Brandon woke up all fresh and was on full alert all the time when we were in the zoo except when we were leaving (see last picture). We only spent about 2 hours there.

When we arrived at the entrance around 1045am, the ticketing line was pretty long. Fortunately, with the annual pass, we did not have to que up for tickets. It was a breezy nice day and it became warmer half way when we're in the zoo. There were so many strollers, families with kids. We were not too worry about not able to see the exhibits as our main concern is to bring the kids out to enjoy a nice walk outdoor. We also didn't really pay attention to the information board for each animals. We walked and walked and if we see the animals, we just went by to show to the kids. Brandon has yet to recognize or acknowledge any of these animals. He was there to enjoy the outdoor view and the walk of course. Some animals that we saw along our way - alligators, koala bears, sea lions, seal, zebras, mountain goats, kangaroo, wallabies, peacock, komodo dragon, deer, lion, lioness, wild boar, giraffes and elephants.

We walked half way inside the zoo and we stopped for picnic lunch next to the giraffes' exhibit. Rhoda told us that that is where they usually have picnic when she and Kristin go to the zoo themselves. I brought some Chinese buns (red bean, hotdogs, raisins) and package drinks for everyone. Hubby, Rhoda and Kristin went to get something from the nearby fast food (hotdogs, french fries) kiosk while I fed Brandon his baby food. We finished the picnic around 1245pm. We walked towards the elephants' exhibit and then decided to leave. While walking out towards the exit, the two little ones fell asleep in their strollers. They must be tired. Didn't even wake up a little while transferring them into the car seats. It was hot outside and even hotter in the car. We quickly turned on the AC to cool down so the kids would have a nice nap during the drive back home.

We were planning to get the annual pass but may be when Brandon is older. As for now, Rhoda was telling us she has more passes and if we need to go, just let her know. It is more fun to go with more people instead of just me, Hubby and Brandon. We had so much fun and definitely will go back visiting again before summer comes.

Ethan: come visit us soon lar, we'll take you to the zoo and guarantee LOTS of fun for you and your mommy.

top left cw: In the car towards the LA Zoo, Brandon at the entrance, Getting out from the car putting kids in strollers
Random pictures of Brandon at the Zoo
Random pictures of Kristin at the Zoo
A family picture
The kids were sleeping right before we stepped out the exit. They slept all way back in the car ride.