vacation fun, part one

so like i mentioned before, phil returned to work this past sunday night after two weeks off for vacation.  and we definitely made the most of his time off with lots of outings and good ol’ family fun.  now that we’re back to our regularly scheduled program of daily living, i’m going to relive all the fun time together here.  like a fine wine (or so i’m making up since i’m not much of a drinker), vacations need to savored and experienced slowly to be fully appreciated. so i’ll focus each entry on a single outing (except for this one…  rules were meant to be broken, right?), otherwise, packing it all into one post would be the mega-longest ever.

so, to kick off our vacation, we went out for a nice dinner at mccormick & schmick’s.  definitely the nicest restaurant the kids have ever been too.  my original intent was to go for the $10.40 special menu they were having that particular day (tax day), but it turned out that was only good in the bar area and the kids weren’t allowed in there.  so phil decided we should stay and eat in the restaurant anyway since it was a special occasion.  celebrating, tsai-style!

the dinner went very well and was enjoyed by all.  aided by the fact that they gave us our own little enclosed room of sorts, which the kids totally loved.

the delicious food and big kid drinks didn’t hurt, either!

allie particularly enjoyed the fried calamari.  here she is with cheeks stuffed full of the good stuff.

phil ordered the crab-stuffed halibut which was delicious!

lauren couldn’t get enough of the mashed potatoes.  the girl LOVES to eat, as long as it’s some of our food and none of the baby pureed business.  she pretty much skipped right over that and hasn’t looked back since.  she’s definitely our most adventurous eater, having sampled and liking everything from asian to mexican to indian food.  her mouth opens wide to welcome a bite of anything from our plates.

happy boy reclining at the table.

we all ate a LOT that night.  but there was still room for dessert!

the next day, we went over to the long beach aquarium.  this time, we ventured in to the bird habitat to see if we could feed some birds.  we were warned that the birds weren’t very hungry just then, but we tried our luck anyway.

at first, the birds weren’t too interested in us, or the many other people milling around with  $2 bird drink cups in their hands.  these two preferred to stay put and groom each other.

but a few were interested in what phil had to offer…

the kids were amazed that daddy got one on his hand!  at first, allie was braver than mikey in getting close to the bird.

mikey initially kept a safe distance…

phil, bird whisperer.

before long though, mikey got brave enough to try it himself!

allie wasn’t interested in feeding the birds and was happy hanging out with daddy instead.

we were just about to leave when this little bird caught our eye.  he hopped right on to phil’s hand to get a better look at us.

inspecting his new perch…

then decided he wanted a view from higher up.  allie hadn’t noticed her new neighbor yet.

getting a little bored with this bird feeding thing.  still oblivious to him who was edging ever closer…

and then…  !

“daddy!  there’s a bird right here!”

allie scrambled down for a quick getaway.  but the bird stayed put with his new bff.

arrrgh, matey!

the bird gave phil a good once-over…

then thought phil could use a little grooming.

hopping up for more detailed grooming…

then a final check before he was satisfied with phil’s appearance.  too bad the bird didn’t do anything about the stuff on phil’s chin! 

more vacation fun coming tomorrow!