emi turns 4!

I absolutely love planning. Vacations, holidays and especially celebrations like my girls birthdays! However, this year I have tried a little more to... fly by the seat of my pants and not give a crap how things turn out. I've always been too much of a perfectionist and I'm trying to carve out my clinical anxiety where it's just not needed to have a good time. 

This year to celebrate Emi turning 4, we decided to take all the kids to Chelan and hit up the waterpark! BEST IDEA EVER! She kind of ended up having a week of celebrating here and there. On the 20th (her actual birthday) we did a small family dinner at Red Robin where she requested to wear her Minnie outfit and have a Minnie cake. Mama delivered! 

Saturday we went to Chelan and the kids had an absolute blast being in the sun and water all day. Sunday we floated the river with Emi and Jace, and the weekend after that I took Em to have her very first pedicure with mama! I think I may have created a monster because she is already talking about the color she is going to pick "next time" haha!

Also... how cute is my pineapple pedi!? I'm in love with it!!!

hot hot vegas

Vegas called again, and she never disappoints! I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in unhealthy food and nearly drank myself into oblivion, but it was heaven! It was 110-112 degrees the entire time which means I was living in the pool. This time we stayed at the MGM Grand and sadly, it was pretty disappointing compared to my usual stays at Mandalay Bay. The ONE thing I loved more there was the lazy river. MB also has one but MGM's is much longer with great views of the palm trees and Wet Republic, which is the pool club where celebrities come to spin and you can dance your ass off in waist high water. Sipping on daiquiris and margaritas while floating around the river and giving zero fucks was just what mama ordered 👌🏼 

As far as food goes... this little Cali girl got her In-N-Out fix (animal style of course!), the pulled pork sammy with slaw at Pot Liquor with a Bad Betty, sizzling fajitas at Diablos Cantina with tequila, the most epic grilled cheese and tomato soup with the famous Lollipop Passion at The Sugar Factory, and never to be missed... the New York at Strip Steak and that incredible pork fried rice and fry trio. I CAN'T EVEN. I'm pretty sure I gained a good 10 pounds in 4 days but YOLO!

dna + chromosomes

My little sister, Sarah, got me the most amazing gift for Mother's Day this year. One day I'll have to blog our entire story but to keep it short and sweet.. we were both adopted separately, and share the some biological mother but have different paternal sides which we know nothing about. Until now! She got me a DNA kit from 23 and Me after doing one herself and learning so much about where her ancestry began. I received my kit in the mail, followed all the directions, mailed it back, and waiting the 6 long weeks for my results. 

The kit was actually really easy to use and comes with everything you need including the packaging to send it back in a timely manner. I filled up the little vile with my saliva, secured everything and DONE!

The results are posted to their site, where you can securely log in to your account after registering and everything is connected to your personalized code on the vile that you send in. The results will tell you your ancestry composition, maternal halpogroup, neanderthal ancestry, and even connect you with others who have taken the DNA test that you are related to! You can pay extra for the health test and learn what diseases you are at risk for in connection with your ancestry history, but neither of us really wanted to dig into that for now. There are a ton of different reports that I now have access to but here is a quick overview of my ancestry results!

For years I have had people ask me if I'm asian at all, because of my very slanted eyes and other features. I actually never really took that one seriously and laughed it off. But it turns out.. I AM! The majority of my European DNA is from my maternal side, which I knew quite a bit of thanks to my Grandpa and his stories of Romania, Italy and France. All of the Asian DNA is from my paternal side which for the most part explains that my biological father was nearly 50% Asian. I still have a lot of research I want to do as far as parts of the countries that are of importance to my history but along with Romania, I absolutely want to visit Japan someday. It's amazing that science has come this far and I am so happy that I took the opportunity to learn more about who I am and where I come from.

Here are the only "baby" pictures I have of myself. The last one is me on my 1st birthday!

tigers and lions and bears, oh my!

Yesterday I took the girls to Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma and it was such a fun day! They all did great on the drive there, but on the way home everyone was a little overtired and I could have used a glass window divider in the car for a moment of peace and quiet. (insert eye roll). Favorite animals of the day were the otters, meerkats and elephants!

independence day

For as long as I can remember, the 4th of July has been my favorite holiday! Aside from being obsessively in love with fireworks, there is just something I love about the hot weather, bbq gatherings that last the entire day and evening, swimming, the smell of sunscreen and sticky watermelon messes. This is the 4th year in a row that we have celebrated on the Kwak Farm with friends and I hope this is how it is every year! We stuffed our faces, lit off fireworks and ran around with sparklers, the girls swam and enjoyed the homemade slip and slide, and I shot guns for a whopping ten minutes before I had to call it quits due to the 100 degree weather! Hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did!