Nick's 32nd Birthday Bash!

I've been away from the blog for a while!

I had very good reason though, of course!

Nick and I just got back from a few days in Cancun to celebrate his 32nd birthday!

For my 30th birthday, Nick took the kids and me out to California for a vacation, and it was one of the best birthdays ever!

I wanted to do something special for his 30th, but I was super prego with Mattis so there was no "whoopin' it up" for his dirty thirty.

Of course, last year, he had just completed OCS for his 31st, so we didn't get to do anything too crazy.

I decided that this was the year to do something nice for him.

He is literally the hardest working man I know (just a hair behind my daddy, of course).

He never asks for anything for his birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, etc....which is why he is the hardest person in the world to get a gift for.

I knew that one thing that he would love would be a vacation without the kids.

We love love love our two kids, but by the end of the summer, we were both pretty worn out between school, early morning wake ups with Mattis, and life in general.

Nick never vacationed out of the country growing up, and I wanted him to be able to experience all the stories I have of my childhood with him.

Cancun is one place that stands out in my mind of one of the most beautiful places I've visited as a child.

I've been to the beaches of Hawaii, Okinawa, Jamaica, Cozumel, Cheju-do Island in S. Korea, the Dominican Republic, Southern California, Miami, the Gulf Coast of Texas, and Cancun.

Out of ALL of these beautiful beaches, Cancun had some of the prettiest water I have ever seen in my life.

The water is so turquoise and clear and blue and crystalline (I don't even know if that's an adjective, but I don't care) and turquoise and clear......and blue....

The water is absolutely breathtaking, and you can not find sand any whiter than the beaches of Cancun.

People told me not to go to Cancun, because it's "touristy" and more for young "spring breakers", but I knew that I HAD to take Nick to this gem of a place that is highly underrated (because of touristy-ness and spring breakers).

We started with a 7 hour layover in Mexico City...yep....7 hours...

We made the best of it though with cervezas!

We finally arrived in Cancun and upgraded our room with the spending money my parents gave us.

Our room, and a view of the sunset I took on our first morning there!

Do you see the cross in the sunset?

Just proof that God shows himself in the most beautiful ways.

Our first day there, we rented a little speedboat with a tour guide.

He took us through the mangrove trees and across the crystal blue waters to one of the biggest coral reefs in Mexico to do some snorkeling!

Too bad Nick forgot to bring his gopro, so we didn't get any cool photos of the awesome fish we saw :( 

boo.

We stayed at the Grand Park Royal.

It's an all inclusive resort.

We definitely prefer the Riu Palace resorts over Grand Park, but it was still really nice, and we really enjoyed our room, the view, and our stay there.

And because no vacation photos are complete without a photo of you sipping fancy martinis, a photo of a fancy tiramisu, a towel animal in your room left by the maid service, and of course a photo by the beach reading trashy tabloid magazines!

Nick's Birthday Dinner at El Mirador (an Italian restaurant).

We had some amazing food, and staff all came out to sing Happy Birthday to him (unbeknownst to him or me).

We ended his birthday night with a show at the hotel, that Nick was voluntold to be up on stage for (since it was his birthday).

They embarrassed him, poked some fun at him, and he even won a game they all had to play!

After the show, we decided to head to downtown Cancun to do some dancing at Fat Tuesday's.

First of all, it was expensive.

Second of all, these shot girls kept coming up to us and trying to sell us shots.

And third of all, we got there at 11, and left at midnight....and every one knows the party doesn't start until midnight.

But we're old, and we wanted to go to sleep in our nice comfy hotel room.

We still had a blast though, and got to dance!
Call us lame...

Selfies by the infinity pool that looked out to the ocean!

Enjoying the view from our room before heading out to Nick's birthday dinner!

Seriously...I've never seen water like this in my life!

And a photo of my dragon fruit.

It was so delicious, and now I'm sad I won't get to have it every morning.

Flying back into Houston...

We had such an amazing time.

We were only there for 3 days total (2 full days), and people told us it was too short of a vacation.

But for us, it was perfect.

Any longer would have been too long, and we were missing our babies so much!

We are so thankful for my amazing parents for watching our kids so that we could have a much needed mini vacation.

Beat the Heat

So it's been ridiculously hot in Texas.

I am not even exaggerating when I say that at one point, after my car had sat in the sun for an hour, my dash thermometer read that it was 122 degrees outside.

proof...

Notice this was at 525 in the afternoon....

The actual high temp for yesterday around these parts was like 105ish.

Strangely, I don't mind it at all.

I did tell myself that I was never allowed to complain about the heat ever again after all the complaining I did about the cold, snow, and horrible winters I experienced in Massachusetts. 

It is a little crazy (even for a native Texan like me) to think that I grew up thinking these types of Summer temps were normal. 

Friends of mine that live in (or are from) other parts of the world/US are in absolute shock at how hot it gets down in these parts. 

Nothing this Texas girl can't handle!

I just hope it cools down a little before D starts school since we normally walk her to and from school every day. 

Speaking of school...

I have been on top of it this year, and did all of D's school supply shopping in the middle of July!

New backpack, lunch box, school supplies, water bottle, etc.

I'm pretty proud of my usually procrastinating self for getting it out of the way so quickly!

Yesterday, we went to our neighbor's graphics business in Bryan, All Out Graphics (shameless plug) to get labels made for her coloring box, notebooks, folders, etc.

Shout out to our awesome neighbor Greg for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to make a couple labels for our baby girl!

With the heat being the way it was yesterday afternoon, and the neighborhood pool being closed, we decided to plan a fun family afternoon outing at the bowling alley!

Great way to kill a few hours in the afternoon and get out of the heat!

And some random photos that are just too awesome not to post in this blog post...

Nick found this old photo of him on his computer.

For those who don't know, Nick was a drill instructor at MCRD San Diego.

I love these action shots of him yelling at recruits.

They really do just make my day.

Nick loves being part of my ridiculous selfies....

And lastly...

Today is August 11th!

Better known to artillerymen in the Marine Corps as 0811 day!

Happy 0811 Day to my crazy artilleryman!

What are y'all doing to beat the heat?

Is it even hot where you live?

Last Week of Summer Sesh

You know what's exciting?!

Summer sesh is over this week for Nick and me!!!

In less than a week, we will be sitting on a white sandy beach in México with no kids!

We love our kids dearly, but towards the end of Summer, we are all pretty worn out.

We're ready for D to start school, and we're ready for our nanny to be back to watch Mattis throughout the week.

The summer seemed to have flown by, and this is the first summer since 2011 that Nick has been home with the family.

Last year, he was at OCS as a candidate, the year before that he was at OCS as a Sgt Instructor, the year before THAT, he was at OCS again as a Sgt Instructor, and the year before THAT, I was stationed in California, and he was in Boston....

Whew...that's a lotta summers without my main squeeze...the marshmallow on my s'more...you get it...lol.

I can confidently say this has been the BEST SUMMER EVER, and it's not even over yet!

We've really enjoyed the late summer nights playing outside when the weather cools down, and of course hanging out with our neighbors.

It is Texas, after all, and we have temps that are upwards of 100 degrees, so we usually wait until 7-8ish to go outside and play (even then, it's still like 95 degrees!).

The littlest Texas Aggie in our home

I finally got D in on some photo action last night.

Her olive skin and her hazelish light brown eyes make her so photogenic.

I'm a little jealous, not gonna lie!

Last night, we waited till the sun went down (which isn't until like 830!), to do s'mores in our new fire pit that Nick built.

 We've really enjoyed our summer so far, but this mama is ready to have kids back in school!

American

Just random thought...

I posted a link on Facebook last night about the first Korean General (Brigadier General Daniel Yoo) in the Marine Corps to take over as the head of 1st Marine Division. 

I wrote about how Koreans are kicking butt in the Marine Corps.

And a friend of mine (well more of a friend of Nick's) decided to add a comment about how he's an "American" last time he checked.

It was a little jab at the fact that I made a big deal about him being a Korean.

What people don't understand is that it's not about race or ethnicity or ANYTHING ELSE when someone from a minority group "makes it" in America. 

As a first generation American of Korean heritage, I take a lot of pride in that.

My parents immigrated here many many years ago, poor as dirt, and made something of themselves. 

They made their American dream a reality.

So when I see other Koreans kicking butt in America, it makes me happy and proud.

If that individual is reading my blog, I hope you get that I'm about as American as they come.

I was born to immigrants who came here speaking zero English, and became successful business people.

I went through the public education system here.

Oh, and I also did this little stunt where I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps right after high school, deployed to the middle east and western pacific, and was honorably discharged after 10 years.

I know many "Americans" who have NOT done that, seeing as how only 1% of our population has ever served in the military.

 

But at the end of the day, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my South Korean born parents, and I wouldn't be who I am without my South Korean heritage. 

I'm sure General Yoo is pretty proud of his Korean heritage too.

ANYWAYS...

I have this fancy shmancy DSLR camera that Nick got me for Christmas two years ago.

Ever since the iPhone6 PLUS (yes, I had to add "plus") came into my life, my poor camera has sat in my little camera bag and my iphone has taken over as my primary source of picture taking.

I decided to bust it out last night, and take some photos of the kids playing outside.

Working on our neighbor's truck with daddy.

Love this little guy...

Messina Hof Harvest 2015

Remember that "I Love Lucy" episode where Lucy and Ethel go grape stomping?

It's probably one of my favorite episodes.

This past weekend, the Romers got to experience it!
Nick got us tickets to the Messina Hof's 38th Annual Grape Harvest!
We all got up super early on Saturday morning, and headed out to the vineyard to pick grapes, and of course, stomp on them!
The kids had a blast, and it was such a fun family summer time outing.
We will definitely be going back next year!

It started off as a super early morning with two super cranky kids because we had to wake them up so early....
But once we arrived, they were awake and excited!

After a short brief on the history of the winery, and a short class on how to pick grapes, they let us loose in the vineyards to pick grapes!

Messina Hof in Bryan grows Lenoir grapes which is what they use to make their famous port wine.

I'm not a huge red wine fan, nor am I a huge fan of sweet wines, but Nick LOVES their port wine.

Dannika and Mattis had a blast helping us harvest grapes.

Our little grape harvester...

About to do our grape stomp!

Grape stomping!!!
It felt SO WEIRD, but it was SO FUN!
They even played joyous Italian "stomping music" while we took turns stomping the grapes.
Everyone cheered each other on!

After stomping, we all got a free tshirt to put our "foot stamp" on.
(side note: Dannika's right eye is all puffy because she was stung by a yellow jacket the day prior)

We even got Mattis in the action!
He sort of freaked out...lol.

Stamping his little feet!

This is Paul Bonarrigo VI, the founder and owner of Messina Hof.
His trademark is that bright red beret he wears.
He's a SUPER animated guy, and so much fun!

Afterwards, we got a little wine tasting class with Karen Bonarrigo.
She is the wife to the heir of Messina Hof, Paul Bonarrigo VII.
I actually finally learned how to drink and smell wine (and look all sophisticated).
(Fun fact: her husband, Paul Bonarrigo VII, is a former Communications Officer in the Marine Corps! They met when he was active duty!)

We had such an absolute blast, and we see many more visits to Messina Hof as a family for fun events like these!