SF Road Trip w/ The Penas

We started off the New Year with a mini getaway to San Francisco with The Penas. At this point, we were 3 weeks into parenthood and decided it was time to venture outside of the house. I was a bit nervous at first, but everything worked out and I'm glad we did it. Ella pretty much slept the entire drive there and back. This was the first time I introduced the bottle to her and she took it pretty well. I wanted to make sure I had something so we wouldn't have to stop all the time to nurse. Also, I have yet to nurse in public so this was back up just in case and it turned out great!

We wanted to keep the trip pretty low key so didn't really have anything planned besides a birthday party for one of our friend's 2 year old and a day a the farmer's market. Everything else was just extra.
Upon arrival on Friday, we checked into Hotel Vital, ordered room service {because that's what we do now with a baby}, had a little rest and then headed off to SoMa street eats for Quinn's School Bus birthday. It was a food truck park that had a birthday bus in the back where we ate and hung out. Super cute! Mark and Rach came back to the hotel to hang out with us for a bit before calling it a night.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the Ferry Building to check out the farmer's market. It was a beautiful day out in SF so made the morning so much better. I got my blue bottle coffee, porchetta roll, hog island oysters, and a bun from Out the Door! Yes, I was being a pig because we don't get this kind of food in Bakersfield.

Right after we finished up at the farmer's market, Rachelli, set up an afternoon tea at Darjeetling for the moms and baby girls. I haven't had an afternoon tea in a while so this was a treat. Thank goodness Ella was sleeping most of the time so I could actually enjoy it. And also, thank goodness for Mother in laws who will hold your baby while you chat and sip tea. It felt good to get out and feel like a normal person =)

That evening, instead of going out like we normally would, we invited our friends over to our hotel room to chat and catch up. They brought over whisky and wine and we just talked. It was a nice change to the typical outing we would have. Ella slept the entire time which allowed us to have adult conversations...hehe. 

We headed to the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday so Ella and Kylie could take pictures in front of it for their 1st SF trip and then hit the road back to Bako. I call it a successful 1st road trip with the baby and can't wait to take many more trips with her. Gerald and I have a weekend planned for Mammoth with her the first weekend of March so hopefully she will be just as well behaved. 

Well, Hello There! {2014 Year in Review}

Hi!!! Sorry for the lack of communication over the last year! I've been a busy woman, growing a baby. You can read more about that here www.littlebabypena.blogspot.com, in case you haven't already. Anyhow, I kept a running list of what I wanted to blog about as the weeks and months went on, but for some reason, just never could get to it. Here's my list in case you were wondering...

• Seattle Trip with the girls
• Junior League provisional class project {Tie one on for Tots}
• Bako Life updates {restaurants, playgroup outings, new recipes, etc...}
• Vegas
• Big Sur/Carmel Road Trip {5 Year wedding anniversary}
• 4th of July visitors {Rob, Sion, Joe, Chong, Rach, Mark & Quinn}
• San Ramon Weekend
• Houston Trip {August 2014}
• Twin's Bday Weekend {Paso Robles, Padre Hotel, Labor Day}
• Babymoon {Four Seasons Punta Mita}
• Visitors to Bako {Gennie, Irene, Nicola}
• Baby Showers and Baby Things
• Santa Barbara trip 3rd Trimester
• A couple of LA trips

These are just some of the things I could remember to write down. As you can see, we have been pretty busy, as usual. It really helped with the pregnancy and overall just get us settled into our new home and adventure in California. We have grown to love Bakersfield and the life we are building here. We've met some amazing friends, taken some great trips, and last but not least, welcomed a new baby into this world. I couldn't have asked for a better place to experience my first pregnancy and give birth to my first child. Everything was just so convenient and easy, which provided me with such an easy pregnancy. Maybe that explains why Ella is such a chill baby! Okay, I probably shouldn't have said that as she'll probably turn soon {please don't...}!

I do hope to get back on track with the blog and hope to not make it so baby related! Which I'll warn you will probably be hard, since everything we do will probably involve her, but we will try to have our little life as well=)  I do plan to keep up with the baby blog to document Ella's first year so please keep up with that if you wish. Well, here's a short video recap of 2014 from The Penas!

Let's make 2015 a year to Remember!

Jason & Stacey's Wedding {Killeen, TX}

I am about a month late in this post; blame it on my laptop that was acting up and taking forever to load a page! I finally decided to invest in a new computer and now I'm back in business! Yay!

On April 11, 2014, we flew down to ATX and then drove up to Killeen to attend Jason and Stacey's wedding celebrations on April 12, 2014.  As soon as we landed, Gerald's parents picked us up from the airport and we went straight to Pappasito's for a late lunch! We got to see Miss Kylie, who is now 8 months! The last time we saw her was in Vegas at 5 months! At 5 months, she didn't know any better and let us hold her whenever we wanted; now, you have to trick her, which didn't really work. So sad =( Anyhow, we had fun with her, nonetheless.

5 month Kylie

8 month Kylie

We had some downtime with the wedding party after the rehearsal and then the boys took J out for the night. Some things never change...

happy Kylie

not so happy Kylie

We have quite a few friends who are from Killeen {military kids}, and we always hear so much about it, but have never been. We were excited to see what Killeen had to offer!

Gerald was part of the wedding party so I hung out with Miss Sheryl most of the weekend. We talked, ate, and ate some more! haha...She was my foodie buddy for the weekend. 

Rudy's for breakfast

Getting ready for the wedding! {Sheryl, Me, Kimmaly - the babysitters}

Pluckers for a snack in between the wedding ceremony and reception - keeping it classy in our wedding attire at Pluckers =P

Sheryl and I also had the honor of babysitting Kylie during the ceremony and that did not go too well. She cried for a good 10-15 minutes before finally settling down in Sheryl's arm. She didn't want anything to do with me! haha...No worries though, because I found another little one to babysit, my goddaughter, Danica! Somehow she ended up in the cry room with another family, since her parents were also in the wedding! Too bad we were too focused on keeping these kids busy that we missed pretty much all of the ceremony. I guess this is what happens when you have kids! eeeks...

From what I kind of saw, it was beautiful and I'm so happy for Jason and Stacey! We joke that now Stacey is an STD {Stacey Tinsley Dizon}. haha!

The reception was held at the Parish Hall. Stacey's mother and her crew of Korean family and friends put together a great meal of Korean food and the hall was transformed into a pretty atmosphere for a good party! We danced, we drank, and laughed all night long. The best man speeches {Jason's brother's} were quite entertaining.

After the wedding reception, we headed to downtown Killeen for the after party. Some of our friends from Killeen didn't even know Killeen had a downtown? We ended the night with a drive thru run at What-a-burger! It was nice to be surrounded by tons of friends, just hanging out and celebrating another fun wedding! Of course, wedding weekends go by so fast and it was time to return back to the Bako Life! Congrats again, Jason & Stacey!

Bullhead House Remodel {The Master Bath}

Yay! We are finally done with all the renovations in the house! We definitely saved the best for last! During the 2 week master bath renovation, we slept in the guest room and used the guest bath which we were more than pleased with. So let's just say that we tested it out for our future guests.

Anyhow, I'll keep this one short and sweet, since I'm so OVER house renovations. I was running around day in and day out doing all house related stuff and although fun, it got pretty tiring and I was just ready for everything to be done. Well, here goes...

Before

After - the sinks are missing but I was too lazy to retake pictures, you get the idea...