Fresh Strawberries

We missed strawberry picking season last year with Zoey being born but this year we wanted to make sure we had a chance to go. We LOVE strawberries. Really, we love all fruit but strawberries are one of our favorites. We drove to Gizdich Farm in Watsonville to pick some strawberries and sample their famous pies. The sign said sampling was okay but grazing was not. I'm pretty sure we all were grazing. We couldn't help ourselves. There is nothing like a strawberry right from the plant. The kids really enjoyed picking their own strawberries and took a lot of pride in it. We heard a lot of, "Mom, look at this one" or "Dad, I found a big one!". 

The drive to Gizdich was a very interesting one. You drive past a lot of strawberry fields with people picking strawberries as their job. Then you pull up to Gizdich with a lot full of luxury vehicles and women carrying Louis Vuitton purses.  It was a leisure activity for us. However, the real strawberry pickers looked like first generation immigrants and were hard at work on a Saturday. It really made think about my parents as they are first generation immigrants. My parents left a nice life in Korea with all their family to come to an unfamiliar country where they knew no one not even the language. They came here with nothing but 2 suitcases in hopes for better opportunities for their children. It is hard for me to fathom this kind of sacrifice. As a result, my sister, brother and I had a really nice upbringing. Thus far, I've had no real hardship in my life. My life has been pretty easy. I look at my children and they have it even easier. 

It made me wonder if I am teaching my children the things my parents taught me. I grew up seeing them struggle early on and saw them working hard their whole lives. They are still working hard. They always shared their hardships and experiences with us and the blessings they received from them. While I was at home, I noticed my father teaching my children some of the same things he taught me growing up. My son has a hard time staying at the table during meals and it was no different at my parent's house.  He doesn't like to eat and wants to go play after a few bites of food. I'm constantly trying to get him to return to the table. My parents have always had a rule that we do nothing at the table but enjoy our food. There are no toys, books or electronic devices at the table. My father had Paul sit at the table with us and talked to him about really being grateful for the food he was eating and showing respect to our Heavenly Father. He told him about growing up during the Korean War and not having enough food. Every time we sat down to eat my father reminded Paul of this.  It was something I was taught growing up but was not teaching my own kids. The other thing I remember my father teaching my children was the importance of greeting your elders. It is not enough to say the words. You need to stop what you were doing and look the person in the eyes while saying it. Paul was coloring as my dad was leaving for work one morning. He said bye but kept his eyes on his coloring. My dad had him stop coloring and look him in the eyes. I remember growing up I aways had to come to the door and greet my parents when they got home. It didn't matter if I was in the middle of a phone call, movie or studying, I had to get up and greet them. It was about respect. 

You love your kids so much that you want to make their lives as easy as possible. You don't want them to struggle and want to give them more than you had. It's nice to not have to struggle but I feel like I am doing a disservice to them by making things too easy for them.  Struggles and hardships builds character and I want my kids to have this character. The American Dream is real, I've personally witnessed it.  Life for each generation usually gets easier and easier but at what cost. It's easy to forget and take things for granted. Let's not forget what our ancestors sacrificed for us. We need to always remember and remind ourselves as well as our children of these things. I'm grateful my parents still remind me and they are now sharing these important lessons with my children. I need to be better about remembering. These were thoughts I was having as my children were playing on our iphones as we passed these strawberry pickers working away on a Saturday morning.  Sorry to go off on a tangent. Here are photos from our time at Gizdich. 

Zoey pounded the strawberries. 

Paul and his bucket of strawberries

Paige "grazing"

Evidence of grazing on Zoey's face and clothes

Evidence of grazing on Paige's face 

The strawberries we picked. Paul was so proud

The field we picked from

The field we picked from

Pies at Gizdich are amazing. We shared a couple of slices.  

Zoey likes to gravitate to the trash cans. 

Paige waiting for her turn on the tractor 

Paul and Paige. 

Zoey loved running through the haystacks

Paige 

Fresh apple juice! Also really good.  

My dirty baby. 

The kids loved jumping to dad. 

I found these on my camera. Paige had taken a picture of all her ponies individually:)

Ponies tucked into her bed.

Our visit to Michigan

Early May, I was doing a video chat with my parents and decided I had to go see them. It was unbearable watching my mom sadly looking at my children wishing she could see them. I searched for tickets and the cheapest I could find was mid-May so I booked them. I thought long and hard about how I was going to pull this off by myself. Luckily, my parents have a pack n play and car seats at their house. I only had to bring one extra car seat for Zoey. I knew I couldn't carry/pull more than one suitcase so I packed all of our stuff in one large suitcase. We packed really light. I carried Zoey in a carrier on my front, pushed Paige in the stroller with one hand and pulled our suitcase with my other and Paul walked next to me. I carried a back pack with my laptop and stuff for Zoey on my back. Paul carried his own backpack with the ipad, snacks and activities for him. Paige held her backpack with the same in her lap. The airport went pretty smoothly both on the way there and way back. Both airports had a separate family line for security which was nice. The plane ride on the way there was a little over 4 hours long but with taxing it was about 4 1/2 hours. Paul and Paige watched movies on my laptop and ipad for most of the ride. The rest of the time they had snacks, colored in new coloring books, drew pictures, played with stickers and a couple of small toys. They did pretty well. Zoey was the one I was worried about. Entertaining an active 12-month-old for 4 hours is not an easy task. She only slept for 30 minutes of the 4 hour ride. It was hard to keep her in our row. Luckily, we were in the very last row of the plane next to the bathrooms. Most people wouldn't think of this as lucky but we had a constant flow of people walking down and standing in line to use the bathrooms that entertained Zoey for most of the trip. Snacks and stickers also distracted her for some of the time. She had a couple of moments but did better than I thought she was going to do. Who wants to be the mom with the screaming baby everyone on the plane is cursing in their heads? Let's just say, I was more than happy to get off of the plane! Being in the very last row of the plane meant we were the very last ones off the plane:)   

The other issue I had was having Paige go to the bathroom. I tried potty training her a couple of times in the past and gave up both times. I would sit her on the toilet for a long time and she wouldn't go. As soon as I would get her off she would go to the bathroom on the floor somewhere. I know you are supposed to stay home and not go anywhere until they are potty trained but do I not take my son to school? Plus, with Zoey walking, life got super busy. I quit two times and thought I would give her some more time before I would try again. Well, 2 days before we left on our trip, Paige decided she wanted to go to the bathroom on the potty and she did it herself. For two days, she went to the bathroom in the small potty without having any accidents! When we left for Michigan, I hadn't transitioned her to the big toilet yet. Her first time using the big toilet was at the airport! Awesome. She did okay but it took her a long time. When we got off the plane, we all went to the bathroom and I changed Zoey's diaper. When we finally got down to baggage claim, the belt had stopped and our suitcase was the last one there:) I didn't care because we made it!

There are no words to describe how happy I was to see my parents and for my parents to see their only grandchildren. We spent the week eating good food (prepared by my mom), going to parks, going to the zoo, going to the library and visiting my dad at his store. One of my best friends from home also flew home from Chicago to see us over the weekend. As always, the week flew by. Here are some photos from our week home. 

Park with Grandma

My monkey son loves to climb any and all trees

Zip line 

Grandma and Paige

Duplos at the library

There are these big dirt hills across the street from my parent's house and my kids loved playing on them.

Paul fought this dirt hill with a stick for over an hour straight. I think he won? 

I don't know why but Zoey loved this plant. 

I think she wanted to marry it. 

Grandpa and Paige 

Grandpa and Zoey

This is what Paul looked like when he was finished playing in the dirt.  You can't tell from the picture but he was covered head to toe in dirt. 

Detroit Zoo

The highlight of the trip was the butterfly room. There were butterflies flying all around us. One even landed on Paul's hand. It was awesome. 

There were peacocks walking around everywhere and they were loud! Here are the kids chasing one of them. 

The other highlight was seeing the kangeroos. They seriously hopped around you. It was so cool. 

Zoey enjoying the misters at another park

Paige loved the castle playground

Paul loves to swing with Zoey

A drink in the shade of a tunnel

Having a little snack.

Running down hills. I love how green it is there!

We had some really hot days there in the 80's but with the humidity it feels warmer so we played in the fountains at the park.

They had so much fun.

Even Zoey played

The Dairy Mat with Amanda! One of my favorites growing up.

It's so fun to take my kids to these places. 

It was so fun to hang out with my dear friend!

Paul trying some things on at my dad's store:)

My dad's birthday was a couple days after we left so we celebrated with him while we were there. Kids helping him blow out the candles. 

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Playing in the sprinklers on another hot day.

Zoey got sprayed in the face and she didn't like it!

Paul fighting the water. Not sure who won this round.

Another trip to the Dairy Mat with my parents

I got Zoey this baby cone and I think she liked it. 

Fun Swing at the park

Us girls on the swing

Paige loved having Grandma push her on this swing

She also loved having Grandma help her go across the monkey bars

Zoey also loved the monkey bars. This strong little girl was able to hold herself up!

She walked up and down this ramp about 100 times. 

Grandpa and Zoey

Paige took this picture of Zoey when she was crying. I thought it was funny. 

We had such a great week. It was so nice to spend some time with my parents. I could tell they loved having us there even though my kids broke things and destroyed their house every day. My mom is the best cook and made amazing food for us every day. I loved it and my kids loved it too. I wish I could eat her food every day for the rest of my life. It is all healthy too. The lady has no butter or white sugar in her house! The only hard thing about going home is having to say goodbye. My mom starts looking sad the day before we leave and cries at the airport when we have to say goodbye. It physically hurts my heart. This time was no different. However, something really sweet happened at the airport. Zoey is super attached to me and cries when she doesn't see me or if someone else tries to hold her. She didn't even like her dad holding her until a few months ago. My parents spent the whole week trying to get Zoey to let them hold her. At first she just cried but as the week went on she started to warm up a little. She wold be okay for a few minutes if she couldn't see me. As soon as she heard my voice or saw me, she would cry and reach out for me. At the airport, my mom got Zoey out of the car and was holding her while I was getting my stuff together. I was standing right there next to them and Zoey was content being with my mom. We stood there for awhile and she didn't cry or reach for me once. It was super sweet and I think it made my mom really happy. It was so sad saying goodbye because we wont be back again until Christmas. Hopefully, they will be able to come out to see us before then.

The plane ride back home was 5 hours long. Again, Zoey slept for about 30 minutes is all. It was harder to contain her this time and she spent a lot of time struggling to get out of our row. She walked the aisle of the plane up and down. When I went to get her, she threw herself back to get down again. It was an awesome game of cat and mouse. Paul and Paige didn't do as well on this plane ride either. They got bored and I think they were both tired. They were fighting about little things and were just cranky. I have to admit traveling alone with 3 kids was hard but was it worth it? It was well worth the visit I had with my parents. I would do again in a heartbeat.