Birthday (family edition)

This year when my family asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I had two requests.... to take a studio family picture and eat sashimi. Little did I know how pricey these studios can charge, I decided to do it the old-fashion way and take it ourselves. And when any special occasion comes along, our family will try to find any excuse to eat at this sashimi restaurant located on the pier of Redondo Beach because it is just that good. This place is known for their fresh crab, but my family comes here for the sashimi. So the day was set! Eat sashimi at Redondo Beach and take family pictures on the pier! 


So there are two Korean sashimi places located on the pier. But this place IS the place to go. There's always a wait on the weekends, but it is definitely worth it. Kind of hard to spot at first, but this is what it looks like from the outside... 

 

Snapshots to kill time while we wait for our food...

Sashimi and Oysters!!! Need I say more? By the way, the oysters here are HUGEEE!!!

Oyster shots 1-2-3!!! 

Do you think this animal is real or fake?

REAL!!! I don't even know what animal to call this, but it definitely stole the show on the pier. Everybody wanted to get in on the action and take a picture with it. 

Mommy and me! 

The men in my life!!!

Thankful for my parents! <3 

So my fear of animals were reinforced when I was too scared to get any closer to this bird. Oh well. 

On the way back to the parking structure, the funniest thing happened! Being the lazy person I am, I did not want to walk all the way around the parking structure to enter (if you've been to Redondo, you know that there are poles around the whole structure). Anyways, I slithered my way through these poles, and my dad being the silly person that he is thought he could do the same! It was the funniest thing, because he had the toughest time getting through!! Our whole family shared the biggest laugh.... Do you think he made it through?

Eventually he did, EVENTUALLYYYY!

Mission Accomplished! Not the greatest family picture, but it will do! 

Bye Redondo! Thank you for a great birthday!

Birthday (church edition)

My previous post, I mentioned I will do an update on the different birthday celebrations I had this year. My first celebration was with Sue, her boyfriend Joon, and niece Audrey. Sue and I became great friends when we began first working together (almost five years ago). We lost touch, but recently got together when she invited me to her church, 나성한미, and I've been attending that church since! She not only is a great friend and a sister in Christ, but also my co-worker and manager! Our relationship literally morphs depending on the time and place! So for my birthday last Sunday, Sue and Joon invited me for dessert and dinner, and of course I said yes!  They both have so much personality, humor, and heart, that I know I can always count on a good time with them. 

After church, we started out at Porto's Bakery & Cafe, which is a great cafe/dessert spot. And if you have a sweet tooth like me, this is the place to go! It is dessert-galore!!! 

Potato Ball

Sue chose the potato ball and the cheese rolls (second pic to the left), which many people recommend getting here. 

This is more of my liking....the cinnamon roll and Oreo cheesecake!!

We then headed to C and O Cucina in Marina del Rey! It was quite a drive, but Sue knows my love for Italian food and really wanted me to try this place out... 

THE BEST garlic rolls ever!!!!!

Yummy Linguine with Lobster  

And of course, chicken fettuccine! 

Say hi to Audrey (Sue's niece!) She is so sweet and cute!! She joined in on all the fun for the day. 

Audrey and Joon! Audrey actually calls Joon baby삼춘 (which means baby uncle in Korean) and I think that's the cutest nickname ever. She is so protective over him, that me and Sue always get a good laugh.

Sue, Audrey, and I. 

All I remember today  from last week was literally feeling full  from the minute I got to church until I came home from dinner. My stomach was satisfied with all of my favorite foods I got to eat in the span of couple hours! It was definitely a great day filled with great friends and great food! xoxo 

The next day, Mindy and Jinny (two girls from my old church), came to visit me from LA to wish me happy birthday. Because they live in LA it's hard to visit them as often as I'd like so it's always nice seeing them. We decided to do one thing to our preference. I chose dinner at Olive Garden, Jinny chose dessert at La Kaffa, and Mindy chose on taking Cue pics!  Here are pictures of us just being silly at Cue!

Birthdays are a great excuse to reconnect with old friends, wouldn't you agree? As much as I miss these girls from my old church, I also really enjoy my church that I am currently attending.  I feel very fortunate that I have these two different churches that are welcoming to me.  

Reunion

This past weekend, I met up with some old friends for my good friend, Ben's birthday. Compared to the past couple of years, my bestfriends and I drifted far far apart from these guys that we used to hang out on a serious daily basis. We were literally inseparable during our final year of high school and early college years. Eventually, "life" happened, so we drifted apart and are unable to meet as often as we liked to. But we do try to meet up ever so often, esp. for birthdays. And when we all do get together, it's like nothings changed! I love each of them in their own unique silly way, and I can always count on a good time with them.

The night started off at La Defence, which is an upscale karaoke bar in Koreatown. My personal opinion on that place is that it has a great atmosphere (i mean it had the grand staircase and everything), butttt way too pricey for a night out. We ended up going to another cheaper karaoke bar later and still had just the same amount of fun. Here is what our night consisted of.....

Throw some drinks in.....

with some singing and dancing.....

And it sums up a great night!

I do need to explain this picture because it is so awkward! We had different types of poses everybody was yelling out, but obviously not everybody understood what the heck was going on (hence all the different expressions)! But this is the only group picture I got of the night... Oh well. Happy Birthday Ben!! We love you!!

Bestfriends

Say hello to my bestfriends! (going clockwise, it's Jessica, Hanna, Me, and Joan) We all met yesterday for Jessica's birthday dinner at Lucielles. It's really rare that all 4 of us get to hang out, so it's super nice when we're all together.  Even do we come from similar backgrounds and culture, we are all SO different and are all at different points in our lives! I'm reminded of that every time all four of us are together, but I think that's why we're able to stay best friends for this long. All our different personalities, hobbies, and stories make our relationship even that much more special and I love each of them dearly. xoxo