August 6th: Happy Anniversary Ong Ba Noi

It's always a good weekend when you can spend it with family and friends. We started the weekend with a play-date with Kyla, Max, Melvin, Rob and Tanya at Little Nest. It's great baby/ family friendly place off of Commercial on Charles St. Mommy wasn't a big fan of the Beet Baguette Sandwich (too much fennel) but daddy liked his pulled chicken panini and got mommy happy again with the apricot cake & honey ice cream dessert. Max is so energetic and happy. He's definitely crawling around a lot. The funniest moment of the day was after max had taken a today out of your reach. He started crawling away and you pushed his butt from behind and he when face first into Uncle Rob's lap. hehheh... so shifty...

Sunday we took the ferry (again) to Victoria to spend the day with your Ong Ba Noi. About a month ago, Ong Noi planned a romantic weekend anniversary trip for him and Ba Noi. Ba Noi, of course, pleaded to go to Vancouver or at least stop over in Vancouver, but Ong Noi wanted a trip for just the two of them. About two weeks ago, your Ong Noi and I were talking and we agreed that the best gift we could give them for their anniversary was ... well, you. But we didn't want to monopolize all their time, so we agreed that a one day trip would work best. We planned to stay at the same hotel as your grandparents and drive in to surprise grandma. Unfortunately, when we drove into the Grand driveway, we pretty arrived at the exact same time that your grandparents were coming back from a walk. In fact, your dad ran into the hotel to "take care of some business" and your mom was talking with the concierge when this crazy woman came up to the car and POUNDED on the roof and yelled "HEY!" yup, it was Ba Noi. In fact, she suspected the "surprise" so much that she brought all your Vietnam gift sfrom Uncle Lam and Co Mimi with her.

Anyhow, we had a blast. The Victoria Symphony Splash was on, so we enjoyed a festival atmosphere in the downtown area and a variety of music played from a barge on the water. For their anniversary gift, we took your grandparents to Vista 18, a restaurant in Chateau Victoira (voted the best place to propose...er ok). the view was spectacular, the service was suspect, the food divine, and the wine... well it hit your mom and I a lot harder than we're use to. The appies were yummy, especially the chicken and pineapple tempura. Ba Noi really liked her Chipotle and garlic rubbed Snapper, mom's Mountain Berry Halibut was terrific, and my Dungeness Crab filled Trout was amazing. Ong Noi, despite my pleas for him to order fish, went with the Rib Eye steak (good gried, he's from Alberta and he comes to Victoria to order steak....) and it was "okay."

Regardless, we had a blast with your grandparents. You did too. Ba Noi loved feeding you strawberries and walking you around. You always seemed to be joking and laughing with Ong Noi too. We can't wait to see them in a month.

Happy Anniversary Ong Ba Noi!