X-mas 2009

We celebrated X-mas with Weedman's again and Khloe Mai and the boys had a great time.

The next day opened gifts at our house and had Uncle Giang over for some Shabu Shabu.

The day after x-mas we headed up to grandma's house in Torrance.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a good time hosting Thanksgiving this year. The O'days, Meeuwsens, and Czyszczons were all able to make it along with Karyn.

Jordin's B-day

We went up to LA o celebrate Jordin's 1st bday. The girls had fun with the pinata and treasure hunt.

Love you Dad!

I can't believe it's been a year since dad passed, it seems like yesterday he was still here showing me how to paint, talking about his adventures as a Pilgrim in Hawaii, and shuttling us around for our AYSO soccer games. I miss you dad and you'll always be in our hearts, love you!

At the paddle out at Magic Sands where Dave dove dad's ashes into the sea...

Our wedding day

Right after our ceremony, dad looked good in a tux!

At our rehearsal dinner

At my college graduation

With mom, dad and big bro Dave and our matching outfits made by mom...

At Hapuna Beach with dad as a keiki...

Zoo day!

This Monday was Khloe Mai's official bday so Geanie and I took the day off and enjoyed it with our little girl at the Zoo. She had a great time looking at the birds and barking like a dog at the monkeys! The new elephant exhibit was cool and KM really like pulling on the fences and wires surrounding the animal cages. After a nice relaxing stroll at the zoo we took off and had nice family Spices of Thai lunch and luckily KM took a nice nap in the car on the ride home.

Khloe Mai's 1st Birthday!

I can't believe it, we're celebrating Khloe Mai's first b-day! In true Hawaiian fashion we had kalua pig, terry beef, mahi mahi, mac salad and rice! We thankfully didn't cook all the food and Kealani's did a nice job of providing the food. Khloe Mai had a great time with all of the kids and rarely left the slide or her car. Ashley's cousins Ila, Tucker and Ryan were great babysitters and kept a watchful eye on Khloe Mai. Geanie's family also made it down it was great to have so many friend and relatives to celebrate KMs first birthday. Thanks to everyone that showed up, the gifts, the donated lawn furniture and kegerator, and for all of the fond memories with Khloe Mai that day! We look forward to celebrating many more happy birthdays inthe future!

New Dining Room

Geanie got inspired to get our dining room redone. We repainted the walls, changed the lighting, updated the drapes and bought some new leather chairs and a storage cabinet.

Gotwald's Wedding

My good friend from Rose Greg Gotwald got married in Indy this weekend and I left the wife and kid and took a flight out there to help celebrate. I stayed with Kelly Ojala and his wife Megan (who's expecting) and had a great time going to Broadripple that Friday night and rehashing punchy face with Rev! We had a cool little Rose alumn soccer game early Sat morning and Ian/Andy Doll almost had to be taken off in a stretcher. I also almost froze my toes off playing in the wet grass!

The wedding was awesome and Greg and Lindsay are such an awesome couple! Michael Nietch almost missed the ceremony but some how he pulled it off and was there in time. I of course drank too much both nights, slept too little (about 6hrs total) but had a fun time seeing a lot of old college buddies I haven't seen in a long time, some over 10 years! I also realized that traveling without your family is nice but it really sucks when you miss them! It was nice to get back into SD, I don't like cold weather!

Sundseth BBQ

Geanie decided to have an impromptu BBQ at our house this weekend and had the O'Days, Meeuwsens, Cabrals, Czyszczons and James and Rose. It was cool to have the kids over and was really nice of James and Rose to restock the beer. It was made really interesting when Geanie's turkey burgers dwarfed into spinach turkey burgers that were a bright green color! They tasted great but bright almost neon green really only belongs in the 80s, not in a burger!



We also had Roy, Ashley and Jacob over later in the week and gave him his present finally! Jacob is getting so big, he's in Kindergarten now at Kate Sessions and he's doing great, nice work Roy and Ash!

Baby Zahara!

We went to the Cabrals and visited newborn baby Zahara! Boris and Wassila are so proud of their little girl and it reminded me of how much of an impact Khloe Mai has had on us too! It's so cool to see the transformation from boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife to parents. Children are awesome and little Zahara is a true testament of a life changer! Khloe Mai was a little interested in Zahara and she also tested out Zahara's room fro a little siesta. Nice work Boris and Wassila!

San Diego HeartWalk

It's that time of year again and this time we walked with my company PhotoThera and Khloe Mai. Last year when we did this walk Geanie was almost full term. Khloe Mai enjoyed the walk and we had a good time with my co-workers and were also able to meet up with team Synteract for a little kid bonding with Geanie's co-workers. It was a nice morning and we look forward to many more HeartWalks in SD!

Cousin Lucas Visit

Cousin Lucas and Auntie Annie visited us while they were out in SoCal visitin family and friends. We had a great time seeing Lucas and Khloe Mai play around at our house. They are getting so big! We also met them up in Murrieta at Annie's sister's house and we had a great time hanging out in their hot tub and pool. Lucas and KM also had a bath together and they were awesome! They always seemed to want to climb on top of each other and play with whatever the other one was playing with, typical cousins!

Grandma and Grandpa visit

The other weekend we headed up to Torrance to see grandma and grandpa. Khloe Mai had a fun time playing with cousin Brandon and Uncle Nam. We took her to the park next to her house and she had fun on the swing and slides. The pics below are of that weekend plus some other pics from this month which include a BBQ at her daycare and some house pics and videos.

San Francisco!

The past weekend we took off from San Diego on Thursday night to spend the weekend in San Francisco. Khloe Mai loved the gadgets in the Virgin America planes and kept on hassling the poor girls behind us with her peek-a-boo games. My college buddy Tom picked us up from SFO and his girlfriend Lisa was kind enough to let us take over her apartment near Fisherman's warf. It was great hanging out with Tom and Lisa again and their two pugs, Peyton and Fuji. We were also able to all go out and meet up with our old roommate Pete and his new girl Anna for some Thai food at Basil Thai Friday night.

Saturday we all went to the the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and had lunch. The farmers market there is pretty insane and they definitely have a lot of great food. Tom and Lisa also took us for some sightseeing and we went to the top of the Twin Peaks and were able to have some awesome views of the city. We then headed into China town for a quick stop into Lisa's mom's shop, The Wok Shop,(www.wokshop.com). We tried to surprise her with Lisa and Tom walking in with KM before as their new adopted child but unfortunatley she was running an errand. After being forced to take our items we were going to buy for free we headed back to get ready for the wedding.

Josh and Minnies' wedding was at the Ritz, and in true Sundseth fashion we rolled in at 5:10 and the wedding started at 5:00. Thankfully it was an Asian wedding and they didn't get started until 5:30, maybe they planned it that way? I know we did! The wedding was great and after eating a ton, drinking more, and dancing, or at least trying compete with the two physicists that were battling (check out the video), we called it a night.



Tom and Lisa did an awesome job with KM while we were out, I think KM took them through the ringer though with her 1hr crying bout, which might have been some good birth control! After the wedding Tom and I went out for pizza and beer at Golden Boy Pizza and later met up with Pete and Anna for some late night drinks at Grant and Green Saloon. We pounded a few beers, snuck in some shots of Fernet, dumped a few beers into Anna's lap and listened to some awesome covers of Journey and other 80's music by a band called Fast Times, I think. It was a good time, and it was nice to chill with Pete and Tom again like old times. Of course we stopped and bought a ton of beer for an after party back at Pete's place and in true dad fashion, I bailed out. Sometimes you got to be responsible you know, or have a thoughtful wife!

Sunday morning we met up with Lisa's mom, Pete and Anna and we all had Dim Sum at Yank Sing. It was nice to have some good dim sum and I highly recommend their signature Shanghai Dumplings, although it takes a special technique to successfully eat them! After saying our goodbyes and packing our stuff up we headed back to SD. Thanks Tom and Lisa for the hospitality and we can't wait to see everyone again!

Jeff and Erica's Wedding

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy. We've been out and about and were lucky enough to have a "free" night off for Jeff and Erica's wedding. Lucky for us, the wedding was 10min away and we had some awesome sitters, Uncle Roy and Aunty Ashley stepped in and put her down like experienced parents, nice work!

The wedding was great! Open bar always helps and a nice, sweet, short ceremony is always a plus because then we get to spend more quality time "socializing", right? Best wishes to the new Jeff and Erica Meyer!

4th of July Weekend

We had a good 4th this year, it was pretty mellow compared to the usual Pacific Beach craziness Geanie and I used to get into. We started it with Ben Lau's b-day party at Pizza Port on Thursday. After many pitchers and some grub we bolted out early to get Khloe Mai to bed. It was good to see the Lau's and friends and Wendy and KM were getting along great!

The next day we met the Meeuwsen's at Power House park in Del Mar for Jonas' 1st b-day. He was walking all over the place! We all had a great time at Del Mar and it was nice to hang out at the beach for the afternoon.

On the 4th we went to the Meeuwsen's and had a little BBQ and drinks along with the O'Day's. The 4th was pretty chill, nothing crazy although Khloe Mai and Jonas had their first bath together, they were pretty funny together in the tub, each trying to get toys from each other. We ended up leaving before the fireworks, should have stayed though because KM cried the whole way home, very fun! Oh yeah, I also gave myself a new haircut to celebrate the 4th! Hope the boss likes it!

Pool Time!

We went over to the Meeuwsen's and met the O'Day's there for some pool time. It was Khloe Mai's first time in the pool and she had a great time with Riley, Jonas and Marley. Riley was showing the kids what she learned at her swim lessons and she did awesome going under water. Jonas still has no fear, that boy was leaping into the pool! Khloe Mai did well but I think she was kinda surprised each time we went under! Jonas showed off his standing skills and took a step for us while we were there, it looks like he'll be walking by his first b-day next week!

Father's Day Weekend

This weekend was father's day weekend and the Cabrals started it off with a nice "in the neighborhood" visit Friday night. Boris and Wassila swung by and had some fun with Khloe Mai. Their new house is up and coming and we're hoping to visit it soon. Wassila was looking great, little Zahara is about ready to come out and join Khloe Mai, well not too soon!

Saturday we had family over and Geanie's brothers could sure do a BBQ! They brought over short ribs, steaks, chicken, fried rice and a ton of veggies to grill. I sadly have to say all we provided was prawns, chicken and beer! It was awesome to have them down for the afternoon. Hieu, Steph, Thu Han and little Hieu were kind enough to bring a ton of old toys for KM, it was practically like X-mas for her! Thanks to Hinny and Judy, who brought a lot of food, I didn't have to do any of the grilling! Brandon was a handful as always but he was really sweet to KM. Nam will be graduating next semester, finally, and we're taking him to Hawaii next year to celebrate! Grandma and grandpa loved Khloe Mai, we couldn't get KM away from grandpa.

The following morning I played in my soccer game and we won, nice. We had a nice lunch at home and met the Rupps at Tamarack beach for some beers and bocce ball. After getting way too much sun and getting my ass handed to me in bocce ball we took off and met the Meeuwsens and Karyn at Pizza Port in Solana Beach. Jonas was great, I think he ate a whole basket of beer buddies! That boy can put down some serious food for 11 1/2 mths! KM and Jonas kept on eyeing each other from their highchairs, it was pretty funny. After a couple of pizzas and a pitcher of beer with a lot of good baby and catching up conversations we headed home.

PS- Thanks babe for the weekend, and that card was the best!

Crawling!

Khloe Mai has been teetering back and forth on her hands and feet and scooting backwards on her butt for some time now, but she finally put some good forward movement together! And it happened as the Lakers were clinching their 15th NBA title against the Magic! Here is some footage that we were able to get and of course, I had to use a hammer to get her going!

Beer, Soccer, Sushi, Surf and Bocce ball!

The past couple of weeks have been pretty laid back for the Sundseth's. With summer getting into full swing we were able to finally have some "chill" time. We went to Pizza Port on a Sunday to get some beer buddies, wings, pizza and of course Carlsbad Chronic, beer (http://www.pizzaport.com/carlsbad.htm). I think we ordered too much because I was eating pizza for like 3 days straight! I got to play some soccer on Thur and we ended up winning our Thur night outdoor league playoff championship at Aviara Park 3-1! I think it was because Khloe Mai and Geanie were cheering us on from the sidelines! The following night we met the Springers, Lau's, and Geanie's co-workers for sushi at Nozomi. Khloe Mai had fun watching us do sake bombs and was really interested in Ben and Rick for some reason.



The following day we got to catch up on some house chores and make it to the beach for a nice evening surf session at Tamarack with Rick while Maria, KM and Geanie took a walk on the beach followed up with some wine as the sunset went down. Later we got take out with the Springers and tried some killer wings from a place called Wing Stop, I recommend the lemon herb/pepper wings!

Sunday we were back in PB for my indoor game, which we won, go Man U! We then met up with Mike Yentile and crew at Kate Sessions Park for a little bocce ball tournament, thanks to the Lau's I put the bocce balls to use that I received on my b-day! Khloe Mai loved going on the swing at the park and it was pretty cool to see interact with our friend's little girl Lucy who is about 14mths.  They "shared" toys and we found a sippy cup KM really likes (the nuby).  After dad played bocce ball for 4hrs mom and baby were ready so we booked it back home in time to watch the Lakers win in OT, Go Lakers!

Belated B-day weekend

So Geanie, being the awesome wife she is, thought it would be nice to have a party for me at our home with our Cali friends. We setup the yard for sloshball and BBQing and we also had our garage converted into a poker room. I had an awesome time with everyone that showed up and we had a pretty good turnout, around 40 people and 22 players in the poker tourney, congrats to Tai, Gail, James W. and Jamie for finishing in the money. After the poker tourney it got serious with the sloshball, jello shots and fielding that went on! I think Joe took home the honors of MVP with his dedicated (diving) outfield play on the hillside and Roy got best at bat, or should I say "Lost Bat". He managed to swing the bat over the fence into our neighbors yard!



After consuming 90 jello shots, 40 burgers, 40 dogs, and way too much beer and alcohol the late crowd watched our Lakers win! Before everyone left though we had some "Yentile" shots (SoCO, yum...), compliments of Mike Yentile, which reminded me why that bottle of SoCo is never going to be finished!

Thanks to everyone that came and helped celebrate, we had an awesome time and can't wait to throw another party!

The following day we cleaned up and headed to the Springers, and man can Rick cook! They had a sweet BBQ and his pork roast and burgers were awesome, let alone all of the other food they had going on! Today we're off to another BBQ at the Czyszcyon's, nothing like showing up and eating!

Cousin Haley Visit and the Bialas Baby Shower

Geanie's cousin Thiem and Lum came down from NorCal (Elk Grove) with their daughter Haley and stayed with us for a night. It was cool to see Haley, who is over a year old now, play with Khloe Mai. Haley kept giving kisses to KM and hugging her. The last time we saw Haley she was four days old she's now running around and telling mom what she wants to eat!

That weekend we headed up to Temecula and visited with the DeMore's and saw little Owen. Duane and Lydia are doing great with little Owen and after a nice diaper change with KM at their house we headed to the Bialas baby shower. It was nice to see Mike and Sarah and their families and we had a good time drinking their beer and hanging out. It won't be soon until there will be a lot of little munchkins running around when we get together again!

Going home!

It's been a while since the last update, but we've been busy! Geanie had the awesome idea of going to Hawaii as my birthday present and for our family's first mother's day! It was awesome, we didn't do much but it was really nice to see the family and have mother's day with my mom and siblings. We stayed at my mom's house and had a good time with Dave and Misty and their two dogs, Kuma and Haru (Ru).



Khloe Mai had fun playing with her cousins Psalm, Ella and Lucas. We also got to take KM to the beach a few times and were finally able to meet up with Cory Crockett when we went to visit my dad's favorite beach to body surf and where his ashes were spread, Magic Sands.

We can't wait to get back, and we're so glad to have been able to spend time with Mike, Annie, Jordy, Anna, Dave, Misty and my mom!

First Tooth!

The past couple of weeks have been pretty chill, just a lot of lounging at the house and the beach. Khloe Mai and Geanie have both been battling colds and hopefully they are on the tail end of them now. KM has been frothing at the mouth for the past couple of weeks and on tax day, April 15th, her first tooth came in! Two days later her second tooth came in and she's been gnawing on everything! She received her 6month shots (three of them) and did really well with Dr Grayson and the nurse.



Khloe Mai has turned into a little grab and bite machine so I thought it was appropriate to put my lucha libre mask on her and teach her some wrestling moves in her Jumperoo. She also got to practice wrestling the other night with Ellie the Elephant that she received from my highschool buddy Tim Criswell and his girlfriend Jenna. We leave for Kona in less than a week so we're pretty stoked to relax with my mom and siblings.

Easter!

Easter Sunday was a good time, it was Khloe Mai's first Easter and we had a pretty fun day with her. We had both O'Day families, the Cabrals and the Czyszczons over for brunch in the morning. Basically we had a full house, 10 adults, 5 kids 2 and under one in the oven. After cooking a ton of bacon and drinking a few mimosas and Moscow Mules we all had a nice brunch with the kids. It was a pretty nice and sunny day, perfect for drinks in the yard! Kelly and Becky hid eggs in the backyard and it was fun watching Liam and Riley go hunting for the eggs. It took them a while to understand that there were multiple eggs in the yard that they could get instead of just the first one they saw.



Marley, Isabella and Khloe Mai did well, pretty much just watched their moms and dads try to entertain them, which is pretty entertaining in itself!

After much eating, drinking, diaper changing and chasing kids we finally emptied the house and relaxed for 30 min, then we headed over to the Weedman's house for Easter dinner. The Weedmans are pretty much like our extended family here in Carlsbad and it was nice to share a meal with the boys and family. Giang and Scott had a good time holding KM and the boys are so good with her. I think Cristina also might be in the forefront as babysitter #1, plus it helps that they're just down the road from us.



All in all, KM did awesome for the day of activities and Geanie and I had a good time with friends catching up and sharing some good laughs.

Brunch with the Victors

My old college/fraternity buddy Brian Victor was in town from Seattle this weekend visiting his younger brother Cody at USD. We had a chance to meet up with him, Cody and our other college buddy James Walters at the Broken Yolk in PB. It was good to catch up and let him know how parenting is. He's busy at UW pursuing his masters and PHD in nuclear fusion, he thinks he's pretty smart, just kidding, I know he's pretty smart! His wife Sakkiko didn't get a chance to come down but hopefully we'll get to meet soon.

Delivering Liam's gift

We were finally able to deliver Liam's gift! After my indoor game at the Mission Valley YMCA we headed up to the O'Day's (Ryan, Becky and Liam) and spent some time playing with Liam and changing diapers. It was pretty cool to see how Liam interacted with Khloe Mai and he was really nice in making sure she always had toys to play with. Liam was pretty fun to watch while he was opening his gift; he's so meticulous and well mannered that he took it apart piece by piece and in the end had more interest in the box than the clothes. I think I would too at his age, who needs clothes when you're two anyways?



After saying bye and Liam shouting "Tuna" (his new favortie word) we headed down to Del Mar and met up with the Meeuwsens (Brad, Vickie and Jonas), and Karyn and Lisa. Jonas was eating everything, I think he almost ate a whole banana! After watching Jonas dance with the umbrella pole for a while we all had enough sun for the day and packed up. Lucky for Brad and I we had the pleasure of getting the cars that were 100 blocks away, actually about 4 blocks. While going to get the cars though we saw a crazy accident scene off of the north west corner of PCH and 15th street. A Land Rover had jumped the curb and drove over a railing and literally did a 50/50 grind down a cement barrier into a hotel courtyard below. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. That pretty summed up the weekend, glad to be in one piece!

Pizza Port with the Bialas and Scheidlers

We went to Pizza Port in Solana Beach last weekend and met up with Mike and Sarah Bialas and Nick and Joey Scheidler. My old carpool buddy/co-worker Mindy also met us there with some of her UCSD MBA friends and we had a good time catching up and enjoyed some good pizza and beer.



We ran into our friends Brad, Jeff and Jason along with Brad's boy Jonas. Jonas as usual was eating everything and scaring the dogs around us, although they were punters, not Kuma size dogs. Khloe Mai was pretty chill, she got the usual pass around the tables and cruised in her new "running" outfit from Michael and Nicholee Nietch. It's a 12mth size and she was filling it out, I'm sure the Nietch's boy Trevor would be proud, KM and Trevor are on the "sumo" side of infants.

Khloe Mai's First Walk!

So, Khloe Mai went on her first walk! Just kidding, she went "running" in her new outfit from Michael, Nicholee and Trevor Nietch thanks to a little help from mom. I think she liked the outfit because she was smiling for a while just sitting in the hallway. Hopefully it will be a while before she actually does start to walk/run because I am not looking forward to baby proofing the house!

Nick Scheidler's 30th

Unfortunately we were not able to make it to the "real" party for Nick the night before due to babysitter issues but we were lucky enough to spend the following day with the Scheidler and Prout families in a little home BBQ action. Nick and some of us partook in some scotch and IPA, I think it's a nice transition from scotch to IPA. Geanie and KM had fun, Geanie got to have some IPA also thanks to Joey's mom and Nick's siblings taking turns holding the little Gremlin. It was our first time at Nick and Joey's new house and it's pretty awesome! It's got a lot of SD history in it and a trap door! Plus it's relatively close to downtown, the park, zoo and Nick's favorite stomping grounds, Hillcrest, just kidding Nick. Did I mention IPA is good after scotch? It makes for a nice car ride home too...

Moonlight beach

We were able to meet the Meeuwsens at Moonlight beach in Encinitas on Sunday for a nice walk in the park and down the beach. Jonas showed us his swinging skills and then the kids took a nice nap as we pushed their strollers down the beach. KM tried her hand at driving after she had a nice poop, funny how happy they seem to be after squeezing on out!

The DeMore's Baby Shower

We headed down to Chu-V (Chula Vista) for our friend's Duane and Lydia DeMore's baby shower. They're in the final stages of adopting their soon to be born son, whose mother Ashley is a really kind person who wants to make sure her baby boy is properly cared for. The shower was fun, lots of food and plenty of booze, just what we like! There were a ton of kids though, a 2wk old, 4mth old, plenty of toddlers, at least 10 and a lot of nice family. Duane's parents came out too and had fun holding KM, I think she might have left her mark on Grandma DeMore though, I had to change a minor blowout and it had a good potential of migrating...oops! It was good to see my old co-workers and friends, both the Bialas and DeMore's used to live in PB near us, now we're parents or soon to be parents!

Brunch at the Sundseths

We actually hosted a fun brunch at our house with some of our friends who have the joy of changing diapers and cleaning up puke, from kids, not your roommates! The two O'Day families, the Meeuwsens, and the Czyszczons were all able to join us for some brunch and mimosas. Riley and Liam had a good time running through the yard and having balls thrown at them by their loving dads, typical O'Days. Jonas was his usual self, laughing and playing, he actually only spit up on me once! Khloe Mai, Marley and Isabella were all pretty chill, just taking in all of the sites and sounds and pooping and peeing as usual. After the 60th piece of bacon was eaten and the 4th bottle of champagne was kicked everyone was pretty much done. Thanks to those that came, hopefully Geanie and I can host some more fun events once I get the yard finished.

'Bachan Visit

We were so stoked to have my mom come and stay with us for two weeks at the beginning of her month long whirlwind trip through the states. Mom helped out around the house and babysat Khloe Mai while Geanie was transitioning back into work. We had a lot of fun times going to the farmers market, walking at the beach and having nice family dinners together. Mom also purchased our first five trees for our house. They were and avocado, nectarine, Valencia orange, dwarf Mexican lime, and dwarf mandarin. Mom also helped weed our yard, which it is in constant need of. Once she left it was pretty sad, no one to make dinner, no one to do dishes, no one to babysit while Geanie and I went on a date, etc! It was definitely an appreciated visit, and if you can step up to the plate like my mom, you're more than welcome to stay too!

Hiking at Torrey with the Meeuwsens

We had a fun time taking Khloe Mai hiking with the Meeuwsens at Torrey Pines. The Ergo worked out nicely for the hike taking most of the weight of KM onto the hips. We decided to take lunch under the cliffs at the beach, not the brightest idea seeing they've been known to take people out unexpectedly. Jonas was hilarious, being his usual self laughing and eating everything. He went in for another kiss with KM, need to watch out for that boy!