Today we celebrated Linda's Dad's (Hoa) Birthday. He's a very humble man and does not like to make a big deal out of celebrating his birthday. We on the other hand like to do something special to celebrate the birthday of ANY loved ones in our lives. It may seem trivial to celebrate birthdays as you get older, but from Linda's perspective, the reason we celebrate birthdays is because we give homage to a wonderful day in history that brought this special person into our lives. In the past, it has often turned into some kind of family dinner at a restaurant or one of our homes. Since having kids, our preference to go to a nice restaurant has diminished. Don't get us wrong, our kids actually behave pretty well in a restaurant, they have learned and continue to learn table manners. But we have also found that a couple of things are turn-offs to going to a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, especially when the kids are involved. First of all, although our kids for the most part behave in a restaurant, there's only so long you can hang out in a restaurant with kids and expect them to stay seated. Secondly, when you are seated at a restaurant, it's difficult to interact and talk with the people on the other end of the table, let alone the guest of honor. And lastly, we have found that most family members enjoy the interaction with our kids (whether they've seen them lately or not), so hanging out in a restaurant is not an ideal place to connect with them. We find ourselves inviting people over to our house more often now, so that the kids can be in a comfortable environment and be able to freely interact with our "guest of honor" for whatever the occasion may be.
Some of you may know that Linda's father is diabetic. Most recently, he's now taking an insulin injection prior to bedtime. He's diligent about monitoring his blood sugar level, but he also has old habits that are hard to break, like not wasting food. So we try our best to be considerate of his dietary/health needs as well as his innate eating behavior (i.e. eat everything on his plate so that it doesn't go to waste) by not always taking him out to eat. As we said before, he is a humble man who does not spend frivolously and hardly ever goes to an expensive restaurant. It would seem logical to take him to a fancy restaurant since he never goes to them, but unfortunately he has the logic that if you are going to spend more money at a fancier restaurant you should have more food to choose from (like a seafood buffet). But then that turns into eating too much food because it's offered and he has to get his money's worth and that is obviously not good for his health. We could take him to a nice sit-down restaurant that has decent food portion control, but then he is more limited in his food choices and he may not be as satisfied or content and feels like it's a waste of money. It's kind of a Catch 22.
Linda's Dad loves his grand kids like any normal grandparent. And he also loves nature and the outdoors, which over the past few decades he has seen less and less. We wanted to take him somewhere different for his birthday, a place that he does not visit often but encapsulates his joys in life. So we took him to the Coronado Ferry Landing in the early afternoon, after Leyton was done with Preschool. This is one of our favorites spots to go, not only for it's unique view of downtown San Diego, but for it's easy beach/sand access for the kids to play. We also invited Linda's sister (Nancy) and niece (Gracie) to join us. By going here, we were able to indulge him with 2 things he enjoys in life, spending time with his grand kids and being near water (kind of like the ocean but it's the San Diego Bay). It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, temperature in the low 80's, with a breeze to keep you cool. He gets cold easily, so he was prepared and dressed warm. He was able to enjoy a walk on the Ferry pier with Leyton and lean over the rail in search of fish. He helped Lincoln blow bubbles in the wind, it wasn't too much work since the wind did all the blowing. And he got to sit back, relax and watch his grand kids play in the sand and water in front of a breath-taking backdrop of the San Diego Bay and city skyline. As a bonus treat, we caught a few military helicopters flying overhead, a reminder of his pilot days. The only thing that would've made the day more perfect for him would've been for Linda's Mom to have joined us, unfortunately she was still at work. Her birthday is coming up next week, so hopefully we can do something special for her too.
Mental reminder from today is that it's nice if you are able to buy something or spend money for a loved one in celebration of a special occasion but you don't have to spend money to do something special for someone. If you are able and willing, set aside some time to spend with that person and do something that they would enjoy. That time spent with them can create memories that are invaluable. We don't know how long any of us will be on this earth together, that we have no control over. We do have a choice on how to spend our time while we are here. Make the time to spend with loved ones... time is more valuable then money.
Some of you may know that Linda's father is diabetic. Most recently, he's now taking an insulin injection prior to bedtime. He's diligent about monitoring his blood sugar level, but he also has old habits that are hard to break, like not wasting food. So we try our best to be considerate of his dietary/health needs as well as his innate eating behavior (i.e. eat everything on his plate so that it doesn't go to waste) by not always taking him out to eat. As we said before, he is a humble man who does not spend frivolously and hardly ever goes to an expensive restaurant. It would seem logical to take him to a fancy restaurant since he never goes to them, but unfortunately he has the logic that if you are going to spend more money at a fancier restaurant you should have more food to choose from (like a seafood buffet). But then that turns into eating too much food because it's offered and he has to get his money's worth and that is obviously not good for his health. We could take him to a nice sit-down restaurant that has decent food portion control, but then he is more limited in his food choices and he may not be as satisfied or content and feels like it's a waste of money. It's kind of a Catch 22.
Linda's Dad loves his grand kids like any normal grandparent. And he also loves nature and the outdoors, which over the past few decades he has seen less and less. We wanted to take him somewhere different for his birthday, a place that he does not visit often but encapsulates his joys in life. So we took him to the Coronado Ferry Landing in the early afternoon, after Leyton was done with Preschool. This is one of our favorites spots to go, not only for it's unique view of downtown San Diego, but for it's easy beach/sand access for the kids to play. We also invited Linda's sister (Nancy) and niece (Gracie) to join us. By going here, we were able to indulge him with 2 things he enjoys in life, spending time with his grand kids and being near water (kind of like the ocean but it's the San Diego Bay). It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, temperature in the low 80's, with a breeze to keep you cool. He gets cold easily, so he was prepared and dressed warm. He was able to enjoy a walk on the Ferry pier with Leyton and lean over the rail in search of fish. He helped Lincoln blow bubbles in the wind, it wasn't too much work since the wind did all the blowing. And he got to sit back, relax and watch his grand kids play in the sand and water in front of a breath-taking backdrop of the San Diego Bay and city skyline. As a bonus treat, we caught a few military helicopters flying overhead, a reminder of his pilot days. The only thing that would've made the day more perfect for him would've been for Linda's Mom to have joined us, unfortunately she was still at work. Her birthday is coming up next week, so hopefully we can do something special for her too.
Mental reminder from today is that it's nice if you are able to buy something or spend money for a loved one in celebration of a special occasion but you don't have to spend money to do something special for someone. If you are able and willing, set aside some time to spend with that person and do something that they would enjoy. That time spent with them can create memories that are invaluable. We don't know how long any of us will be on this earth together, that we have no control over. We do have a choice on how to spend our time while we are here. Make the time to spend with loved ones... time is more valuable then money.
Photos from our day at Coronado with Ong Ngoai!
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| Birthday Celebratio |
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