Pumpkin Patch FAIL

As new parents, we were obviously very excited to take Ruby on her very first field trip to the pumpkin patch. We had visions of our adorable little baby clapping with glee as she looked at all of the pumpkins, and her cute little cherub face hamming things up as we shot a few pictures to capture the moment.

One word: NOPE.

For whatever reason, Little Miss Ruby did NOT enjoy her first trip to the pumpkin patch.

 

 

What to do? First, we tried to distract her with silly cut out photo ops …


Boring! You can see by looking at her here, she just wasn’t interested.

 

How about checking to see how tall you are, Ruby?

Nah, couldn’t care less.

 

So there it goes. Ruby wasn’t that into it. Oh well. There’s always next year.

At least we got her to smile for ONE pic …

5 Years

5 years as Mr. and Mrs. Kim, and this was a milestone anniversary for many reasons! We tend to really go big for anniversaries … we’ve spent them in places like in Miami, Buenos Aires and even The Grand Canyon! So this year, it was tough to think of a way to make this one just as extraordinary (especially with the one-income budget we’ve been adjusting to, and our sweet little baby at home!). But thanks to a really fabulous mother-in-law, this year was no exception. Halmoni stayed with Ruby at our house and got us a room at The SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills!


When we arrived at the SLS, we were told that we’d be receiving an upgraded room … score! As you can see, the rooms are breathtaking and have a modern look that we always die over. We especially loved the leather lounge bench near the window. The SLS’ interior was designed by Phillippe Starck, and we are huge fans. We’ve made special stops in many of the hotels he’s designed, just to gawk. We checked out The Delano Hotel when we were in Miami, we checked out the Clift Hotel when we were in San Francisco, and we saw The Faena Hotel (a masterpiece!) when we were in Buenos Aires. Needless to say, we couldn’t wait to see the SLS.

Just a few more pics of our room …

Aside from the room, we decided to indulge in dinner at the very swanky modern latin restaurant, Rivera.

The restaurant is probably the best take on a modern latin theme we’ve ever seen, and it was very cool inside and out. We thought the food was just okay, though.

If we were really big shots, we could pay for one of these many bottles of tequila embedded in the wall. If you pay a large sum of money, they put your name on one, and you get to have them pull it out for you every time you visit. Big league kinda stuff!


We were pretty anxious to return to the SLS, where a very famous chef, Jose Andres has his very famous restaurant, The Bazaar. We couldn’t get a reservation, but we knew we wanted to grab some cocktails and sample the goods at the on-site patisserie. We ordered cocktails, just a few bon-bons, and two cupcakes. :)


The best part was knowing that we could sleep in and not have to worry about waking up before we were ready to! We rented a movie in the morning (Woody Allen’s, Midnight in Paris) and ordered room service for breakfast! 12 quail eggs sunny side up for Ed, scrambled egg whites with squash blossoms for me, a side of chicken sausage and French Press coffee were delivered to our room as we watched TV. It was pure decadence!

A perfect way to celebrate 5 years!

Oktoberfest 2011! Ein Prosit…

My love of Germany and all things German is legendary, so it was with great excitement that we took Ruby to her very first Oktoberfest!  We’d been to other Oktoberfests throughout Southern California before, but they had always come off as pretty cheesy and not very authentic.

As it turns out, having a real German friend to find a good Oktoberfest is very valuable.  Our friend Malte, who lived in Munich for some time, found out that the Phoenix Club, a German cultural center in Anaheim, CA, held a pretty large one, and much more authentic as it was staffed mainly by Germans.  Perfect!

So off we went to this quasi-Munich celebration that originated with Crown Prince Ludwig’s wedding in 1810 with friends (Malte and Amy, and Daniel and Amber) and babies in tow, ready to drink some fine Bavarian beers and eat some hearty food.

As it turned out, the Phoenix Club’s Oktoberfest really was the best local Oktoberfest I’d been to, by a long shot.  It certainly helps when Germans are running the show.  The food selection was great (far beyond the bratwursts that most local Oktoberfests serve), as was the beer selection.

Even the giant tent looked pretty legit!

And how did Ruby and her baby buddies Paloma and Nora do?

Well for starters, Ruby LOVED the pretzel.  But wait…sauerkraut too?  Yes, Ruby DEVOURED the sauerkraut.  She even cried when we’d stop feeding it to her.  Who knew?

Me, Ruby, Daniel, and Nora…kickin’ it Bavarian style.

And the German Tiger and her Cub.

Excellent times.  Bis zum nächsten Jahr!