Happy First Birthday Niko!

It seems only yesterday I was writing this post to welcome my great-nephew Niko to the world. Can you believe it has been a whole year?! Niko's parents threw him a big Filipino-style birthday bash at their home in Kent. Walter and I were there of course.

There were LOTS of people at this party. Boyboy and Roxanne (Niko's parents) have a nice sized home and it was full. Many people were in every room, and there were folks outside on the lawn and even in the garage. It was a lot to take in for little Niko. He was a trooper though and stayed well behaved throughout. He took a little siesta partway through and came back rejuvenated after only a 5 minute nap. I wish 5 minutes were all I needed to return to full energy!

As is the case for all Filipino parties there was lots and lots of good food. Boyboy makes a great meatloaf and he also put together a yummy tilapia dish. There was lasagna, pancit (Filipino noodle dish), lumpia (like eggrolls) and lots more. Of course there were desserts from birthday cake to leche flan (yum) and finger jello.

Walter and I really enjoyed visiting with everyone. It is not often enough that we get to see folks on this side of the family. We had a great visit and enjoyed seeing how big little Niko is getting! In fact here are a few pictures.

Here is Niko pre-birthday cupcake:


With brother Jevandre. Enjoying the cupcake.


Hanging out with Grandpa:


Relaxing with Grandma:


You can see more of the party pictures at this link.

Happy Birthday Niko. Don't grow up too fast!

Erika the Graduate

Earlier this month Walter and I had the pleasure of attending a graduation party for my good friend Charyl's niece, Erika. Erika and her family celebrated with a good old fashioned picnic meal and lots of warm sunshine - something that had been previously missing from such events in the Northwest!

Erika's mom Brenda is a great cook and she put together lots of yummy eats. There was a really delicious bean dish, a yummy orzo salad and pasta salad and more. Erika's dad Don is handy at the grill and he served up some awesome burgers and dogs. I took my finger jello along and the little ones especially loved munching on those. For dessert Brenda whipped up cute little graduation cupcakes in wafer ice cream cones!

Walter and I really appreciated being included at this event. It was great to see the rest of Erika's family and meet a couple people I hadn't had the pleasure to meet before.

Brenda put together this great photo wall of Erika pictures.


And here is a picture of Erika and the family dog Snowball taken at the party.

You can see more pictures from the party here.

What's next for Erika? Well the whole family is leaving on a cruise to Alaska in about a week and I'm sure she's looking forward to that. In the fall Erika will be attending Cascadia Community College in Bothell near her home. Congratulations Erika and we wish you all the best for your future success and happiness.

Congratulations Jim and Kristina

Friends Jim and Kristina recently welcomed a new addition to their family - baby Zachary! Zachary entered the world on June 11 at 3:09 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces at birth and was 19-1/2 inches long.

You may remember that Kristina writes a blog for Zachary's big sister Elena. Now Zachary has his own blog too! You can find it over here and both blogs are also listed under Bloggin' Friends over in the sidebar. Check them out, there are already lots of great stories and pictures on Zachary's blog as well as Elena's. Kristina is an awesome blogging mom!

When not blogging, Kristina and Jim get out and about with the kids. Jim took some time off work when Zachary was born, and before he had to go back the whole family came downtown to visit Jim's office and they stopped by to see me and other folks at my office too. Zachary was still so new - only 8 days old at the time of their visit.

You know I had to take some pictures. The photo above is Elena holding her baby brother. If you click on that photo you can get to more pictures on Webshots. Just use the Next and Prev links to navigate through the album. Zachary was a sleepyhead that afternoon so his eyes are closed in the pictures I took. But if you want to see his beautiful eyes just check out some of the pics on his blog.

Welcome to the world, Zachary, and thanks for coming to visit. It was so great to meet you!

Birthday Dinner at Carmelita

This past week was a fun yet busy one. Wednesday was my birthday. I started the day out at my eye doctor appointment which went well. Then we spent a few hours doing a walking tour of Fremont. I will post more about that as soon as I can get the pictures organized a bit.

For dinner we went to the restaurant Carmelita in Phinney Ridge just a couple miles from where we live. Carmelita is an upscale vegetarian restaurant with reaallly yummy food. When the restaurant first opened about 11 years ago it caught my awareness because of course Carmelita is also my name. Doesn't everyone have a restaurant named after them? If you do I think it's mandatory that you go there and have a meal.

Back when Carmelita first opened we tried to eat there but encountered a long wait for dinner even early on a weeknight. We decided to go somewhere else that evening and left with the intention of returning another day. I don't know why it took us over a decade to do so.

Our friend Doxey lives just a couple blocks from Carmelita. We had not told him we were going there, but as luck would have it we arrived at the restaurant at the same time Doxey got off the bus on his way home from work. Before we went inside I was going to take a picture of the "Carmelita" sign out front.

Just as I was framing up the shot I heard a voice behind me exclaim "Walter and Carmelita!" When I turned around it was Doxey! When we told Doxey we were going to have dinner at Carmelita he offered to take our picture in front of the restaurant with the sign.

What a a fun surprise to run into Doxey. Thanks for taking our picture Doxey!

When we went inside the restaurant we were happy to see that there was no long wait as we had experienced years earlier. In fact we were the only couple in the place! Later on there was one more couple but that was it. We enjoyed a leisurely and delicious dinner in an elegant atmosphere.

We had some yummy bread and a tasty cheese plate before our meal. For dinner Walter had Potato-Gruyere gratin with Swiss chard, leek cream, and fennel-radish salad with croutons. And I chose the Baked Roman-style gnocchi, lemon cream, rapini, pearl onion, pine nuts with blueberry sauce. The presentation was a work of art and both our meals were just to die for delicious.

Walter is pretty open minded about food and isn't a strict meat eater. Before dinner though he told me he "had a protein jones." So I was a little nervous about whether he would enjoy his dinner. In the end he loved it and his meat craving went away entirely.

If you are vegetarian or enjoy vegetarian food from time to time I recommend this place for a special occasion. It's a bit pricey for every day (at least on our budget) but definitely worth a visit if you want a special evening out.