Cirque du Soleil

(thank you self timer)

Giveaway winner will be chosen and blogged about tomorrow! You can still enter tonight.

I am a bit behind on some posts and they are not going in chronological order. Not sure if they ever do. I still haven’t posted pictures from our trip to Palm Springs, but they’re coming.

Kooza came to the Santa Monica Pier and my whole family went along with another couple. If you haven’t seen a show by Cirque du Soleil, I’m sorry. You really should. Years ago they came to our pier regularly and then they stopped, not sure why. But this is their first show back. Aaron and the kids had never been before. Watching their expressions was honestly the best part. Sawyer didn’t sit in his seat for more than about 5 minutes the entire show. He stood and stared and yelled and laughed and smiled the entire night. We were a little concerned that Greta would be scared because you never know the premise or theme of the show and although this “zany kingdom” Kooza sounded harmless, you just never know. And it can get loud and dark in there. But she was totally fine. She’s not easily scared and other than getting a little restless the second act, she was great. We didn’t have to get up once.

If you’ve ever been to the show you know that they like to mess with the audience a little. And where our seats were made it so that we had a big aisle right behind us, an aisle that the performers like to use a lot. They especially enjoyed Aaron’s bald head and repeatedly climbed on his shoulders so that they could kiss his bald head. The acts are not your normal acts. I honestly was screaming at one point in the show for fear my heart would jump out of my chest. There are no animals, just people. It was a beautiful show, and the kids still talk about the “bendy girls” and the “tumble wheel guys” on a daily basis. Even this morning Greta was talking about the man in the striped PJs who had a kite.

Before the show we had dinner at The Lobster, and Gunnar couldn’t have been happier. Lobster is his favorite and I think he has eaten at this restaurant more than I have!

A few snapshots with my iphone. Here’s the kids before we left.

You aren’t supposed to have your phones on during the show but I had to sneak one of the boys’ faces. I couldn’t resist and I didn’t get busted. I’m such a rebel!

Here’s some photos from dinner I got to take in between bites of the fantastic food. Oh, and if you are planning a trip to the show in Santa Monica, The Lobster has an awesome Cirque du Soleil 3 course meal you can get that includes valet parking for the whole night too. I can’t remember the last time we were all in a photo together.

Del Mar Food post

Yep. Another post of what we eat on vacation.

But first have to say what an exciting weekend we have planned. I’m taking the kids (minus Gunnar, he chose to golf with my dad instead) to the beach tomorrow for our last summer beach day. Then on Saturday we are celebrating my sister and brother in law’s 10 year wedding anniversary. 10 years. Happy Anniversary you guys! And most exciting, Aaron and I both have the day off on Monday and he’s not even on call. Hope everyone enjoys a great 3 day weekend.

The second night there was a huge New England feast. We already knew lobster was a favorite with Gunnar, but Soso and Greta had their tastings of it.

This is what we feel like after a meal.

The kids love calamari. Check out the next two photos of Greta and this octopus. The second one kind of grosses me out with the tentacles hanging out of her mouth!

Ojai- Food

Yes, I had to dedicate an entire post to food. We eat a lot on vacation. The kids eat a lot on vacation. Well, my kids eat a lot all the time, but when they are swimming, you cannot get food into their stomachs fast enough. All. Day. Long.

This family loves to eat. I often don’t eat enough due to the constant food preparation for consumption by my 3 little people, but when I have the chance. I can eat with the best of them. And most of my friends know I love beer. The pub at Ojai has a great beer sampler I highly recommend. Prepare to be hungry.

The kids drink smoothies in the summer ALL the time. An “after breakfast right before camp” snack and usually an after dinner snack. On vacation they usually drink them twice a day, every day. I just love these next two photos, with the kids in birth order and their smoothies afterwards, in the same order. You can totally match up their leftovers with each kid.

The Buffalo Club

Adult evenings (I know, that kinda sounds naughty, but it just means no children) are becoming a little more frequent around the Harju house. Gotta love having a 12 year old neighbor living next door, who has 2 younger siblings which means she is awesome with kids, and it doesn’t hurt that my children adore her. Who am I kidding, I adore her. Anyways, we have been using her more and more recently and Saturday night we had her come over so Aaron and I could enjoy dinner at a restaurant we’ve never been to called The Buffalo Club.

Now, you have to remember, I’m really not cool. So not cool in fact that it was my parents who introduced us to this restaurant, made the reservations, and informed me to get a babysitter. I am born and raised in Santa Monica and I’ve never heard of this place. Never seen it although apparently I’ve driven by it almost daily. Here comes the cool, hip, trendy, part. It’s not obvious from the street. It’s so obscure that if you weren’t looking for the valet stand and the scary bouncer dude, you’d drive right by it. 

Once inside the place has a really cool old school style bar and dining room. But the coolest part is if you ask them when you make your reservations to put you in the back. There is this amazing patio with huge fabric tent like ceilings with dozens of paper lanterns and a second bar. We had a drink first and let me tell you, this place doesn’t skip on the vodka part in a vodka tonic. Good sign.

The menu is pretty cool and covers all tastes, they specialize in pork chops and steak but they also have a vegetarian selection. For appetizers we had tuna tartare, some lobster dumplings and a crab salad. And then for starters I chose their maytag blue cheese salad with chicken. It was very hard for me to decide between two of my favorite comfort foods, their pot roast or  the chicken pot pit. I went for the pot pie, and let me tell you, the best I have ever had.

Not a newsflash to many, but I’m not a wine drinker. I prefer beer or mixed drinks. However that doesn’t mean I am stupid. When the sommelier comes over and oogles over the bottles of wine my dad brought in, that tells me I must sip and try. Especially when I see how giddy the sommelier gets when my dad asks him to join us for a taste. Even more especially when the sommelier comes back and asks for my dad’s contact information. Yeah, that means the wine was so good that I even liked it.

I can’t tell you much about dessert other than the fact that everyone else at the table was in heaven. By this point my pants were so tight that I didn’t want to bust a zipper. And I’m not  glutton so I had to draw the line somewhere. 

Another little cool addition was that we dined next to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. So I figure if our governor and his wife like the privacy and obscurity of this place, it’s gotta be good. And way too cool for me.  Unfortunately, this means Aaron has a new favorite restaurant, and it happens to be one that he probably will only get to eat at once a year for our anniversary unless we can talk my lovely, generous, wonderful parents into inviting us to join them the next time they dine there.

All in all an awesome evening with awesome food and awesome drinks. Highly recommend if you are in the Santa Monica vicinity.