Author: Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout's mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)

Because it is super chilly outside and you just finished that big carton of yogurt

February 7, 2014

I have been dying to make these ice blocks with my guys forever. I found a couple of spoiled yogurt cartons in the fridge (I don’t know why, but even if it’s a day BEFORE the expiry date, I get a little freaked out.) and I needed to find a non-wasteful use for them and […]

A whole lot of grief on Feb 6

I used to think that after years of missing someone the pain of missing them would just go away. Or maybe if I got grown up enough, somehow I’d learn to deal with sad things and maybe they wouldn’t hurt anymore. But the more I grow up I realize that life’s not like that. And […]

Seattle Post-game shopping on a Monday

February 3, 2014

Although yesterday was an epic sports battle for our beloved football team, this morning is a true test for me. Did I manage to get a goldentote order? (The site broke!) Did I get my lulu lemon run entry? (YES!!!!!!) And am I going to get the Seattle Seahawk Superbowl champion shirts? Probably not. But […]

Olive-it all at Stoneburner and our favorite Ballard bakery (Seattle, WA)

January 31, 2014

Maybe you’re groaning at the title, but I couldn’t help myself. The hubby and I snuck out for a lunchdate and ended up at Stoneburner in Ballard for the first time and we tried this amazing olive appetizer that was cheesy, oozy and delicious. And we loved them. All of them. Stonburner is such a […]

Easy Homemade Valentines Love bugs that are not candy

January 29, 2014

For some reason I remember collecting these cute little love bugs when I was little but I don’t think I ever made them. So this is one of the Valentines I decided that the guys and I would make for their school friends this year (while I still get to make those kinds of decisions […]

I washed my face with oil and I liked it

A couple weeks ago a friend at my kids’ gym class passed me a sample kit from a Seattle-based skincare company called Kari Gran. “I LOVE this stuff!” she said. “Have you heard of cleansing oils?” Yes, yes, I have. They’re in all of my magazines lately, and I was definitely skeptical. I have combination […]

Giving in to peer pressure is okay sometimes, right?

January 28, 2014

I totally want these bubble glass lights my friend just put in her house. They don’t match anything I have-I would probably need to build a whole new bathroom just for them, but I can’t Stop. Thinking. About. Them. And I’ve seen this Nate Berkus for Target tray pinned quite a bit, and it might […]

giant donuts at george's bakery in north bend

When your sandwich comes with surprise pie at George’s Bakery (North Bend, Washington)

January 27, 2014

Perhaps this was the most delicious meal of the weekend: We stopped in North Bend for lunch on the way to Snoqualmie Pass; once again we were on a quest for snow. I remembered that George’s bakery does the cookies for our favorite Seattle Christmas tree farm, Christmas Creek and I saw that the restaurant […]

A nice day being a Stay-at-Home mom

January 25, 2014

A couple months ago, I got some really traumatic news that my high school’s time capsule was being dug up about 20 years prematurely because they are in the process of re-building the school. In the time capsule a couple hundred students in my class (including me!) had written letters to ourselves in the future […]

stanely cup model at bc sports hall of fame

Getting Olympic Ready at the BC Sports Hall Of Fame (Vancouver, BC)

January 23, 2014

Oh do you remember these guys? We had so much fun with the kids during their first Winter Olympics and we were so lucky it happened in Vancouver! I remember taking them to the Richmond Oval and parading them around with someone’s torch and just taking in all the excitement of the Olympic Spirit. It […]

Homesick pictures after a weekend away

January 21, 2014

We travel a lot but sometimes even an exciting weekend away leaves me a little homesick and by the end of the trip I just want to get home and unwind in my own house before the week starts. On the drive home, I start thinking about the laundry I need to fold, the lunches […]

24 hours of snow at the Suncadia Resort in Washington State

January 17, 2014

We are so snow starved in Seattle right now. Ever since that icy cold week a few months back where we were teased with just a little hint of snow in our yard (and yes, I let the kids go out even though it was SUPER early!) we haven’t got ANYTHING. So when I heard […]

Oahu Shopping late on a Monday (planning for a trip to Oahu with kids)

January 14, 2014

I’m often asked about how I book my travel plans. It usually starts with some kind of interest our family has in a place combined with the kids’ and hubby’s vacation schedules. Sometimes, I get a place in my head because of some animal adventure I’ve heard about, or a farm tour I’m curious about […]

Trying to get a shot of the Seattle Great Wheel with kids in tow

January 13, 2014

I’m trying to steel up my courage to ride the Great Wheel sometime this new year. I had it on my summer bucket list but managed to avoid it along with Great Wolf Lodge which I hope we never have to go to. And then I developed an irrational fear of elevators that I desperately […]

Something fun in front of Seattle REI

January 12, 2014

So dare I say REI is growing on me? This is the hubby’s favorite store in all of Seattle. It’s probably the only catalog he hasn’t used paper karma (an amazing app that gets rid of junk mail!!) on and if he could go daily, he probably would. And ever since they had a members’ […]

Snowshoeing in Whistler for the first time with kids (Callaghan Valley, British Columbia)

January 10, 2014

All Christmas the hubby and I talked about how we were so excited to go to Whistler for the first time with kids and how we hadn’t been in 6 years, but as we were walked through the village we both got some weird deja vu feelings and then realized we’ve actually been here before. […]

Cookbook Cleanse for the New Year

January 8, 2014

I went on a bit of a buying frenzy last year with my cookbooks when the kids started school. I was excited to make home-made dinners and I guess I thought HAVING a ton of books would make me cook more but then it made me realize that I needed more cooking tools: more pans, […]

New Year, new Monday wants

January 6, 2014

It’s the first Monday of the New Year and I woke up to this beautiful sunrise and the kids and I spent the morning coloring Vancouver Canucks coloring sheets and talking about the Seahawks. Ugh. I totally have sports fans in this house. And since it’s so early in the year, the only things I’ve […]

Sketches of Seattle and a good place to stop if you’re trying to figure out what to see (Mohai, Seattle)

January 5, 2014

The other night the hubby and I went for date night at the Mohai‘s Member Night featuring the Drawn to Seattle Seattle Sketcher Exhibit. (We pretty much ran out of the house screaming DATE-NIGHT!!!!!!! the minute my parents arrived but here we look rather civilized, I thought.) I’ve seen Gabriel Campanario’s work before in the […]

Family-friendly Christmas Activities in Vancouver

January 4, 2014

I’m going through my photo roll and it feels like I’ve blinked and weeks have magically flown by. We’ve spent a lot of time in Vancouver, BC in the past few months and though we didn’t really plan on doing too many festive things this year, we definitely have some fun Christmas activities in Vancouver […]