Cousins! (And an aunt and uncle....)

The past four days have been quite eventful for our little girl. Pam, Lanhua, and I have been the happy hosts of my brother Brian, sister-in-law Heidi, and our two twin nephews, Seth and Jackson. They're on a Griswold-style family vacation (no Wallyworld, but Mt. Rushmore is in the gameplan), and we were lucky enough to be their first stop! It was fantastic for Lanhua to get to spend so much time with her two younger cousins, and her Aunt Heidi and Uncle Brian; she had so much fun with them. We hit Legoland, the beach, visited Brian's old haunts at UC San Diego, and played a lot of Wii games. (I had warned Lan that her Uncle Brian was a preternatural whiz at video games and he did not disappoint - she was awestruck when he bowled 5 strikes in a row, and proceeded to wipe the floor with her Baba...)

Seth and Jackson slept in her room, so every night was like a slumber party for Lan. Add in Aunt Heidi reading bedtime stories every night (not to mention playing games like Dead Bug, which consists of dancing to music until the music stops and someone shouts "Dead Bug" and everyone has to drop to the floor, kicking their legs up frantically), and, well, let's just say that before her cousins and Aunt and Uncle had left she was already making it clear that we now needed to go to Sacramento to spend 4 days with them!

And speaking of cousins and aunts and uncles, in just a week and a half we leave to Colorado Springs where we'll spend 4 days with Uncle Bob, Aunt Susan, cousins Allyson and Mackenzie, and Grandma! She is VERY excited about meeting her older cousins, although Pam and I suspect she's a little a nervous; we think she's going to be very shy at first. When we show her pictures of the girls, she smiles broadly and says her current favorite phrase of, "I don't know," which tends to mean she doesn't have the words to express herself, but that she's very happy or excited. We're not worried; Ally and Mac are such sweet girls that Lan's shyness won't last very long!

Next blog: Lan's first trapeze experience from several weeks ago!

(I've posted a few photos and a movie: there's Lan washing Seth's hair, storybook time, and Lan and Heidi-yi getting down to some Kylie Minogue...)