This is what Lan's Aunt, Uncle and cousins left for her on her chalkboard when they left....she hasn't touched it since they left.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Family = Love
This is what Lan's Aunt, Uncle and cousins left for her on her chalkboard when they left....she hasn't touched it since they left.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
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...)
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Disneyland, Redux
Hello again! Funny thing. As I was reviewing our posts I realized that we had not posted on Lanhua’s FIRST visit to Disneyland. (I think this was a case of Pam thinking I had blogged on it and vice versa.) Back in March, we went on a quick trip to meet some of my family and introduce Lanhua to them. My younger brother Brian and his family (super-cool sister-in-law Heidi and twin nephews Seth and Jackson), my older sister Shelley (who just recently kicked butt on the AIDS Lifecycle ride), my niece Megan (student at Humboldt State), and my mom were all hand to help introduce Lanhua to the happiest place on earth!
It was, of course, a lot of fun, and in case you couldn’t tell from our more recent visit, Lanhua fell in love with Disneyland immediately. In fact, during that first trip we think we heard the word “whoa” come out of Lanhua at least a dozen times. I don’t think she had ever in life seen anything like Disneyland, nor did she probably ever expect to.
Anyway, I wanted to post some pictures from that trip. It was great for her to meet yet another uncle and two more aunts, as well as some awesome cousins. (And seeing her A-mah, or grandma, again was icing on the cake!)
Another post coming soon!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
"L" Is For Lanhua
Man! Ok, our bad...it's been far too long since our last post. Let's just say we've been busy...so here goes.
For Lanhua’s 10th birthday (May 21), we headed to Disneyland for 3 days! It was crazy fun. And making the “Big Day” even better, Aunt Tina, Uncle Paul, Gigi (Pam’s mom), Ye Ye (Pam’s step-father), and our great friend Tandora all drove up for the day to help her celebrate. It was very nice of them and Lanhua was excited beyond belief.
Where to start? First, as I think I’ve mentioned previously, this girl LOVES roller coasters. In fact, I think these are two English words that she not only has eagerly learned, but just as eagerly says: “Roller” and “Coaster.” Or is that one word? At any rate, over the course of three days at Disneyland, we must have ridden the new roller coaster called California Screamin’ close to 10 times! She just could not get enough. In fact, the last time she rode it she insisted on going by herself. We could not have been more proud.
Overall it’s safe to say that Disneyland has yet another convert – Lan, without a doubt, loves Disneyland. We hit all the classic rides – the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Autopia, It’s a Small World (a particular favorite of Lan’s grandma, Gigi), Peter Pan’s Flight (a favorite of scout’s, which I have to admit I had not done in decades and it was awesome), the Matterhorn bobsleds (the freaky abominable snowman with the glowing eyes really scared her, though), the Monorail, Thunder Mountain; the list goes on. In fact I even talked Lan and her mom into taking the raft over to Tom Sawyer’s Island, which has been upgraded to “Pirate’s Lair” and was a lot of fun with its caves, Dead Man’s Grotto, and interactive forts, bridges, etc. After the fun of the Island, we even did the canoe ride! Now that WAS fun, although I have to say Scout took one for the team there: she was seated in front of Lan and so got fairly soaked from Lan’s “sloppy” paddling (ok, it was intentional on Lan’s part).
What else? Oh yeah – the fireworks. She loved those as well. And although we continually tried to get her to pose with Disneyland characters – and at times she really seemed close to doing so – we could not close the deal except with a quick photo of her and Chip and Dale, and she’s got the frown to prove that she was not really happy with the situation. I even posed with various characters myself in an attempt to get her to try it, but no dice. (Umm, ok, so I didn’t actually mind posing with Donald….so sue me!)
We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which also meant swimming. Lan has been taking swim lessons at the local community pool, so she was excited about the prospect of more swimming, and of course Disneyland did not disappoint. There was even a water slide – and you can guess how that went over.
On Saturday, we had a very nice dinner at Ariel’s Grotto in the California Adventure Park. It’s a great experience for girls. You have a nice dinner and Ariel and four other princesses – Snow White, Belle, Cinderella and Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty) – all intermingle with the guests. Lan of course was deathly shy, but she was also very curious and interested in the princesses. Maybe next time she’ll be a bit more interested in actually interacting with them. I will say that all of the girls playing the princesses were extremely nice and understanding of Lan’s shyness. And, as a bonus, the food was actually really very good.
Other details: Uncle Paul buying Lan some cotton candy…Aunt Tina looking like a movie star…Uncle Paul winning Lan a stuffed gecko (“Gordon”), which became the subject of a 30 minute, frenzied game at a full-out run of “pass the gecko” across California Adventure at Tandora’s instigation…Gigi enjoying It’s A Small World…Lan and I “Fastpassing” Indiana Jones at close to midnight on Saturday night (mama was tucked away safely in bed)…the Haunted Mansion at night and wondering why it seemed suddenly scarier…beautiful Mama posing with an equally beautiful Mulan...Lan’s birthday dinner at the Rainforest Café and her intensely serious game of patty-cake with Aunt Tina…me losing my Ray Bans on Space Mountain, only to return to the ride and discover some nice soul had turned them in…seeing Mickey Mouse at California Adventure in safari clothing and then seeing him at Disneyland 30 minutes later in his traditional outfit and Lan genuinely confused as to how he: 1) moved so quickly; and 2) changed clothes…the great fun we had on the Grizzley Rapids ride with three Japanese tourists…
Overall, it was a great experience, although perhaps a little exhausting for the parents. (Ok, I lied – it was more exhausting for Scout than I. What can I say? I could have spent another 2 or 3 days there!) We upgraded our tickets to Annual Passes, so I foresee many more trips in the next year, and with the park only being a 75-minute drive away, day trips will be easy to do.
So, to everyone who so thoughtfully came up on Friday to help us celebrate, thanks so much! You made our little girl so very happy. I’ve posted many pictures, so enjoy!
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