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.

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...)

Our daughter, Joey Ramone.

...'nuff said. And, yeah, Joey Ramone thinks pink is PUNK.

Disneyland, Redux, Part II

Yes, more pictures...

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!

Yet more Disney photos...

More Disney photos...

Yep, it was that fun...