In Between Events

Since the first week of our visit was well scheduled and planned out with what seemed like 'big events', it was nice to spend the next week/weekend hanging out doing more somewhat 'spontaneous' things... though nothing is really ever that spontaneous when you've got only three weeks to cram in as much as possible!!!

Thankfully there was a great wooden train set that Hunter was able to access the whole time we were there!!! He loved it!!! And there were some of these spontaneously quiet moments when he got to use it without Helena thrashing it!

One morning Matt told Hunter to call for the fire department... sure enough, a few minutes later there was a knock on the door and Uncle Matt the firefighter appeared!!! Hunter was pretty impressed, but didn't really want to try on any of the gear. Who could blame him... it's not like that stuff gets cleaned after each use!! Thanks, Matt, for making it so fun!


And it's pretty funny how the general firefighter theme runs through the wardrobe still... even when Trevor & Madie's jackets are only raincoats... The kids had a ball with this though!

Joyce & Alan came down from LA on a quiet weekday... it was fun to see them again. Last time we saw Alan he was only a newborn baby - now he's sitting up and eating solid food. Who knows where we'll see these guys next - but I'm sure Alan will be a totally different boy again! Thanks, Joyce, for making the trip out - we're looking forward to hearing about the next steps! And thanks for the ice cream which we enjoyed the rest of the trip!

Feeding Helena at Matt & Tori's is pretty easy - well, the clean-up is much easier than at our place... little Lulu the puppy and Helena have some kind of reciprocal agreement that I was beginning to really appreciate.

I think the folks over at Acapulco restaurant would've been wishing we'd brought Lulu with us this night... she made a HUGE mess!!! But at least she was fairly agreeable and we managed to eat and enjoy our Mexican food feast!!!

Well, I know Tony enjoyed his 'all you can eat' meal and Hunter reaped the benefits of that as well!!!

Two more satisfied customers... yep, satisfied customers, but unhappy service people dealing with the aftermath... that's okay, that's why we tip in the US, right?!? That's a cultural thing that Tony & I forget about because growing up in NZ they didn't do that... and here in Taipei there's usually a 10% service charge already added so you just don't think about tipping... I'm not sure if tips are meant to cover messes... what do you think?

How cool is this?!? Just as we were getting Hunter ready for an afternoon nap, my mom rocks into the house - "Hunter's got to come outside!"

div align="center"> How many kids get to sit in the driver's seat of a school bus? Well, maybe not everybody wants to, but it sure looks like fun, eh?! My mom is a school bus driver/trainer, so she brought one of her trainees (who happens to be a friend of the family anyway) by in the big bus so Hunter could have a look. She even took him for a ride around the block in the big school bus!!! Surprising how he could've slept after all the excitement, but he managed!

Genuinely spontaneous fun!!!

Totally random!!!! On Friday afternoon my mom called me to ask what year I graduated... come to find out - my high school's 20th reunion was on this year - the next day!!! After some humming and hawing over whether I'd go or not, I decided to just go for it... totally random! Thankfully I bumped into Robin - a friend who'd I begun facebook contact with within the past few months! Phew! At least I knew someone when I walked through the door!!! Although I was quite friendly in high school, I only had a handful of friends that I actually hung out with outside of school because most of my friends were from church... so it was kind of weird to be surrounded by somewhat familiar faces but not really know anybody.

And thankfully Amber put me into contact with an old teammate of mine - Pam - who she knows from her church... so that was great fun catching up with her as well as Scott & Dana who still go to Seaside (but I seldom have time to catch up with when I'm home). In the end though, I spent most of the night reconnecting with the Dickey's - a couple who God always seems to bring back into my life at interesting intersections (for both of us).

On Sunday our good friends, Scott & Joanne & Jack, came up from Arizona (via Sea World) to visit with us over brunch at my parent's house. What amazing friends... they've done this before - come all the way over for a visit while I'm home. I feel very blessed. It was great to catch up and hear what's been going on with them... and it was a lot of fun to watch the kids play together. Maybe next time we'll all go to Sea World together!

But then again, Jack (5) did a pretty good Shamu imitation and Hunter seemed pretty satisfied with that!



This was funny... My grandma told me she'd like to have us over for dinner on Sunday night - "Great", I'm thinking, "some quality one-on-one-ish time with our grandparents". Of course I didn't mind that my parents were also going... that's to be expected. In the car on the way over, my mom tells me that my cousin Stephanie & her parents will be coming... my cousin Michelle is in town so she's coming with her parents too! It turned out to be a much bigger event than we expected, but it was a special evening with just 3 of the families whose kids happened to be in town at the same time. The funniest part was that Steph was thinking the same thing as me - "great - just us and Grandma & Grandpa" so we both laughed - "Wait, what are you doing here? I thought it was just us?" Thanks Grandpa & Grandma for hosting such a fun reunion!!! Spontaneous for some of us...

Tony & Steph - she's living in Seattle and wasn't expected to come back down until her brother's wedding at the end of August! We were stoked to see her!

Grandma spent as much time with little Helena as she could... it was really quite special!

Day Out With Pro Family 5

One of the things Tony & I always try to do while we're home is take a trip out to the Provost's Place... and no, it's not because Aunt JoAnn always makes us fantastic food when we come (though those ribs were definitely something we'll remember). It's one of the few places where we go and actually just do nothing - except really focus on each other. We drove out with Jason, Amber & Evan (thanks Phyllis & Jim for lending Jason the mini-van) which meant we got some good focused time with them as well. We managed to catch up with all 5 of the Provosts - plus some!!! Hunter was talking about 'Uncle Ronnie' for the next few days! Thanks for sharing your plastic fruit with him!!!

Here is Amber demonstrating one of the reasons we enjoy hanging out with the Provosts!


Uncle Ronnie is truly generous - he shared his raft with Hunter!!! And his electric blanket!!!


This is a classic story: Hunter & Tony went to take a nap... about an hour later Tony came out super groggy and confused. He told Aunt JoAnn about how hot the room was, well, how hot it was near the bed... and he couldn't figure it out until... he noticed the little red light on at the front of the bed! Hunter had turned on the electric blanket - the worse part is - I saw him do it and I had tried to turn it off, but couldn't figure it out... then I got distracted thinking it'd probably just automatically shut off and didn't say anything to anyone!!! Poor ole Tony... he was cooking longer than the baked beans!!! What about Hunter?!? Well, he was on the non-heated side of the bed and had the best nap in days!!!

Aunt JoAnn and Helena, incident free!

No trip to Homeland would be complete without a little walk up the desert hill... though we could've skipped this tradition - actually should have - because Hunter doesn't like having sand in his crocs (who does?!?). It only went from bad to worse when Tony tried to brush the sand off and instead brushed a little splinter into his foot. Poor Helena's just hanging on for dear life in the front/back pack.

After a little switcheroo... Uncle Jason got to experience a heavier lump in the pack while Hunter won the piggy back ride from Tony. Yes, I think we should've seen that one coming! Oh well, next time the kids'll be bigger, at least we'll definitely bring close-toed shoes!

We were happy to meet Timothy's fellow sheriff and girlfriend - Tiffany! She was a real kick!

And little Evan got the family treatment! Though my cousin Katie had to go to work, we got to meet her fiance, Jason, and see their new house! What a treat! And it's always good to see my cousin Corrie - who's expecting her first!!! The only person we missed was her husband...

Timothy - what a sport! We had a great time hearing sheriff stories.


And that's that... another really relaxing, special day out in Homeland (that's the name of their town - or at least what we've always called it). Thanks so much Provosts for welcoming us so warmly... we really feel special when we're around you.

A Real Bonefide Bonfire!

At Grandma's house on Sunday night my Aunt Francine threw out the idea of a cookout at the beach... so Wednesday night rolled along and so did about 30+ relatives for a 'spontaneous' bonfire!!! It was a perfect evening for such an activity - sunny with low wind and plenty of food.

Helena loved Grandpa's kite.

Great Grandma was having fun with her 'foreign' kids.

Madie & Anna having fun in the sand.

My dad's always got some new way to improve cooking methods... here's his latest firepit hot dog roaster for perfectly toasted hot dogs and no lines or scorched finger hair.

Helena loves her Grandma... and her Aunt Aunt Francine. (I haven't figured out what to have the kids call my aunts/uncles... any suggestions?)

These are a handful of the 4th generation... you can see why Hunter had such a great vacation!!!

With everybody gathered together, they sang Happy Birthday... to me!!! Wow... what a treat!! We got to celebrate my birthday (a few hours early) with a bunch of my rellies at the beach! Growing up, we'd often be camping during my birthday so I was spoilt with attention (and the rest of the gang was spoilt with cake & brownies on the night) and had my favorite folks around me throughout the day! It's been a long time since I've been around for my birthday, let alone on the beach with the extended family... Thanks for making it special!!!

And the cake was pretty tasty too!!!

Grandpa had the best seat in the house and just watched all the shenanigans from here.

Aunt Amber was giving Hunter lessons in how to toast marshmallows - those little puffs of sugar we all love so much!

Okay, contrary to popular belief... we did not deprive our son of many delectable delights while on this trip. Though this particular evening he was digging through chip bags, handling melons in the fruit bowl and practically ripping hot dogs out of the hands of innocent by-standers which made it look like he'd been deprived of much more. He's too funny!!

Steph wasn't satisfied with the s'more... she went for my birthday cake too!! Actually, I wanted s'mores so I needed a bit of assistance on the cake! I love my cousin Stephanie - there are always plenty of smiles and laughs when she's around!


Look at that monster moon!!! I was struck again by how big the sky looks here in CA... mostly because the buildings aren't so tall and it's pretty darn flat. Most nights we could see the sunset and the beautiful pink, orange and purple clouds overhead; unlike Taipei where we usually just see buildings.

Something's Fishy Around Here

Originally we had thought about making a trip to Sea World with the kids, but the reality of distance and entrance fee brought about a creative option - The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach! What a great decision. It happened to be my birthday, too, so it was a fun day out celebrating with the kids, my parents and Matt & his kids! Of course it was another picture perfect day in Southern California so we had optimum viewing pleasure. We also took an extended lunch break at the Chili's nearby where we feasted on familiar foods (and as a birthday present, Tony sat with our kids at the other end of the table so I could focus on catching up with my cousin Stephen who'd come to hang out with us for the day - what a great husband!)... all in all it was a wonderful afternoon - and much less stressful than driving to San Diego!!!

We got off to a bit later start than planned, so my poor girl's eating a metal gate!!! This was one of the signs that pointed to an early lunch!

It's fun going to these types of places with grandparents - they don't mind buying the fish food, etc. to make the day more eventful!!! So the kids each had a turn at feeding the rays...

but the feeding frenzy could be somewhat traumatic if you let it.

Uncle Matt's working hard to show Hunter a little shark, but Hunter's more interested in more familiar things like thumbs. It's a good thing we didn't go all the way down to Sea World with reactions like these!

Madie's so serious about making sure the birds get their turn.

"Why would Trevor be covering his ear while feeding birds?" You may ask...

This is why... he got chomped by one of them!!! Poor Trev...

Oh, and this big person's profile belongs to my cousin Stephen who's recently moved back to LA and made the trip on the train especially to hang out with us for the afternoon! What a treat! Thankfully for him he arrived in time for lunch!!!

All this was so new to Helena - she absolutely loved it!

Grandpa & Madie have fun together.

Imagine swimming in that?!? Yuck!!! I think that's the problem now, though... I may start to imagine swimming in this on our next swim... yikes! Have I just freaked myself out of open water swim events?!?

Helena wanted her turn to touch the rays... but we had to pull the plug when she started backing in toward the water... she didn't want to just touch them, she wanted to swim with them!!!

Are you beginning to notice a trend? It doesn't rain in Southern California - the weather really is as good as people say!! So here we are in sunny Long Beach!

The rest of my birthday (for those who are wondering) was spent at the Orange County Fair with Tony... one of the few times I left my camera behind. We had a great time together trying new foods (the monster smoked turkey leg was one of our favorites) and seeing interesting things like bull riding and chinese acrobats... plus a bonus of bumping into a group of friends we haven't seen for ages... what a great way to celebrate my 37th year!!!