Jim & Li's Family Room

The first stop at Disney was for Grace's princess makeover at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Botique in Downtown Disney. Like all little girls Grace loves all things princesses. We thought this would make it a special day for her. The make up was great. The only regret was that we didn't bring along her princess dress and shoes. But she's totally thrilled.

Supposedly the high-light of the Florida trip, for me and Daniel anyways, was watching the space shuttle launch. Atlantis was scheduled to blast off on Thursday. However the mission was delayed because of trouble with a fuel sensor. We ended up spending 2 days at the space center, one day for picking up the ticket (because I bought it late there's not enough time to have it shipped via UPS), and another day for the launch. I even missed the IMAX shows on both days because of bad planning. I can only hope one day Daniel would remember this trip where he hugged an "astronaut" in space suit.

On our trip to Orlando, FL, we stopped by Charleston to spend a night so we don't have to drive 11 hours straight. The kids would make sure that won't happen. We started off late and didn't leave the house until about 1 O'Clock. So by the time we got there it was already dark and dinner time. Luckily Li found a nice hotel in the downtown area right off the fashion district. So right around the corner we found a good Mediterranean restaurant. We found good food and have a great time. The next morning we made a brief visit to the harbor before moving on.

Although we don't participate in Halloween activities, we do enjoy the parade at the day care. This is the first year both Grace and Daniel are in the same parade. We bought Grace a nice-looking princess dress. Daniel had the Garfield jacket that Yeye and Nainai brought him from China. They looked adorable. We didn't get them to pose together so there's not a good picture for the cover. But this particular one with two girls standing by the pumpkins seemed the right one for the occasion.

This is a late post to the Thanksgiving dinner. Since most of our friends don't have relatives in the US, we thought it would be nice to host the dinner at our house and invite over friends. We have done this for the last 3 years. I would roast a turkey. Li would prepare some Chinese dish and drink and wine. Guest are asked to bring along a dish or two. We've always had a good time. For the turkey I looked up the most popular recipe on google. I think it turned out must better than previous 2 years.

Oct. 20th sounds very early to many people for fall foliage. Many quotes theories about how drought makes leaf colors appear dull and burnt out. But nonetheless we accepted invitation from our neighbour and their friends for a short trip to the smoky mountains, thinking that we'd just do it so the kids can play together and have a good time.

And all of us would be generously awarded with breath-taking views and colors so vivid and fresh, that we wished we had booked more nights at the resort. In fact along the stretch of Blue Ridge Parkway between Ashvill and Cherokee, its south end, there were so much color that we saw many prefessional photographers flocked in to snap some of the best shots of the year, us included ;-)

Professional shots or not, I think these pictures are nice-looking. Enjoy!

For the very first time Daniel got to show off his Chinese traditional costums at school's anual parade. This has been the event when we dress up Grace in pretty Chinese dresses like Qi Pao, or Feng Xian Zhuang. Now it's finally time for Daniel. The problem was, we totally forgot to plan for this so there was no such costum for him! After some scrambling around, including borrowing from Leon and asking "Dry Dad" to bring one from China, we finally got hold of a set of A Ge Zhuang, the kind that was typical of royal family princelings during Qing dynasty.

It worked out pretty well. Although a bit saggy on him, it fit his chubby look perfectly ;-) I bet Yeye Nainai and Waigong Waipuo will be laughing at these pictures!

This was the 2nd air show in NC this year. This time it was in the Pope Air Force Base. This is a much bigger base than Seymour Johnson, which I believe has only F-15 squadrons. Pope has many more kinds of aircrafts. All of the airplanes on display were based there (hence "open house"). Because it was such a big base, civilian cars are not allowed inside. We could only take shuttles in and out, which took forever because of the lone lines. That's why we missed the F-15 and F/A-18 demos on both days. Will have to try again next year. I don't believe F-22 were flying this time.

Thunderbirds performance was equally impressive as the Blue Angels. But for some reason it lacks a little punch, maybe due to the smaller form-factor of the F-16's compared to the F/A-18's. I remember the Blue Angels were pulling higher G's with tighter turns, but I could be just biased toward bigger aircrafts.

Hey little scooter riders! Are you really riding it like a big kid or just making poses for the camera? Show me some moves!

Oh you need the helmet already, does that mean you can ride fast? What's up with the 3 wheels? I thought scooters only have 2 wheels? How old are you again? Just 2.5? Ok, then, you can have the 3-wheel one ;-)

Frank and Cheryl have decided to leave the triangle area for Chicago. As far as we can remember, they have been here forever. Definitely among the founding families of the bible study group. They both have faithfully served in the church and the group for all that time, providing spiritual leadership to younger Christians and seekers alike. Over the years membership of the group has seen ebbs and flows but just about everyone showed up at the party.

As much as how hectic each day is for the two of us, we still managed to celebrate each other's birthdays every year. It's probably the only day of the year where it was just about "me", not the kids. Well actually not even a full day, just a few minutes as the candles were being lit. As soon as the candle was blown out, there went our high time as well. Although, Grace was being a sweet girl. She volunteered to serve the cakes to everyone.

Making dumplings is a traditional way for Chinese families, especially those in northern provinces, to get together and hang out. Of course only older people do that ;-) But as you can see in the pictures younger generations like Eddie and Grace are really into dumpling making. In fact I'm the only not contributing but instead fiddling with my camera trying to annoy the hard-working people at the scene.

It was the Saturday before Yeye and Nainai went back to China. The family and uncle's family got together to have dinner. Yeye was emotional about leaving Daniel after all this time. Daniel and Grace acted gracefully while making the farewell toast. Everyone was wondering when it'd be the next time we see each other. This question still gets asked a lot when we call home. Next year? We certainly hope so.

It was intriguing to learn that there is a state park right in Durham with a river. The Saturday morning the family and uncle and aunt were wondering what to do for the day. I made the suggestion to go and check out the festival in this state park, expecting a scenary setting to spend a nice summer day.

Well, the river is there, and it was indeed a state park. But forget scenary. It was crowded and busy, with uneven roads and dirt trails. As for the river... might as well call it creek, because that's what it appeared to me.

For lunch we had Greek, Cuban food and turkey drumsticks, sitting by the stage where a conservatively-dressed girl taugh a random crowd some social dance. The belly dance performance afterwards was also interesting, with the lead dancer obvioulsy from mid-east country.

The two are adorable. That's the good news. From all the albums I'm trying to capture their cuteness. It will get others to love them and help myself forget all the headaches from being around them ;-) So enjoy the cute moments these bunch of pictures show. Just don't ask if they are always like that ;-)