It's all about the kids

We got some great pictures of our nieces, nephews, and friends this year! We thought we'd share shots of the next generation...




Little Sisters



The Cooper-Brand Clan



The Goh's



The Whetstone's



Gainesville friends



Out-of-town friends

Christmas

Our trip to Louisiana was great! I went to Mackie's school on Friday to make ornaments with the kids. We had another great Christmas Eve at Mackie's and Christmas Day at Grandma's. Andrea and I all but burned our fingers off making little ornaments, while E played a hundred games of "Guess Who" with anyone he could find. There was lots of shopping and eating and celebrating all week. We checked out Dad's house, which is really coming along. Tammy, Andy and the kids look great, and we got to hang out with Q and H and Mouse this year too.

Pre-Christmas Celebration

Cristina and Ronnie came over tonight for a pre-Christmas celebration. After dinner we opened presents. E opened the ones from Uncle Hsiung and Uncle Lin and families. He absolutely loves the dinosaur "dig it" and the Guess Who game. And he can hardly wait to watch Ratatouille :-) We'll be trying out Operation soon too! He opened one present from Mom and Dad, his laptop, which we hope will keep him busy on the car ride home. He also got new Thomas DVDs from Cristina and Ronnie, and Han and I got a night out (dinner and babysitting, hurray!).

We played a few rounds of Guess Who, where the team of Carole and E blew the others away in the first two rounds. Then all ganged up on me before the girls went against the guys. Unfortunately for E, Han and Ronnie forgot their brains or they washed them away with the beer (perhaps it takes a certain strength to handle a good Belgian ale)....either way, they lost twice and then fortified the last two games due to mental lapses.

E and Ronnie watched an episode of Thomas while Cristina and I set up her new remote controlled dragonfly. It's really cool, though it make take some practice :-)

Happy Birthday Ella!

Today we went to Ella's birthday party. She'll be turning 3 this week! Kris and Bud are doing well, and E had lots of fun at the party.

Look what I found in my phone

E Gets His New Belt!

Today was the December belt test, where E picked up his white/yellow belt, and I tested for my green/white belt. Here's E getting his certificate: (it's pretty hard to see him though)



Here's the little man with his new belt :-)

12/07 Referral Update - 565LIDs to go

We were on vacation when the matches came out last month, so this posting will cover November and December's matches. There were 8 LIDs matched in November, and 6 in December. The latest match date is December 14, 2005. The current backlog (until they get to us) is 565 days.

We've been logged in for 6 months now, and in that time, the line has decreased by 37 days. Based on the latest data, our wait could still be up to 7 years. Our agency (and others) have recently been talking about the increasing wait, and they predict a 4 year wait. It's sad that I'm hoping they are right, but I suppose 4 is much better than 7.

Here are this month's cute babies:
http://chinaadopttalk.com/2007/12/06/babies-6/

E's First Belt Test

Elijah had his first karate belt test today. He did very well and passed. He and his little buddy L.J. will both move up to the next pre-karate class and get their white-with-yellow-stripe belt.

Here's a video of pre-karate kata #1:

The Brands

Oh Christmas Trees

We need a new house. We only have room for a medium sized tree in this house, and with all new ornaments, we hardly have room for them all on this tree. Gone are the filler ornaments Han and I bought when we got our first tree together 10 years ago. Now we have tons of E ornaments, Beau ornaments, yearly Van Goh ornaments, travel ornaments, etc. In the years to come, we're going to need a big tree with sturdy branches! We did have lots of fun reminiscing over each ornament. E got his new one, the karate boy to the left. E also put up his little tree in his room with his little ornaments. Later we'll put up the Harry Potter tree, the Curious George tree, and the frog tree. Yes, we like trees. E also tried on his suit for the wedding next week :-)

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a nice Thanksgiving at home, the 3 of us and Carrie (one of the BAs that works with Han). After feasting on the usual, plus vegan pumpkin cheesecake (which was really good), we watched a movie and played the Wii. This is Carrie and E playing tennis :-)

Early Friday morning, Carrie, Angie and I went to the mall. And by early I mean 3:45 a.m. We found great deals and many presents. We nearly got trampled trying to get a goody bag, and were sorely disappointed in the contents. But the worst part was when Angie got home and realized she had a $50 gift certificate that she hadn't noticed, and it was too late to use it!

Today we shopped for supplies to make the yearly Christmas ornaments and got our tree :-) We also ran into Camille and family at lunch. Camille, if you're reading this: we miss you! Come have lunch with us!!

Old Man Goh is 40!!

Today is Han's 40th Birthday!! Due to us just getting back from the trip and having eating a ton of junk food, Han decided on a low key day with a tiny cake. And when I say tiny, I mean tiny! I made cupcakes for E's Thanksgiving feast at school and used some of the batter to make a little cake. We sang a song (well, E did) and played with Han's new Wii game.

Fall Day 11 - Zoo-rific Day!

Today is the last day of our wonderful fall trip (well, not counting tomorrow's travel day). Our hotel, though cute, is not all we hoped it would be. Aside from it being noisy and bright (part of that is being in the city, I know), the heater would not turn off! We eventually had to get someone to come and just turn it off completely, but it was still hot all night. Still, we got up early and headed out. We made good use of the Metro today, as we had many places to go, and didn't want to drive.

First we headed to the National Zoo. It was a beautiful fall day, really perfect. Cool and crisp and sunny.

We went in search of the pandas and found the two adults. Sadly, the baby (toddler now?) was hiding, but we did see him on one of the monitors. Apparently, there are cameras everywhere and you can see the pandas anytime they are in view online on Animal Planet's website!


We also saw an orangutan climbing these ropes high above the zoo. The ropes went right over where we were walking!

We stopped at the visitor's center on the way out, and E decided that it would be a good time to practice some karate. So he proceeded to do his kata in the middle of the zoo. I'm happy he likes it so much :-)

After the zoo we went to China Town for lunch. We went to Tony Chang's for dim sum, where everyone got way too much food (even E, who found plenty this time!). No worries, we took the left-overs back to the hotel and headed out again.

We only had time for one museum, and it was the Air and Space, where we heard there were many activities for kids. This was definitely the case, as E got to fly a plane, play with all sorts of avionics, and hang out with astronauts.

Things were closing up, so we walked down the Mall, to the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial as the sun went down. The WWII Memorial was new to all of us, and it really was beautiful. There were many families out, laying flowers and pictures of their loved ones. The Lincoln Memorial was impressive as ever and our last stop in D.C.

We headed back to the hotel, ate some left overs and organized our stuff to pack. One of E's favorite activities has been to find a Christmas ornament from each place we've visited, and he wanted to see them all together. I think decorating the tree will be particularly fun this year!

And that is it for the Fall 2007 fall trip. We head our early in the morning. Maybe tomorrow I will post some final reflections on what has been the best fall trip to date!

Fall Day 10 - "But I See Lots of White Houses!!"

We had a nice leisurely morning...Ray cooked us breakfast, we relaxed by the fire, and we took pictures. Here's one of the two boys (only a tad older than when they meet as undergrads).

We then headed into D.C. (thankfully, no traffic!) and made our way to The Quincy. Our room is very cute (the kitchenette is hidden in a large closet!) and about a 15 minute walk to the White House. E finally saw THE White House that we had been talking about.

We went down to the National Aquarium. It was pretty dark and gloomy downstairs, but it made the tanks brighter. I liked the way they had it set up for each section of the U.S. and it had some pretty cool fish!

After that we headed back to the hotel to warm up and relax. E was a bit chilly just sitting in his stroller, so we tried to cover him up best we could :-)

Han went out to find us free parking (it's like $28 a day at the hotel) and food from a nearby Belgian restaurant, while I update the blog and E watches Shrek. The food from Beck's was OK! The beef carbonnade was pretty good (not as good as my dad's, or mine :-), but Han didn't like the pork too much. Tomorrow is our last day of Fall...hopefully it will be clear enough to go to the zoo and walk around the Mall...

Fall Day 9 - History Lessons

It was a rainy day today in Fredericksburg, but we found some dry spots :-) In the morning we went to the new Marine Corp Museum near Quantico (I took a wrong turn, tried to go into Quantico...the guy at the gate was actually amused before telling me to turn around immediately). The museum was amazing. It had planes hanging from the ceiling and very realistic looking figures, as well as tons of information.

We later headed to downtown Fredericksburg to do a little shopping. It was lined with very charming little shops and a fun toy store E loved. I hunted for and found our ornament, and then we rushed off to have lunch with Ray at an Indian place. After that, we went to Chancellorsville Battlefield park, which was right by Ray's house. It was still raining, so we didn't get to hike around, but the park is beautiful! The cannons were fun as well, some still had visible markings. After that, we headed back to Rays and looked through pictures of Han's college days and relaxed.

Fall Day 8 - Blazing Through Baltimore

We left the Philly area early this morning and headed for Baltimore. We were hoping to meet up with the Borreros, but unfortunately Bella was sick, so that was a no go. We headed to the harbor, and although it was overcast and chilly, we still had a good time!

We tried to go to the aquarium first, but something was going on and they had all the visitors outside and weren't selling tickets. So, we were off to the Science Center. It had an awesome dinosaur area, Newton's Alley, and tons of other interactive exhibits. There was tons to do, like lay on a bed of nails, play tug of war (E won, it's all in the physics), dig for dinosaur bones, search for weather patterns online, and make the planets turn.

After the Science Center, we had lunch at P.F. Changs and did a little shopping at Fileene's Basement. We then headed to the Aquarium, which as even more impressive than the one in Camden. The displays were beautiful, and there was a large tank in the middle of it all with huge sting rays and sharks. E was getting sleepy, so we didn't stay long.

We headed towards Fredericksburg at about 3, thinking we'd miss some D.C. traffic. Uh, we were wrong. It took us 3 hours and Mr. Darcy and I had our first fight. See, we were eyeing the H.O.V. lane, discussing how technically we have 3 people, so we should go for it. Then Darcy keeps telling me to keep right, so I'm thinking maybe the interstate is going to split off or something. Oh, it did, split between H.O.V. and the slowest, most congested strip of interstate EVER! I really don't know how people make this drive every single day! It would make me nuts! We finally got to Ray and Marleene's at about 7 and had some great BBQ from Red, White, and Blue. E got introduced to their two dogs, Mr. B "Simba" "Scooter", and Kala (very white golden retriever, gorgeous!).

Fall Day 7 - Goodnight Philly

Today was our last day in Philadelphia, but we made it count. We had some trouble driving around the city though. A popular police man was killed recently, and today was the funeral (or some event). There were hundreds of cops near the church (which was near the museums were were going to). It was so sad and so touching to see them all. We somehow found parking at a hotel, and walked most of the day.

We went to the Children's "Please Touch" Museum in the morning, with Lori and Alec. E "built" a tree house, had a tea party with Alec, rode the many modes of public transportation, and did some grocery shopping.



We then went to Reading Terminal Market, where there is just about every type of food one can imagine under on roof (both raw and prepared). This is the only place we've been to where E could get everything he requested (rice with soy sauce, corn, fries, and chicken taco). Han and I had cheesecakes, then I found a crepe place (nutella banana, yum), and got some Chow Chow from the Lancaster people (since I somehow didn't remember to buy when we were actually in Lancaster). Yes, food is a big part of our trips. We obviously couldn't hit all of our favorite places, but I think we did a good job. Sadly, the Belgian Chocolate House was closed, and we didn't have time to get food from our favorite street vendors (although I saw both my morning fruit truck and my evening Chinese truck near Penn).


After lunch, we tried to take a cab to the Franklin Institute, but after 10 minutes and only going 2 blocks (many roads were blocked off still), we just walked. It was so nice to just see different parts of the city, watch the kids get out of school, and enjoy the cool air (the feet didn't enjoy this quiet as much as the heart, soul, and mind, but it can't all be perfect). We finally made it to the Franklin Institute, where we learned all about the heart (even took a walk through one), electricity, trains, space, etc. We tried an IMax movie, but it was too much for E.



E and I waited on the steps of the Franklin while Han wen to get the car. We said goodnight to Philly as the sun went down and the lights went up. E says Philly is his favorite city too, and we'll all miss being here. But, we didn't get to do and see nearly all that we wanted to, so we'll just have to come back soon :-)



We had a great dinner with Ashesh and Lori, and E and Alec got to play with puzzles and trains again. It was fun to reminisce about old times and how the city has changed since they were all undergraduates here. I hope it won't be quite as long before we see them again. Did I mention we want to come back soon???