woops....

Last night Maya was giving me a lot of grief. I can't even tell you what it was about now, because I can't remember. But I do remember that she was not listening to me, not doing as she was asked, and overall just being a pill. I finally had it and told her that if she didn't stop she would be grounded. She turned to me and with one last look of defiance, she asked, "Fine. For how long will I be grounded?" The end of my rope told her, "10 years."

Now, obviously, I wouldn't really ground her for ten years. It would be more like one day of no tv/no computer. But a few minutes later, I found her sobbing in her bedroom because she thought that I was serious and that she was really grounded for 10 years!!!!

After many cuddles and kisses, all was well again, but it was a good reminder that I shouldn't say such outrageous things to a 6 year old. Even though it was obvious to me that I was joking (even though I was upset at the time), it was not at all obvious to her. :(

So hard to say goodbye...

One of the hardest things about living in Hong Kong is constantly saying goodbye to friends. Every year, there is a huge turnover of people as job contracts end, and new ones begin. In our social circle, most people are here for only 1, 2 or 3 years. We've been here for 6 years now and are starting to be the "oldies" at church. Only a handful of families have been here longer than us or are here permanently. As a result, I've found it really hard to make really good friends. It seems that just as we start getting to know someone really well, it's time for them to leave.

We are now in the midst of this transition once again. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to say goodbye to a lot of our friends that moved away because most of them left when we were in the US. Our friends Nicola and Andrew are here for only one more week before they leave on their next adventure, and thankfully I'll get to see Nicola once or twice this week before they head out.

Even though I know to expect this transition every year, it never gets easier. We have made some lifelong friends, and some that I wish we had had more time with. With most, however, we only stay in touch with through blogs, facebook and Christmas cards.

The benefit to all of this, however, is that we now have friends all over the world. Friends with open arms, open hearts, and open couches to let us crash on when we're in their neck of the woods. :)

And our mailbox will never be empty at Christmas time.

So, what now?

Well, we're nearly over our jet-lag. We're going to bed by 8:30 or 9pm, and the kids are waking me up at 6:30am instead of 4:30am. I won't be able to use jet-lag as my excuse anymore for watching episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" all day (every day) instead of doing anything productive because it no longer applies. (And because I already finished all 4 seasons...).

So, now that we're somewhat back to a regular schedule, what are we supposed to do all summer? I'm already bored. What's on your "to-do" list this summer?

I'd love to take the girls to the beach, and/or to a swimming pool; I'd love to hit HK Disneyland and Ocean Park again (maybe); we'll probably go to the library a few times... But what are fun things that we can do at home? The heat and the humidity make it really miserable to go outside for very long, and in the next month or so we're going to start with the monsoon rains. So I need to stockpile some activities for us to do at home.

Oh, and this is a p.s. to anyone who's been following my whole trip drama with the scheduling and the schools etc.... Turns out Maya's school is going ahead with the graduation anyway (it's today), and I found out yesterday that Zoe would not be able to come because of venue age restrictions. (I'm sort of blown away that it's at a "venue" and not at the school). So I had to scramble to find a last minute baby sitter, which was not all that easy because most of our friends are traveling or work during the day. Luckily, I did find an awesome friend who was not only available to watch Zoe, but volunteered to come pick her up, too. :) Thanks, Eleanor!! Pics of the graduation to come....

Final trip update and photos added!!!

I've finally gotten all of my trip photos uploaded, so if you want to scroll down a bit, you can see them in my previous posts. I realized that I never posted about our last week or so of the trip.

We just had so much fun playing and shopping and being with family. I was so sad when it was time to start packing. But anyway, we went swimming a few times. I am IN LOVE with the public pools in Arizona. They aren't just a plain old pool, but they have tons of cool features. There was one that had a "lazy river" where you got into inner tubes and floated around and around, and it had a "swirling vortex" (as my nephew Jake called it), where the water jets pushed you around and around in a circle. It was actually really fun. And it had play toys like this:

Of course it also had a seperate diving/lap pool, too. And I couldn't believe how cheap it was! I think it was $3.50 total for my 2 girls and I, and there was no time limit. you could stay as long as you wanted. Awesome.

A different day, we were too tired to go to the pool again but we were hot (108 degrees that day!) so we got out the sprinkler and had fun with that.

Another day, we went to the Barnum and Baily/Ringling Brother's Circus. I think it was in town for 2 days. It was sooo much fun. I can't remember the last time I went to a circus, and we were not disappointed.

As we were leaving, we saw that the auditions for "So You Think You Can Dance" were going to start the next morning, so we joked about coming back for that. Unfortunately, the "running man" is about the extent of my dance moves, so we didn't actually go.

On Sunday, June 28th, my sister Polly and her family drove us out to California. We left in the morning with the hope that we would have time to go to the beach in the afternoon when we got there. Unfortunately the drive took a bit longer than we had hoped (with 6 kids, there were a lot of potty breaks), and so it was nearly dinner time by the time we arrived. We decided to just swim in the hotel's pool for a little while before going out to dinner.

The next day, Monday, was DISNEYLAND!! Our hotel was less than 1/2 a mile away from the park, so we just walked there in the morning. We got there right at opening, and hardly had to wait in line for tickets or getting in. I was super excited because the last time I had been to the "real" Disneyland was about 16 years ago when I was 13. We started going on rides right away, but halfway through the day, I felt like we really wouldn't have enough time to get everything done that I wanted to. Lines were getting longer and longer and some of the kids were getting restless.

The one thing that I was really disappointed about was that Disneyland didn't have any shows for us to watch! I realized that California Adventure next door had a few shows, but we didn't buy tickets to go over there. :( The best move we made was getting the "fast pass" tickets for Splash mountain. By the time our tickets let us go on that ride, the regular line was over an hour wait, and our wait was only about 20 minutes or so. The littlest kids (Zoe and Ashton) were too small for that one, so we had to go in shifts for that ride. We didn't really take time to stop and take pictures with the characters, either, because that would have taken up too much time. We only got one pic with the Fairy Godmother because there was only a very short line to see her.

Overall, it was a very fun day. We stayed until about 11pm, which in hindsight was too long for the kids. They were all tired and cranky and we still had to walk all the way back to our hotel. I think the next time that we decide to go to Disneyland, we should try to buy a 2 or 3 day park hopper pass so that we don't feel rushed to see everything and also so that we can go see some shows. :) Over all, TONS OF FUN!

The next morning, though, was sad. :( It was time to head to the airport. I really, really did not want to leave and actually shed some tears over it. Even now, almost a week later, we're still working on getting over jet-lag (we've been up since 4:30am) and trying to figure out a routine. I'm already counting down the days until our trip next year. :)

I flew 14.5 hours, and boy are my arms tired!!!

Har har har. I'm so funny, I know. :)

Well, the news is that the airline wanted waaaaay too much money for us to extend our tickets, so we left LA on Tuesday afternoon and are now back in Hong Kong. The flights went fairly well. The long one (13 hours) from LA to Taipei went pretty fast, thank goodness, and both girls slept for a large portion of it. The short flight from Taipei to Hong Kong went really fast. It seemed like we barely reached cruising altitude before we were starting the descent. I can tell that getting over jet lag is going to be really hard this time around. We got home from the airport around 1am on July 2 (HK time). We slept for a few hours, I got Sam off to work at 6:45am, and then stayed up for a little while. Around 3:30pm the girls and I laid down for a little rest and slept until about 9pm when we got a snack and then all fell back asleep until about 1:30am. We got up again and made something to eat and now I'm starting the unwelcome job of unpacking at 3:30am.

Among other things, I can't believe how unbearably humid it is here now. The humidity was just starting when we left at the beginning of June, and I am not looking forward to another summer of this. We try to use the air conditioner sparingly, and we have a floor fan that we move around the house as needed, but sometimes I wish we had ceiling fans, too, just to keep the air moving. I don't know how much they cost, but if we could find some discount ceiling fans/lights somewhere, I might just have to talk Sam into getting them. Another thing about the humidity is that we usually hang most of our laundry to dry... When the humidity rolls around, it takes 3 or 4 days for it to dry instead of 1 or 2. While we were in Arizona, I hung a few of my clothes to dry, and they were dry in a matter of a few hours. It was amazing! :)

Well, I just wanted to update you and let you know that we were home. I'll get all of my pictures uploaded in the next day or two and add them all to my previous posts about our trip. I've got some really cute ones. :)

Feeling a little down

Today I had to start packing for our trip home. :( I'm not ready to head back to HK yet. I feel like this trip has gone way too fast. With the recent news that Maya's school has been canceled (along with her kindergarten graduation) for the rest of the school year due to huge numbers of H1N1 in Hong Kong, we are trying to extend our plane tickets. But because of various issues (including having to get in touch with the HK office of our airline and the time difference between here and there), it's a slow process. We won't know until Monday, (while we're at Disneyland), if we get to stay longer or not. I really hope we can. I miss my hubby a lot, but we are just not ready to go back to HK yet.

If we do get to stay longer (depending on how much they ask us to pay), then we'll just come back to AZ again. If we don't, then we fly out from LAX on Tuesday. I actually had some tears last night about going home so soon. I've had such a good time here that I just don't want to leave. I love the USA.

the King of Pop

True story:

My brother-in-law, Ken, and I were on our way to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of things and were jamming along to an MJ song on the radio. Another MJ song started playing and we kind of looked at each other like, "Is this the radio? Or a CD?" When a third MJ song started playing, we figured they were just doing a Michael Jackson hour or something. We got to wally-world shortly thereafter, found our few items, got in line, and then started hearing all around us about Michael Jackson having passed away. When we got back to the house, I fully intended on being the first one to tell my mom, but my little sister Kimmy beat me to it, calling to make sure I had heard the news.

Now, if any of you knew me in... let's see... elementary school/middle school/high school... you'll know that I was a huge MJ fan. No, I never got to see any of his concerts, but I had some posters on my wall (next to New Kids on the Block, if you must know), I had an MJ peechee folder that I used all the time, I bought his biography with my paper route money, I watched that made-for-TV-movie: "The Jacksons- An American Dream" over and over and over and over and over and over and over... I've probably still got the whole thing memorized. And if you read my 1993 journal (I was 13 years old) you will find a ton of newspaper clippings and me vehemently defending him against the child molestation allegations. I even wrote him a fan letter, hoping to receive an autographed picture in return, but sadly the letter was returned to me. (My parents drew the line at MJ sheets, beach towels and t-shirts.)

While I have (somewhat) grown up from my childhood obsession with him, there is no doubt that the world will never be the same. Yes, he has had his issues, but I don't know anybody that hasn't liked at least some of his music. He has reached out and touched the world with a gift. Regardless of your feelings of his personal life, you have to admit that he was talented and special in his own right. I'm not the best at putting my thoughts and feelings eloquently, but today is a sad day. I will miss the King of Pop.

A super busy, but super fun week

Well, I guess it's time for another little update!

We have been having such a fun time. Maya and Zoe have just hit it off with their cousins here in AZ. Maya's been in swimming lessons all week, and we've done a lot of shopping, but more than anything, it's just nice to be with family again. On Friday after lunch, my parents drove the girls and I up north a couple of hours to visit the ruins of Montezuma's Castle. That was pretty interesting. You can read about it HERE.

Jumping on the trampoline: Ashton, Cougar, Maya, Zoe, Jake

First day of swimming lessons... Maya is in the pink swimsuit

My Mom's birthday: Back- Ashton, Zoe, my Mom, Dakota; Front- Jake, Cougar, Maya

Road Trip!!

Montezuma's Castle

We then drove another hour and a half or so until we reached our campsite just outside of Flagstaff. We set up camp, and had just enough daylight to get it all done. It got dark just as we were putting all the sleeping bags etc in the tent, and ate our dinner by the light of a karosene lantern. Ahhhh, the memories! My family used to camp a lot when I was a kid, but since I've gotten married (8 years ago), I think I've been camping twice. It's been awhile. lol. We opted to not make a campfire, but we still roasted marshmallows over the camp stove. :) We had a little mishap with the air mattresses that Maya and I were using... aparently they both had small leaks in them, and by early morning they were both flat as pancakes. We survived, though. We woke up with the sun (around 6 am), had some breakfast, packed up camp, and went to pick up my little brother Mike at EFY at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. It did rain during the night, though, and so the area around our campsite got a little muddy. The tarps under the tent and just outside our tent are probably going to need pressure washers to get all the mud and dirt off!

Drove through Sedona, AZ...

Roasting marshmallows over the coleman burner

our campsite

Breakfast the morning after

After picking up Mike, we drove another hour and a half or so to the Grand Canyon!! I haven't been there since I was a kid, so I was excited to show that to my girls. We stayed on the Eastern Rim (I think...) and stopped at a few places. I got some really good pictures. (I'll upload all the pictures and add them to these posts once we get back to HK). Maya thought the Grand Canyon was really cool, but Zoe was a little scared about that big hole in the ground. We walked along the rim for awhile and also visited a Hopi House full of souveniers. We each picked something. Maya chose a little dreamcatcher, Zoe chose a cookie cutter in the shape of a cactus, and I got a Christmas tree nativity ornament (handmade). All very cool. One of my uncles is actually a Hopi Indian and so seeing all of their handicrafts was a neat experience for me. They had some very beautiful rugs and baskets and things like that, but they were just too much out of our price range, unfortunately. Anyway, it was a really neat experience.

The Grand Canyon

In the afternoon, we stopped to get a bite for lunch, and then started the 5 or 6 hour drive back home. It was a Loooong drive, especially for the girls who aren't used to riding in cars for more than an hour at a time, (if that.) We had lots of books and things to keep them busy, and stopped once or twice to stretch our legs, but it was a looong drive home.

Well, we're just getting ready for church now and gearing up for another week of swimming lessons, a little bit more shopping, we're going to see the circus on Thursday, and then next Sunday we leave for California and Disneyland!! I'll keep you updated on our happenings, if anything really exciting happens, lol.

Phase 2

Well, we are now on to phase 2 of our trip. We're down in Arizona now visiting my parents and some family. But let me catch you up on the weekend a bit first.

On Friday, my father-in-law took the girls and I, along with my sis-in-law Laura and her two kids, to the zoo. I haven't been to that zoo since I was a kid, so it was kind of fun to go again. We saw some gorillas and penguins and lions and all sorts of fun and interesting things up close. After a couple of hours, we were all tired of walking, so we decided it was time to go get some lunch. We went to a Chinese restaurant (food = yummy!) and then went home and had naps. In the evening, my IL's went to the temple, and the girls and I just hung out at home. I started laundry and packing.

Laura w/Chloe, Maya, Clancy, Zoe & Me

Maya, Chloe, Yeh Yeh (Grandpa), Zoe and Clancy

Maya's impression of a flamingo

On Saturday, my FIL drove me out to my brother's house in the morning. I was about an hour late getting there, but the rest of the people were even later than me! lol. We definitely run on Johnson Standard Time. Anyway, after we (Brother Joe, SIL Becky + 2 kids; Brother David, SIL Paige + 2 kids; Sister Jeanne, BIL Scott + 4 kids) were all congregated, we made our way to Mukilteo Beach. We had a picnic lunch, let the kids go down to the water (that was short lived due to the rocky nature of the beach), played on the toys, and even did a short letterboxing search. Sadly the letterbox we were searching for was no longer there. The kids were all a bit tired at this point, but we stopped to let them dig in the sand (aka- sand volleyball court) for a bit before heading back to my brother's house. Little kids went down for naps, big kids watched a movie, had pizza and corn dogs and ice cream for dinner (yum!), and then just hung out for awhile. My BIL Ken flew up from AZ to take the girls and I down to AZ on a buddy pass, so we picked him up from the airport and then headed back to my IL's house for the night. I scurried around to finish getting everything packed away and finally went to bed at close to 1am.

Maya and her cousin Lyssa hit it off right away

L to R: Lyssa holding Alexa, Jace, Kiara, Arizona, Zoe, Maya, Ben, Jack

Playing on the toys: Jeanne w/Alexa, Maya & Lyssa

Jace, Maya & Ben digging in the sand

A healthy, nutritious dinner! (hahaha). L to R: Kiara, Arizona, Jace, Lyssa, Maya & Zoe

On Sunday, we got up at 5am to catch the 7:20am flight to AZ. Made it to the airport on time, no problems getting on the plane (we had to fly standby with the buddy pass). I expected that Zoe and Maya would sleep on the plane. Maya did, Zoe did not. So far out of all our plane rides, that short 2.5 hour flight was the most stressful because I was tired, and Zoe was tired, but she just would not sleep. It was a lot of "stop kicking the chair!" and "Stop screaming now!" and "Stop shaking your cup! The juice is going to spill all over you!" and "These are the only books I broght so either choose one or you get no books" kind of thing. Lol. My goodness. (The poor girl sitting next to us!) She finally fell asleep for the last 10 minutes, but of course woke up when I was putting her in the stroller as we got off the plane. We met my sister Polly (who works at the airport), and she got off work about 20 minutes after we landed. We all drove back to my parents house, and hurried to get something to eat and get ready for church. Made it for the last 15 minutes of Sacrament meeting, and then sent the kids off to Primary. They had a great time seeing their cousins. Maya is in the same class as her cousin Cougar, and Zoe was in nursery with her cousin Ashton. Zoe was good until about the last 20 minutes, and then she was DONE. I walked with her in the halls for a little while until she passed out. When we got home from church, I laid her down and she slept for about 4 hours.

Anyway, Maya has had a blast playing with her 4 cousins here. They've jumped on the trampoline and laughed over "Captain Underpants" books and shared knock knock jokes and played the wii... It's been so fun. Now it's Monday morning and we're getting ready to set off for swimming lessons. Luckily maya was able to get into the same session as her cousins, but unfortunately the class Zoe needed was all booked up. After lessons we'll come home for lunch, and then go back to the pool so we can all swim. It'll be fun. I love vacation! :)

SO. MUCH. FUN.

I have been having the best week ever. We have been having so much fun visiting friends and family. Like seriously. Awesome. :) The quick rundown is this:

Monday: went to the gym in the morning with my mother-in-law, came home, had breakfast, went to an aerobics class with my sis-in-law, Laura, and where all the kids could just run around the gym and play and nobody cared (awesome), went home, had lunch, the kids and I crashed and had a 3.5 hour nap. Then went to a playground with Laura and her kids for about an hour and a half, went home and had dinner.

Maya, Clancy and Zoe

Tuesday: Went to the gym with my MIL again (yay me!) Then one of my best friends growing up, Holly, was a good sport and came and picked us up and spent the day shopping. We met up with one of my other best friends, Whitney, who also came shopping with us/had lunch with us. Eventually we made it over to Holly's parent's house and chatted for awhile, had dinner, and were joined by another friend, Rikayla. We just hung out there and had a great time catching up until about 10:30pm when Holly drove us all the way back home. (Thanks, HoJo!!)

Kids play area at the Alderwood Mall

Holly's parent's dog, Lady

Mmmmmmmm!

Whitney, Holly, Me, Rikayla

And because we are THAT cool....

Wednesday: After the kids didn't go to sleep until 1am the night before, I was in no mood to get up at 6am for the gym again, so slept until about 9am. Later in the morning, my father-in-law drove us out to the outlet mall in North Bend and I found some great deals. Then we went over to my SIL Laura's place, had lunch and took the kids swimming for about an hour and a half. We had such a good time! Went home, got cleaned up, then borrowed my IL's car to meet up with a good friend from college, Jenna, and her husband for dinner. Had a fabulous couple of hours catching up with them.


Thursday: Again, the kids did not fall asleep until 1am (grrrr) and so slept in a bit. After my FIL took my MIL to work, I was able to borrow their car for most of the day. I drove up to my old neck of the woods and visited with my SIL Paige (married to my brother David) and her two cute little girls. I asked her to take me thrift store shopping because she seems to always find really great deals! I'm happy to report that I found a cute pair of Banana Republic jeans for $4! We then got some lunch and went to a park so the kiddos could play for awhile.

Zoe and Arizona

After that, we went to visit my other SIL Becky (married to my brother Joe) and see her two cute boys. We hung out at her house and played for a few hours until I had to head back home so that my FIL could pick up my MIL from work. We're going to eat soon, and then after dinner my MIL and I may head to the gym since we haven't gone for a couple of days, and my FIL is going to help Maya with her Chinese homework.

Zoe and Jack

Zoe, Jack, Maya & Ben

I actually haven't eaten out as much as I thought I would have by this point in our trip, which is good. I'm glad that I've been able to go to the gym a few times and keep up my routine somewhat so that I won't have to be searching for the best diet pill when this trip is over. I think when we go down to AZ next week, I'll be able to go walking/jogging with my sister several times a week. I'm really hoping I don't gain any weight on this trip!

This weekend is going to be packed with fun stuff, so hopefully I'll be able to check in again in a few days. I've taken some really cute pictures and I can't wait to post them!!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Aaaahhhh! It's SO nice to be back in Seattle! The clean, fresh air is awesome, the wide laned roads (somehow) provide a sense of security, the mountains, the trees... It's just so beautiful and wonderful and I am so glad to be 'home' again! I'm sorry, you'll have to wait for photos when I have some time to upload them etc. As you all know, I can be a bit long winded about things, so thank you if you get through this novel! lol.

Waiting for our ride

We have had an adventurous couple of days. First of all, the ride to the airport in HK was lovely. I'll take riding in a BMW over public transportation any day! :) We did get there several hours early, as Sam's aunt's flight (she was with us in the car) left a little before ours. We filled the time by looking at all the shops, getting lunch and playing at a big kids area near our gate.



The flights went surprisingly well. We first had a short flight (1h 20m) to Taiwan (Zoe slept the whole way), and had a short layover. At that airport, there was also a big play area where the kids could run and play and climb, and we met another family with young kids who would be on our same flight. Good times.



Then was the long haul flight to LA. I think it was close to 12 hours long. The kids watched movies/tv shows, and I brought out some new books/toys/snacks now and then when they started getting restless. Zoe and Maya both slept for a total of about 5 hours, though they weren't always at the same time. Zoe fell asleep first and was laying horizontally across the chair with her head on me and her legs on Maya. That worked for a little while, but when she really wanted to stretch out, she started crying and kicking Maya because she just really didn't have enough room. I ended up holding her and rocking her for a little while until she dozed off again and was able to somewhat lay her back down on the chair again.



By the time Maya was ready to sleep, I think she was way over-tired because she was frustrated and upset and started crying. She also refused to use the pillows or blankets or anything that I tried to give her. I have no idea why. I don't think she was entirely coherent. She was content to lay her head on the hard armrest. Even when I tried later to again give her a pillow, she just threw it on the floor. Anyway, we were finally all settled and I was able to sleep for a couple of hours, too, before they woke up again.

We arrived in LA at about 1:30pm on Friday the 5th, which was sort of surreal, since we left HK at 1:30pm on Friday the 5th. Lol. Good old international date line. :) After getting through customs and immigration rather quickly, we managed to meet up with my BIL Ken without too much trouble, and he checked us in to another flight up to Seattle. (Thanks to my sister Polly's fabulous flight benefits). However, we were flying standby. We thought we'd get onto the flight at 4:30pm, but it filled up. As did the 5:30pm and the 6:30pm flights. We sat and waited and snacked and read and napped for several hours before we were finally able to get on the 7:30pm flight.

We arrived in Seattle at about 10pm without incident and were totally stoked to be there. We found my in-laws, who picked us up from the airport, said goodbye to Ken (who was going to stay with my brother Joe for a day or two), loaded up the bags, got the kids in their car seats....

And the car wouldn't start. And that's when we noticed steam (or smoke?) pouring from under the hood of the car. My FIL opened the hood to examine the problem and noticed coolant leaking onto the ground. He called Sam's brother Andrew, who said he'd come and rescue us and call a tow truck. While we were waiting, Maya kept saying, "what's taking so long? Why aren't we going?" and I kept explaining, but after the long trip she was impatient to get home.

We were finally rescued, and I ended up having to drive one of the cars home (Why? Too complicated for a blog, lol). We finally got home at about 1am, I called Sam to let him know we had arrived safely, and then we all went to bed. After more than 24 hours of traveling, we were exhausted!!

The next day, Saturday, we had some friends of ours that we met in HK (but who now live in Vancouver BC) drive down to see us. We had so much fun playing with the kids and catching up and doing a little "sight seeing" (the local salmon hatchery and a duck pond) with Julianne, McKay and Banyan. And they ended up staying for dinner, too. It was just so fun and so exciting to see them again. I think it's been about 3 years since they left HK.

L to R: McKay, Julianne, Banyan, Maya, Me, Zoe

Looking for the ducks

Here they are!

L to R: my FIL Joseph, SIL Laura, Clancy, BIL Andrew, Zoe, Me, Maya, Julianne, Banyan, Mckay

I thought our sleep last night would be ok. Zoe managed to stay asleep most of the night, but Maya and I both woke up around 2:30am, and by 4am we still hadn't fallen asleep, so we came downstairs and watched old reruns of 'Home Improvement'. lol. At 5:30am, I told her we needed to go back to bed, and we were able to sleep until about 10:30am. Thankfully church didn't start until 1pm. :)

So now we're home from church, dinner is being made, and Andrew/Laura/Clancy/Chloe are all going to come over for dinner again soon. It has been so fun for Maya and Zoe to have little cousins to play with here.

So that's my update so far. I've been taking pictures, but I don't want to deal with uploading them at this moment, so you will have to wait. :) Thanks for reading!