This afternoon, Mama came home from work, showered, and got some snuggles from the kids.
Janie also got some help from Mama on one of her homework assignments on Google Classroom. She had to read an article and answer questions about what she read.
More Stories
Toni and Thomas had storytime with Janie again. This is a photo that Auntie Jia took from their house.
Technology
Homeschooling and sheltering in place would not be as productive or stimulating without the technology that we have nowadays. Janie had a Room 33 Meeting with her classmates.
Then a 90-minute Mandarin lesson with her usual teacher at Yu Ying. Her teacher does a great job keeping everyone engaged, listening, and participating. This is money well-spent!
Janie later had storytime with Toni, Thomas, and Peanut. She read them 4 books!!
Short Trip
It was a short but productive weekend. See you all again soon!!!!
Cerritos
We drove down to Cerritos last night and the kids had a blast with their cousins while Mama and Dada went to see their tax guy.
We later went to Baskin-Robbins for an ice cream treat.
For dinner, we met up with Ankong and Ama.
Back to Oakland
The kids were really good about getting up before the sun came up this morning and the flight was uneventful. When we arrived in Oakland, the kids thought it was funny how the stroller and carseat came out of a little door off to the side.
We walked to the bus stop and Peanut thought it was funny that he looked like a turtle with his jacket worn over his backpack.
The bus was totally empty, as usual, and we were home in no time.
The early flight resulted in a good long nap for Peanut later that morning.
Mama also made a big pot of jook – always a great meal to have after so much travel. Thanks to Auntie Amy for showing Mama how to make it.
We had such a fun time in Vancouver and really made the most of Ski Week this year. We hope we can keep doing this every year and truly appreciate the Koo Family for hosting us, taking good care of us, and showing us a fun time again.
Time to Go Home
It’s our last day together and the kids had a fun morning before we had to pack up the car and head back the the U.S.
Auntie Amy packed us a whole bunch of snacks for the road and little did we know they would come in handy. We drove the quick 10-min drive to the border and found ourselves in a 2-hour line.
It really was two hours of inching our way to the border crossing. What made things even more stressful was that Peanut had to pee at one point. We tried to find a restroom but it was closed. Luckily he didn’t have to go so badly so we waited until we crossed and stopped at a gas station.
Once we made it across, we hurried to Seattle and tried to make our flight. Unfortunately, we were just 30 mins too late and ended up having to rebook to tomorrow morning. Our flight was the last one out and there wasn’t enough time to return the car, take the shuttle, check the carseat and stroller, get through security, and board the plane.
We ended up at a hotel for the night and a very early wake-up call tomorrow for the first flight out. We also had to pay a hefty price because our super discounted fare went to a full fare. No bueno.
Another Rest Day
We had another rest day at Auntie Amy’s house while the girls were at school.
Cypress Mountain
We went to Cypress Mountain today and Janie was ready to have a full day of long green runs. We managed to get Peanut a lesson and it turned out to be a private lesson because there were no other kids signed up. What a win!
Peanut’s snowboarding coach had such a great time with him and was impressed by how fearless he was. He said he was so fearless that they spent the whole lesson on the beginner run with a real lift.
After Peanut’s lesson, we all went up the lift together and had fun watching them shred down the hill. Peanut did a lot of crashing but he is so good at getting right back up.
We had a fun day as a family of four. We can’t wait to take them back to Soda Springs again when we get home.
We drove across the Lions Gate Bridge to Downtown Vancouver for dinner.
The kids slept in the car and Peanut kept sleeping at the restaurant.
We met up with Auntie Amy at Fanny Bay Oyster Co. and had a seafood feast.
Rest Day
We checked out of the hotel and returned to Auntie Amy’s house last night so we had a rest day. Everyone went to work and school so we just hung out at the house.
Auntie Amy gave them this cool new toy called PlusPlus and they spent a long time playing with them.
We also borrowed Amelia and Ellie’s scooters and went outside for a while. The kids rode around and around the loop out front, which had a nice hill.
For lunch, we went out for Japanese food and stopped at Tim Hortons because Peanut had slept right through lunch.
When everyone got home, we went out for dinner with the rest of the family and the kids continued playing with the PlusPlus pieces.
Before bed, all the kids read together in the bedroom. So cute.