expressions, family, gross motor, play, videos

Morning at the Pool

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We spent the whole morning at the hotel pool. Now that the kids are so comfortable in the water, it was fun capturing them on video with the GoPro.

The big slide was a big hit again today.

The little slide was fun too.

Peanut also let Daddy throw him up in to the air.


It was fun to have Auntie Amy, Uncle Jay, Amelia, and Ellie at the same hotel too. They joined us in the middle of the morning and the kids had so much fun together.

Janie also learned how to dive for toys. In this video, Ellie pushed the shovel down with her feet and Janie dove down to retrieve it and even swam under her legs.

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eating, expressions, family, play

Cookies and Hugs

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Auntie Amy brought over the girls one last time this afternoon. They also brought us fancy cookies!


The kids enjoyed playing together before saying their goodbyes. They will be driving down to Southern California tomorrow to visit Toni and Thomas.


It’s so much fun having family over!

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eating, expressions, family, outings, play

Cal Academy

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Today, we went to the California Academy of Sciences. We got a family membership so we could get Amelia and family in too. Amelia brought her backpack today since Janie had hers yesterday. So cute.


Janie also brought her camera and took lots of photos of the creatures. Peanut used his toy phone to copy her.


Peanut enjoyed seeing all the fish. He was barely able walk the last time he visited the museum.


I can still remember when it was SO hard to convince Janie to touch the creatures in the tide pool back she was Peanut’s age but now it’s no big deal.


It’s also fun to see how different Peanut is since it took him absolutely no convincing.


Before heading back to the East Bay, we all stopped for soft serve at the truck outside the museum.


For dinner, we took Auntie Amy for some tasty crab at Hang Ten Boiler.


At the end of the day, Peanut and Ellie gave each other hugs. They had a fun time together these past two days.

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eating, expressions, family, outings, videos

Vancouver Family

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Our family from Vancouver is in town this weekend! Yay!


We met up with Auntie Amy, Uncle Jay, Amelia, and Ellie at the ferry and rode over to SF together!


For lunch, we went to Hog Island Oyster Co. It was super hot outside today.


The dads enjoyed some local beer in the shade while the kids ran around for a bit.


We went inside the Ferry Plaza to cool off and get some ice cream!!


The girls enjoyed chatting and exploring together. Love how it took them no time to warm up to each other. It was like we just saw them yesterday even though it was December when we last saw them in Hong Kong.

We tried to go to the playground but it was way too hot. So we spent some time in the shade at Justin Herman Plaza.


Next was a ride on Muni over to the mall. It was nice to be inside where it was a lot cooler.


Peanut loved the train ride.


At the mall, the kids played at the Lego store.


Then they took a bunch of rides up and down the spiral escalators with Dada.


For dinner, we walked to R&G Lounge so Auntie Amy could get some salt and pepper crab.


After dinner, we walked back to the ferry terminal and had a short ride back to Alameda. Peanut and Ellie shared some Cheetos while Amelia and Janie had some “alone time” at a separate table by the window.


What a fun day in San Francisco!!

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eating, expressions, family, outfits, outings, special days

Fancy Wedding

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It’s Auntie Kelly’s wedding day and it was a fancy one! Here are the girls chatting during the tea ceremony and lunch in the morning.

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At the church, the kids posed for a photo together.

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Janie sat with Uncle Jason for the wedding ceremony while Peanut sat on the kneeler with Mama’s phone to keep him quiet.

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After the wedding, Peanut went back to the hotel to take a nap and Janie went out with Dada and Uncle Jason to get a snack. On the way to the cafe, they bought a cute sweater for her to go with her fancy dresses.

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She looks like such a little lady on the bus ride back to the hotel.

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At the wedding reception, everyone was dressed so nicely. Janie was exhausted from a full day already so she was up for half of her dinner and then went to sleep in the stroller.

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Peanut, on the other hand, was up and partying until the wee hours of the night.

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He got orange juice for the first time and enjoyed a tasty “kid’s dessert”. That was one fancy dessert for a little man.

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Peanut LOVED the live band and was star struck when the guitarist waved to him.

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He was up for the after party too and enjoyed some of the “night market” food including the egg waffles.

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Just after midnight, he went to sleep on the sofa and Janie joined him on the adjacent sofa.

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We were back at the hotel closer to 3am and they both slept together in Janie’s bed.

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eating, expressions, family, outings, play, sleeping

Pre-Wedding Dinner

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After a brief stop at the hotel, we went back out and rode the train to dinner.

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Auntie Kelly had a pre-wedding dinner at a hot pot place in North Point.The girls played their version of Uno while dinner was being set-up.

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Janie also tried some raw geoduck and loved it.

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She filled up on geoduck before going down for the night.

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Looks like jetlag caught up with them because they were both out before 7pm.

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expressions, family, outings

Ocean Park

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After breakfast, we headed outside and met up with Auntie Amy, Uncle Jay, Amelia, and Ellie.

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We rode lots of escalators to get to the correct train. We transferred once to get to Ocean Park.

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The kids did a great job following directions and walking from place to place.

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On the final train, everyone got to sit down and enjoy the ride.

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We arrived at Ocean Park and met up with the Ankong and Ama. The kids were excited to see the pandas so that’s where we went first.

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Peanut was happy to see the monkeys swinging around.

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The panda was sitting up top with his back side visible for most of the time we were there. He was also very far away at the top of the exhibit (dark rectangle doorway at the top).

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Then he suddenly turned around to show his face and Mama captured a photo of his very brief showing with her zoom lens. Yay!

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Ankong also bought Janie her very own panda. She named him Pancake.

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There was an aquarium that had lots of exhibits that let you see the sea creatures up close.

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We had lunch at the Panda Cafe and they had sesame baos that looked like pandas! So cute!

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After lunch, we rode the carousel and walked through their replica of Old Hong Kong.

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The sky tram ride took us up and over the mountain to the other side of the park.

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Peanut woke up just in time to see the last part of the ride.

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On the other side, there was an arctic area where they had rides and penguins!

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The girls ran around and watched all the penguins swimming in the water.

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At the end of the day, the girls sat around and played with their pandas.

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We had such a fun time at Ocean Park!

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eating, expressions, family, outings

Lunch with Amelia

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On our last day in Vancouver, it rained.  Peanut liked looking out the window on our drive to lunch.

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We met up with Auntie Amy, Uncle Jay, Ellie, and Amelia for lunch.  Amelia had a gift for Janie and it contained more surprise eggs and stickers!

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The two girls sat together and got to hang out one last time before we headed to the airport.

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eating, family, sleeping, social

Amelia’s House

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This afternoon, we went to Auntie Amy and Amelia’s house for an early dinner.  Janie and Amelia played in their “clubhouse” and shared stickers.

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Janie also got her first box of 3 kinder surprise eggs!  Thanks, Uncle Alvin and Auntie Kelly!

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Uncle Eric bought and butchered a whole pig for the family.

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The little girls ate together and looked like two best friends gabbing about this and that.

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Peanut also got pretty fussy this afternoon but Aunties Kelly and Lori were able to calm him down.

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Here’s a group photo of all the kids together: Thomas, Toni, Amelia, Ellie, Janie, and Peanut (left to right).

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