Fun Summer in Utah, 2008

We just finished our trip to Utah to see the grandparents of Ashni and Andre. We also visited Ashni and Andre's Great Grandpa Hunt. It was a lot of fun for all of us. The kids sure had their best time of the summer. They played in the house, went rocket-shooting and swimming. Their grandma also took them to an animal museum. In the end, we all made a trip to Park City and attended an art festival there. These are just some of the snapshots of our trip.

Ashni's fourth recital

What a day for Ashni!

Great news was that her auntie Michelle came to be her accompanist and did a lot of last minute intensive practice with her from the night before and in the morning, which really helped her to be more familiar with her piece.

Sad news was that her brother accidentally crushed her two right hand fingers in a bedroom door hinge area. She was hurt bad and bleeding a little bit but it was the bruising that was bad. Maybe one of her fingernails would eventually fall off and grow back well. It was that bad! We put two bandaid on those two fingers and wanted to see how she would go.

Michelle did a great job telling Ashni all kinds of stories from her and Jon's childhood to make Ashni feel distracted and better while Ashni put her fingers in cold water and later under a frozen bean bag. Later on, she started to practice with Michelle.

Amazingly, at the recital, Ashni pulled it through! So well!

We are all so proud of her! I told her she was a hero today because she did the best she could despite her finger wounds.

Her classmates Anna and Nicholas came to her recital too. Nice of them!

Ashni's third recital

Ashni's second violin recital

Ashni sure has made a lot of progress during the half year since she started her violin lesson last summer. She is playing "Minuet 2" by Bach.

A Night at Mexicali of Mexico

We were down in El Centro(including 'adventure partner' Xu Jiang)and Jon's friend Karina and Victor took us to the other side of the border--Mexico!

We ate at a nice seafood restaurant, which apparently was visited by some Hollywood stars before; then we went to the local carnival of the year. The kids had fun!

We brought with us passports so crossing back the border was not a problem. The highlights of the border-crossing was: the guard for some reason checked everybody's ID except Xujiang's so we considered him a smuggling success(kidding); Andre pretended that he was a tiger and "roar"ed everybody, including the border guard ( and Andre stuck his face out of the window and did it right in the guard's face), and he was amused by Andre for that one moment. Andre even babbled to us smilingly, with his new Chinese words,'Don't be afraid, I am a fake one' after he roared everybody like a tiger.

Interesting Snapshots at the Resort Hotel

Ashni and Andre are having a cabin fever. Looking out of the window at people swimming, they just want to be down there too.


Daddy's masterpiece--Andre in pillow diaper like a piece of marshmallow!


Andre is telling you exactly why he is crying--he wants to be tossed UP IN THE AIR again!


Standing against the headboard of the hotel bed, they make it clear that they are bored!

September at Lake Arrowhead

This was the second time we went to Lake Arrowhead. We stayed at the Lake arrowhead Resort in a hotel room facing the lake. It was more fun this time, since we got to go to the Lake Arrowhead Village, where the kids played at the playground, fed ducks and had a ride.

More at Our Back Patio

These are some of the pictures of our kids taken a while ago when they played at our back patio. It's certainly getting cooler.

Some Old Pictures at Lake Arrowhead

These pictures were taken back in June after we came back from China. We stayed at a resort at Lake Arrowhead. Daddy had to go to work during the day, so the kids and Mommy had to stay in the hotel room. We were having cabin fever so we took a break going out in the front yard.