Sunday, April 12, 2009

Canadian Visitors for Easter Holidays

This past week we had a lot of family in town. John and Judy came down from Canada with Poi-Poi (Grandma). Uncle Vic and Aunt Viv Tang came down from Vancouver to visit as well. They were in town visiting with friends and stayed with all of us for a few days. It was a busy household, but everyone had a great time.

We also feasted like crazy!!! The first night of feasting included some Juk - Chinese porridge with some really tasty BBQ'd chicken breasts. Later in the week, John and Poi-poi cooked a gourmet-class 6-course Chinese meal (Dumplings, spareribs, sushi, chow mein, spiced-pepper salt squid, and the speciality ginger beef - which is now Molly's new favorite Chinese dish of all time!). There was so much food that we had leftovers for the next week. Teresa also had us all over for a gourmet Mexican meal that was just as equally tasty with some incredible dessert. Our last day was spent eating Dim Sum for lunch, followed by a Turkey - Asian style with sticky rice stuffing and a trip to watch the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple grounds.

Since we don't get a chance to see everyone up north very often, this was a nice break. Rylan took a few days off of work. The weather was nice, but a bit breezy. The Canadian crew had a great time up in the Grand Canyon, but somehow missed Frank Lloyd Wright's place up in Sedona. John was pretty bummed out about that. Well, gives them an excuse to come back and visit again.


Well, Rylan's car got dirty...again. Apparently Uncle Vic likes clean looking vehicles, so he took it upon himself to clean the Honda. Aubrey wanted to help. She has become quite the little copy-cat. Since Uncle "Wiffer" (Victor) took his shirt off, Aubrey had remove hers as well, so there was little nude dude Aubrey with her shirt off cleaning the car with bigger nude dude Uncle Wiffer. Thanks for the clean car, guys!



John's high school buddy - Dave Thompson came over for a visit and brought his Wii. "Wii" all had a blast. Never played it before, but had a great time. I can totally see how this game would become somewhat addictive. Here is Aunt Viv trying her best to out-swing her opponent in tennis.


It was also a great opportunity for the girls to spend some time with their Great-Grandmother (But But Ida) who is still sharp as a tack mentally and can still cruise the Grand Canyon in her walker. Hard to believe that she'll be 90 years old next year!


Jim came over to visit one morning and Great Grandma mentioned how her Dad had a 1920-something Ford back in the day and she had a picture of her as a child standing in the bed. We tried to re-enact the photo some 80 years later! She had a blast standing in the bed of the truck!


Aubrey "orange mouth" Chan. She got a kick out of eating oranges this way - thanks to her mom for showing her more silliness with food! :)


It was good to have the girls spend some more one on one time with Grammy and Grampy. Disneyland was kind of hectic and they were off their schedules. Here is Addy eating some oranges on Grammy's lap.


Addy also got some good snuggle time on Grampy.


Aubrey the Tinkerbell Fairy.
Grammy and Grampy took the girls to the "Princess Store" (Disney store) where Aubrey loves to try on wings and look in the mirror. Well, the Grandparents spoiled her and she got her birthday present 4 months early - complete with Tinkerbell outfit and wings! Here she is posing with Aunt Viv and Vic.


This Easter we had an early Easter egg hunt. The girls had fun finding eggs all over the house and then spent some time out in the sand box.

Aubrey gave a talk today in Primary. It was so sweet. She spoke on the Atonement and how the Easter eggs represented a new birth with Christ being resurrected from the tomb. She then said the 3rd Article of Faith from memory and closed by saying, "I love Jesus. He is my Savior. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Car washing and Ladybugs


The recent dust storms took its toll on Rylan's car resulting in a pleasant afternoon of washing cars! Aubrey and Addison got in on the action. Hey! What better excuse than to get wet and soapy and enjoy the sunshine?


Aubrey has developed a new found love for animals. She loves to see birds in the backyard and frequently calls for them to come near so she can hold them. She loves butterflies and ladybugs. She is constantly trying to catch them. When this occurs with the latter, she usually ends up accidentally killing them (in this particular case, it was a sad case of a drowning) and then Aubrey is devasted.

She really does enjoy all sorts of animals. Recently a new gopher hole was discovered (which Rylan promptly took care of with special "gopher food") and Aubrey in her curiosity wondered aloud what a "booper" (aka gophers) was.

Aubrey: Daddy, what is a booper?
Rylan: A what?
Aubrey: A booper.
Rylan: A what?
Aubrey: You know. A booper. You put food in the hole for a booper.
Rylan: Oh! You mean a gopher!
Aubrey: Yeah! A booper.
Rylan: No. It's a GOPHER.
Aubrey: Gopher?
Rylan: Yes, Aubrey.
Aubrey: Oh...

It didn't take long for "boopers" to become her newest friends which she would then procede to invite anyone who came over "Do you want to see the booper holes!"

UFO's spotted in Gilbert!

It's been a few years since the last noted siting of the "Phoenix Lights." However, last week strange objects were seen high up in the blue skies above Gilbert.


On-lookers gathered and watched in amazement...

Local kids tried their best to reel them in...


...but upon closer inspection, these were not actual UFOs at all - but simply Barbie flying high above the homes. With the winds turning up a notch or two - it was perfect weather for some good old kite flying.