Chan Clan Reunion

At the end of July/beginning of August we traveled up to Rylan's hometown for a little family reunion. We traveled by Allegiant air which flies out of Phx/Mesa Gateway. It was such a pleasant flight and experience getting right through check-in, security, and boarding. Our flight attendant was a "flight attendant Nazi." Addy was trying to pick up a grape that had fallen on the floor. Just as she was picking up the grape, the flight attendant announced (not so subtlely), "Babies on the floor are a definite no-no!" Now, let me preface this by saying that we were just boarding the plane, we were not moving, not in flight, and not even doing anything of significance. We attempted to explain, but it fell on deaf ears. So the flight attendant then procedes to announce to the ENTIRE cabin, "no kids on the floor - big no-no!!!" Are you freakin' kidding me??? So in case you are wondering what happened to the grapes that Addy picked up - well, they are now back on the ground firmly entrenched into the rug of the plane courtesy of my shoe. Have fun cleaning that up! Other than that, the flight was wonderful. We flew into Great Falls, MT and rented a car and drove up to Canada. It was a 2.5 hr car ride and we just had a great time traveling.

It was great to see the family again! The girls had a wonderful time with cousins and finally, FINALLY being able to play for extended periods of time outside! The temperature was a balmy 70-80 degrees. The kids had fun at a really fun park, went swimming, pretended to be Shamu with Uncle Byron, played at more parks, watched movies, played with cousins, jumped on the trampoline, and swung on the swings -- again, again, and again! The sun set after 9pm and the kids just had a blast playing with cousins. We had a fun time at the reunion that actually spread out over 3 days. It was actually an educational experience learning about my extended family and their histories.

One really interesting thing was the genealogy that my dad had been doing. He contacted someone who had an extensive line of genealogy. We found out that we are actually descendants of the eldest son of Chen Hui who is a descendant of Huang Di - or the Yellow Emperor. Huang Di is often credited with being the individual who instituted the first principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Martial arts!!! So Aubrey and Addy are literally Princesses!

We had a great time, but wish we could have stayed longer. Molly had a great time serving Chinese food at Heritage Days and it was fun tasting food from different cultures. I had African food and the girls had Chinese.

We barely made it back home. There was absolutely NO traffic on the freeway to the border, but once we got there - it was grid-lock! We were starting to get a bit nervous since we were not moving at all and we were still 2 hrs from the airport. Fortunately, it was divine Providence that two more lanes opened up and we got to the front of one of them. Molly prayed that we would make it on time without being pulled over and we flew down the freeway with as much care, but as fast as possible. We made it to the airport with about 10 minutes to spare and made it safely on to our flight. It was good to be heading home, but we sure had a great time.


Here are the cousins with Grammy and Grampy. It's hard getting everyone to cooperate at the same time as you can probably tell.

Addy spending some time with Uncle Mike.

This is actually one of the better pics we have with the kids actually being quite good all together.

Here's our little family!

The cousins with Great Grandma who is turning 90 next year!

Molly giving the thumbs up while serving at Heritage Days.

More cousins (not all) hanging out at Henderson Lake park.

Addy is sad, but still so cute.

Celebrating the birthdays again!

Addy trying to roast her marshmallow.

Addy enjoying her Smore.

Trying to get the best spot for roasting.

Addy playing in the grass.

July Birthdays

OK -

I know it has been a VERY long time since we last updated our blog, so we'll start with July...

We had a busy summer with a couple of birthdays coming at the end of July with Rylan and Aubrey sharing the same lucky day! We had a family gathering with Rhett also sharing their birthday. Since we were leaving for Canada for a reunion, we also had a little party for Addy as well.

Grammy and Papa gather around Addy as she eats her cupcake.

Rylan and Rhett share a banana cream pie for their birthday.

Addy blows out candles on her birthday cupcakes.

Aubrey is super excited about her Tinkerbell birthday cake!

Molly made this wonderful Tinkerbell cake that also has ice cream in the middle. I think she did a wonderful job decorating it complete with Tinkerbell and friends.

These are the beautiful fairy cupcakes that Molly made as well.

Grammy and Papa share some one on one time with Addy and Landon.

The girls got dressed up in their Princess dresses and watched Beauty and the Beast and danced around. It was super cute.

AZ Tea Party

Last month we participated in one of the Arizona Tea Parties. We thought it was a great way to exercise our rights in demonstrating for something for which we believe in. We were pleasantly surprised to see so many people out in support of this cause - including MANY young families in tow. I think in general, we are sort of apathetic, slow-to-react, and passive - and this ground-level movement is evidence that the enough is enough! As a family, we felt strongly enough that we needed to make our opinion heard and raise our voices and do something, rather than sit back and gripe and complain at the television.

Ironically, after the demonstration, we wrote out a couple of nice checks to the IRS for our 2008 taxes. How is that for serendipity?

A couple of days later, Molly was outside watching the girls play. Aubrey was simply walking around the yard saying, "NO MORE TAXES! NO MORE TAXES!" Can someone say young Republican in the making???


Some of my favorite posters from the Tea Party are seen below.

A large crowd gathers at Gilbert City Hall.

Walking up to join in the throng!

This one is my favorite.

My sentiments, exactly!

Even Justice, Aubrey, and Addie have enough of these taxes!!!

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.