I forgot to include some of these Vegas pictures on
the last post. Dan's parents were so kind to take care of Ronin for
one of the mornings that we went to the Strip with my great aunt. We
almost had them watch him when we all went and saw the Magic and
Comedy show, but we decided it was more convenient to take him since
the drive back to their house was at least half an hour from the
Strip. He didn't cost anything and he did very well watching the
show with us, clapping and cheering when he heard others cheered,
too.
Ronin loves water, as well as messes. Doesn't
every boy??
He kept putting Rocks inside the little water
feature they have. And when he's not putting pebbles inside the
waterfall feature, he climbed and jumped off of furniture. He was in
a different setting and was set off of his potty training routine.
He didn't tell Nama and Papa he needed to go and they had to change a
dirty diaper, creatively with wet paper towels because I took the
wipes with me, go figure! We appreciated their help a tons!
While I was out and about I had Dan announce to his
family that we are expecting Baby #4 (still can't believe I'm only 32
and already expecting #4. Becoming a Mormon changes everything,
including when to have babies:). I didn't want people to think I was
getting fat haha. Dan is so creative and witty with the way he
announced it. He called his parents before we arrived and said
“please take care of my wife while she's down there as well as my
son and my baby”. When I got home I decided to be creative and
witty as well. 50 + congrats and compliments on Facebook when I
posted. I couldn't believe I got that many congrats. Usually the
more kids you have the more people roll their eyes. I just hope each
kid gets enough attention and that we could still afford nice
vacations :)) We are very thrilled this baby came so quickly. 2
months of trying. Wow! We average at 8-9 months at least! Dan is
super happy that he is going to be a father again for the 4th
time. He was told at least 3 different times in college when we did
his counts that he might need some IVF help, but nope, we haven't
needed it at all. Thank you to our 4 babies for saving us loads of
money. Guess I'm super fertile.
At the end of my trip to Nevada and California I
was so done with eating out. I was ready to eat home made food. My
bestie on the other hand, was so sick of making food. She was on the
other end of the spectrum. She asked me to join her for some Thai
food and a movie, the Perfect Pitch. I was reluctant but decided to
be a good friend so we went and saw the Perfect Pitch and then went
out to eat. We ate at the Bai Tong restaurant. Amazing food! We
were stuffed and didn't have room for my childhood favorite Mango and
sweet rice dessert but the nice part about this new restaurant is
it's down the hill from our house. Next time!
The END OF SCHOOOL was approaching when I got home.
I missed a concert Brie had as well as her graduation from
Kindergarten but thankfully her daddy went and recorded everything
for me. I was able to attend her end of the year party at least.
One of the highlights for me at the end of school is what they bring
home. Love what Brie chose to describe me. Now you know a little
more!
On the last day of school I went to lunch with
Reena. I brought her favorite pizza from Zeeks to school and brought
her birthday announcements she could hand out to her friends as well
as her teacher's end of the year gifts. Her teacher expressed how
much she has enjoyed having Reena in her class and that Reena got the
“I'm a Great Kid at Grandridge” award because her teacher like to
save the best for last! That just made my day. I love what she
wrote about Reena. Reena got to dine with her principal and the
other great kids in the different grades. So proud of her!!
We celebrated the last day by getting milk shakes
right after school. This picture represents their emotions quite
well. Debrie was in tears getting off the bus saying she misses her
teacher already. Reena was screaming with excitement that she'll get
to sleep in every morning. Ronin is excited to have his sisters home
so he can boss them around.
BLOCK PARTY
To kick off Summer Seattle decided to give us a
very hot week. The kids had their end of school parties where they
participated in various different activities. Our block had one,
too. It was a potluck so we had food from many different regions of
the world. I made an Italian pasta salad, patterned after the one I
had and loved at Dan's parents house. Should've done something
Vietnamese but a salad was nice easy and quick. The highlight for
the kids was probably the fire truck. Ronin loved it!!! He loves
trucks and trains so he was very excited to see it. He wasn't sure
how to feel when his daddy put him up on the front bumper of the
truck but otherwise loved the water spraying like his sissies. He
calls his sisters sissies. It is the cutest thing to hear him call
out “sissy, sissy, sissies, w' are you??” Just the perfect name
for them, literally.
We also kicked off Summer with a Slip and Slide
party at some friend's yard. They had a pretty sweet set up and the
kids had a blast. There were also quite a few pregnant ladies for me
to chit chat with. It is fun to have preggos around to talk about
topics like childbirth, nursing, feeling tired. All wonderful
things:)
And because we love people so much, we had friends
who were normally too busy with school and kids events during the
school year over for dinner where they tried my famous Mexican
lasagna dish
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End of school meant end of swimming as well. The
girls wanted a break since the summer is all about swimming camps and
we did that before and they didn't like it because it is every day
for a week at a time. So we wrapped up swimming class.
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We also wrapped up violin lessons at Plateau music
studio as well. The girls are now taking private lessons at our
house. It's so nice not to wrap up everyone for just a short lesson.
They now get a 45 minute lesson, which is 15 minutes longer than
they had at Plateau Music. They also get some piano lessons from me
as well as their music teacher.
A friend of mine, the one in stripes, and her
husband got a job offer in Utah and they decided to take it so we had
a girls night out farewell at the Ram for her. It's always so sad
when people leave but they'll be in a much better position to pay for
all the medical school debts and still live nicely. Seattle is
expensive.
Love this sign we saw at the restaurant
Our first adventure out for Summer was to a local
place we've already been to, well sort of. We discovered the alley
of Pike Place and saw a bunch of people lining up for the best food
at Pike Place. I don't know how we missed this before. We also went
under Pike Place and found the nasty germy famous GUM WALLS!!! It
was all sorts of ewww… and of course we bought our own gum to add
to it. Walls and walls of gums. It was disgusting but the kids
loved it. I couldn't wait to get us out of there because it felt so
dirty. Ronin was of course securely strapped in his stroller. Can
you imagine what he would do if he wasn't in his stroller? Yuck!
Then we discovered a fun water fountain and the
kids played in that for an hour. We bought daddy his father's day
gift and set off for home
We celebrated Father's day with gift and dinner at
Pallino. Dan is a wonderful father and he adds so much fun to our
family. He is witty and clever with his humor. The kids are picking
it up and it brings him joy hearing himself when the kids talk. He
is a babe to me who is pregnant and moody at times. He has to write
me love notes on occasions to remind of his love for me. I love this
one specifically: “You are passionate about our family, about our
kids, and about me. You are always looking to make everything
better, make things fun, and give our family great experiences.
I love that about you. You want us all to be better than what
we are and I appreciate that. That makes you all the better
looking, and you start out as really good looking to begin with.”
Another note he wrote to me when I was feeling a bit down: “You
were cute last night. Years ago I was in tears because I
thought I'd never have a baby. Nine years later and we're
having our fourth, and this one we didn't even try or even have to
wait. I know you want this kid, too, but I should be doing more
to help you know that I still love you and find you attractive
regardless of what the baby is doing to your body. You're going
through a real sacrifice and I should be there for you in every
way.”. These are a bit personal but they show how loving of a man
he is. He and I are so different, in many many ways but opposites
attract even stronger. We are passionate about each other and that
has always been the case, even while we dated and I was unsure about
marriage. He's made me realize how much I truly love him and being
with him is joy. He shared his mission stories with me about how he
was with companions of other backgrounds and experiences and they
have lots of wonderful adventures and stories and he doesn't seem to
have as many. But when he married me, he married the chance to have
experiences that are a bit of a novelty.
He has many stories to tell now, especially after
joining my family and going to Vietnam and we are having many great
adventures together. He is the big push for experiencing life in
Vietnam (I'm still unsure). I like that he is adventurous, a changed
man for good and a religious God fearing man. I like that I can
bring some spice to add to it.
Like I mentioned earlier, my conversion into
Mormonism was a big sacrifice in many ways. Being a Mormon is tough,
but it's rewarding. One thing Dan often laughs about sometime is how
his convert of a Mormon wife has regular tea time with her non member
friends. Yes, I want my non member friends to know we're not all
that strange. We can have tea, as long as it's herbal. I found this
wonderful new tea when my aunt and I were shopping at the Mall. It
is so tasty!! Dan will never understand. Of course it's not the tea
so much for me, it's the company that I love.
Some other Summer activities we did this summer
were pottery painting, raspberry picking, and picnicking with friends
WILD WAVES
Wild waves was so wild. I'm getting tired of
writing but the basic story and lesson to be learned here is, never
go to a water theme park on a really hot day, especially a Saturday.
Everyone had the same idea and oh my gosh the lines were insanely
ridiculous!!! We stood in line for an hour just to try to get in.
We went with our friends the Strobells. We tried to entertain
ourselves and our kids by taking selfies, etc...but after an hour and
not making much significant progress the Strobells decided to hit the
beach instead. They persuaded us to do the same. Dan jumped on the
wagon right away because he hates crowd. I hesitated but after they
talked some senses into me, I also left.
We hit the Gene Coulin Memorial beach about 20
minutes from home, about 15 minutes away from the theme park. The
kids had so much fun swimming and playing with sand. They got a bit
carried away playing with the sand. Ronin loved it!!!
We had a whole day in the sun, got the kids to bed,
got a baby sitter and ended the day with THE MELTING POT, one of my
favorite places to eat with the Strobells. Debrie did gymnastics
class and we took off for Wild Waves on a Tuesday
We had a lot of fun and Wild Waves was a much
needed entertainment. There were way too many bikinis and a lot of
lessons taught to the kids about how we don't wear bikinis. Ronin
looked like such a big boy riding on the kiddie rides by himself. I
was very nervous watching him, espcially on the Safari ride where he
wasn't visible to me for a good section, but he did fine, occupied in
interest of the the vehicle holding him. Everyone got more tan after
being in the sun for 8 hours. I was careless and thought I didn't
need much sun block and got burnt! A tan followed but I'm ok.
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