We made it!

We are FINALLY in beautiful Hawaii after some very interesting events!  We took off bright and early Friday morning with an uneventful flight to Denver.  We had a 2 hour stopover, just enough time for a quick lunch.  We boarded our next flight on time but ended up sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours before we were informed that our aircraft was unfit to make the journey to Honolulu.  So we had to deplane and board on another plane that they miraculously pulled out of a hat!  We re-boarded and took off within an hour, quite amazingly fast, if you ask me.  This whole event just added an additional 3 hours to our already long 14 hour trip.  Wait!  It doesn't end there.  2.5 hours into the flight, we were told that we had a situation on board.  A passenger did not have enough oxygen to sustain her to Hawaii so we had to backtrack to San Francisco!  Yup, we landed, dropped the teen and her family off and took off again all within an hour!  Quite amazing once again.  But since we had to backtrack to SF, this lttle detour added another 2 hours.  So by the time we made it to Hawaii, we had flown 19 hours and had been up for 24 hours.  Talk about being zooed!

Watch out... Here we come!

It's finally here, the night before the big departure for....

HAWAII!!!

I am off for 10 glorious days with my BFF... no kids, no husband!  I am almost giddy!

Alexia's Is growing up!

It was a big day today for Alexia.  In the morning, we took apart her toddler bed and introduced the big girl bed.  Nothing exciting for her as she has been in a big girl bed at the cottage for quite some time.  What was exciting was building the Ikea bed!  She loved using that little tool they give you to build almost everything!

Here she is hard at work.

And now showing us the final results.

Today was also Alexia's first day at school, her second year at pre-school.  She just loves going there and is thrilled to finally be back.  Hope you have a good year Alexia!

Gotcha Day Part 2

First order of the long weekend was to properly celebrate Alexia's Gotcha Day.  We were invited for dinner at our friends' cottage so we brought champagne for big people and non-alcoholic champagne for little eople.  And we celebrated!  We finally got our family picture taken so here it is!

This little girl really knows how to brighten up even the dullest of days!

And here's Gord with his last catch of the summer.  Good thing cuz we had nothing to eat!

Alexia's Gotcha Day and a Curve ball!

September 2nd, 2007.  Three years ago.  The day we became a family of four.  What can I say but that it was one of the best days of our lives!  This sweet little bunde of joy by the name of Guang Yun Xia joined our family.  Her big job was to make Cara-Li a Big Sister and that is exactly what she has done.  Alexia has brought much joy and liveliness into our house ( perhaps too much at times!) and has really kept us all on our toes!

Alexia, thank you for being you, for being a part of our family, for loving us all too death and best of all, for let us love you!  We love you, Xia Xia!

3 years ago - 2007

Today - 2010

Now here's the curve ball.  As every year, we always plan a very special dinner at a Chinese restaurant on this day.  And the Gotcha Girl gets to pick it.  Alexia picked the purple restaurant (you guess it, the restaurant is purple!).  And this is my favorite day of the year so I was in an extremely great mood that morning until...

I got a call from Cara-Li's school.  Aparently she had fallen in gym class and hurt her foot.  So I didn't ask too many questions.  I just rushed down there thinking that she had a sprain.  What I found out upon arrival was that the nurse actually thought it was broken.  I wasn't prepared to take her to the hospital as I had to return to work.  So I brought her with me and fed her while waiting for Dad to show up.  After spending app. 6 hours at the ER, Cara-Li arrived home with a cast!  They're not sure if it is broken but decided to err on the safe side.  So off we went to get her crutches and get her used to them before her return to school.  But, what a sport she was!  She still wanted to go out for dinner to celebrate her sister's Gotcha Day.  What a great gal!  And this eevnt will explain the lack of family pictures on Alexia's big day.  Will make it up to her somehow.