Gung Hay Fa Choy – Happy Year of the Dragon!

We have TONS to post about. Now Momma B just needs to find the time to do it!

We met them at Balboa Beach. It was a ton of fun!

James played Frisbee and badminton with the boys for a while. Well, you cannot actually play the game with them – rather you just hit the ball, they scream with delight, and then you have to go pick the ball back up and hit it again. James was a good sport:

Steph’s Mom (my Aunt Cindy) and sister Stacey were there when we first got there. It was fun to get caught up on the whole family:

We couldn’t wait to start the campfire though. It was fun to sit around, chat, watch the boys’ delight in such simplicity (hot dogs and fire), and enjoy a little bit of nature.

The boys treated us to an original song:

Thanks Steph and James! We had a glorious time!

I have missed blogging as much as you have missed reading our blog. Or maybe it’s a little more for me.

I am glad though for the perspective I have been given by not being on the computer each morning. Last week, for example, I sat on the couch deeply consumed by a book. At one point I looked up and found myself staring at Will, who had crawled out of bed to find me reading. I asked if he wanted to snuggle with me and he did. First though he ran and grabbed his own book. We sat on the couch, the two of us immersed in our reading, until his belly reminded him of other things.

That same week I found myself at the table, sipping my chocolate Instant Breakfast, and flipping through a catalog for classes at the church Eric and I have been going through. With typical Walker pizazz, the bedroom door slammed open and he appeared. Still groggy, with tousled blond hair he waddled into the hall. And then, a miracle. Saying nothing to me, in fact barely acknowledging my presence, he shuffled down the hall and into the bathroom. He closed the door and proceeded to do his thing. All by himself. No urging or direction from me. As he walked down the hall back towards me, ready for his morning cuddles, I could not have been more proud. It also made me keenly aware that his is growing up. So while I held him, nestled up close to me as if he were two weeks old, my heart rejoiced that I still have moments like this. It will not be long before cuddling with me will be old news.

So my blogger friends, it is with this post that I say we are back! Our weeks, like yours, have been full and exciting. I cannot wait to post pictures of our Balboa trip, bike rides, the Zoo trip, Spring celebrations, gluten-free healthy Easter food, and all of the other random pictures I took knowing that I wanted to blog about them. Those will have to wait just a little bit longer…I can hear the boys out of their beds and the best part of my morning is about to begin.

Watch for a new post over the weekend – maybe even more than one!

Thanks for reading! We sure love you.

One of the best parts was watching Walker ride the train. He is in a phase where trains are his sun, moon and stars. My Dad took some great shots of him on the train, as well as the parade, so I’ll have to post those when I can get a hold of them!!

Here are some of ours:

Walker’s not sure about the dancing dragons:

Will was most enthused by
the confetti and spent the majority of his time
watching it get thrown and then picking it off the ground
to throw it again:

One of the best parts of the parade, as is always the case, was the people watching. This cute man was standing near us with his wife. He was thrilled to greet anyone and everyone on the floats as they came by…but it was a special delight when any of the Chinese New Year royalty came by on their floats. You’ll have to turn your head sideways to watch it, but this is what he’d do:

The parade website said that the parade would go from 2:00pm – 5:oopm. I thought there was no way it would go that long, or that they were marking time from the start at one place and the finish…boy was I wrong! At about 4:00pm we decided to walk around Chinatown. It was fun to see ALL of the people out for a good time.

We decided to forgo trying to get Chinese food IN Chinatown given the crowds. In the end we trekked back to the train station and rode back towards G-town.

In what seemed to be a strange move we decided to celebrate the Chinese New Year at a Mexican restaurant! (Chinese food is hard to find gluten-free!)

The boys were famished and exhausted….a great day was had by all! I’m still hoping that next year we can celebrate the real deal

The Gregorian New Year may have come and gone but that doesn’t mean that our house is done celebrating the New Year!

Ever since having lived in Hong Kong Daddy Eric believes he is a little bit Chinese. In fact in Chinese culture they call him an ‘egg‘. White on the outside but yellow on the inside.

So each year since we’ve been married (that’s almost eight for anyone counting!!) we’ve celebrated the lunar New Year in the tradition of the Chinese. Some years we had parties and other years we celebrated by going to (now closed, sniff, sniff) Kuong Jou Cafe in Salt Lake.

This year we are keeping our tradition by going to the Chinese New Year’s parade on Saturday in Chinatown and having a Chinese New Year’s party!

(I made the invitations so I am pretty excited! Here is a web friendly version without our contact info. A gold Chinese coin is going in the upper right hand part with all of the leaves!)

We even went to Chinatown last Sunday to get some of the goodies we need. Plus Eric really wanted to get some Gai Mei Bao.

We also got the boys these cute outfits for both the parade and our party:

Finally, on the official start of the Year of the Rat, lunar year 4706, we gave the boys their lai shi. We taught them how to say ‘Gung Hay Fat Choy’ and to also ask for their lai shi. This is a Chinese tradition where the married people give red envelopes with an even amount of money inside. When you are hardcore you usually give hundreds of dollars – for the boys it was a dollar. Here they are with their lai shi: