Welcome Craig, our newest brother-in-law. As I mentioned earlier, Rebecca's wedding took us to Utah this Christmas. What a trip. It was so much fun to see so many family members and friends. Too many people to see and the week just wasn't long enough. I wish we could have stayed even longer. I guess the 2 days we had to spend driving to and from Vegas made the actual time in Utah only 5 days. But I can't complain. We were going to drive the whole way until Dan, the master of deals, came across some awesome tickets at Allegiant Air for $29.00 one way. You get what you pay for, but it didn't seem to shabby of an airline to me. Guess they are trying to pull people into Vegas for gambling but it is a direct flight out of our little Rochester Airport. So nice that we didn't have to drive all the way up to the cities. All you MN folk ought to try them out if you are headed out West.
The wedding was so beautiful. It was so nice to have the whole family together with all 9 nieces and nephews. I was hoping Mikey would have more time to spend with his cousins but it didn't quite work out like I anticipated. He still had a ton of fun. The first night they
were all together the 4 oldest cousins came in and introduced themselves and then went away to play. We were getting setteled in, changing diapers and stuff and I didn't realize Mikey was still in the room with all the Aunts and Uncles. He's a bit shy and it always takes him a while to warm up to new people. A few minutes later Mikey kept asking me a question. I just couldn't figure out what he was asking for. I thought he was asking for some toy or something. Turns out he was asking me "Where are my cousins?" I realized I've never heard him say "cousins" before. So cute to meet everyone see their unique personalities.
Dan and I took a day to go skiing while we were out there too. So much fun. I am such a whimp these days though. Must be a combination of me getting older, having 2 kids to worry about, and having a baby 4 months ago. I just wasn't as daring as I was 4 years ago when I went with Dan (he took me sking the day he proposed). I felt like such a chicken this time and after going down 2 blue/intermediate runs with Dan I was beat. I was so glad Dan's friend and his wife came along so he could get in some "real" sking. I so ready to get back on the green slopes with my brother, sister and brother-in-law who were all sking for the first time. It ended up being a really fun day. I was so sore the next day though. I must have been gripping the poles all day because my whole body was so sore. Man, my years are catching up to me. Well, here's some proof of our adventures. 
Back from our trip to Utah for my sister's wedding and so much to write about. First off, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! Our Christmas was so eventful and exciting and busy. Here are the boys wishing you a Merry Christmas in their Sunday best.
We did't get a card out this year so these pictures will have to suffice. We took them right before Christmas and I printed them just in time for a surprise gift for Dan. They turned out so serious. Couldn't get a real smile out of either one. Michael was too fascinated with the studio set up, lights and equipment.
We've been home a few days and have just crashed. I think that is a good sign that we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Utah via Las Vegas. Mikey was down at 6pm tonight and Davey asleep about a half hour later. I thought I'd have a nice quiet Sunday evening, but now (2 hrs later) both are awake again. My plans for a quiet night are shot but maybe I can still get a quick post up.
Christmas was celebrated a few days early before our flight out on Christmas Eve. Among many gifts, Mikey's new ballpit/jumper and train tracks were the main highlights.
So I'm a little late posting this, but how can I leave out Halloween? The weather this year was just perfect and I almost thought Michael's costume would be too hot. I never imagined that would happen. We wore light jackets and it was so nice. Mikey got the hang of trick-or-treating right away. After each door Michael would say, "Another house?" and get so excited he could run to the next one. He had so much fun and wanted to go again the next day. I had to explain to him that it only happens one night a year.
David was so cute dressed up in the little pea in the pod costume. He sat in the stroller the whole time, took a nap and only got a little fussy at the end when he was hungry. Mikey was a rat- Remy from movie Ratatouille if you have seen it. I came across the costume and thought, how can I make a rat cute? Then I remembered Remy, so Mikey was a rat of all things. I found some tall chef's hat at our local restaurant supply store so Dan and I wore those around. I don't think anyone got the connection, but we had fun.
Out trick-or-treating.
David kept pulling off the peas.
At the beginning of October we took a trip to Sekapp Orchard; about a 10 minute drive from our home. We had to get out to see the pumpkin patch, apple trees, and enjoy the little activities they have set up for kids. Fall has been so beautiful here and I can't believe it's snowed twice already. All the leaves are almost off the trees and I've yet to post one fall picture (although we've taken a ton). David slept through the whole orchard trip, Mikey wandered around the pumpkin patch, hay, and other stuff while we tried to get him to smile, Dan took a ton of pictures, and we left after trying a few of the apple samples. Yum.
Mikey and the little pumpkins. I was trying to get him to show his teeth and look at the camera. The crazy face in the middle picture is him showing off his gum instead. Yes, our 2 year old is a pro at gum chewing.
The big Sekapp apple and Mikey sitting in the mini-haystack maze.
Davey sound asleep.
Daddy and Mikey.
Mikey in the pumpkin patch.
I liked this one of the apple and ladybug.
Happy birthday to the most wonderful man in the world- Daddy! Thanks for being such an amazing father, husband, and best friend. We love you!
Early delivery! Baby was born August 26th.
Name: David Michael Chan.
Born: 8:03am
7 lbs. 15 oz.
20" long
Pictures to come later since I can't get them off the card here at the hospital. We are all doing great. Just wanted to share the happy news.
I had contractions for a few hours last night and we thought we were in for it. However, by 1pm they stopped. I thought for sure I'd wake up again for a trip to the hospital, but no. I'm still alive and waiting. Had a doctor's appointment today. The baby's head is really low, but that's about it. I've had all this pressure on my inner thigh- "That's the baby's head," said the doctor. Great. Never experienced that with Michael. She thinks once labor starts it'll go quickly so it's just a matter of beginning. She stripped the membranes a bit and then scheduled an induction date for September 10th (letting me know she didn't want to schedule it for 9/11- too much superstition). All I have to say is he better be outta me by then. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Dan has a quiz he's preparing for to be taken this Friday. He told me Friday night would be a perfect time for labor. Yeah, let me just put that on my calendar.
How do you know when you're out of the big city? When you go to the local county fair located 5 minutes away. It just sounds like something out of a novel or movie to me. We went last night and had a blast. Loved the small town atmosphere, little vendors, and all the animals- cows, cows, and more cows, belgian horses (these were huge show horses and just beautiful), goats, sheep, rabbits, llamas, pigs, pigeons, and chickens. It was the first time Dan or I had ever seen the livestock competitions (well, that I can remember anyhow). It was neat to watch the judge silently walk around and measure the sheep and point to those that won. Then she would explain why she chose certain ones to win. Really interesting and personal as there was only like a crowd of 30 or so sitting watching. So, we sampled some yummy food, watched a few competitions, and played some carni games. What a night. We took way too many pictures. I was just going to post up a few of the highlights, but as I got to choosing a few, I ended up with just too many. Thought I might as well do a slide show again. The above picture is Mikey dancing on top of the car trunk right before we headed home. He was so excited the whole night. What a nut.
Summer camping. How wonderful. One of our favorite things to do together as a family. Once Dan returned from China we were all set on going but it was just getting hotter and hotter outside. We were thinking we might not get a chance for camping during his remaining 3 weeks of break. However, on the last day of June there was a slight turn of the weather -night temperatures were forecast to be in the low 50s- so we packed up our little car and headed out for a night. Decided to head to Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park (which is about 45 miles south of Rochester). We found a nice little, secluded campsite and set up camp, then headed out to experience the Mystery Cave catching the last tour of the evening. The cave was, well, a cave. Interesting things to see, but not super impressively huge like other caves I've been to. Formation after formation and very educational. Seemed like something in a quaint, little town.. Which it was. We only saw a portion of the cave- it supposedly is one of the bigger ones out there but seen mostly through spelunking I suppose. Our little one hour tour was nice with only about 6 others in our group and a paved walkway for the stroller. Great for us and our little 2 year old. Dan took a million pictures so if you want to virtually walk through the tour (I think he got every inch covered) let me know and I'll hook you up with all the pictures. Otherwise a few of the highlights of the cave are featured in the slideshow below.
That evening we had a few raccoons visits our campsite. At least we think they were raccoons. It wasn't the baby moving that kept me up, or the uncomfortable air mattress, it was these really strange grunting and wrestling noises coming from outside. Like all night long. Weird. Nothing of ours was ruined so I guess it's fine. Michael didn't hear them or see them but we told him about how they visited our campsite that night. A few nights later Dan told him a bedtime story about the raccoons. Now every night before he goes to bed he asks for Daddy to tell him the "raccoon story." Dan recounts the events of the camp out and makes the raccoon family very adventurous. Mikey loves it. When we went to the Minnesota Zoo a few weeks ago, I think his favorite exhibit was the raccoons. Ironic. Post more about the zoo adventure later. For now, enjoy the pictures below from our little camp out.
(Click on pictures to enlarge. For a full screen slideshow, after clicking on the picture, select the "Slideshow" text to the right of the picture -in Picasa under the "Download Photo"text).
What a fun July 4th this year. There are too many photos so I've put together a web album instead of uploading all of them on here (see below). We did some fireworks on the 3rd in our backyard to kick off the celebrations. Michael already knew what the big ones were from the Rochesterfest activity we went to on his birthday but had fun with the sparklers and little snakes. He has asked me several times since the fourth if we could go outside and do fireworks. When I was planting a few plants in the backyard the other day he went over to the side of the street where Dan and I had set them off. I looked up and saw him sitting on the curb by himself. Too cute. Rochester has fireworks over Silver Lake close to downtown. We rode our bikes to beat the traffic (it takes about 5-10 minutes) and were completely surprised at how many people were out. Had no idea so many people lived here in Rochester- we'll we've never seen that many people out since we've been here. It was a little crowed, but we found a nice spot to pull our our blanket, which rode with Michael in his bike tote and enjoy the fireworks. We came home, enjoyed some cake and did some of our own fireworks in the street to the back of our house. Michael kept saying, "more, more, more." He loved it. I think he's now finally forgotten about fireworks- but does mention them we we talk about camping and he thinks of the campfire. Calls the fire, fireworks now.
(Click on the pictures to enlarge)
I saw a recipe for this jello cake in our Rochester local newspaper and decided to make it for the 4th. I thought it seemed pretty festive being red and white and all and Michael loves blueberries so I thought I'd top it with that. Ended up putting on more strawberries than blueberries in the end (because the blueberries were still frozen). You can't see the inside, but it is swirled with jello. :) So in case you want to try it one day, I included the recipe in this post. This is also one cake that I have made that Dan really liked- it is super moist and nice for the hot summer months. I did find that it doesn't keep in the fridge very long so eat it within a day or two. I used raspberry soda instead of strawberry it called for and didn't put all of the topping on because it seemed like it was going to overflow the edges of my pan. Let me know if you ever make it!Strawberry Jello Cake
Ingredients:
*Box of yellow cake mix
*2 (3oz.) boxes of strawberry Jello
*1 can (12oz.) strawberry soda
*1 box (3oz.) instant vanilla pudding mix
*1 1/2 cups milk
*Carton of Cool Whip
Directions:
Cake- Mix up your yellow cake mixture and bake according to the directions on the box in a 9x13 cake pan. Let it cool 20 minutes and then poke holes into it with a knife to allow for all the liquid to work into the cake.
Take 2 small (3oz.) boxes of strawberry jello and mix with 1 1/2 cups of boiling water. Add a can of strawberry soda and pour over the cake.
Cake Topping- In a bowl, combine 1 box of instant vanilla pudding mix and add 1 1/2 cups of milk. Mix until thick. Fold in a medium carton of cool whip into the pudding mix. Spread over the cake and refrigerate at least 8 hours before serving.
(I didn't prepare enough ahead of time and we only refrigerated it for like 4 hrs and it was still great).
Happy Anniversary, Dan! 4 beautiful years we've shared together and I hope many, many more to come. Here we are on our wedding day 4 years ago.
We celebrated today by dinning at The Redwood Room in downtown Rochester. Nice romantic atmosphere with little candles and live music. It is so nice to be able to go out on a Wednesday night- Dan has off for a few weeks for summer vacation and it has been so nice to have him around, especially since he's now back from his 2 week trip to China. We had a beautiful day. I love you, Dan!
Okay, so now I can finish telling you a bit more about our little trip to Louisiana. For Stacey's graduation party we went to a really cool Cajun restaurant called Boutin's which had a live band and great food. We had alligator for an appetizer and I had fried crawfish with all these cool sides- check out the picture of my meal below. Awesome! The music was a great hit for Michael. He just wanted to dance and dance. There was little older couple sitting a few tables away from us who saw Mikey and the woman came up and offered if she could take Mikey out on the dance floor. Of course he was too shy and wouldn't leave my shoulder to go to her for even a second. At least he waved at her and said goodbye when we were leaving.
We stayed at the restaurant for several hours- it was really a fun place to spend the evening. They even had a deck out back that overlooked the water and you could buy food for feeding the turtles and goldfish. If you check out the slide show I posted yesterday you can see a few pictures of that and more of all the dancing and fun we had.
Michael is quite the character these days. He's got all these new faces that he does when posing for the camera and does all these funny faces with his eyebrows lifting and eyes looking around. It's just too much fun. He had a lot of fun playing with Grandpa and Uncle Norman one evening- it was just a crackup to watch him laugh and laugh and put on a show for everyone. He's been asking for Grandma, Grandpa, Norman, Stacey, Rebecca, Heather, and Julie ever since we've gotten home. On the flight home he called the girl next to us Stacey and at church he pointed out everyone else to me as well (whoever he thought was a look-a-like). Today he found the little notebook we drew pictures in for Dan while we were in Texas and he wanted to go out in the backyard and draw another picture on the little table with Grandpa. I had to remind him that the table and everyone else is still in Texas and we are now in Minnesota.
The pictures below are of Mikey looking at the balloon floating up above him and "smiling for the camera" as he ate the graduation cake. He loves sweets. Oh, and his newest thing is gum. I just have to shake my head at this. What one year old do you know who asks for gum everyday?
Below are a few more shots of our little character around LSU campus. It really is a pretty campus by-the-way, and has some of the most beautiful, huge oak trees and gardens. Mikey enjoyed exploring everything and posing with Stacey for most of her pictures and his own (sorry Stacey if he was too much in the way). He also loved climbing up and down the stairs at the graduation ceremony with Grandpa before the ceremony began.
We finished off our little trip with a nighttime sightseeing view of the Baton Rouge Temple. It is right in this beautiful neighborhood on a nice plot of land. I was amazed at how beautiful Baton Rouge was with all the older colonial style plots of land (I guess that is what you would them). Big big trees and beautiful landscapes. Very different from where I have been living lately.
Well, congratulations Stacey! I am so proud of you. Way to be my first sibling to get a B.S. and not a B.A. or B.M. Geaux Tigers, as you would say. I am glad we were able to be there to help in all the celebrations and see your cute house. Feel free to visit us in Minnesota anytime. And that goes for all of you readers. We love visitors. And did you know that Rochester was rated among one of the top 100 best places to live in the US? Dan found that out on the news the other night. :)
