3rd and 4th Tooth

Grace's third and fourth teeth took forever to come out!  It was pretty disturbing to see the teeth hanging on- it looked like she had buck teeth for a while since the teeth seemed to be sticking straight out.  One of her teachers at her afterschool program even tried bribing her with candy to get those teeth out.  Her new teeth were already coming in but it was like "pulling teeth" to get her to wiggle the loose ones. She freaked out every time Jason asked to see them, for fear that he'd just yank them out.  Thankfully, he finally did!

I Hate Goodbyes

I keep saying that we need to stop becoming friends with people who aren't from this area!  J/K, though joking aside, we've had to say a lot of goodbyes over the years! Our very good friends, De and Jed, moved back to Winnipeg a few months ago, and we sure do miss them!      

Our Family's New Toy

We didn't do any major remodeling to our house this year, but we did make a big purchase recently: a diving board!  When we bought the house years ago, we noticed that there was already a U-frame installed.   This was the first summer in which both of our kids enjoyed being in the pool.  We saw them both jump off our friends' diving boards and decided that it'd be a good addition to our backyard.  Since the U-frame was already installed, we had no choice but to get a 12 ft. board.  It has been so much fun watching Jason and the kids jump off.  The weather is much cooler now, but I look forward to a lot of fun times in the pool next summer!

First Days of School

It was a hard decision, but we decided it was time for Jeremy to start a new daycare this year.  We call it "school" just so he can feel like a "big boy."  I was extremely nervous about how he'd adjust to this change, and I can confidently say that he LOVES it.  He has made friends and really enjoys learning.  It is amazing to see and hear the things that he has learned in just a few short months! 

 Grace started 2nd grade this year.  We were a little apprehensive when we found out that she is in a 2/3 combo class, but in the first week alone, we were assured by different people who knew who her teacher was that she was in good hands.  Even though she's in a combo class, this is the best start she's had!  She has done really well and loves school.

Family

We often spend 3-4 weeks in Edmonton every summer.  It's pretty much the only time we can really see my family since that's when Jason and I have extended vacation time.  It's too hard to find time during the rest of the year.  Three weeks gives us enough time to do everything we want to do, meet with friends, relax, and spend time with family without feeling rushed.  We'll see what happens next year, since we're planning to take our first road trip to Edmonton next summer! 

Edmonton Eats

It has been so long since I've updated our blog... Anyone still reading this out there?!  Part of the reason why it has taken me a while is because I couldn't figure out exactly how to document about a very important part of our trip- our eats!  There are many things that I absolutely savor during my once-a-year trip to Edmonton.  It's not only because it tastes good, but they bring me back to my younger years.  I crave them even more since I don't get them in Fresno. 

Korean BBQ, Vietnamese Pho Ga (chicken), anything from Oodle Noodle, Vietnamese Pho

Vietnamese Banh Mi (subs), A&W Mozza Burgers (not available at any A&W I've been to in this area), Old Dutch ketchup chips (has to be Old Dutch!), and of course, boba tea!

We love going to A Taste of Edmonton whenever we're in town.  This year, we actually tried some Indian food (ok, so it was only butter chicken) and liked it!

Our favorite event in Edmonton during the summer is Heritage Days.  Over 65 cultural associations set up huge tents in one of Edmonton's largest parks, Hawrelak Park, to exhibit their cultures through food and performances.  We had a great time- in fact, we walked around for 5 hours sampling food and watching dance performances.  Oh, the diversity!  The most unique dish we tried this year was from Yemen- we had our first camel (tough and chewy)! 

Jason and I celebrated our 12th anniversary at The Blue Pear.  We treated ourselves to dinner at a gourmet fine dining restaurant.  The food was AMAZING!  I can't remember the names of everything, but it was certainly a treat!

One of these days, I should blog about my favorite Fresno eats to share with all my out-of-town friends!

Galaxyland

We had planned to go to Edmonton's annual summer fair, Capital Ex, with my parents, but when the day came, it was pouring outside!  It was the only day that my mom was able to join us due to her work schedule, so we decided not to let the weather cancel our plans.  Plan B was to go to West Edmonton Mall's indoor amusement park, Galaxyland.  Our kids wanted to go on rides, and it didn't matter if it was at the fair or the indoor amusement park (not only that, Jason does not enjoy going to fairs)!  This year, Jeremy was able to go on many more rides.  We had a wonderful time (and we stayed nice and dry)!

Edmonton Eskimos

The Edmonton Eskimos are Edmonton's professional football team.  They play in the Canadian Football League, and though there are many similarities between the CFL and NFL, there are also several notable differences.  Our friend, Binh, gave us her company's tickets to go see the Edmonton Eskimos play at Commonwealth Stadium.  The seats were fantastic- we were in row 5 at the 55 yard line!  Binh's husband, Neil, came with us, and we invited Sarah to come, too.  It was Jason's first professional football game and though it wasn't the NFL, he says he really enjoyed it (I was half-expecting that he'd sit there the whole night and complain about the "stupid" CFL rules).  The Eskimos ended up winning their 5th game in a row. What a fun experience it was!  

Swimming Lessons

One thing we've done every summer these past few years is enroll Grace in swimming.  It's something for us to do since most people are working while we're up there and our days are always free.  This year, we decided to try Edmonton's newest recreation center, Terwillegar.  It's a beautiful indoor facility with a huge pool (several pools, actually), full-sized skating rinks, several full-sized gyms, exercising gym, indoor playground, classrooms, etc.  This was the first year that Jeremy took lessons.  I woke up bright and early in March when online registration opened to register both kids so that the times would coincide and we wouldn't be stuck at the pool all morning.  At the time, Jeremy did not enjoy being in the water, so we enrolled him in Parent & Tot lessons.  Who would've thought that in just a few short months, Jeremy would overcome his fear of water?  He has loved going in the pool with Jason and Grace.  Unfortunately though, there was no more room in the other 3-year-old swim classes.  It was pretty funny to see this "huge" 3 year old in with the other babies.  Grace did wonderfully, and though she is usually shy and reserved around new people, she even made a friend on her first day (it's a small world- as it turns out, my sister actually knows that girl's family).  Both kids had an awesome swim experience this past summer!

Jurassic Forest

Every year that we've visited Edmonton, we've tried to do at least one new thing.  It allows us to have something to look forward to in addition to doing the "same old things." This year, we visited one of Edmonton's newest attractions.  In the middle of nowhere, about 20 minutes north of Edmonton is a place called Jurassic Forest.  It's a forest with walking trails in which you encounter life-sized, realistic-looking dinosaurs.  The dinosaurs are sensored so they move and roar when you come up to them.   Our kids really enjoyed it. 

 Di Dao took a week off work while we were there, so she was able to come explore with us.

 The kids were excited to finally see the T-Rex (of course, at the very end of the trails).

There was a play area for the kids to play at after we had our picnic lunch. 

July 24

Well, needless to say, we returned from Edmonton weeks ago, but it has been a whirlwind since I immediately threw myself into work to get ready for my new school year.  So, I'm now going to attempt to do some backtracking (mostly for my memory's sake)...

My laptop went through a lot and finally had to be reimaged.  It is now working as it should, however, I lost all of my web links and several programs in the process.  If there's one thing I learned, it is that I need to regularly backup my files.  My angst while everything was in limbo was due to the fear that I would lose months and months of valuable family pictures.  Thank goodness, the pictures are fine and they have since been backed up!

Okay, let's move on... by looking back!  It's going to take quite a few posts to catch up, but I guess I have to start somewhere!

My brother and sis-in-law drove up from Calgary to spend some time with us.  Our family went out to dinner at a wonderful restaurant called The Golden Rice Bowl.  It was a treat to enjoy Peking Duck!  We had to pre-order it to ensure that they would have it- basically, they prepare duck in 3 different ways: mu shu (which is like wrapping the duck meat in a Chinese-style tortilla), duck with rice, and soup.  SO GOOD!

On July 24, Jason competed in the Provincial Track Classic in nearby town, Sherwood Park.  Of course we went out to cheer him on!  This is likely his last track race- he has decided to take a break from it (for awhile?).  It wasn't his fastest race, but he came over the finish line first.  Unfortunately, this track meet does something called "age grading," which means they adjust times based on your age.  So even though Jason crossed the finish line first, he actually ended up in 2nd.  He earned 2 silver medals over 2 days of racing!  In addition, he broke the 200 m record and walked away with a "record breaker" t-shirt! 

Later that same day, we headed to my "nephew's" 2nd birthday party.  It was a huge bash- there were a lot of relatives in town due to a wedding the night before.  We had so much fun catching up with people who we haven't seen in ages.  It was an unexpected reunion!

Even though it was our 12th anniversary, it was such a busy day that we didn't celebrate until a few nights later.  My sister watched our kids so we could have an evening to ourselves.  Edmonton was in the middle of "Fork Fest," a festival in which local restaurants could showcase their menus at special prices.  After going through all of the menus, we decided on a restaurant called, The Blue Pear.  We enjoyed a fabulous meal!  We were able to reminisce and talk about our goals for the upcoming few years...  God has been faithful and has strengthened our marriage in these last few years.  I am so grateful for Jason and I love him more and more as each day passes.  I look forward to seeing what God has in store for us this upcoming year!  

AAAGGH!

AAAAGGGGH!  I have plenty to blog about and yet I haven't been able to because my laptop got a virus!  To make a long story short, it has been devastating- it wiped out all my picture files, my school files, my computer programs, my internet links, etc.  We took the laptop to the Geek Squad at Best Buy and they told us it'd cost close to $400 to backup the files that are recovered and to remove the virus.  My sister's friend kindly agreed to look at it for us and we just found out earlier today that there's not a whole lot he can do unless we had an external hard drive for him to back up the files...  Ours is, of course in Fresno.  So... nothing can be done to it until we return to Fresno.  That means I won't be able to blog or do any school work until next week.  AAAAGGGHHHHH!  I'm so upset!  :(