Pictorial Update

A quick pictorial update as to what we have been up to......

A day at the park

Daddy getting Riley started early on his workout regimen

Wrestling Daddy's hat from him

Helping Daddy bring in the groceries

Riley's stage

Opening his Valentine's Day presents from Auntie Jamie

Going for a walk and a train ride at the park (can you tell we love to go to the park?)

Watching Chinese movies with Paw Paw

The Past Couple of Months

I know I know, it's about time there's a new post. The past couple of months have been crazy with the holidays and moving thus the lack of a new post. This is going to be a doozy of a blog entry since I've got to pack everything from the past couple of months into one blog entry! Since there are so many pictures I decided to upload them all into Kodak Gallery and just write here in the blog. The slideshow goes along with the blog.

Click here for the link to the pictures.

So here goes....

November: Riley got some tickets to Legoland for his birthday so we wanted to make use of them before we left LA. He was a little young for most of the rides but he had a great time walking around the miniature cities and riding on the choo choo train with daddy. Thank you Laura and Charlene....we had a great time and wish we could have arranged it so we could have all gone together!

We finally had a chance to get together with Christian, Joana, and Kierstin. We've been trying to plan something for awhile now but with their schedule and our schedule it has been difficult. Their house is a child's dream....we thought Riley had a lot of toys but there is no comparison......Riley had such a great time there and loved playing with Kierstin.

Before we left LA I wanted to do one last big baking event to say "thank you" to everyone at City of Hope and in Ben's lab. So I spent a weekend making a whole bunch of yummy things. I usually only do this large scale of baking during Christmas and since I was going to miss out on that this year I was happy I got to do it for this! I really do love baking and find that it's a great way to relax. Plus there is nothing more that I love than to make cute, pretty, little desserts!!!

Ben's mom came down for a visit the weekend before Thanksgiving. We ate, relaxed, took a walk at the Arboretum, ate some more, and had a nice visit.

Since we had a lot of packing to do and there were going to be a couple of days at the end when we would have an empty place, we decided to leave Riley at my parents starting after Thanksgiving. Before we left for Fremont, we had a farewell party for Riley at Chuck E Cheese with all of our friends. We had a great time munching on pizza and beer and watching the kids play. Riley has really come to love my co-workers at City of Hope (he visited there often and loved always having a pair of arms to go to) and he is really going to miss everyone. We'll see all of you this summer when we come to visit and are expecting you guys to do a roadtrip to see us in Houston.

We packed everything Riley would need for the next month and drove up north on Thanksgiving. We went to Dre and Suzy's first to meet Langdon for the first time. He is such a good baby and too adorable. Zen was taking a nap so we didn't get a chance to play but we'll make up for it this summer! Next, we headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house for Thanksgiving with my family. It was a typical holiday....lots of people, lots of food, and lots of attention for Riley. Riley adored it! I don't think he ever stopped eating all day.

We also got to meet Rhys (Whit and Joyce's little boy) for the first time that weekend. He is the cutest baby and holding him brought back so many memories of Riley as a baby. Leah, Dan, and Gabe met us at Joyce's house and we had a nice little reunion....too bad Michelle and Yolanda and their families couldn't be there too. It's sad that we've all moved so far away from each other (now that we've left CA we are all in different states for the first time) and now that we all have kids it is even harder for us to arrange a time when we can all get together.

Ben and I left on Saturday back to LA for our last week in Alhambra. Although the movers were going to pack up everything in our house we had to sort through everything and decide what was trash (we ended up filling all of the dumpsters in the complex) and what was going with us to the apartment and what was going in storage. I hate moving, and to know that we're going to have to move again in a couple of months is torture.

December: I have always been really lucky and I have loved everywhere I have worked. I was really sad to have to leave City of Hope. I had a great job there and I loved the people I worked with. I made so many good friends that I know I will keep in touch with no matter where I am. I promised myself I wouldn't cry when I left but they all made it impossible not to. The department threw me a farewell party at Caffe Opera and made me a great scrapbook with notes and pictures of everyone! I know how busy everyone is and for everyone (especially all of the surgeons!) to take time out of their busy schedules to go to dinner was incrediable! I'll miss everyone there.

That Friday we left Alhambra and LA for good and drove up North to my parents' house and back to Riley. I always hate leaving him but I know how much he loves being with my parents and sisters so that always makes it easier. Not to mention that my sisters are great about sending us pictures and videos of him so we know what he's doing! For the next couple of weeks we hung out, did a lot of Xmas shopping, and tried to see all the people we wanted to see before we left.

Before Ben left for Texas, we went to visit Scott, Barbara, Matteo, and Sophia in Menlo Park. We had a great time at the park and they made us a wonderful dinner of homemade pizza...yum yum!

After Ben got back from Texas, we had dinner with Matthew and Rebecca in Berkeley. I'm so glad that we got a chance to see them before we left. I still can't believe that Matt has graduated college and Rebecca is in college and leaving for a semester abroad in Rome.....I still remember picking up Matt and Rebecca from karate class and going to all of Rebecca's elementary school recitals. Man, we're getting old!

We then made a trip to Santa Rosa. We saw Ben's dad's new place and had a great visit. It unfortunately rained all day but Riley had a blast running all over the house and we had a nice cozy dinner at home. The next day we went to visit Ben's mom and saw her new place which is coming along really nicely. We took a walk in a really cool neighborhood with lots of old houses and then went for a nice lunch. Riley loved the giant bear statue in front of the restaurant that he could sit on!

We went to Sacramento for a weekend and had brunch with Bubba and Ray and then headed over to see Dan, Leah, and Gabe. Of course the weekend we choose to go it was raining so we ended up staying in the house all day (well, except for our little trip to Leatherby's....I couldn't be in the same area as Leatherby's and not go!). We had a great time and Riley had so much fun playing with Gabe. Leah made us a yummy dinner and we had a great time just hanging out and talking.......it was like college all over again except we had two extra "little" roommates!! The next morning before we left we went to breakfast and had a nice trip down a one-way street before we left for home.

After all of our traveling and visiting it was time for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Every Christmas Eve our cousins Shirley and Linda come over and my mom makes yummy eggrolls, ribs, crab, and other assorted dishes. Ben and Jamie have decided that next year they are going to forgo eating anything else and will instead have an eggroll eating contest to see who can eat the most eggrolls. Should be interesting. We always do our family gifts at midnight on Christmas Eve but since Riley had to go to bed at a decent hour we decided to bump things up a little earlier. As you can see by the pictures we were once again spoiled.....especially Riley! We had to buy another piece of luggage just so we could bring all of his gifts home.

For Christmas we headed over to Elk Grove to Diana's house and had Christmas with all of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was a food and present fest and we all had a great time.

Shirley and Linda took us out for a farewell dinner the day after Christmas, and since we weren't going to be in California for Chinese New Year this year (at the end of January), my grandma wanted to have a big family dinner with EVERYONE before we left. So they all headed out to our house that Saturday and we had a big family dinner at Uncle Chong's.

Our final trip to see people was to Stockton to see Dre and Suzy. Unfortunately Riley and I got sick and since we didn't want to get Zen or Langdon sick only Ben was able to go. We would have really liked to be able to go and see them and hang out but we just didn't want to risk it.

After all of our visiting and eating we spent all of Monday packing and getting ready for our trip to Houston. My parents and Cindy dropped us off at the airport and after a few tears and hugs it was just Ben, Riley, and I. Riley was great on the plane. We had plenty of toys, snacks, and distractions (thanks Leah for all those toys they came in handy!). The only thing that sucked that whole plane ride was that Riley had been sleeping for about 45 minutes when the person sitting in the row with us had to go to the bathroom. We didn't want to tell him, "sorry buddy but he's sleeping you'll just have to hold it" so we attempted to get up without waking Riley.......didn't work! Thankfully we only had 30 more minutes before we landed. Our first night was pretty uneventful. The next day was stock up day.....with a long list we headed out to Costco and then to Super Target. We made it through Costco without a hitch and after Riley's nap we headed for Target. As we were going to Target we were stopped at a really busy intersection. The light turned green so Ben started to go. Luckily, Ben noticed a biker running a red light and stopped in time to avoid hitting him. Unluckily, the car next to us was already going and couldn't see the biker and hit him. We stopped, called 911, talked to the driver of the car, and waited until the police arrive before we left. We felt so bad for the driver of the car. We're still not quite sure what the biker was thinking. It wasn't even like he was hurrying and trying to make a yellow light. He looked like he was out on a leisurely stroll on his bike on a park trail......very weird. What a way to welcome us to Houston!

Our first visitor in Houston: Ben's dad had a 8 hour layover in Houston on his way to Antartica and Peru so we were able to visit with him and have dinner at the House of Pies before the next leg of his trip.

We're all settled now, although we still have some boxes to go through. While Ben works all day, Riley and I have been getting to know the city. We spend a lot of time at Hermann Park across the street from our apartment. It's a huge park and has a zoo, golf course, japanese garden, another garden center, museum of natural science, playground, mini train, lake, and so forth. There is a reflection pool that goes from a statue of Sam Houston to the lake that Riley loves to walk up and down. What a normal person can walk in less than 5 minutes can take us up to 45 minutes. Riley loves to stop, pick up some rocks or leaves, throw some things in the pool, play around in the dirt, stop and dance a little, quack at the ducks, and so on. There's also a great playground that has several different playgrounds for different ages and they have a great area for toddlers. We've also visited the Children's Museum and can't wait until March when they unveal the new Toddler Zone! We've become members of both Children's Museum and the Zoo so we'll be visiting both places quite often in the future.

Sorry for such a long blog but I wanted to get everything down so we wouldn't forget what we did for the past couple of months!!! More to come later........

Walk for Hope

This Sunday was the annual City of Hope Walk for Hope to support breast cancer and Ben, Riley, and I joined the other thousands of walkers/runners to support the cause. What is interesting about this event is that three years ago I walked this walk with Sylvia and her friend and had a long discussion about all of my miscarriages. It was this friend that told me about her story and how she went to see an accupuncturist when she was having similar problems. She sent me the name of her accupuncturist, I made an appointment, and saw him throughout my pregnancy and one year later we were at the same walk walking with Riley. We still have no idea why this last pregnancy worked and the many others didn't but the only thing we really did differently was the accupuncture sessions. This is Riley's second walk and he had a blast. He loves to break out in dance when he hears music and he had a great time dancing in the street at the walk. We tried to get a video of him but everytime he saw us try to take a video he would stop and run over to try to grab the video...thus no video.

I have no idea what is going on......

Dancing with mommy before the walk

Walking to the Start line

Riley and his medal

Halloween 2008

Our cute kangaroo........

Pumpkin Patch Time!

We took Riley to his first pumpkin patch today to pick out a pumpkin for Halloween. We went to Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in West Hollywood. It's the popular pumpkin patch around here but I must say I was a little disappointed. It just didn't live up to my expectations of what a pumpkin patch should be, of course I may be a little jaded since when I was young every year my parents would take my sisters and I to the huge pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay. The place was huge...there were pony rides, a train, a huge halloween gift shop/gallery and so many pumpkins it took forever just to walk around the place. In comparison, Mr. Bones was much smaller (of course that is to be expected since it was smack dab in the middle of West Hollywood on some prime real estate!). And because so many stars frequent this pumpkin patch you actually have to pay an entrance fee into the patch; however, if you buy a pumpkin you can use the fee amount towards the cost of the pumpkin. In the end we had a great time and bought three little pumpkins!

A quick ride on their "pony"

Checking out the pumpkins with mommy and daddy

A ride in the cart

Our Return to San Luis Obispo

This past weekend was the annual NICU reunion at the hospital where Riley was born. Since we weren't sure when we would be able to make it back for another one of these we decided to go this year. Dan, Leah, and Gabe joined us for the fun-filled weekend. We arrived in SLO on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, we woke up bright and early, went over to Pismo beach for some yummy cinnamon rolls and then headed over to the beach for some sand time. We then went back to the hotel, cleaned off the kids, and then headed over to the park for the reunion. We weren't sure what to expect but there were a lot more people than what we were expecting. We had a nice lunch, played a little, watched Leah fly a kite, had a wrestling match and then called it a day. Since the hotel we were staying at had a manager's special happy hour from 5:30 to 7:30 pm where the guys could get all the free beer they could drink we decided to go to an early dinner so we would be back in time to partake in the happy hour. We headed to McClintock's and had some great steaks. Then it was back to the hotel for some happy hour. On Sunday, we woke up, had some breakfast, then packed up the cars and checked out of the hotel. We then headed over to Morro Bay for some more fun at the beach and then a yummy lunch of fish and chips and clam chowder. After lunch, we headed back to the cars, said our good-byes and then headed back home. We really had a great time and loved being able to spend the weekend with the Aramigans. It was like the good ol' days when Leah and I were roommates and we were all always at the apartment together, well except now there was Gabe and Riley. Even though we are leaving for Houston we will definately have to find ways to do this more often. Click here for pictures of the trip. Below is a clip of some of the wrestling that was taking place at the reunion!

An Update

It's been awhile since we've last posted a blog entry and we thought it was time to do a little catching up. Here's a little of what we've been up to since the last blog entry.....

Tahoe or Bust.......
After stopping off in Stockton for Suzy's baby shower (since that time, Dre and Suzy have welcomed in their new little boy - Langdon), we headed up to Lake Tahoe for a family vacation with all of my family. We were celebrating my grandparents' 80th birthdays (their 80th birthdays were actually last year but because of Riley's early arrival we had to postpone that trip). We rented a large cabin in South Lake Tahoe and hung out for 3 nights. We had a great time and Riley was once again the center of attention. We found this great cabin online called Echo Creek Mountain Ranch and it was the perfect size for our family. Here are some pictures from our trip to Tahoe.

It's official....

We're moving to Houston, Texas. Yes even after Hurricane Ike! After spending the better half of this year interviewing far and wide, Ben has decided that Baylor Medical School is the place for him. We'll be packing up and heading out to Texas at the end of this year and Ben will start his academic position at the beginning of January. I still can't believe that this point in our lives is finally happening.......I thought Ben was never going to finish school! It's definately bittersweet. We're both really happy about the opportunity at Baylor but it will be a new experience for both of us moving out of California and leaving all of our family and friends. We've started the process of getting things ready here for the big move. I'm going to take a couple of months off when we first move to Texas and get us all settled before looking for a new job.

Thank you...

to Cindy for coming down for a week to help us with Riley and getting things ready to get our house on the market. Ben finally had eye surgery to correct his strabismus and we were lucky enough that his surgery coincided with Cindy's visit. The day of Ben's surgery was horrible and if Cindy wasn't here I'm not sure what we would have done. I woke up the day of Ben's surgery incrediably ill and had a fever and all the symptoms of the flu. Ben's surgery ended up running late and I had to wait over 4 hours until he was discharged. I don't even want to imagine what it would have been like sitting in the waiting room and the recovery room with Riley for 4 hours. Ben was a trooper and even though he was still seeing double he wanted to take advantage of having Cindy here so they painted the garage, painted all of the closet doors, and did touch up painting in all of the rooms. They got a lot of work done that week.

Labor Day....

Jamie came for a visit over Labor Day weekend and we had a great picnic at Griffith Park. Riley had a blast eating the turkey out of my sandwhich and playing with the cooler. Quentin and DiDi were also in town that weekend and they came over for a visit and brought along their little dog, Mushu. Riley was very intrigued by Mushu. We of course went to shabu shabu and ate like pigs! We had a great time and loved seeing everyone.

Riley at the park

Vist with Quentin, DiDi, and Mushu

LA County Fair....

We had to be out of our house today because people were coming by to look at the house so we decided to head over to the LA County Fair. Riley had a great time eating, watching people, looking at the animals, and riding the tram back to our car. Ben and I couldn't believe how expensive everything was and couldn't imagine what it would cost to take a family of four to the fair (especially when the kids want to play all of the games and go on all of the rides). Here's a breakdown of what we spent.......

Parking ($10) + Tickets ($34) + Coke ($5) + Beer ($9) + Sausage ($9) + Coke ($5) + Chips ($8) + Ice Cream Bar ($4) + Water ($3.50) = 4 hours of fun ($87.50)