California 09 - Tristan Red Egg & Ginger

Yes I'm still doing my summer catch up - Here are more pictures of our summer escapades - we had dinner at our friends house and got to meet their new baby Joshua - they actually live across the street from us in Ptown - and my next door neighbor also had a new baby as well - Sam - so on our street we have 3 cute new babies within the same year - sadly we aren't there for good playdates!





We had a Red Egg & Ginger Party for Tristan while we were in CA as well - What is a Red Egg & Ginger party you ask? Well - in Chinese culture after a woman has a baby you are supposed to stay cooped up indoors for 30 days after you have it - after the one month has passed they have a party with yummy food for good luck,prosperity and health for the mother and the baby. Good and bad - I don't eat the normally specially prepared pickled pigs feet for the mother to restore bone marrow/blood - after my first baby I gave it to my mom - the others I asked to not have to eat it!


We had lots of family and friends come to the party - sadly I only got a few pictures of Tristan - mind you that normally a baby is one month old - so they normally sleep and are passed around - well since Tristan is 7 months old - and needed a nap, she was a bit more clingy to mom than normal and wasn't expecting all of these people to come see her.

Mike couldn't stay for the party - he had to go back to the UK - but my dad was able to come up in between work from Vegas - my mom drove up separately. Mike's parents flew in for the weekend to be here for the special day also! We're very blessed.

Normally for baby parties the babies (and sometimes the mom) gets lots of gold and jade swag - babies are usually weighed down with jewelry - but alas - along with the whole pig's feet tradition going by the wayside - so are my gold and jade allocation, probably also because she's not 100% Chinese because you usually have sides competing who can give the most, but not in these economic times! But she did get the traditional Crane Baby bracelet that my grandpa john & grandma started - it's 24K gold with her name on it - it's very special to us.

Yes - this is a whole pig - and it is Delish!!

My whole family and 2 grandpas!

Tyler's buds

Lucas & Pia

Linda squatting - I think she was 7 feet tall that day with her heels!

Tammy, Me & Nu - HS buds

Linda, Me, Rachel, Grace - my long time Fremont friends

Lucas & Hayden - BFF

I'm getting closer to August!

California 09 - The UC

I'm plugging through my pictures - while we were there this summer we got to hang out with Auntie Nu, Uncle Max & Pia - Lucas even got to have a sleepover at Pia's grandma's house!

One day we went out there to have American McDonalds for the boys and we went to Kennedy Park (which was drug central when we grew up) but it is completely renovated and very fun. We got to meet up with an old friend - Karen S. (who married her high school sweetheart) and her very cute kids.

Her kids were about my 3 middle kids ages so they had a great time and made friends easily....

Here are our pictures of the 'hood...

California 09 Part deux - Utah too

We stayed in CA for just 5 days before heading out to Utah to visit Mike's family. I forgot to post this other picture of my cousin Emily holding Tristan when we visited my Grandpa John :)


Before we left I also got to go to dinner with my girlfriends....We went for Sozo Japanese - something I don't get very much of here in London.....

Michele, Christy, Me & Laura - Christy is my great friend that got to come visit us last Easter (and let us stay at her house!!) and Michele & Laura are coming this year at Thanksgiving!!! I cannot wait!







So then the next part of our journey commenced and we had to get onto another airplane. The one hour 45 min flight to SLC was a breeze! Except we felt more harried at the Oakland airport than we did at the International airports!

We got to Grandma & Grandpa Bob's house in Centerville and had a great time. We got to go to Lagoon, watch a 4th of July parade, fireworks, family parties - oh what fun!

4th of July and lots of glo sticks!

Uncle Ryan, Cman, & Mike ran in the Centerville 4th of July races - Chandler came in 10th for his 1 mile race - not sure about the old men ;)

Dad & Tristy Lu

New cousin Gabbie and Aunt Rachel

Lagoon - we went on the water rides first so we could "dry off" - little did we know we were in for a summer monsoon! It was freezing!

Me & my SIL Juliann

Mike and his old friend Brent

SIL Rachel, Tristy Lu, Gabbie & Me

We also had a fun BBQ - Mike's parents best friends have all been together for 60 years... their kids were like each others cousins so whenever they can we try to get everyone together. Amazingly all of the kids and grandkids were able to come to a BBQ
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So what started as this Six Pack, as they call themselves....

Became this group........

Then with spouses they created this......

And when we do come into town the kids all know who are cranes, gledhills or laytons and all have a great time together...now how fun is that?

California 09 Part une

We first arrived in CA on June 25 - the kids did great on the flight home - poor little Tristan did fantastic the first 8 hours - the last 2.5 were brutal.

We stayed in a hotel the first 2 nights since we had jet lag and it was a good decision. We would all wake up right at 5, 5:30AM and be ready for the breakfast at the hotel at 6:30 when it opened! I think people were a little surprised that all 7 of us were awake, dressed and read to eat!

The first night we walked over to the mall and ate and did a quick look around - it was so fun to be in an American Mall! Tyler and I were quite excited, the boys - were all bored within the first 10 minutes - so alas, no shopping on the first day :)

Our second day my good friend Christy helped me get my car out of storage and then we were mobile. It looked so nice and clean! We drove to our old neighborhood and we parked the car in the middle of the street and the kids fanned out and rang the doorbells to our neighbors - it was so fun - we could hear screams of our friends when they opened the doors and saw Cranes outside!

We then went to visit our grandpas that first weekend - it was so fun to see them!

Grandpa John - we liked staying at his house to visit because his house was so cool! That weekend was the hottest CA had so far this summer - it was miserable, we really missed London weather at that point!
We also visited my other Grandpa and had lunch with the extended family as well - it is always fun when you call one family memeber and all the rest come out too - I love being part of a big family.
This is my cousin Amanda's new Valentine baby - Moeshe - he is so cute! But next to Tristan he is a giant!!

My brother Brian was also up from Vegas that weekend so we got to see him right when we arrived as well! The kids love their uncles!

June 2009

I'm still catching up before we left for California for our summer vacation. Before we left we went into London with Mike's cousin and his family who were here for the summer. Now they are going to probably be moving here for a year and we are so excited for them!

In front of Buckingham Palace - Lucas with his new 'grin'

This is the Tower Bridge (the one that gets mistaken for London Bridges falling down...)

Royal Ascot 09

Here are further attempts at catching up from my computer glitches in May & June. Before we came back to the US we had a rare opportunity to go to the Royal Ascot Races through Mike's work. It was AMAZING!!!! They always have races year round at Ascot, but it is Royal Ascot because the Queen comes every day for the week (or at least part of the royal family).

We had to dress up and wear hats - Mike had to rent a "day suit" basically a tux with tails, waistcoat and all. I felt like My Fair Lady or Holly-go-lightly. It was an amazing day and it was the nicest dress I've gotten myself in ages!!

We got to sit in a Royal Box - we arrived at 11AM, for Champagne and treats (Mike & I had sparkling water). Then we sat for lunch at our specific seats and were served a 6-7 course lunch - the main dish was beef wellington -

We also got to have a special view of the Royal Parade - the Queen arrives at 2pm each day of the race week to start off the races - there are 6 races - the first one started at 2:30. Her carriage stopped right in front of me and we were right next to her - then after the carriages rolled away they let us on the green and we were 6 feet from her - they didn't let us take photos on the green with her on it.


The Queen, Prince Andrew and either Princess Beatrice (who I think it is) or Princess Eugenie

This was the horse I bet 10 GBP on in the 3rd race and won!!! It was an American Horse, English Jockey, and owned by a Shiek

We also got another special tour - they took us to the "Inner ring" on the inside of the track by the finish line - where only photographers normally stand - to watch one of the races - it was sooooo incredibly quiet and then all of a sudden the horses run by right and the ground shakes. The horses are beautiful and just muscle and skin!

It truly was a wonderful day - we had gotten a sitter for the kids and they were excellent - we were there all day and it went soooo fast! They kept bringing food into our box as well it was unbelievable.

At the end of the race day they sing songs at the band stand - most people stay for it - it is a wonderful memory that I will hold dear to our UK stay for sure!!

End of school - June 09

This is my attempt to catch up - the last few weeks of school were very busy and emotional -

June goodbyes - one part of expat life is that each year brings quite a bit of movement. Our neighbors the McAuliffes are sadly for us moving back to New Jersey. They have been lifesavers on many levels for us. Mostly Donnie - who is Chandler's age - was the greatest addition to our family - he entertains our boys, was another brother to Tyler and he loved having a little sister - Tristan...

Since we're in CA we already had to say our goodbyes - it was so sad! But their legacy lives on - I may not be able to call Cathy on a whim to see if she has any Cream of Mushroom soup - or advice on EVERYTHING (she knows everything and everyone!!) but I am getting her Kitchen Aid!!



Tyler got an award at the end of the year as well - she received an academic award for Science. They only gave 2 awards per subject per grade. We were really proud of her this year. Tyler has done a great job!

Mike's parents and their friends the Laytons came in to visit us - they went on a Mediterranean cruise then came back to our place before going to Paris. We had a great time visiting with us and they went to so many great countries!


Ian also got in a good playdate before we left for our vacation as well. This is his friend Amy - she was moving back to Dallas-area. It was very cute - he wanted to have someone over and I was surprised when it was a girl!

This was the just a glimpse of our last few weeks of school....

I'm Still Here!!

I'm still here - we had a busy month in June - my computer was having a little sick spell so I've been waiting to get back to CA to have it looked at - it took all of 5 seconds for the Apple guys to tell me what was wrong and fix it (I could have gone in the UK but it requires US parts so they nicely recommended waiting till I got here).

Now I have one more step - getting more memory on it - so bare with me - and I'll be able to post some fun pictures from our busy month!

But we are back in the States and enjoying our time staying across the street from our house :)

I'll be back!!