Celebrating the 4th of July

We are finally moved into the cottage in time for the July 4th Celebration at Ray and Kath's cottage, which is about 1 mile north of ours. This was a special family gathering because Phoebe's cousin were in NY for the festivities.
The weather has been unusually cool for the season so when the sun finally appeared, the group raced to the end of dock to catch a the rays.
Part of the gang enjoying the sun.


Below are Phoebe's Uncle Don and Cousin Jess.

Phoebe, Daffodils and The Frog Pond

We hoped to get several pictures with Phoebe and the daffodils in our yard, but she was too busy, especially since throwing stones in the frog pond was so much better than standing around for pictures!

Phoebe Jade posing for a second.


Off to the frog pond!


It is a miracle that we still have stones in the driveway--here is Phoebe doing her favorite activity.


And finally taking a moment to smell the flowers!

Auntie Kathy's Birthday

We had a wonderful time celebrating Phoebe's Auntie Kathy's birthday. In the video, Uncle Ray leads the birthday singing!

Wake Up Birthday Girl!

Today our sweet girl turns 2 years old.

Happy Birthday, Little Phoebe Jade.
May all your precious dreams come true.
We love you.
Mommy and Daddy

2009 Tet Celebration in Ithaca

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy New Year of the Ox! On Sat, 1/31, we held our second annual Tet Celebration at the Wok Village Restaurant in Ithaca. The event brought together families and the students from Vitco Cornell to celebrate this special holiday together. Unfortunately I was too preoccupied to take many photos or videos--here are a few that I managed to get.
The Vitco set-up crew (Thao, Ha, Hanh, and Nhung) preparing the traditional Tet snacks for the tables.

Mary to the rescue! Several of us struggled with setting up the screen--finally Mary figured it out.


Nga (Mary's daughter) and Jojo (our niece) did a wonderful job preparing the sign-in table and the kid's activity room, which was adjacent to the dining area. The girls really hit it off! Nga's is holding a box of Tet desserts that Huong P., a former Vitco member who is back in Hanoi, sent to us for the party. She also sent back special Tet ornaments for the kids (lower right corner of the table). Thanks, Huong--we missed you this year! The colorful masks and fans for the kids were donated by Ha and Nhung (thank you!). And the flower decoration on the right was donated by Kris S. (thank you and your great florist!).


Video 1, The set up crew hard at work!



Part 2 of Tet Celebration to follow!

2009 Tet Celebration in Ithaca, Part 2

The wonderful Vitco team that did so much to help with the preparation of the Tet Celebration. Thank you everyone! Special thanks to Thu for compiling the family and Vitco slides for the presentation.
Group shot #1 of the kids!

Group shot #2 of the kids.

Kris and Sadie. Sadie has grown so much in a year. Her big sister, Sarah, is in the Vitco group shot.

Kelly and Emmi. Ken and I were supposed to travel to Vietnam with Kelly, but then the Ministry of Justice in Langson changed the order for travel so she went in the group ahead of us. Now here we are, together with our girls celebrating Tet!


This video is of the Vitco students and family members hanging out--notice the little dragon dance costume in the back.



Singalong video. This song was tough so the Vitco students did all the singing!

Baptism Reception in California

Phoebe's baptism reception (on 12/22/08) was held in a wonderful Vietnamese seafood restaurant in Westminster. Finally a family picture! The cross that I'm wearing is one that my dad gave to me and that he wore during two tours in Vietnam, 1965-66 and 1969-70. Little Phoebe is wearing a beautiful gold necklace of a traditional Vietnamese Catholic design that Team 35 gave to her.

This is a neat picture of Phoebe with Col. P. Tang who, like Phoebe, is an ethic Nung originally from the Langson region, Vietnam!

The food was amazing beginning with the traditional Vietnamese Hot Pot.

Uncle Stef, "The God Father", gave each guest a copy of his father's book about his experience as a POW on Wake Island during WW II. His dad is one of the few surviving Wake Is. POWs, so he is regularly invited to speak at history programs and events in the Southern California area.

The Trans.

I wanted to add a picture of Stef's parents who were the guests at a WW II history event in Palm Springs in Dec. The person in the middle is the historian who planned the event.

We could not have asked for a more special baptism day for Phoebe than the one that the members of Team 35 arranged for her. We will cherish these memories forever. Thank you Team 35, and special thanks to General L. Ly and Capt. C. Tran.