Hmmmm....

People sometimes tell me that Sydney reminds them of Boo on Monsters, Inc. I guess I see what they're saying...
Except for maybe Boo's alien-ish large eyes.

And who doesn't love M&Ms?

The Bellagio

It's been a while since we actually went to see the sites around Vegas. We go to Vegas a couple of times a year, and we cut straight to the chase: shopping and eating. So it was a nice change of pace to go to Vegas with some friends and show them some sites.

I forgot how beautiful the foundation show at Bellagio was, especially at night.

Baby Crocs!

We visited our friends Loc and Christina in Orange County at the end of May. And we discovered that Joshy and Uncle John have matching Crocs!

Who is that in the foam pit?

Oh! It's John Wang!

The kids had a great time at Rachel's birthday party recently. Chris said one of his favorite moments was seeing John in the foam pit fending off half a dozen kids with Sydney on his shoulders.

Mother's Day - Part 2

The Lins celebrated Mother's Day with a BBQ at my cousin's house in Belvedere. They had just finished remodeling their kitchen so it was time to break it in. They did a great job. It was beautiful!



This is one way to get your child to drink her milk...make it a competition.


The girls got to spend the afternoon playing at the park down the street while the adults took a walk into town for some ice cream.

Mother's Day Brunch and Eva's Graduation

The Wangs celebrated Mother's Day a little early to coincide with Eva's Graduation from Golden Gate. We had brunch at the Top of the Mark.

Happy Birthday Sydney!

Sydney's 3rd birthday was all about sensory integration! We had a bounce house, a ball pit, a sandbox and a bean pit and trampoline (inside).



We even got to meet baby Elisabeth for the first time too!

These 2 dads must have called each other in the morning to coordinate the perfect shade of orange.

Shanghai - Part 3 - The Sites

Here’s the Grand Gateway at night.


This is the Tech Museum. Underneath is the fake market.

We took an afternoon to check out the Shanghai Museum.These are old drums.


We also took Lauryn for a day trip to Hangzhou. It is famous for it’s West Lake (think Westlake Soup- from Silver House, yum!) and for its silk. It was beautiful there. So green and peaceful.
We saw one of the famous temples in Hangzhou. The original one collapsed and they rebuilt this one with escalators from the park to the temple entrance.
In Hangzhou, we went to the mountains to try their famous Longjing tea. We had to first draw water from the well in the middle of town to wash our hands for good luck. Then a lady invited us to her house to try the tea they farmed. We had to walk the plank to the back of the house – a little daunting.

The story is that some Emperor from hundreds of years ago went to vacation in Hangzhou and went to the mountains for rest. He was poured some hot water to drink and while he stepped away to let his water cool, some leaves fell into his cup and turned the water brown. He tried the water and decided it was his new favorite drink.

We also saw the Silk Museum in Hangzhou. They showed us how to tell real silk from fake silk. When you burn silk, it should become powdery and flaky. If it's fake, it will be fibrous and stringy and have a smell of burnt plastic. Well, obviously, you wouldn't go around burning silk you're considering buying, so that wasn't too helpful. They both felt the same.
This is one of the silk spinning machines. You can see the silk worm cocoons (those little white balls at the bottom).
These are the dead silk worms after all the silk has been removed.

We strolled the Bund, a big shopping district in Shanghai.
John wanted to go see his old school, Fudan University, where he studied Chinese before we got married.This is the old dining hall.

This big building wasn’t here when he was studying here.


Here’s Big Mao.