FAV 2010

We combined our trip home to see Momo & Jiji with a trip to see our close college friends (and their kids). 8 adults, 9 kids, 1 dog - need I say more? It was FANTASTIC!

We rented a big beach house in Michigan City in the Beach Walk Resort. It was called Orange Crush:


We spent our time there going to the pool, to the beach, riding bikes, playing games, having lots of story time, eating, napping, and repeating all of the above. (Oh and there was a little bit of basketball playing in there, too.)






Marco

















Closest we could get to having one picture of all 9 kids:

Summer in E-town

I love Summer in Evanston. Everything is so green and lush, Momo and Jiji's garden is too beautiful to be true, and you can enjoy dinner outside while listening to the cicadas and watching the lightning bugs.


Momo & E-man in the garden:





Planting flowers with Momo:


Izzy pretending to be Momo:


Watching some funny YouTube videos w/TaoTao, Carlea, Kat, and Taka:


We got to see a lot of old friends as well.
Fun with the Hatcher-Lemmons girls:



with Sally, Gus, & Violet at the park:



and we were fortunate enough to be in town when Erica & Ahmed's baby boy, Elias, was born!

Happy Retirement, Momo!

The main reason we went home over Memorial Day was to surprise Momo with a retirement party. (And to see with our own eyes that she was indeed retiring after 32 years of teaching at Chute!) With the help of some dear friends/colleagues of Momo's, we pulled it off! We had a wonderful party and many of Momo's colleagues and friends read poems and sang songs in her honor. It was clear from talking to Momo's colleagues that she will be sorely missed.

Momo, we know that you have made a huge difference and a lasting impression on so many students, and we are so grateful for all of your hard work!

Read Momo's wonderful reflections from her time as an ESL teacher on her blog, Schoolyard Journey: Reflections.

It worked, we surprised Momo!

Happy 10 months, E-man!

To say that time is flying by is an understatement. I can't believe that in less than two months, Ethan will be one year old! He continues to be a very happy baby who LOVES his big sis, crawling around like a wounded soldier, clapping when we say "yay" or "pachi pachi pachi" (the Japanese sound for clapping), waving bye-bye, and sucking down a bottle in less than two minutes.

May Gray

In San Diego, we have "May Gray" and "June Gloom," when the mornings are overcast, gray, and occasionally (gasp!) drizzly. Well, we seem to be starting this month out with our very own May Gray. The Babe had a fever/cold several days last week that kept her out of school, then she seemed to get better. But over the weekend the fever came back with a horrible cough and by Monday we were getting her chest X-rayed to check for Pneumonia. And that's what it was/is. So she's been out of school 3 days again this week. Thankfully she's doing a lot better, but it's still very painful when she coughs. We're lucky to have such a trooper. We just hope that we can all be 100% healthy for our trip to Chicago in just a few weeks!

Just a week before all that, she was in rare form...dancing up a storm in her new Japanese pajamas:




Goofball, as usual:


E-man, is NINE MONTHS OLD already (!) and has been doing great. He has five teeth (BIG ones, too!) and counting, loves using his pinchers to eat puffs and cereal, has been practicing his "ba" and "ma" (not "mama" yet though") sounds, is army-crawling all over the place, and still laughs and smiles the most for his big sis. He has his 9-month check-up next Monday so we'll see just how big our big boy is!

Ethan even lets Izzy play with his hair. Now that's a good little brother:


See my big teeth?



"Oh hi!"


Captain Adorable (no, we don't call him that, it's on his onesie ;-))


The Babe & E-man, enjoying "Classical Baby":