Chen/Tsay Cousin Reunion

When I (Callista) was growing up in southern Illinois, my family would periodically see our cousins, who lived in Kansas, and then later in Michigan. The three of them, Mike, Cindy, and Alice, are the children of my dad's older sister.

Cindy, along with her husband, John, and kids, Ryan and Kendra, live in San Rafael, about an hour north of Sarah and Christian. Alice, with her husband Phil and son Calvin, live near Pasadena. Mike and his family (wife Sharon, sons Mitchell and Malcolm) also live in Southern California. While we were in California, we were very lucky that Alice and Mike were both visiting the Bay Area and were able to come over to the sublet for dinner.

Alice and Cindy took turns holding Charlotte.

Aviva had fun playing with Kendra (Cindy's daughter) and Calvin (Alice's son.)


My dad took lots of video footage, so I tried to make sure there were some photos of him, too.



Kendra (Cindy's daughter) had a great time taking photos of Aviva, who enjoyed feeding Piglet (and sneezing!)


After dinner we all headed to the park so the kids could run around. Kendra was especially good at helping Aviva on the taller structures.

My photos didn't come out so great, but I do have this short video.


In the front row (standing on the ground) from the left, are: Alice, Calvin, Christian (holding Piglet), Cindy, Sharon, Malcolm, Mike, and Mitchell. Standing on the jungle gym are Henry, Kendra, Aviva, Peter, Ryan, and John.

Here I am with my cousin Alice.

Afterwards, Calvin pushed Ryan and Aviva back to the house.




Kendra got in some snuggle time with Charlotte, too.


We did one more group photo of the cousins. From left: Alice, Sarah, Callista, Cindy, Henry, and Mike.


For more photos of the visit (and of our whole visit to California, check out my sister's blog here.)

We had such a wonderful time catching up with our cousins, and already look forward to seeing them again next year!

BABY CHARLOTTE!!!! (and Piglet)

In the weeks leading up to our trip to California, we got Aviva very excited about her new cousin Charlotte. We looked at lots of photos and videos of Charlotte, but nothing could prepare Aviva for the real thing!

She's been practicing her "BABY CHARLOTTE!" yell, but fortunately she didn't really scream it while we were in California. You can just barely hear her saying it in a sort of maniacal way while holding Charlotte's face. She also said, "Cheeks!" a lot.



Aviva was also extremely excited about her (French bulldog) cousin Piglet. In this video that my sister took, you can see how much Aviva thinks she's in charge of the situation.


And in this one it takes us a little while to understand Aviva's Chinglish (pi gu means "rear end.")

Palo Alto / Mountain View

The next stop on our home leave was Northern California, where my (Callista's) sister Sarah lives, with her husband, Christian; French bulldog, Piglet; and super cute new baby, Cheeks Charlotte.
Sarah lives in Mountain View, and we stayed with my parents in a sublet in Palo Alto. My dad took his position as Chief Holder of Babies and Nap Accompanist.
In this next clip, Charlotte forgets where she is and tries to eat Agong's hand.

Aviva spent lots of quality time with her Agong, with some interactions being more rambunctious than others.


She also spent lots of time with Ama (Callista's mom.)


As you can see, when it comes to other people's electronic devices, Aviva had no problem sharing.



She loved watching videos on Henry Jiu Jiu (Uncle Henry)'s iPad.

And of course, Aviva spent lots of time with Christian Yi-Zhang (Uncle Christian), whom Aviva loves possibly more than anyone in the world, besides Mao.

Outlet shopping!

All weekend, Ellen was our very able and excellent babysitter. She and Aviva colored, took walks with Bow, and generally had an excellent time. On Sunday before we left, we all went to Brooks Brothers to do some shopping. Aviva's slightly out of focus in the first shot below, but I couldn't resist posting them both.

Home Leave - Michael and Melissa's Wedding

In the afternoon, we all got ready for the wedding.  Well, Aviva wasn't going to the wedding, but she dressed up anyway.  It was very windy when we tried to get some photos of them.  By chance, Aviva's dress matched the groomsmen's ties.






The wedding was at The Hildene, a historic home surrounded by beautiful grounds.

The formal gardens right next to where the ceremony took place.

View of the ceremony area before the wedding.

Peter escorted Michael's sister, Sarah, down the aisle.

Leaf blowers have many uses.

The Rigney brothers, John (Best Man), Brian, and Matt, and Peter were the groomsmen.

Melisa's parents escorted her down the aisle.

 

 Michael and Melissa's vows were very touching and heartfelt.

For those of you that don't know the story, our friend Chris gets partial credit for introducing me and Peter. Chris was Callista's friend from business school, and one time when Chris was visiting New York, he invited Michael and Callista to a baseball game. Michael and Callista became friends, and then later, Michael introduced Peter to Callista. The rest, as they say, is history.

We used the opportunity to get a few photos of us as well. We were so honored to have been guests at Michael and Melissa's beautiful wedding weekend. We are thrilled for the newlyweds and look forward to being close friends for the rest of our lives.

Home Leave - VT

On Friday, Grandma Ellen kindly drove us all to Manchester, Vermont, where we attended the wedding of our close friends, Michael and Melissa.

We stayed at the aptly named Manchester View. 

The view over the mountains was beautiful early in the morning. Peter and Aviva took advantage of the quiet time to do some yoga.


After a delicious breakfast at Up For Breakfast, we walked around town a bit.

 Not far from Manchester is the beautiful Dorset Quarry, an old abandoned quarry.  The water was yell-out-loud cold, and incredibly refreshing.  Grandma Ellen, Peter, and I (Callista) went swimming. 

Home Leave - CT

On Wednesday, June 20, we set out again for the US.  For a while, Aviva was entertained by the many different movies on the plane.

 Eventually, however, she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.

We spent one night in Connecticut with Jeff, Brianne, Seamus, and Rory.  Aviva got to watch a little Caillou with Seamus before bedtime.