Summer 2015

Went on back-to-back vacations this summer with both sides of the family. We arrived on a Monday, were there to celebrate the first birthday of my youngest niece and at weeks end flew the red-eye on our anniversary to Miami for a seven day cruise with my mom and sister on the Norwegian Getaway to St. Thomas, Tortola and Nassau followed by a night in Fort Lauderdale, then a week in Las Vegas with Paul's family with side trips to Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon.

  We drove straight back to join an 80th birthday banquet for Paul's aunt (father's side). There were four tables and it was nice to see a lot of relatives that we hadn't seen in awhile and meet some new ones (married in, babies born). It was to be the last time we saw Paul's oldest uncle, since we received news that he recently passed away. We're thankful of that opportunity.

We settled back in the Su family home after that, taking several trips to the airport as various family members started flying out, Paul, Rosa, then Maggie, who was heading back to her school to teach at summer camp.

We spent the last weeks of July hanging out at the house with Susanna and Catie who were visiting for the summer from Nagoya where they'll be until next summer as well as Helen and Annabel who are temporarily staying there to save on daycare - grandma is it! We also went to visit James, Kathryn, Mia and Christopher for lunch, then lingered on until after dinner. I, for one, enjoyed playing with the little ones.

A late decision the last week was for Alex and I to drive up to Redding to visit my mom one more time and catch my Aunt Hing and Uncle John who were driving back to SLC from Seattle. Although we drove back in one day down I-5, on the way up we took 101 stopping to camp out for a night at New Brighton State Beach near Santa Cruz, then continuing up the coast on Hwy 1 to stay at Melodie's after a yummy Italian dinner. I hadn't seen my aunt and uncle in quite a few years so it was nice to catch up.

Satisfied most of my US food cravings and even tried a couple food trucks - the famous Kogi Korean BBQ taco, and a lobster roll from Cousins Maine Lobster. Only ended up bringing back one extra bag this year on our late night flight with morning arrival so we can hit the ground running, so they say.