a night on the town

we enjoyed a nice dinner with tammy and rob, some good friends of ours, tonight. we ate out on the restaurant's patio and the weather couldn't have been more perfect for it. after our meal, we headed over to robust, a new coffeehouse and wine bar that opened up in our area. the atmosphere was really nice and it had a lot of charm to it. it also displayed the works of local artists, which was cool to see. we all agreed that the only thing missing was some live music. (even the bathroom was nice!) it was really neat to come across a place like this in the tri-cities since there aren't too many others like it. it definitely outbeats a typical starbucks any day. if you're a tri-citian and you've never been to robust (or d.s. watkins, as it was formerly known), you should check it out! you'll be glad you did.

emma's grown!

emma visited the doctor's office a few weeks ago (august 6) for her 4-month well-check. our doctor gave her two big thumbs ups in terms of health, growth, and development. here are the stats for our little girl:
height: 25 inches (75%)
weight: 13 lbs, 12 oz (55%)(she's lighter and longer than lucas was at 4 months.
check out lucas' stats at 4 months to compare.)
even though i've gone through it many times with lucas, it still pained me when the nurse came in to give emma her shots (all 4 of them). emma cried more than lucas did when he got them at 4 months, and it took her a little longer to recover.

since we're doing comparisons, here are pictures of lucas and emma, respectively, on their tummies at 4 months old.

benton county fair

we had a very fun evening at the benton county fair this year! lucas was a little older, so he was more aware of the animals (still a bit hesitant about some of them, like the cows) and more excited about the rides. he also got to go with his buddy, carter, so that made it extra fun. of course, it was emma's first time at a fair so that made it extra special as well. we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading off to see all of the animals. we got to see a dairy cow get milked by a machine (sort of like a breast pump, i guess) - very interesting. we also got to pet a cute calf that decided that my shirt was a tasty treat. luckily a lady saw it in time otherwise i would have been down one article of clothing for the night. lucas' favorite animal was the sheep. he actually got close to one and petted it. after the animals, we sat down and enjoyed the music of charlie daniels. the boys must have liked the band because they were grooving up a storm! before it got too dark, we took the boys to go on some rides. they rode on an airplane (their favorite), a dragon (similar to the teacups), and a gigantic slide. you can see from the pictures that we'all had a great time!

the LBC, OC, and TO

we headed down to los angeles last week to attend my friend's wedding and to visit my sister, some old friends, and allan's family. we had a fabulous time doing all of the above. the trip made me realize how much i miss my sister (we miss you vicky!). we also had an awesome time catching up with friends from college, and meeting kids of friends from high school.

thanks to all of our family and friends for hosting us and making our trip so fun!

see more photos from our trip at allan tuan photography's blog!
.: san diego zoo :.

.: helen and eugene's wedding :.
.: visit with willa, lisa, danny, and kayley :.
.: visit with tuan family :.
.: visit with ben, jen, riley, jethro, michelle, leah, dan, gabe :.

(this part is for my own memory-preserving purposes, but you can read it if you've got the time!)

our trip began with our flight into long beach. we were greeted by my sister. it was SO great to see her! amazingly, we were able to fit one large and one small suitcase, three backpacks, one good-sized camera bag, one pack 'n play, two car seats, one stroller (not the umbrella kind), two purses, two kids, and three adults into a volvo s40. if you don't think that's an amazing feat, then you need to visit volvo's website and check out the s40. once we got loaded in, we headed over to our hotel in huntington beach and proceeded to grab some tasty chinese food (yum!). friday morning, we weaved our way through some typical socal traffic and drove down to the san diego zoo. our little emma had a meltdown right around oceanside, so we stopped at the marina to feed her and to give her a break. it didn't really work because as soon as we got back into the car, she continued her wailing. finally, she cried herself to sleep as we continued on to sd. since both of the kids were asleep, we decided to drive through my old stomping grounds, ucsd, before going to the zoo. boy, has it changed! they've added a new college and moved my old college (erc) to a different part of the campus. it was really good to see my old school again. by then the kids had woken up so it was zoo time. we saw some birds, flamingos, a lot of monkeys, pigs, an animal that looked like a mix of zebra-horse-giraffe, a hippo, and other cool animals that i'm not remembering at the moment. lucas had a great time and emma was worn out by all of the walking.

on saturday, vicky spent the day with lucas looking at boats, visiting the library, sharing a jamba juice, and doing other activities while allan, emma, and i went to my friend's wedding in marina del rey. it was beautiful! she was beautiful! allan and i got a chance to catch up and reminisce with my college friends/roommates. the time went by too fast and we had to say goodbye before we knew it. it better not take another 5 years before we see each other again.

we headed over to allan's old stomping grounds, ucla, on sunday and visited westwood. the best part was indulging in a diddy riese cookie ice cream sandwich. it was deeeeelicious...and only $1.25! can't find that anywhere nowadays. in the evening, we visited with allan's college friends and met kayley, a sweet little girl. again, our time with them was too short but it was fun seeing them!

we spent the next few days with allan's family in the thousand oaks area and enjoyed their awesome swimming pool and hot tub. it was so relaxing! we also checked out ventura beach, which was fun but very windy. lucas and emma had a great time visiting with their aunty jo, grandma, and grandpa.

wednesday was our last full day before heading back to the tri-cities. we spent the day with my high school friends and their kids. it was a great little mini reunion. gabe is one little cutie, and riley is absolutely precious!