Visitors from home....

Auntie Hong Leng and Shannon spent about 3 weeks with us recently.

In Pittsburgh, the highlight for the ladies was the nightly Korean drama via Youtube on an iPad... They managed to watch the all the episodes... which is really not that difficult when you have company and watch until 2 or 3 am....

We made a road trip to Niagara Falls (a standard item on our itinerary when we have visitors). Took a short ride out to St. Catherines from there.

The weather was hovering around 0°C, so the kids were all wrapped up.

We also visited Washington D.C. And one perk of having visitors is that we get to take some nice couple shots.

Lancaster County, PA

Visited Lancaster when Charis had a short break from school. Click on the photo below to go to the rest of the album...

1st day of school

Finally, the day has arrived. After waiting for months, Charis is now all ready for her first day in kindergarten. New school bag, new clothes, new crayons, new friends, new teacher....

She is very excited on her first day to school. Even reminded Elaine and I, separately, to set the alarm for her so that she will not be late for school. I don't remember that I ever look forward to going to school.... never...

Hopping onto the "school bus"....

All set and ready to go....

Walking to class...
It's her prayer that she will be able to learn well and find good friends in school.

around montréal, part one

Montréal, a feel of France in North America. Here is the old Montréal (or vieux Montréal as they call it in French), with its old cobblestone roads and colonial buildings:

The old port in Montréal:
We took a cruise ride to get a quick tour of the sights.

The Biosphere:

Some condo-by-the-waterfront. Forgot its name, but the architectural design looks very interesting. Supposed to be designed by a student-architect in a local university (McGill?) many, many years ago... and this architect is now pretty famous, but I don't know his name...

us in montréal

We were in Montréal for the last few days where I had a conference. Took the opportunity to look around the place. Actually Elaine and the kids did more exploring, as I was (trying to look) busy attending some sessions during the conference.

Here are some photos of us in Montréal... will put up pictures of the place later.

A rare family photo during a vacation.... Took this outside the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal. A friendly passerby volunteered to take a photo for us. He led us to the spot where he said was the nicest place for a photo.

A colorful toy shop that stood out among the rows of shops along Rue Saint Urbain:

We had our first dinner in Montréal at a French restaurant, Le Bourlingueur. While Elaine's glazed duck was delicious, my catch-of-the-day didn't taste anything french. Nevertheless, we had a nice time there. (Actually, we had a better time at a Chinese restaurant that is one minute from our hotel.... roast duck, fried rice, 干炒牛河. And then there is a Chinese pastry shop opposite this Chinese restaurant.... so we had egg tarts, char siew bun, 菠萝包 almost twice every day. )

Charis posing along a railway track near the old port in Montréal:

And we rented a bicycle to make the touring of the waterfront much easier. Or so we thought. It turned out more siong than we expected. (This photo was taken before we rode off.)

Watertown, NY

Spent a night at Watertown, NY, 8.5 hours ride from Pittsburgh.

Went to Indian Palace for dinner. Just a 2 mins walk from the hotel.

We tried the chicken curry and "Mixed Grill Bombay" (tandoori) and naan. The dinner turned out to be pretty good - much better than what Elaine had expected. But it was the most expensive chicken curry (US$11) and naan (US$2.50 per piece) that we have ever tried. I was expected the curry to be served in a pail, or at least in a pot, but it came in bowl-size.

After that we went across the street for some friendly ice-cream.
The kids waiting for the Sargent-Major to distribute the loot...

2 clowns

Pirates

Our church organized an outing to watch a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game. (At $10 per pax, plus a free beach towel each, it was a pretty good deal.) It was the 1st time we attended a professional sports event here. Although we "catch no ball" when it comes to baseball, the atmosphere in the stadium was a fun experience for us. Might have been even more enjoyable had the Pirates played a better/winning game that night. The Pirates lost 2-5 that night to the Houston Astros - but they bounced back to defeat the Astros in the next 2 games.


The stadium has Pittsburgh downtown and Allegheny River as a backdrop, providing a pretty nice view:

@ sunset:

Swimmers and divers

The summer really feels like summer. And life is good when there is a pool just outside the apartment, and we go for a dip whenever we can. Next time, we should get a condo. Or a HDB that has a pool nearby. Or live near friends who live in condo.

idling in the wild

Brought the kids to Idlewild last week. It was our 2nd visit, and this time we went with Maddy and family. The girls had a great time going through the Storybook Forest and looking at different storybook characters coming to life.

There was something fun for everyone, including the adults:

Josiah getting ready for take off:

we've got a runner

See how he head-faked Charis midway through the 2nd leg...

you and me

On behalf of the kids, this is a gift for Elaine on Mother's Day.

I can't bake a cake, but I can make a clip....

10 justifications for an iPad....

1. It is a nice PDF reader, and I have hundreds of pdfs to read. The iPad will increase my productivity by 48.8%. I will publish papers faster and complete my PhD program sooner.

2. Buying an iPad helps a friend. He just bought Apple's share.

3. There are times I want to pull out my laptop to read some papers on my bus rides. But it is too big. However, with a iPad, ahhh.....

4. I don't have a iPhone or a iPod Touch. They have small screens.

5. My 2001 iBook just went kaput.

6. The IRA is going to refund me some tax money.

7. The principle of social proof is working on me.

8. I just bought a 2nd-hand laptop bag off eBay. That bag is huge and it feels kinda empty. An iPad would utilize the space.

9. Randomly select one reason from #1 to #4.

10. Randomly select one reason from #5 to #8.

Run! Jonah, run!

Charis' first "big" performance! This is one of the songs she sang with the choir for the finale musical, The Runaway. She had been singing and humming it (amongst other songs) at home, for the last 2 months. She really enjoyed her time at The Promises choir practices each Sunday.

The 4 littlest ones are right in front. It's a blessing to watch them sing so enthusiastically about God even at 5! We played the supporting role - listening to Charis repeat the same songs at home, fetching her to choir... ... and it's good that we could contribute in these small ways :)

The Promises theme song...

F.I.V.E.

Today, Charis is 5 years and 8 days old already :)

4 years 11 months and 30 days old.

A surprise party with Maddy.

5 years old!!!

Finally, the proud owner of the horsey

that she has asked for months ago.

She is into horses and cowboys these days.

5 years and 1 day old.

We kept our promise to take her

to Chuck E Cheese,

a kid's "arcade" place, with Ethan.

She gave up her usual party for

a birthday treat to this place.

A photo of them at their favourite game.