There are many many exciting events that happened on this trip. On a Spiritual level, FF entered the temple for the first time. She did baptisms for the dead at the Provo Temple, and a couple days later did more baptisms for the dead at the Timpanogas Temple. (CC did his first baptism for the dead at the Washington DC Temple and SS did his first in the New York City Temple)
While we visited Utah, Dixon and Grace were very hospitable to let us stay at their house for an entire week. Their kids still had regular school days and so at first the kids didn't know each other but after a couple days seeing each other, they were playing along well. One of the highlights was seeing the extremely excited face of a child. I get up early every morning to check emails on the dining table and Hadrian usually wakes up quite early too, so when one morning I told Hadrian I can teach him how to make pancakes, his eyes widened jumping up and down with a huge smile on his face. Early next morning, Saturday morning, while I barely got the dining table I can hear light foot steps quickly scattering from one side of the house to the other, then back to the other side, then hear footsteps quickly 'flying' down the stairs to the kitchen area. Hadrian came down with a huge bright glowing smile jumping up and down ready to make some pancakes!
First I told him we need to gather some basic ingredients. He didn't know where the ingredients are stored and since we didn't want to wake up his mom, we went through many cabinets until we found all the needed ingredients and utensils. While I was instructing him, he put mixed all the ingredients himself and even cooked the pancakes! As we were cooking the pancakes, he kept jumping up and down amazed staring how the mix batter transformed to bubbling on the pan, then to flipping it, and seeing it rise and brown perfectly. While the mix was transforming into pancakes, Hadrian whispers in my ear "When my mom makes pancakes, she burns them" while giggling away.
After we finished making the entire batter, he quickly ran upstairs and wake up his sisters Cozette and Arelle to drag them down to the kitchen table to eat his pancakes. The photos showed their expressions perfectly.
Thanks to Dixon and Grace, they were able to coordinate and invited many friends that Abbey and I know. It was a great gathering for the adults to catch up and reminisce while the kids played together
These photos are from Summer 2017 when we visited the Fung family during our cross country trip, when the kids were still so small. https://zhaokids.blogspot.com/2017/08/2017-summer-vacation-9d-th-stop-friends.html
How much the kids have grown in five years
After the super successful round of pancakes, Hadrian was ready to make crepes the next morning! This time FF woke up early help make with making crepes, cut bananas, and crush fresh blueberries. By the time they finished cooking the crepes, everyone was away to eat them. Then FF, Hadrian, and Arelle
became very artistic and made some masterpieces!
For lunch, Abbey cooked Philly Steak & Cheese for everyone. They were able to get some really good purchases on the thinly sliced beef. So it was a really good lunch before going to church.
We had some relaxing time with the Fung's at their house. The kids had a lot of fun flying SS's drone, while Da took some time to teach Arelle and Cozette how to ride a bike. After many tries, Arelle learned to ride a bike while Cozette need a little more practice.
While we were at Utah which Da took the boys to BYU campus to roam around, Hoiman took FF to the farm with his sons. They had a blast!
Before leaving Utah, Abbey caught up with Lillian and we finally get to meet her new daughter .
