Our first trip to the mountains

Daddy with his little Eskimo

Our Crossover's inaugural trip up the hill

Dennis and I realized that our first trip to the McClure cabin (my parents built it when I was 5 years old, so I have lots of memories there) was also our first trip as a new family! We've been together with other family on all our other jaunts, so it was fun to have our first outing. Dennis, Ethan, Rocky, and I packed our new car full of stuff for a quick weekend trip. Thankfully the weather was great and we took several hikes. Ethan is getting to be pretty heavy, though! Rocky absolutely loves being able to run without a leash, and is a great scout dog for us as we hike. It was so restful to be away from cell phones, D's blackberry, internet, and television...Dennis and I enjoyed a fire and a game of Scrabble! We even got to see Ethan's great-grandparents, so it was a fabulous weekend.

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

money...what the heck is it?

more money!

Tessa and Uncle Dennis

The Cousins

Ethan had all kinds of fun on his first Chinese New Year. Dennis and I gave him red envelopes when he woke up--little does he know that Mommy pocketed the money. :) He loved it, though. When Nai Nai and Ye Ye arrived, he had even more red envelopes and a lot of new decorations and goodies. We had several very yummy meals, including one with Aunt Catie, Uncle Kenneth, and all the cousins. Tessa even let Dennis hold her without getting upset! (for some reason, she was wary of Chinese men at first but now lets Dennis play with her) Everyone had a great time--it was quite a treat to have all these celebrations in one weekend!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We had several opportunities to celebrate Dennis' birthday as a family. Dennis and I had a great dinner out at Del Frisco's (which, after a trip to the ER and days of sickness later, was determined to be the cause of a gallbladder attack for me! I have to have my gallbladder removed next month.) on his actual birthday. Dennis' parents came the following weekend, and we celebrated Chinese New Year and his birthday again. Lots of steak and cake for Dennis this year. :)

Great-Grandpa Chen

Dennis really wanted to introduce Ethan to his grandfather, or Ethan's great-grandfather. His health is not the best, so we used the last leg of our Christmas trip to travel to San Francisco for a visit. We visited with other family members, too, in our quick trip out there. Thankfully, Grandpa was awake and in a great mood when we went to see him. It was so neat to see all the generations of Chen men together, and we are so grateful that Ethan got to meet his great-grandfather. The best part was that Grandpa seemed to enjoy Ethan, and the feeling was mutual. Ethan had many smiles for his great-grandfather. :)

It's a Chen Christmas!

As I look back at Christmas, I can't help but wonder, "what were we thinking????" It was a wonderful time, but we had some of the most intense travel that I've ever experienced. And we did it with an 8 1/2 month old and slightly hyper dog. Thankfully, Ethan is a super traveler and was a great sport. It all started on Saturday, December 22 around 7:30pm. (Note: this was after having Catie's 3 kids off and on for two weeks, meeting Tessa, and spending the day with the McClure family to celebrate Christmas) We left Charlotte for Michigan, and drove straight through the night. (Okay, Dennis drove but I couldn't sleep because I was so worried he would get sleepy!) Most importantly, Ethan DID sleep, which is a wonderful thing. Upon our arrival, we took a short nap and then went to the Detroit Lions game. After a great Christmas Eve dinner prepared by Dennis' dad, we woke up on Christmas Day to load the car and drive four hours to Toronto. We spent the next couple days stuffing ourselves with yummy Chinese food, and drove back to Michigan on Thursday. Friday afternoon we got in the car to drive back to Charlotte. We arrived around 3am, unloaded the car and re-packed to get on an 8am flight to San Francisco. We got to visit Dennis' grandfather, who met Ethan for the first time. (more on that later) More yummy Chinese food, and the red-eye home. We arrived about 6:30am and I had just enough time to shower before heading into work at 8:30am Monday morning. In the cracks of all this travel were laughs and good times with Dennis' family, and Ethan enjoyed a fabulous first Christmas. His favorite part was the wrapping paper! While I missed the low-key cozy Christmas of rest (Dennis would probably say BORING :)), I must say we packed a lot into a week and a half. Actually, I know what we were thinking...I just didn't know I would be so tired.

Off to work with Daddy

Dennis' group at Wachovia had a Christmas party for all of the kids. One of Dennis' co-workers even showed up as Santa! Ethan had a great time...he really loved Daddy's desk chair. :)

The Newest Cousin--Tessa

Teresa Caplan Jackson was born May 11, 2007 in Jiangxi Province, China. Catie and Kenneth left Charlotte on December 13 and returned on December 22 with Tessa! All of the paperwork went really smoothly and everything is great. She's a tremendous eater, but is still working on sleeping through the night by herself. Extroverted as heck, she's a perfect fit for the Jackson family! Everyone is adjusting very well to this happy new addition. She is one month younger than Ethan (if Ethan had been born on his due date, they would have only been 2 days apart!), and I know they will be fast friends. Right now they just enjoy staring at each other. :)