Janie turned 8 today and it was a very different birthday this year. We are in the heart of Shelter-in-Place here in California but still wanted to celebrate this special day.
Mama picked up party favors and gifts from Target on her way home, picked up cake from Baskin Robbins, and then had a virtual birthday party with the family over Zoom. Auntie Jia had sent a bunch of gifts this past week too.
Once everyone got online, we all sang Happy Birthday, she blew out candles, and then the presents were opened.
Toni and Thomas also drew a special birthday picture for her.
We are headed to Vancouver, BC for ski week and the journey from Alameda to Surrey took a lot longer than it should have. It started with 8:30am bus ride to the airport. Peanut drew a map for us.
Once we arrived at the airport, we received a text update that our flight was an hour delayed. That one hour quickly turned into 3 hours so we had a lot of time to kill. The kids were really good about the wait and figured out ways to entertain themselves.
This is Peanut asking when we could get on the plane.
They especially enjoyed the airport store that had a bunch of Paw Patrol pups, including a brand-new Rubble.
When we finally boarded our plane and took off at 2pm, the flight was short enough for a few cartoons and a snack (2.5 hours).
We finally landed in Seattle around 4-something and were so relieved to be closer to our destination.
The next part of our journey was a bus ride to the rental car area. Getting the car was not problem but when we got in, the car wouldn’t start. Turned out it was a brand new car that had come off the truck and was not drivable yet. It even had the clear stickers covering the A-frame and dash. The rental car guys had to look up on YouTube how to install the fuses and change it from shipping mode to driving mode.
Our drive to Surrey took about 2.5 more hours and we got to the US-Canada border around 8pm. The drive to Surrey from there was quick and we arrived at Auntie Amy’s house around 8:30pm. That made our journey a total of 12 hours long!! Crazy.
The whole family was there waiting for us and we arrived in time to have birthday cake for Uncle Jay’s birthday.
The kids were up late and had a blast playing together. I love how they can pick up from where they left off last summer.
In the afternoon, we met up with Auntie Amy, Uncle Jay, Auntie Elaine, Uncle Mitchell, and Auntie Laurie for some raw oysters, crab, clams, and a bunch of other seafood goodies.
Janie ate at least a dozen oysters on her own and loved it.
Peanut slept through most of our meal, woke up to eat some crab, and then watched some Paw Patrol.
This morning, the kids were so happy to see all the snow in front of Amelia and Ellie’s house. They had a little bit of time to play before we piled into the minivan for a ride up to Squamish to ride the Seat to Sky Gondola.
The gondola took us up the mountain and Peanut was so excited.
At the top, there was a suspension bridge and other places to explore.
Janie drew initials in the snow and asked Mama to take a picture.
They also went down the tubing hill together and Janie kept her eyes closed the whole time.
Peanut was not tall enough to ride so he went to the store for a Canadian maple syrup treat.
He also finished off the timbits before the kids came back. He’s become a BIG FAN of timbits on this trip.
On the drive back down the mountain, the girls fell asleep in the back. Poor Janie became a pillow for Ellie and Amelia.
Today, we went to the California Academy of Sciences. We got a family membership so we could get Amelia and family in too. Amelia brought her backpack today since Janie had hers yesterday. So cute.
Janie also brought her camera and took lots of photos of the creatures. Peanut used his toy phone to copy her.
Peanut enjoyed seeing all the fish. He was barely able walk the last time he visited the museum.
I can still remember when it was SO hard to convince Janie to touch the creatures in the tide pool back she was Peanut’s age but now it’s no big deal.
It’s also fun to see how different Peanut is since it took him absolutely no convincing.
Before heading back to the East Bay, we all stopped for soft serve at the truck outside the museum.
For dinner, we took Auntie Amy for some tasty crab at Hang Ten Boiler.
At the end of the day, Peanut and Ellie gave each other hugs. They had a fun time together these past two days.
Our family from Vancouver is in town this weekend! Yay!
We met up with Auntie Amy, Uncle Jay, Amelia, and Ellie at the ferry and rode over to SF together!
For lunch, we went to Hog Island Oyster Co. It was super hot outside today.
The dads enjoyed some local beer in the shade while the kids ran around for a bit.
We went inside the Ferry Plaza to cool off and get some ice cream!!
The girls enjoyed chatting and exploring together. Love how it took them no time to warm up to each other. It was like we just saw them yesterday even though it was December when we last saw them in Hong Kong.
We tried to go to the playground but it was way too hot. So we spent some time in the shade at Justin Herman Plaza.
Next was a ride on Muni over to the mall. It was nice to be inside where it was a lot cooler.
Peanut loved the train ride.
At the mall, the kids played at the Lego store.
Then they took a bunch of rides up and down the spiral escalators with Dada.
For dinner, we walked to R&G Lounge so Auntie Amy could get some salt and pepper crab.
After dinner, we walked back to the ferry terminal and had a short ride back to Alameda. Peanut and Ellie shared some Cheetos while Amelia and Janie had some “alone time” at a separate table by the window.
