Shelter-in-Place Life

What strange times we live in.  The kids are aware of what's going on, but also don't seem to be overly concerned about things.  Just for fun, Karina made herself a mask using toilet paper and yarn.  She's our craftsy kid.

Home schooling the three older kids continues like normal.  Things haven't changed for them...except for the 6 or 7 weekly activities they used to go to!  No more gymnastics, dance, karate, PE class, calligraphy class....

Xiao Yu, of course, is learning at home, now, as well.  We are impressed with his writing and drawing skills.  He wrote about our family's trip to Sunriver a couple of months ago.


Because the library is closed, the books that are ready-to-be-returned are accumulating and growing in number.  We're not sure what we'll do when the kids run out of books to read.  That might be when the shelter-in-place rubber meets the road for our family.

Here is our bookworm reading a book.  Do you read books while perched on the back of a sofa?

Gabe has also been passing time by drawing mazes.  This one is kind of tough.

There are some extra curricular activities still going on....through Zoom.  We would've never thought it possible, but Karina and Gabe decided to take up violin just before the quarantine hit, and they are actually able to learn somewhat through Zoom classes.  Karina likes it more than Gabe.

Emily is trying to keep things varied and fun. On same days of the week, there is something special for the kids.  For example, on Friday's they get to eat lunch from some fast food restaurant of their choice.  Last week it was Sonic.  That drink that Gabe is drinking is a grape soda chock full of purple food coloring.

Before they closed down the parks, we went out to a local beach along the Columbia River.  The kids enjoyed playing in the sand.

Elvin enjoyed throwing a line out...while catching up on the latest news about Covid.

With the weather being nicer, we've also started to play soccer in the backyard again.  It's an attempt at replacing the soccer season that Gabe and Karina are missing out on.  (Yes, Gabe is playing shirtless and in his PJs.)

The two middle kids have also enjoyed playing on the structure and swing.

And they've taken up jump roping.  The current challenge is trying to jump together, in sync.  Not easy!

Xiao Yu continues to display massive core body strength by doing stuff like this.  He can lift his legs up and over his head just like a gymnast.

And with less activities, it's meant that Elvin's had time to do some grafting of his fruit trees again.  He added a couple of grafts to his Asian pear tree.

Karina really enjoys riding her bicycle so she enjoys going around the block.  Sometimes we do a larger circuit through the neighborhood.

One time, when coming back home from a bike ride, we saw a couple of large birds flying around.  When they landed on a roof, we realized that they were turkey vultures, which are native to this area.

Sometimes the whole family goes out.


Like many people across the country, we've started baking more.  The kids enjoy making their own pizzas.

Here is how the first set turned out.  Too much cheese--it melted off of the pizza and took some of the pepperoni with it!

And a fun activity that Emily taught the kids is to make sidewalk chalk art, but if you use masking tape first and color various panes, different colors, then it looks like a stained glass window.  Karina drew a Easter egg first, and then worked on another one.

She's almost done with her cross.

Xiao Yu worked on a star.


This is Elvin's...a leaf; while Eliana was working on a mermaid one.

Hope you are staying healthy and well!

New family members!

As you may recall, Eliana wanted a rabbit for Christmas and we granted her wish.  Emily knows of a breeder and so contacted her.  She had a litter of baby bunnies but keeps them with their mommy bunny until they are ten weeks old.  So we had to wait until January to pick up the bunnies.  "Bunnies" and not "bunny" you may be asking?  It turns out that the breeder had a pair of sisters available.  Karina wanted a bunny too, and we let her use some of the Christmas money she got to buy one.

So off we went into Portland to go to the breeder's house.

We sat down and got to know the bunnies a little bit.  Karina got the black one, which she named "Starlight".  After getting a crash course on how to take care of bunnies, we brought them home.

The bunny made a big impact on Karina, so much so that she painted a picture of her.

We were told to have the bunnies live in our living room for at least a week, in order for them to get used to us and acclimate to their new surroundings out of the cold from the outside.

The little brown one belongs to Eliana and she named this one Churro, as in those tasty cinnamon and sugar covered snacks you can get from Costco.

They are both really cute.  They also are really attached to each other and stay close to each other most of the time.

So we have two new family members in our house!

Happy Birthday!

Xiao Yu has just turned 7!  He's been talking about and looking forward to his birthday all year long.  A common conversation is... "How many days until my birthday?"  And it finally arrived.

That morning, he opened presents.  Xiao Yu got various things...one of his most favorite was a Pete the Cat stuffed animal and various pairs of Pete the Cat socks, which he has been wearing every day.

He also got his own fishing pole!  No more borrowing from his siblings.

He likes donuts and requested donuts for his birthday instead of the usual cupcakes.

And then it was time to blow out the candles.  The funny thing is...

...it turns out that his aim of his blowing was not that accurate.  After 6 or 7 blows, Gabriel stepped in to lend a hand.

Xiao Yu wanted a piñata and so when we had a bunch of people over, we set it up for him. We did it indoors because it was dark and rainy outside.

Here are all the kids rushing in to grab the candy.

And he also got a red envelope from Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai.

He recently had an annual check-up at the doctor's office.  He is now over 4 feet tall and 52 pounds!

We hope you had a good birthday and hope you have a great year, Xiao Yu!

Christmas Break, Part Two

The day after Christmas, we left for the airport.  We headed off to southern California for the 2nd part of our Christmas with Elvin's family.  It's so nice that the kids can now help with the luggage and that we bring booster seats instead of huge car seats.

Gabe got a pair of binoculars from Grandpa Rice and put them to good use at the airport.

Once we arrived, we got situated at the hotel and went out to find dinner.  In the food court area of a mall, they had a large plaque with holes cut out for you to stick you face into.  The kids had lots of fun with that.  You'll notice that Gabe is doing a good job pretending to be a doggie by sticking his tongue out.  Eliana is even facing the right way.

We went to a handmade ice cream shop where Eliana got a cone.  Elvin tried their taro cream.

Karina and Gabe got popsicles.

The hotel we stayed at had a huge chair.  The kids loved climbing all over it and then invited Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai to join them.

The next day, we headed off to the Long Beach Aquarium.  Long Beach happens to be where Elvin and Emily got married...  So before getting to the Aquarium, we stopped at the church were we had the ceremony.  We took pictures in front because we couldn't get inside.  Overall, the kids were not that impressed.

Almost 15 years later...we tried to re-create the picture from our wedding.

Note sure we did a very good job...

The Long Beach Aquarium had quite a bit of things to see.  

Xiao Yu wanted to pose by the guy wearing the otter suit.

There was a sculpture of a hammerhead shark and it was made up of (literally) the heads of lots of hammers.  Gabriel loves puns and appreciated this one.

They had an exhibit with these weird and beautiful looking jellyfish that glowed in the dark.  They were about the size of a golf ball.

They had lots of exhibits where the workers would explain about the habitat and how they take care of the fish.

During lunch, we enjoyed the pleasant sunny weather.

We went into the lorikeet enclosure where the kids got to feed them some nectar.

Once the birds land on you, they don't go away until all the nectar is gone from the little cup.

Later on, Eliana put her hoodie on so that she didn't accidentally get pooped on.

Xiao Yu enjoyed the experience.

Overall, we enjoyed the aquarium.  Here is the main foyer.  This is where we had our wedding reception, with that great blue whale hanging above.

Here is a picture from the day of the wedding, a decade-and-a-half ago...

Afterwards, walking around, the kids found another huge chair.   

The next day, we visited the La Brea Tar Pits.  It's this place in Los Angeles where tar is bubbling up from the ground.  It's been happening for thousands of years and over the course of time, scientists have discovered the skeletons of thousands of animals that got stuck in the tar and died.  They've found creatures from the ice age, such as the well-known woolly mammoths and saber toothed cats, as well as more obscure animals such as the North American camel and a North American lion.

We decided to watch a 3D movie, so everyone got a pair of special glasses.

The workers there offer to take a picture of you in front of a blue screen, and then superimpose the image onto funny backdrops.  Here is one with Elvin and the boys.  We didn't purchase the picture--hence the watermark on it.  But you can make out Elvin and the boys seemingly drowning in a large pit of tar.

Outside, the kids climbed onto a statue of a prehistoric sloth.  They were HUGE back then.

And here is a statue of a pre-historic bear, which got as tall as 12 feet when standing up!

Afterwards, we went to a mall for lunch and Eliana spotted the Sprinkles cupcake shop.  She has been watching the show Sugar Rush on Netflix and recognized right away that one of the judges on the show owns this chain of cupcake stores.

Back at the hotel, the kids this time wanted the parents to get onto the big red chair.

And they wanted a silly picture!

The next day, we decided to stay close to the hotel.  In the morning, the kids played some games, such as dominos.

Then we headed off to the beach, which was right across the street.  It was sunny and in the 60's.  Too cold for the parents, but the kids were not deterred.

They dug a hole and a network of channels.

They also played in the waves.  To keep from getting pushed over by the waves, they would hold each other's hands for more stability.

After that, they went to the pool.  This pool was technically heated.  But not warm enough for the adults!

Even the kids wanted to get into the hot tub to warm up!

Eliana is our amphibian and loves the water, not matter what temperature.

We had a very hearty dinner at a local diner.

That night, we had s'mores at a fire pit that the hotel provided.

It was pretty yummy!

And on our last day there, before leaving for the airport, we got a bite to eat at the food court.  The kids wanted the adults to pose!

And so that was our time in Los Angeles!