Road Trippin'

This week we took Lily on her first road trip. We packed the Forester to capacity and headed out to New Jersey. On Wednesday we drove from Boston to Bridgewater New Jersery to stay with our friends Andrew & Tammy and their two children, Julia and Nate. The Holzes are like family to us and we always enjoy spending time with them. Julia was very excited to meet Lily. The trip down was pretty easy - Lily slept most of the time. We had one rest stop feeding experience that was less than fun, but otherwise it was easy going!

We spent Wednesday night at the Holzes and then on Thursday left to continue our drive to Vorhees, NJ where Gordon's brother and his family live. Gordon's parents and his Dad's sister, Goo Ma, met us there as well. Everyone was so excited to meet Lily - she was like a little rock star. Lily will know Gordon's parents as Yeh-Yeh and Ma-Ma, the Chinese titles for the paternal grandparents. Goo-Ma, who is Gordon's Dad's sister, will be Goo-Pau to Lily. Here are some pictures of Yeh-Yeh, Ma-Ma and Uncle Gabe with Lily.














Gabe and his wife Que recently bought a beautiful new house. It was a real treat for us to get to stay there with them and check it out. It's a great house -lots and lots of space for big family gatherings like this one. It was also great to see our neices, Valora and Sera. It's amazing how fast they are growing. Valora is a real little lady now and Sera started walking on her own consistently while we were there!













On Saturday we had a one-month birthday party for Lily. The girls all got dressed up in their Chinese outfits, we dyed red eggs and Gabe did a great job decorating the dining room for Lily. There was a big sign with her Chinese name on it, lots of great food and a yummy cake. Que's parents and brother came over to join in the celebration as well. Lily wore a red and gold chinese outfit that was made by Que's Mom for Valora when she was a baby.


























On Sunday we packed up our stuff, said goodbye to the Wongs and drove back up the NJ turnpike to spend a final night with the Holzes. The Karchers - David, Kris, Greta and Duncan - came over to meet Lily as did Julia's Uncle Matt and Gordon's friend Joanna. Sunday became more "exciting" than planned when Nate got his pinky caught in a door hinge and needed a trip to the emergency room. It was tough on everyone, but Nate was a brave little guy and afer some stitches it looks like he will be okay. He'll be walking around with some bandages on his hand for a while - as Julia says "he's like Captain Hook, but with a club instead!". Monday morning we all had dutch babies - or as Julia calls them "baby dutchlings" and then it was time for us to pack up once more and head home. We had a great time on our trip and Lily is looking forward to seeing her New Jersey family again really soon.

To see more of pictures from our trip check out our flickr set.