Point Reyes Station California

Last Sunday, we visited Point Reyes Station in California. Point Reyes Station is a small unincorporated town located in western Marin County, California. It is also very close to the San Andreas Fault responsible for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Isn't the 'San Andreas Fault' sound very familiar? Some of you must have studied it during the geography class in school.

We went on a faultline walking tour from the Point Reyes National Seashore's Visitor Center.

Due to limited daylight hours nowadays, we did not want to spend too much time on the earthquake trail. In order to save time, daddy had to put our little girl on his shoulder even though our little Sheri loves scampering around on her own.In that aspect, I must give credit to our little girl for her independence. Ever since from the day she knows how to walk, she has never expressed any desire for us to carry her.

During our trail, we witnessed a coyote devouring a carcass. I would say that was the closest contact that we ever had to the wildlife in an unrestrained environment.

The blue markers in the picture denote the faultline.

During the 1906 earthquake, one side of the fence in the picture jumped 16 feet in less than a minute.

So, this means that if you and your friend were here on April 18 1906, shaking hands on either side of the rift zone, both of you would have been pulled apart by about 16 feet.

We reached the end of the trail. It turned out to be a very educational trail for mommy and Sheri (hopefully). Thanks to daddy who never fails to impress mommy with his knowledge of geography.

We went back to our car and continued our journey. Looks like our little Sheri also wants to play an active role in navigating us to our next destination.

There are a couple of undeveloped ocean beaches at Point Reyes that runs through open grassland along the coast. Being nature-lovers, we decided to explore one of them.

Don't you think that both father and daughter have similar hairstyle? Hee! Hee! Hee!

Our little girl was stunned with astonishment when she first saw the beach. Looking at the horizon on the beach always makes us feel so small and insignificant. I wondered if that was the reason she stood rooted to the ground for quite awhile before venturing further.

We were pretty impressed by the cleanliness of the beach.

The beaches overlook the Pacific Ocean. When we were on the east coast, we visited the beach at Atlantic City, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. So, daddy feels that we should definitely visit one of the beaches which overlooks the Pacific Ocean since we are on the west coast now. According to daddy, this will enable us to appreciate the fact that United States is a large continent by itself. So, this trip also fulfills daddy's wish to visit one of the beaches on the west coast that overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

One last shot before we left.

Beautiful memories from North America

In celebration of our little girl's birthday, we are proud to present to you a video clip that captures the wonderful moments of her life in North America in the second year of her life journey. This is also a gift from us to our little darling. Hopefully, she will cherish it and carry it with her for the rest of her life.
Enjoy!

I'm TWO!

Time flies. Our little girl is going to be two tomorrow. Unlike last year, we decided to keep our celebration simple this year. We had a small party just for ourselves today. Mommy specially baked a banana cake for our little girl. The reason for the choice of banana cake was because mommy was inspired partly by the recent batch of banana muffins that she baked. It turned to be so delicious that even mommy who is not a big fan of muffins ended up falling in love with the banana muffins. I would be keen to share the recipe with any of you who are interested.

While our little girl was taking her afternoon nap, Daddy and mommy spent some time decorating the banana cake that was freshly baked from the oven.Finally, it was ready to give our little girl a surprise when she wakes up from her nap.

Surprise!

Happy Birthday to our little precious!

Our little greedy girl was caught red-handed on the camera for laying her hands on the raspberries on the cake. Yummy!

One last shot before we cut the cake.

It's time for the cake cutting ceremony!

Presenting to our little girl her birthday present from daddy and mommy!

Daddy and mommy hope that our little girl likes the birthday celebration that we had specially put up for her. Happy Birthday to Sheri!

Birthday greetings from Auntie Suze who is in charge of the kindergym at YMCA.

A birthday treat -Tilden Little Farm

Last Saturday, we went to Tilden Nature Park.

Of course, the only attraction that is of interest to her is the little farm in the park.

Daddy and mommy know our little girl very well. She gets very excited when she sees animals, so this is our birthday treat for our little girl whose birthday is coming in one week's time.

Sheri: Moo! Moo!

Sheri: Baa! Baa!

Sheri: Hello! Goat!

Our little girl gets very excited when she sees animals. Throughout the visit, she was scampering around the farm trying to take a closer look at the animals. We had to keep a close eye on her as we were afraid that she might get too close to the animals



We saw the goats head butting each other just like daddy and Sheri who like to head butt each other too.
Our little girl has always been reading books about animals, so she could recognize the names of animals that are printed on the information board.

Rabbit is our little girl's favourite animal.

Frankly, this was the first time that mommy and daddy saw a live turkey.

Our little girl wanted to pet a hen that was wandering around in the farm, but it was not easy. She followed the hen for quite awhile before she could finally lay her hands on it.

Finally, her perseverance was paid off.

We also visited the Environmental Education Centre beside the Little Farm. It provides information about the wide variety of plants and animals in Tilden Nature Park. We were impressed by the layout and the condition in which the exhibits were kept in the Education Centre.


A picture of our little girl stepping on the scale which tells us the mass of water in her body.

Our little girl has always been an avid reader. However much she has read about farm animals, nothing beats the real experience. This trip provides an excellent opportunity for our little girl to come close to the farm animals that she has read about in the books.

Christmas is coming!

Last Saturday, we went to 99 Ranch Market for grocery shopping. It is one of the largest Asian supermarkets in Berkeley. You can find all kinds of Asian delights there and you cannot help but feel as if you are no longer in the States.

There is a large Christmas tree outside the supermarket, which helps liven up the atmosphere for the coming festive season. Mommy quickly asked Daddy to take a picture of us with the Christmas tree.

In the evening, we attended a Christmas party at daddy's advisor home. We had a sumptuous dinner and a fun-filled evening.

Merry Christmas to all!

Wee Music Dance Workshop

Time flies. Today is the second Friday of the month. Here we are again, at the dance workshop in YMCA. Today, we had 'Wee Music' for the kids. See how our little girl danced to the rhythm of the music during the class!

Who is Ah Ma?

As our little girl is making sense of the world nowadays, mommy tries to introduce her to other members of the family. My mom was here for a short while when I delivered Sheri, but I know that our little girl has absolutely no recollection of my mom even though she took care of her when she cried in the middle of the night in the first two weeks after she was born. The only gift left by my mom that our little girl can relate to is the bolster that she has to hug every night to go to sleep. Whenever I see her hugging the bolster, I will always ask her, "Who made the bolster for you? " Without any hesitation, she will always reply, "Ah Ma!" Then, I will continue to ask her, "Who is Ah Ma?" Even though she may not appreciate the relationship between Mama and Ah Ma, she never fails to answer me that Ah Ma is mama's mommy as this was what I taught her. Unfortunately, she seems to be using the term 'Ah Ma' wrongly nowadays. She likes to call adults whom she meets 'Ah Ma'. Her favourite phrase is 'Bye, bye, Ah Ma!' Even though I try to correct her every time she does it, she does not seem to realise her mistake. It can be embarrassing at times. Fortunately, nobody here understands the term 'Ah Ma'. I guess this happens because she does not have the chance to interact closely with her grandparents ever since she was born. Sometimes, we cannot help but question ourselves whether we are depriving her of the chance to enjoy the love and affection from her grandparents. Perhaps, it's time to bring her home to meet other members of the family.

Adventurous Sheri!

Yes, our little girl is getting more adventurous nowadays. She has finally mustered up enough courage to climb up the ladder on her own without any assistance from mommy. Good job, darling!

Tiny waves at YMCA

YMCA has a session called Tiny waves where toddlers can play with water in a heated shallow pool. They also provide water toys to keep the little ones entertained in the pool. Mommy brings our little girl to the pool on every Tuesday. It is also open for family swim on weekends.

Last Sunday, we decided to go for the family swim. With daddy taking care of our little girl in the pool, mommy could finally snap some pictures of our little girl in the pool.

I do not deny that it is more relaxing to swim in a heated pool. At least, we do not need to overcome the initial jitters when we first step into an unheated pool.

Our little girl had fun playing with the green dolphin.

Whee! Down the slide!

It always gives parents a great sense of satisfaction when their child achieves a milestone in their development.

Video of Sheri with Clifford, the red dog

This post is specially dedicated to her Godmother, Sheri Lense, who gave Clifford to Sheri as a birthday present on her one year old birthday. Little Sheri is a dog lover just like her godmother. See how much she adores Clifford.

Circletime at baby gym

Our little Sheri goes to the baby gym in YMCA every morning and she enjoys the 20 minutes of circletime.

Wedding Anniversary 2008

2nd December is a special day for mommy and daddy. It's our wedding anniversary. Five years ago, it was on this day that daddy and mommy exchanged our marriage vows in the presence of the mayor of Princeton and our friends in Princeton Town Hall. Time flies. Here we are now in Berkeley, California, celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary!

Mommy specially baked a carrot cake for the occasion. More importantly, mommy wanted to have some fun playing with the writing icing tubes that she bought recently from the store. Finally, mommy's carrot cake was ready for display.

What do you think of mommy's masterpiece?

Unfortunately, daddy has group meeting on every Tuesday night, so we could only get to cut the cake late at night. Our little girl was sound asleep by then. Sorry, darling, for not sharing the joy with you!

Happy Wedding Anniversary to mommy and daddy!

Lazy Sunday morning

This year, we had a very fruitful Thanksgiving holidays. As published in my earlier posts, we had a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner with Auntie Deanna on Thursday evening. On Friday, we met up with Uncle Tao Feng's family for lunch. On Saturday, we drove to Napa Valley for wine tasting. After we came back from Napa Valley, we went for late night shopping. That left us completely exhausted on Sunday.

Our little Sheri saw us lazing around on the sofa on Sunday morning. Both mommy and daddy were reading something of interest to us on the sofa. Mommy told Sheri that she should go grab her own book if she wanted to join us on the sofa. Amazingly, she did what she was told.
Here we go! All the members in the foo family were reading on the sofa on Sunday morning.

According to daddy, President Ronald Reagan once said that reading is a magic carpet and you can never be lonely if you learn to enjoy a good book.'