Visitors from Taiwan

My aunt and uncle from Taiwan came to visit for my sister's wedding. Since they have never been to the US before they decided to stay for a couple weeks after the wedding to do some sight-seeing. My mom has been taking them on tours of Niagra Falls and DC. I went to a park nearby to take some pictures with them before we headed off to brunch.

After brunch I dropped them back off at my family's house, and my aunt was showing me a giant Chinese veggie she found in my mom's garden. It was hiding under some bushes. Not sure if the picture does it proper justice, but it was huge! And supposedly it's not even ripe yet.
This is the Winnie the Pooh that guards my mom's garden. My uncle was wondering why Winnie the Pooh didn't tell us about the giant veggie. I think it's because he wanted to keep it for himself...
Here is my aunt picking some of the tomatoes from my mom's garden. I think she even found a strawberry that the squirrels hadn't eaten yet.
This is a giant green bean that's growing off the fence in my mom's backyard. Who knew green beans got that big!
And she apparently also has some squash growing. Last time I looked at my mom's garden I only remember seeing tomatoes and strawberries. It seems she has expanded her horizons. Who knows what she'll start growing next.
Once Phil and I get settled maybe we'll start a little garden of our own...

Shopping in SoHo

We have some catching up to do on the happenings in Jersey. So there was an outing to NYC a couple weekends back with Phil's family. One of his cousins in CA came back to the NY area for work, so we all went out for lunch in Chinatown.

The lunch didn't look spicy, but it definitely was.

After lunch Phil went to get a haircut and we met up with his cousins in SoHo to do some window shopping.

Here is Phil with his cousin Lucia. Having a fiesta?
While we were walking through the city we saw a street sign that reminded us of our friends back in good old OH. The following day Phil and I both got really sick. We're still not sure if it was the spicy food we had for lunch or the bubble tea we had after lunch. We're leaning towards bubble tea. With the China milk problem that's been going on we should have known better. I guess no more bubble tea for a while. *sigh*

The Big Day

After the pre-wedding/rehearsal fun the girls had to rush off to get ready for the wedding. Hair, makeup, the usual...Here I am with my sister post-hairdo.
When we got back to the hotel after our hair appointments I was able to catch a pre-wedding photo of Tam. This is the face of a shocked brother-in-law hoping his picture doesn't show up on the internet somewhere...so much for that...
Once we had a chance to get our makeup done it was off to the yacht club for the girls. Here we are in the limo.

Here's my sister in her wedding dress. Her dress was just a zip up so it was realitvely quick getting her in it. Doesn't she look beautiful!

After everyone was dressed we led Mandy outside for some photos with the groom, bridal party and family. Here's Tam seeing his bride in her dress for the first time.
The view by the yacht club was so pretty Phil and I had to take a picture.
As the guests started to arrive Mandy hid upstairs with the rest of the bridal party. I went downstairs to scope things out and check on the guests. Apparently the yacht club recycled decorations from a previous party and used grass for the place cards. Luckily the decorations they used matched the wedding colors. I actually think it looked nice.

Here are pictures from the ceremony. The gazebo area where the ceremony took place looked so nice at night with all the lights.

There was a Buddhist portion of the ceremony for our side of the family, and a Christian portion of the ceremony for Tam's side of the family. This is a picture of Master Lian Hong from our temple officiating the Buddhist portion.
The bridesmaids and groomsmen holding back tears (though the guys would never admit it).

And after the ceremony was complete the happy couple was able to cut loose.
It was a night full of dancing and eating. No pictures of food this time, but all I have to say is ice cream and chocolate fountain. Yum!

The wedding party stuck around until all the guests left and packed up everything to take back to the hotel. By the time everyone got back it was almost 2am - perfect time for more smores! Only this time some of the guys joined us as well. I'm sure the hotel people were glad to be rid of us. No more random smore making sessions at the fire pit. ^__^

Another Wedding, Another Rehearsal

It's only been a couple weeks, but this past weekend was time for another Wedding. This time my sister was the one to tie the knot. The wedding took place at a yacht club in White Plains, NY. Here are some pictures of the rehearsal.

This is the area outside the yacht club where the ceremony was held. With a lovely view of the water. The proud parents.

The flower girls - our cousin's twin daughters, Phoebe and Sarah.
Tam's mom and sister.
The bridesmaids and groomsmen - all 11 of us! Well, you can't see all of us and I'm behind the camera...but there really were 11 of us. Tam and his brother practicing their wedding ceremony stand.
My sister's practice walk down the aisle with our Uncle TiP.

After the rehearsal at the yacht club we headed to downtown White Plains for a rehearsal dinner with the wedding party and some of my relatives from out of town. Since Mandy and Tam decided to do American style food at the wedding they saved the traditional 10-course Chinese dinner for the rehearsal dinner. I got distracted, so I didn't get pictures of all the food, but you get the idea...

At the rehearsal dinner Phil got a chance to hang out with some of the kids who he hasn't seen since my family reunion last summer. Here he is with James - competing over whose tongue changed colors more from the lollipops.
The bride and bridesmaids: me, Kim, Nicole, Mandy, Archana, and Linda

Me, Mandy and Mom.
A picture of the happy couple back at the hotel.
After the rehearsal dinner a bunch of the bridesmaids went outside the hotel by the indoor pool and made some smores! This is the second wedding in the past month that I've been part of where we've made smores the night before the wedding. I'm sensing a new trend coming on.
What makes it even better is that we roasted our marshmallows over a fire pit ^__^

I'm sure if the guy that turned on the fire for us knew what we were planning on doing he would have stopped us, but luckily for us he seemed unaware.

But the smores were just as good.
The girls on a post smore sugar rush. (me, Mandy, Nicole and Linda)

Our house is famous!!!

I was getting ready to head out for dinner with Phil and some of his coworkers when I got a call from my best friend. She was watching HGTV and she swore that she saw our house. I flipped on the TV and sure enough there it was! The show it was featured in is called Hidden Potential, where they show 3 houses to a potential buyer with a limited budget and show them the hidden potential by redesigning the house to suit the buyer's needs. The episode is called "In Need of a Nursery", and ours is house number 3. This was done back in 2006, but still exciting!
Check it out!!

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_988/text/0,,HGTV_22056_68576,00.html