Visiting Northern Cal

After five days in Southern Cal, we made the trek up to Northern Cal for Christine's wedding.  It was a six hour drive up the California coast, and it was the longest Samantha has been in the car.  She did great, though!  Lots of talking, playing with empty water bottles, and thumb sucking.  This was my view from the middle of the back seat much of the drive.

When we had checked into our hotel, we got to see Aunt Christine.  And we were greeted by her trademark Care Bears that she brought all the way to Palo Alto from SF.  Samantha liked them :)

That night we had a delicious dinner with some of Andrew's family.  Here's Samantha with her Great Aunt Lucy.

And with her Great Aunt Mary.

There was course after course of delicious Chinese food- most of which I was trying for the first time.  Yum!

We had a very busy day planned on Friday, so we were really glad that Wenhai drove down to have breakfast with us.  

After Samantha's nap we headed out to spend a few hours walking around Stanford- what a gorgeous campus!  Last time I was there I was doing research for my senior thesis- now over eight years ago!  Fun to imagine what life would have been like if we had gone to school here.

In the afternoon, while Grandpa supervised naptime and Andrew had a meeting, Grandma and I headed out to get our nails done with Christine.  Here's Christine and her new sister-in-law, Nancy.

Ready for the rehearsal!

Samantha made friends with the ringbearers.

Here she is waiting with mommy and daddy to head down the aisle.  Notice how S is out of focus in both pics- she's always moving these days!

Jumping up and down in the pew.  

Family shot at the rehearsal dinner.

Samantha wasn't the littlest baby at the Rehearsal Dinner.  Little Leila is only one month old and S looks like a giant compared to her!

With Aunt Christine!  

The day of the wedding we had breakfast with Chew, Grace, Grandma and Grandpa, while Andrew went on the group run.

Loving her new hat from Grace!

Samantha ends up in crazy places now that she is crawling.  After some afternoon playtime we headed to Aunt Christine's wedding- more pics to follow!

On Sunday Samantha had her first dim sum. Yum!

Lieu young ladies- Christine, Ruth, Sparrow, Samantha, and me.

The Lieu brothers- Uncle Noel, Grandpa, and Uncle Peter.

Grandma and Samantha :)

Samantha and Grace.

After dim sum we got to hang a little with Christine and Stan- we felt so honored to get some special time with the newly married couple.

Love this little one and those little feet!

Playing with Aunt Christine and Uncle Stan was very tiring :)

Sunday night we had dinner with Amanda and Daniel- so fun to catch up with both of them.

We had a wonderful time with Grandpa and Grandma.  Samantha misses you both already!