Week 14: 7/3/05

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFCC80" TEXT="#080000" background="67cc8b83.jpg"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Random Things to Make You Giggle"><B>Random Things to Make You Giggle</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hong Kong Disneyland"><B>Hong Kong Disneyland</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Parkview Apartment"><B>Our Parkview Apartment</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 1: 4/3/05"><B>Week 1: 4/3/05</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 2: 4/10/05"><B>Week 2: 4/10/05</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 3: 4/17/05"><B>Week 3: 4/17/05</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 4: 4/24/05 "><B>Week 4: 4/24/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 5: 5/1/05 "><B>Week 5: 5/1/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 6: 5/8/05 "><B>Week 6: 5/8/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 7: 5/15/05 "><B>Week 7: 5/15/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 8: 5/22/05 "><B>Week 8: 5/22/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 9: 5/29/05 "><B>Week 9: 5/29/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 10: 6/5/05 "><B>Week 10: 6/5/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 11: 6/12/05 "><B>Week 11: 6/12/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 12: 6/19/05 "><B>Week 12: 6/19/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 13: 6/26/05 "><B>Week 13: 6/26/05 </B></A></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f00000cc00.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Week 14: 7/3/05 </B></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 15: 7/10/05 "><B>Week 15: 7/10/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 16: 7/17/05 "><B>Week 16: 7/17/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 17: 7/24/05 "><B>Week 17: 7/24/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 18: 7/31/05 "><B>Week 18: 7/31/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 19: 8/7/05 "><B>Week 19: 8/7/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 20: 8/14/05 "><B>Week 20: 8/14/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 21: 8/21/05 "><B>Week 21: 8/21/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 22: 8/28/05 "><B>Week 22: 8/28/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 23: 9/4/05 "><B>Week 23: 9/4/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 24: 9/11/05 "><B>Week 24: 9/11/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 25: 9/18/05 "><B>Week 25: 9/18/05 </B></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Australian Sunrise" ><B>Welcome to Chase family planet!</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Australian Sunrise" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >    |    </FONT> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to Chase family planet!">home</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adventures in Asia">Adventures in Asia</A>   ·   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us">Contact Us</A></div> <bR> <div> Week 14: 7/3/05 </div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" ><B>Hi there!</B></FONT></div> <div>  </div> <div> So summer is officially here, both the season and the vacation... at least for Nathan! My daily afternoon "vacation" is over now that school is over!<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Benjamin is two! Summer is here! Sound the alarms!</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> On Thursday we had two special events: Nathan's last day of his first year of school and Benjamin's second birthday. We were so incredibly lucky that Mike was able to take off work a couple of hours early (meaning he got off at 6:00 p.m. instead of 8:00 or 9:00) and we met him at the Star Ferry for an evening of fun in Tsim Sha Tsui on the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula. Yes it meant keeping the kids up much later than normal, but you only ever have a birthday once a year, right? And we knew it wasn't a school night! We went to the California Pizza Kitchen where the kids chowed down on so much pasta I thought they were going to explode. Everything came all out of order, we got our entrees, then our drinks, then our appetizer, and we were starving since both of us had skipped lunch. After we'd stuffed ourselves silly, the boys got chocolate sundaes as part of their kids' meals. Then we ordered an adult-sized sundae, which could have fed about four adults (or just one member of the Chase/Carruth clan who can shovel the stuff in!). As if that wasn't enough, yet another sundae was delivered to the table with a candle in it for Ben while a lone waiter serenaded Benjamin with Happy Birthday. Nathan blew out the candle, causing many tears, so the waiter relit the candle, and Ben spit all over the ice cream. It didn't matter, the only part of it that got eaten was the cherry, we were all too full to think of one more bite of ice cream. We then walked downstairs to the Disney Store and the Toys R Us where we had a little shopping spree with Ben's birthday money. We took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island and then went home and put our sugar crashing kids to bed. It was a great day, especially the fact that we got a little time with Mike who has worked very late or been out of town every single year on both the boys actual birthdays (except for their births), so this was indeed a nice treat.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> It's weird to think of Benjamin as being two, he's so sedate! Nathan at two was all over the charts on the emotional roller coaster scale, I remember throwing up all morning on the day of his second birthday party as I was pregnant with Benjamin but hadn't announced it yet. Everyone commented on how beautiful my skin was that day, what a beautiful complexion... personally I thought I looked green with morning sickness, but I do remember that Nathan's second year was quite the ordeal. Benjamin just seems content to observe his big brother's antics and he's cool with that, rather than feeling the need to participate in the histrionics. And I'm cool with that!<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Friday July 1 marked the 8th anniversary of the day Hong Kong became part of China. Prior to 1997 it had been ruled by the British since the end of the Opium Wars in 1841. Last year Michael happened to be in Hong Kong on a business trip (and thus missed Benjamin's first birthday) and he witnessed a massive crush of people walking down the street in protest. Hong Kong is part of China, but politically they say it's "One Country, Two Systems" and Hong Kong enjoys relative autonomy for now, it's governing body is a limited democracy. The agreement reached in 1997 says that Hong Kong can remain this way for at least 50 years. This year there were celebrations planned as well as protests, but after seeing the photos that Mike brought back from last year, I figured that it was not the day to take the kids out anywhere for fear of loosing them. I flipped through the stations on the TV occasionally, and saw video of the protests this year, but the newspaper said there were less than half the number of protesters than in previous years, so over all it wasn't considered a "successful" protest. As an American who each year celebrates Independence Day on July 4th, it seemed a little strange to be here celebrating a day that seems like the opposite of independence.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Birthday Un-Party</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> After last year's nearly two-grand affair for Benjamin's first birthday, we decided to have a little "Party that's not a party" and take Ben to Ocean Park and invited the Lim Family and our friend Robbi to come along, returning to our house afterwards for cake and pizza. I stayed up the night before baking and then decorating a cake that definitely brought out the worst in me! Having ever only previously decorated two other cakes in my entire life, I'm not sure why I thought I could make an elaborate triple layered, three-dimensional train cake complete with smoke stack and coal tender. But that's what I did. It took a total of seven hours from start to finish, and everything was made from scratch, including the buttercream frosting. At about 10:30 p.m., my black tee shirt covered in powdered sugar and my fingertips dyed green with food coloring, I shouted "Why is this so hard! I should be able to do this! Thousands of people bake and decorate gorgeous cakes every day and make it look so easy!" Mike said "yeah, they are the ones who actually take classes and learn how to do it after years of practice". Touché! In the end, despite my thinking it looked like a giant lopsided monstrosity, I got the exact result I wanted which made the enormous effort all worth it- Ben looked at the towering green confection and with finger outstretched shouted "A TRAIN!". Happy birthday, precious son.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Happy 3rd of July!</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> On Sunday we went to church and then wandered down to the waterfront where two flagpoles fly the flags for Hong Kong and China, and a giant gold statue of the national flower of Hong Kong sits in front of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, site of the 1997 handover of rule of Hong Kong from Great Britain to China. It was a breezy day, so we popped the kids up on a concrete ledge and snapped a photo with the flags flying in the background. Every year we make a point to pin our American flag to the wall, plop the kids (or kid when it was only Nathan) down in front of it and snap a photo which we've then either had printed and mailed out or more recently emailed to our friends and family. This year, we didn't have an American flag handy, so this was a bit of a stretch. The two flags are generally flown in tandem here in Hong Kong. The national flag for the People's Republic of China is red with a large yellow star representing the Communist party and four smaller yellow stars representing the people of China. Hong Kong, although part of China, does have it's own "regional" flag which is red with a white Bauhinia flower on it, the national flower of Hong Kong, in each flower petal is a single star, the five stars complementing the five stars on the China flag. Our taking a photo this way of the boys caused an enormous stir. In the parking lot right next to the flag poles were three tour busses of tourists from China, who stood behind us snapping pictures of us taking pictures of the boys. Groups of twenty to thirty people would assemble in front of the giant gold Bauhinia, and then they'd grab the kids so they could be in the picture with them. My boys made a friend in the son of one of the sidewalk concessionaires selling sodas and water, and they played for quite awhile, chasing each other and laughing, not a word of language in common except the one common to all young children anxious for a playmate- a huge smile and a beckoning swipe of the hand.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> That night we went to the Braden's house for barbeque. We have been so spoiled over the last year with Mike grilling dinner for us at least once a week in California, inviting people over for his mouth watering beef ribs or his perfectly seasoned giant ribeye steaks. Here in Hong Kong we can't barbeque on site. We can walk into the country park behind our home, dragging charcoal and everything else needed, most especially mosquito spray, but the effort to grill in the wild with the kids has not seemed equal to the result. But the thought of celebrating American Independence Day with the absence of meat cooked with fire just seemed down-right un-American (yes, even more so than taking our kids' photo in front of the flag for a communist country!). The Braden's had originally invited us to go out to a restaurant, but Sunday was just about the most gorgeous day we've seen in the four months we've been here, so at the last second they called up and said change of plans: come for some BBQ instead! So I quickly tossed a salad and with mouths watering we zoomed in a taxi to their house for a lovely evening. They put out flag cloth napkins, but almost as an afterthought since they've been out of America for so long it didn't register that the day was anything special! To us, the 4th of July has always been a special occasion, we always find ourselves in interesting places, such as Moscow while Gorbachev was still in control,<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>Tokyo with heat exhaustion, a hottub on our honeymoon with a view of the fireworks at Walt Disney World, Fort Macarthur with our friends in the Air Force<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >,</FONT> and of course the NICU at Lucille Packard's Children's Hospital at Stanford where two years ago Benjamin had his heart surgery.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Catching up slowly...</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> I wish I could keep this more up to date, but with Mike's current schedule I just don't get too much computer time! If he's not here, then the boys demand my concentrated attention, and by the end of the night when they are finally in bed snoozing and I have the computer all to myself while I wait for Michael to come home I'm just too brain-dead to write. My cousin Josh arrives the last week of July, so maybe while he distracts the kids I can get some work done! For now, we've got some great photos for you to look at!</div> <bR> <div> <B>Happy traveling!</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#00BF00" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <B>Heather, Michael, Nathan, and Benjamin Chase</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="771" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 308 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="400680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Benjamin's Birthday dinner at California Pizza Kitchen</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="402680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Ben with his birthday Sundae, saying </div> <div> "No mommy, you can't have any, back off!"</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 502 WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="404680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> On Nathan's last day of school (also Ben's Birthday), Benjamin and I rode the school bus in with Nathan and his friends, which thrilled Nathan so much!  I couldn't understand a word that any of the kids were saying, but obviously they all could since they'd all laugh at the same time... That's Nay-Co-Nut in the row behind Nat and Ben.  </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="40868e00.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="480" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Nathan home from his last day of school.</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 357 WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="40a680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Benjamin: I woke up this morning and now I'm two years old and I'm not happy about it.  DON'T expect me to smile.</div> <bR> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="40e680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Benjamin still got a lot of loot despite the lack of a party!  Guess what?  Thanks to all his loved ones, his train collection is now larger than it was before the whole trash can incident!  THANK YOU!</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 292 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="410680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Ocean Park!  </div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="412680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Momma and the Birthday Boy.</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 341 WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="414680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The Carousel at Ocean Park.  How cool is this: Robbi's sister painted some of these horses many years ago in the U.S.!</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="416680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> One of the two giant pandas at Ocean Park who came down very close to the people.  The panda habitat is kept at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit... the coolest spot in humid, hot Hong Kong!</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 325 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="418680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Our sweet panda children</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="41a680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Benjamin and Nathan eating pizza and cake with Michael and Natalie Lim at our house after a fun day at Ocean Park for Ben's Birthday Un-Party.</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 645 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="42068e00.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="480" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Benjamin's birthday abrasions from his big brother</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="422680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The cake uneaten (above)</div> <div> The front with it's coal tender being </div> <div> digested by four very hyper kids (below)</div> <div> The photos just don't do it justice... and I promise to either enroll in a cake decorating class or do better at ordering cakes in advance...</div> <div> <IMG SRC="424680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 341 WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="41c680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Bubbles!  Bubbles!  It got a little crazy when the lightsaber came into it and Heather ended up with a lapful of sticky bubble solution, but it was a LOT of fun!</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="41e680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <B>Happy Birthday America!</B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>