Fun with Yie Yie

The past week was filled with much fun and good times. It will likely take a few posts to get through it all. To start off-- We FINALLY received our approval documents from the US Immigration Office to move forward with our second adoption. The approval date was July 17th, but we found out on the 18th, which, as many of you know-- is Wim's B-day.

This was a really nice way to kick off our week vacation along with an always highly anticipated visit from Uncle Earl, who has now been officially dubbed, "Yie Yie." I am not sure if this is the correct spelling-- pinyin, I'll have to check. But, it means Grandpa in Mandarin. One of Josie's cartoon's has a Yie Yie in it and we thought it would be fun for her to have a Yie Yie of her very own.

Without further ado, Yie Yie, on the night he arrived. There is a whole lot to the story of this night and all was captured, somewhat, on video. I will try to get it posted in the coming weeks.

Josie Dong Dong wasn't exactly sure what to think about Yie Yie the first morning, but it didn't take her long to find out what he is really like.

"Mommy is really happy to see you Yie Yie. I am happy too. Mommy is cooking breakfast for you and us. I am going to cook for you too!"

"Yie Yie! That's silly! You don't wear eggs on your eye! You eat them. Here, have some coffee. Mommy drinks coffee with breakfast."

"Yie Yie is funny!!! I like him. Look at the big breakfast I cooked for him!"

"I'm glad you came to visit me Yie Yie!"

We spend several days going to the beach. We've had the rainiest July on record since they started keeping records! Look out Seattle, here we come!

Luckily, we had a three day sprint of beach weather and made the most of it.

Josie Dong Dong loves hanging out with here Jie Jie and Guh Guh.


Everyone wanted to try and build a sea wall to stop the tide from washing onto our beach blankets. Gabrielle and Xavier crafted a plan.


As hard as they tried, the sea decided to claim the wall and our beach spot! We actually had to move back THREE times because the tide was coming in so high.

Josie Dong Dong was getting a little Wiley after the sea wall, so I decided to take control of her the best I could.

"Look at what My Mommy did to me!!!"

"Again Mommy! Doooo AGAAAIIINNNN!"

Here we are-- a different day, different beach. Wim is kicking back with a good book.

Yie Yie took to the water like a native New Englander.

The water was a bit more calm on this day and much to our surprise-- Wim found a quahog while wading around in the water.

For our friends outside of New England, Quahogs are type of hard shelled clam.

Josie Dong Dong was a little tentative about the clams, especially when she saw them moving round with their big, pink slimy foot.

"I no like it Jie Jie!"

Here are Jie Jie, Yie Yie, and Josie at our beach site looking at the clams.

Soon, the whole gang, sans a few of us were out in the water seeking out our supper for the night.

"Hey! Wait for me! I want to find clams too!!!"