Favorite places, the Ocean!

China and our family beach house. Love being here every year for two weeks in early June.

Ok I admit it , Sigh been home less than two weeks and I miss it already!

Ok I admit it. I needed an in and out burger fix while in California.

So here we are and I sent this photo to my cousin Emily who never was able to make it to one while she was there!

Our kids' amazing therapist

For those of you, who are dealing with attachment issues , here is a tip.

Find a good attachment therapist to support you and help your child heal.

 www. Attachment. org click on therapists and then your state and you'll find some. 

Here is ours, he was being so funny this morning with our kids, that I snapped a picture of him with my cell phone.
If you live in Utah look him up. K. Max Park. LMFT. 801-592-7876.

 He specializes in several things (attachment, addictions, troubled teens, marriage counseling, ADD, abuse , etc ) He knows other therapeutic modalities as well. 

Email: kmaxpark2004@yahoo. com  Yes he also does phone clients!
He is nothing short of a miracle worker in our book!

Cool Cassani Creation

Here is Stephen with a dump truck he created. Since we came back from Camp Turning Point, he has been going nuts with construx. I asked him why the sudden interest and he said "Miss Nancy said that it will make our brain stronger if we play with legos, construx and lincoln logs. I want my brain to be REALLY super strong. ". So here he is with his 4th creation this week.

Seal talk

This was so weird! TWICE we had a young seal come right up to us on this trip. THAT has never happened in all the 40 years I have been going to the beach. The tan one actually traveled several hundred feet to the base of our dune and was sitting on the bottom stone step to our family beach house . David and I were discussing some things. We were just about to go out on a walk, when we heard the barking of a seal. Thinking one was in distress (as it is pup birthing season) we went out of the house to look on the beach, there we saw it. We stared and talked, absolutely amazed. So we went and woke up the kids and they all came running out and saw the seal. When David walked around the other side of him to get another photo , the seal barked one last time. Then  looked at everyone as if to say " well you have all seen me now. I have delivered my message to you. so off I go"  I sat there stunned watching him. Several times we also had Dolphin pods or seal pods in the water right in front of our house. No where else on the beach front did we see that. It was the oddest thing. Food for thought.

Car bound!! Help I am being held 12 hours in a car with 6 crazy kids!!!

Save me I got to get home to my husband and have some adult conversation!!!
Ok, let's get real here I said the driver gets to pick the music. So Chessie our college age Nanny and Katie 16.5 volunteered immediately to drive from Fernley or Winnemucca Nevada. Help my ears I am going crazy with modern songs with lots of background noise. Although some of it isn't bad like Disney and some movie sound tracks.
Ok. the little ones had to do strong sitting and some hooks crooks ups and quiet sitting these last 2 hours so I could keep my sanity
; D. -n any event my son 13 keeps eating at every rest stop and amuses himself to listening to music on his apple computer. As for me I am doing exciting stuff like bills and figuring out my list of questions for our kids attachment therapist. Oh we had a great time it is so hard to come back. Sigh

Grandbaby visit

Here she is all 18 lb.s of her, Baby Anadel. I was expecting her to feel heavier with her being 24" long already at 6 months. However she was pretty light, and dressed cute. She snuggled right up to her Grandpa David when he held her. She looked her great Grandpa Ray Cassani over, "Hmm something familiar about the shape of that head..."
She seemed to like Sam and studied him intently, maybe remembered him holding her as a newborn babe less than 12 hours old.
I had fun holding her and singing to her. When I got on the floor to look her in the face, as she lay on her blanket tummy side down , she started these great big big belly laughs.
She laughed so hard she started choking on her drool. That scared her a little bit and so she started to fuss and was passed back to Mommy. We had hoped that she would be back with her parents to visit for the weekend as planned. However, we were disappointed to find out a few days later that Ben and Rachel had changed their mind about visiting.
After coming all this way , it was rather a let down. We had thought we would have some time to get to know Rachel a little better. We also hoped to connect with our grand daughter.
IN any event we have been having fun at the beach and enjoying some beautiful weather.

Wow I am so proud of myself!

I figured out how to post to my blog directly from my email and from my cell phone (blackberry) and even post photos too! Thanks to my very cool geek younger brother who showed me how to do it!
So cool.... I am totally ready now for my next trip to China. My blackberry can tie into the China mobile line and I can text and email from there. Awesome... stay tuned for the rest of our adventures in California.
Oh check out the sunset on this photo isn't it gorgeous. Also see Molly's knees? She decorated these with help from a Klutz make up book. --
Adriana Cassani

My cute grand daughter

Isn't she cute!

Newest Mother's helper

here is Chessie Owens our newest Mother' s helper with Molly on the beach.

Oh where are we??

Well we are here at our annual retreat at the Beach House in Watsonville. It is at Pajaro Dunes 20 minutes south of Santa Cruz (northern California) and 45 minutes north of Monterey. So here are a few pictures of boogie boarding, sandcastle building etc. Make you all jealous or encourage you to rent the house from my brother. I will have to find the web site for it. Lucky for us he bought the house and remodeled it, brought it up to code and updated it. Looks great I will show you the pictures ! Had awesome weather so far since June 2nd, although the fog rolled in tonight. The boys all go sailing tomorrow in Santa Cruz.
See the fun!

More around the Montera Light house

Dad was pretty fast at dish duty with his clean up crew. The girls bunk room slept 8! Also the light house it turns out came from Cape Cod Massachusetts. They even had camera men there the next morning filming the place because it turned out the lighthouse was older than they thought!

Montera Light house and coastal Bikers

We were staying the night at the Montera Lighthouse in Montera near Half Moon Bay in California. David decided it might be fun to have us join the bikers for a night along their journey. David, Samuel, and Chad (a friend from David's work) decided to ride their bikes up the California Coast from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. They rode over 28 miles a day. They stayed at the Youth Hostel most nights and then spent time in the city. I believe they toured the Exploratorium and Alcatraz, along with riding over the Golden Gate bridge. Here are a few pictures of the bikers in action. Also, pictures of us exploring the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Half moon bay. There were wonderful tide pools at low tide. We stayed the night in the youth hostel and enjoyed some homecooked meals we made in the community kitchens, along with our rooms.

Visiting Aunt Melissa for Sunday dinner

As As is our usual routine , we always make sure to see and visit Aunt Melissa and our kids' cousin, Nolan. You see Aunt Melissa is Nolan's Mommy and once upon a time was married to my brother Jerry. Sadly after 7 years they divorced. However Aunt Melissa is still an important part of my mine and children's' lives. We really enjoy her a lot.
They have both since remarried and seem very happy with their new spouses. However Since Nolan is amazing my children are really partial to him, aside from the fact that he is a great kid , sensitive kind cousin, and 1/2 Chinese.
When we were adopting Meili nearly 9 years ago, Melissa was my on going advice person to ask every imaginable questions about Chinese issues etc. My girls adore having an Aunty who looks like them, enjoys them and also they covet her hair .
Also a popular thing with them is the fact that Aunt Melissa enjoys their antics and Chinese food as much as they do. So do I! So off to Aunt Melissa's house we go where Uncle Alan her husband has created an amazing Chinese feast for them. Yummy see below.