Youth Conference

Lillie was able to participate in a church youth conference this past week. There was over 500 youth from all across the area who all came to the University of Maryland for a one-week conference filled with classes, games, dances, and devotionals. The theme was Trust in the Lord!  

We dropped her off early Monday morning. Here she is with her best friend Lilly, from the ward. Lilly’s sister is behind them. Her dorm room seemed a little primitive, but it worked for them!  And the food was pretty good, she reported. Lots of variety and chocolate ice cream too!  

The kids were all divided into small groups where they learned and played together. Lillie loved her group! Their company name was called "Be One" with two counselors (Tyler and Erin). There were 6 girls (Lillie, Lilly, Sam, Kelsey, Catrina, and Paula - all from the Suitland Stake) and 9 boys (Daillin, Jacob, Chad, Phouc, Scott, Calvin, Evan, Ben, and Tobey). Her family away from home. 

The group immediately had some large group activities. First day was orientation where all the youth learned what would happened throughout the week. Lillie and her bestie Lilly stayed right next to each other thr entire time.

  

Day two was full of fun classes, activities, and a dance! Lillie met many new friends, learned many new things, and got to dance with a lot of nice boys. 

Day three was more classes and then game night! Be One won lots of the games. Lillie and a few of her friends helped make a banner for their company. They drew a bee and Lillie wrote “Be One” in her fancy calligraphy. They even made a chant to show off to other companies. The night ended with a pizza celebration.

Day four was the spiritual day that consisted of many devotionals, more classes, the variety show, and a musical program. Lillie was able to play violin duets with Blythe, a girl from the stake, in the musical program. Some of her friends also participated and sang in the choir with her.

The five and final day was the most exciting and sad. There were even more activities, a slideshow, more music, another dance, and goodbyes. It rained as the kids were walking to the dance haha. When Lillie came home, she said she had so much fun at FSY. It was an answer to a lot of her prayers such as wanting to meet new friends, learning more about the gospel, touring UMD (a college she was interested in), and getting a feel of the BYU environment and college life. 

We have a third driver in our house

Lillie got her driver license today!  She worked so hard and overcame nerves and conquered driving. All along we were told that Maryland did away with the on road test, only some parking skills on a closed course. It was done away with for Covid, so the tester didn’t need to be enclosed in a car with someone else. But apparently they reinstituted it July 6. We were unaware. So we were completely caught off guard. But Lillie slayed it and passed the on road driving!!  We are proud of her. 

George Mason University Summer Orchestra

Lillie has been coming to this orchestra camp since 7th grade. It was closed down for two years because of Covid and they just started it up again this year. We stay at a hotel the entire week out in Virginia and it is a staycation to the mostest!!  This year did not disappoint. She did a great job!!

This is Dr. Soo Han the conductor. He is also the director of orchestral studies at George Mason University.  

Our little girl sat first seat!!!

Ms June Huang, one of the university’s violin teachers. She helped teach at the camp.

Our Lillie even had a little solo!!  We were so proud of her. The orchestra sounded really good. They worked so hard all week long. It is hard to believe that this is probably her last year!!  

CYSO chamber concert

Lillie did a great job again with the chamber orchestra. They have a great concert. These kids worked hard on all their pieces  

Junior Prom

Another milestone for our sweet Lillie. Junior prom. We just can’t believe that Lillie is old enough to go to prom. It seems like just yesterday Kim and I were headed to prom. Lillie was so excited to go to prom. She looked at dresses several months out, thought about who she might go with, thought about the night. It was very cute. She looked so pretty in her dress. Rather than wait for a boy to ask her, she ended up asking a boy in another ward in our stake. Jaden. He is such a good boy. Very nice, amusing, has a good sense of humor and checked off all the boxes for Lillie. He wasn’t a dud and comatose. He was engaging and Lillie had so much fun with him. 

Unfortunately, the rest of her friends just wanted to go stag. So Jaden was actually the only boy with all of Lillie’s girlfriends. Before prom we had everyone over to the house for dinner. We tried to make it like a restaurant with a choice of entrees and drinks. The kids seemed to love it. We had chicken teriyaki, roast, chicken pot pie and ramen. All in honor of our Lillie. We had mixed drinks too!!  It was a lot of fun. 

Jaden and his harem below:

We just love that Lillie had so much fun. After dinner they weee off to a dance at a ballroom at a firehouse of all

places. We just love our Lillie!!

CYSO Gala concert

We are so so proud of Lillie. Last night was a big night for her. It was her gala concert to CYSO. She has come such a long way and has put in hours of practice. Their group sounded so good. She played her heart out. As part of their concert they played with a professional pianist and several other opera singers. It was really good. Very enjoyable and the students were outstanding!!  The pianist was Christie Julien. She was fabulous. Lillie and her friend got a picture with her!!  Lillie is in third seat!!  I mean she has practiced so hard over these years!!

Calverton School

In January of this year Kim started a new job at The Calverton School. It is a private school near where we live. It seems like it is a dream job!  First grade, and only 13 kids in the class. Kim is loving it so far. Those kids are very lucky to have her as their teacher. We are glad Kim can work help earn some money as we are about to send Lillie to college next year and also perfect since Lillie is generally very independent these days!  Here is Kim’s class. They had a pajama day today!!

Lillie’s Birthday 17!!!!!

Lillie turned 17 this year. It is hard to know where the time went. It really seems like just yesterday we came home with her from China. Since then she has been such a wonderful child!  From when she was little she was always so good. Always listened to us, never fussed, was friendly and nice and helpful!  So many of our friends warned us about becoming parents warning that as a little child they would be a handful. We never saw those terrible days. As a teen, people warned us again. But overall she has been so good as a teen—smart, studious, musical, helpful, again always listening to us and generally very happy. She had a great birthday weekend, beginning with dinner at her favorite restaurant—Melting Pot!!  Then some birthday fun with friends at Panda Express and the laser bowling!  It was a lot of fun!!

Panda Express with friends—a nod to her Chinese lineage. 

Finally some bowling fun. She had great fun with her friends!!

One of the funnest parts of the night was singing happy

birthday. We got this cake where we put a baby picture of her on it. We remember when we took that picture of her like yesterday, in the hotel in China just hanging out!!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas together!  On the Eve we made Hawaiian food. It was such a treat for us. We made everything but the squid luau, which we ordered from Highway Inn. Everything was just perfect and we are having a lot of leftovers in the next few days!!

The house was perfect!!  It had all the Christmas vibes!!

Christmas morning was festive as well. Lillie got some nice things. 

The best gift was Lillie’s sweet gift to us. She wrote out little cards, all homemade and folded intricately, with the twelve days of Christmas. On each card we’re things she was thankful for about us. Beginning with one thing through twelve. It was very thoughtful and made us feel that we are indeed lucky to have our little Lillie!  It was such a great Christmas!!

Christmas is music!!

We just love playing our music together during the Christmas season!