Family Gathering in Bien Hoa, Vietnam

Family picture in Bien Hoa

This is my mom's sister's family in Bien Hoa, Vietnam.  This industrial town about 2 hours from Vung Tau (our beach town) is where my aunt and most of her kids and grand kids live.  Everyone gathered here on Sunday to celebrate my cousin's son's 3rd birthday.  The cohesiveness of this family is admirable.  I love how everyone is laughing in this photo, thanks to Jared's great camerawork and prepping everyone by saying, "Ready everyone?  Ok, mot, hai, ba" (that's 1, 2, 3 in Vietnamese).  It was such a funny surprise that delighted the entire gang. 

Our kids were showered with love by their cousins.  Here they are with two of their 14 cousins ranging from age 24 years to 20 months old.  

Peanut is being taught a Vietnamese game where you throw a flip-flop shoe to hit a can, then you run while screaming and laughing as you're being chased by the can keeper.  I didn't quite grasp the concept, but it was wonderful watching the pure joy of kids in play.  Reminds me of my childhood with my cousins.

Rocky's cruising around on a bicycle with her cousin.  These kids grew up riding with their parents and now are the ones at the helm.  They are pros at balancing the bike, while steering with one hand, holding a baby in the other, avoiding pot holes/cars/motorcycles/dogs/etc., and transporting groceries.

Is this the largest bamboo shoot you've ever seen?  Those yellow crunchy slices of bamboo shoots you find in your Chinese stir-fry look like this before they've been prepared.

Ooh, what do I see?  I captured photo of a native in the wild amongst the incredibly plentiful aloe vera plants.  Just kidding.  I did capture a shot of an incredible man.  

We are not staying at a resort nor traveling around with a tour guide.  Our visit to Vietnam, like our stays in Paris and Madrid, are experiences where we're living like the locals.  However, in Southeast Asia, living like a local is a whole different animal.  While I can speak the language, I moved to the U.S. when I was one-and-a-half months old.  So, Jared is willingly navigating this incredibly different country with me.  

Another reason why he's wonderful.  When we were at the birthday party, Jared was sitting in front of a hot-pot (Vietnamese bouillon fondue) boiling on a flame burner in sweltering heat and humidity (yep, no AC), surrounded by 60 Vietnamese people, speaking exclusively in Vietnamese, and being overly hospitable by force feeding him fried chicken tendons, spicy boiled shrimp with head, eyeballs, and all, frog legs in curry sauce, and so many other dishes that I'm not even used to eating, let alone Jared.  With all eyes on him, he takes a courtesy bite and smiles as if it's the best thing he's ever eaten.  Thank you my sweet, sweet husband for being such an incredibly good sport through all of this.