to a thousand more years

every year, my parents celebrate their wedding anniversary with two of their best friends, since the two couples got married in the same year, within three months of each other. this year, since they're celebrating their 30th anniversaries, the kids decided to come together and throw them a small surprise party with some of their closest friends.
now normally, i don't think that surprise parties work, since on the occasions when people have tried to surprise me, i have always figured it out right before it happens. but we actually pulled this one off (well, huan and mv mostly)! the parents were totally shocked since they thought that they were going to a quiet dinner in dc, and even though they had seen two of their friends out on the street, they weren't expecting all the people waiting for them inside the restaurant. including me! in order to pull of my part of the surprise, i had to be totally mean and say that i didn't want to come home for the three-day weekend, while in reality, i bought my ticket months ago and mv had to sneak away to pick me up at the airport and drop me off at huan and molly's until the party. i feel kind of bad since mv said that my being there probably overshadowed the surprise of the party, but my parents were so happy with everything that i guess it was ok.

here are some pics of the night:



SURPRISE!


the couples of honor


we'll always be at the kids' table.


huan eating three pieces of cake. molly is thinking, "maybe i should re-think this engagement..."


reminiscing over wedding albums


almost identical wedding photos


the rest of my short time in VA was spent snacking on vietnamese food, cutting my cousins' hair, and laughing at their antics. they are so cute and so different. manuel is very talkative (he's in his "why?" phase) and is always getting into scrapes (most recently he split his head open and had to get liquid stitches). now it seems fitting that his first words were "uh-oh!". marlow, on the other hand, doesn't really talk, but he understands everything that you say to him, and he's like a real little man. he's very careful and steady; he's the only baby i know that you could trust with breakables and electronics. i wish i could have spent more time with them and the rest of the fam, but unfortunately mv and i had to leave yesterday afternoon and now we're back at work. but it was a fun 24hrs!



marlow's favorite pastime: talking on the phone


looking like a hollywood agent


marlow copies everything manuel does.


p.s. for more photos, check out pouy's flickr album or my fotki.

p.p.s. most random event of the weekend: yesterday i looked out the window and saw that our neighbors were roasting an entire goat on a spit in the backyard. it was like a scene out of "my big fat greek wedding," which is appropriate because they ARE greek. but weird, right? where does one get a whole goat carcass?