Lovanh Family: An aunts' visit, some park time and Canada

A few after moms' surgery my aunt Noy came to visit us from California! It was really nice to see her...it's been almost 9 years since I've last seen her and that was for my uncles' funeral. She came to visit to help out with my mom and plus to see us all. I'm very glad she got to come and visit. She works at the federal building in Oakland as a security officer. So with her job, if you want vacation you put in the request and wait for them to give you the ok...so there's really no planning for her. I weren't sure if she was able to or not till literally 3 days before she arrived. We're so glad that she came though.
It was a really busy week while she was here. I was the only one who wasn't working so i ended up being the driver- which i didn't mind at all. She was a big help with mom too!

On the second day she was here, I took her, mom and Da to the Metro-parks in Willoughby. She really enjoyed it! I think she was really excited. She ooohed and ahhhhhed at almost everything. Made me started wondering if Oakland had anything to be excited about! We took some pictures, which i really enjoyed, because as anyone of my friends would agree - I LOVE TAKING PICTURES! I kinda felt bad for mom since she still wasn't fully healed from her surgery but she wanted to go to. We walked as slow as we could so she wouldn't have to try to catch up. Mom is such a trooper!!!! Of course I think she enjoyed it herself too- since the surgery she's been cooped up in the house! So it was nice for her to get out and also get some fresh air!

The second day I took her to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame! I was pretty excited myself, mainly because I've never been to the place! Yes i know, after 12 1/2 years and I still haven't been there. Blame my husband for that. Well actually now i know why, it was $24 a person. I know it's not how much you spend when you are spending it on family, but for that price just a see a whole bunch of rock and roll stuff? Come on that was a little over! But i paid for it. I was glad to do it. My aunt had a great time, and surprisingly, I did too! I learned a few things and i saw lots of interesting things. Who knew rock and roll could be interesting? Not bad at all! I saw Elvis's purple Corvette. As learned that he had bought 13 Corvettes for his employees and he also bought on for a lady that was there that day looking for a car. What a lucky lady huh? Just happened to be there at the right time and day!!!! And here's the shocker!!!.....are you ready?.......it all only cost him $1,300.00!!!! Really, my eyes literally were like popping out!!!!

Oh and yes, mom and Ming went too. This time I had a wheelchair for mom!
The only thing I didn't get about that place was, why they wouldn't let us take pictures? Weird...but i guess maybe because some of the stuff in there were actual artifacts and the artists didn't want them being duplicated or anything? Oh yes and one more thing....Jonas brothers were in there!?? Ok what??? they are not even close to being legends...just so wrong.

The day before she is to fly back home, my husband and I took her to Canada!!! She wanted really bad to go. She's been here in America for 30 plus years and she's never been out of California! Well there was that one time she went to see us in Idaho-she didn't like it there. Anyways she had heard of Niagra Falls and really wanted to see it. So my husband was able to get vacation last minute to take her. We do thank him for that! I was a little scared at first. I have heard of stories about us "green card holders" not being able to come back into America and stuff so i kinda was panicking! I really wanted to go to Canada with them. So mom ended up coming with us! She wanted to come so that if i wasn't able to cross into Canada, then she would stay in New York with me while my husband takes my aunt and Da into Canada. If you all are wondering what's the big deal? Well the new rule is that they want only people with passports to cross the boarders. So no more green cards! I guess this happened after 9/11....So i ended up going into Canada anyways, and i have to say it was pretty simple. They looked at my green card and checked all our IDs. And let us go in! So i was feeling pretty good after that.

We took some pictures of the falls. It was kinda raining so we got a little wet at the falls! Mom couldn't walk any further with us so she waited in the gift shops for us. It was really fun!!! We tried to take as many pictures as possible. After about 2 hours of that, we went to the casino and ate! Da "swore" it was the best buffet ever. And frankly I'd have to disagree! It was great. The roast beef was really dry, like sand paper. Fried rice was tasteless, my veggies were not even flavorful, the sushi was horrible- lets just say i wasn't impress. None of us were. I don't know what she's talking about. And we couldn't even take pictures! Not cool! Don't they know WE ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS! HOW DARE YOU! ; ) But being my aunt, she snicked in a few shots! After lunch we had to wait for Da to gamble a bit, so my mom and I got some change and wanted to try out some of the slots...maybe we'll get lucky or something. We had trouble playing! We couldn't find where the slot for the coin was! I looked everywhere for it but couldn't find it. We were baffled! Turns out you don't use coins. You have to exchange the coin for a dollar (you would have to have enough coins to make a dollar to exchange) and then you put the dollar in and bet. It doesn't matter how much it cost to play you still had to put in a dollar. Needless to say, we didn't play for long. Took me literally 3 minutes and the dollar was gone! That was enough gambling for me! I just wanted to try my luck!

After that we went back to the falls one more time so my aunt can look for the last time. Her birthday is on the 9 of April so she kept on saying that this was the best birthday present ever. And we are very happy to have given her that gift! She seem totally in awe and was just amazed! I'm so happy to see her that way.

Ok so on our way back, i started to panic! All those stories are flooding back to my mind again! When we got to the border, the lady ask us for id and passports. So we all showed our stuffs and she ask questions and such. Then she says "ok you are good but there are a few things we need to ask you so i will ask you to park your car and proceed to follow the white line and go into the building and go up to the second floor. Once there have a sit and someone will assist you". So by this time i'm like "oh no, oh no, dear God please don't let this happen! I want to see my babies!". We did as told and once up there, the nice hunky looking officer comes over and gets us. We go into to this cubicle and he proceeds to ask us ( in a very intimidating voice) what we were doing in Canada, how long we were there, what did we buy, how much money did we bring back etc.... My mom and I were asked more questions since we were not citizens. My mom had a passport so he asked her even more questions...like "why do you have a passport and a green card? Why do you have a passport? Are you planning on leaving the US? Do you know your address?" My mom was getting nervous, heck i was too! After all that, he took both my moms' and mine finger prints and took a picture of our eyes. I'm still not sure on the eye part, but i'm sure it must have something to do with clearance? So after all that, he was like "ok you're good to go, it was nothing, just some precautionary steps". Okay? Thanks hunky dude for scary the bee-gees out of me! I was praying while in there "please dear lord, i still want to live, i want to see my children, please take me home....today!" Thank goodness my prayers were answered! I was sweating let me tell you! I couldn't wait to get out of there!

My aunt is a single mom of 4! And all of her adult life she's had to take care of them without a husband. So she worked her butt of for so many years to support her children, that's why she's never been anywhere. Now that her children are all grown now and some have moved out, she is able to do something for herself. And even though she didn't go on vacation on her own or anything, she still enjoyed her time spent with us. She got to enjoy seeing Niagra Falls, she was able to be in 3 states in one vacation and spent that time with family! And that's all she ever wanted. She told me "i've worked hard almost my whole life to take care of my kids and now that they are grown and stuff, it's my turn to do something for me. I don't have to worry too much about them anymore, they can take care of themselves now. Now i can travel like i've always wanted to, go anywhere i want, pick up and just go without having to worry about them." It's my turn now! And she is right. Those many years of hard work has really paid off for her. Her kids are doing well, one had bought her a new BMW!!! She has taught those kids well.

And i'm glad that we were able to take her to Canada! I can see that happiness in her eyes every time we take a picture! I am so happy that we were able to share that experience with her! We hope that she'll be able to visit more often! We've really enjoyed her company and i can see that mom has been doing very well since her visit and mom has enjoyed it tremendously! To see my family happy brings so much joy to me! There's nothing better than that feeling that you've done something great for someone! I love that feeling! It didn't even matter to me at all how much i spent in the end, what mattered the most were the memories we made along the way!