67 Years!

Over Labor Day weekend we spent time up in Napa (a Dunn family tradition) celebrating Ryan's grandparents wedding anniversary. As many of you know, Leo and Alice are just the most amazing couple. We celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary in style by going to a great restaurant in Napa called Cuvee. We had a private room to ourselves so we could tell stories, be loud and just have a good time. We are constantly in awe of their love for each other. . . how they still hold hands when they walk down the street, how they go everywhere together, and how sweet they are to each other. They are wonderful role models for us and we cherish them. Lots of love and happiness to Alice and Leo! Cheers!

Practice, Practice, Practice!

Last Sunday night, Jen and John got the rare opportunity to volunteer at an Obama fundraiser in San Francisco . They were looking for someone to babysit Chloe while they went to support and meet Barack Obama (Fishers are big fans!). We knew this was a big opportunity for them as Fisher is a precint captain for Cole Valley so we offered to babysit Chloe Bean (as we like to call her!) and we figured it was good practice!

Chloe was a doll all day. She came over to our house and then she slept, she ate, she giggled, she smiled and then she did it all over again. We set her up in the pack 'n play in Baby Dunns room so we even got to break in the nursery. Ryan and I took her for a long walk in the neighborhood and practiced walking up the hills while pushing a stroller (wow, what a workout. . . I think Ryan is looking into an "electric stroller" for Baby Dunn and the SF hills!). We had a great time with her and she was perfect practice for us, although, Chloe does have the reputation in the family as being an "easy" baby! Enjoy some photos of our time with Chloe!

Housewarming!

We had a great time having friends and family over to our new house last Saturday. It turned out to be a good time for all. Ryan and I worked hard to prep for the party and Ryan said, "entertaining is a lot of work!" and I simply replied "welcome to my industry!"

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, fortunately, Fisher did not break any wine glasses this party, however Ryan did break one of the rental glasses...nice work. Thankfully Aaron and Eileen brought the "crock-pot" on BART from the East Bay, without which, the meatballs would have been frozen. The Farrells provided a special housewarming gift - a Pak n Play! This was immediately placed in Baby Dunn's room (which also served as the bar area for the party - strange). Finally, Jen showed up with sunglasses since apparently the papparazzi were swirling around her. We had a number of people approach us and ask if she was on The Hills. There are a few awards to hand out aside from the mentions above:

Latest Party-goers: Alicia, Dan, Brian, Kristin and FISHER, of course!
Noisiest Party-goers: Tie between Emily and Mark
Best Grilled Cheeze Chef: Julie
Passed out at Party: You know who you are
Longest Distance Traveled: Damien and Lisa
Funniest Moment of the Evening: There were many, but Aaron re-introducing himself to Steve (both were in the same class at SCU) was in the top three.

Housewarming party

01/09/09

This date has come to have major significance in our life. . . it's the due date of our first born! We are so excited to be expecting Baby Dunn come January. We thought it would be a good idea to start the blog again after buying a house and now expecting Baby Dunn as it's a great way to share news and keep you updated on all that's going on! Ryan has been a fantastic support and has come with me to every, and I mean EVERY, doctor's appointment. He is quite the doting husband and "father to be" as he occasionally checks the temperature of my showers to make sure they aren't too hot for me and Baby Dunn. He has been there to hold my hair back when the morning sickness was at it's worst and would just order pizza when all I could stomach was white rice for dinner. He has even found several new favorite shows to add to our DVR requests as my bedtime is now around 7:30 or 8:00! I am now 18 weeks along in my pregnancy and feeling great. I am hopefully past the worst and getting some energy back.

We have decided that we won't find out the gender of the baby until the moment he or she enters our world. We love going to the ultrasound appointments as it becomes so real to see and hear (love hearing that heartbeat!) our little one growing. Here are a few photos of our little one and of me growing!

13 Months Later. . .

Just 13 months since our return home from our trip we became homeowners. We bought a house in San Francisco after lots of saving, online research, discussions and Sunday open houses. Emily, Ryan's sister, was our agent and did a fabulous job walking us through the process as "first time buyers". This house has everything that we wanted, room to grow (that's another entry!), San Francisco charm, upgraded and renovated appliances in the kitchen and baths and parking! We were so excited to move from our very cozy one bedroom apartment to this new home. We couldn't have done it without the love and support of ALL of our family. . . so thank you!!! We moved just 5 blocks from where we were living so I'm still close to the Google shuttle stop and Ryan's very close to downtown. We absolutely can't believe that we are homeowners! Enjoy a few pics of our new home and stop by anytime for a visit!

One Journey Ends, Another Begins

As we begin to write our last post from abroad we realize that we didn't write about our time in Shanghai. Shanghai was one of our favorite cities from our last trip and it proved to be again this trip. We explored the city with Emily and Kim for 3 full days and enjoyed the night life that Shanghai offered. We had a great dim sum brunch with Sunny and Jae Sun, friends of my brother in law's (Mark). There was a group of us at brunch and it was fun to talk with people who live and work in Shanghai to gain perspective on every day life. Thanks again Sunny and Jae Sun for your hospitality!

We enjoyed our last dinner in Hong Kong last night at the delicious NOBU restaurant right on Victoria Harbour. It was awesome! During our dinner we relished in so many memories and experiences that we have had on this trip, too many to count. We feel very grateful for the support we had from family and friends to go on this adventure and we feel completely fulfilled by this experience. We have loved learning and growing together, while spending 24-7 together. We both admit that not spending every single moment together when we get home will be the biggest change. . . maybe we'll just find jobs at the same company!!!! just kidding! :) We just returned from Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Hong Kong. The place was packed and they had 3 masses going on at the same time. As the first song was sung to begin the Easter celebration, we couldn't help but notice the overwhelming female majority - we looked around us and literally out of 500+ people in the church, there may have been 15 males. It was a great celebration and we are glad we participated.

We are excited to visit with family and friends upon our return and share photos and stories. . .it's been an amazing trip. Here's a run down of what we've experienced just in numbers:

5 Countries
21 Cities
22 Hotels/Guesthouses
16 Flights
9 Buses
5 Boats
2 Trains
Umpteen Taxis
Countless Miles on Bicycles =

1 Happy Couple

Night on the Town

Last night we went out with our friend Cecilia in Hong Kong. Cecilia grew up in Hong Kong and her family still lives here (she resides in Beijing). So Cecilia told us to meet at a subway station at 11 p.m. and from there we departed for the very lively bar district on Hong Kong Island. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. As a semi-clarification/semi-retraction of our last blog entry, we asked Cecilia why there was a Catholic Church in Beijing if officially the government doesn't support religion. She informed us that in fact, the Church was built before the Communist Revolution of 1949, and was left standing so that ex-pats might attend church if they so chose. She said that if you wanted to attend you needed to bring your passport with you and show it upon entering the church. However, around 2002, this began to change and the government became more relaxed about this policy. As Cecilia put it, the government doesn't encourage religion, but will not stop you from going to church now. Just one of the many changing policies that Julie and I, as outsiders, observe differ from mainstream western media. In fact, just the other day, Julie and I were watching CNN and they did a segment on religious practices in China being "underground" and that people were not allowed to practice their faith openly. According to Cecilia, though, this has changed in the past few years. We have discovered on more than one occasion that our presumptions and our information garnered from Western media is often incorrect or inaccurate. [for instance, we didn't know that there were other political parties in China...in fact, there are about 8 or 9 minority political parties]. This is one of the joys of traveling and meeting people from these countries, it tends to break down miscommunication, misinformation, stereotype and bias. We feel like we have learned so much about the countries we have traveled, and yet, we have only skimmed the surface, and we really have so much more to learn.