First snow in Winter 2014

We had a severe Winter storm in Southern California on Friday, lots of rain fall all over the southland and we had over a foot of snow up at Mt. Pinos. We haven't be able to go to our cabin for the past month due to busy weekend schedules, so glad we finally got a chance to head up there this weekend. Hot pot dinner and lunch, a short drive from our cabin to the Nordic Base at Mt. Pinos and let the girls play with snow, snapped a few pictures...

Tropical rain forest project

Vivian will have a presentation tomorrow to talk about the tropical rain forest. As usual, daddy provided a helping hand to prepare the model for the presentation. Vivian helped to collect the reference on the web and directed daddy on all elements needed for the model, she also prepared the speed by herself. Daddy spent a majority of the day on Saturday and built the diorama model with Vivian, we finished off the model by planting some real "trees" that we fresh picked from the side of the road locally.

2014 holiday photoshoot

It's getting close to the holiday season again and it's time to shoot some holiday pictures to make the greeting cards. This this our 3rd year shooting location holiday pictures at PMC. It's a picture perfect day and we started shooting at around 10am after breakfast, it was still a little chilly outside (10 degrees C) but the girls cooperated and worked hard for me to capture these images.

Thousand Oaks 50th Anniversary parade

September 27 was city of Thousand Oaks 50th anniversary, there was a small parade on Thousand Oaks Blvd. The Boys & Girls Club that Erica goes to attended the parade with a bus, the boys and girls were all dressed in cowboy & cowgirl outfit.

Helena's birthday gathering at the cabin

August 31 was our friend Helena's birthday, we invited Helena and Bonnie's families over at our cabin for the weekend. We had a full house with 6 adults and 6 kids! Kids went fishing, bike riding, swimming, ice-cream and movies, grown-up had fun cooking, BBQing and lots of chatting...

Erica turns 11!

It was Erica's 11th birthday yesterday, she is not a little girl anymore, she's growing fast and sure is one of the taller girls in her 6th grade class! Can't believe she's already 11 years old, it feels like I was changing her diapers not too long ago, time is moving so fast!

We took the girls to Cho Cho San Japanese restaurant to celebrate the birthday, it's their 1st experience for Teppenyaki and they loved it!

San Diego mini vacation

3 days before school start, we took the girls and one of their best friend Katelyn Chen to San Diego for a 3 days+2 nights mini vacation! We left home at 5:55am Sunday morning, dropped by Dana Point for breakfast and arrived Sea World right when they open at 10am. It was a fun day at the park! We had Chinese buffet dinner before heading back to the hotel, we stayed at Howard Johnson between San Diego and Carlsbad, the girls swam at the motel pool till 10pm! We spent the majority of the 2nd day at the LEGOLAND Waterpark and their new Chima Waterpark, the girls dried up themselves and went on many rides in the afternoon. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant and had Pho for dinner that evening. We had 1/2 day on Tuesday at the park, the girls got on countless rides in the park and was very tired towards the end, we left Carlsbad a little after 3pm, the girls were all sleeping on their way back home in the van, exhausted.

Bolsa Chica & Huntington Beach day trip

My college friend Wendy organized this day trip a month ago. We arrived about the same time when Wendy arrived; a little pass 11am on Saturday. It was a sunny and windy day at the beach, another 3-4 families (Wendy's friends) arrived in the afternoon. We rode bikes from Bolsa Chica State Beach to the Huntington Beach pier and back, it was approximately 8 miles round trip. The girls were doing boogie boarding at the beach, water was cold and the wave was very strong. We left the beach a little pass 6pm and arrived home at around 8pm.