Happy Chinese New Year 2013 (Year of the Snake)

It's the time of the year again to post some Chinese New Year greeting pictures of the girls! We wish everyone happy, healthy and prosperous in the year of the Snake! Kung Hey Fat Choi everyone!

A short drive to Mount Pinos

We made a short drive from our cabin to check out Mt. Pinos Nordic Base at noon, elevation 8,300ft. There's a  2 mile trail from Nordic Base to the peak of Mt. Pinos, elevation 8,800ft. When the weather gets a little warmer, we will find a weekend and hike up to the peak with the girls.

Some updates on our cabin: The minor skylight water leak has been repaired by Eugene the handyman, he has also adjusted and leveled the staircase for us, $150 well spent. Our cozy living room is finally  furnished, Erica loves to spend her time at the leather chair with ottoman reading her books or playing her ipad. The girls helped me and replaced both side door and back door dead bolts and locks. Next weekend I will be installing a lamp over the dining table which requires some custom built parts and wiring, hope it will turn out nice. I have filled up the wood pellet fireplace with wood pellets, still have 2 bags of 40 pounder in the basement, the 250 gallon propane is still about 58% full. We still have 3-4 months before the weather gets warmer, we will stock up more wood pellets and refill the propane tank when it gets down to about 20-25%. We have picked up a nice patio set at the local garage sale, two more trips, we will have the entire set moved there. When the weather gets warmer, we will also move the BBQ grill there. We still need to buy a set of lawn chair and a side table or maybe a swing or something for the front deck. Our cabin is now well stocked and very comfortable. It has become our 2nd home for the weekends!

A cozy weekend in the cabin

Outside temperature was -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) over the weekend, warm and cozy inside...

When we arrived the cabin on Saturday afternoon, there were about 7" of new snow on the ground. The girls found the water in downstairs toilet was frozen! There was a big snow storm on Thursday at the grapevine area and they shut down I-5 over night, many people were stuck on the freeway...

Another fun weekend in the snow...

We just came back from another great weekend in the snow! Cozy fireplace, reading magazines, eating home made dinners, drinking cocktails, watching movies, building snowmen and endless sledding fun with the girls. We have invited Beverly and Gregg over for dinner next Saturday, Helen is going to cook up a storm!

William Hart Ranch & Museum

We stopped by Newhall on our way to the cabin on Friday and visited the William Hart Ranch and Museum. Hart was a famous silent cowboy movie actor in California from 1910s to 1920s, after retirement, he purchased a property and built a 22 room mansion and lived there till his death in 1940s. The mansion was in Spanish Colonial style with a lot of western cowboy style artifacts. There was a guide who gave us a very nice tour of the building, we stayed till they close at around 4pm.

Hoover Dam

$30 a night at LVH and buffet dinner at Studio B, M- Resort attracted us to make a special trip to Las Vegas yesterday! I never got so stuffed in my life after the dinner! $23.99 with over 200 all you can eat dishes and unlimited wine and beers, I went a little bit overboard and ate way too much!

This morning we left hotel at around 9am and headed to the Hoover Dam after breakfast. My last visit to Hoover Dam was close to 20 years ago! The girls were impressed and kept taking pictures with their cameras. We also went on the new Mike O'Callaghan- Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge which was built in 2010.

Rose Bowl party at Chen's

Chen invited us and a few families to go to their house for the New Year celebration. It was a fun gathering and we all enjoyed a fun evening with good friends.