Snowboarding with Kids

This month marks the first month when both kids are now snowboarding! Max learned it in one day in the end of last season, in February this year. He really liked it and wanted to do more. So we bought season tickets for both of us and rented gears for the season. The season tickets allow us to get discount for Renee, who wants to join on the action.

Renee did her annual recital with the Chinese orchestra group. She had a solo performance this year.

This is Renee's first time on the snow with a snowboard!

At the end of the first day, we found a really popular Chinese restaurant. It was nearby so we add ourselves in the waiting list and watched the wait time from the hotel room.

On the first day, Renee stayed on the bunny hill to get comfortable with the sliding. On second day, we hit the lift right away.

 

While Renee stayed on the green runs to practice her connection of turns, Max and I hit the blue runs several times.

Max' Outing and Renee's Gathering

Max had quite a few outing trips with me. So I got some good pictures this month. Renee, on the other hand, spent her time with her friends. I had to ask her this time to share some picture for this blog post.

Max' crew had a celebration gathering after their trip to the Summit this year.

For next year's Philont trip training, I went with Max to Hetch Hetchy. Max had to be back for the scuba training on Saturday. So we turned around after camping at the lake. It was still well worth the trip.

Next day, Max went to the school swiming pool and did the scuba training. He did it a few more times before a real dive at the Monterey Bay.

Renee wtih her friends to a haunted house for Halloween.

This is Renee's Song Team at school. They perform before the football game.

And... The school starts

Max joined his friends on a bithday Disney trip for a weekend.

Max' kungfu has finally gotten over the recent pleatue. He is now one of the senior students in the class and is counted on for many demonstrations.

Renee hangs out with her friends more. This is from one of the school parties

Summer fun before the school starts

Again, Renee actually had a lot of activities. She just has been hanging out with her friends and pictures are not taken from my phone.

Renee got her learner's permit for driving! She appears to enjoy it a lot. She will drive on the local road every time she gets.

Max is a senior scout in his troop 805, and has started leading events as part of his role. This is him talking to the younger scouts at the gathering point for a kayaking camping trip.

My nehpew visited this month and all three kids took a picture with the grandparents. We are all lucky to be a close family.

After a family dinner, we dropped by this new park that we visited with Max last month, so that Renee can check it out.

Max's kungfu skill had a breakthrough this year. He can do jumps and kicks pretty well now. He earned Black Belt level 3 this time.

This is a snapshot I captured from a video where he was demonstrating combat techniques.

 

At the end of the month, Max went with his friend group to Disneyland celebrating a birthday.

Max' Honduras Trip and Renee's Summer Jobs

July was a productive month: Max and I went on the trip with Wheelchair Foundation to Honduras, first International Charity trip that we have been on. Renee took two intern jobs, one with Berkeley labs and one with her dentist.

This year we went to the fireworks location in Dublin Sports Park. Some people brought some really good ones. We also bought a package for ourselves.

Renee and Max are getting a hang of these fireworks now.

For our Honduras trip, we needed to stay overnight for the connection flight. So we decided to spend two nights instead and spend Saturday visitng Houston NASA Space Center. We also visited Gaveston and took the ferry with our cars.

There are so many pictures to share on our Honduras trip. Day 1: shopping for soccer balls and school supplies for one of the days. Day 2,3,4: At stadium assemble and distribute wheelchairs in the morning, and visit a home to deliver the wheel chair, Day 5,6 visit different charity orgnizations and deliver wheelchairs: Catholic temple, disability center, hostpital, home for the children in need. This picture is where we visited the place where a non-profit organization formed by a church members from Seatle. Max was teaching the kids how to do YoYo.

On the trip back in the airport, I looked up and noticed Max standing in front of me. He has grown into a man and I thought this was a good picture capturing the moment.

Renee had to miss the Honduras trip and her Summer Camp for this intern job at Berkley lab. This is her presentaiton day.

Renee is more indepndent with her friends these days. From time to time, we spend dinner and a few hours with Max. We visited a new park in Dublin after a dinner.

 

At the denist where Renee did a summer job, she and another student were learning to check teeth with each other.

Max' Summit Trip and Renee's July Hangouts

 July is the summer month of the year.  Max went on his second high adventure, Summit.  And Renée hanging around town meeting up friends.

The summit trip is of many activities, a day chilling out by the pool with a climbing wall, zip line, rope courses, and of course the canoe down the river for days.

On Renee's birthday, we went to get this cake from 85c.

There were many pictures of Max' trip.  They all look really good.

On weekends, we just hang out in local restaurant.  This is one of the burger joints in the area.

For Max' birthday, we celebrated with his buddy and their sisters at the Sandbox VR fighting pirates.

Hanging out

The month of May is mostly school actually, keeping the grade up.  They kept the normal social activities too.

Max continued his training for Summit High Adventure this summer.

Renee continued her dancing activities.

Max toned his body really well through swimming. We have kept enrolling him to the program.

We went to Brentwood for cherry picking during one of the weekends.

College Visit Road Trip

We went on our first family college visit touring a few UC colleges, USC, Pomona, and Cal Poly. It was a lot of un

We met up with Ashley and Conor, their friends since they were kids. The family moved to south California so we don't meet as often as before.

On family trip, Max and Renee always hang out very well and go everywhere together.

Renee took the opportunity of beach sunset and did lots of poses.

On the last day, we stayed at a a fancy resort. The restaurent was really cool.

Max went with his Kungfu team to perform at the Golden Gate Warrior game for the third year. This time they are performing during the half-time break.

Max continues with his training for the Summit High Adventure.

We ended our month with a visit to one of the populare restaurant close to SFO airport.

One-Wheel and Performance

This month we didn't take many pictures.

We bought one-wheel during the Christmas for Max (and for me too, actually). As we hoped, it has become a bonding toy for Max and me. We will go out from time to time and take turn to learn how to ride it. We record our own sessions and compare our stats. Max learned it much faster, though. He even watched video on line to learn tricks that I am still too scared to try.

As the first chair, Renee went to many performances in the community. She is expected to be able to perform solos in these events soon. Renee took this with pride and responsibly.

Max went with one of his buddies and his family for a ski trip in Heavly. They went up and down all the black diamond slopes!

Even though Renee has not been to many outings, she kept her engagement with the scouting program by going to the troop meetings and support when she can. This is from an event where the troop is formally accepting two Cub Scouts from a nearby pack.

Snowboarding and Dance

February was another month with lots of actions but fewer pictures because they are out there on their own!

 

This is actually from January. Max also went out for a second trip where they really camped in the snow. I am still waiting for the pictures to be uploaded.

The screenshot of Renee's dance team's social media post.

Here is Renee with her dance team. Dancing has been a good stress release activity as Renee is getting ready for the college application.

Max wanted to learne snowaboarding. So we went to Boreal on an overnight trip. When they were younger, we used to do this very often. Here is one blog post from 11 years ago!

Max with his fellow scouts working on the stove.  He is actually very experienced by now with the backpacking and Northern Tier trip.