China Trip (Continued), Eagle Project, and El Salvador Trip

July was as expected a busy month. After finishing the trip to China, Max quickly delivered his Eagle Project before embarking on the El Salvador Trip with the Wheelchair Foundation.

We first landed in Nanjing waiting for the rest of the group. I have become pretty familiar with the area from previous visits. Here is Max at a popular tourist spot.

We then flew to LiJiang, a popular tourist city, waiting for the event next day. While visiting the old town, also a tourist spot, we spotted this shop selling fried worms and insects. They are heavily processed and don't taste different from your normal fried food.

We also found a neat tea house where there is a tree house with a great view.

Here is Max at my counsin't house, next to the picture with me at very young age.

We went to a local BBQ place lat at night. This is Max with his cousin, daugher of my cousin.

Right after we got back, Max arranged a delivery of his planter box, wrapping up the Eagle Project.

Renee was at Perdue University during this time working on her intern project. She fell while riding a scooter. Fortunately, it was just flesh wound. It does look bad, though but we are all glad she is ok.

This is the third time Max is on the Wheelchair Foundation trip. He jumped into action really quickly.

This time, there are more peolpe at Max' age, 4 boys and 3 girls. The critical mass resulted a really good dynamics among the youth. They hang out together and work on the deliveries together.

I took this picture because Max carried the Wheelchair that we are delivering down this long stairs. He really did a great job.

Max is really comfortable take charge of the person he is responsible for, and make sure they go to the places needed.

As usual, we got a chance to visit a historical site. This place has also been excavated 5% of the entire area.

Purdue, Eagle Project, and Nanjing

Renee is off to Purdue University for her first intern job! It still amazes me that college freshman are taking interns now.

This is from Renee's post in Lockit. Lockit has been an effective app for me to get pictures from Renee regularly, even though sometimes are collage like this with toungue out.

Max was able to watch his schedule, and finished building the eagle project before the trip to China, 2 planter boxes for the Gale Ranch Middle School.

And we are off to China! Here is the first stop, Nanjing, to catch up with my father and sisters so that we can go to Yunnan together.

While waiting, I took them to places that I have become familiar with. This is Xuanwu lake (玄武湖)

This is a new place call Yuejiang Lou (阅江楼)

Busy Month with Renee Back!

Renee has been back from college and this month is full of pictures!

Max started getting the materials ready for his Eagle project.

Renee went with me on a Saturday to help a building project of an archery ched is Camp Herms. Here she was spraying water after cleaning up the mold grown on the wood after the raining season.

We went out for a stroll after dinner a few times like the old times. Max and Renee enjoyed each other's company.

With their cousin coming over for a visit, the three kids walked over the new bridge near San Ramon City Center.

Max always enjoys going to the car wash.  After his Kungfu class, we filled up the tank and went thorugh it.

Max rides his OneWheel whenever he gets a chance.  It was not cheap but has been a neat investment.

Here Max is learning power saw after the wood is cut for his eagle project.  He cannot use power tool during the project himself due to safte policy.

Max attended Kungfu Tournament.  

During the Wind and Kite feastival, Max and Renee went to make some kites as they were when they were younger.

Here they are flying the kites that they made.  Max has become pretty good at it.

Max has earned Black Belt Level 4, the highest level for amature members.

Here is a screenshot of Max perform staff form in the Kungfu Tournament.

College Tour with Max

While Renee is busy in Colloge, Max gets to go on his college tour. We made a city hop to U-Chicago and Upenn. After that, Max went with his mom to the schools in the area. Apparenly we didn't take pictures of him by himself.

This is the U-Chicago, where Max met his friend from Kungfu school, and we also went to THE Bean.

Renee had a dance performance with her dance team.

At UPenn, I got to revisit the Wharton business school with Max.

Here is Max visiting UC Santa Cruz.

Max got an upgrade this year on the band and sitting at the frist seat!

Locket!

This month we actually have more of their selfies, but with one minor problem: they are from the LockIt app so it is hard to sort thorugh them, and they are really casual

Here is Max from his room

And here is Renee apparently in a car going to a movie with her friends.

Where did they go?

Very few pictures! Where did they all go!

I went with Max to another snowboarding trip at Northstar. The second day was with the big snow and we had a lot of fun.

Renee is at Rice! We got a glimpse of her here and there.

Light January

January was light on pictures, with Renee back at Rice and Max focusing more on his study for college applications.

We all went with Renee for her flight back to Houston. I shared with her that my feeling of independence started when I travel back to the school during my first winter break in college.

I went with Max to North Star for an overnight trip.

We found really good black diamond trails and enjoyed them greatly.

December: Remembering My Mom

In December, after fighting cancer since 2019, my mom passed away. I made my third and final trip of the year to China to send her off. Next June, our whole family will travel together to lay her to rest with her family, in the town where I was born.

These trips gave me a lot of time to think about when we lived together. Time goes by so fast. It makes me want to hold onto the moments I have with my family here even more.

Here are the pictures of the kids during the month, including our family trip to Taiwan.