Sunday, June 29, 2014

Summer outdoor and Exploratorium

We continue the outdoor activities for the summer.

Max had a concert at the Little Bridges. I figured out a way to get all the way to the front and sat with him while he was waiting for their turn.
This is Kanishk, Max's good friend at the school.
Probably influenced by her dancing classes, Renee knows how to pose for pictures these days.
Renee has a concert at school. She controlled herself well when her hat was knocked off by someone next to her accidentally. We both felt that she is growing up now.
Renee looks cute in her cowgirl outfit.
I took Renee to a hike one day during the weekend. I always enjoy the time with them whenever they are in the mood for an outdoor trip.
This area reminded Renee of the scene in the movie Frozen. She was singing "Let it Go" while marking forward.
Here is Renee posing on the rock.
I joined Max' school event to the zoo. He ran to this place and yelled "Ducky!!!"
Max has a couple of good friends where he is more of himself, fun and good natured.
During the Wind and Art Festival, Renee tried the helicopter. The pilot made a comment about how well she sat in the seat not touching anything.
Max had a try at the seat too.
I took Renee and Max to the Exploratorium at Pier 15. They both enjoyed everything there such that I bought an annual ticket when leaving.
We enjoyed the lunch and the view. The lunch was quite expensive. I will pack my own lunch in the future.
Here is the room where everything loses its color. Very cool.
Renee went with Max attending a birthday party of Max' friend, where they learned to make pizza.
On that same day, we went and had a good camping trip at Lake Chabot. We hope to do more camping this yea.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Kungfu, or not

With the weather getting warmer, we started the outdoor adventures again. This is also the month for Renee's dancing performance, and Max' time to shine as a young Kungfu student.
This is the month for Renee's dancing performance. As usual, she spent majority of one Saturday to take this picture, which will be used as the poster for the announcement.
This is Renee with her two friends in the neighborhood during the easter egg hunt event. They have moved out after this picture was taken. I think Renee will miss them a lot.
Max started Kungfu school and getting a little more serious about it. I am still not sure if he enjoys it or not.
One Sunday morning we went to take a train ride in the nearby park.
Max really loves trains, cars, planes. This train rides is actually pretty long and pretty fun.
Renee like posing for the pictures now. I think this is a new habit she got after posing for dancing pictures.
We had a company event to go to angel island. Renee happens to be out of school that day, so I took both kids to go with me. We all had a blast.
We walked around the island and sat at this location with beautiful view for a while. Renee posed a few more pictures.
What is an outing without some geocaching! We found one along the way hiding in the plain sight.
Max attended his first belt test. He took it pretty seriously.
Max got a green belt! Shifu put it on himself.
I could tell that Max was really proud of it. I was really encouraged so I signed him up for tournament. I wish I had some good picture for that event. However, what happened was that Max chickened out in the last minute. I was really upset with him that day, and many days later.
Max has finished learning staff. He is on blade now.
I think Max does the staff very well. I took a video of him in the backyard.
Here is another picture of Renee in the dancing custom.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Snow, Rain and the Great Outdoor

It is hard to remember what exactly happened in March. But these pictures reminded us about the snow trip, the welcome pouring rain, and the outdoor biking trips
Renee went to one of her friends' birthday party at PumpItUp. She had not been there for a while and she really missed the rock climbing. She went up and down for half a dozen times.
When we passed this water fountain on the roadside on our way home, we saw that it was full of foam such that they were flying on the road. After we got home, Max and I drove back out, parked close enough and biked to it.
Max was curious about the source of the water. So we climbed up to the top of the fountain and played a bit.
I saw a Geocach close to where we parked. So we rode to the location and retrieved the cache.
Max is learning ice skating very well. By the time I wrote this post, he has already advanced by one level!
I took Renee on our last ski trip of the season. As usual, we visited and stayed at a friend's place on the way. Max stayed behind to play with his little friend, Sophia, with a cool ride.
Renee is getting more confidence. She loves to pick a big snow ball and carry it all the way down.
Max hangs out with the Ashley, Sophia's big sister.
We bought this demolition toolkit for Max. It took him a couple of weeks to earn it by staying in his bed through the night. I showed him how to build it the first time. Now he can build it all by himself. He will look at the illustration, call out the number, have me bring him the card and put them together.
Max loves lego now. We went to visit a lego store and he built a bridge with the parts.
On a sunny day, I took Renee and Max for a longer ride to another water feature on the roadside. They always wanted to visit it so we decided to go for it that day.
Renee and Max took turns to lead the way.
It was getting tiring at the end but they both enjoyed the trip.
We were all very proud to reach the waterfall!
Renee and Max rode around the little pond for many times.
We had pouring rain for a while in March. Renee and I went out to Costco shopping. We forgot our umbrella so we used this bag. Renee loved it so much that she played with it a bit after we got home.
We went to hike at Lake Chabot with a friend of mine and his other friends.
This is the other kid. He actually can understand Chinese.
We went to have dim'sum. Max tried to eat the chicken feet by himself for the first time and he is loving it!