Busy with School

The month went by fast, not just because it is a short month, but also becaues the kids are in full engagement with school. Max is the usual himself who can always pay more attention to what he writes down in the exam, and as a result always retake the tests to get his grade back up. Renee is always worries about her score, to be exact, not getting a full score.

Renee was recognized as the Eagle Scout during the troop Court of Honor ceremony. The next thing is to host an Eagle Court of Honor event for her. I am trying to figure out details.

Renee continues the dancing involvement. It helps her stay fit and decompress after busy school day.

There was snow in the Mount Diablo so I took Max and his friend Ben hoping we can hike to the snow. We took a picture at the exact same spot where they sat in 2019. See the picture below

While we didn't hike high enough to see the snow, we did enjoy the great view at the Rock City.

Rain

 We actually have got a lot of rain this month.  The pictures don't show them though.  But these are the activities we did.

We went on a hike at Las Trampas. There were bunch of mudslide on the road. But the trial is paved so it was not bad.

Max and I also overcame the mud trial in two other mornings so that he can work on the cooking merit badge.

Max's Kungfu team is preparing for the primetime performance at Warriors game again this year. Like last year, they trained for months.

When there were five minutes left, Warriors were up by 11 ponits. We left early and took this picture before exiting the building.

Renee ready for the flag ceremony at an Eagle Court of Honor.

As part of the ceremony, all the people who have earned Eagle rank got up and pleadge with the two new eagle scouts. We are still waiting for some materials before hosting the Eagle Court of Honor for Renee. But Renee is already considered an Eagle Scout.

Boise Trip

The December ended with a good trip to Boise even with the Southwest meltdown and California flood. Our flight to Boise survived, and we stayed there long enough for Southwest to recover. And our plane landed two hours after the storm stopped and the street cleared of flood.

Max is slowly working his way towards the next rank in scouting. This is one of the requirement for Cooking Merit Badge, the last one he needs to earn for the Life Rank.

As the Senior Patrol Leader (SPL) of the troop, Renee went to the district event to talk about her troop. She has grown a lot with this role. She call her new speech voice the "SPL voice".

Max has been in the band for many years. We finally decided to buy the saxophone instead of renting it since the beginning. He seems to enjoy it although it is hard to say that he is getting good at it.

Renee attended the dance competition with her dance class. She really enjoys it. So even though it takes a lot of time and it competes with other activities that she need to build up for college application, she has stayed with it.

We went to Boise to visit friends and ski.  The snow got better each time we went up there. We got more familiar with the area and went all over the places.

It was cloudy or snowing most of the time. We had a moment where the sun came out and presented awesome view of the city from the resort.

During the week, we took some break from the ski and visited local sites.

With the fancy espresso machine at our friend's place, Renee became the Brista of the week.