We went on back to back hikes last weekend on Sunday and Monday. It was good to be outside again after all the rain we’ve been having. On Sunday, it wasn’t raining so we decided to go for a hike at Castle Rock and check out the falls in hopes that all the rain we’ve been having have brought water for the falls. When we got there, there was a light drizzle. Good thing for all the trees, the rain was mostly blocked while we hiked. While hiking, we heard something growling at us from the trees off in the distance. It clearly saw us, even though we couldn’t see it. I got pretty scared, but we walked through that area pretty quickly!

Then on Monday morning (MLK day!) all the clouds were gone and it was a really nice day, so we decided to go on another hike. This time trying the Stanford Dish which is about a 4 mile hike (Castle Rock was 1.8 miles.) It was our first time hiking the Stanford Dish. The trail is paved and lots of people were there hiking.

Tyler was excited to use his new backpack that he got for Christmas. Perfect for hiking!
   
  
Stanford Dish. Birdie came too!
 

I’m standing in line at the Cheesecake Factory ready to order some cheesecakes to-go for dessert. It’s toward the end of the 4th quarter, the score is 13-20 Arizona. At the last 5 seconds, Green Bay scores a touch down to tie the game! The crowd goes wild!!

A few minutes later while waiting for my order, I realize I don’t see Tyler. I start to look around and find him standing in the bar with a bunch of other dudes watching the game in overtime. His eyes are glued to the screen hoping for Green Bay to win. (They don’t.)

Yesterday, like many other people around the country, we bought some Powerball lottery tickets and talked about what it would be like to win the jackpot. Tyler asked me what I would do first if I won the money. I told him I would hire a lawyer and a financial advisor. He was confused. I explained to him that while winning that amount of money would seem fantastic, a lot of bad things could start happening. Bad people would come out of the wood works and want to find ways to steal my money. He said I could keep it in the bank and it would be safe, but I told him that bad people would find ways to get it. I gave him an example that someone could try to kidnap him and make me give them money. I didn’t realize it at first, but this started to worry him. After about 15 minutes when we had changed the subject and were on the other things, he said out of the blue. “I hope we don’t win the lottery anymore.”

By the way, no one won the jackpot. The projected new jackpot is 1.4 billion. Go buy your lottery tickets people!

We spent new years this year in Tahoe with my younger brother and his family and their friends. Their friend, Mike, rented a cabin for a week and we joined them for a few days. The snow was amazing! The kids had a great time playing together. The kids and I took ski school at Alpine Meadows ski resort and the kids did really well, me not so much. It was a fun time for everyone though.

All the kids were glued to Natalie throughout the trip.
  

Lexi and Tyler enjoyed sitting by the fire together 🙂
    

We were missing several family members this year and decided not to do a white elephant gift exchange so 婆婆 and Uncle Mike came up with some fun games for everyone to participate in to keep the party fun. There was a contest of who could write their name the best on a paper plate on the top of their head, make a snowman using toilet paper on the kids, and “pass the eggroll” using oven mitts. The games were pretty funny and winners had cash prizes!

There’s no Christmas party without a huge feast. Every year, we are fortunate to have at least 2 of these between both sides of the family. It’s no wonder people make resolutions to lose weight after the holidays!
   
    
 

We spent the eve of Christmas eve celebrating Christmas with the Kha side of the family at Uncle Tommy and Aunie Kari’s house. Natalie and Tyler had fun playing with little Melanie and all of her toys! Melanie loved having all her cousins around and stayed up late playing. We heard after we left that she had a melt-down at night because everyone left and she still wanted to play. Sorry Uncle Tommy and Auntie Kari!

The Kha cousins. Everyone is getting so big!
   

Over the holidays, we visited my friend Jenna and her family in Pasadena. I realized while thinking of this post, that we’ve been friends since I was 4 and yet we don’t have very many pictures together. I’ll have to try to fix that and take more pictures whenever we see each other.

The kids quickly clicked and played together, even though we hardly see each other. Little Emily has gotten so big since we last saw her.