Fun In the Snow

We went to Lake Tahoe last weekend with our dear friends, the Kus. It was quite an adventure getting there. We left at 7pm on Friday night and did not step into our cabin until 6 am the following morning! Crazy! The drive is supposed to take 4.5 hours with no traffic. It took us 11 hours door to door. The reasons for this are:
1) It was a huge ski weekend, lots of people heading to ski, so thus lots of traffic
2) We were driving in a snow storm. We had to pull over and put chains on and then drive ever so slowly through the snow and ice.
3) There was an accident which impacted us greatly. Apparently a big rig had driven into a snow bank and jackknifed across the freeway. We were stuck, totally at a standstill for about 1.5 hours. People were getting out of their cars and building snowmen and throwing snowballs. This was at 1am!
4) When we were nearly there, we could not drive on the small road where there was a foot of snow. The snow plow had not come through yet. Though we had chains, our poor Odyssey could not make it up the hill. Not enough traction. John ended up dropping his family off (no problem for the Yukon to make it up the hill) and then came back to pick us up.

Spiritual lessons. When we first turned onto the small road up to the cabin, we could not make it up the hill. We tried and tried. At last, I said, "I know! Let's pray." We prayed, and then amazingly, we make it up the hill on the very next try. As turned the bend, we were faced with another even bigger hill. We lost heart at that point, and that is when we sent John ahead to drop off his family and then come get us.

After we had been dropped off, Dave went back to the Odyssey to try again. He tried and tried. And then he prayed. And the Lord gave him the idea of turning the car around then REVERSING up the hill. It worked! Praise the Lord! The lesson we learned here - you have to pray before each and every hill the Lord allows in your path. It isn't a one shot deal. You have to pray every time.

With no further ado - here are some pictures! It was soooo beautiful! So much snow!

This was our breakfast on Sunday morning. French toast! Yummmm.


We had our own worship meeting on Sunday morning. You see the kids here listening to the Sunday school story. It was 1 Samuel 17 - David and Goliath.


Here is Justin as David, wearing Saul's "armor" that is way too big for him. He is wearing his mom's ski boots, his dad's ski bib and snow jacket, and my purse (that's the shepherd's bag).


Nicky and MAtthew built an igloo with a window.


More to come!

Showin' Off

"Nuff said.

Chinese New Year - Year of the Rabbit

We have never made a big deal out of Chinese New Year. Usually at most we would eat dinner with my folks or Dave's. The grandparents would bestow red pocket money upon the boys.

Since the boys are attending Chinese school now, naturally there was more reason to celebrate. They had a special day there!

First off, it was free dress day since traditionally everyone wears new clothes on the first day of the new year. I went to Target the day before to get these new outfits for all of them. Aren't they handsome? By the way, Nathan is showing off his flexibility and Aaron is doing the hoseback stance (from hkd).


They had dumplings at school with chopsticks! I was the chef for the dumplings, cooking them over a slooooooow burner in the library! YUM!



AND - they had a Chinese New Year parade! Matthew and Nathan got to be part of the lion dance (or dragon dance?). I can never tell - the lion looks like a dragon and vice versa. They sang Chinese New Year songs while marching around the school.



What did you do for Chinese New Year?

Skating

We went on a field trip to the Cupertino Ice Park with PILA last Friday. Both Nathan and Matthew were apprehensive about ice skating. Matthew in particular was anxious and was even more reluctant than usual to go to school that morning. I tried to comfort him by recounting how fun ice skating was (for me).

Phew - he and Nathan had a wonderful time! There was a LOT of falling. But a lot of getting back up. No one cried. They (and they whole group of kids who were there) were amazing. I loved their perseverance and glee. I got on the ice as well for the first time in at least 15 years. Even helping all of the kids lace up their skates brought back such fond memories of skating with friends as a kid. And oh - I remember so well the feeling of getting out of your skates and putting on your own shoes - and how they feel like the most comfortable shoes in the whole world.

Good Times

I have been neglecting my blog as of late :-(. Dave and I have really, as of late, been hearing from the Lord about making our marriage and our family time a priority. And we have both very much felt through circumstances and God's discipline - the Lord wanting to gain us in a real way.

On to lighter topics! Last Sunday, Dave and I, and John and Rachel Ku had our first ever double date. Actually, I can honestly say that this is the first ever double date I have ever been on EVER. Don't worry, we didn't paint the town red, or go dancing, or even out to eat. We drove our kids over to the Hos' house and we ate in at the Kus' home and played. . .

Something I haven't played in 15 years. . .

Something I was quite into for a while in college. . .

It stretches the mind and brings out my competitive spirit. . .

SCRABBLE!

And it was sooooo fun. Here's our board at the end of the game.


And I won!

And thanks to Sam, I have photographic evidence of what our children did while we were managing our racks, looking for bingo words, and strategizing how to get the triple word score...





Ah yes. Gotta love the glow of screen light on my dear children's faces. It makes them look both intense and out of it at the same time.




That's Nene playing the cajon. Pretty cool percussive instrument. When we came to pick them up, everyone there was having a worship jam session. Guga on the guitar (amped), Dorothy on piano, and Grace (and others) on the cajon. It was so nice. Actually, it sounds corny, but we joined in for a couple of choruses and as I saw there next to my wonderful husband singing praises to the Lord - I felt like it was such a balm to my soul. I needed it.

{Blue}

I love blue.
Blue is for the Dodgers.
Blue is for Cal.
Blue is good :-).
Matthew thinks so, too.

Wordless Wednesday