Christmas 2015

Yaya and Mimi came to visit for a few days.  We ate, watched Mason play hockey, celebrated by eat more, and tried to stay indoors a much as possible (it hasn't been warmer than mid 20s all week!)

Kids got their desired gifts from Santa!  They must have been on the good list.  Mason got the new Star Wars LEGO set, and Audrey cooking utensils.  They both got books, Nerf guns, rollerblades and Xbox games.  Our family also got a BB-8 robot controlled by the iPhone, and google cardboard (very cool VR experience)!

We made, decorated and are Xmas cookies, per our tradition 4-5 years in the making.

Frasca

It Yvonne and Nick were here and spent a night with us.  We took them to Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder.  It is a high end Italian restaurant that has been around for more than 10 years and opened by alums from the French Laundry.  I've been there once for a work dinner many years ago.  It was a treat and all the food was delicious!

Yvonne thought here pasta was one of the best she has ever had.  Nick and I shared the ribeye on polenta, cooked perfectly to our temperature and he thought it was excellent (a work he doesn't use often).  

Disney On Ice - Frozen

We had purchased 4 tickets to Disney on ice Frozen months ago, and as the show approached, we realized that Mason had a conflict with a hockey game.  He was not at all upset about missing the show, so I invited a friend of Audrey's from school (Kyra) and her mom.  

We had a fabulous time.  The seats were in the upper level, but first row. The girls sang along to the songs and Disney did a good job adapting the story to a shorter version on ice.  

Thanksgiving

So many things to be thankful for: kids, hubby, family, extended family, friends, health, work, and everything we have.  

Praying for peace, for the environment and footprint we are leaving, for people who are suffering in the world, friends with cancer and my kids future.

Bill's Mom and Jack were here, and we had a feast!  Turkey was spatchcocked again, and came out perfect!  Soup the next day, which Mason loved.  Blessed!

No glasses yet

Mason had his first eye doctor appointment, recommended after his 8-year well visit.  As he read and missed the large letters I thought it would be bad news for sure.  His reading (I love that he reads, but often in poor lighting), his computer and other screen time has really been concerning for the eye sight.  But the good news is he is borderline at 30x20 minus.  So the doctor said we can choose to let him go for another year, but we foresee glasses in the future.

Pathetic blogging

So this month may be the saddest and most pathetic month of blogs since we started this blog.  The reason is the same as always - we are busy.  

I normally look back on my phone pictures for these updates, but instead of moments, I found mostly work pictures of presentations.

I have been traveling 3 weeks in a row and gone 7 out of the last 15 days work days to Seattle and SF/Bay Area twice.  Just when you think work cannot be busier, I lost one of my managers in Seattle and now have 7 direct reports (not sustainable).  I also have 4 openings and one of them that had accepted an offer, got a counteroffer from her current company and decided to stay.  It's been a long few weeks.

Looking forward to the Thanksgiving break.  Kids are off all week, except for hockey and Chinese school on Sunday.  Helen and Jack are here from Atlanta.

How did the holidays sneak up on us so quickly?  Maybe because the weather has been so warm that we felt it was earlier in the year.

The days are too short; the months are too short; the years are too short.  

Halloween

First year that Mason wanted something scary and makeup!  Audrey is still a princess or goddess of some sort.  Bill and I recycled through some old costumes.

At work, Larry Ellison on the Data Cloud won lots of prizes.  

We have so much candy between Truck or Treat at both schools, and trick or treating today.  Most will end up in the trash.

Pumpkin patch

We went to Andersen Farms and it was the warmest pumpkin patch visit ever.  In fact, it was hot - a tshirt and shorts day.  The Hevers joined us.  The Prices drove for 2 hours and as they got there, their youngest threw up 3 times in the parking lot, so they went back home.  Cadyn is better, but how unfortunate!  

I'm proud of my corn maze map reading skills!  :)

San Francisco without kids

Bill and I went to SF for Yvonne and Nick's 40th celebration.  

Bill and my Mom have "conversations" through language barriers and afterwards when they tell me what they talked about, I realize they were not talking about the same thing.  A few weeks ago Bill said he told my mom about the SF trip.  Then a week before the trip, I was talking to my Mom who confirmed they would be coming over to stay at our house while we were in SF.  As I told her we would leave the minivan she looked confused.  Then we both quickly realized she thought we were taking the kids with us!  Oops!  All good, as they took care of the kids, took them to a birthday party and chinese school that weekend.

Bill and I flew out together, and he came back on Sunday afternoon.  I stayed for work through Wednesday morning.

It was great to see all our friends.  We redid a picture we had taken 11 years ago in NYC during my bachelorette weekend.  We were only missing Vicky, who couldn't come with her 2 little ones. We had a blast!  

The blue Angels were also in SF that weekend and we enjoyed unobstructed views of the golden gate and bay from Yvette's roof.  

Family photos

IOur friend Siew Gin took a photography class and needed a family to pose.  We were happy to participate to get some holiday pictures done ahead of time!  Her instructor gave her pointers on plains for focus, zoom, lighting, how to line us up, etc.  We soon tired, but Audrey loved to model.  Some of the pictures turned out great!

Is October already?

What?  It is October?

It feels we have been in catch up mode since coming back from Italy - catch up at home, at work, at school...

Kids schedules are full again with swim team, piano and chinese school for both, and cooking classes for Audrey, and science club, chinese club and jugging for Mason.  Hockey also starts in another week.

It seemed so far away when I signed Bill and I up for the Rock'n'Roll race, now less than a month away!!  As my arm is still not fully recovered, I placed my core power yoga membership on hold and we signed up for Lifetime fitness.  We know an instructor there who gave us her discounts to sign up.  It is 15 minutes away, but it has great facilities for the whole family.  Bill and I are working with a trainer, Dylan, and hoping to catch up on the run training too.  The kids have access to the climbing wall and pool, and kids athletic classes (haven't yet signed up).  

Italy - coming home

Coming home from Ancona had its challenges.  First, the train we had booked weeks before our trip, was on strike.  Luckily we had gone to the train station hours earlier to switch to an earlier train.  We didn't know if that one would go until 10 minutes before.  The uncertainty didn't seem to bother anyone else, and there was nothing we could do.  But that train did end up going to Rome, in a long 4 hour ride going from the Adriatic coast to the Tyrhenian coast.  At least after the first hour in our cabin, dark and without AC, I switched seats with Mason and could see that the next cabin (same class) had its lights on.  I sent Bill to check and sure enough it also had AC, and something was wrong with just our cabin.  We promptly moved, even through we were not all sitting together and had to move 3 large suit cases between us and my parents.  It was worth it!  We still had 3 hours to go.

Once we arrived at Rome Termini, we bought tickets on the 30-minute train to the airport.  We booked the Hilton garden Inn by the airport, which seemed more convenient than staying in the center of Rome.  But we were tired and hungry, but pressed on to get to the hotel, which even after the second train, was still a shuttle away, another 30 minutes between the wait and travel.

Next morning, we took the shuttle to the airport after breakfast, about 3 hours before our flight.  That would have been plenty of time if we were not kicked out at terminal 2 because there was a bomb threat that evacuated T3!  Travelers piled on by T2, as we heard them blow up something twice at the distance.  We never got the full story, but we were allowed back in the shuttles and taken to T3 after a 30-minute wait.  

T3 was the scene of chaos with ever passenger trying to get back in, check in, get through security, immigration, then a bus to the actual terminal, and planes!  United worked slowly through their lines while every other airline had already processed most of their passengers, we still had a 50-person line.

By the time we got to the gate, it had already boarded 2 groups.  We got on and the flight was delayed another hour.  As everything else in Italy, no explanation was given for the delay.

This made our connection in Chicago pretty tight.  Deplaning, going through immigration, getting our luggages, customs, checking bags back in, taking the train, going through security again, and walking to C gates, by the time we got to that gate, the plane to Denver was also boarding!  I had to run to get the kids some McDonald's as they were hungry and not excited for airplane food, even the kids airplane meals we had preordered.

We got back home on Monday night around 10:30 pm, and Audrey woke up at 2:30 am!  The rest of us couldn't sleep pass 4 am either.  Back to work and school the next morning, and adjusting slowly every day.

It was a fantastic trip.  I hope the kids remember some parts of it.  Final thoughts:

- want to go back to Florence again

- want to check out Venice, Naples and more places next time

- loved the food!

- hope to see my cousins, aunts and uncles a lot sooner than another 15 years

Italy - Ancona and wedding

The next day, we left for Ancona.  My parents were in Venice after their Croatia trip, and we were going to be on the same train as them from Bologna to Ancona, although in different cabins.  Our train left 15 minutes late, leaving us only 7 minutes to connect, which was stressful.  But the Bologna train was 5 minutes late and we made it just in time to say hello to Gong Gong and Bubu and board.

We were staying outside of the center of Ancona (2 miles up the Adriatic coast) at a modern hotel called Ego.  Again because we needed bigger rooms, we couldn't find much in Ancona itself.

We met us with my cousin Alice, her fiancée Andrea, Andrea's family, my uncles and aunts from Brazil, and Alice and Andrea's friends that night at the piazza next to Andrea's apartment.  Alice and Andrea are both architects that met in Hong Kong, where they still live.  Their friends came from all over, and it felt like the United Nations - Brazil, China, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, India, Spain and US!  

Next morning, we stayed in to relax and to make sure the kids could stay up during the wedding.  My parents explored the town, and we all headed to the wedding at this small vineyard outside of Ancona.  It was such a beautiful site!  We are so grateful to be able to see all our family and share in their celebration.