Exploring Houston

J has always wanted to find the location in the Heights that have large statues of US Presidents and the Beatles musicians.   Now that her Saturdays are not booked up with workouts, errands, and dance class; we have more time to enjoy our Saturdays together.  We decided to explore and try some new things around Houston.

Afterwards, we decided to went to Hubcap Grill in the Heights.  Apparently, their
specialty is a peanut butter burger.  Sounds gross, but D thought it was good.  

Valentine Treat

We didn't plan to do anything for V-day today, just take out.  But, J decided last minute that it would be fun to have a treat too.  Her first attempt at chocolate covered strawberries.

Wow, is this how I look from D's perspective?  I look so short!

 

Gong Xi Fa Cai

We celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year with a feast at Mama and Papa Kongs.

The Accident

While J is a newbie at skiing, she's really enjoyed it and hasn't had any concerns tagging along everyone during the ski runs.  She never knew to be scared.  So, when she was asked whether she wanted to try an "easy black", she thought "Why Not?"  The worst that could happen is that she'd fall and take a while to make it down the mountain.  Well, this turned out to be a long trip down the mountain!

The top of the last run - Emerald.

Halfway down and so far so good... until the crash.  Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of J crashing and sliding head first down the mountain - skis and googles all came off too.

After D helped put J's skis back on her feet, we decided to ski through the soft snow through the trees instead of the rest of the moguls.  But, that didn't last long because J's right knee just gave out.  

Ski Patrol came and bundled J for a 'fun' ride down the mountain.  It was SOOO embarrassing!

Well, that turned out to be the unexpected last run of the day. The nurse said J's right knee was very loose and advised us to get it checked out at urgent care.  The nurse was right, it was a torn ACL.  

Best Snow on Earth

We decided to go skiing earlier this year to avoid the Spring Break crowds and to enjoy what Utahns calls the 'best snow on earth'.  Although it is a little colder, skiing in January is definitely much more enjoyable than skiing in March.  We'll be hitting the slopes in January now on!

The highlight of the trip for J was to see her old roommates.  Karli, J, and Mika were randomly placed together as roommates their freshmen year at BYU (along with three other girls) at 1712 Carroll Hall.  They have been J's dearest friends throughout the years, and she's even been both of their bridesmaids.  So, it was such a treat to see them both and have D finally meet the girls she always talks about.  D was a great sport to join the girls for a night of reminiscing and catching up.  Until next ski season...

Oh, and we got some skiing in too...

Dad decided to 'seek revenge on the mountain' by skiing down Conviction, where he fell and hurt his shoulder a few years ago.

Seems the this is the only way to rest your feet with skis on

We decided to take a short cut through the trees, but didn't realize smaller people might have hard time getting through the soft snow.  No worries, Chief and Uncle D were able to get Rawson out of the powder!

Baby Shower for baby boy Hicks

J recently helped host a baby shower for a dear friend.  It was such fun to reconnect with friends we haven't seen in a long time.  We can't wait for the arrival of baby boy Hicks!

J thought she'd try something new for the party favors - chocolate covered pretzels.  

Looks like they turned out okay.

Christmas with the Dernicks

This year's Christmas Day with the Dernicks was a lot more mellow since the Hardy's weren't here to celebrate with us.  Nonetheless, we still had a fun Christmas morning opening presents, eating a yummy breakfast, and Christmas dinner.

In keeping with the annual Christmas tradition, we went to Champions for our family Christmas dinner.  Unfortunately, our pictures didn't turn out as pretty as the decorations really appear.

Our Christmas gift from Mum and Dad was a day of art class to paint our own art for our house.  We had a great time learning how to paint from a real artist!

We had previously planned a day for D to teach J how to paint.  So, it was a good practice day before our art class from a real artist.  While it was a lot of fun, we won't be hanging any of this artwork around our house. :)

Art class at Mum and Dad's: 

Since she's a first timer, J decided to start with a smaller canvas.  It was scary at first, but slowly felt more comfortable with adding more paint to the canvas.

Since D wasn't a novice, he was more ambitious and chose a more difficult painting to replicate.   It took a lot of preparation, but the finished product looks very similar to the original.  Good Job D!

Lizann had a more creative piece and really got into it. 

Mum later decided to join us too, and whipped up a painting in no time!

Dad and Gus helped supervise our class.

Finished Products.  

Christmas Eve at the Kongs - Girls vs Boys

We've been spending Christmas Eve with the Kongs these last few years.  It's usually a busy day filled with Secret Santa deliveries and then a yummy 'traditional' Christmas Eve meal - Chinese hot pots! This year was no different and in fact, it was even more lively.

We started earlier to wrap our secret santa gifts.  Then, it's off to make the delivery.  Mama Kong decided to join us (D, J, and Lilian), and the whole delivery was almost botched - thanks to a few unfortunate coincidences.  First of all, since there were so many of us, D wanted to detail out everyone's position and plans to ensure we're all aligned.  (of course, mama Kong just wanted to run out and 'wing it'.) It didn't help that we decided to make the delivery during the afternoon, so we couldn't sneak around as easily.  After reviewing and replaying our steps a few times, we decided that J would drop off everyone a few houses away from the recipient's home and everyone else would walk towards the home from at a 90 degree angle.  Once the gifts are placed carefully on the doorstep, D will ring the doorbell while everyone runs to the car a few houses down.  One would think this is pretty straightforward and simple to execute... not quite:

1st Attempt:  Two BIG barking dogs came running, as J dropped everyone off.  Not a good sign for a Kong, but luckily they ran away.  The three walked towards the house and as they got to the house next door, the recipients of the delivery came outside to welcome a visitor.  Of course they saw us next door and asked, "Are you looking for us?  We used to live in that house next door."  Caught off guard, Lilian quickly responded, 'No'.  Not knowing what to do now, the three decided to walk back towards the drop off point with their gifts to meet J.
2nd Attempt:  Since our plan failed, we decided it would be safer to ask a stranger who lives on the street to help deliver the gifts for us.  We found a man working in a nearby yard so D decided to ask him.  As the man approached us, D realized it is someone who knows us!  Yikes!  So, rather than say hi, D yelled, "go, go, go, we know him!"  We had to drive away to a nearby strip mall to decide what to do about our EPIC FAILURE!  What are the chances of two botched deliveries?!?
3rd Attempt:  We couldn't leave until we deliver the gifts, so we decided to try our luck the 3rd time.  After checking out the neighbors, we found a family walking their dog on the street.  We confirmed they don't know us nor do they know the recipients.  They were very gracious and excited to help with our delivery.  They successfully delivered the gifts and we finally were able to return home to celebrate our Christmas!  Phew, it was 1 hour of intense excitement, fear, and pure hilariousness!

After such an eventful, yet successful, delivery; we went home to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the family. In additional to Kimball and Jane (who's visiting), our Juan family joined us for our fun-filled evening of dinner and games.

The idea of games was inspired by a recent 'The Big Bang Theory' episode.  There was a boys versus girls game night and they competed on very common childhood games.  Lilian and J immediately thought this would be the perfect activity for our Kong Christmas Eve. 

Game 1: Pictionary, English and Chinese guesses are both equally accepted.  

The girls KILLED the boys, 10 - 2.  And, we even had less people on our team!

Game 2:  Where's Waldo.  Who knew he'd be so hard to find.  

Once again, the girls KILLED it!

 Game 3:  Lightning reaction.  The person with the slowest reaction to press the
button is the loser and gets an electric shock.  The boys did do a little better.

 

Pictures just can't do justice to what we experience with the parents, so luckily we 

have it all recorded!  The video isn't great, but the dialog is the best.  To translate, 

nobody reacted after the first two rounds.  It wasn't until Auntie Ruth reacted 

after the 3rd round that we found out that Papa Kong and Uncle Tad both felt 

the shocks but didn't think anything of it.  Here we were worried that someone 

was going to get a heart attack from the electrocution and it was a non-event for the men!

The Parents

The kids

Game 4:  Jenga.  The boys got the point no thanks to J. 

Game 4: Dizzy Math.  This was by far the best game of the night!
No pictures available, but the video caught everything.

D and J

Kimball and Jane

Kevin and Lilian

Final Score:  Girls - 14, Boys - 7.  It wasn't even close!  The losers got to do all the dishes.
But, the girls helped clean up too.  While everyone was cleaning, look where we found Papa Kong!

Where's Waldo was a big hit that night, especially for Papa Kong.  He couldn't put it down!

Christmas Card

A first for us, we have a Christmas Card.  Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

After enjoying the Christmas festivities in NYC with the Todds, J was inspired to add more Christmas spirit in our house.

D wanted to surprise J before she returned, so he bought some lights and 

decorated our balcony.  Isn't that sweet?  It's hard to tell, but the lights are along the railings. :)

Before and After pictures of our Christmas Miracle 'Grow'.  It's nothing like the 

Todds, but it's a start.  We'll just have to start a little sooner next year.

 It's a Dernick family tradition to see the christmas lights in River Oaks every year.  

The people in River Oaks take their christmas decorations very seriously!  

We also ventured out to the Tanglewood area one evening to see some 'interesting' decor.