Surprise!!

We had a fun surprise recently and thought we'd share our surprise with our families.  Baby Dernick is due to arrive Jan 5, 2015.  D and J are excited but very nervous at the same time.  As a friend recently commented, "Welcome to the jungle."  We hope we survive this jungle!

Video of Mama and Papa Kong finding out.

Updates to our wall... baby steps

Yes, we are probably the world's slowest decorators.  Partly because it takes us (more like D) forever to decide how to decorate and partly because we are busy.  But, we finally decided on creating a gallery wall with pictures of our various trips.  Now, we'll see how long it takes to get a rug and curtains...

Before:  Yes, D measured everything so that it's all evenly distributed. 

After:  Just missing a few pictures, which a great reason for a new trip.

Brace Face

Not that the first time wasn't fun enough, but it seems J is reliving her high school days again.  Yes, she is now an official brace face... hopefully not for too long.  The orthodontist says it'll be no more than 12 weeks.  Luckily, it's just the bottom teeth.

BFF fun in Portland

J and her BFF have been talking about going on a trip together for some time.  So, when BFF suggested going to Portland, OR for a quick weekend getaway, we decided to tag along.  We had only two objectives for the trip, try out many of their food trucks/restaurants and view the beautiful scenery.  We accomplished both.

Exploring the city of Portland, it's so green!

First things first, donuts and food trucks. 

Exploring the beautiful scenery around Portland, reminds J of Europe.

Entrance to the Japanese Gardens

 A life-sized Zen Garden!

We also found many amazing restaurants to eat at, thanks to BFF and Gaurav's research.  

Here's just a sample of one of the meals.  Fancy!

Pilot for a day

For D's birthday last year, I bought him a flight school experience where he would learn the basics of flying and then have an opportunity to fly a small plane.  We finally found some time to make it happen and got to view Houston from a different angle.  While he had fun, it doesn't look like he'll be working on a flight license anytime soon.  He still prefers driving over flying.  Phew!

My view of the flight for about an hour.

 We flew right past our house!

 Dan and the flight instructor

Yeehaw... Rodeo Houston!

Everyone knows Houston hosts the world's largest Rodeo!  Seriously, people come to Houston from all over the world, just to attend the rodeo.  And, we make it a point to go every year to show our Texas pride.   This year we went to Lilian and her roommate Angela.  We got to eat yummy food and pet lots of interesting animals.  Well, everyone by J... at least J was willing to walk into the petting zoo area... baby steps.

1st stop: Turkey Legs!

 Made a few friends at the Livestock Show
Angela said it was "the best day of her life" - not for J who wouldn't be
caught dead touching these animals!

 Can't go to the rodeo without eating funnel cake!

 One of our favorite part of the rodeo - Mutton Bustin

 
We ate our first fried Nutella and fried snickers.  Yes, we just shaved off 1 year of our life today.

Year 4

Once again, our anniversary is upon us.  This last year has flown by, and we're married for four years already!  As with all of our important events, we celebrate by eating!  This year, D made reservations to one of our favorites... Uchi.  We ordered their six course tasting menu and more.  The waiter didn't think we'd be able to finish all that food, but we proved him wrong!

We don't normally take photos of our food, but this is our first time so we can remember what we liked or didn't liked.  We liked everything, so no need for pictures in the future.  Everything was delicious!

Dernick Family Skiing

After watching the winter Olympics, D really missed skiing.  Since J was extra busy at work and her knee still wasn't back to 100%, only D went to Utah for his family ski trip.

 

Checking out the site of last year's crash 

Apparently it was really cold.

Happy V Day

We thought we'd try something different this year to celebrate Valentine's Day.  Rather than go out or take out, we decided to cook our own dinner.  While the food turned out delicious, it was kind of a lot of work... especially on a Friday evening, after a long week of work.  We're definitely doing take-out next year!

Steak, lobster, and Shrimp kabob.  Probably should have taken a picture before we started.

TMOM Houston

It's now our annual tradition to volunteer with TMOM - Texas Mission of Mercy.  This year, the event was held in Houston, at the newly constructed UT Dental school.  Since J has only volunteered at high school gyms or classrooms before, she wasn't expecting state of the art equipment!  We had a fun day extracting teeth, filling cavities, and even made some new friends.