The weekend after the storm hit us- We made a dash trip to NY
(The reason why I did not have time to post the storm pics or taken any others :-) )
i.e I bought the tickets 3 hours b4 we flew :-)
While everyone packing, I booked hotel, car rental etc then rush to the airport,
(it was 1 hour drive to get there)
pass security with the kids dragging all of our suitcases on board,
jump into the airplane which was delayed twice

With 3 kids and all the luggage in tow, we landed in New jersey at 5:30PM,
took several elevators, train etc to the car rental, discovered we left our GPS at home,
called my friend at the theatre asking for direction just to received the subway direction,
he is after all from Vietnam and never drives anywhere in NY.
Got to the theatre after reading a very vague map at 6:30Pm, oh no- this is NY,
where is the parking garage, another 15 mins, parked the car, we were extremely hungry
so bagel was THE FOOD. walk a few blocks to the theatre, it was 30 mins before the show,
my friend jumped out in his full custume to gave us a quick hug with the audience staring @ us all.

Now this is amazing, after all of that, Sumo sat 70 mins thru the performance like a dream.
Everybody was so impressed, he is the youngest audience of the play, and definitely
one of the best :-) We went out to eat @ one of the most expensive and bad taste Vietnamese
restaurant we ever had, i.e not recommended if you ever go to NY. Then said good bye to our friend,
pick up the car (Quan was so worry about the garage would close since being a southern city kid,
he did not realise that NY lives 24 hours :-) ), drove the kids into Time Square traffic at midnight :-)
Crash into our hotel bed @ 1AM- dead to the wolrd ... :-)

To be continue-
In the mean time, please enjoy the pics :-)

Our first day in Kauai-

- Mommy read a quick dinning guide book and found a Vietnamese noodle lace but it was closed. We found Jamba Juice and got some instead. Still starved.

- Drove thru Kapaa'a town and saw so many shops. Ran past a noddle house,
it was tempting so we turn around and stop. The was the first time in a long, long time that Mommy had noodle this island style again.

- Full and we head out Kiahuea, Kowlong shopping area. Since Mommy decided to visit a bakery that has very good review there. The bread was good, not much pastry left but we found an island soap company next door, bought a few things. It turns out thay make terrific soap that even Daddy use volunterinly.

- Next stop- Todd, it was easily found (with a GPS), have no idea who is who, where is where, we headed straight into the main house and asked for direction. There was the big nice gentlement gently told us the house is for Todd's guests and family only, and the fans are camping outside. Now I know what the pic on Michele's website is about, the sunset view in the main house :-)

- At the camp side, we have no idea who is who, what is the procedure and what to do. Daddy came back out to get the tent but Mommy found out there are rooms for putting down the tents so it is not very good to put down the tent and leave it there. We decided not to put it down, then found out Sumo ran after the dog and straight into the fire. Thanks the guys who yelled out-

Finaly found out which lady is Michele, did the greet and meet.
Sign up for Mon volunteer to get the ice.
Learning that we can do the registration later with Rebob,
everybody started dinner and we left to check out
our condo.

- Our condo is an ocean front condo, ground floor that has the most beautiful view of the beach, sitting on top of the cliff. The sunset scene was magnificient.
And guess what, there was no AC in the condo.

- Open the windows, turn on the fans and ...

- Now all we need is food.
we found a supermarket in Princeville called Foodland, grab some permanent bags
and go into the price shock of our lives.

Our note from Kauai:- The Traveling part

- We woke up at 4:30AM, after a few hours sleep and many drink, get to the air port at 6AM and Ian realized that we were 2 hours early, asking why I must drag us there in such a hurry. He must ask why ???? :-)

- At the DFW, we run into Sheila and Abbey, they also went to Todd-camp.
It is so nice to know other ppl that is going.

- The flight to Phoenix is relatively short, we rush to eat at the airport,
the food is awful, the line is long while the hot dog is burned and the bread is so dry. We were hungry and rush.

- The flight to Kauai is such a mess, a lots of family is broken apart.
AQ ended up at 2 seperate seat but at least close to us. The fligh is long and
we ran out of money to buy food :-)

- Finally, we were there. The view of the airport from the plane is breathtaking.
Took a while to get the suit cases, since we got the car check in online,
we got to the bus, get the Alamo parking lot and got to pick the car we like from the parking lot. It is so nice.

Now we are hopelessly lost, GPS is out, we starved.

We had so much fun there- I loved the water area.

The was the day before Me.miscarried my little bro/sister.

Botanical Garden-07

Moody Garden- Easter Break-

It was a very cold weekend so Ba Me. decided to do thing indoor.
We went down to Moddy Garden in Galveston, the place is nice
including the cold swiming pool.

We ate breakfast at the restaurant, ate mi` goi for mid-night snack.

We went to see all of the exhibition and went out to eat
a very good sea food dinner, with real Cajun food.

Liaminh-

Moody Garden- easter07

I guess I had not written for a while-

We went on so many trip this year and it was hard to keep up.

The first big trip was back to Hill Country for the Memorial Day weekend.
And it was rainning most of them time, just never at the place we were.
How lucky was that!

The rental house was very nice, you can see it here.

We went boating, attending crawfish festival,
went cycling, swiming ath the river ...

We saw a lot of deers while riding, that was great!

And wow, it was flooding very badly so we have grea fun in the fast water area.

Me. had an emergency but she did not want to go to hospital.
And she still cooked.


And yes, we have a few company, it was nice.

Liaminh-

Memorial_07

We went to Broken Bow this year for July 4th break.

It was fun- the whole lake was flooding, so we swam to the picnic table.
We swam at the cross road between islands.

Anh & Quan & Ba got stucked in the middle of the river while kayaking
down Mt Fork river. Anh got stucked on a tree while our boat doubled up.
Me. droved me back to the pickup point thru all of that dirt road.
We got a local showed us the way to the fall, the path is off road.
You will need a SUV to get there and I mean it.,

We loved the hot tub, it was the coolest thing we ever had.

We went horse riding, Anh was the naturtal and I fell asleep most of the ride.

Anh also fell of the bike at the park. We saw a turtle at Lost Creek,
and it was so fast.

Me. even cooked macaroni & Cheese using Bobby Flay's recipe,
we had plenty of good food and not enough desert :-)

I guess those were the moment that made up the trip :-)

Liaminh-

Beavers Bend, 4July07