2008, Jan 31: Limo ride to Amador Wine Valley

Doug's buddy, Phil & his wife Tanya invited us over to their house in Folsom for the weekend. Phil invited his sister, Slyvia and her husband Jacob (they live in San Diego). Phil just celebrated his bday and as a bday gift from Tanya, we had a limo take us to Amador Wine County which was about half hour away from Folsom. What a beautiful day! We took a tour around Amador/ Shenandoah Valley sipping wines here and there. Oh what a tough life! We stopped at Villa Toscano for lunch and stopped at Renwood for some fun cowboy hat action! I couldn't help myself at our last stop.. I had to stick my head in the wine tank! I love wine!

2009, Jan 23: Chinese New Years at B&D's house

Happy Chinese New Years! It's the Year of the Ox.
It was our 3rd annual hot pot party at our house - check out our past 2 years blog stories.
We invited 5 couples to join us in a delicious & fun-filled night. We wished we could invite a lot more people but we have one square table and one portable stovetop. D & I bought all the chinese food, we provided the sake & asian beer, and we gave away some great chinese gifts (thanks to my mom who brought them back from China).
Next year we'll have to see if we can expand our hot pot party so that more people are invited.

2009, Jan. 10: Moonlight snowshoeing in Truckee, CA

Have you ever snowshoed at night? Call us crazy, call us loopy but we had a lot of fun doing it! Our friends, Matt & Maria convinced us to go out for a moonlight night of snowshoeing. At first, I was hesitant to say yes b/c of the fact that I get cold real easily but going on a hike at night in the snow and getting a workout sounded ok to me. Maria's cousin, Lindsey was in town for the week and all of us carpooled and headed to Coldstream Valley in Truckee, Calif.

Our mission was to snowshoe up the Valley so we can get a good view of Donner Lake. We hiked as much we could and stopped at a clearing. The moon shining above us w/no wind and not a cloud in the sky made the night perfect. We uncorked a bottle of red wine and just laughed away.

2009, Jan. 3: Sole family - Alpine Meadows

My cousin Anya who just got married in Cabo with her new hubby, Jason came up to Tahoe for the weekend. Jason's family rented a house in Tahoe City and invited us to meet up with them at Alpine Meadows Ski Resort. We stayed the night with them; we sat in the hot tub, grilled some steaks, and played some games. What a fun time with the Sole Family! We hope that the Sole Family can make it to Tahoe often, you'll always have a place to stay in Reno.

2008, Dec 21: Decorating our tree

We had decorations stored from 4 years ago but we weren't sure about getting a tree since we already opened up our presents. But we decided to buy a small one b/c we are finally staying home this year and thought it was a good idea to buy a tree to support local businesses.

I love this picture of Doug, of all the years that we've had our dyson vacuum, he has NEVER used it! doug was nice enough to vacuum up the pine needles on the floor. Look how happy he was to do it - Thanks sweetie!

2008, Dec 12-14: Family visit - Vegas, NV

what a packed weekend we had! it was our turn to visit my family last weekend. Like Doug, my parents divorced years ago so it's hard to pack a weekend seeing both parents and trying to see friends as well. Doug & I actually took Friday off from work and headed to Vegas. Doug finally got to meet my uncles & my cousin on my dad's side. we had a great time meeting everyone.

as usual, we head over to my dad's place who always makes an awesome chinese dinner course - everything is homemade...all for Doug & I. Doug's favorite chinese food is Peking Duck. My dad will hang the duck out for 2 days to cure and then smoke it in a large metal pot. we always leave my dad's house feeling like we gained 5 lbs. but well worth it! somewhere in between spending time between parents, we were able to visit my gfriend mandy who moved to Vegas 3 yrs ago. it was great to see the house she just moved into. nice house with a nice pool! can't wait to hang out in your pool during the hot hot summer season!

We stayed with my mom the entire weekend. we love my mom's hospitality. there's always a project that she needs us to do and i'm always fascinated with all the asian cheap trinkets she brings home from china. i always tell her that i never need to go shopping at stores when i have all the shopping in my mom's closet!
my 5 year old niece, lauren spent the night at my mom's house. That night, D & I made sure we entertained our niece by decorating graham cracker houses. Looks like the easiest thing to do - not! it was much harder than it looks! surprisingly, Doug's house look much better than mine & lauren's house. Photo: D's house is the one with the pink frosting and red roof.

On our last day, we had dim sum with cousin Hetty. Yummy food & great conversation.

On our last day, we had a couple hours to spare so D & I drove and walk along the vegas strip. There is a Hooters Casino in Vegas now. I've always seen commericals and heard comments about Hooters but i've never been inside one and have always wondered. well guess what? i guess you could say my wish came true??

so far this has been one of our best trips back to Vegas. We look forward to planning our next trip home.

2008, Nov 27-29: Turkey Days in Anthem, AZ

This year's turkey holiday was spent with his mom & John. We flew into phoenix and drove about 30-45 minutes away to a city away from phoenix, called Anthem. What was so great about the holidays is that doug's mom, Jenny invited Doug's dad, dad's wife, wife's daughter & dad to dinner. Did you get that?
Doug's parents are divorced and doug was able to spend the turkey holidays with both parents in the same room! no, there wasn't any drama nor food fights. everything worked out well. We had a great time with the family. It was short trip but well worth it!