It’s been more than a year last time I blogged about going to Maui with my parent. I also mentioned we might go back to Hawaii again. And we did. This time it was Kauai. I’ve been to Oahu, Maui and Kauai in the past, but Kauai is my favorite. It’s very laid back and so amazingly beautiful! We had a wonderful time there.  Pictures from Kauai trip are here.

I love Christmas season, even though we never have white Christmas here. And even though I’m not a Christian unlike Olive, I like the family/friends gatherings to appreciate each other. It’s a special time.

We had recycled gift exchange among our friends. We gave each other no-longer-wanted items in the house. In this way we don’t have to contribute the commercialism of Christmas and still have sprits of giving. We shared the (very good) food and drinks with our good friends on Christmas eve and just relaxed on Christmas day. Antoine really enjoyed unwrapping the gifts. He knew something good inside. Santa Clause must be proud…

Antoine has been modeling for kaching design‘s kids clothes. Our very talented friend, Pearlyn, has been creating wonderful wearable arts and other printed goods. I especially love her new line of kids t-shirts. It’s called “Endangered Animals Series” and each shirt has an illustration of endangered animals and 5% of profit will be donated to WWF. Kids love animals and this is a great way to teach kids about anmials in endangered states.

Check out the cutest Kaching Design kids collections!

I finally get myself to organize and upload the pictures of July 4th week trip to Utah and Arizona. This brings me back a fond memory of the trip. It was very hot there, but we had a wonderful time. I can’t wait for the next road trip.

Here are the pictures from our trip to Utah and Arizona .

We went camping in Death Valley this Thanksgiving. It was really fun. There were more people than we expected in Saline valley, but it was just enough to enjoy many soakings with our friends. We were just there to relax and soak in hot springs (and eat and drink), but it was well worth 10 hours of driving. We love to do it again soon.

Here are the pictures from Death Valley trip.

We went back to France on this September through October to visit our family and friends. We spent some time with Olive’s family in Haussonville and headed to Paris. It rained a lot in Paris, but still we had a pretty good time there. We spent a lot time hanging out in child-friendly places (parks, etc) and hanged out with our friends. After spent a week in Paris, we visited some castles in Loire Valley. We stayed near Tour where Olive’s childhood friend lives with his wife and son. His son is 2 years old just like Antoine and his name is Antoine, too! Antoine and Antoine had lots of fun together. We had a wonderful time there as well. After Tour we went back to Paris for few days and went back to Haussonville.

We had a great time in France except the very sad news… By the time we went back to Haussonville Olive’s mother’s condition went much worse. She had a brain tumor and it was progressing very fast. She passed away last week, and this visit was the last time we saw her… She had a very hard life and we hope she’s finally resting in peace.

Here are the pictures from our trip to France.

Olive left for Burning Man yesterday. He packed his stuff (fridge!!!, scooter, shade structure, mouse shape decoration for the scooter, etc etc etc…) in the trailer and Ana picked him up with her Jeep. They had a lot of stuff to bring! They’ll be camping with Dan Das Mann’s crew and he’ll be filming Dan & Karen’s Crude Awakening and whole bunch of other things.

He’ll be there for 2 and half weeks. This means I’ll be all alone with Antoine for 2 and half weeks! Since he’s quite handful these days, I’ll be busy trying to keep up with him. Good thing he goes to bed at 9pm, so, I can have some relaxing time for myself everyday.

To enjoy my single-mother life I went to Napa Valley today. It was nice and hot there and great for picnic.

Olive got iphone yesterday. He’s playing with his new toy all day today. It is in fact SUPER COOL! Now I want one, too….

In this picture, we were checking San Francisco Bay Guardian site. Our very talented illustrator friend Mie did the cover of 2007 Best of the Bay issue. We could see crisp images of her super cute illustrations on the screen. And we could zoom in and zoom out again and again.

This July 4th week, we took whole week off to go to Utah and Arizona. We went to Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon. It was a blast!

The picture was taken at Crazy Jug point over looking north rim of Grand Canyon around sunset. The best sunset we’ve ever seen! We camped there with noone around. Entire view was just for us.

We also went to Tuweap over look of Grand Canyon. It took us almost 3 hours by dirt road to get there, but it was worth it. You see the Colorado river right beneath of big rocks you’re standing on. Canyon becomes so narrow that you can see the other side so close.

We drove 1500miles during this trip, but Antoine did very well in the car. He was excited to see animals especially. I can’t wait for the next road trip!