It's Camping Season Again

We had our first camping this year over the weekend. We went to our favorite camping place which is near where we live. It's the Del Valle Park located in Livermore, CA.

We had to dust off the cobwebs on our camping gears. Finding our stuff and organizing them has been the challenging part of this trip. This is because of the fact that we moved to our house late last year and we haven't really finished unpacking boxes and organizing our items. So we had to look for everything that we need. Luckily most of them are in the garage. Setting up camp went much much better than our previous camping trips. We have a better sense of what we need to do and who does what. There is definitely less screaming, shouting and piercing looks.

The young Leong family came with us on this trip - Jason, Jessica, Andrew and their little one Seth. They had a pretty rough time the first night because they didn't have their sleeping bags with them. And the nights were very cold. I am actually amazed how they survived the first night. Jason bought a sleeping bag for the following night and I am guessing that the second night went much better at least for Jessica and Seth.

The kids as usual had lots of fun running around, riding their scooters and bikes, playing in the creek and just exploring the place and goofing around. As for me, I always find it relaxing to be outdoors. Although my allergies acted up quite a bit. My eyes were teary sometimes and had to wrestle with sneezing every now and then. But I didn't really mind.

We didn't renew our Disney annual pass this year. We decided that we are going to do a lot of camping and outdoor activities in nature. We already have 3 more camping schedule until August. We will be going back to Del Valle with another family friend who came with us last year, then we will go with the Cihonski's for 2 camping trips - one on a floating campsite and the other one in Yosemite. We might plan for camping quickies in between.

Here are some pics courtesy of Jason. I got it from his facebook photo album.

Happy Bday Cheryl!!!

Cheryl, one of my princesses, celebrated her birthday this month. She had a party at Jungle and several of her close friends came to celebrate her birthday with her. She was so happy about how the party went and she couldn't wait to tell me all about it.

I wasn't around on her birthday and she was so sad and upset with me about it. I had to attend a conference in San Diego so I couldn't be around on her birthday. This was her first birthday that I wasn't around and I was hoping that the Jungle party would cheer her up. I also took the family out for a special dinner in one of the restaurants near our place before I left for the conference.

What can I say....time really flies....My daughter is now 9 years old. She has grown up so fast and I feel a tinge of panic in my heart especially when I was in San Diego. I feel like I am running out of time and pretty soon she'll be off on her own in a blink of an eye. I don't think I will be ready for that. I really like the commercial for an insurance company where it starts with a little girl talking to her dad and asking for permission to use the car because she's going out with her friends and a boy friend. The dad finally agreed and the little girl was ecstatic. But, I was wondering why would you let a little girl drive your car? Then the girl picked up the car key from the desk and when the camera focused on her agai, she is not the little girl anymore but a young lady wearing the same dress. And that really captured how I see Cheryl. It was genius.

I think the only thing I can do is to try as much as I can to spend as much time as I can possibly spend with them so I won't have any regrets later on. I was actually asked by my boss who I also consider as my best friend at work if I am interested in a position that will make us peers. And without blinking an eye and no hesitation at all, I told him I have no aspirations. I would rather spend time with my family than take a higher position which would take away precious time from my family. I felt proud doing that. He was quite surprised when he heard me say that but he understood why I didn't want to go there. He respected me for it and then I told him, that maybe later on when my kids are all grown up, then I would probably consider. I am very contented with earning enough to support my family and spend quality and quantity time with them.