Colonel Nguyen

My long time friend John got promoted to Colonel.

July 4th weekend (Waco, TX)

'Merica!

Random weekend pics

Houston (technically Katy, TX) has a Tim Hortons.

Random pictures

Crawfish boil (and plenty of drinks) at Dennis' house.

Fun in the sun

Our annual trip to Surfside Beach.

Father's Day weekend

My growing kids.

Schlitterbahn

Last weekend we went to Schlitterbahn with friends and family. I'm a little bummed that we didn't get a big group picture together because we were rolling deep. 

7 families = 32 people = 13 parents + 19 kids

We took over four cabanas and the entire park... jk. I only took a few pictures because I didn't feel like carrying around my phone, especially at a water park. We were there for the entire time, from opening at 11 am to closing at 7 pm. Good times.

Dinners week

We're here together... in-person and remotely (Friday night).

There were a lot of dinners this past week....

Labor Day weekend

Surfside Beach.

Houston Marathon

On January 19, 2020, I completed the Chevron Houston Marathon. Finishing a marathon has always been on my bucket list. Why? Because it sucks. It's a tough challenge. There's a statistic floating around the internet that said <1% of the US population has ever completed a marathon. I want to be in that rare group.

I was glad to have crossed this off my bucket list. It was brutal. It was the hardest thing I've done. But doing it with friends (and uncle) made it more enjoyable and memorable. We start together. We suffer together. We finish together.

Busy holiday week

Birthday lunch for Lynn at Common Bond. This is what happens when I ask a 4 year old to take our picture...

Random pics of the week

Halloween activities and decorating.

Father's Day weekend

Father's Day started early for me with an Astros game on Wednesday night. But why this particular game? To get the Springer bobblehead! The game itself saw Verlander get a career high in strikeouts (15 K's) but unfortunately the 'Stros lost the game in extra innings.

I love that the kids are into watching sports. It gives us a reason to all come together. To root for the same team, for the most part. When it comes to the Premier League, each kid has their own favorite team. The best games are when they go against each other, e.g. Liverpool vs Manchester City. They get so into it. Tears have been shed. But I digress, I like how sports bring us closer together.

Christmas time

Christmas time was pretty busy this year. We essentially had something back to back to back with birthday parties sprinkled in between the holiday festivities. On top of that, Andrew's birthday is the day after Christmas so the celebrations kept going. It was nonstop fun for the kids but tiring for the parents. Hopefully the kiddos appreciate the things we do for them.

South Llano River (Junction, TX)

We made a trip to central Texas for some camping at South Llano River State Park. With all of the work of packing/unpacking/setup and the long drive (in torrential rain), it's a shame we could only spend one day there. But the kids had fun. Good wholesome fun with each other. No need for any electronics. Just playing outside with sticks and rocks. Floating down the river. Running around. Exploring. To me, that was well worth it.

Cinco de Mayo weekend

Last weekend was busy as usual but we didn't do anything related to Cinco de Mayo (misleading title, I know). Saturday morning started with us parents already splitting up. Andrew was one of only a select few chosen from his school to participate in the district math tournament, where I would be taking him. Lynn took the rest of the family to Tyson's soccer game. All week Tyson kept talking about this one game... constantly stressing over it. Why? Because his friend Alec was on the opposing team.

The hottest coolest time in Texas

Greetings from Schlitterbahn.

Birthday, wedding, and BJJ

On Friday, Jacob turned another year older. He is now 12 years old and puberty is just around the corner... yikes. The weekend was pretty busy so we were limited on what we could do for his birthday but he was okay with that. He kept it simple and chose Red Robin for his birthday dinner and we got cupcakes from SmallCakes.

Thanksgiving break (finito)

Every year I've cooked the Thanksgiving turkey a different way (last year was a spatchcocked turkey) and this year I experimented with a slow roasting method (low and slow). The meat literally feel off the bone and it was fairly effortless. Not bad, this might be a keeper.

It was the usual Thanksgiving affair, lunch with the in-law side of the family and dinner at our house with our family. And I overate as usual... blah. 😑

Thanksgiving break (so far)

Tuesday night we attended a playoff game of the other (often forgotten) Houston professional sports team, the Dynamo. And not just any playoff game but game one of the Western Conference finals. The atmosphere was awesome but it was essentially over within the first ten minutes. Seattle scored early and a Dynamo player got a red card, forcing the team to play short-handed for the rest of the game. Oh well, the kids still had fun though.