Weekend of celebrations

Last weekend was full of celebrations. On Friday night, Lynn and I celebrated our 11th anniversary (with food, drinks and cake). Saturday, cousin Chi Thu got married, ceremony in the morning, followed by a reception at night. On that same night, we made a brief stop (on the way home from the reception) to sister-in-law Julie's 40th birthday party. Sunday we celebrated Tết/Chinese New Year at my in-laws, simultaneously doing a baby shower for cousin Denise. Afterwards we went to my parents' house to celebrate (and gamble) with them.

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.

Fitness journey and 2019 recap

Back in college (when I thought I knew everything), I was pretty sure of what exercise and fitness should look like. I would run an arbitrary number of laps around Gregory Gym. I would do bicep curls with one 10 pound dumbbell (because that's all I had). I would frequently do sessions of 8 minute abs because I wanted six pack abs. 😑

I ❤ Colorado (Boulder, CO)

During the winter break, we made a trip to Colorado once again, making it the third time in one year (Leadville and Breckenridge being the previous two) and the fifth time since 2018. Yeah... if we're ever going to move, it's going to be to Colorado. This trip was essentially to research our future move to the Centennial State... but which city? On this trip, we stayed in Boulder, a town about 40 minutes northwest of Denver.

Andrew's birthday

Birthday pancakes in the morning.

Christmas 2019

Christmas Eve!

Student of the Month

Tyson, Student of the Month for December (standing next to his snowflake ornament).

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...

4v4 soccer champs

Houston Dynamo Cascarita 4v4 Tournament Champions ('07 boys)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving lunch with the in-laws.

Stuffed animals and plush toys

I think we have enough...

Family of killers

I'm slowly building a family of killers (on the mat). First, cousin Peter started BJJ a month ago and now brother-in-law Chris joined the fun. Who's next??

Weekend wedding (Arlington, TX)

What was supposed to be a nice weekend trip to Dallas (Arlington to be specific) for a wedding of Lynn's old family friend turned out to be much more than we had expected. The plan was to bring the two little ones, leaving behind the two big boys since they had soccer games scheduled. The day before leaving, Tyson got the dreaded pink eye at school and was sent home early. Then later Elliot spikes a fever and is quickly not feeling well. Uh oh... but we can't not go. But we also can't leave all the kids behind, especially two sick kids. There was nothing left to do but power through.

Avengers assemble (again)!

Houston Half Marathon ✔

On Sunday, I popped my (racing) cherry when I completed the Houston Half Marathon. This was all to prepare for the upcoming Houston Marathon in January 2020. I've never participated a road race before... 5K, 10K, anything... so it wouldn't have been smart to have the full marathon be my first one.

For me, the Houston Half was to experience the process of a race... to see if there are any issues that might arise... to see what works. Here's what I did and the lessons I learned.