New Year 2017 ~ New Goals

A New year meant new goals.  We had one goal in mind at the beginning of this year as a family and that was to make it a reality for living abroad.  This was how it all got started.
2 years ago we were in Vietnam strolling along the beach in Da Nang when I asked Dan the question, "what do you think about living here for a little while?".  Dan gazed at me with big eyes and said "no, I don't think so".  I replied, ok.  And we left it at that.
         Later on that day he said to me that my question has been weighing on him.  He has always wanted to live abroad but never had an opportunity and this is an opportunity and a great one at that because we have a tons of families in VN and they would be a great resource and help to us.  He said the idea became really enticing and all he could think of the rest of the day was how he could make it happen.  He knew it would require a remote job, and so that was what he set off to do.
He began interviewing with different companies, some promising they are looking into that option.  One specifically was Zillow, who brought up on their own that they are trying to start a remote team which will start up in 2017.  It sounded perfect for what Dan wants.  He negotiated his salary with them and we've loved everything they have given us.  Without Zillow the dream of living in the beach of Da Nang would not happen.  Vietnam is so different now than what it was 20+ years ago when I was living there.  January 2017 came and we said "let's be serious and make living abroad in Vietnam become a reality".  Let's go in the Fall of 2017 was Dan's acclamation.
    However as Dan completed his first year at Zillow what he did not expect was to be called in one afternoon with some disturbing information.  Zillow decided that organizing a remote team was not going to be beneficial to the company and that the alternative route is better.  Dissolving the idea of a remote team.  Crushed, we thought.  How is this going to happen now?  We set a goal and here it is the year barely beginning and already our one big goal, tramped down.  No way!  No freaken way was my reaction.  We got our hopes up too high. Maybe we set a goal that is not achievable?  Maybe we should just go back to enjoying our beautiful home doing the same thing we've been doing the last several years.  What more do we want?
    But the thought kept coming back...Perhaps we could make this work.  Dan ran some calculations, did some math and I did some research into the cost of living in Vietnam and our budget here in the States.  Our house would rent for $4000 giving us some room for a decent living style in Vietnam.  We got Zillow's year bonus and stocks that more than cover expenses without Dan having to work!  Any work would be icing on the cake.  We can afford to live a luxurious life and still have some left over to help the poor there.  We thought of all the missionary opportunities and savings and sabbatical time for Dan and the idea was enticing again!  We began celebrating the idea and even thanking the Lord for providing the way and helping us see that there are other options just as valid and satisfying.  So IT IS STILL ON!
     We knew families will want to know and hear all about it so we held off from telling anyone until we have a more detailed plan and buy tickets.  We are still fine tuning the details and I'm still in denial that we are actually doing this. This is only possible because of the type of work that Dan does and the flexibility that it gives us.  Also the best investment was building our home when we did.  It has returned much value and continues to be a blessing to us.

   We had a lot of time to think the whole Vietnam thing through on our very long drive back from Cali

 The roads were scary through parts of Oregon.  We saw some cars on the side of the road.  Luckily we made it through safely

 When we got back in town we had the cousins over for an awesome week after New Year feast

 Darion wanted nothing to do with the high chair after our trip.  He wanted to be a big boy and sits in a chair

 Since we got that nice PACSCI pass we decided to put it to good use and went and enjoyed the many exhibits, including the tropical butterfly exhibit.  It made me feel like I was in Vietnam with the heat and humidity

 The girls discovered how fun it was to have snapchat

 We went to a birthday party at a fun bouncy house and I gave away one of Debrie's Elsa dresses to the little girl.  Debrie never wore it because she said it didn't look like the real Elsa dress so she wore the one I made for her instead

 I decided to get into making tamales.  Ooh they were good! I even made some with banana leaves!

 PACSCI again!  This time to see the train exhibit

 And water works

 And rode on the train

 My boys

 Ha look!  More newspapers featuring some clubs I'm in charged of

 It rained so much this winter we decided another museum pass is a must.  Seattle does a good job with having a lot of indoor entertainment for active minds

 Flight museum

I took the kids in my church class to Jamba juice so we could chat and get to know each other

 Primary is a big deal to Ronin.  He didn't want to go.  He wanted to back to Nursery, but he seems to start liking it a tiny bit more.

 Hey the sun does pop out occasionally.  Ok, it 's sarcasm but really rough winter.  I told Dan maybe we should look into a different state when we get back from Vietnam.  Thing is, he loves Seattle a lot.  I do, too but I'm a blogger and a new place every 10 years might be very fun.  Hard to give up the sea and mountains and natural beauty we have here though.

 Because when it's sunny here, gosh darn it's the most beautiful place on earth!

Year Ends Review

What a great year 2016 was!  We have much to be thankful for and our Naughty list is shorter than our Nice list so that is one big reason to give thanks!  Enjoy!!!

The Family's Naughty Stuff: 
*We missed our flight to Las Vegas where Thuan attended a World Financial Group Convention because we forgot Darion's birth certificate and the lady that was helping us check in was new at the job and didn't know what to do and had to call corporate on her cell phone which took a half an hour and that delayed us and made us miss our flight by just a few minutes!!!
* We had a flat tire on the way back from visiting Dan's grandparents in Idaho and had to stay overnight at a hotel because it was a Sunday and none of the tire places were opened
*Our washer decided to give up the ghost
The Family's Nice Stuff
*We got a Zillow discount at Legoland and spent 2 days there as a family and we went through the Redwood forest on the way back
*Our spring break we got to spend time with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Evans nourishing him back to health after his chemo treatment
* Our family got to fly to Florida and boarded the grand Celebration cruise ship and spent 5 days in the Bahamas.
* We had three trips to California and Arizona for vacation, one in February, June and one in December
*We got a nice tax return and put in a roller blading path in the yard for the kids which they've thoroughly enjoyed

Reena (10): Reena turned 10 this year and has the wittiness of a double digit kid.  She has a love for the sound of the flute and has been taking lessons.  She continues to amaze her flute teacher at how fast she could pick up on a new piece of music.  She got to perform 4 pieces of Star Wars music in front of other musicians on the flute.  She was chosen to be a Grandridge Great Kid at the beginning of the year and got to dine with the Principal and got a nice gift bag and Great Kid water bottle. Her braces are coming along nicely and her teeth are much straighter this year.  She adores her siblings and has babysat for us on a few short occasions.  She did gymnastics classes and had a gym show where she got a medal so she was pretty happy about that.  She loves to write and has written many short novels, some of which she hopes to have published.  She enjoys doodling on the surface and proves continually to be a great artist. Many of our arts on the walls are her work.  She has a good group of girls that love her and they go out to see movies, get their nails done, and go to the mud house together.  She finished reading all the Harry Potter books and her mom threw her a pretty awesome Harry Potter birthday party at a fancy lake house.  If you ask her what she's good at at school, she would say Math, but will continue to let you know that her favorite thing at school is recess. 
Debrie (7):  Brie has moved up in piano lessons.  She is doing so much better now that she's not taking lessons from her mom anymore.  She had a piano recital and performed beautifully. She took gymnastics and also had a gym show with her sister and got her very first medal which she was beaming with excitement.  She had a Boov birthday from the movie HOME because they sing a lot of the songs she likes.  She got a microphone and karaoke system for her birthday so her and her 10 friends were covering all the hip songs karaoke style with a disco set up.  Her favorite highlight this year was snorkeling at the Bahamas.  She had a performance at school and was pretty nervous but did well.  She loves her baby brothers and acts like she's the mom most of the time.  She caught a big rainbow trout on her first attempt at fishing and that got the family really interested in fishing. She also got selected to be a Granridge Great Kid and got to dine with the principal and got gifts.  She loves finding things to do for her mom so they could go on shopping trips for mother daughter dates.
Ronin (3):  Ronin continues to be our most active kid.  He loves his little brother, almost a little too much.  He wrestles with him, hugs and squeezes his brother til his brother cries, and just could not wait to run around with his little brother.  He has an amazing ability to memorize things and quotes movies and books we read to him.  He knows his ABC's and his numbers and shapes.  Because of his ability to memorize he sings all the time.  He loves to sing songs from Land before time, "Feel the light" by Jennifer Lopez and all the Disney songs, but most especially "Tale as old as time" from Beauty and the beast.  He likes to draw everyone in his family and they look a lot like rugrats characters with eyes, smiles, and strands of hair.  He will call out your name and tells you that he loves you.  He spends a lot of time playing with his dinosaurs, building train tracks, watching mighty machines and playing on his tablet.  He loves the bouncy house and could live all day outdoor, at parks, or the beach if weather permits, which is to say rain doesn't bother him.  He likes to read to you his two favorite books, "What mommies do best, what daddies do best", and "lights, camera, action chugger" whenever he gets a hold of it.   
Darion (1): Darion, our 11 lbs baby at birth did not continue in that curve for weight.  He's thinned out quite a bit hovering around the 75%-80% percentile for weight, but he is very very tall.  He is in the 99% for height!!!  If he keeps that up he'll catch up to his brother soon.  Darion can say mamma and dadda, nah, and bye bye and he'll blabber on and on sometimes and it's real cute to see him try to communicate with us.  He has been to Florida, Nevada, California, Idaho, Oregon, and the Bahamas.  His favorite movie is the baby Noah movie and he loves anything soft.  He's a good baby for his mamma while she teaches and he is much more careful than his brother was at this age.   
Thuan:  This year Thuan had several solo performance opportunities,  She was asked to perform the Star Spangled banner for the Walla Walla Sweets baseball game.  She also performed solos at church and the Bellevue Festival of the Nativities where she sang solo for half an hour accompanied by a pianist friend she met at Reena's flute music studio.   She took on a few voice students over the summer and also teaches music at Kinder Mundo. She was featured in the newspaper several times and was nominated to be the community's volunteer of the month for running open Mic and Playgroup where she teaches half an hour of music to 40+ moms and kids.  She ran three races this year. Besides running kids around to lessons and extra curriculur activities, she got licensed to be a Financial advisor for World Financial Group/Transamerica where she gets to be her own boss and work when she wants to.  She throws awesome birthday parties for the kids and plan out our family's many vacations. She made all of our costumes for Halloween this year and we were the Angry birds family.  Her church callings are:  Ward chorister, CTR 6 teacher, and Relief Society Committee planner.  If you ask her what her favorite thing in the world to do is, she would say stay home, do nothing and cuddle up with her kiddos and husband and shop online or watch a show. 
Dan:  Dan is in his second year at Zillow as a software engineer.  When you go to Zillow.com, the front page is what he works on.  He has enjoyed what Zillow offers in terms of food.  He eats breakfast and lunch there almost every day because why not, it's free!!!  He got into running and is enjoying the gym a lot more now that Zillow is also paying for it.  He was doing on average 6+ miles on the treadmill and was prepared to run the Seattle Rock n Roll marathon with Thuan and her sister and brother in law. He came in first of the 4 and finished in 2 hrs and 1 min. He also did a 20 obstacle course mud run with Thuan.  This year's projects around the house included working on building his own DRONE, installing a projector for our home entertainment, making an aquaponics system.  He is a Cub Scout leader at church and has been the sole care taker of the kids on many occasions when Thuan directs music, teaches, or meeting with a client.  He enjoys the many trails around home and got his kids and wife new bikes so they can join him on bike rides.  If you ask him what he would like to do in the future, he would reply without a doubt that he wants to retire early so he could be home with his wife and kids more as they grow up.  

And finally...here's a look back on the last few years in Seattle, the only time you should look back is on fond memories
 

Oregon, Arizona, Southern California - Resort reviews and other things

Christmas presents for 2016 was museums. We got a 2 museum annual passes and told the kids we are going to give you experiences because experiences are better than things according to our family motto.   We gave them no presents other than the promise that they'll have a great time.  Our kids consider themselves to be the luckiest 4.  They've been to the Bahamas, Disneyland, Disneyworld, Legoland, and many resorts.  I don't know how you would not consider yourself lucky if you're given those experiences.  We love the joy we see in their eyes when we give them experiences.  It's almost addicting!

Zillow gave Dan 8 weeks of paternity leave that he could spread out over the course of a year and we took advantage of it!  We decided since we just flew across the States and even did a cruise that this round we would just drive.  We had great weather going down.  We took our time and stayed at hotels along the coast.  One hotel had an amazing complimentary breakfast.
Our first hotel

 Ronin was very friendly to the server and kept running up to chat with her, asking her her name and who knows whatever else

 Driving is exhausting.  Flying is a bit nicer but 4 kids and flying gets pricey.  Have you seen a lot of families with more than 4 kids flying?  Hardly!  Another reason I think we might just settle with 4 kids even though at one point I want to have a tons of kids.  I also want to see the world and travel and so are the kiddos that were sent to me.  They are so happy when we get to spend time together as a family doing exciting new things and having more means sacrificing time with each one so this might be it for us.  4 is doable when you're adventurous and want to venture out!  Here goes our trip itinerary

Sacramento Children's museum
Our first stop was the Sacramento museum.  It was fun for the kids but the Seattle children's museum is much cooler.   One thing Seattle does really well is having places to entertain kids on a rainy day

Indian Wells Resort
Our second stop we got in really late at night.  The kids were already asleep and we had to carry them in.  When they woke up they couldn't believe their eyes!  Reena and Debrie thought we were inside a house!  The place was huge! And Palm Springs is beautiful and so cheap, especially for a NW income

 This was the living room.  The bathroom was also huge and clean and the details were amazing.  The tub was 8 ft long and the first thing Ronin and Darion wanted to do was take a bath.  They couldn't wait for after breakfast or swimming.  The girls couldn't wait to go swimming

The breakfast was fancy with menus you could order from, all inclusive in the price of the resort

I forgot to bring swimming suits, duh.  Major failed on my part.  So I had to make a run to the store and got everyone new swimming suits!  So I guess we didn't go Christmas presents free all the way

But everyone was happy with their swimming suits and we got out and swam until our bodies were tired

Everything was really nice, even the changing room.  The kids felt like they had a good treat.

We drove some more and ended up in Tucson, with a quick stop in Queen Creek to bring the kids' cousin her Christmas gift.  They had a lot of Dan's sister's in laws over so we only stayed long enough for a little chit chat and gift exchange

My sister and brother in law awaited us and we had some yummy tamales her friend made

The next day we prepared the real big Christmas meal.  I was in charge of the rolls. We opened presents and boy their aunt and uncle spoiled each kid with so much toys and treats.  I feel like I never have to spend on my kids.  My siblings don't have that many kids and so they spoil my kids rotten.  Clothes, shoes, toys...even my sister Thao who has 2 kids and swear she's done also spoil them on birthdays and Christmas and every special occasion the kids pull out on them

We had church at the most Southwestern looking church I've ever been to and went out and explored her neighborhood a bit.  She was trying really hard to convince me to move to Tucson.  She was showing me big and cheap houses and it was very tempting.  We could literally sell our house and go buy 2-3 houses in her neighborhood.  But there is more to an area than cheap big houses.  Though the weather in December there was very tempting.

Then the day after Christmas my sister treated me and the girls to a dinner theater.  We saw elfed and had some delicious dinner

We swam until dark at her community pool.  Dan and Alex get along really really really well and they talked and talked and talked.  I love seeing my husband so happy.  He and Alex text each other all the time.  I would say I come in first and Alex second on the texting :)

The next day we took them to another museum.  This time it was the University of Arizona Mineral museum a.k.a Flandrau Science Center

We also took the kids a bit further out from Tucson to Kitt Peak Observatory.  Dan said he went here as a kid.  Huge telescopes and each hill had an observatory structure

We repaid the kindness my sister and brother in law showed us by treating them to lunch before leaving.  The kids adored their aunt and uncle.  They love playing with them and babysat for us so we could go see Rogue One.  They took them to the park and just overall did this voluntarily.  They didn't want to say goodbye so they told us they'd follow us out to California

Our next stop was the Applegates. We got to see them before they headed up to Utah and going back to school.  I asked Dan if he had been in touch with his sisters so we could visit them and he said no.  I was like Wah??  It always come down to the wifey.  He needed that last kick in the bum to get stuff set up.  Long story short, we got to see everyone and had a good time.  It's so fun to have their grown kids joining in our adult conversations now that they are older.  They are all taller than me and when I came into the family I was holding some of them in my arms. 

After the Applegates we went to the Blair.  The kids had a blast seeing their cousins and they played together really well...until Brie had a bit of headache and we found out why.  She hasn't been drinking.  We knew Arizona water wasn't much to brag about but seriously Brie????  Our kids don't know what to do when it comes to heat. 

After Krista's we went to Cali and made our trek home.   We walked the walk of fame and ate a huge pizza, went to the Chiradelli factory for some chocolate for us and our friends the Harvey

We had lobster at a very good restaurant in downtown LA but way too expensive.  That lobster plate was $28 and it was very savory, but for that price their ought to be 2 lobster tails...just saying.  And yes, I told the owner and left my review.  His portions are simply just too small.

The kids spent the night at the aerospace hotel with their aunt Thanh and uncle Alex and Dan and I spent the night with our friends the Harveys.  They gave us their master bedroom and it was so sweet of them.  We told them we could've slept in the smaller bedroom but they insisted.  Folks, this is why they are our besties.  We sure love those Harvey's.  Chris Harvey is the technical director at Dreamworks and his recent movie that we absolutely love is Trolls.
                                      

Happy New Year~