Archive for » May, 2014 «

Over Memorial Day weekend, the four of us drove the 4 hours and arrived at Yosemite National Park.

Half Dome - Yosemite

We came here for a highly anticipated day hike. We plotted to hike the 2.5 mile Mist Trail over two huge waterfalls, with an elevation gain of 3000 feet. Then we would take the longer but flatter 4.2 miles John Muir Trail back.

We got up at 6:20AM Sunday morning, ate a big meal, parked our car at the Curry Village, and took the shuttle to the start of the trail.

As soon as we got off the bus, the kids couldn’t contain their excitement, and run towards the trail head.

Kids running towards the trail head

“Kids! Save your energy for the uphill hike.” I shouted after them.

Soon, we were ascending on a flight of 600 steep and huge granite stairs alongside the Vernal Fall.

Vernal Fall

This trail is called the Mist Trail for a very good reason. The section of the trail that lay next to the fall is soaking wet from the fall’s powerful mist. And guess what else the mist makes when splashed against the sunlight?

The brightest rainbows you will ever see!

Mist Trail Rainbow

Soon, we reached the top of the fall.

Top of the Vernal Fall

A roaring emerald hued rushing stream that drains into the Vernal Fall quickly reminded us that there is still an even bigger Nevada Fall further up waiting for us to conquer.

Yosemite Stream

Soon we embarked on an even steeper path towards the Nevada Fall.

Rocky path towards the Nevada Fall

Did I mention the Mist Trail is 2.5 miles going up and up?

Hike up alongside the Nevada Fall on the Mist Trail

Finally, just after 12PM, we arrived at the top of the Nevada Fall. And we took in the powerful Yosemite Granite cliff views from the top.

Top of Nevada Fall-Yosemite

After a much necessary and unapptizing lunch, we rested a while on the top, and started to head down towards the valley on the John Muir trail.

The John Muir trail is quite a bit longer, but much flatter than the Mist Trail, and it offers a different view of the falls and the surrounding Yosemite National Park.

Nevada Fall from the John Muir trail

After a 2.5 mile steep ascend, hiking down on the John Muir, it felt as if my knees were about to buckle. But my baby was still bursting with energy. The kid practically danced and bounced her way down.

Kids doing the day hike with ease

We got back down to the Valley by 2:30PM. We still had half an afternoon to spare!

A hot shower and a nap sounded about right.

The beautiful Yosemite

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Back to Jiuzhaigou Valley
A Day Trip to Huanglong
A Family Outing

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“I WON!! I won my classroom Science Fair Project!” the baby screaming into my ear, and instantly filling the car with excitement.

“WHAT?!” me, shocked, disbelieving.

“I WON. HA!” the baby waved a fist across her chest, and gave me a triumphed look.

That was the science project that I had made fun of before.

When I first found out that the plot of the project was to explode pumpkins, I condemned it with a strong dose of bad attitude. Then I had told these dimwits (hubby and the baby) that there were no pumpkins this time of the year.

Undeterred, hubby came home with comprises. Soon our kitchen was filled with watermelons, cantaloupes, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, and unfamiliar squashes.

Melons and Squashes


Then hubby and the baby spent three good weekend afternoons, counting and wrapping rubber bands onto their victims, and strangle them with snail speed to their uncommon demise.

Exploding the squashes with rubber bands!

split in half!


Every time a squash or melon split apart, rubber bands, squash parts, and their messy guts flew, and they would cheer gleefully.

Mess...


I would shake my head, and yell out to the backyard, “You guys better clean this stuff up!”

As it turned out, they did have a scientific hypotheses for all their trouble, and it was confirmed by the experiment.

The Winning Project


It even won. The teacher liked it, because she thought it was creative. The kids liked it, because they wish they had thought of it, and got to spend their afternoons torturing squashes.

Previous related posts: Exploding a Pumpkin
The School Project
Father’s Day and a Project

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Category: Kids  Leave a Comment
06
May

On an early and crisp morning last week, I pulled the car out of the driveway, and proceeded to take my 13-year-old to school.

I hit the button to turn on the radio… a loud and obnoxious rap music busted into my ears.

Who listens to such music so early in the morning?! My thoughts were screaming inside my head.

“Ooh…this is my favorite song!” 13-year-old beamed and started to move with the music on my passenger seat.

“Talk Dirty to me!” 13-year-old singing/rapping along with the radio. The radio was playing the Talk Dirty song by Jason Derulo.

I threw her a quick and deeply concerned look, and observed that she started to wave her arms up in the air and wriggled her hips.

“Talk Dirty to me!” 13-year-old, with deliberate cheesy smiles, acted totally unfazed by my deeply concerned looks.

This 13-year-old was getting fresh with me, and I realized sadly that there was no turning back…to the good old days.

My teen doing the Hula dance at five


Luckily, I am experienced in practicing if you can’t beat them, join them.

“Talk Dirty to me!” I rapped right back at her, showing off my own dance moves in the driver’s seat.

I got a surprised look back.

“TALK DIRTY TO ME!!!” I pointed at my 13-year-old.

“Okay….MUD! Dust, sewage, trash.” 13-year-old.

WHAT?!! Ha, ha, ha.

In the past few days, We have been going around the house, and randomly shouted, “Talk Dirty to me!”

Dirty talks would be shouted back.

Even my 10-year has learned to talk dirty.

“Talk Dirty to me!” me.

“MUD! Toilet plunger, germs, viruses.” 10-year-old.

Today, I discovered that I have new trouble at hand. Jason Derulo has a new song out, and it promises to be my children’s new favorite. The song goes something like this:

“What you gonna do with that big fat butt?
Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle”

Related previous post: Teaching Green

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Category: Humor, Kids, Parents  2 Comments