We invited the Kaos over on Sunday afternoon to share a hotpot dinner with us.  The boys were excited to play with McKayla and Marcus, and we also asked them to bring their Switch controllers so they could play altogether.  As soon as they arrived, the four of them went straight to the game room upstairs to play, allowing Michelle, Ted and us to chat and catch up.  Then it was dinner time to start cooking; once the kids’ portions were ready, we called them down to eat.  Another break later they returned for noodles.  While they were eating, the kids were having fun asking Google Home to play the Captain Underpants soundtrack for them.  After more game time, we re-grouped for dessert.  We all enjoyed the ice cream sandwich with the homemade cookies by Michelle.  This was a nice evening catching up with the Kaos.

     The weather was beautiful on Sunday so we decided to go hiking.  I found us a local hike to try and it was only 6 minutes from our house.  We downloaded the map of this location on our phones and there were many different trails.  I initially planned on getting us on a 3.6 mile loop, but after we parked, we ended up at a different trail head.  It seemed to be a good loop on the map, so we just headed up.  It was a good uphill hike; when we thought we were done going uphill, there was another stretch.  The surrounding was pretty and we all managed to keep climbing.  When we were finally on highest point of this trail, we had a beautiful view of our valley.  The boys were trying to see where their school was and we finally found it.  After that, it was all downhill.  When we returned to the parking lot, Connor gained 8K steps as we expected.  This was a relatively tough hike with the hills but it was doable and beautiful.  All of us were proud with our steps.  It was so nice to have a beautiful mountain so close to us.

     The boys were signed up for the movie night at martial arts on Saturday night.  We had dinner at home first while we started watching the Warriors game.  After we dropped the boys off at the studio, Stuart and I decided to head over to BJ restaurant for a drink and to finish watching the game.  Since we had played tennis for two hours in the morning, sitting down and relaxing sounded great.  When we arrived at the restaurant, it was busy including the bar area.  We managed to find one seat, so Stuart had to stand next to me instead.  It was awesome watching the game while drinking beer and cocktail with some appetizer.  It was especially fun when it was a close game and we ended up with the win.  After the game and relaxed a bit longer, we walked around the mall until it was time to pick up the kids.  By then Stuart was hungry again, we picked up some snacks from T4U and headed home with the boys.

    Logan likes to draw mazes periodically and they always look very cool.  He would have us solve his mazes and they were well made.  Connor likes to follow Logan’s lead and he would make some of his own creations as well.  The past few evenings, Logan was in the mood to draw them and he asked us to draw with him.  I decided to try it and it was much harder than I imagined; after a little struggle, I only created a small one like 1.5×3 only (bottom left of the page).  Logan asked my permission and added on to improve it for me.  I was impressed how quick he was to make my maze bigger and better.  It was funny that he also added a title to the page for me.

This was the one he made while I was struggling to make my small one.

    It had been a few months since our last gathering, and we finally had a dinner at a Brazilian restaurant on Sunday.  This was also a birthday celebration for Michelle, Kathy and I.  Kathy and I carpooled together as usual and we met up with everyone at the restaurant.  We immediately started with drinks, salads and lots of yummy meats.  I had a good time catching up with everyone and enjoyed this great meal.  Thuy also gave us some of her specialty homemade macaroons.  It was great seeing everyone.

    When the boys went to Maxim’s house to play on Sunday morning, Stuart and I decided to take a long hike from our house to the lake.  The weather was perfect and it was comfortable to walk.  One hour later, we arrived at the lake.  We took a picture to show the boys as they were doubting that we could make our goal.  On the way back, our legs started to get sore.  We finally returned to our house in two hours and with 14,000 steps.  We were exhausted and I needed a nap after lunch to feel better.