The boys had a week off this week and so did I.  I booked us a couple of nights at a nice hotel at Monterey to give us a little treat.  We had also planned to take Buddy to the boarding place so he could spend some time there as well.  A storm was coming; we were worried but at the end we decided to keep the trip.  We had to leave early on Sunday in order to drop Buddy off at the scheduled time.  When we arrived at Monterey, we went for a 4 mile hike at the Monterey Peninsula trail.  The weather was beautiful and the scenery was fantastic, but some of us were exhausted from the steps.  We then found a place for lunch before checking in to the hotel.  Connor and I explored around the hotel and Logan checked out the fitness room for a workout.  In the late afternoon, we all walked to Canary Row for some shopping and food.  We were all exhausted at the end of the day with 23,000 steps.

     We started the next day with a big breakfast at the hotel restaurant with a beautiful ocean view.  Afterwards, Logan brought up an idea to go see sea lions at the Sea Lion Point; I was happy with that suggestion as I was thinking about Point Lobos, so we made our drive there.  When we arrived, we realized how windy it was.  It was actually quite an experience to take a hike in this almost 40 MPH wind; we looked at the incredible waves while trying to avoid being blown away.  We definitely had a memorable moment despite no sea lions.

   We then went for a troll at the Carmel By the Sea, looking through some cool stores and galleries.  Then we found a burger joint for lunch.  By then, we had been eating so much that I was not even hungry, so I chose a milkshake and it was one of the best I had.  Connor liked it so much that he ordered one after his meal as well.  After returning to the hotel for a rest and a workout for Logan, we walked to Cannery Row for dinner; this time we chose a Japanese restaurant that had a long line the night before.  We had a great dinner and returned to the hotel lobby to play some cards before we ended the night.

     For the last Tuesday morning at the hotel.  Connor and I decided to walk out to grab a breakfast.  It was quite wonderful to take a short walk in the serene morning air.  We had stuffed ourselves again and brought back a breakfast for Stuart and Logan afterward.  This concluded our outing to Monterey; I could not believe we had such an incredible weather for it.

    We had decided our bathroom was not bad enough requiring a major remodeling, and it just needed some updating.  So for the past many weeks, I had worked on cleaning up all the old grout and refinishing the cabinet.  I purchased the vanity in hope that we could replace them ourselves.  But once I realized how old and rotted our old ones were; i had to find a plumber to come in to do the job.  Then I purchased matching porcelain tiles as the boys’ bathroom, and a tile guy had them installed last week.  Now our bathroom is almost completed except needing the baseboard.  I am happy with the newer and cleaner look of our bathroom.

Before:

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     Connor and I somehow started watching Modern Family together and it had become our thing.  Almost every evening before bedtime, he and I would watch an episode while we snacked.  Eleven seasons later, we finally came to the very last episode the past weekend.  We both love the shows and all the characters; we were sad that the series were over.  We are now talking about watching another sitcom together to keep up with our tradition.

    We were keeping our NY traditions; we went out to eat Chinese food on NY eve on 2/9.  We wore our new clothes on the NY and the boys received some red envelopes.  Wishing us all a good year of the Dragon and a healthy and fun year!

    The sisters had made a plan for a short trip to visit Yvonne after her surgery.  Gloria was sick with a bad cold, thus only Dora and I flew in to Orlando on 1/27 .  We had a few wonderful days there with the Liangs.  Yvonne had recovered very well and it was awesome to spend some relaxing time with her while she was still out on leave.  We were able to take walks, shopping and just hanging out in their beautiful home.  Katie was able to come home from college for a day; it was great catching up with Katie as well as with Allen and Kevin. We all went out to eat a few great meals, and the Liangs also cooked some yummy food for us as well.  It was fun playing with Butter too. We also kayaked in the lake in their backyard; it was beautiful out there and we did not see any alligators, phew!  We were able to visit Allen’s office and saw the location of his upcoming new office building too.  The weather was also comfortable; it was a successful trip.