Kauai Vacation Day 1

Fernando and I spent the night at the Stephanie and Robert's place the night before we left.
It was awesome!
This meal was prepared and ready for us at 5:15 AM!!!
Thank you again Steph and Rob!

Check out this guy who was sleeping
(or at least trying to sleep)
during our entire lay over in Honolulu.

Early Christmas present from my Awesome Hubby!!!
He totally surprised me in the airport.
I had been wanting these exact sunglasses for about 4 months!
Thank you Handsome, I was totally surprised.
Thank you as well Becky for your "help"

I read about the chickens hanging out everywhere in Kauai
but I didn't think they would really be EVERYWHERE.

Patricia Meneses Finishes the Long Beach Marathon

Patti ran and completed the Long Beach Marathon!
She started at 7:30 AM and finished somewhere around noon.
Carlos, Eliseo and Mommy Alvarado were there to cheer her on.

Pata,
What an awesome accomplishment.
When mom told me about the race
how they cheered as you would pass them,
how Carlos would call you (on your cell phone)
and give you little pep talks and
how they eagerly awaited your finish
I couldn't help but start to cry.
I am so proud of you and
wish I could have been there for you.
I guess you will have to run in another marathon
so I can run the last mile with you.

I love you,
Mari

Click on the link below to hear Patti
narrate as she runs her last mile during
one of her training sessions.

21 miles_092207.WAV 572K Download

Patti in the Long Beach Marathon

New Hope Family Church's AMP Ministry Presents...

Nacho Libre Movie Night
at the Chen's

AMP stands for Anointed Marriages with a Purpose.
Our Ministry leaders, Joe and Danielle McCrackin,
came up with this cool idea to have a
movie night for all the married couples at New Hope.

It was so fun! We ate salad, nachos, corn on the cob
and for dessert we had an assortment of cookies,
caramel popcorn and a cake.
The cake was shaped like a wrestling ring with Nacho Libre on it.
Then we watched the movie.
We ended the evening with Joe speaking about marriage
and he tied in parts of the movie and how it related to marriage.
Very clever.
Thank you everyone for coming out.
We have to do it again!

The Daughters of the King.

The Sons of the King

A special thanks to:
Debbie for making the Carmel Popccorn
and
Ralph for making the Nacho Libre cake.

Breakfast at The Luxury Chen Suites

The Kao Family stayed at the Luxury Chen Suites for the first time.

For breakfast we had eggs, turkey bacon, poppy seed and lemon scones, juice and coffee.

Thank you for staying at the Luxury Chen Suites.
We loved having you. And we hope you enjoyed your visit.
Please come again.

Dr. and Mrs. Chen
Owners

Niko The Lion Dog

Niko was so excited to meet Jordyn and Jaylee.
He would sniff them, chase them and jump on them.
They were so afraid of him at first.
Jordyn said that he was crazy and later said that he looked like a lion.
I thought that was very interesting because
Niko is a Shih-tzu which means lion in Chinese.

Good job Jordyn!
Both girls knew that Niko couldn't walk on the carpet so
they would run from the guest room to the living room
trying to escape from Niko.

Later Jordyn got use to Niko and felt
comfortable enough to pet him,
play catch with him and
even put princess stickers on him.

Even Jaylee was more calm around Niko after a while....
but she always kept a close eye on him.

Thank you Jordyn and Jaylee for playing with Niko!
He loved meeting you both and can't wait to see you again.

Meneses and Kao Family in Fresno

Carlos, Patti and Eliseo arrived in Selma late Friday night.
Saturday they went to the Big Fresno Fair.
Mom went too and Dad was stuck out in the vineyard rolling trays.
Poor Daddy.
That evening they came over and less then an hour later
Jimmy, Juliana, Jordyn and Jaylee
arrived at our house for the first time.

We all went out to eat at Famous Daves.
We waited for an hour and a half.
But the food was well worth the wait.

The de Leon Picnic

Saturday evening the Hubby, Mommy Alvarado, Daddy Alvarado
and I went to the de Leon Picnic.
This picture is less than half of us. Of the 11 children
(my aunts and uncles on my mom's side)
of Abuelo and Abuela de Leon 6 of them attended.
And out of the 37 cousins only 13 attended.
Mi familia eres muy grande!

My cousin Claudia with her daughter Lyric.

Cousin Stephanie and I with Tio Serjio.

Saturday night Steph and Rob spent the night at the Chen hotel. And on Sunday we went to church with Juan, Becky, Sarah, Claudia, Cruz and Lyric. We went to a non tradition Baptist church. The pastor was really good.

Then some of us went out to eat at the
Cheesecake Factory
and
walked around the mall for a while.

We need to this more often.