roadtrip!

it's 4:40 am saturday morning and still half asleep, we're literally throwing everything into our suitcase and driving out to the airport! our flight was to take off at 6:10 am - and the alarm didn't go off. yup, we are running late, crazy late! but whew.. thanks to the fact that everyone else in their right mind is still fast asleep, we made it to curbside checkin, through security and to our gate as they were calling group 3 to board.. we were group 5. so thats how our trip started.

i know, call us crazy but daddy found a potential car in cali, so we bought a round trip ticket (just in case), said yes to the car, then got to enjoy the rest of our weekend, visit some friends, family and then headed off on our way back home and rmd's longest roadtrip yet!

our first stop - la! rmd got to meet co phuong, chu bryan, tawnie and juliette for the first time. we got to hang out at little saigon mall where everyone's getting ready for the new year!




























as we walked outside, we were greeted, or more like ambushed, by the "wonderful" aromas of the best smelling possible weapon ever - durian!














"PIN--KBE--RRY... PINKBERRY!"















what happens when we try to get the kids to sit still for a photo...















we also got to go down to laguna beach and rmd got to visit and meet for the first time, co lindsey, chu evan, and cousins michael and miya! their house was really unique - it's literally down the street from the landslide of a few years ago. very cool to see that even with the lack of land out there, it still had a great garden filled with fruit trees and a wonderful view of the hills and the ocean! rmd loved this curious cactus plant from their garden.















and then we're off! we got to stop in phoenix
to visit chu tuyen & co oanh.















rmd did really well and got to sleep most of the way..














a boy and his glow-worm. don't laugh, this little gloworm got us through many miles!















we then got to stop at this rest area that mommy had also stopped in back over 17 years ago on her first road-trip out to california. it was amazing with all the huge rocks in the background.















who would have thunk mommy would be standing here in the same area with this little dude in her arms years later? how time flies!















mr. bee-mine that helped pass the time,
complements of chu tuyen and co oanh.















so rmd got to log about 20 hours on the road this trip and we're relieved everything went well! this is the last pic that mommy took of the moon - yeah that shaky white thing in the background... this is right before getting pulled over for speeding! luckily, the occifer noticed that rmd was not happy in his carseat, so sent us off on our merry little way with just a warning! yay - good trip!