2017

This year brought many ups and down for our family. Derek, Keith turned 5 in January and Charlie turned 1. Alan is still teaching at the same middle school and Lei finished her first year of teaching at a charter school. During the summer, we took our first family road trip. We drove from Texas all the way to Arizona to visit with some friends we knew from Hawaii, then up to Las Vegas for a family reunion for a few days. We were also able to witness Lei's brother, Robbie, get married. After that we went on up to Utah to visit more family that we haven't been able to see since moving to Texas. On our way back we stopped at four corners. The boys were all so well behaved in the van on this long trip but I think we'll wait a few years before we do it again.
After the road trip, Lei got an interview with a school she had really enjoyed substitute teaching at. She got the job as a second grade teacher and Derek and Keith were able to attend Kindergarten at that same school. The beginnng of the school year was really hard, though. We grieved, as we had lost Lei's youngest brother. We also had a hurricane and snow come to Houston, so this Fall was not a very kind one to us. We did manage to get through it all and are looking forward to another wonderful year.