In case your wondering, I’m not in the photo it’s because I was taking the photo. Story of my life. For Thanksgiving this year Ray and I flew to California to be with the Chungs. Flying was an absolute disaster going both ways. Do yourself a favor and don’t ever fly United. Our flight was canceled without any notice. However we were able to catch flight 88 which actually got us there 15 minutes earlier. Kinda weird because 88 is our number and for some reason it always finds it’s way into our lives.

My mother lives in the kitchen.

My dad got Ray some T-shirts from China. All of which are too small.

Lana and Kevin couldn’t make it for Thanksgiving because they were flying to Arizona so we celebrated Thanksgiving with them a few days before.

Chilling on the couch with full bellies.

In his spare time my dad likes to pretend like he’s 14 years old and listen to music on his on his headphone while watching the video on his little television alone in his room.

My mornings are spent with my dad. One morning him and I went jogging. I didn’t bring any jogging shoes so I went in my boots. True story. On this particular morning my dad and I went on a very long bike ride. It had to be something like 45 miles. All I know is we were far, far from home.

My dad led the way. He took me down dangerous roads that most dads would think twice about taking their child, like the freeway. But the danger was well worth it because soon we came upon a small hidden bike path that went for miles and miles and miles along a canal.

My dad is adorable.

Like I said, my dad led the way so taking a photo of his backside was my only option.

We took a couple of breaks along the way.

Alright, so after like 20 miles or so we reach the end of the path and all that is in front of us is a tall dam across the street. So this is the end of the road, that is until my dad spots people hiking up the dam, and then he takes a closer look and yes, there’s people up there, walking and jogging. My dad being the curious monkey that he is wants to check it out but he needs the green light from me. “I really want to go up there, but we’re already so far from home, no we shouldn’t go up there huh?” he says to me. Honestly, I didn’t really want to go up there. I was tired, hungry, far from home, I knew my mom and Selena was probably at home thinking we’d be home any minute now, and we still had at least 20 miles to ride back home. But my dad has never been this close to the dam so if my dad wants to go up that freaking dam then we’re gonna go up that freaking dam. I grab my bike and say, “come on lets go,” and ride across the street toward the dam. “Huh, we’re gonna go,” my dad was so excited. We took a photo when we reached the top of the dam.

I know it doesn’t look like it but we were pretty high up.

We road for miles and miles on that freaking dam.

And then my dad notices a lake and a park to the left and of course he wants to go check it out. “Wow, it looks really pretty over there. I want to go see it. Do you want to go see it?” No I don’t want to go see it, but I say, “yeah, dad lets go check it out.”

My dad is the biggest photo whore ever. He wants me to take photos of him every time we reach a new destination so he can remember all the places that he’s been. My dad’s been to a lot of places. I think he’s on his 3rd or 4th passport. His last trip to China got prolong because he had to order more pages for his passport.

He’s a poser too.

We take more photos.

My dad is the swan whisperer.

We take our bikes down further and come upon a beach, man made obviously, but there was sand and everything.

We stop to take photos and then to sit on the beach and talk about life.

My dad tells me that today he’s really happy and if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t have came this far. I’m sure he would of eventually found it but it was nice to hear.

And then we head back home.

We stop for one drink break and this is where I make the mistake of telling my dad that I like to ride fast. I told him that because I wanted to get home as soon as possible. He rides fast the whole way down the bike path, so fast that he’s literally like 500 yards in front of me. Hello, my dad is 64 years old. What the fuck!

Later that day we head to my oldest sister’s home so we can spend time with her and my niece, Sianna. Sianna made a turkey out of food. She’s a creative kid.

The next day Jeff, my sister’s husband comes over with their daughter Sianna for Thanksgiving.

Lots of Chinese food this year.

I love my family and miss them everyday.

I love tofu too.

I made vegan lettuce wraps. Thanks for the recipe Bea. It was the only dish that was completely demolished.

My dad was happy Jeff came, even though Lien didn’t.

The girls after dinner.

Saying good-bye to Jeff.

And the next day we flew home. What a great trip. We have so much to be thankful for. Hope ya’ll had a wonderful Thanksgiving.