LA Visit & Alyssa's Graduation

The whole Panchasarp family headed to LA for another graduation weekend extravaganza. Alyssa, Lisa's youngest cousin on her dad's side, graduated with HIGHEST HONORS from UCLA with a degree in Political Science!!! We are so proud of her!

After getting stuck on the plane for 3 hours due to a mechanical issue and enduring HORRIBLE customer services on AA, we made it to LA for a weekend of family fun! We were able to reconnect with family and friends from both sides that live in the LA/OC area. Sorry to the Kornus for the 1.5 hr wait at the restaurant due to our travel debacle!

Thankfully we made it back to Dallas in the nick of time and avoided the earthquake!

Highlights from our trip:

1. Seeing Lisa's baby cousin, Alyssa graduate

















2. Seeing old friends and family










3. Getting us and Lisa's parents upgraded to First Class



4. Sitting on the plane at DFW for 3 hrs not moving
   


5. Long runs at Manhattan Beach








6. Rolling around LA with a huge 15 passenger van cuz that's how Panchasarps roll!
   


7. Eating amazing Asian food
   


8. Avoiding the heat and humidity of Texas
   


9. Singing a church hymn "Hosea" to Miguel after mass
   


10. Seeing Palos Verdes for the first time...Gorgeous! (Linda, our vote is still for a wedding in Hawaii!)

Check out our Picasa Album for more photos!

Three Year Anniversary Trip - Vancouver and Alaska

Every year for our anniversary, instead of buying each other gifts, we decide on a new place(s) to visit. This year, we went to Vancouver and Alaska. We spent 2 days in Vancouver and then left on a 7-day cruise from Vancouver to Alaska. We stopped at a few places before docking in Whittier, where we rented a car and drove to Denali National Park and then to Anchorage for another 2 days. The weather was fantastic despite our worries of it being frigid cold. To our surprise we had beautiful sunny days (literally, because the sun didn't set until close to midnight)! The lows were in the lower 50s and the highs in the mid 70s!

In Vancouver, we stayed right in the downtown area and visited Stanley Park, Granville Island, Yaletown, etc. We both decided that this is one of our favorite cities. Great food, active people, what more could we want?!

Vancouver

On our 7-day cruise, we stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and then Whittier where we enjoyed hiking, running, whale/sea otter/bald eagle/sea lion spotting! Then we rented a car and drove from Whittier, through Wasilla (yes, Sarah Palin's hometown!) to Denali National Park where we saw grizzly bears, moose, and Alaskan sled dogs!

Ketchikan

Juneau

Skagway

Glacier Bay National Park

Denali National Park

For more pics on each leg of our trip, click on the following links:

Vancouver

Alaska Cruising (Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway)

Glacier Bay National Park

Denali National Park

Overdue Update

So it's been a couple months since our last update. Sorry! Juggling school and work plus the house, we haven't had a chance to keep up our blog.

Our house is almost done! We know we've been saying this for quite some time now, but we truly are almost finished. Lisa's sister, Lily, and a couple of her friends are coming into town in a week. We initially offered them a place to stay but unfortunately with all the rain delays (literally...it was raining off and on for the past few weeks), we couldn't make that a reality. Sorry Lily & Co!

Despite some mishaps...short shipments and missing parts (plumbing and electric)...we are looking at moving in at the end of this month! Woohoo! We are seriously counting down the days. Here are some pics of the progress since our last update in November until the end of Feb. We will post more once our appliances are in and the floors are finished.

Click here for more pics: Our Money Pit

Like how we named our album "Our Money Pit"?? It truly has been a cash drainer. We are NOT moving EVER!!! Ok, maybe not ever but definitely not for a long time.

It's About Time!

We cannot believe that it's been 6 months since we moved back to the BIG D! Sorry that we've been bad about posting updates on our blog.

Jimmy started work on October 19 and Lisa is almost done with her first semester of graduate school. Time has definitely flown by!

Our main goal in life at this point is to finish the construction of our house. As many of you know, we tore down the existing house and decided to build new. After numerous iterations of the architectural plans and countless trips to the city permitting office, we are finally under construction! Here's a brief outline of our construction process...

January - Purchased property (photo of original house)

June - Tore down original structure

July thru September - Drafting of architectural & structural plans and permit process (it took FOREVER!!!)

October - Foundation

November/December - Framing/Roofing/HVAC/Electrical/Plumbing

(View of side patio and garage)

(View of backyard)
(View of front side of house. Yes, they delivered one of our windows cracked!)

(Side view)

December/January - Insulation/Brick-Stone Work/Finish-out

(Photos to post soon!)

We leave for our short 10 day trip to visit Lisa's extended family in Thailand this weekend and can't wait for Jimmy's cousin, Liz's wedding on New Year's Eve in Houston! We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Denver and more

Within 10 days, we drove 3000 miles. First, we drove from Dallas to Denver for Jimmy's Aunt's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and combined elements of Vietnamese and American tradition. Here is a picture of Aunt Linda, Uncle Thien and the little ones (all but one are Jimmy's cousins)!



While in Denver, we got a chance to stop by Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove through Boulder, then quaint (but bustling) Estes Park before heading into the actual park. We weren't sure what to expect, but were blown away! The road into the park climbs to an elevation of ~2 miles...the highest elevated public road in the U.S. Along the way, we saw white-tailed deer, numerous elk, and wonderful vistas. Check out a pic of the many elk below:


Last, we got to see the entire Nguyen Clan in Denver/Houston for the annual family reunion. Unfortunately, Jimmy's grandfather is sick and in the hospital and could not make it (please keep him in your prayers). Despite that, there were still quite a few of us:

New Haircut, San Diego & LA and Update on House

A week ago today, Lisa decided that it was time to cut off 12 inches of her hair (10 in for LOL and 2 in for styling) and donate it to Locks of Love, a non-profit organizations that takes donations of hair to make wigs for cancer patients.  Lisa's hair grows about 10-12 inches a year, so she has been donating her hair for the past 5 years.  Her hair grows so fast that her hairdresser calls her the "hair factory"!  

We had yet another eventful weekend in San Diego & Los Angeles visiting friends, family and attended Lisa's friend, Amy's, wedding in Pasadena, CA.  We first arrived in LAX and drove directly to Irvine to visit Lisa's cousin, Roger, and his wife, Christine, and 4 year old daughter, Becca.  Below are pictures of our rental car (Toyota Yaris w/ amazing gas mileage!) and us with Becca Kornu (Lisa's Cousin's daughter).  

After a yummy Korean BBQ feast, we headed directly from Irvine to San Diego for 2 nights.  Lisa's cousin, Ai, lives in San Diego, so we spent those days with Ai.  We visited the Birch Aquarium, La Jolla Cove, Mission Bay, and Coronado Island.  Below is a photo of us at La Jolla Cove.  Too bad it was a little cloudy and chilly that day.  

On Saturday, we drove back to LA and stayed with Jimmy's Uncle Shane.  He has an amazing house in the Hollywood Hills!  Uncle Shane got us free tickets to join him, Uncle Bob, Uncle Mooler and Aunt Jennifer at the Hollywood Bowl for the Abba Concert!  So fun!  

On Sunday, Lisa's friend, Amy, got married in Pasadena, CA at the Langham Hotel (formerly Ritz Carlton).  It was a gorgeous CA day and the ceremony was held outside at the Langham garden.  We had a wonderful time catching up with old friends.  

After our weekend of fun festivities, it was back to the grind...working on our house.  So as we mentioned in our previous post, we decided to demolish the entire house, foundation and all, and build new.  Below are some pics of our house post-demolition and the soil testing.  As you can see, we have a lot of work cut out for us!  Should be fun!

The tractor that tore down our house. 

The roof

Soil Testing.  Bore a 20 ft hold into the earth.

Our empty lot

Tomorrow, we are taking Chase to meet the neighborhood dogs!  Here's a cute pic of Chase post long-run.  He's thinking, "It is too hot to run outside"!  

We'll let you all know how he likes his future home (don't tell Lisa's parents and brother, Robert, yet...but we're trying to kidnap him!)  :-)

Houston, Dobie 10 Year HS Reunion, and House Update

After being in Dallas for only 3 days, we left to go to Houston for a long weekend.  Jimmy's mom had foot surgery on Friday, so we drove down there to take her to the hospital and helped her around the house.  She is recovering well and has mastered walking in a boot and crutches.  Please keep her in your prayers, so that she recovers quickly!  

We were able to meet up with our HBS friends that live in Houston:  Ann & Cedric Lucas, Julie,  Jack, & Kaitlyn Bonnette, and Sejal & Kalpesh Patel.  We originally wanted to have brunch at La Strada in downtown Houston, but somehow all of our GPS systems led us to the same wrong address!  So needless to say, it was too hot to be moving around and at the end, we settled on the "incorrect" restaurant.  It turned out to be quite tasty!  

Kaitlyn Bonnette (2 years old)!  She LOVES having her picture taken!

HBS Houston Group Pic

Jimmy and his twin brother, Johnny, had their 10 year high school reunion this past Saturday.  It was funny to see their photos from 10 years ago!  Both Jimmy and Johnny were voted "Most Studious" and Jimmy was also voted "Most Versatile" (don't really know what that means).  It was nice for us to spend time with friends we hadn't seen in many years.  Lisa had only met a handful of his closest friends throughout the years, but it was nice to see everyone in one place. 

Dobie Class of 1999

The Tran Twins

Us at Reunion

Flip That House - Tran Style:

As we mentioned before, our house is an ongoing saga..."should we renovate or tear down and build new"...the decision has finally been made!  We left Houston early Sunday afternoon and drove directly to our house to assess the internal demolition situation that took place on Saturday.  We had Lisa's dad's architect-friend come and take a look at the house to help us decide whether it was worth keeping the structure of the house.  After seeing the house again after the demo job, we are going to tear down completely and build new!  The house is much too old to salvage and we  want to live in this house for a long time without any potential problems in the future.  We know that building new will take longer, but it'll be worth the wait.  

Below are some pics of our house post internal demolition (as you can see it was HOT in Dallas ~100 degrees).  There were some creepy critters that were found during the demo.  Lisa was so glad that she wasn't there when they were found!  Lisa is holding her nose b/c it smelled so bad!

Until next time...