Trung and Grace will share news of their family on this blog..."We hope it will keep our friends and family updated with our lives and with our daughters, Lydia and Sophie."
We spent out first day in Aspen at Buttermilk Mountain. It was a great mountain for the kids and they had tasty food. We even ended the day with complimentary hot chocolate!
We left Friday after Lydia's basketball practice for our road trip, which included two ski resorts, a stop in Houston to visit family, and a couple days in Arizona. We stayed in the night Las Vegas and took a quick stop in Bryce Canyon National Park to see the famous hoodoos.
The first red rocks we came across
Entering the park with special music from Trung
The hoodoos were nothing like anything we had ever seen before...simply breath-taking
I love living in Santa Monica for many reasons and another was just added today. People told me that the annual Christmas Holiday Workshop is amazing; kids actually get what they ask for on their wishlists and I'm talking American Girl Dolls, Ipads, etc. I didn't believe them until my girls got their gifts and sure enough, they were very generous; Lydia got an expensive Lego set and Sophie got a $100 Amazon giftcard. Merry Christmas indeed!
After being represented for 9 months as a family, we finally booked our first commercial...McDonald's! Though it was just an internet commercial, it was still SAG, so the rates are pretty good. Our first audition was last Wednesday and was longer than any audition we had ever had. Casting asked tons of questions and even gave the girls and I rice krispy treats afterwards, I guess to see how we look like eating. We got the callback just before Trung's company party on Friday, which was very exciting.
Fortunately, the callback was on Sunday, so Trung didn't have to miss any work to join us. I felt really good after the audition; just like the first one, it was much longer and it felt like the director and team really wanted to get to know us. We even did the full kota after Sophie told them that we do karate as a family...Master Temple would have been proud. I felt that we did so well at the audition that if we didn't book, than I don't think that we ever would. And sure enough, Monday I got a call from Carol Lynn saying that we were on hold and then a couple hours later, that we had booked. Whoo-hoo!
Our call time was at noon; we had lunch as soon as we arrived and then the girls had school. We literally shot for about 20-30 minutes and we were finished! Here's our finished products...
I had a groupon for the SM pier amusement park, so I took the girls for a couple hours of play after school. It was nice and empty, so the girls got to ride everything they wanted very quickly even though part of the park was closed for filming.
I'm glad that Sophie is tall enough to ride the Scrambler without me; the ride makes me nauseous
Trung's company Christmas party was held at the Petersen Automotive Museum this year. We dropped the kids off at my friend Magda's house for a sleepover and took an Uber to downtown Los Angeles. Though poker tables were sent up on the second floor, we spent our time hanging out with Trung's co-workers on the fourth floor with the amazing automobiles. The party ended before we knew it, and a handful of us went to Sawtelle for some Ramen and boba. Probably one of the best parties Truecar has hosted, and to top it off, no kids to deal with when we got home...at 2 in the morning. :P
The girls' karate teacher Master Temple works the kids hard, but he also makes sure to keep the class fun. After all their promotions, he let them have a day off and just be kids.
Lydia and Sophie don't do much extras work anymore due to possible audition conflicts, so when a weekend one comes up, I am all over it. Lydia played a Chinese junior high student and was unhappy with her uniform to say the least. At least she got to meet some nice girls and had a good time at the end. Right after Lydia was wrapped, we rushed over to Virginia park for karate belt promotions. Then a couple of rest at home before hitting Trung's co-worker's Christmas party. It was a long, but fun day!
Lydia didn't want her picture taken, so she kept moving around
Lydia and her new junior high buddies
Karate belt promotions and potluck
Learning is more fun with friends
Master Temple's daughter helped me with my belt
We all got promoted!
Santa pic
The 'stache look
The kids made themselves comfortable watching movies in the den
I know some moms have a tradition of taking their daughters to watch "The Nutcracker" every year, but my kids never seemed interested in going to the ballet. We received free tickets this year from PAL to watch a local ballet company, so I thought I'd see where the girls' interest levels were at nowadays. Surprisingly, they enjoyed seeing all the beautiful costumes and even some of their classmates perform. Maybe we can actually make this an annual tradition now!
