i had no idea how i was going to post up all the random pictures we took during our stay so i decided to just post up a few pictures at a time in a multiple part series!

it always starts with ktown…

trying out the grapefruit…flavored?…oil blotters

NORAEBANG (ktv)

incredible balls of watermelon

sad i only got to see this jerk for a week

this was on our 2nd night in the US…a very good start to our month

trying a new method of drenching the steaks in salt before grilling

lobsters, steaks and corn….felt kind of baller at the time

our new favorite dinner

ok, part 2 coming soon

one of the big reasons for our month long return to the states was to see annie’s newly born niece, arden! i snapped a few pictures of her, so be prepared for ultimate melt your face off cuteness!

“what is this thing?”

standing babyy

baby and auntie

bff’s

skype baby

close ups

her new favorite chair

welcome to the world!!

while vacationing in the US, matt and i decided to make another YC video…our first in 5 something years! in case you don’t know what our history is with yellowcard, you can read this post and find out!

anyway, here’s the video.

if you didn’t notice, the production quality is a lot higher than our previous videos.  with that being said, we decided to do a little “making of” video to show the world how we made it!  i’ll have to admit that i think like this video more than the actual music video.  enjoy!

so we’re back and it feels so good. instead of making random posts here and there about our vacation back home, i’m just going to do weekly updates so i can kind of keep track of everything we’ve done and also use as a checklist we haven’t done yet and we want to do. it won’t be super littered with pictures because it’s all things we’ve done before and with more or less the same people (which is nice!). i’ll include a few pictures but honestly, we haven’t been taking many.  if there are pictures, the text will be linked! too busy just having fun. i’ll be adding things all the time because it’s pretty hard to remember everything sometimes haha.

monday, aug. 2

• arrival
• first meal: tarasco’s mexican food
• surprise james at his office by throwing a carton of mild 7′s at his head from 2 cubicles away
• surprise casey at his apartment
• see baby arden for the first time!

tuesday, aug. 3

• lunchtime with my mom at thai dishes and realize they’ve changed for the worse
• fujii comes over!
• ktown shenanigans with james, jenny, steve, rach and fujii! (bbq+crazy hook+noraebang)

wednesday, aug.4

• thought i was over jetlag but woke up at 4pm -_-
• mom made her homemade salmon (my ultimate favorite home cooked meal)

thursday, aug. 5

• soondooboo at cho dang with mike and lisa (favorite tofu place in the world.)
• bought new super mario bros wii for my sister, but really so mike and i could steal the wii from her
• dinner with annie at crawfish house! proceeded to eat 6lbs of crawfish.
• first time doing a target run in a year (you won’t realize how much you miss this place til you don’t have it)

friday, aug. 6

• a very lonely lunch at valentino’s pizza, haha
• a very spectacular and successful trial bbq with mike and annie (lobster tails + steak + corn)
• dave comes over with wii motes and games and eats about 10 lbs of sour patch kids and ruffles, mixed.
• mario party wii with lisa, eddie, mike, dave and annie.

saturday, aug. 7

• dim sum at sea empress with my family…sometimes i think this place is a lot better than a lot of places of HK
• peach black tea at ten ren’s (have yet to find this mix in taiwan)
• see matt and alex for the first time, but more importantly, finally meet matt’s girlfriend, christina
• hermosa bar hopping with them for georgina’s bday

sunday, aug.8

• jack in the box for breakfast
• rose bowl flea market with annie and tiff
• first time eating king taco, ever, and it was freakin amazing.
• shopping time at urban

monday, aug.9

• favorite pho place with mom and sister
• dinner @ el burrito jr. with jenny and rach
• marriott hotel bar (whatttt??) with steve

tuesday, aug. 10

• cho dang with matt
• all day video/audio recording for “only one” with matt
• korean bbq to celebrate the completion of our first video in a very long time
• play crappy emo songs all night, like old times

wednesday, aug. 11

• sion’s for lunch with my mom and sister
• peiwei’s in irvine for dinner with annie
• spend quality time with her niece, arden!

thursday, aug. 12

• furaibo for dinner with suzing

friday, aug. 13

• souplantation for lunch with my mom and sister
• thrift store shopping with annie
• best crab house with jenny and steve
• busby’s east for ali’s goodbye party + see a whole lot of people
• dirty dogs!

saturday, aug. 14

• roscoe’s chicken and waffles with jenny
• family bbq with a whole bunch of old family friends
• ktown with matt, aaron and chris

sunday, aug. 15

• lunch with my dad at scotty’s on the strand
• surf & turf night #2  at jenny’s

monday, aug. 16

• amazing avocado burgers in cypress
• shopping at del amo
• dinner at koraku with june and david
• scott pilgrim with rach!

tuesday, aug. 17

• lunch at al watan w/ naeem, cherise and nicole
• productivity monitoring / ping pong at vantage media
• crawfish house w/ annie, rach, jenny and steve
• unsober lee’s sandwich run
• jenny’s house for feast #2

wednesday, aug. 18

• sion’s for lunch w/ mom and sister
• korean bbq in ktown w/ suzing and elisa

thursday, aug. 19

• dinner at cho dang (3rd time) with hanna
• beer consuming at james and kc’s place

friday, aug. 20

• lunch at yoshinoya!
• meet june’s nephews for the first time and catch up with her mom, sister and johnny
• dinner at lee’s tofu with parents
• hang out at james place with rach, jenny and matt
• tea station run with kc
• ken arrives from norcal!
• 2am 7-11 run for giant beers

saturday, aug. 21

• lunch at l&l’s with ken
• take apart my old ps3 to find that we can’t do anything to fix it
• watch charlie and the chocolate factory at cemetery movie night
• booth pictures at some random bar in echo park
• crazy hook with many people!

sunday, aug. 22

• NRM afternoon at rach’s
• mccormick’s with family for dad’s bday

monday, aug. 23

• soondae with rach, jenny and steve
• bike ride at the beach with rach + oyster bar!
• nice home cooked meal for dinner

tuesday, aug. 24

• panda express for lunch (mmm..orange chicken)
• south coast plaza shopping
• dinner at ava’s place (last time i see the baabbyy )

wednesday, aug. 25

• szhechuan (sp?) for lunch with my mom
• norah jones at the greek theatre (freakin amazing btw)

thursday, aug. 26

• pho place with my mom and sister
• last night in the US = ktown adventures
• MDP2 for bbq
• crazy hook for drinks
• best night with our favorite people.

friday, aug. 27

• lunch at sion’s with family and james
• goodbye USA.

ok, that’s all for this month long post!  america is an amazing place to vacation.  thanks to all our wonderful friends for taking the time out of their busy schedules to hang out with us   this was one unforgettable month.

oh, and yes, i do realize that i stopped putting picture links in the text. expect to see pictures in the next few days.

hello! this is my first post made in the states in almost a year!! it really feels great to be back. first meal we had back here was mexican food, not in-n-out like almost everyone has as their first meals.  last night we went out to ktown and did what we always do there.  eat, drink and karaoke. god i love that place.  also, i love my room in my parents house.  i never really appreciated it until now, actually, there’s a lot of things in the states that i never really appreciated until now.  this is officially the longest time i’ve been away from home.  it was amazing seeing our best friends. you know that awkward feeling you get when you hang out with someone you haven’t seen in a long time?  this was not the case with them.  it was almost as if no time had passed at all.  looking forward to seeing more of you this month!!!

anyway, here are some leftover pictures from the last few weeks in taiwan!

our show with yellowback at the wall

we finally got to meet baby arden!! (but this pic was taken before we met her, so we only knew her through pictures)

帥哥 iki

great pics as always, wes!

my summer session class, pretty much the same class as last semester

thanks to iki and agnes for getting us and all our luggage to the airport!