Year 2000, the first year of the new millennium is soon to become history. We had so much fun and really have had a great start of the new millennium. We wish all of you have the same good feeling and a very happy holiday.

Our green cards got approved in June. At that moment, even the air smelled freedom. After years of endless waiting, mountains of paper work and miles of long lines in INS office, we finally got the ugliest stamps on our passports authorizing our permanent residency. We felt so good to be free.

In August, Joe left Trimble where he had worked for over four years and joined a startup Speedera Network. Although the startup era has gone with the wind in early 2000, Joe still considered it a great experience.

We were lucky to welcome our new millennium with family in China. It was always great to catch up with family and old friends. On our way home, we stopped by Thailand for a few days. We enjoyed a fun elephant ride in jungle and exciting bamboo water rafting near Chiang Mai, visited golden temples in Bangkok, tasted the authentic Thai food and the exotic tropical fruit drinks. The Thai culture and cuisine really impressed us.

Right after we came back from Asia, we went to ski for 10 weekends in a row till the end of the season in late March. Our usual routine started with rolling out of bed on early Saturday morning, driving 200 mile to ski resort, skiing from 11AM till close, and spending the night in Casino to claim back some costs on Blackjack table. Our weekend ended with a tiring, long journey home after another full day on the slope. Ski can be additive. The thrill of rushing down the hill with our maximum speeds brought us back to the slope weekend after weekend. Each of us had accumulated over half million vertical feet for this season. Joe rode on his board like a bullet, seeking all the opportunities to take off into the air. Janet started on the Green and ended up cruising on the Black Diamond in just a few weeks. She was no longer afraid of steep slopes. We were both very happy about her "Millennium Breakthrough". It was sure the greatest ski season and the most enjoyable winter ever for us. We enjoyed it so much that we bought the next ski season passes 7 months ahead. However, a ski season like that might never happen again.

To carry on with the active life style into summer, we picked up another sport, windsurfing. As usual, Joe was very natural with sports. He had soon enjoyed riding on the waves with high speed while Janet preferred smooth rides. It is another fun and additive sport.

From June 24 to July 4, we rewarded ourselves with a scuba diving vacation after few months of 60-hour work week for Joe. We went to Belize with Jingqing, Peter, Regis and Scott. Belize is a very small country by Caribbean in Central America, but it has the longest barrier reef in the western hemisphere. We saw lots of fascinating things, nurse sharks, turtles, eels, stingrays, lobsters, shrimps, crabs, barracuda and tons of colorful fishes. We made our deepest dive records of over 140 feet by diving in the Great Blue Hole which is called one of the "Must Dive" sites in the world. It was really an awesome dive. We also did some jungle adventure, hiking in the tropical jungles and visiting Mayan Ruins. We had a wonderful time in Belize.

The greatest challenge of the year was the cross Grand Canyon hike. Janet had secured a hiking permit of four in May for the three-day hike in Labor Day weekend. Joe and I, with Peter and Johnny covered the 24-mile trail and a total elevation gain/loss of over 10,000 feet in three days from North Rim to South Rim from Sep. 2 to Sep. 4. Each of us carried a heavy backpack including all the camping gear, food and water supplies. It was the most strenuous hike for us. But we all made it. We sure have felt a great sense of achievement. Later, it turned out it was five of us who had completed the hike.

The trip to England was a bonus for Joe's switching job. 48 hours after we came back from our Grand Canyon hike, we boarded a plane to London in the evening of Sep. 7 and started our 8-day fun trip in England. The weather treated us quite well. It was not the typical foggy London while we were there. During the four days in London, we covered most of the famous London landmarks, the Big Ben and Parliament Palace, Buckingham Palace and Changing of Guard, Tower of London and Tower Bridge, British Museum. We took a bird eye view of London through the London Eye and stood on both western and eastern hemispheres while standing at the Prime Meridian (0??longitude) in the Greenwich observatory. In the middle of petroleum crisis, we still managed to rent a car with full tank of gas due to Joe's extraordinary negotiating skills. It therefore enabled us to visit the oldest college town Oxford, watch the play "Romeo and Julie" in Shakespeare's birth place Stratfort-Upon-Avon, visit the medieval Warwick Castle, hang around the beautiful hill town Bath, visit the spiritual and mystical Stonehendge, and also loyal Winsor Castle in just four days. But the English food did not quite impress us. We have had a marvelous time in England.

Few weeks after we came back from London, reality struck us. We found out Janet has been pregnant. The baby has been with us all the time while Janet was doing windsurfing, backpacking in Grand Canyon and touring around England, even riding in the amusement park. We were both anxious and exciting about the news with all mixed feelings. Our life style would be forever changed. No more spontaneous trips! No more ski this season! We had to cancel the season passes we bought 7 months ago. In order to make Janet feel better, Joe has decided to ground himself too. We still have great difficulty to adjust to the less active life, but we have to slow down now. We were flooded with emotion when we first heard the heart beat of the baby 9and saw the baby waving at us through Ultrasound. The baby has started a new chapter in our life. We are expecting the baby in next April. We apologize that we could not tell some of you this news in a more personal basis.

This year, we also had Joe's mother visiting us in April and Janet's mother visiting in October. We were both glad to have spent some time with them.

Well, what a year! We have not expected so much to happen in the beginning of the new millennium. Looking back, we are so glad that we took all the chances to enjoy the life of just the two of us. Now life would be totally different with a baby, but we look forward to it. We hope all of you could enjoy your life whenever you can, with or without a partner, with or without children.

Life is beautiful! Again, we wish all of you Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!