So Many Milestones

From the first day of Kindergarten to earning a Black Belt in Taekwondo.

This has sure been a season of many accomplishments for Christian. He has had his last day in Elementary School last Friday and is now moving on to Middle School. Someone once told me that time goes by fast, but once you have kids it moves one to 5th gear! Does it ever, we seem to be on turbo!! He has also persevered through 3 years of Taekwondo training and has earned his black belt. He plans to continue his training (there are many black belts level he can still achieve), but we are taking a well deserved break for the summer. We celebrated all these milestones and the 1st day of summer with a BBQ with our extended family.

Little Levi was appreciated and admired by all.

School's out...

. . . and we are celebrating !! It has been a great academic year with Christian in 5th grade at Geneva Elementary and Nolan and Ethan being home schooled. We all had a profitable year with many new discoveries. Of course, we never stop learning, so off we went today on a field trip to kick off our summer marine biology study and to keep on the tradition with the Davis' (see School's out 2007). Our destination was the beautiful San Juan Island and our ultimate goal, or I should rather say hope, was to spot some Orcas. We headed to Lime Kiln Point Sate Park, also known as "Whale Park " due to the common sightings there.

We found all kinds of sea creatures

and some very long kelp!!

We spotted seals and porpoises, we learned some history of the kilns and even climb in one

We built forts and played by the beach

We had beautiful views

But at the end, this was the only orca we spotted!! One that migrated all the way from China!!

Ann and I decided this should be an annual trek and maybe by the time our youngest graduates from High School, we will have spotted a real one.

The Boys Had a Ball

Christian invited a few friends for a game of baseball to celebrate his birthday and to enjoy the beginning of summer and end of school. The boys all displayed great sportsmanship and encouraged each other despite their wide range of skills. Shawn did a great job as the umpire and pitcher. After a couple hours, they were all ready for some cake and ice cream, if only I had not forgotten to bring the ice cream!! They all accepted cake, even without the ice cream and found some innovative places to enjoy it.

What a great team!

All Packed Up . . .

. . . and ready to go away for the weekend. We headed to our favorite camping spot, Fort Ebey State Park. We felt like we still needed to wait for Reyn and his family to meet up with us, since we were first introduced to this beautiful spot by him and have some great memories camping together over there. Never the less, we were happy that the sun finally made an appearance (that lasted all weekend) and hit the road. We had some great times by:

Practicing our knife skills,

Building fires, And of course, food! Wiener roast is always a must. When Christian asked what we were having for dinner and I told them I was going to try a new tofu recipe he was quite distressed! Lucky for him, I did not deviate from our tradition. Salmon roasted on an open fire is part of our camping tradition as well, yummy!! FATHER'S DAY

How else would one want to spend Father's day? Surrounded by his boys in this beautiful spot on a sunny day! Thank you for being such a great father and role model to our kids, we love you.

CHRISTIAN'S BIRTHDAY Just like 11 years ago, we celebrated Christian's birthday on Father's Day Sunday. It's our tradition to leave a birthday gift on the kitchen table. Christian thought he would have to wait until the afternoon to open his, but, lucky for him, again I kept our traditions and there was a gift waiting for him in morning. He did however, have to wait to play his game until later in the afternoon when we got home. The DS definitely did not make it on our camping trip,

A chocolate chip muffin in the morning will certainly count as a cake. Bacon and eggs came later with wild rice soup for dinner, birthday boy's menu wishes.

We had a great weekend relaxing and enjoying each other's company. This morning the fog covered the ocean, can you tell where one ends and the other begins?

Another Year !!!

Happy birthday Ethan! After a long count down his day finally came! Captain Ethan had a few shipmates over and they had fun crafting their hats, racing over obstacles and fighting "bad" pirates to get to their treasure. It was hard work but they were all rewarded with chocolate cake and mint ice cream (Ethan's favorite flavor, we did have vanilla for those who did not share this taste).

The wait for his friends was veerrry looong. I told him just another hour. A WHOLE HOUR !! Was his reply.

I love those morning bed head shots!!

Sail Away

They braved the winds, rains and waves and emerged stronger then before. Shawn and Christian joined their friends on an overnight sailing trip and came back with tales of adventures. Shawn enjoyed every single task that goes along with sailing. I believe what Christian enjoyed most was to cook breakfast and hang out in the cabin with his friend Garrett, while the dads braved our "Juneuary" weather.

Take me out . . .

. . . to the ball game!!

And out we went. The Mariners almost squeezed a win for us, but didn't quite make it. We still had fun, being that we were among friends and under cloudy, but dry skies. The day started out early since we joined school groups for a weather presentation prior to the game. The "weather man", Steve Pool, did tell us that the rain would stop and we would even have a peek at the sun. The Mariners must have really trusted his forecast since they started to open the roof above us. We thought that even if we got wet later on, it was still pretty cool to see the huge roof retract. But Steve Pool came through and we remained dry. We ended the day with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and after we were well fed, made the trip home and collapsed in bed.

The boys told us that they had a great time! Would you believe it when you look at their "excited" faces in this pictures? I guess their idea of a good time does not include family pictures.

Camp Out

Shawn and Christian had another great "Father -Son Awana camp out" this year. They did their usual conoeing and fishing, but Christian was also introduced to geocaching and absolutely loved it. They went out on the canoe to try to find their cache which was tucked (and completely camouflaged) under a branch overhanging the lake. It's always nice to accomplish your goal! Now a GPS has been added to the boys' wish list.

Now here are some original ideas of how to roast marshmellows, and of course, playing with sticks is always a favorite!!