Other 2016 Scouting Events

The boys at the start of their 50-miler across the Sierras.

The boys at Camp Chawanakee.  This was Ethan's fifth summer camp and Ryan's second.

This was on one of their prep hikes - there was a lot of snow!

The boys with their 50-miler awards; their walking sticks for their over-land 50-miler and paddle replicas for their over-water 50-miler.

Seattle in Summer 2016

Photo with Ojiichan and Obaachan outside their place with them and Lianne.

Here's the spread at Yuki's for Fourth of July - it was delicious!

Ethan with Obaachan when we went out for ramen.

Auntie Yuki with Ryan at a Mariners game.  Ryan has on his Mariners bomber hat and his Mariners cape.

On the Way to Seattle

The three kids at the visitor's center on the way to Mount St. Helens.  That's the mountain in the background.

Casey and Dorothy practice their selfie picture taking with Mount St. Helens.

The boys with Uncle Tatsu in Portland.  Yes, that's Ryan with one of his favorite blankets as a cape.

Uncle Chuck's Guitar

Stopped by Chuck's mom's place in Jordan, Utah south of Salt Lake City to pick up Chuck's guitar.  Here's our family photo with Ryan making like a rock star with his entourage!

Green River Trip Kayak Trip

Photo on the Green River taken at one of the troop's stops.  You can see the two-person inflatable kayaks to the left that were purchased by the troop.

Arches National Park - Needs to be on Your Bucket List

The boys with their scout troop that went on the Moab over water 50-mile trip had time to visit Arches and Canyonlands national parks.  We drove them to Salt Lake City to meet up with the rest of their troop at which point the other three members of our family went our separate way.

The Windows Arches at Arches National Park.  If our memory is correct, you're able to walk up to and through these arches.  These are quite large arches with this photo taken from a distance using a telephoto lens.

Balancing Rock - probably one of the more well-known formations at Arches National Park.

Delicate Arch - this is the arch that is on the Utah license plate.  There are three places where you can view this arch.  The furthest away is the main parking lot where most of the tour buses park.  The second location is a slight hike up from the parking lot (this is where this photo was taken).  The third is a two-hour plus hike that will take you to the arch.

This was on the way to Double O Arch at the far reaches of Arches National Park.  This was probably the most strenuous hike in the park for us.  This photo was taken in the late evening.  We made it within sight of Double O Arch, but did not make it all the way to the arch due to darkness.

At the Fiery Furnace Viewpoint.  Took in an incredible sunset on this evening.

Bonneville Salt Flats

This is where they set land speed records.  You can walk quite a distance out into the water in the background of the photo with the water barely covering your ankles, but be sure to wear sandals or something because some of the salt crystals can be a little pokey on the bottom of your feet.

Here's a photo the kids wading out onto the salt flats.  We figured that it was safe since there were others out doing the same thing.

Ryan, the Navy Officer

Ryan dressed the part of the subject of his biography - that's a real naval officer's uniform that he picked up at the annual scout rummage sale.

Scouting: Ski Trip, Prep Hikes in the Mud and Pancakes

Ryan on breakfast duty flipping pancakes.

That's Ryan with the light blue backpack cover in the middle of the stream of mud.

That's Ethan in the center with the gray backpack cover.

The boys traveled to Camp Norge near Tahoe with their Boy Scout troop for their annual ski trip.  Here's a link to their FaceBook Site:  https://www.facebook.com/campnorgeofficial

Ryan's 2014 Christmas Dance

Here's Ryan's 2014 Christmas dance...

Ryan's Surprise

Sometimes when Ryan uses the bathroom it takes a while. Maybe this is too much information, but let's continue the story. On one recent occasion, we decided to surprise him by turning out the lights and hiding to see what he would do. This video shows what happened. The room was fairly dark. The image has been lightened so you can see his reaction.

Photos of People Taking Photos!

Check out these photos.  It's a picture of Yuki taking a selfie with kids, but in the background you can see a picture of me taking a photo of them taking their selfie.  In the second photo you can see the photo that was taken by me!

Fireworks Night

Ryan enjoying fireworks night...

From Vet Visit to Flight Day to Festival

The day in the life for our family for today, August 10.

The day started with a vet visit for our Hazel.  Hazel is cured for now was the good news!  Now we need to decide if we will get a friend for her.

Next, Ryan attend flight day with scouts at the Martinez Marina.  We've attended this in the past and getting out kite to reach for the skies has always been a challenge, but today the winds were with us.  That's Ryan below with his kite flying high!

Then this evening we went to the Diablo Japanese American Summer Festival to take in the sounds of San Jose Taiko, play games, and most importantly eat.

So Long Opal and Ninja Warriors

We dropped off Opal the Octopus and the Ninja Warriors (referred to in the world of geocaching as travel bugs) that we picked up at the Geocaching.com headquarters in Seattle.  Happy travels to the two!

The place where we dropped the two off is the oldest continuous cache in San Francisco.   It's located in a community garden in Fort Mason.

Although you wouldn't know if from the picture, it was a typical breezy, cool day in the city.  Check out the next picture of our drive in.  The fog was already pouring into the Bay.

Here's where we placed the two travel bugs.  It was a metal can right in the community garden.

After this we headed to Japantown for some food and browsing in the Kinokuniya bookstore.  By the time that we were headed home, fog had reached the Oakland hills.

When I'm Gone...

This is a fitting song for what we learned today. We learned that Ryan has a spot at Sequoia Elementary School this fall that we are going to take. It will be sad to be leaving the only elementary school that we have known, but this is the best situation for us.

It may both help and make more difficult our commute at the same time. The school is right next to the middle school that Ethan attends so we're thinking that both will be picked up together, but since he will be new at the school we are probably going to be driving him to the school on his own at least at the beginning. We'll play it by ear and see what happens.
 

Ryan's Imaginary Friend

Since he was about four years old, Ryan has had an imaginary friend named Bubby. He shows up from time to time, but is always only visible to Ryan. He often is in Seattle.  This evening we learned two more new facts about Bubby. Sometimes Bubby takes the form of a spatula and he owns all of the blue houses in San Francisco.

Bridge Collapse and George Washington

A bridge over I-5 collapsed this week just north of Seattle.  I was showing our kids a video clip taken from a nearby security camera that actually caught the bridge collapse.  The news story listed Mount Vernon as the location of the story.

Me:  Obaachan worked with someone who is from Mount Vernon.

Ryan:  Was it George Washington?  That would be really cool.

Me:  That's funny Ryan.  How old do you think Obaachan is anyway?

Ryan:  No, I just thought it would be really cool.

Of course, he was thinking about Mount Vernon, Virginia which was George Washington's home.  Nevertheless, I was impressed that Ryan remembered this.

Overheard This Evening

Ryan:  Ethan, am I going to be 9 soon?

Ethan:  Yes.

Ryan:  I think I'm growing up too quickly.

Ho Hey... the things kids say...

My son Ryan has talked about wanting to be an "army man" or a police officer or a fireman when he grows up.  We've talked with about the dangers of such professions or pointed out how it seems that these professions seem to be populated by many people with very short hair.  "Oh, yeah, I noticed that. Why is that?"

Anyway, the other he was on the ground demonstrating to me his army crawl with his orange-tipped, bright green machine gun.  While he's crawling he's talking to me.  "I know what I want to be when I grow up now.  I want to be an army soldier extra."

I didn't exactly know what he was talking about.  "Can you repeat?  I don't understand."

"I want to be an extra in a movie.  I want to play extra soldiers in movies."

I said to him, "I don't think you would be able to support yourself being a movie set extra.  You might have to rethink that."

His answer was, "That's okay.  I don't care if I wouldn't be able to support myself.  That's what I want to do now."

Ho Hey!