Family Photo 2013

Last Day of 2013

We are down to the last day of 2013.  It is a Tuesday.  We will get to try my mom's ozouni tomorrow.  Ozouni is Japanese New Year's mochi soup.  It usually has vegetables like spinach.  Sometimes oyster too.

This was a light blogging year.  Not enough time for blogging and our "family" joined the legions of Facebookers last year.

So what did we learn in 2013.  Ryan loves to shop.  We always knew this, but what little kid likes to go check out antique shops?  His latest find was a Bedford Falls train set from 1994.  Not quite an antique, but well used.

Ethan likes to wear hats.  We always knew this too, but what young boy will wear top hats in this day and age?  He has baseball caps and a plaid pattern fedora as well.

Naomi like to sleep in whenever she can.  We knew this, but she's taken sleeping in to new heights.  Maybe it's because we told her that you do your best growing when sleeping.

Tomorrow is a new year.  A fresh start for new experiences and adventures.  I wonder what we will learn or confirm in 2014?

John's Birthday Today...

Happy birthday John.  You didn't miss much this year with football. Basketball is going a little better but the competition will be greater than last year. Bay Bridge new span opened this year and your Mustang was one of the first to make the crossing.

Christmas 2013

Here are a few sights from Christmas this year.  Had a clear flight to Seattle that offered spectacular views of all the peaks. Ryan scored a train set after Christmas and captured it in a picture frame with Uncle Tatsu. On the way to a geocache, we came across two sets of Four Daughters.  What would be a family gathering without electronic devices. How about a family photo?  Of course, there was plenty of food. The highlight of the white elephant gift exchange was the giant Snickers bar opened by Ojiichan.

Lack of Recent Posts

Although we have not had too many recent posts here, you can check us out at the site for our cub scout pack:  Pack 380

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.

Look It's a Bass Player!

Mumford & Sons at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. Looks like an incredible concert venue.

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.
 

Ethan Returns from Camp Chawanakee

Seems that Camp Chawanakee was a resounding good time once again.  The scouts returned to the Scout Shack at about 2pm following a drive that started some time before 9am and included a 45-minute stop for lunch along the way.  It was difficult to tell if the scouts had gotten slightly tanned (the camp is at about one mile in elevation on the shores of Shaver Lake with day time temperatures this time of the year in the 80s) or if it was just a layer of what is affectionately called Chawanadust.

A main way in which the troops at camp get recognized for their overall performance at camp is at evening flags where what is called the "thumbstick" is awarded to the best troops in camp.  The troops are recognized for a long list of accomplishments such as: how the camp site is arranged, neatness of the tents, cleanliness of the camp site, presentation of important information on the camp site bulletin board, the gadgets that have been added to improve the camp site (such improvements have included a four-hole golf course, archway into the site, a compass rose, an equipment rack, a wash basin, a medic station, a towel rack, and a weather rock to name a few items), and overall scout spirit (behavior of the scouts, quietness after taps, cooperation, etc.).  Each day of camp, one troop from each the groups of troops is awarded the thumbstick for that group and is required to do something to improve the thumbstick.  One the last day of camp, an overall winner is announced for each group and that troop is able to retain permanent possession of the thumbstick and take it home with them.  Last year, we were one of the thumbstick winners.  You can see last year's thumbstick below.

I don't have a picture of this year's thumbstick just yet, but they were winners again this year.  It's a little bit larger and pink - covered in pink duct tape!

This year, not only are they thumbstick winners, but they won the Spirit Arrow given to the top overall troop for the entire camp.  This is camp that has as many as 20 or more boy scout troops from all over California, some as far away as San Diego.  So winning the Spirit Arrow is a significant achievement.  Below is a photo of the score sheet from the middle of the week.

In the score sheet, you can see that a perfect score each day would be 100, but the commissioner responsible for inspecting the camp site and monitoring the behavior of the troops has the ability to award extra points to troops that go beyond the usual level.  In the above sheet, you can see where Ethan's troop got scores significantly above 100 for three of the days.  Ethan says that on Friday they got a score of 165.  I guess this is like acing your AP classes and having a GPA higher than 4.0.

The other significant aspect of this achievement is that they did this with a larger troop size than what our troop usually has at Chawanakee.  There are pluses and minuses with the larger troop size.  A larger troop size means that the troop can accomplish more things but a larger troop size also means that there are more items that need to be kept in order.  Two years ago there were something like 8 scouts that attended camp, last year there were 12 scouts and this year the count was up to 22.  See below for photo of the group that attended this year.

So although the scouts have many fun activities, the camp also emphasizes the development of character, teamwork, good citizenship, and other sought after traits.  The fun activities include sailboating, canoeing, row boating, swimming, polar bear plunge (6am plunge into the lake - okay, not nearly as bad as water on the Bering Sea), mile swim (one of our scouts broke the all-time record for the mile swim this year by swimming it using the butterfly stroke and then broke his own camp record swimming it free style), five-mile hike, archery range, rifle range where you can shoot 22s and shot guns (and on the last full day, adults are able try black powder shooting), horseback riding, and many different classes for boy scout merit badges.  There are also evening campfires attended by all troops at camp.

The last day of camp they have this competition called Chawanadayze which is a campwide competition of leadership.  This year there were seven stations with a variety of competitions.  The scouts break into their patrols for this competition.  Each troop could have several patrols of six to eight boys.  Ethan's troop had three patrols this year with Ethan being the patrol leader for a patrol named the Forks.  The Forks managed to win third place at two of the seven stations (first aid/stretcher relay and tomahawk throwing).

Ethan is ready to go back next year for his third year at Chawanakee.  The year after that will be Ryan's first opportunity.

Can't Hold Us

Seattle rapper Macklemore who is a big fan of all sports Seattle. Video has great shots of Seattle, but supposedly was shot in 16 days on six continents. One shot even looks like it was taken on SF Bay.

Jogasaki Sushi Burrito

Something to track down the next time we are down south... Jogasaki Sushi Burrito

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

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.

Hazel and Mochi

Clover passed onto the Great Lettuce Patch, but we have two new members of our family.  Here's the full story.

On May 12 which was a couple of days after Clover had passed on, Dorothy took the kids to check out what the pet store had in terms of guinea pigs.  They had two female ones that were in a cage together, but said that they could only sell one of them to us since the other one was going to be undergoing treatment for a respiratory infection.  They said that we would be able to bring the other one home when she was doing better.

So we brought Hazel home with us.

However a few days after Hazel was with us, she also came down with the same respiratory infection and we had to return her to the store so they could take her to the vet also.

Yesterday, we were able to pick up the other guinea pig which we named Mochi.

Mochi is definitely the less shy one of the two and has already taken to her new home.  Hazel had a little more difficulty, but we're hoping that since Mochi will be here this time Hazel will more easily adjust.

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.

I'm Coming Home

Klondike Derby

Ethan attended the Klondike Derby in February with his boy scout troop at the camp that his troop attends for summer camp.  The camp is located east of Fresno at an elevation of about one mile on the shores of Shaver Lake.

The scouts camped out in tents and generally tried to keep warm.  Activities that they participated in included: sled race (Ethan was the payload), tug-of-war on snow and ice, morse code deciphering, two-man sawing, snowball fights, igloo making, and campfires just to name a few.

Ethan is ready to go back next year if his troop attends.

Naomi's Art at Zachary's Pizza

Naomi entered a painting with a friend in an art contest by Zachary's Pizza to decorate the walls of their new restaurant in Pleasant Hill.  Her painting was selected for the restaurant.  The painting is called "Precious as a Pearl."  Go check it out and the other new paintings at the restaurant.

Bears Win Big Over Buffs

Here's a game highlight:

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!

The Free World...

Can Uncle Chuck Dunk?

No, but Robert Thurman, forward with Cal Bears can...doesn't he look like Uncle Chuck, though? says Ethan.

Mashup of Top 2012 Songs

Here's a mashup of the top 50 pop songs of 2012, many of which Ryan likes to sing.

Planes! Planes! Boss, planes!!!!

The day after Thanksgiving at San Diego International Airport.

That Was Awesome!

That was the phrase of the trip. Or was it, "That was cool!"  These were the two most common phrases during our recent trip to The Happiest Place on Earth.  The new attraction was Cars Land and the remodeled entrance to the California Adventure theme park.  Gone are the giant letters spelling out C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A. Gone too is the Golden Gate Bridge near the entrance to the park. In its place are stores and eateries.

We posted a clip of one of our rides on the Radiator Springs Racers earlier so I won't go into much details now.  Besides the racers, Cars Land has two other rides: Luigi's Flying Tires (apparently this ride included giant beach balls originally, but there were no beach balls for our ride) and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.  Both very tame, easy going rides which we checked out once each.

In Hollywood Land, parts of our group checked out Muppet Vision 3D (which has a show running called "Prep and Landing" during the holidays with the Muppets on vacation), Monster's Inc. and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

In "a bug's land," the boys chaperoned by Cousin Bill flew on Flik's Flyers and bumped around on Francis' Ladybug Boogie.

On Paradise Pier, a couple of us screamed on California Screamin' at the end of the day when the wait time was down under 20 minutes.  Mickey's Fun Wheel has stationary cars and cars that swing back and forth.  Let's just say that we went the more adventuresome route and some of us rode on what is about an 8-minute ferris wheel ride with eyes mostly closed.  The rest of took in the sights as we swayed back and forth.  The longest line that we endured during our whole trip was the 75-minute wait for the Toy Story Midway Mania on Paradise Pier.  The final ride in this area that we rode as a group was Ariel's Undersea Adventure.

In Condor Flats, we soared on Soarin' Over California, a family favorite that includes sights of the Bay Area.

The last event in California Adventure for us was the World of Color show that includes Disney characters projected onto water spouts and sprays over the Paradise Pier waterfront.

In Disneyland, one of our favorites turned out to be the remodeled Star Tours.  According to Cousin Bill, this ride has something like 54 possible journey from the 11 random segments of the story.  We went on the ride three times and each ride was slightly different from the next. Cousin Bill and Auntie Susan went on their own once and repeated a journey so it's possible that one could experience the same journey more than once in one visit to the park.

In Adventureland, we went on the Jungle Cruise, climbed Tarzan's Treehouse and sat through a show at the Enchanted Tiki Room.  One of the highlights was the Dole Pineapple Whip before the show at the Tiki Room. 

In Critter Country, some of us who were splash-worthy rode on Splash Mountain.  Ryan wanted to be at the front of the ride so he could sort of get wet, although he made sure to cover his cast with his rain coat.   Those us who were less splash-worthy rode on the dryer, gentler The Many Adventures of Winnie of Pooh and got a workout on Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes.

In New Orleans Square, the main attraction for us was the Pirates of the Caribbean which passes by the indoor Blue Bayou Restaurant, where we had a later reservation under Ryan's name.  Kimmie was the only one willing to try out the restaurant's famous Monte Cristo sandwich, which is a deep fried sandwich.  Cousin Bill and Auntie Susan survived the Haunted Mansion holiday edition on their own at the end of one day.

Frontierland kept us busy with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (more than once) and the Sailing Ship Columbia. 

As the kids have gotten older, Fantasyland has grown to be a less popular part of the park.  However, "it's a small world" is still a favorite that we made it to once this time.  The Matterhorn does not have a FASTPASS option so lines were still quite long allowing us to make it through this ride once.  The only other rides in this area that we took part in were Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan's Flight and Storybook Land Canal Boats. Quite a change from past years, where we would spend a considerable part of our time just in Fantasyland.

We didn't even make it to Mickey's Toontown.

We probably spent the most time in Tomrrowland because of Star Tours and Space Mountain.  Other attractions in this area that we visited were Autopia and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

One of the last activities for us was Fantasmic which apparently is now 20 years old.  Due to Cousin Kimmie's excellent knowledge of the park, we got spots for Fantasmic that were basically right at the railing straight in front of the show's stage.  The kids were amazed and had a great time.

I think we're ready now to move up to Disney World next time.

 

Cars Land Racers

Here we are on the new Cars Land racers at Disneyland.  The attraction actually has two variations.  There's one route that goes through the paint shop and another one that goes through the tire shop (so we hear).  We were able to go on the ride twice and both times it was through the paint shop.  Others in our party were lucky enough to experience both variations.  It just depends on which car you get.  The cars seat six people at a time.  If you're able to, definitely get FastPasses for this ride.  The options are to go late in the evening near closing time when the wait time might be down to under 30 minutes or go on as a single rider (which means that you get in the line for single riders and opt to get into what ever car has empty seats).

2012 Basketball Season Opens Ceremoniously

The Cal men's basketball season opened with a little bit of pomp and circumstance being that it was Veterans' Day weekend. The Bears won fairly easily, but the highlight was the gigantic flag that was unfurled for the usual singing of the Star Spangled Banner.
 

Coyotes Soccer with Mt. Diablo AYSO U10

Ryan just completed his soccer season. His scocer skills improved and he even scored his first goal ever. He played in the Mt. Diablo AYSO Under 10 Boys Division. This is the first time he's played competitively where the teams had goalies.
 

Three Hits on One Swing!

Have you ever seen a ball hit the bat three times on one swing?  This happened in Game 7 of the NLCS with Hunter Pence of the Giants batting.  Maybe it was the multiple hits that caused the ball to have a strange spin on the ball, but the ball that was hit right at the short stop took a strange hop past the infielder and into the outfield for a double that drove in 3 runs.

Darth "Ryan" Vader Dances!

Ryan in his Halloween costume for this year dancing to a tune from One Direction. He wanted us to record this.

Just Dance 4

Late night talk show host Conan O'Brien reviews the latest video game offering from the "Just Dance" series with Alex Morgan, soccer gold medalist and former Cal Bear.

Naomi's Art 2011-12

Final Flight of Space Shuttle

It was fitting that the final shuttle flight was completed on the last day of summer.  It was also fitting that the flight that left from Edwards Air Force Base was delayed by an hour to make sure that the fog would have lifted by the time the shuttle passed by the Golden Gate Bridge.  Isn't a photo-op flight in the Bay Area not complete if it didn't include the Golden Gate Bridge?

One Direction

Do You Drop Zone?

Naomi tried out the Drop Zone at Great America recently with her cousin Kimberly.  Actually, they went on the ride (I guess it's a ride) twice. Here's one of the drops.
 

Getting Ready for Cal Basketball

Maybe this will help you Cal Bears fans forget about the awful football loss yesterday at Cal's return to Memorial Stadium...maybe not. Or for others like me, this should help you get ready for the upcoming basketball season.

This was probably one of the top two or three games that John and I ever attended in our 18 seasons or so of attending Cal basketball together, especially so because the comeback was against Stanford. The best part was that the comeback took the entire game to accomplish, which lengthened the suspense even more. Imagine a good novel with the reveal at the very end. Once the comeback started, it wasn't a certainty that the Bears would make it all the way back. It was not like Stanford played poorly. They were just in a boat with a slow leak.

Ryan's Road Trip - Part II

Ryan continues his tour of the San Diego area. The latest information from yesterday is:

Old Town SD today after visit to first CA Mission in SD. Pool for hours, finally off to Legoland tomorrow.

Below is a picture of Ryan with his friend Brooks and Brooks' siblings.

Call Me Maybe?

At the A's game this weekend, Jimmy Fallon appeared on the Diamond Vision screen at the Coliseum with a singer that looked familiar. Then the song started and was instantly recognizable to me because my kids have been singing to this song all summer.

The crowd was over 30,000 which is a lot for an A's game so it was quite the sight to see all the people bopping to the song. I noticed that they were doing some sort of hand motion to the song but it was not what was happening on the video with Jimmy Fallon. Now I know the rest of the story.

Ryan's Road Trip - Part I

Ryan is on his road trip to Legoland and the San Diego area with his buddy Brooks and Brooks' family. This is suppose to be a birthday present for Brooks, but Ryan seems to be getting a good deal out of this too. Brooks is Ryan's friend from preschool. Although we don't live near each other, somehow the two of them have been able to maintain a good friendship that has resulted in Brooks' request to have Ryan join them on their family trip.

The trip included some creative scheduling as Brooks' older brother was in a soccer tournament in Sacramento which meant that they would be traveling north to go south. They had contingencies for their travel south depending on the results of the tournament. We have not heard about this, but we do know that they are approximately in the intended destination. We received the following text messages and photo from Brooks' mom.

Monday morning: On the grapevine. Kids doing great!

Monday during the day: Hi mom! Went swimming, shopping at wharf, eating Mexican now. Built B's presents and loving it! Drove by Legoland and cried, "we want to go now!"



Monday evening reply to Ryan: Hope ya'll had a relaxing day today after that drive.  Give Ryan a big hug for us and tell him we love him : )

Monday evening reply back: He says I love you too....I haven't forgotten about you yet dad.

Flight to Columbia

The last week of school Ethan had quite the treat. It was a delayed birthday gift of flight. A good friend of his, Ben, has a father who is a pilot and has his own plane. Ethan's birthday gift was a voucher for a plane ride. So on June 10, Ethan was able to collect this most unique gift.

The original flight plan was to fly to Willows in northern California with the goal being a game of helipad baseball. This was game that Ben and his family had invented while on one of these day flight excursions. However, the weather gods were not in a cooperative mood and travel plans were changed to Columbia, a small former gold rush town in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

On the flight over to Columbia, Ethan was given the chance to pilot the plane. What a treat indeed!

Summer Vacation 2012

As we wind down another summer, we are also winding down another road trip to Seattle. We experienced the hottest days in Seattle since...2010. This past weekend temperatures in Seattle hit 90 degrees for the first time since 2010 we were told. We felt every bit of those 90 plus degrees as grandma and grandpa's place does not have air conditioning.

We started the week experiencing an aerobatic show by the Blue Angels that marked the end of Seafair. We were somewhat amazed that one of the two main routes across Lake Washington would be shut down for the Blue Angels show not just on one day, but both on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe this is not as drastic as shutting down the Bay Bridge, but the bridge was shut down for two hours at midday with the other path across the lake now a toll bridge.





Another less than usual event that we took in was the King Tut exhibit that's at the Pacific Science Center through the first of 2013. This supposedly is the last time that this exhibit will be shown in North America, perhaps until the next time that it is shown (tongue in cheek humor?). Although a couple of our kids seemed to take in the exhibit in record time they were patient enough to let the rest of us take our time to enjoy the 100 plus artifacts on display.





Finally, one of our new adventures was kayaking on the bay, or more accurately on Lake Union. We rented kayaks and set off for an our on the high seas...sort of. Yuki had Ethan and Lianne in a triple. Dorothy and Naomi were in a second kayak, and Ryan without an oar and I were in a third kayak. Ryan thought that he wouldn't be able to paddle so he didn't want to take one with him, preferring to be a sightseeing passenger. We looped around the lake taking in the sights of the Seattle skyline and other locales where we were previously on the other end watching other kayakers go by. Near the end of the tour, Ryan decided that he would give paddling a whirl and found that he could do it. We were on a one-hour clock since we had the return the triple kayak in that amount of time since it was reserved for others. Next time we'll take a longer trip.







Okay, one last photo that we need to share that needs no explanation.

Hot Day in Seattle!

Although it's cooled some, it was still hot enough to play matador with the giant water fountain at Seattle Center.

Blue Angels

Camp Chawanakee - Volume 5

The last full day of camp was Aloha Friday. The scouts spent the morning checking in with classes to wrap up any last minute items. In some cases, it was to make sure that all requirements were complete to earn a merit badge.

The afternoon featured a camp-wide competition called Chawanadayze. We were somewhat hampered since one of our scouts was on crutches, but we gave it our all to show our scout spirit.

It all paid off at the final evening flag ceremony where we learned that we were an overall winner for one of the thumbsticks, the Twig of Destiny. That evening was also the final campfire where certain recognitions were given out. Troop 370 was named one of the honor troops for our performance during the week. Our senior scout, Chris, earned the highest rank for Chawanakee campers. Ethan was surprised to be selected Pioneer Hike, which is given to one scout who best displays scout spirit from each troop. For this honor, he was able to sleep one final time outdoors with the other Pioneer Hikers in a "secret" location. During this campout, each award winner was asked to write what scout spirit means to them with these essays to be kept at the camp office for future viewing.

Camp Chawanakee - Volume 4

This volume features a water theme due to the many pictures taken of our scouts at waterfront classes like swimming, canoeing and lifesaving. Ethan was able to complete a couple survival swimming maneuvers that involved jumping into the water fully clothed and taking off your pants to use it as a flotation device. Later in the week, Ethan was able to earn his first merit badge, the Swimming Merit Badge.

In the evening on this same day, most of the troop went on the Canoe Outpost to the other side of the lake. This excursion featured paddling a canoe across the lake, camping outdoors under the stars, and campfire activities - also they had to wake up extra early to make it back for the regular breakfast time at 6:45am.

Ethan also got to shoot a gun for the first time, a 22 caliber bolt action rifle.  Perhaps next year he will try for his Rifle Merit Badge at camp.

The other camp activity that kept the scouts busy was making camp gadgets.  These are things that help improve the camp site.  These were important for the purposes of competing for the thumbstick because the gadgets resulted in bonus points.  Starting with the first gadget, the flag pole, the scouts also made a sun dial, towel rack, a four-hole mini-golf course, a weather rock, pine cone toss table, uniform rack, wash basin, gateway arch for our campsite, and a compass rose.  Ethan was quite involved in the making of most of these gadgets and came up with the idea on how to complete the rope webbing for the arch.

Camp Chawanakee - Volume 3

This volume of Camp Chawanakee videos introduces the "Turtle" formation, Mr. President, and the Twig of Destiny. The "Turtle" is what the scouts came up for their march formation to and from flag ceremonies. The idea was to have all the scouts form a turtle shell around their leader, Chris, the Senior Patrol Leader for summer camp. A game they came up with was "Mr. President" that involved pretending to answer a call from the President. The objective was to not be the last one to answer the call. Finally, the Twig of Destiny was the thumbstick that the commissioner that was assigned to our grouping of troops awarded to one troop each day of the camp. We won the thumbstick on Tuesday. Winning the thumbstick meant that we would have to add something to it before the next evening's flag ceremony where it would be given out once again. The overall winner at the end of the week would get to take the thumbstick home with them.

Camp Chawanakee - Volume 2

This is the second video in a series of five from summer camp for Ethan's boy scout troop. Camp Chawanakee is located on Shaver Lake northeast of Fresno in the Sierras. The camp runs for nine consecutive weeks. Apparently, our troop has been attending this camp for several consecutive summers now.

Camp Chawanakee - Volume 1

This is the first volume of videos from our time at Camp Chawanakee located northeast of Fresno in the Sierras at about a mile high.  This was our first boy scout summer camp. This video covers parts of the first two days at camp. The first day was check-in. There was the getting settled into our camp site, including the making of our first camp gadget: a flag pole. We also got a tour of the camp by Grant the "Plant" who was the counselor assigned to our troop.

Summer of Sketching

Naomi was busy earlier this month sketching for murals for summer camp at our church for the kids to color as one of their activities.  Here's a sampling of some of her freehand sketches.