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.