naomi's return, manny out:

Naomi returned home last Saturday night.  I was 15 minutes late getting her, because Lucas fell asleep early, which he almost never does, and he had a hard time waking up.  Then I forgot there is now a lot more traffic in that area than there used to be.  Thankfully a friend of ours stayed with Naomi until I showed up.  Right as I was entering the parking lot, the school bus was leaving.  Turns out the school bus had taken Naomi's luggage with them as well, thinking it belonged to someone on the bus, which was on its way an hour south.  A van was still at the stop, and they were thankfully able to call the bus back.  I felt terrible, and I am one who always values punctuality out of respect for others' time.  Naomi had the best time, and the boys told her they missed her.

Somebody's happy his sister's home.  Lucas said he missed her, too.

Manny was out with Chris, so he wasn't able to pick Naomi up.  They shopped for their upcoming trip, ate, and watched a movie.  I'm glad Manny is getting out with friends more often this year (I don't always get a chance to write about it since without photos I can forget what happened just three days ago).  This has definitely been the year of seeing or reconnecting with old friends again.  I'm very thankful.

naomi at high adventure camp:

Naomi's first overnight full-week camp, and she went big.  It was a Christian camp we found out about from friends at church.  With rafting, cliff jumping, ropes courses, archery, etc., it was a dream camp for a girl who loves adventure.  She's loving this summer so far, and she still has two camps and lots of activities and parties with friends to go.  I'm not sure I caught every detail, but from what I got from her recap:

Day 1  Arrival, introductions, meeting cabin mates and counselor, girls screaming when male counselors shouted at the cabin thinking they were the boys.
Day 2  Twenty-foot jump off "Mufasa" cliff, instead of the smaller one while shouting, "I believe I can fly!"  She said it was more scary than fun, just to say she got the courage to do it, but it wasn't that fun.
Day 3  Whitewater rafting.  One of the counselors was injured.  Naomi fell in the water, but not while in any danger, and was super fun.
Day 4  Did some rifle shooting and I think the high ropes course and campout (or was the ropes and campout Day 5?).
Day 5  Horseback riding, archery, skits.  Ran out of time for ziplining.
Day 6  Long bus ride home with some girls in the back singing Bieber songs (she's not a fan).

She said she had the best counselor ever.  Their cabin considered the most fun counselor at the camp by far.  She came up with fun ideas and twists.  She changed their group name from a common bird's name to the "llamas," and called herself Mama Llama.  Naomi was in a cabin with two other friends and three more girls, and they all got along well.

Naomi had a disposable camera.  I'll develop and upload those photos later if they came out.  Below are photos they took.  Unfortunately there weren't that many photos of the activities or Naomi, but $6 for the download was a pretty good deal.

Getting ready for the long ride to camp.

Campfire intro and devotion first night.

Inflatables on the lake.

Ropes course.

Another one (not a pic of Naomi--just photo they had).

Naomi whitewater rafting (she's the one with the big smile center left).

Camping in the woods.

preschool adventures day 2:

Some more fun photos from our parent/child class.  It was hot that day.  Two other moms suffered migraines that morning.  I'm thankful the classroom was air conditioned and that there was some shade outside.  A lot of the kids hadn't slept well the night before, including Isaac.  We had several incidences of wailing and misbehavior, and the parents were tired.  But Isaac had actually a very good day, very happy-go-lucky.

He built this tall tower after another student kept knocking his work down.  I think it was a good exercise in patience and forgiveness.  

Isaac painting the sun.

He made a bead necklace for himself.

Rainbow ribbon dancing.

Time for snack!  Blueberries and Cars-themed goldfish crackers this day.

Time to water the plants again (and cool down!).

I liked this finger painting, except for the messiness, because the colors and the table underneath made it look reptilian.

father's day / off to camp:

Last weekend was of course Father's Day.  We celebrated the night before with dinner and a cake, because Naomi had to leave for camp very early the next morning.  That morning I went for a haircut near the Korean bakery (the salon academy is usually booked a month out, and I only needed a trim).  Manny suggested I go to the Korean bakery and get myself a fresh curry croquette.  I said no but then passed by and reconsidered.  Then I thought I'd get him an ice cream cake for Father's Day, but the heatwave had messed up their refrigeration, so all the ice cream cakes had melted.  :(  So then I decided to go to the grocery store to find an ice cream cake and ended up shopping (and getting a carrot cake instead).  I didn't feel like baking one.  I thought there'd be enough time to shop, but Manny didn't get my text, so I got home an hour later than he expected.  That was bad miscommunication.  But I'm learning (after almost 20 years together) that it's best to just not be concerned with explaining myself (which he sees as excuse-making, and I've been taught as courtesy and care), and just walk away for a while until the person who's upset cools off a bit.  He had to go into work after working out, so we didn't really have dinner together until 8:30, but it was important that we were together.  

The next morning, Manny took Naomi at about 6:30 a.m. to catch the bus up to her camp.  It was actually a school bus!  So on the hottest day we've had this year (over 100 degrees), the kids went on a 10-hour bus ride, including stops, without A/C.  I'm sure that was rough, but she did get to sit with a couple of friends from church.

After church, we decided to go out anyway.  We had Korean fried chicken and then went to the Korean bakery for bingsu (Korean shaved ice).  Then Manny unfortunately had to return to work.  He works hard for us!

Steak, potatoes, and asparagus for Father's Day.

The store couldn't write on the cake since it was already sealed, so they gave me the little sign for it.

Ready for her first weeklong camp away!

Isaac and the other adorable kids in their Sunday School class.

The Korean fried chicken place even had popcorn, carrots, and corn.

Happy Father's Day!

Silly Isaac.

Yay for mango bingsu!

Lucas had a soboro (Korean streusel bread) and strawberries and cream.  And of course, some fruit salad to go.

rock hunting and mall trip:

We went on a little field trip two Thursdays ago (I'm a little backlogged) to find and paint some rocks.  I thought it was a neat idea, but I knew there was no way Lucas would go near that water.  Naomi would always just go right in (and get in trouble for getting herself wet and dirty), but now that Lucas doesn't like to do that, I regret getting so upset with her over it.  Lucas did find a rock he wanted to take home a little farther away from the creek.  Isaac is usually game for most anything to do with paint.

I brought our lunch to enjoy underneath the redwoods, but we had to leave early and eat in the car because I had to get Naomi to her mall meetup with a couple of friends.  From the beauty of nature to the concrete jungle.  One of her friends was visiting from out of town.  They couldn't think of something to do that was not that expensive and not swimming, which they just did, and I'm the one who suggested the mall.  Yep, I thought I'd always steer her away from the mall, but I've found it's not so bad if you're just eating and browsing novelty shops with friends without really spending any money (Naomi did buy a $5 tote that says, "Humans Are Overrated"--ah, I love her).

It's not a great pic, but the only one I have of Lucas before he ran off to the playground.

Looking for rocks.

Drying the rocks.  Isaac on the left looks so big in this photo.

Isaac of course chose to paint his rocks red, white, and blue.

Isaac and I split a Strawberries Wild.  Naomi is back there--I agreed to not post her friends' photos.

My last child to be small enough for the play area.

There were Snoopy ads all over the mall.  This store sells two of my favorite icons--Snoopy and Hello Kitty.

One of those miniature food sets that Isaac enjoys so much.

happy hollow:

It's been a while since we've been to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo.  It's such a great place for children, but Naomi has sort of aged out of it, and Isaac was too young.  Now it's a good time for us to return, but I wouldn't have known that if my friend E. hadn't invited us to go with them.  

We started at the Danny the Dragon train ride because the wait gets very long as the day goes on and it's the farthest out.  Then another ride for just our kids (E.'s were too small) before we stopped to have our sack lunches.  I like how they don't frown on that there.  My friend's kids still nap, so I told the boys to prefer them whenever possible, and then we'd get to do other things after they left.  Still, E and her kids patiently waited for us a couple of times.  The park/rides part went well, but it got so warm, most of the animals in the zoo weren't really out, and my boys weren't very interested in looking for them.  I was kind of bummed about that.  Lucas was also fixated on getting Lucas to go down this long, spiral tunnel slide.  He's already gotten Isaac to climb the netting all the way to the top, but the slide looked too daunting for Isaac.  By day's end, I actually went down it myself, and it made me a little dizzy (I have a lot of problems with motion sickness, even on slides).  At least once Lucas saw that, he didn't push Isaac anymore.  My boys are really wily and energetic as well, so sometimes I dread going out with them, but other times they're angelic.  It was a mixed bag this day.  

I've omitted most of the photos of my friend and her kids for privacy's sake.

Isaac down a tunnel slide more his size.

It took a while to convince Lucas to ride on his own, since without Manny I would have to ride with Isaac.  It ended up being Lucas' highlight of the day.

On the same pedal ride.  Isaac couldn't reach the pedals unfortunately.

Lucas squished himself into this ride, usually for the much younger set.  Isaac enjoyed it.

Down the big slide at the Crooked House.  Way too fast, and Isaac got hurt, but not too bad.

Lucas liked these shaped hedges next to the Crooked House.

The zoo worker showing Isaac how much strength a jaguar has.

Looking for a jaguar, but not really (it was up higher this time).

One animal that was out--the adorable fennec fox.

The one thing Lucas remembered about this place after almost 4 years was the fossil digging.  We were here for a while.

Isaac wanted to ride a dinosaur on the carousel, and we found a triceratops.  Last ride before we parted ways with our friends.

Lucas and Isaac running through the maze.

And of course Lucas wanted to return to the Dragon Flyers.

Isaac wanted to go on this super slow swing.  Lucas squeezed himself in as well.

Not sure why they were hugging and being so affectionate on the ladybug ride, but it was sweet.

The Team Racers were open play, so we just hopped on and rode around.

They loved this swing, but I can never seem to push them high or fast enough.

Heading out on the Bent Bridge.