Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Summer travels-Thoughts and memories of Japan

Warm toilet seat
Going Pokémon, Mario and Star Wars shopping-cool plush stuffies and an amazing amount of figures
Enjoyed the sweet bread ice cream treat
Chocolate looking water :(
Too too many people in too small of a space
Too many buildings and banged up
The smell of fish 
American food taste a little different
The priciness of cats and dogs (600,000 yen)
Cheap, but confusing transportation 
Loved the green Fanta
More English than anticipated
Hot and humid!!!  Tiring 
Underwater tunnel -view from hotel 
Temple and all the people 
Clean city despite no garbage cans
Had to pay extra at the hotel for swimming, exercise and even a pool side chair. No jumping in the pool
Very expensive 
Line for food almost everywhere
Loved the hotel breakfast buffet 
Conservative and traditional (no tattoos in workout area)
Lots of fun at inflatable water park 
Relatively easy time adjustment 
Doors of the subway closing and having to pry them open to get to Reggie and Ainsley inside-SCARY!!!





 Lots of people shopping



My souvineer!
Funny videos of the water park



Saturday, August 26, 2017

Summer travels...Thoughts of Hawaii

We had a fabulous time in Hawaii and since it was no extra cost in airfare to stop there on our way to Japan, I figured we might as well since the kids have never been there and they give us grief when we go.  Might have been a mistake since they loved it so much!
Loved bodysurfing/waves and spent hours in the ocean
Khalif walking out into the street in front of two cars and Ainsley saving him
Crappy hotel but nice view
Eating Safeway food and loving it-chicken strips
Smells in the hotel 
Valet parking
Loved looking at the turtles 
Kids trip to ABC store by themselves and starting a load of laundry 
Seeing the manta rays and blow hole
Cats and mongoose everywhere at Hanauma Bay (only one friendly cat)
Waiamanalo beach, peaceful and quiet, but Jellyfish!  Khalif got stung first and then Ainsley but hers was not nearly as bad
Feeding the fish bread and snorkeling with those crazy fish
Playing the game floppy fish
Surfing-easier than expected 
Beauty of Hawaii/sunset/blue water
Wrong turn and grumpy mom
Warm rain while getting ready to surf
Warm ocean 
No need for a pool 
Glass elevator 
The lagoon (crowded beaches in Waikiki)
Long waterway and people canoeing 
Stressful trip to the airport....made it only five minutes before boarding
Being awoken out of a dead sleep on the plane by Khalif who waited too long to get to the bathroom and was running in place while waiting in line, but thankfully made it. 
In awe that every seat had their own t.v.  Flights were a piece of cake!





 Jellyfish sting on Khalif's leg
Bodysurfing!
Manta rays and blowhole
Trying to bodysurf!
Surfing

Amazing turtles

 Where we stayed...


Thursday, August 24, 2017

High Trek Adventures

This is a new ropes course in Everett.  I was surprised all the kids wanted to do it, especially Reggie since he is afraid of heights.  Everyone did great!  The boys (except Spencer) were ready to be done earlier...Khalif may have decided he doesn't like heights.  It was kind of a bummer because they stopped before they made it to the zip line and it was a pretty mild zip line, so it would have been good for a first try.  It was quite a workout for me because I had to clip the lines of the shorter kids on and off and make sure we were not holding up others.  It was very enjoyable though and I would totally do it again :)




Conquering his fear!

Zip line!

Sunday, August 20, 2017

4th of July

Lake Cavanaugh parade
Maggie and Ainsley getting ready for nail painting on the 4th.  Their plan was to ask for a donation, but they were to busy to give anyone a manicure.  Too bad....they could have made a little money!
 First and only customers.  They were free since they were just testing.
Lots of playing in the water because the weather was great!  The lake was strangely quiet, maybe because it was a Tuesday.  We livened it up with some tubing!
 16,000 firecracker roll.  I love Cadia's reaction!
Little pyros!  Not so little anymore....

Monday, August 14, 2017

Tubing and boat issues

The kids FINALLY got into a water sport, well, almost a water sport.  Tubing!!!  They actually like going fast and Reggie and Spencer even fell out a couple times and they wanted to do it again!  Maggie and Khalif were very nervous to go fast, so they went slow for a long time, but by the end of the summer, Khalif had no partner because Maggie was going fast too!  Unfortunately, Ryan ran the boat out of gas because the guy who got the boat ready for summer didn't fix the gas gauge as requested and Ryan didn't listen to my dad about putting more in.  Now know that when the fuel pump doesn't get gas it burns up, so no worky.  The bigger problem was finding a replacement since the boat was made in 1994 and the first kit we tried from Mastercraft didn't work and the kids were so disappointed.  What do you do when you don't have a boat to pull the kids, you use the party boat!  It wasn't quite as fast and somehow grandma, Aunt Jeanne, Dad and Liha (it was happy hour on the party boat so there was definitely some alcohol involved!) ended up going and it was a riot, until we went over a big wave and then that boat lost all speed.  The lower unit went out and that was a much more expensive fix.
Liha, Ainsley and grandpa video:  to view click (arrtwade.blogspot.com)
  Khalif's 10 seconds of speed
Ainsley, Spencer and Reggie video
Looking for the grandma/Aunt Jeanne pics.  I will post when the Rinehardts locate them.  Only 1 picture...video is on Facebook and I can't seem to copy it, but here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/irene.schroers/videos/10211924259735701/.  It was fun!

This happened right before our trip, so mom worked hard to find a fix.  Every lead seemed to dead end until she found a mechanic in Arlington who got a completely different fuel pump and got the appropriate connectors, so we were up and running the day after we got back.  The kids were soooo excited and we spent hours and hours tubing for the rest of the summer!

1st half of the summer

Lots of much deserved relaxation

 Jump off the dock onto the floatie game.  Lots of time spent perfecting this!


 Party boat rides.  This was before it warmed up
 Making pizza for dinner.  I decided it would be a good time for the older two to do some meal planning and cooking since we have a little more time in the summer and they really should know how to cook for themselves.  It didn't go over well, you would have thought I was making them shovel crap, but it was a bit better once they accepted it.  Ainsley isn't a big fan of cooking taco's...said they tasted different after seeing the raw meat.  Reggie enjoyed bbq'ing quite a bit and took the easiest meals he could.
 Biking around the lake
 Reggie/Ryan time at the races
 Playing in the sand.  Lots of that this summer
 I had to take a picture.  He assured me it is to rehabilitate his partial knee replacement.  I told him its o.k. to continue and be healthy by exercising!!!
 Regal movie day!  My kids only ate 3 tubs of popcorn!
 Hmmm.   A mystery.  Mom and I were driving and an owl flew over which was amazing and then I looked down and saw this on the window.  A drop from the owl?  Or a crawl out from the engine where it was living?  I was going to pull over and put the wiper on to get rid of it but mom flipped the wiper wand before I pulled over and it took flight over the top of the car, ha ha!
We also had some visitors in our pantry.  After we figured it out, they were quickly caught and the family of five is no longer snacking on all our food!  They seemed to really enjoy pumpkin seeds.
 Splash wars.  Lots of this and tag
 Warming up and resting
 Trampoline time!  Many, many hours spent on this.  Grandma surprised the kids with a trampoline this summer and it was so much fun for all the kids.  Stella and Ruby came over a lot and they had fun talking about Harry Potter, tubing and playing in the water
Happy birthday Dad!