3 day weekend

Khalif went to visit Aunt Ashley, so we had a little fun of our own.  We took the kids to the beach and they body surfed a bit and boogy-boarded, but the water was very, very cold.  Not like Hawaii at all!  Thank the Lord for wesuits!  We enjoyed hanging out and Ryan played a lot of football catch with them.  They love to watch the football in the surf!

We also had a gift certificate to Umigo go cart racing and I thought it might be a good time to use it.  I loved it, but crashed pretty hard and that didn't feel so good.  Reggie and Ainsley had to get a lesson and be approved to race because they were underage, but they did fine.  Ainsley never wants to do it again, but Reggie seemed to really like it!

First day of school

The first day of school was momumental!  It was the greatest solar eclipse in a really long time.  Of course, I didn’t have it together enough to purchase the special glasses and by the time I started looking, they were sold out, EVERYWHERE.  Some people were crazy enough to buy the paper/plastic glasses for $50 but I decided to make a pinhole projector instead.  The school purchased them for the kids, so they had an amazing view with their special glasses.  

Reggie is the big man on campus, 8^th grade, yikes!  He got his schedule and was so bummed out about having theater/acting again (he had it in 7^th grade) and asked if I could fix it.  He put in for stagecraft, but didn’t get it.  I told him that if it bothered him that much, he should go and talk to the Vice Principle to see if she was able to make a change.  It would be more effective coming from him and not me, so I encouraged him to express his disappointment.  He walked to the school and she was in a meeting, so he went back and talked with her and that night, I got an e-mail that requested he pick up his new schedule before school started on Monday!  Way to go Reggie….those types of interactions are fairly uncomfortable for him and I’m glad he sucked it up and obviously was very happy about the outcome.
 Ainsley started 6^th grade which is middle school at their school and Khalif 2^nd grade.  They all seemed ready and really enjoyed their first day.

I went and had brunch with the moms!  We were all so happy to have a little freedom back and peace and quiet.  There was a group sitting across from us with their special glasses and I kept waiting for it to get dark and it never did!   The group got up and left and I asked everyone why they left and they said it was over.  I missed the whole thing!  It was less than impressive, but I did throw up my pinhole projector and saw a partial eclipse.  I still don’t understand why it didn’t get dark at all.

Swallow

Cute little bird that consumed our afternoon.  I saw something fluttering in the water and we've had all kinds of things in the lake, including a snake, so we ran down to see what it was and it was this poor little bird.  I told Ainsley to jump in and get it and she swept it up and it became her friend.  We let it recover and dry off and took it to what we thought was its nest, but it didn't take long for it to end up in the water again.  The kids were infatuated and were bringing it ants and bugs and it ate every one very quickly.  Khalif was a very good ant catcher.  It seemed to gain its strength back and took flight, but it wasn't flying right and it became clear there was a problem.  So....what do you do?  Keep this bird or let it be and watch it die to the hands of the cat, Maui.  Liha was on it, looking up places we could take the bird and after talking with them, she thought it had a neurological problem.  After a bunch of back and forth we decided it would be better for the bird to be with people who could help it, so we drove to Arlington and gave it to the bird sanctuary.  I should've followed up, but didn't really want to hear bad news, especially since Ainsley was so attached to this bird, so we will assume it recovered and is living a healthy life!  Quite the adventure :)

 She didn't seem to mind all the poop

 Turns out the sanctuary has a lot of birds with neurological problems, most from falling out of the nest or getting hit by a car.  It was a very cool place! 
This guy clearly had issues.

Beautiful owl

Aunt Pam was up visiting while all this chaos was going on and I'm sure the elders thought we were nuts!  They were toasting to mom who officially RETIRED!!!   YAY!!!

Birthdays and Lummi

July is a busy birthday month and since Ainsley is close, we throw her birthday in there too.  We have traditionally celebrated Khalif and Ainsley's birthday at Lummi and this year was no different.  Lots of fun and good food!

 Angel food cake was Khalif's request and Grandma Pam had a pie ready to go, so Ainsley was all over that!

 Liha suggested we tie-dye while we were there and I've always wanted to do it, so we went for it.  It was pretty easy looking back, but when doing it for the first time, it doesn't seem that it will work at all and it was pretty messy, but overall a great time.

 Working hard

 Beautiful.  We did learn that rinsing the next day was not necessary and actually bled the dye, so we stopped after a couple and the others seemed to turn out better just letting them sit for several days and then putting them in the washer.

The kids have such great memories exploring the beach and looking for sea glass, jellyfish, starfish, crabs, cool rocks on the rock beach and whatever else they can find.  And they love the ice cream from the little store before getting on the ferry.  Ainsley asked me as we were going over if orca's were ever seen and sure enough a couple weeks after we went, they were right by the Lummi Ferry!

Here they are looking for treasures.

 He is starting to get old enough where he can really help out.

We decided to do cousin pictures in their tie-dye

And Harry Potter...It has been very popular with our kids in the recent months.  Good looking bunch of wizards :).  Stella and Ruby are very much into Harry Potter, so the kids had a lot to talk about and they learned of a new website to find out what house they were in.  We had representation from every house.  I was pleased with my placement into Gryffindor, haha!

Summer Travels-thought and memories of Hong Kong

Rainy!

Turbulent plane ride/Khalif throwing up

Strangers taking pictures with the kids (Random boy and his selfie with Reggie)

Fast escalators

Inexpensive toys and electronics

Ainsley's food poisoning-coming out of both ends

Our awesome tour guide "uncle" Johnny

Good breakfast -interesting new fruit

Crazy taxi driver (jerky)

Lots of treats from uncle Johnny

Ocean park-incredible amount of sweat, Gondola, koala, container with french fries on top of soda.  Reggie waiting it out to see the Panda and getting an awesome show.  The rest of us trying to get back on the subway in time to see it-no luck :(.

Ryan buying movies in China and being taken into the back room and told to put his phone away 

Really awesome fidget spinners

Roll-up piano

Huge hotel room/great service 

The discovery channel-something the kids didn't really know existed until Ainsley got sick 

Street names

The boys ability to change time zones so easily

Girls thankfulness for benadryl!

Different and big minivans

Reggie unable to keep his eyes open for the first time ever!

Observations from a stranger in the elevator regarding the "handful"

Fight over Harry Potter Legos

Lightning show and booming thunder in the middle of the night

Lots and lots of shopping and no complaining 

Liked the pool/hot tub area-ryan's hour and a half sunburn

Delicious pizza at Stanley waterfront

Four of us in the back of a taxi

Reggie overcoming his fear of heights:

So tired!

View from our hotel

Uncle Johny

 Notice the street name

 Waffle Hong Kong dessert

 Photo bombed by a ray at Ocean Park :)

Panda