Can’t believe the summer is over.  With Logan’s camps and the cabana club this year, this summer break feels different than any other ones, and I am sad that it has come to an end.  Today Stuart took a day off so we could take a day trip to Monterey and Carmel.  The boys were very excited when we told them the plan.  We first arrived at the Dennis the Menace Park in the morning as the boys enjoyed it last time.  They had the most fun running through the hanging bridge and crawling the tunnels playing hide and seek.  We then took a short walk at downtown Carmel and had a seafood lunch there.  Then we headed over to the beach and we all immediately loved the warm weather and the soft sand.  It was a nice surprise that the weather was a lot warmer than we anticipated.  The boys could not wait to play near the water.  They had a blast and laughed so much while running toward and away from the waves.  They returned back to our tent to play with sand then back out to the water.  Stuart and Logan played with the football for awhile while Connor and I walked up the hill to use the restroom.  Before we knew it, it was already 4pm, so we packed up to take the drive home.  It was a fun family day!

      Connor finished summer school as of Friday.  Connor transitioned very well when we moved him to this new school for the summer.  It took him a few days initially to get to know his new teachers and now he loves them.  He had fun during the past few weeks and continues to learn a lot.  He brought home many nice drawings.  He earned a few more little books that he has learned to read, and he also now knows about the solar system and about the Wright Brothers.  On Thursday we received Connor’s report card.  When Stuart asked him if he likes dancing and singing in school, he told us “Dancing is for girls.”

     Logan wrapped up the summer with the last camp at our local community center.  Logan has gotten used to different locations and meeting different people during the summer that he only slightly hesitated when we walked in the new place on Monday morning.  Once he asked me to help him put his backpack down, he wanted to explore the place on his own, so he said bye to me.  It was a packed camp with 50 + kids at age 5-8 with 6 camp leaders.  They just played games and did different activities indoor and at the courtyard all day.  When we picked him up at the end of the first day, we learned that Logan received “The Camper of the the Day” award for “Great Effort”.  We were told that he participated in everything and answered a question to earn the award.  Logan was happy that he also got to choose a small toy as a prize.  Other than that, Logan did not share too much more what went on during the day or the rest of the week for that matter. 

    Another important thing that went on was a field trip on Wednesday.  Logan had not gone on one for a couple of years as field trip was not part of the curriculum for Challenger.  As a result, I was a bit nervous about it and reminded Logan to stay together with his team leader or campmates.  Logan was excited about it especially when he learned that kids could bring some money with them.  The destination was Happy Hollow and the kids rode the bus there.  We tried to get information from Logan at the end of the day, but not much.  He said he had fun; he rode a couple of rides, watched a show and climbed on the structure.  We did not really talk with Logan ahead of time about what he should buy with the money we gave him.  He told us that he only had a few minutes and he quickly brought a few things at the shop.  He ate a Kit Kat bar at the park. and ended up bringing home a melted Kit Kat bar and two candy sticks.  The rest of the week, Logan mentioned about having “astronaut ice cream” and he liked the fused beads projects that he made. 

     I asked Logan to tell me his favorite camps during this summer.  He said he likes all of them, but Lego camp was his least favorite which was to my surprise.  He liked the Galileo one as it has skits daily and he likes Camp San Jose for the prize that he received.

   We played few different sports this weekend.  It started with Logan’s basketball game on Saturday morning.  Logan was goofy and played with his teammates a lot when he was on the bench.  He was good in defending and blocking.  He however is still not aggressive enough to rebound.  He made some good passes; he attempted a basket and made it.  I knew he would make the basket and was able to capture that on a photo.

     We swam a lot this weekend.  Logan starts to enjoy being in the big pool now, and he appears slightly more comfortable everyday.  I too am making tiny improvements in my endurance in water; I am actually looking forward to attempting swimming a lap.  Connor loves playing in the big pool, but he still does not want to put his head in water yet.  Both kids wanted to play tennis today and we had a good time as usual.  Afterward, we played soccer.  Logan wanted to be the goalie, probably because he would be allowed to use both legs and hands, and he did a great job.  Connor had fun running around attempting to make goals.  In the afternoon when we went back for some swimming, the lap pool was closed, so we did something else.  We played volleyball with a bouncy ball, and the boys tried their best.  Logan had some good bumps and Connor was great holding his hands together at all times and enjoyed bumping a few times.

    We received the boys’ report cards by mail when the school year was over, but I forgot to blog about them.  They both did fine for the year.  Logan received an additional report to compare him with others via some Iowa standard report testing.

     Stuart took some time off last week to spend with Logan, and Logan loved it.   They played tennis, took some golf swings, shopped at hobby shops and did some swimming.  Logan had a great time at the driving range.  They shared a bucket; Stuart had Logan focused on keeping his hands together and not moving his feet.  He made some good contact occasionally.  Later they putted for a little bit and Logan wanted to return to the range, so they shared another medium bucket.  Logan has been watching a Japanese cartoon lately and learns the joy of having some trading cards.  While they were shopping at the hobby shops, they found a deck of that cartoon trading cards and Logan was thrilled.  He has been trying to play the trading game with Stuart and then the rest of the times he keeps them nicely stored in a box.  Logan definitely loved the week, but it was not easy for Stuart to juggle time off with some projects at work.

     Logan knew not to brag about his week off so Connor would not know or get jealous.  Connor did get a suspicion as Logan and I went to pick him up together on the first day; he kept asking me “Mommy, did Logan go to school today?”.  Later he saw the leftover popcorn we had, he asked multiple times where we got them from.  Fortunately he did not really care as much the rest of the week.  Tomorrow we are back on track for the summer; Logan starts another week of summer camp and Connor will have his last week of summer school.