The boys completed another week of camp at YMCA; this time it was a Lego Build, Mine, Craft, Galaxy Wars camp.  The kids were divided into big and small kids, so Logan and Connor were in separate groups during the camp activities.  They shared with us each day what they had built, and they really enjoyed this camp.  On Friday Connor came home to share another good news; he was chosen to be the Camper of the Week.  According to Connor, after they announced him and called him up to the front, he had the opportunity to pick a staff to have a bucket of water pour over her. 

     At the last dental appointment, Logan was told that he might have a cavity.  So on Saturday, I took Logan back to the dental office for a preventive restoration along with putting sealants on all other molars.  They recommended giving nitric oxide for Logan to breathe so he could be more relaxed.  Thanks goodness for the gas.  This was probably one of Logan’s most cooperative days on the dental chair.  The dentist and the assistant did a good job talking with Logan too.  They had to have Logan open his mouth wide, they drilled on his molar briefly, cleaned the surface, put the sealant on it and shined the laser light on it.  It turned out that the cavity was not significant, so they did not need to do the restoration and just put on the sealants.  I held Logan’s hands to prevent him from interfering, but other than that, Logan did fine and was barely wiggly.  They continued to work on the other three molars.  The only complaint Logan had was that they were blocking the TV for the movie of his choice, Goosebumps.  The job went fast and we were done in less than 30 minutes. 

     Stuart and I planned to attend Vicky’s wedding banquet last Saturday, and Michelle kindly agreed to watch the kids for us.  We arrived at the their house around 5:30pm; the kids were off to play with Mckayla and Marcus immediately.  We hung out with Ted and Michelle for a little bit, then we had to head out to the banquet.  The wedding banquet was huge; apparently there were 600 people.  We were situated with my cousins at a table.  As soon as we settled down, Stuart became the chosen one by a 7 year old boy who talked to Stuart almost non-stop for the evening.  He told Stuart jokes and shared all his likes and dislikes.  The Chinese banquet served the food slowly throughout the night as we expected, but we were entertained by some wedding activities in between each course.  Some of the folks started drinking some hard liquor; since I was able to be the designated driver, Stuart could partake too.   Later the dancing began, Stuart and I joined the crowd to dance a couple of songs.  More food was still coming, but by 9:30pm the last course, fried rice, was finally being served.  By then, even though the wedding cake had not been cut, we decided to quickly say goodbye to some people and sneaked out before we were way too late to return to the Kaos.

    Throughout the evening, I was also being entertained by the photos Michelle shared by phone; the boys were having a great time there.  They had the opportunity to play with Lucky, the dog, who the Kaos was babysitting.  Connor was even lucky enough to receive an early birthday cookie.  He had the cutest smile on his face.  When we arrived at their house, the boys did not really want to leave since they had so much fun.  But we had to say thank you and packed up to end this late night for everyone. 

    The boys were at Camp San Jose for the week when the Liangs were visiting.  Since we skipped out two of the days, they were at the camp only three days.  On day 2, it was a field trip day and the destination was Great America.  None of us had been there before and the boys were not big fans for thrill rides, therefore Stuart and I were a bit nervous how they would do.  Logan was with the bigger kid group, and he could choose either the rides or the water group; he chose the water one.  Connor was with the little kid group where they would go play at the kiddie ride area.  By the end of the day, they both said they had a good time.  Logan liked the water structure, and he was especially happy with the stuffed snake that he bought at the gift shop with the money we gave him.  Connor told us he enjoyed the rides; he was however a bit disappointed later when he realized what he bought was much smaller than Logan’s.

     After being off on Wednesday and Thursday, they returned on Friday to wrap up the week camp.  When I picked them up at the end of the day, they were happy to share that they both were picked as the Camper of the Week.  I was impressed that there were only four Campers of the Week out of the 60 kids, and both of them got selected.  They received a certificate, a candy and a little toy for rewards.

    On the second day, Yvonne’s family wanted to check out Big Basin for hiking.  Michelle had mentioned that the drive going there was twisty, so I had contemplated not taking the boys to avoid Logan’s motion sickness.  However the boys had really bonded with the cousins that they chose to spend another full day with them.  We left the house after the kids had a chance to play games, then we picked up some sandwiches and we were on our way.  I had prepared Logan with Dramamine, and after all the kids played for awhile, Logan took a nice nap during the drive.  The park was beautiful with lots of tall redwoods, and the temperature was just right.  With the bigger group, it seemed to take a lot longer to get going, and we were finally ready to hike one of the shortest routes.  Yvonne was very excited and we made many stops to take pictures with the amazing trees.  We finished the first loop and we stopped to have our lunch.  We checked out the gift shop afterward and had an ice cream break.  By the time we were ready for the second short loop, we only made a few minutes into the trail before we had to return.  The boys went back into the gift shop to buy a small stuffed animal using the money auntie Yvonne gave them, and we were all packed in the car to head back. 

     We thought we left ourselves plenty of time to drive to San Ramon to Connie’s house for dinner.  But unfortunately we hit quite a bit of traffic and it ended up taking us three hours to get there.  The kids however did not seem to mind that much; they napped and played games most of the way.  By the time we arrived, the guests and some of the relatives were already there including Stuart who drove from home to meet us.  We had dinner and chatted with others while all the kids there played with Pokemon Go.  The boys had fun playing with all the bigger kids. Connor started to look tired and acting too excitable.  He kept calling Katie his sweetheart.  By then it was before 9pm, Stuart and I decided that we should head home with the boys first while the Liangs stayed behind to chat more. 

    On Friday, I had to return to work, so the boys had to go to camp as well.  The Liang’s plan was to go to San Francisco for a day before going over to the friend’s house for a night and before returning home to Florida.  Thus in the morning, Yvonne took the boys to wake Katie and Kevin up so they could say bye to their cousins.  This was a nice visit with the Liangs, and it was awesome that the cousins could spend some time together.

     Yvonne and family came for a visit last week.  They arrived on Tue night (7/19) while the boys were already asleep.  The boys had agreed to have Logan to sleep on the lower bunk in Connor’s room to free up Logan’s room for our visitors.  They both did well sharing the room for a few days.  As soon as Kevin and later Katie woke up on Wednesday morning, all the kids hung out together well.  The kids really did not know each other well, but they warmed up quickly and bonded well.   They talked, watched TV, and later ate the breakfast I made for them while Yvonne and Allen slept in.  Later they migrated upstairs to play games in the bonus room.

    I had taken two days off to keep the boys from camp so we could spend time with the Liangs.  Stuart had to work, therefore he did not go with us during the day.  For Wednesday, the plan was to visit Monterey, possibly ride 4-person bikes and hit the beach at Carmel.  But we started the day a bit late, and changed plan to go have lunch at Phil’s in Moss Landing first.  After a big yummy seafood lunch, the kids could not wait and we just walked to the beach at Moss Landing instead.  Kevin, Logan and Connor were so excited playing with sand and waves.  Katie had fun playing with them, but shortly later she felt too cold and decided to wait in the car with Allen.  Yvonne and I just sat and watched the boys having a blast and getting themselves quite wet.  At some point, we wrapped up our beach outing and changed them into dry clothes.  We initially planned to head to Monterey pier next.  But we ended up stopping by Cannery Row where the kids had the most fun just climbing around the rocks and running at a big grassy area there.  The four of them played for a long time and must have a great exercise.  Afterward everyone lost interest of going to the pier and we decided to drive back near home instead.  We headed to the Asian area to have a Korean dinner and for the Liangs to do some shopping there.

   One big thing to mention was how the kids all bonded well playing Pokemon Go.  The boys had learned about this phone game initially from my work picnic, and once they realized that both Katie and Kevin play with it, the boys became quite obsessed with it.  All four of them played on the phones together in the car or in the restaurants any opportunity they had.  At least they shared well and we did not hear any argument.