Logan is now our 9th grader and Connor is a 7th grader.  On the first day, Cole came by and Logan joined him to walk.  Connor left quickly after and they all walked to the middle school, then Logan and Cole turned the corner to continue on the high school.  Wish that both boys have a great year at their own schools.

   During this summer, the neighborhood kids had gotten together several times for Kick the Can, and the boys were always excited to join.  Even sometimes when Connor would come back and complain of little things, we know that they had fun being out on the street for > 2 hours each time.  On the last Monday before school started, the Kick the Can had a big turnout, and it was nice to see the bunch of kids enjoying themselves before school start.  Unfortunately, one hour later Connor came home accompanied by Logan and a couple of his school friends.  Connor had a fall and a relatively bad one; he had multiple scrapes and some more deep than others.  He was brave and did not shred a single tear while we cleaned up all his wounds.  Sorry to see that Connor could not enjoy the full evening event and the injury also stopped us from going to the pool the next day.  I guess we should still look at the positive side; this was still one of the good Kick the Can summers.

    I took a few days off just right before the boys returned to school to spend with them.  One day I took them to Dave and Buster after Connor suggested it.  We arrived shortly after they opened so we could avoid any crowds.  Our first game was one of our favorites Deal and No Deal; we ended up going back and back to it the next couple of hours.  The boys and I walked around the arcade and played with different games.  The other game where the boys ended up spending quite a bit of chips on was a hammer game, and Connor got the jackpot once and earned us many tickets.  We broke for lunch there; after feeling full and better, we returned to play some more. At the end, the boys took their time adding up all their tickets and figuring out what rewards to get together.  They both were very pleased with what they chose and talked about them all the way home.

    Another day we went for a movie.  We watched the Thor movie and grabbed lunch afterward.  The boys seemed to be happy with just these simple things.

    We drove down Wednesday 7/27 to see the grandparents.  The drive was uneventful; we checked in to a hotel near Hermosa beach then headed over to see the grandparents.  It had been many months since we saw them and it was great to see the grandparents well.  The boys and Buddy could spend some quality time hanging out with them the next few days.  Every time we came visit, the boys always liked to challenge Grandpa to a game of chess and hope for a win one day.  Stuart and I also brought a new board game to show grandparents how to play.  Buddy was well behaved in front of grandparents too. 

   For two afternoons, we left Buddy with the grandparents to go to the beach on our own.  It was finally a lot easier for Stuart without holding on to Buddy, and he could even catch a nap on the beach.  The weather was perfect; we played with sand, water and even volleyball one day too.  We wrapped up one beach afternoon with a delicious ice cream sandwich at a local ice cream place that we are still thinking about after we returned home.

   On the last day, we maximized our visit to the grandparents by spending another lunch with them before we drove home.  Thanks to Stuart for driving us safety and had this nice little trip.

    For Connor’s birthday, he wanted to go see a movie, so Logan and I joined Connor to watch the Gru.  He was happy to call for what he wanted to eat at each meal that day.  He was excited with the gifts he received and he especially was thrilled to now have the Greenlight just like Logan does. 

  The next day Connor suddenly suggested to go bowling to continue his birthday celebration.  Since Stuart had to work, so it was the 3 of us again.  We had gotten used to Switch Bowling lately and had totally surprised by how heavy the actual bowling balls were.  Once we got used to the weight, we played two fun rounds.  They also wrapped up with some arcades games before we went home.  Connor was happy with his extended celebration.

    Logan needs community hours for high school.  I heard about this great farm from Mckayla who often goes to volunteer as she loves animals, so I decided to check it out with Logan.  We went for the one-hour orientation to learn about the farm and saw all the animals they have there.  Then he and I signed up for our first volunteering session, and Mckayla was nice enough to sign up as well to show us around.  We were assigned to the goat farm and we spent over an hour sweeping and cleaning up their droppings. After the cleanup, all the volunteers could go spend some time with the animals.  We followed Mckayla to go hang out with the bunnies.  It was an interesting experience for us and now Logan got 2 more hours down.