Logan’s braces were ready to be removed in May, but Logan did not want to miss class, so it was rescheduled to June 16,2023 after our trip.  The appointment was two hour long.  We were excited initially for Logan, but when he came home, we realized that he has a permanent short retainer behind the bottom teeth and a removable 24/7 retainer for the upper teeth for an entire year. Logan’s teeth look great now, and he has a wonderful smile.  The price for it is dealing with wearing and cleaning these retainers.

   Shortly after school ended, we took our trip down south.  This time we decided to put Buddy in doggie boarding, so we dropped Buddy off on our way down south on Saturday morning.  The drive was smooth and we arrived to check in at the hotel before meeting up at the grandparents’ house.  We were happy to see both Grandma and Grandpa, and we spent the next two days hanging out with them. 

   On Monday, we checked out the hotel to drive down to the Paradise Point resort.  They were able to let us check in early and we immediately liked the resort ground, and planned out itinerary.  We had a good lunch at Barefoot Grill and Bar on site, then proceeded to play a round of miniature golf.  We then headed to the beach and played spike ball there.  That evening we drove around town; we walked around an outdoor mall at La Jolla and had dinner there.

    After we slept in the next day, we headed over to the USS Midway museum.  We really enjoyed this museum, and learned a lot.  We loved the short emotionally moving film about the Battle of the Miidway, we enjoyed looking at all the aircrafts on the deck, and finally joined a tour to walk though the bridge of the aircraft carrier.  In the afternoon, we returned to the hotel to do kayaking.  The weather remained cloudy and so it was slightly cold until we got out on the kayaks.  Connor and I teamed up and paddled through different part of the Mission Bay.  We finally met back up with Stuart and Logan, we raced around before we returned the kayaks.  The bay was beautiful and I was glad that we were out there.  In the evening we found a local restaurant and bar to enjoy a nice meal and drinks.

   We planned to take a hike at Torrey Pines on Wednesday morning.  The coast was beautiful and I especially enjoyed walking on the sandy path and looking through all the vegetations on the way.  It was definitely incredible there and it would have been awesome to spend more time for some longer hikes one day.  After the hike, we went to check out Balboa Park.  There were so many things to do there, so we could only check out an area.  We chose to see the Natural History museum and it was cool to see some live lab exhibits and watch a short film about titanosaurus.  Afterward we strolled a bit more around the park and came across the Spanish art center.  This area was so cool and quint.  By then the boys were tired and hungry, so we were able to only walk briefly around each of the stores inside.   After a short rest at the hotel room, we played ping pong and it was a perfect setting to our tournament.  We even played a few games of doubles too.  For the final evening, we all voted to stay in to have another nice meal at the Barefoot Grill and Bar so we could spend the final evening hours at the resort. 

   Even though Connor and I really wanted to stay, we had to check out the resort on Thursday morning.  We took the easy drive to the grandparents for a short visit before we took the longer drive home.  Thanks to Stuart driving us all the way home and we finally arrived home after 7pm. 

    I picked Buddy up the next morning and this was the longest he had been away from us.  Buddy was happy to see me but he was definitely exhausted from the days of running around with other doggies.  Now we all are home and ready for the rest of the summer.

   The school year had concluded today.  This had been a very tough year for Logan, but he made it through.  We are hoping that Logan has learned some studying method on the way, and hopefully with some help during the summer, the sophomore year will be a smoother one.  Connor had passed his 7th grade with flying colors.  He seemed to have hardly done much homework and studying the entire year, and he wrapped up the year well.  Hopefully he will continue to excel in 8th grade.  Now they both are ready for the summer break.