Six months ago Theresa and I had a hard time booking a good site for our camping trip this year, but we managed to book 3 separate sites at Henry Cowell Redwood campground and we just hoped that they would be reasonable spots.  Our family arrived Friday night first; we chose our primary spot and it turned out to be an awesome hangout area for our group.  We loved the shade created beautifully by the redwood trees and the weather was perfect, not too cold or hot.  The boys helped Stuart set up the tent, and I tried to put up a fire to get ready for dinner cooking.  Buddy was so excited on the first day and pulled quite a bit until we had enough and tied him around the central tree to free us up to do things.  Then Theresa and Martin arrived.  I made some pork skewers and Stuart cooked them up for us; we enjoyed this first meal very much.  The six of us plus Buddy sat around the fire enjoying drinks and snacks for a few hours, and had a lovely peaceful evening.

    The next morning we waited for Kathy/Kira and Robyn/Peyton to have breakfast together.  This year the Kaos could not join us.  Theresa brought out a game Tapple to play; they had a good time.  Afterward we decided to go for a hike down to the creek while Stuart and Buddy stayed and watched our site.  The trail was very pretty; the group walked quite fast, but Connor and I took our time to take pictures.  We finally met up with the group at the beautiful creek.  Kira represented us to put her feet into the water.  After the break there, we then had to take the strenuous uphill hike back to our campsite.  It was quite an exercise to complete this 3 mile hike.  Then we had almost built up an appetite for a burger lunch which was a big hit for everyone.

    In the afternoon, we played a tournament with the washer game.  Some of us had tight battles, and it came down to Peyton and the four of us.  At the end it was Logan vs Connor in the final.  It was a very close game and Logan got the win with his last 3-point center bucket.  Here is the last minute of the game.

   Next we played the Phase 10 game that Kathy brought; it was for up to 6 players but we all tried to learn the game, stayed and watched.  This game finally brought all the kids together, more talking among them finally.  Connor was also being a silly person, talking smack and getting us all laughed.  The game could take a long time to finish, so we kept playing until dinner time and wrapped up the game.  It was a lot of fun.

    Theresa and Martin had started making steaks, so we could have a steak and ramen dinner.  We were definitely stuffed for sure with all the food and drinks by then.  The kids then played with glowsticks and repeated their project from last year.  They had a beautiful artwork at the end again. The full day finally came to an end, then Kathy, Kira, Robyn and Peyton wrapped up and said goodbye to us.

    It had been a full busy day, so the rest of us hung out at the firepit to relax and finally retired for the night.  All of us had a great night sleep including Buddy.  He stayed on his cot in the tent and did not get up until the next morning.  We took our time the next morning and finally made breakfast and packed up.  It was another wonderful successful camping on the books.  Here are our photos.

    Here is our 10th grader and 8th grader starting first day of school on 8/10/23.

     I had to sneak in a doctor appt day before school too.  We first went to Logan’s eye doctor.  Fortunately Logan’s vision has been very stable for the last few visits, and the only issue is his allergy affecting his eyes.  Then we rushed to the boys’ doctor appointments.  I was with Connor; everything checked out fine and we only had a couple of minor questions for the doctor.  His doctor also ordered lab draw, which was perfect for me to take Connor to do, while the doctor went to see Logan.  Logan’s checkup was fine as well.  Both of their vitals and growth chart are steady and good.  Now they are ready for a good school year.

   For the final week of summer, the boys got to do what they love most, more video game time.  The neighborhood kids also played a final “kick the can” on the last Monday night.  Stuart took a couple of half days off to spend with us too.  We went to Dave and Buster one afternoon to play, have dinner and try to do any clothes shopping for the boys.  We all had a good load of game time in but the boys did not feel like shopping. 

     On the last Tuesday, we went down to the beach.  We tried the Seacliff beach; it was very peaceful there.  Connor and I spent majority of our time playing with sand while Logan finished the book that he was reading during the summer and Stuart took a nap.  After beachtime, we got some ice cream and then we went to check out the Santa Cruz boardwalk.  This place was so much nicer than what we remembered and it was quite crowded as it was a nice weather afternoon/evening.  We walked all around to check out all the rides, and not surprisingly the boys did not care to ride any.  Connor was set to go play at the casino arcade, but it turned out that the games were not as good as the ones in Dave and Buster.  Finally we found an Italian restaurant and had a great relaxing dinner.  It was nice that we continued our beach day tradition before the school starts, and it was only a short commute time away from home.

     Connor did not want a party, and just wanted to spend a low key day on our own.  He did not mind the idea of going to Top Golf; I made a reservation late, so we could only get a slot for lunch.  Logan immediately did really well and leading in the first couple of golf games we played.  Finally Stuart got his hits readjusted and he and I had a chance to be on top in the last couple games. Two hours went by fast and we played until the last second.  We all had a good time playing, eating and drinking there. 

    The main gift to Connor was a PC.  Connor has been researching to get a PC for awhile and wanted to build one with all the components he had chosen. Stuart finally helped him purchased all of them the week before his birthday, and they took some time to work together to put them together.  Finally the assembly worked and Connor has his new PC by his birthday.  Connor received a few more gifts on his birthday too.  Hope Connor enjoyed his day and now he is our teenager too!