Right after school was out, we made our way down south to visit the grandparents.  It had been over one year since we last saw the grandparents, thus it was wonderful to see them again and spend time together.  We are happy that the boys enjoyed chatting with the grandparents and Buddy was well behaved with them too.  It was also wonderful watching Grandpa show us his different instruments and taking a small trip to Hermosa with Grandma.

    On Monday, we took off to Pismo beach.  We have been wanting to go to Pismo for a long time, it was awesome to finally seeing how beautiful it is.  Our hotel was right on the cliff and we had a nice view of the ocean from our room too.  We loved that we could make our way down the cliff to the beach.  The boys and I had fun playing with water and building sand buildings both days.  Logan found these little creatures in the sand which freaked us out.  Buddy had a blast as well; he had fun running in the water with Stuart and he liked hanging out watching all the commotion too.  We also liked the pier; we walked around and picked up foods for meal too.  We made the most out of our time at Pismo and planned to leave Tuesday late afternoon.  We picked up food at the restaurant next to the hotel and enjoyed dinner in our room before we made our drive home.  These are the photos from this wonderful trip.

    Our Connor is now an incoming 6th grader.  He stayed with distance learning the entire 5th grade year, thus he did not really have a chance to spend final time at our dear elementary school.  Connor is already missing the school; he mentioned that he would miss the playgrounds and having recesses to play with his friends.  We had a chance to say goodbye to his last elementary teacher while we went to pick up the 5th grade memory book.  Now Connor is preparing himself to join Logan at middle school.

    My project finally completed.  It took quite a long time to collect, to print and to put together.  Grandma also helped me gather the pictures for Stuart’s grandparents too.  I am glad that we now have this for the boys to learn about their families, and I learned a lot from making this too. 

    Dora had planned to visit us in May awhile back.  Somehow Gloria and Chuck asked us just a couple of weeks ago if they could drive to us near the same time.  Thus it all happened last weekend.  Dora flew in on Thursday around lunch time; Gloria, Chuck and their dog Zara drove in by dinner.  Since then, our house was full of people and noise the next few days.

     During this period of time, we took many walks with the doggies, went for a hike a couple of times, played a lot of Puyo/Tetris and Overcooked video games together, and EAT!  Our house was full of food on those days and I also went out with the guests for lunches a couple of times. 

   The one thing we worried the most for this visit was how Buddy would react having another dog in the house.  We started with them meeting each other in the backyard.  As soon as they met, Buddy was eager to go near or play with Zara; he was often in her face.  The first day Zara was more guarded and growled at Buddy a few times, but afterward they both hung out quite well together.  They loved to “play” together by grabbing and soft biting each other, but these plays were hard for Logan and I to watch as we became too nervous.  One thing I love the most was when the dogs walking side by side together; every now and then, Buddy would go lick her which was cute.  When they were “playing”, Stuart periodically had to have Buddy take a break before he tired Zara out too much.  Buddy was just too energized and overly excited.

     Gloria and Chuck are very good with Tetris and Overcooked.  After playing with them, the boys have learned to do better with Overcooked.  Connor played well with Gloria and they made a perfect team.  Logan was quick in the game but he sometimes messed around and even stole the others’ plates just to mess with them.  All 7 of us had fun taking turns playing Puyo or Tetris; we made good use of these games during this visit.

   Dora left us Monday morning, and this morning before 5am, Gloria/Chuck/Zara took off to drive the long way home.  It was nice to see all of them, and now we especially Buddy have to get used to a quieter house again.

This is the type of noise in the house:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF0z6_i0ZuU

This is to remind us how Zara and Buddy were together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwKfM_oDDCI

    Logan needed a new pair of eyeglasses.  This pair of eyeglasses has been needing multiple adjustment. Initially the frame was a bit too small; Logan is now in between sizes, and we decided to have it remade with a small adult frame instead.  Then after his follow up optometrist appt, the lens were made with a bit too small bifocal window.  With the need for appointment, I needed to take Logan back once again for the optical sale appt for a re-measurement for the lens.

    Surprisingly the vaccine has quickly become approved for the youth/teens, and I was able to make Logan an appt on the same day.  Logan was nervous but he did well going with the flow.  There was quite a line with parents and teens; it was awesome seeing more people being vaccinated.  Logan did well receiving the vaccine and I am so excited that one more of us will be protected soon.  

    We found out from our neighbor friend Lisa that the swim team is happening again this year.  Due to the pandemic, the competition part is more like an option and ihe season is mainly for conditioning, thus we talked the boys into joining, using it as the only summer camp.  As a new member, the boys had to show up at the assessment, and the boys surprised me how well they managed to swim across the pool with freestyle.  They also tried their best to swim back with backstroke per demand.

      Last week the practice began.  Logan and Connor are in separate time slots daily for practice, thus Connor was not too thrilled.  The practice is an hour of hard work; the boys complained how tiring it was the first couple of days; especially with Connor being more verbal, he really disliked it and he talked about even quitting the team. I had watched only 10 minutes of it here and there, and I was exhausted just watching the kids swimming back and forth.  Practices are drop-in, so we have let the boys skip a couple of them each week.  This week they seem to complain less. Logan is in the same group as Cole so they accompany each other.  Fortunately after a couple of days, Connor reconnected with his previous buddy Neil and he felt less alone now.

      With the pandemic situation easing up, it looks like the team will have a few swim meets down the road, but the boys had already made the decision that they will not be joining the meets.  I am just happy that they are doing the practice to becoming stronger swimmers.