We wanted the boys to go see the grandparents during the break; after some contemplation, it was decided to have Stuart taking the boys down while I stayed home with Buddy.  It turned out to be a successful and nice trip to SoCal.  The drive was great, and they spent some good time with the grandparents.  Connor did an awesome job playing chess with Grandpa and Stuart.  Logan played Connect 4 with Grandma.  They went to the beach one day; with the good weather, the boys had fun there.  Logan told me that they dug a very big and deep hole.  With Stuart and Grandma sending me photos periodically on those days, I was able see them often and not to miss them too much.

   While the family was gone, I took longer walks with Buddy, went shopping and worked part of the weekdays.  On Sunday, I also arranged to have lunch with Karen; it was great to finally catching up with her.  In the evening I went out to Benihana with the girls to celebrate Robyn’s and Julie’s birthdays.  With the table set up, I was able to only talk among my side of the table, but nonetheless it was a good evening seeing everyone and a wonderful meal.  On these few days, Buddy listened quite well to me and enjoyed the longer walks we took.  Once he even looked tired and sat on the lawn at our neighbor’s, I had to ask him to get back up to finish our walk.  Buddy is usually quiet; once he barked overnight and woke me up; it turned out that I accidentally left the light on in the family room.  After I went downstairs to turn it off, he stayed silent the rest of the night. 

     On Tuesday, I rushed home from work to welcome the family home.  Both Buddy and I were thrilled to see Stuart and the boys when they arrived; we all hugged each other for a long time.

    Logan has a couple of practices each week and a weekly meet with other schools.  The meet is being held at Montgomery Hill Park where it is very hilly.  The event is organized by Group A and B boys and girls, and the Open.  The first meet happened while I was out of town.  According to Logan, he got the #52nd place in the Open and it was a very tough course; when he finished, he was very tired and his tummy ached.  Stuart showed me some pictures and I found some later on the website; and I could see how hilly the hills were and Stuart told me most kids had to walk up the steepest hill.  For this first meet, Dora, Robb and I were all excited for Logan; we were waiting for update while I was with them.

    With the 2nd meet, I was happy that I could be there to pick Logan up.  I was slowed down by trying to pay the parking fee for my car, but I managed to find Logan just before he finished and I was thrilled to be able to cheer for him.  Being there, I could really see how crazy the hills were.  When Logan came to me after checking out, he was sweaty and red, but he said he felt much better compared to the first meet.  Initially Logan seemed a bit disappointed with his placement of #46 as he thought he was in the 40s last time, but I reminded him what he told me, Logan was quite happy.  We waited for Maxim to finish and Logan quickly walked over to him to give him a Gatorade which i thought was very nice.  Now we will see how Logan will do with the last 2 meets later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FxvUCh5WnY

    I left to go to Denver on Tuesday and arrived early afternoon.  It was great that I had decided to go a day early so I could spend some times with Dora and seeing their new home and Abby again.  I could also catch up with her old friend Bridget who also came to town for the wedding, and enjoyed a nice homemade dinner with some of their other friends as well.  The next morning after Robb went to work for 1/2 day, and after Dora and Bridget took off earlier to Steamboat Springs, I hung out at their home until time to pick up Mom and Yvonne from the airport.  Then we met up with Gloria and Chuck for lunch, and we caravanned up to Steamboat Springs together.  It was cloudy, drizzling and cold when we arrived, but the place was beautiful.  We checked into our 2-bedroom hotel.  After some rest, we found an Vietnamese restaurant and all of us enjoyed a soupy dinner on this rainy night.  It was great that we chose to stay in a 2-bedroom together as we could play some card games before the night ended each night.

   On their wedding day 9/12/19, the sky was cleared and it was beautiful outside.  Gloria and Chuck went on an early walk while Yvonne and I took a shorter walk just around our hotel.  We had a good breakfast in our suite and then drove to the wedding site.  The weather had cooperated and the ground had tried up; thus Dora and Robb were relieved to learn that they could continue their original plan to have the outdoor wedding.  This area with the lake and a huge barn was beautiful and serene, and the cabin we could use to get ready was adorable.  Dora arrived with her hair and make up done, and she looked amazing.  All her girlfriends arrived shortly as well and all gathered with us in the cabin.  Dora got dressed and everyone was then ready for this important moment.  We all got seated for this short and sweet wedding.  When Dora’s friend played the wedding song, I was touched and was very happy for Dora and for that very moment.  Dora and Robb’s friend Eric officiated this important event for them, and it went smoothly as planned.  We now have Mr. and Mrs Sandle. 

      After taking pictures with the bride and groom, Julia and I stayed behind while others left the wedding site.  We waited around and watched the couple having their photos taken by the photographer.  When everything completed, Dora drove me back to the hotel in her wedding dress .  I made it in time to have lunch with others in our hotel room.  After a break and a nap, 3 of us with Bridget went for a short hike locally to check out a waterfall.  It was exciting to see the pretty scenery without needing to hike a long way.  After some pictures, we had to quickly get home and get ready again for dinner.  Dora and Robb chose a nice restaurant to have a wonderful dinner with all the guests.  Everyone enjoyed this nice evening.  Robb and Dora also came back with us to the hotel to give tea to mom which made her very happy.  Gloria and Chuck had also done that before the dinner, thus now everything is official and all of us are married!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv8iQ4nhNtI

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipP3fOzC01PW4v7WrX3f6XOrb1rjbq3PcKXEuKAxqErAjPQ8fDCCLxsUaarXeDF58w?key=NXlwbkpOUVdTSHltcmhoNlFFZWZYY21ZdHR2MzVn

   The next morning we had breakfast and checked out to leave this beautiful city to head back to Denver.  Bridget left with us, and we all took a break at an outlet mall half way through the drive.  We finally stopped for lunch and said goodbye to Gloria and Chuck.  The remaining of us, Yvonne, Mom, Bridget and I had our flights all planned quite close to each other in the afternoon, and we flew home to our respective homes safely.  I am very happy with how everything went during this whole trip and it was great seeing everyone.  Congratulation to Dora and Robb again as well!

      Our neighbors gave us tickets to this place almost a year ago and we finally had a chance to take a trip there on the Sunday before we left to Denver.  The weather was nice that walking in through the Golden Gate Park was perfect.  The museum was large and there were a lot of things to look at.  We watched a solar system film which was interesting.  We liked the jungle exhibit and the aquarium.  We were tired by the time we walked back to the car to drive home.  This was a nice place and totally worth a day trip up to the city.  The boys were also very happy with the souvenirs they bought themselves.

   The boys were approved for testing on Tue to advance to Purple 1.  The Tuesday class is quite large; the testing was done as a group as usual, thus it was not that easy to watch the boys closely.  Their junior level curriculum is more challenging now and requires quite a bit of memorization.  Both boys did well.  The instructors pointed out that both of them have good techniques, good kicks, and they both could benefit from working on improving their speed.  Now they are Purple 1 belt, no longer the lowest level at their junior classes, so they would have to work harder to keep up with the levels.

     Connor’s Back to School night was on Tuesday which coincided with the belt testing for the boys.  I chose to watch the boys, so Stuart went to the class to listen to Connor’s new teacher.  She seemed nice according to Stuart, and he brought home some paperwork from the teacher.  I have signed up to help out at the art lessons this year, so I will have other opportunities to meet the teacher then.  Stuart also learned that Connor will have several field trips this year; it will be a fun great year for Connor.

    On Wednesday, it was Logan’s school night.  Since Logan now has 6 classes, we had all those classes to attend.  The boys stayed at home while Stuart and I went to school to learn about Logan’s curriculum this year.  It was a tight schedule; we had 5 minutes to go between classes just like Logan does on a daily basis, and we had only 9 minutes with each teacher.  Our schedule was PE, Math, Music (part of the exploratory wheel), science, social studies and language arts.  It was incredible and a bit daunting hearing what Logan would learn and do this year.  All the teachers seemed nice.  We also got a glimpse of Logan’s first poem posted on the board at the last class.