Apparently this year was our 7th camping trip already!  This year Theresa suggested a new location at Sunset beach and we all looked forward to camping near a beach.  I left work a bit earlier on Friday, shopped for some food quickly and picked up the boys while Stuart loaded up the car for us.  After we all showered, we headed over to Santa Cruz.  We were the first to arrive and the Tsaos came shortly after us.  The daddies set up the tents, and I worked with the kids to start the campfire.  Afterward Robyn and I took the kids down to see the beach.  We had to walk up and down a hill, and we found this beautiful quiet beach on the other side. The boys, Brandon and Peyton played around, while we waited for the sun to set.  Then we took the trek back up the hill to return to our site; by then Theresa and Martin had arrived.  We made a nice dinner with short ribs, grilled cheese and grilled vegetables.  After dinner, Robyn and I took the kids to check out the ranger’s presentation at the amphitheater.  The young ranger was entertaining; he played some games by asking the audience questions and next told us lots about jellyfish.  At the end, he also let the audience toast marshmallow for S’more; Logan and Connor could not handle the heat from the big campfire, so they just enjoyed non-toasted marshmallow.  When we returned back to our site, we heard that Stuart, Dave, Theresa and Martin were enjoying some beer tasting, and some of them were a bit tipsy too.  Later all of us engaged in a tournament with the washer tossing game; the adults and kids all put on our best game and tried to win.  We were playing in the dark with flashlights until Stuart realized that we had way passed the quiet time of 10pm. So we had to finish our fun game the next morning.  We got the kids ready for bed; by then it was already past 11pm. The adults stayed out to talk at the campfire and finally turned in after midnight.

   We had a good night sleep and were ready for the second day.  After breakfast, we said goodbye to Dave and Brandon, the rest of us returned to our tournament.  Peyton won the first tournament.  We all wanted to battle again, and Theresa took the crown for the 2nd tournament.  We then moved on to a bocce ball tournament; it came down to Logan and I battling for the title, and I managed to earn it.  Afterward, the kids and I took another trip to the beach with Theresa, Martin and Stuart this time.  Stuart had brought our metal detector for this trip.  The kids and Stuart were successful finding a few coins at our campsite, but we were not able to find anything at the beach. 

     Later the Kaos and Kathy’s family arrived, so then there were more kids playing at campsite.  They played hide and seek with the Walkies Talkies.  Having Ian playing with the younger kids, the adults could totally relax.  After lunch, we made a final hike to the beach so the kids could go play with water.  All the kids were busy digging sands and running to and from water for a long time; it gave us more time to chat while watching them.  When it was finally time to clean up to head back, Ian was so patient waiting for our boys.  He actually helped clean the sand off Connor’s feet, and accompanied Logan and Connor during the walk.  Back at the campsite, the kids changed and returned playing with each other until dinner.  For the evening, we enjoyed chicken skewers, steak and all kinds of vegetables.  Last but not least, we made S’more to have for dessert.  Later we took out glowsticks and the shooting toys for the kids to play.  When it was dark, Logan wanted to go check out the ranger’s talk at 8:30pm, so we gathered the kids to go together.  Unfortunately the ranger was a “no show”, so our group of kids went up on stage and messed around for a bit before we took the short hike back.  We all gathered at our campfire for a bit longer, but everyone seemed tired.  It must have been that we did a lot the night before and with this full day, we all were ready to turn in by quiet time at 10pm.  This was definitely one of the earliest for the group.

   We had another good long night sleep; we were one of the latest to wake up.  We took our time in the morning to eat breakfast and to tear down our tent.  I also drew up the bracket and let the kids play a final tournament of bocce balls.  After the final round with Kira, Connor earned the crown and they shook hands for a good game.  Chris, Theresa and I also did a final cheer with wine before we headed out right before the check out time at 12pm.  Everyone was able to make camping this year and we had an awesome campsite, thus it was a fantastic camping trip.

    Julie and Theresa planned the annual picnic with our friends / coworkers from Santa Clara, and it was on Saturday two weeks ago.  This year the group got bigger; it was nice for me to catch up with everyone, and to see a few of them who I had not seen for months or years.  Everyone brought some food to share, and so we had a large feast there too.  The kids played at the playground and also with different sport games other brought.  Later while I was holding an 8 year old baby Paxton, Connor got interested in him and wanted to hold him too.  Connor enjoyed playing with the baby for awhile.  This was a nice gathering with my old friends.

   The boys returned to school on 8/15/18.  Logan was very happy that he is in the same class with his buddy Maxim.  Apparently the kids were given a chance last year to request to have one friend in their 5th class, and both Logan and Maxim got their wish.  Connor was hoping to have Dylan and Jacob in his class, and he got one out of two, Jacob.  Both Logan and Connor complained that their new teachers are too strict, but we are happy with strict teachers.  Just like that, the year had started and we are back on routine.  Logan is our punctual boy; every morning, he is the one keeping all of us on time for work and for school.

   I took the boys for their checkup on Monday after we returned from Seattle.  Everything checked out ok for both of them except the doctor thought one of Connor’s eyes quivered a bit while following her finger movement, so suggested an eye appointment for follow up.  Logan’s stat showed that he continues to grow slim and tall, and doc suggested bigger portion of healthy food.  Connor also thins out a bit and BMI levels down a bit.  The doc did suggest him to avoid too much sweets.

Connor’s Stat:

Weight 28.9 kg ﴾63 lb 11.4 oz﴿

Height 135.8 cm ﴾4′ 5.47"﴿

Body Mass Index 15.67 08/13/2018 2:08 PM PDT

Logan’s Stat:

Weight 32.5 kg ﴾71 lb 10.4 oz﴿

Height 149.9 cm ﴾4′ 11"﴿

Body Mass Index 14.47

  The next day I also took Logan to see his eye doctor at Santa Clara for an eye exam.  Logan had recently mentioned not able to see as well, so I had made this appointment slightly early than his usual 6 months follow up.  Fortunately the exam did not suggest a worsening prescription.  While we were there, I asked the doc to take a look at Connor’s eyes.  She did a quick check and felt that there were no issue with his eyes.  It was great to save us from an unnecessary visit.

    Alaska was beautiful and we were lucky to have mild weather too.  Our first stop was Ketchikan.  We had an excursion for a Lumberjack show and a tour to the Totem park.  The show was quite interesting seeing their skills and the casts made it funny too.  All the audience enjoyed it very much and the boys bought souvenir stuffed animals at the gift shop.  “Whalie” and “LB” (for little bear) became their buddies the rest of the trip.  The young driver/tour guide taking us to the Totem Bight State Park loved to talk; he kept telling stories all the way driving and walking around the park.  The park actually did not have as many totem poles as I imagined, so it was not as fascinating, but seeing how much the tour guide enjoying himself talking was somewhat entertaining.  Overall we liked this excursion.

    Next stop was Juneau.  It was a misty day and it gave the town an even prettier look.  We did not sign up for anything, and we just took the short shuttle ride from the pier to see the town.  The town had many little shops; we had fun browsing around.  The ship port time at Juneau was short, so we did not stay out there too long.

   On schedule next was cruising to see the glacier.  Many people were prepared and lined up along the fence on the upper deck for viewing.  We walked around the deck and looked around the beautiful scenery, but we had not arrived at the glacier yet.  We finally decided to go watch it from our room while we could rest.  By then we were within the Inside Passage; the wilderness of Alaska and the stillness of the water were amazing and so peaceful.  We started to see floating ice on the water, and we still did not know what to expect.  Finally at the end of the passage, we saw the huge glacier right before our eyes.  It was fascinating.  The cool thing was the ship made a slow 360 turn, thus everyone on the ship could slowly enjoy the view of this incredible nature.  Again, it was wonderful having the balcony to sit and watch, and other time we laid on the bed while keeping an eye out there.

   The next day we stopped at Skagway.  We had signed up for a train ride, and the train stop was just a walk down the pier.  The train was lovely, and the ride throughout the mountains was breathtaking.  Logan took a nap leaning on Stuart, so Connor and I kept going outside our train car for lookout.  It was a bit raining and cold, but the mist made the mountains more gorgeous.  Logan later woke up and he joined us out there too.  We were happy to have signed up for this excursion at last minute and saw these beautiful mountains.  The boys both got a cap as a souvenir to remember this train ride.

   Our last stop was Victoria; the port time was from 4pm to 10pm on the last cruise day.  Since Stuart and I had been to Victoria before, we just decided to stay on the ship to enjoy last evening instead.

    When our cruise vacation ended and we disembarked back at Seattle, we were a bit sad to be parted from the ship and felt tired.  But we had planned to spend one night at Seattle, so instead of going to the airport like many people, we took a ride and checked into our hotel.  Our first stop was the Space Needle; we lined up to go to the top.  We had a beautiful weather that day, and the view was amazing.  The boys also enjoyed the revolving deck as well.  Next we took the advice from our Lyft driver and checked out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center.  It was actually quite interesting and the boys enjoyed many of the hands on exhibits. We also found a really cool park nearby, and the boys had a lot of fun playing there.  In the afternoon after our rest, we took a  longer walk over to the Pike Market.  The boys did not seem to be too interested at any of the booths in the market until we found an old book store where they bought some comics.  They were more into looking for ice cream instead.  I did not even get to have them wait around to see the fish being thrown at the fish market.  While we were sitting at the pier eating ice cream, we saw the Bliss taking off from the port and I was really sad seeing it go without us.  After a day of walking, we were tired; we had an early dinner and back to the hotel to rest for the night.

    Since our flight on Sunday was not until late, we decided to go check out the Pacific Science Center.  The center was old, but there were many interesting and cool exhibits.  The boys enjoyed trying everything had a good time.  After going through 3-4 buildings inside, we were tired and ready to head home.  The boys wanted a final run around that cool park before we got our luggage and headed to the airport.  This wrapped up our memorable big vacation of the year. 

    We had a great week on our cruise to the Alaska.  Let’s talk about our Norwegian Bliss first.  We loved our stateroom; even though the room was small, but it was efficient.  The best part was having the balcony; with the door opened and having a breeze to the room made a huge difference.  The scenery in Alaska was breathtaking, and it was awesome to sit out on the balcony or looking out while we laid on bed.  We took breaks in the room sometimes; the boys enjoyed playing on their tablets while Stuart and I took naps.  Even though we slept in quite late some mornings, taking nap in the afternoon was still needed and quite enjoyable.  The one very sad thing was that Logan got seasick on day 2.  He was well on Day 1 even after the cruise had taken off, so I made a mistake in letting my guard down.  With just the wristbands on, Logan became sick the next morning while looking for a table with his breakfast plate.  Once we found the table, he told Stuart and he was out of commission the entire morning and part of the afternoon.  We tried different medicines and ended up giving him one of the patches my doctor gave me.  Stuart spent time with him in our room and Logan was able to fall asleep finally with the nice breeze.  He was very uncomfortable before that and it was very sad to watch him.  Finally the patch kicked in and before dinner time, he revived and was his happy self the rest of the trip.  He loved his “bandage’ as he called it.  

     We really liked the “free-style” dining on the ship; we could go eat in different restaurants whenever we wanted.  Our first lunch after boarding the ship was having a beer and a burger at a bar restaurant which was a great start.  The boys’ favorite was the Garden Cafe for buffet; they enjoyed picking out their favorites on their own, and they surely were creatures of habits, eating similar things for the different meals.  The staff lady who sprayed our hands with sanitizer when we entered the cafe saying “Washy Washy Happy Happy” had become the talk of the ship.  We also had some other nice meals at the complimentary restaurants.  Stuart and I also had the specialty dining package, so we had chosen BBQ, steakhouse and teppanyaki for 3 of our nights.  We also enjoyed our free beverages.  Stuart had found one of the bars as his favorite as it had a tap beer that he really liked; some evenings we would just walk by there so he could get a drink.  I also enjoyed having wine with dinners and cocktails at other occasions. 

     The boys’ favorite spot was definitely the arcade, but we could only allow them to go periodically before our room charge added up too fast.  Logan liked the pirate shooting game the most while Connor loved the Deal and No Deal game.  Speaking of this game, we also enjoyed watching all the live shows held by the cruise directors; we tried to make to most of the game shows at the Atrium based on the schedule.  Logan would quickly sneak up to a gap between some front row seats and sat down on the ground to watch, and Connor would follow him.  The Deal and No Deal show was definitely our favorite to watch which happened a few times, and we played along on one of them.  We also tried Bingo one day as well.  The Splash Academy (kid club) was not as much of a hit for the boys and their only preferred time there was the “free play” time.  The boys ended up spending just a little bit each day there while Stuart and I would go off for a drink or played a little slot machine.  We all went to watch a musical Havana together one night; the boys enjoyed it.  With the other musical, Jersey Boys, due to the language issue, we decided to leave the boys in the room while we watched on our own.  They were more than happy to play with game until we came back.  There were also some singing performance throughout the ships or lounges that we spent some time hanging out as well. 

     One of the days was quite warm, and the boys could spend a little time playing at the water area shooting water. They did not care to try the water slide.  They did jump into the pool just to get in to the front row in the water to watch the “Mr. Sexy Leg” contest at poolside.  We also played miniature golf and ping pong a couple of times on some days.  The two selling points for this cruise ship were the GoKart and lasertag.  Logan was looking forward to playing laser tag as soon as we got onto the ship, and Connor also wanted to try it for the first time, but we found out on the first day that it was mostly reserved, and we were able to book only to Day7 in the evening.  This turned out to be a disappointment as we reported to the upper deck on Day7, we were informed that the guns were broken and it had to be cancelled.  The boys and of course me too were quite disappointed.  We did play the GoKart.  The boys would not dare to drive the single kart, so we booked the double karts.  Logan contemplated to drive and finally decide to while I would be his passenger, but we were told that the wheel was hard to turn, Logan asked to switch spots.  I however turned out to be the slowest GoKart driver ever, but Logan was fine with that.  Stuart and Connor enjoyed it, but we were only able to drive a few laps. Glad that at least we gave this a try.

   The ports at Alaska were also our highlights of the trip, and more on those later.  Here are the photos of our entire trip.