Bicycle Ride!

Elvin tries to organize one-on-one time with the different kids and on a certain (very hot) weekend in July, it was Karina's turn.  Elvin had considered taking Karina on another backpacking trip.  But after talking to her about it, it came to light that she really does NOT enjoy hiking.

On the other hand, riding her bike was very fun and so that was that!

They went off to an area on the west side of town, where there is a 6 mile biking trail.

It was forecasted to be over 100 degrees that day, so they went earlier in the morning to try to beat the heat.

The scenery was pretty.

And they made good time and got to the end of the trail in no time!  The destination was Vancouver Lake.

A regional rowing and crew championship was taking place at that time, and so they got to watch boats get launched from shore.

 

Karina got to drink what might be her favorite drink in the world--Coca Cola.

It was getting really hot, and so after lunch, they stopped to get a lemonade slushy.

The event organizers had set up a misting station for all the athletes.  Karina stopped to take advantage of it and cool down as well.

And then it was time to head back!  It was much cooler when riding because of the breeze.  The breeze also made her dress blow up like a ballon!

And we made it back to the car!  Here is Karina also showing off the box of Shopkins band-aids that she got.

Monopoly!

The kids saw the Monopoly box and so wanted to play it.  We have never played it before with the kids and they had to learn all about paying rent, buying houses, and passing "Go".

After about an hour, they were still having lots of fun.  They had to pause the game for the night, to re-start the next morning.  At that moment, Karina was probably in the lead with six houses on her properties.  Gabe has three houses sprinkled amongst his red and yellow properties.  Eliana owns Boardwalk and Park Place, with a house on each (but we all know that people rarely land there!)

Camping Trip!

In June, we went camping with several other families from church.  It's always a gamble going camping in June in the Pacific Northwest.  Last year when we went camping, it rained really hard during our trip.  This year, however, the weather forecast was perfect!

Time to load up!

Yes, we take two cars when we go camping.  This is partly because the kids like to ride their bikes while camping and really the only way to take 5 bicycles is with two cars.  (Emily doesn't take hers.)  Plus we bring plenty of firewood, and other things.

And we're off...here is the scene in the van.

And here is the scene in the Accord.  Burgerville supplied dinner.

This campsite was east of us, at a place called Beaver Campground.

When we got there, it was time to set up camp.  It's not easy to find a spot for our tent, given that it is ginormous.

And then it was also time to switch out one of the tires of the van.  What turned out to be a 6-inch wooden shard/spike punctured the tire and produced a slow leak.  Xiao Yu "helped" out.

And here he is standing proudly by his handy work.

We went off to play frisbee.

And after doing that, went bike riding just because.

We really liked this campsite because it was not very crowded and also very "foresty".  Some campsites we have stayed at is just an area with packed dirt and a couple of trees.

In this campground, you do feel like you are nestled in the trees.

At night, the roasting sticks came out for the marshmallows.

The next day, Xiao Yu woke up the earliest at around 6am.  This is because sunrise is so early.

In order to keep him from making noise that would wake up everyone else in the area, Elvin went out for a walk with him.

We found a trail that led to a river.

And Elvin and Xiao Yu walked up and down the river to scope out possible fishing spots.

Back at camp, the others were one by one waking up.

Here is Karina riding her bike in her pjs.

We all went out to do a mini-hike to a waterfall.  It was very picturesque.

Hiking down to the water, you can see more pretty scenery.

The girls enjoyed hiking on the slope, pretending to climb a mountain.

Later, we went down to the river to try our luck fishing.

There seemed to be no fish in there that were biting.  Some of the kids lost interest...Gabe found a little creek and started constructing a dam.

Lunch was very exciting....we roasted our hot dogs over the fire.

Gabe fell off his bike and scraped his forehead!  On goes a band-aid.

Eventually he recovered enough to roast a marshmallow.

The kids had fun exploring.  Xiao Yu found a little green caterpillar.  

The kids wanted to stay up late...to sit at the campfire with the adults.

But some of them had a hard time staying awake...

The next morning...guess who woke up early again?

After breakfast, it was time to head home.  But before that, we got all the kids together for a group picture.  Amazingly enough, almost all of them were very cooperative.  Gabe was the only one out of the whole group that wouldn't do what he was being told.  So Elvin grabbed him, held him in place amongst the kids, and then ducked down behind Gabe.  (You can see Elvin's hands holding Gabe...)

And here is a silly picture!

Dance Show!

For the past nine months or so, Eliana and Karina have been taking dance lessons.  At the end of the year, they have a performance along with all the other classes in this dance studio.  

This year, the theme of the performance was Beauty and the Beast and the girls got to dance in the first act of the show, when the enchantress got the red rose which would eventually envelop the beast in it's magical spell.

On the day of, it was time to do all the hair and make-up, so Karina got a lot of gel in her hair, to get her bangs slicked back.

Eliana got hairspray in hers, which made her hair really hard and stiff.

Here they are in full make-up and costume.

With a nice ballerina pose.

And so we went to the auditorium at Camas High School to watch.  

Here are the girls' names in the program.

And we found seats while the girls were back stage.

And here is their performance!

Congratulations and good job girls!

Visit to the dentist...

The kids recently went to the dentist to have their annual check-up.

This inspired them to set up a dental chair of their own in our living room.  The dentist was Dr. Eliana and Karina was her first patient.  Say 'aaaaahhhh', Karina!

After an exam and a cursory brushing of teeth, she was declared to have very healthy teeth!

Gabriel, by the way, was told by the (real) dentist that he had cavities which needed a filling.  Last week, Gabe went in, got some novocaine, drilling done, and a filling.  He came back with a numb cheek and when asked how it went, he said, "Fine."  This confirms to us that our pediatric dentist does a great job with kids if a filling went fine in Gabe's eyes.