New glasses!

Eliana has been asking for new glasses because she was claiming that she couldn't see things far away very clearly anymore.  Unfortunately, she has apparently inherited Elvin's bad vision genes.  

Xiao Yu has some issues with one of his eyes and the eye doctor recommended having him try out glasses again, to see if that would help things.

So thanks to Costco, they both got new glasses!  

Backpacking with Gabe

This past summer, in August, Gabe wanted to go backpacking just with Daddy.  He had been backpacking before, but before it had been with the girls and other friends.

So we decided to head out to Mount Hood, which is a short 1.5 hours away.  Here we are at the trailhead loading up.

The kids really enjoy geocaching, which is a hobby where people hide boxes or tupperware full of little trinkets, and then through an app, you try to find them using clues and GPS.  Gabe enjoyed doing this and searching for geocaches hidden along the trail.  Here he is using the app on Elvin's phone.

After not being able to find a couple, we finally found one.  Gabe signed his name on the slip of paper in there and took a trinket.  We brought little erasers and left an eraser in there to replace the trinket we took. This geocache was quite small.

We found other caches along the way.

After a couple miles hike, we finally made it to camp.  After setting up our tent and eating a snack, we set out to explore some more.

Gabe is subconsciously attracted to water and found this log along the shore to sit on.

He ended up spending a lot of time making mud pies.  It was nice that the place was not too crowded, perhaps because of the cooler weather.

There was a rope swing attached to a super tall tree.  Gabe enjoyed swinging out and back in, lots and lots of times.

We even went back the next day for him to swing some more.

For dinner, we had mashed potatoes and sausage.  Yum.  Unfortunately, there was a burn ban so no campfire!

Gabe, being part monkey, can't help himself and climbs everything around him.

We hiked one mile up to the next lake and stopped to throw rocks.

There was a cache on the way up.  It was hidden beneath these boulders.

We found more caches up at the second lake.

We made it back to camp and played games and cards really late into the night.

The next morning, we woke up way after the sun came up.  But it was a little chilly.

For breakfast, it was Cup-O-Noodles!

We made our way back down the trail.  Gabe said coming down seemed a lot faster than hiking up.

And as per tradition whenever we visit Mount Hood, we stopped at the Dairy Queen in a small town called Rhododendron for a yummy basket of chicken strips for an early dinner!

Happy Birthday Karina!

Back in August, Karina turned 10 years old!  We were doing a mini-family reunion in the Olympic National Park at the time, so we briefly celebrated with cupcakes and candles.

We sang happy birthday while she was accompanied by cousins from Seattle and Colorado.

She couldn't quite get all the candles out so Uncle Charles helped out.  He shares a birthday with Karina!

Later on, back at home, she got to open her presents.

Gabe decided to be silly with the wrapping paper.

She got a red envelope from Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai.

Eliana was generous with her money and got Karina a little colorful bag, and inside was some make up!  

She also got a necklace with a K on it.  

She also got a new Bible that she could color in side.  She picked it out...

And she also got an embroidery set.

Here she is with all her loot!  There was no party this year, but she all in all she seemed content, especially  because we gave her an extra $50 in compensation for having no party.  Happy Birthday Karina!

Coop project

Karina, out of all of our kids, is the most conscious about saving her money.  And she has been consistently asking us for a way to earn money.  While her older sister in the past has been able to earn money babysitting, Karina has been too young to do that.

So Karina and Elvin came up with the idea of building a chicken coop, and since lots of people have gotten into keeping chickens, trying to sell it on Craiglist and see if they could turn up a profit.

So after researching online for a plan, they set out building!

Karina helped with painting on the wood sealer.

The frame came together fairly quickly.

She helped measure and mark the wood.

There was lots of wood to paint with sealer.  Gabe helped a little as well.

She also helped to drill holes...

And screw pieces on.

Elvin and Karina worked many weeks on this project.

It took a while but it finally started to come together.

And here she is putting some final touches.

And here it is in all its glory!  It has doors on both ends.  Also the sides come off so you can clean the top part which is the coop portion.  And then there is a ramp that lets the chickens go down to the ground, so they can peck around.

After listing the coop online, it took a couple of weeks until we found an interested buyer.  We were able to sell it for a profit, of which Karina kept 50% and Daddy kept the rest.  She was pretty happy!!!

Family Photo Shoot

It has been a couple of years since we have done family photos and since we don't have anything else of do because of COVID, we decided to do another round of family pictures.

So we met up with the photographer at a local park.  As usual, Gabe kept being a goofball, which was really annoying since we didn't want all the photos ruined with his weird faces.

We took pictures of just the girls to let Gabe get the wiggles out of his system.

Here are a couple of the pictures.  Eliana has grown a lot this past year and is catching up to mommy! 

We were able to get a good one with the boys.

Here's one with the family, but Gabe acting a little goofy.

We walked down to another part of the park that had a river, which the boys really enjoyed playing in.

And we got what we were looking for....a nice picture with everyone looking at the camera!