End of the Year

In addition to all the camping and awesome places we’ve been going, we have been busy wrapping up the school year.

Oliver spent a week in Yosemite with his class. He had an absolutely amazing time and reported that he was too busy having fun to miss us!

Oliver and Sam ran in the Dipsea Race, a 7.4  mile race from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach. This was Oliver’s longest distance race so far and we are really proud of him!

And we can’t forget the last day of school, that’s a wrap on 5th grade and 2nd grade!

Looking forward to spending the summer with these guys!

Spring into Summer

Phew! Spring is always such an eventful time of year!

For the past few years we have gone to Manzanita Lake near Mt. Lassen for Memorial Day weekend and it always delivers! Beautiful views from sunrise to sunset:

Lots of adventures to be had in the snow:

By the falls:

 

And on the lake:

Summer here we come!

From Snow Caves to Sand Castles

We are in the middle of a series of seriously fun weekends!

First up was a snowshoeing trip to the Peter Grub Hut near Donner Pass. This was the first time that any of us had been snowshoing and we had a great time. We went with a big group of friends to celebrate a birthday and fun times were had by all. The boys carried thier packs the whole way and had a ton of fun digging snow caves and playing in the snow.

Next up was a trip to Stinson Beach with friends.

We were there so that Sam could run the Miwok 100K, a 100 km race in Marin County. This was the second time that Sam ran it and he did realy well!

We also celebrated this guy’s 11th birthday!

The following weekend we enjoyed watching Oliver climb at his third climbing competition. He aslo did really well!

We celebrated Mother’s Day with a yummy brunch with the grandparents and a fun hike with our junior geologists.

Phew! I didn’t even get any photos of our most recent weekend camping trip to Butano State Park!

And an 11 year old!

And what a curious and goofy eleven year old he is!

This year has been a big one for Oliver. At school, he presented a huge project on the responsibility that the government has to the economy. This presentation was the culmination of many months worth of work and we are so proud of him. He has also joined a competitive rock climbing team and has been loving the challenges that rock climbing afford him, not to mention his new love of running !

I can’t wait to see what 11 brings!

Sunny Race Day and Rainy Easter

Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day and we headed up to Mt Diablo so that Oliver and Sam could run in the Diablo Trails Challenge race. Oliver ran his third 5K, here he is before the race:

And after, he placed second in his age group:

And here is Sam finishing up his 50K, he placed 1st in his age group:

Here are the cheerleaders:

On Sunday, family came over for a rainy Easter Egg hunt and brunch.

What a full weekend of fun and Spring weather.

We have an 8 year old!

How did that happen?

And, what a funny, spirited eight year old he is!

love…love…love

Happy Valentine’s Day!

New Year’s Day Hike

Went on a quick trip to Rodeo Beach to ring in the New Year!

The boys and the dogs had a blast scampering around the bluffs above the beach. 

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

December 1st! Advent!

Today marks the first day of one of our favorite times of the year, Advent! This year we are doing pretty much what I have written about before, spending the next 24 days gearing up for Christmas, decorating, doing little projects (I may have gone overboard with the projects) and slowly emercing ourselves in the Christmas spirit.

We have done treasure hunts as part of Advent before, but this year we are taking it up a notch with QR Codes!

These were really easy to make and print out and were then hidden around the house with simple clues like look in the Legos, look in the fridge…

…look under the fern.

The boys were excited for the first day of Advent and for following the clues around the house. 

They (mainly) took turns scanning the QR codes to reveal the next clue before rushing off to find the next one.

And at the end was a Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar (what lucky kids).

Happy Advent!

Boo!

Boo!

The kids are growing up. I notice it most around holidays, not only because those are the times that I can best remember back to previous years, but also because their interest in the different holidays is changing as they get older. When the boys were younger we spent a few days every year planning out homemade costumes. We would ‘design’ the costumes, buy the supplies, and then make them. My favorite was the year they were a king and a viking  but the Nasa Scientist and Astronaut was a good year too (there was also that epic year that Henry was a front loader but that was before the blog…). But the truth is that as the boys get older they want costumes that they see their friends wearing and we also don’t seem to have as much time. So this year we bought costumes (gasp!) but I was touched that Henry still wanted to draw his costume in our Halloween book so this year I present you with…

A ninja!

And a ghost!

And this morning at school the boys drew each other’s costumes, pretty awesome!

Over the weekend we carved pumpkins with friends and this year the boys were able to do almost all the carving on their own.

Happy Halloween!