FUN! FUN! FUN!

Last week we were invited through my work to a brand new indoor water park. Kristian is standing in the wave pool. The wave pool was a lot of fun.

Why is Kristian so impressed you say?

Because he got to play on this water playground. On both sides it had two kid-sized water slides. Water came out of every nook and cranny of this thing. There were water cannons and all sorts of fun for the young and old. Looking at the top is a huge bucket that held massive amounts of water. It would slowly fill and when it was almost full you would hear a bell ringing.

The bell rings and they start to gather.

The bucket is beginning to dump.

Close-up of the bucket.

There she goes.

By now, the people below are feeling the full wrath of this puppy. Luke and I stood under it and we experienced the feeling of being pummeled by a huge wave. It was really cool! All in all, it was a fun experience. I really enjoyed the tube slide. They had inner tubes and a big 300 foot slide to go down and my head never got wet. They also a skinnier single slide that was a lot faster, but I was too chicken (maybe next time). I smell a birthday party for the whole family in a (almost) 7 year old boy's future.

Sasquatch?

Luke found a Sasquatch shaped chip during dinner tonight. I think we are on to a real winner here. Ebay here we come! Please give us your feed back. A poll if you will. Hee Hee!

Beehemoth

This is our massive sunflower. It is absolutely huge! It is already taller than Luke!


We had some cool little bees collecting pollen from the Beehemoth. The bee on top has pollen all over his legs. I thought it was really cool to watch.

Da Bumblebeez

These big guys were all over our honeysuckle bush. They were huge! And they didn't think to kindly to having their picture taken. This guy was a lot more mellow than the others. One landed on one of our sunflowers and I tried to get his picture and I apparently got a little to close and he charged the camera and then my face. It was a close call. I think I will call them beevas, you know instead of divas.


I got in real close to this guy. It was like he was in a trance or something. He seemed to not notice me. This one apparently is not a beeva.

First Day of School

Kristian rose bright and early this morning. I had barely made my pot of coffee when I heard him coming down the hall. He wanted his breakfast so he could get dressed, he did not want to be late for his first day of first grade. I asked him to pose for his very first picture of the day and he was a little resistant but allowed me a few pictures. It was only a warning of things to come.

Pictures Part I

After we had our breakfast, combed our hair, and brushed our teeth, I took Kristian outside for another photo op. This is something I have done since he started preschool. He ( as you can see by the look on his face) was not happy with his Mother. Again, he is very concerned he will be late for school.

He finally manages to pull it together and tries to give me a good picture. Looking again at his legs he is growing even more impatient.

Pictures Part II

So, I decide to try a different location and things go from bad to worse in an instant.

Now he is doing his best Lord of the Dance impersonation.

But, in the end he pulls himself back together and manages a decent picture. I think he was feeling a wee bit nervous.

Right on time

Finally, we arrive at school and all is well. He had some time to catch up with some long lost friends and he even had time to run around the playground. When the bell rang, he wasted no time in lining up. I think all the first graders were nervous because they were all soooo quiet.



I get a brief acknowledgment and he is ready to go.



Here he is in his new classroom. It is pretty exciting to be the Mom of a first grader. He was so grown up today (except for the little mini fit, but I am willing to write that one off as a case of nervousness). I am really excited to see what this year holds for our family, I know Kristian will do well in school he is such a good boy. We are very proud of him.

My Pizza Experiment

It much more economical to make your own pizza. But, in order to conserve you sacrifice time right? WRONG! I found a really easy pizza dough recipe. Total rising time 15 minutes. It really was a no-brainer.

2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. yeast
1/4 tsp. sugar
2/3 cup warm water + 2 Tbsp's

Make into a ball and turn it in a greased bowl, let rise 15 minutes in a warm place. Then you are ready to form into your pizza.



And here is the final product. It was very tasty, Luke and Kristian looooved it.

Kristian's Big Summer Finale

We took Kristian took a local water park on Sunday. One that he had been drooling over everyday when he went to school. He was so excited. The first thing we did was swim and the water was very cold. Fortunately, it was a very hot day. Kristian is such a goof, showing off those new teeth coming in.


Kristian found his swim goggles and dug out his noodle for the occasion. And Luke very bravely showed off his farmer tan. I even managed to put on my swimsuit but there are no pictures because I manned the camera (insert maniacal laughter here).

I think it's about high time I got this boy back in swim lessons. Last year, he never would have floated like this on his own.

Lunch break.

The Tube Slide

Finally, after letting our lunch settle (which lasted maybe 10 minutes) we decided it was time to do the water slides. Not knowing which slide was the fastest, Luke went down one (the slow one) and Kristian went down the other (the fast one). This was the picture that I took. It was impossible to get him coming out of the tube because he shot out like a bullet and went under. This was Kristian coming up out of the water with a look of shock on his face. Needless to say, Kristian stuck to the slow slide the rest of the day. I, on the other hand, am not as young as I used to be and those slides are not as fun as they used to be. I went down a total of 4 times. Kristian had a lot of fun and it was a perfect ending to his summer which started out a little rough. Tomorrow we begin a new chapter in our lives...................................... first grade.

Gasshuku

This was our view right before we entered Troutdale. This is the Columbia River, it was really impressive. After driving through hundreds of miles of desert, this was a welcome sight. I wish I had taken more pictures of Troutdale itself but we were driving too fast for me to get decent pictures. After a 13 hr drive we could think of nothing else but getting to our destination and out of the van.
This is Yoshida Sensei's rose garden. There were roses everywhere.
This was behind the rose garden. It was very peaceful.

I am not sure what kind of flowers these are. I just love the color.

Home Sweet Home

This was the scenery behind our tent. It was one huge rock wall. It was teeming with leaves and moss and trees. It was very cool.
Here we are in front of our tent. It rained most of the night and it misted on us during our first training session. It was almost chilly. This picture was taken after our 2nd training session. It was still pretty chilly but after lunch the sun came out and it got pretty warm. Still, not as warm as Montana. Everything was pretty damp but we got used to it. It was a pretty tough workout. It was at times for me a challenge but I survived. Luke, on the other hand did really well. I am really proud of him.
Luke is standing in front of a water fall, I think it was about 8:00 in the evening, we were running out of light and we were trying to get as many pictures as we could.
And here I am in front of some kind of weird tree. To me, it looks like a bonsai tree. Training was over, I took a very refreshing shower (when I say refreshing, I mean really stinkin cold) I have never felt so clean. If only I had thought to take a picture of our feet to give you an idea of just how dirty we were. All in all, we got an idea of where we are with our karate. Sensei Mike said that now we know we are right where we need to be and maybe a little bit further along. He said we did really well. There were lots of people and it was an eye opener to be around so many black belts.

Mr. Kristian

I don't have any new pictures that I would like to post , so I decided to look through some older ones and find one of my favorites. I decided on this one because I thought it was really cute and funny. It was taken sometime in June during his long summer illness. He was not feeling well but he still wanted to play a practical joke on his Dad. It did not turn out as well as I had hoped but Kristian sure got a good laugh. Kristian starts school very soon. He is going to be in the first grade. I am really excited. He did so well last year and I know this year will be another good year. We have not been keeping up on his measurements but I am pretty sure he grew a few inches, judging by the length of last years jeans. With Kristian being sick the first half of the summer, we really did not do anything fun as a family. So, next week when we get back from Oregon we will be taking him to a local water park he drooled over during the school year. I am sure I will have lots of fun pics to post.