End of the School Year

On June 2, Elsa became a rising 7th grader and Liam a rising 4th grader.  It was an amazing school year that was a big step back to "normal." 

For Liam, the school year had several chances for us to get to see him in the classroom.  In the fall, this was having the Halloween Parade.

I was able to also volunteer and see his art class.

The winter meant bringing back the ice skating night.

And we even had some classroom open houses.

There was a music concert, where Liam had a 5 second solo!

And a Heritage Night and Movie Night in the new MP (multi-purpose) room. 

It was a great year and hard to say goodbye to his awesome 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Ganschow.

It was great to see how much he grew. I know he is ready for 4th grade!

For Elsa, she biked off at the start of the school year.

And then biked the whole school year until the last day!

We saw almost nothing of her school. Middle school is another world.  We did get to go to a band concert, one at the high school auditorium, and the second on the lawn of the middle school.

The full concert is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD0qRBHEUwY

We may not have seen a lot of Elsa's school, but it was a great year for her. She learned a lot and made a number of new friends. 

Now for summer!

Springtime Funtime!

Between Hawaii and Summer Vacation, we have had a number of delightful weekend events to keep everyone busy.  The first big fun after Hawaii was Easter in Millbrae. With Egg hunts and lots of relatives, it was nice to have everyone together.  The following weekend, I took Liam's boy scout troop camping!  We went to the lovely Memorial Park in San Mateo County.

The spring has also been filled with sports and art. Liam had baseball and art and Elsa had long course swim and softball.

This is King Dodo the First

Elsa did her first Long Course.

We even made it to our first Stanford baseball game, which ended with fireworks!

Mother's day arrived, and I was able to make strawberry jam with the kids.

And have lunch with my mom and sister.

Liam's boy scout fun continued with his advancement ceremony, he is now a Webalo.

Then Elsa had an school year birthday party with some friends from school.

Our big anniversary weekend adventure was going to Arne's 30th High School Reunion.

The next weekend, I went to my 26th college reunion.  It was great to catch up with old friends and roommates.

After I got back, Arne headed out to Vegas to play volleyball. While he was away we did a family hike with friends to the "Garden of Eden" in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Spring is going by quickly and we are ready for school to end and summer to start!

Kauai 2022

 

For Spring Break, we took our first family big flight in 2 years and headed out to Hawaii - Kauai.  It was great to head out to such a beautiful place, a place we last visited 9 years before.  After landing, we headed down the road to our hotel, the Grand Hyatt. 

Given that we were celebrating Arne's birthday, the hotel surprised us with our first towel swans ever!

That night, we headed into Koloa for some dinner and music at a little local outdoor Saturday night gathering and our first rainbow of the trip.

The next day we explored the hotel, and in particular the pools and the waterslide.  It was fun to just play around in the water.

That afternoon we explored and did a short hike to the Makauwahi Cave Reserve. This hike also led us to a turtle sanctuary and the lovely Mahaulepu Beach.

The next stop was the Spouting Horn Park. It was fun to watch the water gurgle and spout out of the blowholes.

On Monday, we headed out on a big adventure to Waimea Canyon and Koke'e State Park and the Pu'u O Kila Lookout.  Koke'e State Park had a great little Nature Trail and Lodge.  We were able to get snacks and feed the chickens!

We then headed to the lookout at the end to get a view from the top of the Na Pali Coast.

We then headed back to Waimea Canyon and the Canyon Trail. It was great to explore, and Elsa loved running ahead on the trail.  Unlike 9 years ago, this time we saw the Canyon from both sides!

We then headed down to Waimea for tasty treats!

On Tuesday, we headed over to Poipu Beach for some time in the water and waves.  It was nice to have a quiet local day.

For the afternoon, we rested, and Elsa found fun ways to use the green tubes, like watching videos in them outside our room.

And then that night we headed down to the beach for sunset family pictures!  

The next day was the big boat adventure to snorkel and see the Na Pali Coast from the ocean.  We had a great time snorkeling in the water and seeing lots of fish.

And seeing a lot of dolphins.

The Na Pali Coast was beautiful.

But Arne and Elsa did not enjoy the waves at all.

It was a beautiful outing.  Back at the hotel, that night was a luau, and Liam and Karna enjoyed photobombing the Aloha sign. Find them in the sign!

For our last day, Arne and Karna watched the sunrise with a beach chciken.

Then we played for the last time with the green tubes, rode a few waves by the hotel, visited a waterfall, and then headed home.

What a great adventure.