Grandpa and Nana's House

We went to Grandpa and Nana's for a night to give Jeremy some more time to write. It was a fun quick trip and Jenny, E and A joined us. Jen and Diane went off to see Lady Gaga while Grandpa and I held down the fort with the little ones. I didn't get many pics of our adventuring (a little golf, playground, scooter riding time) but I got a pic of a pile up on Grandpa. Then Kate felt left out because there was just not room on Grandpa's lap so she had her own pic and I ruined it by getting it totally blurry.

Fun Run

Some of you observant folks may have noticed that Jeremy has been absent from a bunch of the pics of things we were doing on weekends. Well, he had his second to last school paper due (before comps and dissertation) Aug 8 so he has been working like crazy, thus we have been working like crazy to find ways to get out of the house to let him work.  When driving by my mom's one day I saw a sign for a fun run earning money for cancer research, I figured why not. So we joined in. They had a nice 2 mile course and the kids did great. Jaydon walked/jogged the whole way. Lucy walked and scootered the whole way and Kate rode her bike about half way and rode in the chariot the other half. We had a good time and helped raise money for a good cause.

 

Kyleann's wedding

 We went to a former co-workers wedding and had a lovely time (minus all the work that Jeremy had to do while there). My phone was not great and so neither are these photos. This is my good friend Liz and me. The bottom pic we didn't realize Jeremy was just clicking away. Also I think J has a couple shots of us actually on his phone. I will try getting those on here too.

Good-bye to Sota

The program Sota was doing his exchange through puts on a fun Syonara party for all the host families the last night. We ate some fun potluck food and enjoyed watching different people do performances.  I should have brought the violin to the party so Sota could perform but I think he was happy to watch.

The kids enjoyed watching

Getting their certificates of completion

The whole group of boys

Sota with our kiddos.

This video shows a snippet of one of the performances. The student in the middle was Kuni and we carpooled with him most every day.

It was definitely hard to say good-bye to Sota when he had to leave. We really enjoyed having him and hope to maybe see him again sometime!

Aquafest

Lucy's gymnastics had a little booth and show at the Aquafest event and so we went to check it out. The kids had a great time doing lots of little activities. Sota enjoyed seeing what a street festival was like in our area.

fishing for prizes

getting ready to perform

Eating some self decorated cupcakes

a bouncy house

We went on the spinning dinosaur ride (man remind me never to do the teacups again).

Then we did the ferris wheel with a terrific view of the lake.

Sota visits from Japan

We were really lucky to be able to host Sota from Japan for 2 weeks. He was so much fun to have around. During the week days he would attend school at a nearby location and then evenings and weekends he spent with us.  The kids loved playing with him and were super sad to see him go.

Sota brought origami paper with him and he made fun things for us (the kids also made stuff (like the snowflakes)

He brought most of this with him from Japan and made us a wonderful sushi dinner one night. We loved it (well the girls weren't so sure but the rest of us ate it all up!)

Jeremy and Sota went down to visit the museum of flight. They had a great time and I think Sota really enjoyed his trip.

They did the simulator thing (that even allows them to go fully upside down)  Jeremy was the pilot and Sota was the gunner, I think they brought down like 11 enemy planes.  Quite impressive.

Sota is a great violinist. We were lucky to have my great-grandpa's violin during the weeks he visited so he could play for us.

Street Scramble

We had a fun time as a big family doing the Everett Street Scramble. If you have never done a street scramble I recommend it. It is like a giant scavenger hunt around a city.

One of the tasks was to climb this wall to figure out what the word was. Jaydon did a great job getting himself up high enough to read the word.

We are hosting an exchange student from Japan. Sota joined in with us and I think had a good time.

The whole gang