Children's Run, Homework, and Summer!

Last Friday we made the rest of our trip back home to Boise from Yakima. We stopped at every rest stop and arrived home around 4:30pm. Before coming home we stopped to pick up Nico's race packet from Papa (Capitol Classic Children's Run), who picked it up for us on Thursday. Thanks Pa!

Friday after arriving home, Allicia offered us all food out back on the porch. She had family coming into town that night and had made a big pot of sloppy joes.

Final count on the license plate game:

• Nico: 19
• Guy: 10
• Joanna: 9

We have 13 states unaccounted for, license plates that we didn't see on our trip.

Saturday was the Capitol Classic Children's Run. While we were on our trip, all of us caught colds. Nico caught his early on and it wasn't too bad. Guy and I caught ours later, but it didn't really hit us both until we arrived home. Saturday was the worst day for us, but we powered through the Children's Run in the morning. We dropped Nico off around 9AM at the train depot just like usual.

We drove downtown to find a parking spot and then waited for the race that started at 10AM. Nico's time was 13:29, he beat last year's time by more than a minute!

Check out this great shot from one of the race photographers

All the kiddos got free TCBY yogurt, so we stood in line for that, then we headed back home. I got into bed and didn't move for the rest of the day with a fever and body aches. Guy was a little better off, but still wasn't feeling too hot. I think him and Nico played 6 games of Pokemon that day! We had no energy to make pizza that night so we delayed it until Sunday.

Sunday Guy chose The Emperor's New Groove to watch while we ate pizza. Great movie!

Nico had been asking me for a long time to do "homeschooling" where I give him work to do during the day like he's at school. So I told him Monday we were going to start the homeschooling and he was so excited he could barely contain himself. He kept begging me to let him start working on his homework Sunday night.

Monday was back to work for Guy and back to normal life! We both were functioning pretty well by then.

There's a variety of things I had planned for homeschool. He rocked it the first day and stayed super excited. By Wednesday he was done with it and told me he wanted "to have fun this summer". Ha!  Sounds good to me, so we've stopped most of it. I told him there were a few things we were going to continue doing every day (things we were already doing every day even while he was in school) like him reading out loud to me. Regarding the workbook: I told him he could just pull that out whenever he wanted to. He's already pulled it out to work on stuff. He LIKES doing the work, but he likes to have freedom to choose whether to do it or not.

Tuesday we took Evelyn with us to the library for Pokemon Club, they both had a good time. I sit right outside the room in the kids area and do work. It works out really well. They both checked out a book (they each chose a graphic novel), and then we headed home.

Tuesday night was the first Cub Scout meeting this summer. They will meet every two weeks. They talked about rocks and geology, and Nico came home with two new rocks. I think the whole theme for the summer will be geology!

On Wednesday, Allicia offered to take Nico to the dollar summer movies with them in the morning. The movie was Puss in Boots. They got popcorn. Nico loved it. Allicia said they will do it again next week.

Today we went to the Scouts shop to get his new uniform.

Nico also went to visit Merek several times this week. They are moving from their house in a few days. I'm not sure I updated here or not about the house - we re-evaluated our budget and saw that we wouldn't be able to rent the house even if she doesn't raise the rent. So we're going to look for a different place in a few months.

Looks like the only pictures I have are from the race on Saturday! How's that compared to the picture-heavy post last week? At least I have a video! Check it out - the first part is from the race and then it's what our house looks like when you come home from a trip sick and can't clean up after yourself. Ha ha.

Until next week!

Arlington!

Last Friday was Nico's last day of school. It was a half day, and when he got home we ran some errands. We went over the Natatorium to sign him up for swimming lessons first. It was the first day the pool was open this summer! Nico kept telling me he didn't want swimming lessons, but after being inside and seeing all the kids having fun in the pool, we left there with him saying "Ok I think I'm excited now." He's going to get one-on-one swimming lessons instead of the group lessons he had last year.

After our other errands, I took him to Blue Cow Frozen Yogurt for a last-day-of-school treat. If we remember, we will do this same thing next year, Nico liked that idea. You get to choose your own flavor (or flavors) and add it to your own bowl, then add toppings, then they weigh the bowl and charge you based on weight. He chose cotton candy, vanilla, and chocolate. Toppings were sprinkles and nerds. Crunch crunch!

Saturday morning was Nico's race day for the Capitol Classic Children's Race. We dropped him off at the Train Depot and then parked downtown and walked over to meet Papa. We found a place to hang out along 8th street until the race started. Last year the girls got to go first, this year, the boys! 

On the way to the Train Depot. #285

The first sighting!

After finishing, trying to avoid getting his picture taken.

Free TCBY yogurt for all racers!

His time this year was 14:43. His time LAST year was 14:33. I told Papa this over text and he said that maybe it took an extra 10 seconds when he turned to say "Say hi to Grandma"! Hehe. Grandma was home with some of my older cousins who were staying at their house overnight.

We asked him if he wanted to do it next year and he said no. He said he wanted to skip a year. Okie dokie! We'll ask him again later. I think he got a really bad side ache during the run :)

Sunday we had a graduation party to attend after church, for someone in the church. It was at Baggley Park (aka Picka Park). Nico found a very climbable tree.

Monday was a day of preparation for our TRIP to Arlington and Moscow! Allicia took all the kids including Nico to the park in the morning to give me some time to focus. It was great! We got everything ready that we needed to and woke up Tuesday morning and set off for Yakima a little before 8AM. 

I drove us to Yakima, and Guy and Nico spent most of the trip playing trip Bingo! Allicia let us borrow 4 bingo cards. Guy said he loved playing trip bingo times 2 million. I guess that's a lot! We learned that Nico needed to take Dramamine an hour before travel like the box says, instead of taking it right when we get in the car. He was nauseated for the first part of the trip but was fine after it kicked in.

Gummy worms from our stop in Pendleton.

First things first after arriving in Yakima after checking into our hotel. We went straight to Miner Burger.

After swimming Nico took a bath and then we watched some softball on TV. Then, to bed!

In the morning we made our way to Seattle. Guy drove this time. We arrived at the Seattle Center around 9:30am where we were meeting Grandpa and Grandma Russell!! We got there a bit early so we stopped and played at the park nearby for a few.

Grandma!

Grandpa! Same table we sat at last year when we met here!

Playing hygeine bingo.

Space shuttle

Waiting for his opponent to make his move.

After we were done at the Science Center, the boys went up to the Space Needle!

They got a SpaceBook picture taken you can set it to a variety of different Seattle skyline backdrops.

After they came back down we went to the fountain! The water is set to music. Nico was resistant at first to getting wet, he said he wanted his swimsuit. But we dared him to go touch the fountain without getting wet. He got wet.

After wrapping up at the Seattle Center, we went to Spuds near Green Lake for Fish and Chips!

The next morning we packed up the cars and drove to Cama Beach on Camano Island. We rented a cabin on the beach that had 2 rooms and a bathroom, plus a little kitchenette and dining table.

Nico wore his new binocular bag over his shoulder, with his new bird journal in it. He wore the actual binoculars around his neck on top of that. We spent some time searching for birds so he could enter them into his journal. He would record the date, the location, and notes about the sighting.

Cama Beach also had a large chess board. We played several games of chess while there!

Filling out the workbook we picked up for free at the gift store.

Nico found a piece of a shell that looks like Montana, and one that looks like a face. Nico and Grandma Russell both made a collection of shells and interesting things found on the beach. We weren't able to take anything with us because it was the rules. Grandpa found a certain type of rock that when striking two of them together produces a spark. We took 2 back to our cabin and tried it with all the lights off.

Writing a bird sighting in his journal.

On our second bird outing we didn't stop to record any birds, but they kept them in their heads and recorded them when we got back to the cabin.

Reading books before bed Thursday night.

We are having so much fun in Arlington spending time with the Grandparents!! We get to stay through Saturday and then will be going on to Moscow!

Here's a video from the race and Nico climbing the tree! Instead of splitting up the trip video, I will post the entire video from our vacation next week :D See you then!