Science, Popcorn and outing

Another late post! My schedule is out of whack with the new job commute and committee chair for the Cub Scouts. Looking at the pictures, I am glab that we are still active going out, though.

I went as chaperon for Renee's class trip. That guy sure know how to make science interesting! I was so impressed.

Max has started popcorn drive.

We went with the pack on the night hike. We even find a geocache along the way.

Max is really into popcorn sales this year, so I signed him up for quite a few show-and-tell events. Then I found out that you are supposed to sign up for no more than 2 spots until everyone gets a chance.

Max joined the DI challenge this year. Let the chaos begin!

I took them out for a hike one day by just picking a random spot. It was a bit of a tough hike but it went well.

We also went with their uncle and aunt who were visiting. We checkde out 17-mile drive and the weather was just great.

Scouts and Dancing

We went and meet up with our old family friend and visited the deep cavern.

Our Den met before school starts and had a fun outing. I brought the paper rocket launcher and it was a great hit.

We also got around to hit the mini golf at boomers. This year Renee was tall enough to be a Go-Kart driver!

It still amazes me how much they love this game. Mini golf with the family is really fun.

Renee is learning new tricks with her dance! I cannot wait for this year's performance.

Max went out and did the first batch of sales.

We also joined the pack for the wallball game. Max is not really good at it so he will get upset for losing. But after I offered to teach him and got him a ball, he forgot about it quickly.

Busy month with fewer pictures

We have actually been quite busy in July, just not many good pictures. For example, Max was swimming daily and greatly improved his skills. Renee also went to a play and had a great performance.

Taking advantage of the summer without Sunday Chinese school, I gave up my Taichi classes and took them to the Exploratorium several times.

We also got together as the Cub Scouts pack and went out hiking.

Max went to another day camp with his friend Ben. On Thursday evening, I joined the family picnic and watched their performance.

With daily practice, Max has greatly improved his performance, repeatedly popping his record.

At the end of the season, Max got the "Most Improved" award.

Here is the award ceremony.

Archery at Day Camp and Canada Road Trip!

What a month! We took two separate events together and had two weeks of a blast!

Max had another recital. Unfortunately, he does not really enjoy the piano class and it has been really hard for him to focus on it. We are going to have him take a break and see if he can come back to it.

I got more involved with Cub Scouts by becoming the archery range master. This is the van load of stuff I picked up to set up for the day camp. Max was eager to help out.

I took Max to some simple geocaching.

After setting up the archery range, I took Max and Renee with me and shot a few arrows. It was quite relaxing actually.

During the morning, I have Max, Renee, and Ben with me until they start their day. While waiting, they helped me carry the archery equipment and waxed the bow strings. As usual, the boys are less focused and Renee did most of the work.

Here is Max enjoying the engineering workshop during the day camp.

Since I was at the archery during the day, I don't really get to see Renee and Max often. I did manage to walk around, found them, and took a few pictures.

I had really awesome Girl Scout troop leaders helping me. They brought the real bow and spent extra time teaching Renee and Max at the end of the day.

Here is Renee trying it out.

We finished the day camp on Friday and flew to Canada on Saturday to start our Banff trip.

Here is the biggest Dinosaur museum we visited on the first day.

These are made out of the real bones. Renee and Max seem so small compared to it. Don't you think?

After arriving Banff, we took a stroll around the area.

There are so many beautiful lakes around this area, with different colors.

We hiked a lot during the week but we were never tired.  Everything is just so beautiful.

At Jasper, the lakes became even better. In addition to the usual white clouds, blue sky, green trees, rocks, and water, you have the greenish color from the "Glacier mud", glacier in the background, and the mountain above the treeline.

Drinking from the glacier water is something we will never forget!  The weather was brutal. Fortunately, mom prepared us for everything.

Being the guy and the boy in the family, we stepped over the boundary to have a little adventure before getting called by almost immediately.

This is a glass bridge on the side of the canyon. Renee was stepping on the sides, trying not to be scared.

The kids grew really fond of the audio guide device and took it all the time even if they didn't need it.

We found a lake with boats to rent and spent a few quiet hours in the lake, again with glacier in the background.

As usual, the girls are with me while they were figuring out how to do the row boat.

Max was with mom and he seemed to have picked up the skill pretty fast.

This is the highest hike we did and the most fun.

There are so many rocks wherever we go.

We did a few jumping pictures.  They were great hits. Everyone wanted to try.

As we hike above the tree line, the trees became smaller.  We took some interesting pictures.

This is a typical Glacier Mud Lake.  The color is just unreal.

I picked this picture because this is our standard lunch during the week. It allows us to go for long hikes without having to get up early. The kids complained about them later in the week but they didn't really have a choice. After all, everything is so beautiful and the lack of variety in the meails was well worth it!