Halloween and Outing

October has been a warm month. We got to do a lot of outing.

Max got SWAT uniform this year for the Halloween.

He likes it very much and posed for quite a few pictures.

This is Renee's second year for kids soccer. She is getting better although sometimes we wish she just go for the ball.  This is not unexpected though as we know that is part of her personality to deal with as she grows up.

Max had his first Den adventure, backyard jungle.  We built a bird house together as the last activity.

I took Max and Renee to Geocaching when waiting for the swimming class.

As volunteer, I went on the field trip with Max and his friends.

They really liked paying with the goats. It appears that the goats like them too.

This year, Renee is the vampire queen. We went to the event and she got to feel the snake.

This has become a tradition for Halloween.

With the dress, Renee looks like a grown up girl.

Renee joined Max for another Scouts event, Red Ribbon week.

We tied the red ribbons around the campus as reminder of saying no to drugs.

As a family we joined the first scouts night-out! Renee liked it so much that she started asking if she can join the girl scouts. We had to explain to her that it might be a different program.

In the morning, we got up and did an early hike.

Renee took a picture in front of a decorated house at the Halloween night. We joined Max's friend, Ben on the trick-or-treat.

This is the second night out for the scouts. We stayed overnight at the Academy of Science. It is pretty cool to see all the shows and the exhibition without the crowd. But with $90 per person, it turned out to be pretty costly for the family.

On the second day morning, we took the opportunity and shot a picture without anyone else in sight.

School Starts!

It has been a slow month in terms of picture taking opportunities. The kids are pretty busy with the school activities.

Renee went to the dentist to take out a loose tooth. She was pretty nervous about it. But everything went fine.

Max and I started our Cub Scout activities, with the first Den meeting at our house. Here is Max standing in the front explain the Scout Law that that he picked.

Renee had a play date at home. They were putting on a puppet show with Max as the director.

Max continues to learn Kungfu. He has started a complicated form this time.

Max also picked out another Halloween custom. But after comparing it to the SWAT suite he got a few weeks back, he decided to go with the SWAT.

Mexico Trip and Last part of Summer Vacation

We started the month of August with vacation in Cancun, Mexico.

Cancun has great beaches. The best part was that it actually became shallow after walking in a bit. I was able to take the kids over there in turns. Soon I became the uncle/daddy who could "break through the waves and get me to a safe heaven."

We spent most of the time at the pool. The kids enjoyed the "human surf board" game the most. That was me under the water.

We of course took the parasailing ride. This was the fist time for the kids. They were a bit unsure but all enjoyed it immediately.

The most unique experience for this trip would be the turtles. This turned out to be the egg laying season for them. At night, they will come to the shore to lay eggs. We watched them quietly several times. In the morning, there will be people move the eggs to a protected area. Each site will be dated. Every morning, someone will come and dig out the little turtles that are hatched. It took us several tries to meet the person who is doing that. He was a very nice fellow and allowed us to help with the digging. Renee and Max got to play with the little turtles.

We also signed up for a snorkeling trip, a must-have for the vacation like this.

Max was very excited and ready to jump in. Unfortunately, this was as good a picture as it gets. Both Max and Renee got very scared once they are in the ocean water, such that they had to go back to the boat. In the hindsight, I should have just stayed with them around the boat even though there were nothing to see. At least it would give them some experience with sea water.

We went on a trip to a theme park on the last day. Due to the high price and limited time, we were told this was the possibly the most expensive relaxing spot. We agree.

A little raccoon dropped out behind us during lunch break, making all kinds of postures hoping for food.

We couldn't bear looking at the kids' faces and paid extra for them to swim with the dolphin. Looking at how happy they are in the picture, it was money and time well spent.

Both Renee and Max were still very afraid of deep water at this time. But they were able to get in the water by themselves with us watching far away. I'd say the dolphin had a lot to do with the courage.

Max posed on the beach in the last day. It is indeed a great place to relax and exercise.

I also took Max on his first kayak ride. It looks that I can do this again in the future.

After coming back from the Mexico trip, we are settling to the routine. Instead of jogging outside, I watched Max in kungfu class to get a sense of how much he has progressed.

I noticed that Max is learning meditation now. I like this Kungfu class more and more.

Renee went with mom for the volunteer work in San Francisco. She was taking the responsibility of chopping this time.