Back to School, in Person!

We finished last few items for summer, and started school in person. We are all vaccinated, masked, and ready to put our life slowly back to normal.

Renee came back from the Philmont trip at the beginning of the month. Max and I spent a day to make this cool sign as part of the welcome.

Ashley and her family came over to visit. We went to Pleasanton downtown, which has the main street closed for people to walk around and dine outside.

Max started going to school with his best buddy, Ben, every day. Our house is super close to the school, and this gives them a great opportunity to handle their commute with a buddy.

Renee has started high school. She can also walk to school and handle our commute with her friend who also lives in the neighborhood.

In one of the weekend, Renee surprised me by suggesting doing to the Devil's Hole trail in Las Trampus. I am not sure what prompted her but we did have a great time climbing down and up again.

Renee also registered for a shotgun merit badge. She had a pretty good aim at the beginning. But I think the weight of the gun got her shaky. We will have to come back again to finish the part about getting a score that is high enough.

Max went with his troop for the in-person outing as well!!!

Philmont and Day Camp

The events of the month is the first time for Max to help out at Day Camp as a Junior Helper, and first for Renee to finish her Philmont trip. Unfortunately, since I decided to take a break from the District voluteering activities, I was not around to take pictures for Max during the Day Camp. We were told by the adult that he and his friends (Ben and Bobby) did very well as junior helpers.

We picked up Max and his friends from the Wente.

For Fourth of July, we went to a park that allows fireworks, and did something basic.

I continued to attend Renee's Philmont backpacking training and was able to take pictures of them in action.

This is the last training trip, where we visited the famous Half Dome in Yosemite.

We had a weekend with no activities so we visited Pleasanton downtown. This is also the week before the Delta variance surge so things were looking up and we were hitting restaurants.

During the summer camp pickup, we were able to take picture of Renee with her friends in the troop.

Renee also got a chance to attend a party of one of her friends outside the scouting.

Philmont rains frequently. Renee and her crew members learned how to address the situation and have fun in the rain.

Renee was really proud of her achievement with backpacking in Philmont. This is her after surviving a rain by wearing a jacket from an adult and with plastic bag inside.

Graduation, growing up, summer camp

 June is our typical month of finishing school and enjoying summer

With remote learning still going on, Renee and Max took a picture together celebrating with their classmates virtually on the end of another school year.

Renee continues her Philmont backpacking training. We went to the shower lake and hiked on the snow-covered ridge.

Max has grown a lot in his kungfu forms. He got a red belt this year.

I took Renee and Max to Lake Del Velle for an overnight camping. We booked two nights so that we won't be in a rush. Max got to practice his cooking skills needed for his advancement. We got attacked by the mosquitos and it took several weeks to recover

Renee and Max went on the sumer camp. Even though they are in two different troops, we were able to get them go on the same week and both troops chose Wente as the location. We carpooled with two other families.

This is Max' first time at summer camp.

This is Renee's second time and she has been making friends with scouts joined in the last two years.