Simpsons in Seattle

It feels like summer just started and yet here we are, at the end of August and school starts tomorrow! There's a joke in Seattle that you are exhausted at the end of summer because you want to take advantage of every last bit of the warm sun and I have to agree with that - these past few weeks have been packed with seeing friends and enjoying the weather. We did a quick weekend trip to Seabrook with the Wongs, and although we haven't gone camping at all this summer (much to Scott's disappointment), we have done A LOT of fishing including a recent hike along the Taylor River in Middle Fork Snoqualamie. Some pictures are below. Sadly, it has started to turn cold already and in fact, was hailing yesterday in parts of Seattle. Bye, Vitamin D! The kids practicing cartwheels at Seabrook beach. This year, we rented a house on the water side. This was the view from the deck. The beach is just behind those trees. Nora and I had fun walking the gnome trail again. The girls all made

We spent about 2 glorious weeks in Big Island again earlier this month. We spent the first week with the Hanleys and got to do a lot of fun things like explore a new "secret" beach, celebrate Nora's birthday at Tommy Bahama, view the stars from Mauna Kea and spent lots of time in the pool. After we bid the Hanleys a sad goodbye, we lounged around a bit and Scott did lots of house chores while I was working remotely. I know we are so blessed and privileged to be able to go there, we are already aching to go back!  Shave ice - this time with Boba! Pineapple and Mango dole whip Evie has switched to preferring dole whip over shave ice. We went to Hawaiian Style Cafe for breakfast one day. This is the [massive] Coconut pancake order. One evening we went to the Mauna Kea hotel to see the manta rays. Afterwards, we grabbed dessert in Copper Bar. These coffee profiteroles were excellent. The kids at Copper Bar, watching the Olympics. On one of the days, we brought our lunch out t

I had to do a quick trip to LA towards the end of July to say goodbye to my Uncle Pang, who passed away a few weeks earlier. I have fond memories of fun cousin time at his house in Palos Verdes and Uncle Pang taking us to the beach when we were younger. I remember how he delighted in making us kids squeal with laughter by pretending the car ride was a rolleroaster - we'd take sharp turns and all of us kids would slide to one side of his Volvo station wagon or he'd slow the car down to a roll and we'd all chant that we couldn't let the car stop and it would inch slowly forward at a stoplight.  Although it was a sad reason to get together, I think he would be happy to know that the weekend was also a wonderful get together with family. Because it was fairly last minute, none of the kids flew over which meant us "adult cousins" were able to have long talks and linger over food. Kin and Meredith were able to host a summertime bbq at their house and we had a nice t