Klondike Gold Rush Center Jr. Ranger

Today Lon and I left school at noon .  It was Jr. Ranger Badge Time! The Klondike Gold Rush Center.
The nice rangers there were happy to see Lon. They did not have any 8 year old and under books, so Lon did the 9 year old and above!

Lon looking at the tool box the Stampeders would have had to have. Lon was impressed that they had to bring 150 pounds of bacon for each person.

Spinning the wheel of fortune. Only a slim portion of the wheel was a winner. Lon did not win the Gold Rush Wheel of Fortune. He spun about 4 times.
There was also a school group there with us, so Lon did not get to play as much as he would have liked. The Ranger was giving a gold panning demonstration, but it was too crowded for Lon to see anything.  Lon had already done his own gold panning before.

Signing his name to verify he got his ranger badge

The ranger was so impressed with all of Lon's badges that she had to take his photo

So proud of himself ! He has his badge and a patch.
He did well.

Almost the Last Cub Meeting

Our next Cub Scout Meeting next month is our last one this year. Lon will be a Bear Cub very soon.  He has met all the requirements!

Our Cubmaster asked for volunteers and chose Lon to participate in the Health Skit. He read E, about healthy eating

A job well done

We were not expecting any awards, but he got one! For selling the  most popcorn of any cub, he won two tickets to a Mariner's Baseball game. On June 29. We will keep the certificate as a souvenir, as that is one of the few dates in June we can not attend.
Good Job, Lon on the Popcorn sales

We went outside and water rockets were set up!! It was time to shoot those things off!!

Working hard to pump up that pressure

Watching the last rockets go up. They went HIGH up into the sky.  I could not get them captured in a picture.  It was really cool

Lon and his Den did the flag ceremony to open the meeting, which I missed taking photos of. I did capture him returning the flag at the closing flag ceremony.
It was a fun meeting. Next month is our graduation, and our last meeting as a Wolf.

Rochelle turns 30

My friend, Rochelle, turned 30 the the 17th.  I was honored to make her a cake. (A dark chocolate cake with caramel, in my rose pan)  I was able to help out a little with the party plan. My job was to keep her and the girls out of the house till it was time for the party. Which I was more or less successful with.

Birthday girl.

Mark got to play with Coco. Coco loves Mark!

Opening some of her presents.
After we had some cake, the girls went home with us for the night.  Lon had fun with the girls (one melt down, sorry)
The next morning we had pancakes and bacon.
I think the girls had fun. I hope Rochelle had a very wonderful birthday!

McDonalds Night

Thursday the 16th, the teachers and staff from our school took over the McDonalds for a fund raiser. This fundraiser is for the 5th grade out door education project.  We have been every year since Lon started at Juanita.

Lon found a table in the play area. This was not the wisest choice, at least for me. Lon ate all his chicken nuggets, so he got to go and play

Way up top in the play structure.
There were a group of young girls who would just randomly scream.  Right behind me.  We did not last long in the play area.
Lon was ready to go fairly quickly, they were even too loud for him!
But we are happy we went to support the school.

Pacific Science Center Field Trip

Friday, May 10, we went on our second grade field trip! I was honored to be a chaperone to 5 second grade boys. They were all wonderful.

On the bus. On the way to the Pacific Science Center, Lon sat with me.

The view from the bus

Learning about whales. A replica whale skull was out for the kids to touch and explore

Playing with the water stuff. Fountains, archemedies screws, water cannons at targets, all sorts of fun things. And it is WATER

Inside, dancing on lights. Keep your feet on the colored lights you choose!

Operating the Apollo capsule.
I have turned it right side up several times, so ...

Bugs!  Bugs on rotting food, how it would look.

Butterfly room. We had to wait outside for our turn to go in.  We had to watch our step, some of the butterflies like to land on the ground.  We did not step on any of them.  We saw lots of beautiful butterflies and learned some of the things they eat. Bananas and oranges are good choices if you are a butterfly

The butterfly colors are so beautiful

The boys took apart this bug and then they figured out how to put him back together. As a team. It was very fun

On the slug

Lunch time. I made Lon's lunch and my friend, Brandy, brought me a wonderful sandwich from Sarducis. Yummy yummy

On the way back to the bus, my boys, posing for a photo.  They were all very well behaved and wonderful to have as my boys for the day

Cinqo de Mayo with a Korean Twist

Yesterday was Auntie Michelle's birthday, it was still going to be beautiful today, so we decided to have a barbeque at the house. Brian and Kayla brought their parents and a container full of bulgogi to grill !! Yummy.

Lon wanted to show off his nerf guns and to show me that his marine outfit still fit.  The outfit did not last long as it got up to 84 today.

The kids had hot dogs, and Italian sodas. They liked the cherry lime sodas best. Raspberry was a close second.

Grill master

Uncle Chong

Lon showing off his solar oven. He made the kids s'smores.

Daddy is tired Uncle Chong, and Mommy can't and Auntie Michelle is tired too.. Can you roll the tent around with us inside?? PLEASE

Over it goes

Rolling Rolling Rolling. The kids had a good time rolling around inside

Kayla found the snowball maker and had more fun using it to pop bubbles

Lon and Kayla relaxing after we sang Auntie Michelle Happy Birthday.
Then it was time to go home, it is a school day in the morning.

Ebey's Landing

Today we had no school. Today was also a gorgeous, wonderful, beautiful day!  I realized that we had lived here Lon'e entire life and had not gone to any National Parks around here for his Jr. Ranger badges.  At first I looked into going to Mt. Rainer, but this time of year it is only open weekends and holidays.  That was out. The next closest, but far enough away to make it a fun trip, was Ebey's Landing on Whidbey Island.   We printed out the Jr. Ranger paperwork so the kids could work on it in the car.  
We went with Arianna and Kayla, and Drew.  A fun group!

Perhaps the boys were not working on their paperwork as well as the girls, but they got it done.

Going over Deception Pass. We opted out of taking the ferry over, it was a nice day and the Ferry  would be jammed.
As a plus, the ride is beautiful!!

Lunch! Getting some food and finishing up the paperwork before we head out

He's ready!!

A fun statue in Coupeville. We went over to the museum, like the paperwork told us to. They were out of badges, so we had to go back to the Visitor's Center. Which is where this statue is located.

Taking the Jr. Ranger oath. The lady was not too sure on what she needed to do. I helped her out, and the kids all passed.

Since the Visitor's Center closed early in the afternoon, we did that first, then went to see Ebey's Landing and the Smith Prarie.

Beauty shot

Those little dots are jets from the Naval Air Station. They were low and loud as they passed over head. SO COOL
They were over head as I took out my camera and that far away by the time I took it from my pocket to my eye.

Hiking down the trails

In the middle of the hikes
They went from one end to the other

All done hiking

Going to see the blockhouse

Inside, looking out over the cemetery.

more information on the block houses.
There is a lot of information out there on Ebey's Landing. I could not find a short enough thumbnail to put in here, but I will keep looking

Then it was time for the beach! Drew brought along some swords to play with.
I forgot out Discovery Pass, so we went into the office to see if they could look it up. They only had one lady there with a very long line. We waited our turn, we were nice. We heard her looking up someone else's pass. So we figured it was all good. When it was our turn, we asked her to look up mine. She said she did not have time and it was 10 dollars. We just paid it. Had she looked it up I would have purchased the zippered hoddie for 33 dollars.  The kids needed some more play time before we got into the car to go home.

The beach is so pretty at Deception Park.

Rochelle wrote everyone's name in the sand and we took pictures of everyone in front of their names.  Rochelle thought she was going to get away with NOT doing hers. HA!! We got one of her too

The swords were soon forgotten. The lure of rocks and beach and water was just too much

A perfect day.

Rocks and water. It does not get much better when you are 7.

Building a castle on the water's edge

Getting it all done before we got back in the car.  Lon took off his wet sweatshirt.  He had to change clothes before he got in the car.  He was wet and sandy.  His shoes and all his clothes all went into a plastic bag to get washed when we got home

The other side of Deception Pass.
We made it home without any mishaps or drama.
It was a good day.
Just a few more Jr Ranger badges to get from around here.