Roller Coaster adventure at Lakeside Amusement

It was time to introduce Cody to roller coasters so we were happy to find ourselves some cheap tickets for a local amusement park. It is an older park and all the rides are old and creaky. But it was clean and there was plenty for the kids to go on. And for $10 per child, it was a bargain.

Alan has been training Cody to go on bigger slides and maybe that's helped him with a little bit of his fear as he had no issue getting on any rides!!

All in all, it was very fun and cute to watch the kids do all the rides. Strangely enough they both still get excited about the same rides and it's funny when they lift their hands up on some of the rides!!

After a good couple of hours of getting thrown about, we found a good Greek restaurant just around the corner which was really a treat!!!

Andrew's Visit

The Andrews were visiting Colorado again and we managed to snag them away for one night for some Malaysian food tasting.

Cooking for 10 people is quite daunting. Cooking for 10 people with multiple food restrictions is just plain hard! I completely messed up! But thank goodness, they were very gracious people who were only mildly sensitive.

It was as usual, super nice to see them and we had a nice time catching up.

Cody completes Kumon Level 5A

Cody has just completed level 5A of Kumon, and he is starting to read more and more.  It took him 142 days to get to level 4A, Tyler took 133 days but was slightly older when he started, so technically Cody is ahead of Tyler as Tyler got there September 9th and Cody June 23rd.

Lets see how they both progress over summer !!

Ready for blended words

NachoMen Concert

Alan is always looking out for interesting stuff to do with the kids during the summer time and this time was a NachoMen Concert held by the local Rec Center.

Turns out there was more than just the concert. They had the old time fire trucks, fire rescue obstacle course, xorbing and everything. The kids had quite a bit of fun though the concert was cut short by a sudden wind storm.

Tyler inside a xorb

On the back of the old time fire truck

I got to ride with the fireman!! 

Picture with the cute fire truck

Tyler doing the obstacle course

You get to put out the "fire"

The guy explaining the boundaries

He's on his way

The man checking up on him

Checking out the real fire trucks

And here are some videos:

Cody is reading

Cody has been working on Kumon since February and has been making steady progress.  Today he turned the corner and read his first sentence without needing prompting.  He has been able to read words for some time, but today he really did a great job.  Now we have to work on sight words so he can improve.

Just one of the sentences he read

Sprinkler Testing

I scheduled a visit from the water conservation center as they offer free sprinkler/irrigation inspection, hoping they could tell me how to optimize the sprinkler settings.

Based on their review, turns out I need 71,000 gallons of water (or 814,000 cans of coke) each year and most of the sprinkler settings were good.  They did make some recommendations based on precipitation rate, distribution uniformity and water pressure, and a cool test where they put out cups and measure how much each one gets filled.

Measuring water in cups

Menchies

The boys have been doing their Kumon everyday, so as a reward from Kumon school they got a free Menchies.  They enjoyed a couple of bites/spoons, but I think we took home more than we ate.

Enjoying our Frozen Yogurt

Tyler takes part in the World's Largest Swimming Lesson

Tyler took part in the World's largest swimming lesson for the second year in a row.  Cody wasnt allowed to take part as he was too young.  Next year for sure!!

Tyler is there somewhere?

No photos of Tyler this year

Fathers Day/Weekend 2013

We had a few things to do around the house this weekend, as well as fit in Fathers Day activities so we split Fathers day over 2 days, lucky for me !!

Saturday we got up early and took a trip to the wildlife sanctuary.  I wasn't sure what to expect as with animals in the wild they are often sleepy or hard to spot, but was pleasantly surprised that we got there early enough to see lots of animals without too much problem or other people around.  Basically you walk on 2 miles of elevated pathway looking down on lions, tigers, bears, wolves and so on.  The kids enjoyed it and liked that they could hear the animals roar.

Ready to explore

Found some lions

Family picture

We went for lunch at a place called Pepper Pod voted top restaurant around the area.

The food is big, the utensils bigger

Sunday, we had an English Breakfast, followed by Fathers day gifts, work on the deck, and then in the evening Steak dinner.  All in all a hectic weekend.  Thanks to Siew Gin and the kids for making it a great weekend.

English Breakfast

Picture and Shells from our Florida vacation

Finished Deck

Dinner, Steak and Fish

Cody following Tyler as champion Academy bowler

Tyler used to go to Chippers as part of his summer school, and now it is the turn of Cody.  He seemed quite excited to bowl and was pretty good at hitting those pins.  With so many kids they didnt finish one game in the allotted 60 minutes, perhaps next time !!

Can we bowl yet?

Check out the size of my ball

Top score - on the way to 100

Tyler climbs another mountain

Tyler climbed another mountain today.  He tried about 6 times to climb the rock wall and eventually made it to the top with some encouragement and advice from his dad..

I made it Daddy

Mini Golf

Cody and Siobhan went mini golfing today, and they invited us adults along to show us the proper form.  I am not sure they have the patience to last 18 holes yet, but they were suitably excited and terrified by the scenery on the course.  Cody in particular liked the volcano and kept looking for the lost plane.

Lefty or righty?

This is how we do it

Check out that plane

Ready for a hole in 1

Sunrise Stampede 2013 - 2 miles in the wind

When I left the house this morning the temperature was a pleasant 76, so I was expecting to run a good time in the Sunrise Stampede 2 miler.  Little did I know that the wind decided to make a gusty appearance this year which doesn't help as some of the course is uphill.

I still managed to run 30 seconds faster than last year finishing 22nd overall, second in my age group and with a time of 13:13 (double unlucky for some).

My splits were 6:42 and 6:26, which is pretty good, last year they were 6:55 and 6:38, so I must be getting stronger as I get older.

Waiting at the start

Crossing the finishing line

The Mug I won !!

National Donut Day

National Donut Day was a great excuse to go to Krispy Kreme for a free donut.  Alas about 500 other people had the same idea, so we got to watch the donuts being made for a long time until we got our free one (each).

Check out my donuts

Daddy, I am ready for my donut

One more please