Wednesday, August 05, 2009

This and That

We're enjoying a short lull in our busy summer schedule.

Claire just returned from an amazing trip with my mom and dad. They plan to take each grandchild on a big adventure -- just the three of them -- the summer they turn ten. How great is that?! Claire chose a tour in Portland, OR all about animals. They toured the zoo, behind the scenes at the aquarium, visiting an alpaca farm, toured the mounted police unit and saw how seeing-eye dogs are trained.

Grandpa snapped this cute picture while they were biking along the river.
Benjamin just competed in his first taekwondo tournament. He won a fourth place medal in sparring! Very exciting.That's Benjamin with his teacher, Mr. Anderson, who cut his hair in a mohawk to generate excitement and enthusiasm for the tournament.

We've also been playing a lot of electronic Stratego. This game is from 1982 and was on a shelf at Jeff's parent's home until it moved to a shelf at our house until Benjamin decided to install new batteries and learn to play! It's very fun and requires quite a lot of strategic planning. (Thus, the name of the game.)

Who needs a Wii when you've got "realistic battle sounds" from 1982?!

2 comments:

Gerrie said...

What a wonderful idea! Were they here when we had the hot, hot temperatures. I would have loved to have met your parents and Claire, but it sounds like they had a jam packed trip with lots going on.

Terry Grant said...

Aha! It was Claire that brought the hot weather to Portland! Well, maybe not, but I've been looking to blame someone. Seriously, I hope she enjoyed her visit here. The Portland Zoo is super and especially our baby elephant. And lots of great bike trails along the river.