YMCA Summer Camps!

Since we were going to be in Ohio for a while, I decided to check out some summer camps for the children to help keep us busy. There is a new YMCA just blocks from Mom and Dad's house so I called, knowing you needed a membership and it probably wouldn't be possible. The Lord's grace was with me and I happened to get head of membership on the phone who was AMAZING. Let's just say Kim and I were BFF by the time I got off the phone that day. I explained why we were spending a month in Perrysburg and if it was possible to just get a 30 day membership. Not normally but she made an exception for us, granting us a 30day full membership which made the kids eligible to participate in the various summer camps they offered, as well as all the regular benefits such as use of the pool, gym, kidz zone, etc.  Each camp only cost $20 for the week!!  I won't even go into the ridiculous price of camps in SF.  Let's just say I signed the kids up for 6 camps at the price of one child's camp in SF.  AND, the YMCA was offering FREE swim lessons we week we arrived too!  I love this place!!!

So far we have participated in 2 camps and free swim lessons, it was busy our first week.   I wanted to make sure the kids were busy and out of the house as much as possible because Young is "working from home" the whole time we're here.  I want to make sure he has peace and quiet.  So, our first camp was Creepy Crawly Camp.  Each day was a new bug and the kids loved it.  It was basically all crafts and coloring which is right up their alley.  Spider day...Cameron's spider hat that is eating her fly...

Butterfly day, they made these beautiful tissue paper butterflies that you hang on the widows.  Each craft was so crafty!  I loved the caterpillars made out of plastic Easter eggs.

My favorite was fire fly day.  They made these neat fire flies out of water bottles with glow sticks inside.  they cut wings out, pipe cleaners as legs and done...you have a fire fly!  When we picked up the kids they cut out the lights to show their fire flies.  Such an easy and great craft.

After bug camp was Timo's basketball camp...LOVED IT.  He had a great coach and taught them all types of skills and techniques.  I could really see an improvement in Timo's dribbling and being able to run and dribble by the end of the week.  And Timo loved that he was all sweaty after...just like Daddy gets.

The last day they played a scrimmage game...so cute.  Timo did a really good job but just isn't tall enough.  But what he lacks in height he makes up for in spirit.

The last event that week was our swimming classes.  They were free so each class was packed.  But I was impressed that they had three teachers per class.  The classes were more about water safety and basics than swimming but the children has fun anyway.  Cameron really enjoyed learning to float on her back.

At the end of each day was a little treat for the children like an ice pop or t-shirt.  The last day was a family picnic with games and prizes.  The Y did such a great job on this community outreach...I'm a huge fan of the YMCA now.  Needless to say, Timo and Cameron are having a blast and I can't wait for the rest of our camps over the next few weeks!  I feel like this is what summer is all about.

 

 

Ohio & Father's Day

We made it to Ohio the day before Father's Day and were able to celebrate with Young's Dad this year. We're working off limited internet access so please forgive the space of posting. 

Thanks for your prayers for Young's dad and our family.  So far our time has been wonderful and we're making precious memories for us and the kids with their Harabeoji.  He is in good health, praise God, and showing no signs of the cancer.

Thanks to Daddy's flyer miles, we were able to score first class seats!

Our layover was in Chicago and look what we found just outside our arriving gate! Cameron was so happy to see a brachiosaurus in the middle of an airport.

We noticed AFTER we purchased our tickets that we had a four hour layover before our flight to Detroit.  Then a 1 1/2 hour flight to Detroit and an hour drive to Mom and Dad's house.  Counting the hours, we realized it would be much faster to just drive to Mom's house, being that they only live 4 hours away from Chicago.  So we rented a car and drove, cutting our trip by 3 hours!  A little delay getting our car and the kids amused themselves.  A quick bite to eat and they were out for most of the drive.

We arrived safe and sound, had some yummy Korean food waiting for us and got some much needed sleep before Father's Day the next morning.  What a blessing it will be to spend the next month with Halmeoni and Harabeoji

Lawrence Science Hall--Berkeley

Last week before we left for vacation we visited the Science Museum at UC Berkeley with our friend Lucia! It was, literally, a picture perfect day...we could see all the way to SF from the Berkeley Hills.  I loved this little museum, lots of hands on learning activities...

We go to pet an iguana (super cool), see what it was like to try and walk like a gecko and check out the fault line map that we were standing on outside.

Outside we made our own sidewalk chalk bubble paint.  Basically they had cornstarch, water, baking soda and food coloring.  The kids got to mix their colors in, paint and then spray with vinegar to watch it bubble up.  It was kinda of a neat experiment.  I'm not sure what they liked more, painting or spraying the vinegar.

We caught the 3D Titans of the Ice Age all about the Mammoth.  It was the first 3D movie for the kids so it took some getting used to...lots of hands in the air trying to touch the screen.

Then we stumbled on the dinosaurs!  Cameron was one happy little girl when she saw the T-Rex bones.

We spent at least an hour in the Design Room, going around to each station learning how to build and design different items.  It was really cool because they had student volunteers there helping the children and explaining each thing so they could better understand the objective.  So Timo build a rocket and Cameron build a church in the "wood" section.

The bridge area was fun because they actually got to run cars over their finished product to see if it would hold.  Three different kids, three different bridges.

Timo made a fast friend in the Lego car building section.  They were robot cars you added wheels and accessories to and then tested them out on the various ramps.  In addition to these stations, we spent time at the whirlwind tunnel building items that would spin in the wind and they puppet area trying to make a mechanical puppet...but that was a little over our heads.

Learning about the earths rotation...kinda cool to see it 3D.

And check out the HUGE whale they had outside!  Cameron was pretending she was riding on it's back, holding on the the fin and Timo was getting blown out of it's blowhole.

We really like this place...I think we'll be back!  It's  a good place to escape the SF foggy summers!