Picnic with kids & friends

July 3rd, 2013

My friends and I had been planning to have this picnic for a long time but there was always something going on that we kept postponing it until today. I was glad we made it because it was such a beautiful day out there. 

We decided to go to Scenic Beach State Park in Seabeck. It took us 30 minutes to get there.

 These were some of the views that we saw along the way.

I guess I was busy eating that I didn't even remember to take any pictures of our picnic table so I went to search for old pictures of this place. This one was taken way back in Aug 2010. I still remember it was our first time here and we were fasting in Ramadan. 

 I was eating (again) when I saw this sail boat passing by and quickly grabbed my camera and took a few shots of it.   

It was low tide while we were there. The boys had a great time in the water.

Amazing view of the Olympic mountains.

Sarah loves the water. 

I had to take Sarah out of the water after awhile because she started to shiver a little bit. Her brothers follow suit not long after that. The two ladies in the picture are the only Malay friends that I have in this area. 

Meanwhile Ezzat kept swimming for a long time. The water was just nice but once you get out of it, you could feel pretty cold due to the breeze.

Sarah is easy to warm up to new people. She had a short stranger anxiety moment when she was younger but now she can be pretty friendly.

Finally Ezzat decided that he had enough swimming for the day and Sarah gave him a hug.

My sweet little girl. Thanks Grammy for the swimming suit. Finally she's able to wear it.

Fourth of July and Fireworks

I think this was our first time watching fireworks on first of July. We were planning to watch the one in Poulsbo just because it was only a few minutes away from our house but we found out that the show was already held the night before. We googled our options and luckily there were a few around the area. We decided to go to the one in Kingston.  

The venue was already packed with people when we got there. Luckily there was a small grassy spot that was empty. You can see the boys's heads in the picture. The show started at 10.30pm, way past Sarah's bedtime. She fell asleep in the car on the way and woke up right after we parked the car. She did really well throughout the entire show despite the noise, plus we weren't that close to the fireworks. I should have searched for basic setting to photograph them. Most of the pictures I took were all blurry with no definite shape of the main attraction. The show itself, however, was breathtaking. 

Our Saturday at the park

Although living in Washington means that we have to endure grey weather pretty much 80% for most of the time (I am not even exaggerating here), but whenever the sun decides to come out, it can be really pretty out here. This weekend has been exactly that. Sunny and breezy. 

We spent half of our Saturday at the Silverdale waterfront park. I got them some donuts and milk and they were pretty much happy campers. 

Emir didn't look too good with his mouth full of donuts and it was hard to get Sarah to look at the camera.

She was still holding the same piece of donut that I gave to her earlier. She is not exactly a good eater. But she loves swings now. And don't be fooled by her serious face. For some reason whenever she's on the swing, she always have that serious business like look. 

How much fun will it be to learn how to sail?

Watching her brothers climbing up a tree.

Time to go home

Mmm...no, not quite

This day last year...

We were invited by Aunt Barbara and Uncle John to spend some time with them and their friends at their friends' cabin somewhere in Key Peninsula, WA. It so happened that Daniel had to play for a Memorial Day Service ceremony nearby the place, so we left the boys with the Wickhams. Daniel, Sarah and I went to the ceremony and came back right after it was over. 

It was super windy and cold that day especially during the ceremony. 

Sarah, at 3 months and 3 weeks.

The Vaughn Bay cemetery where the ceremony was held.

Came back to find the boys having fun kayaking.

On the way to collect some mussels.

Sarah with Aunt Barbara

Uncle John and Aunt Barbara

 The mussels that we collected

The boys and I had so much fun playing with the rope swing.

The cabin

Emir

His left middle finger got caught between his classroom door and the door jamb last Friday. I got a call from his school about it around noon. Actually it was a missed call! They called Daniel but he was already on his way to a gig that was an hour away. Daniel called me and this time I did pick up. My friend Farina happened to be with me and Sarah, having lunch when I got his call. I left Sarah with her, and went straight to the school. When I arrived, there were already four ambulances. Seriously, four? When I entered the school office, the room was packed with paramedics plus the principal, office staffs, and some teachers. One of the office staffs had to go out to get some fresh air because she couldn't stand the blood. I was asked if I would let the paramedics take him to the nearest hospital or I would prefer to drive him there instead. I opted for the second one thinking that it would be easier for us since the navy hospital already has his records etc. So we went to the ER, waited for about 15 minutes before being attended, which felt like eternity at that point of time.

The first thing they did was to lightly clean the wound. At the school, I didn't get to see it since it was covered with thick gauze so I didn't know the extent of the wound. We had to get an-ray done to see if there was any bone fractured.  The finger almost got chopped off and the only thing that kept it together was the skin. Poor guy was pretty tough. He was in pain but hardly shed any tears. He did however whine a bit when they started an IV on him and when they wanted to numb his finger. Since the upper part of his finger bone was fractured, an orthopedic surgeon was called to sew it back together. I had to look away when they did the procedure. Emir didn't seem to mind though.

We were discharged after being at the hospital for four hours. As much as I was worried about Emir, I was also worried about Sarah since she was not used to be left with someone else. But things worked out well in the end. Farina had to go home, so she left Sarah with the other two boys when they got back from school. Her brothers took her in their room, closed the door so she couldn't get out and just played with her until we got back. Daniel came back a few minutes after that. What a day!

PS: We went back to the hospital today for a follow up checkup and the wound is healing really well! Thank god for that! We do have to go back again in 10 days so that they can take off the stitches.

And this little missy here, she can be funny sometimes. She saw her big brother holding up his hand with bandages and all, and she started pretending she was in pain, holding her hand up just like him. So I wrapped her arm with a piece of gauze cloth and she walked around the living room like this.

Her expression is hilarious!