Our Memorial Day Weekend

We had a nice holiday weekend in Michigan with Bubbe and Papa.

The first activity was to go the Mermaid Megafest.

The big event of the festival was the gathering at the pier to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as mermaids.

We couldn't count how many we saw, but everyone seemed confident that with well over 400 mermaids, the record would be broken.

It was fun to see all of the mermaids and pirates gathered in the one spot.

Kai's favorite activity at his grandparent's house is going to the beach. And after the worst spring in my life, the weather warmed up just in time and we were able to go to the beach every day.

Of course, just because the air temperature had warmed up didn't mean that the water temperature was warm. But the frigid water didn't bother Kai.

I went into the water with Kai to take pictures and keep him company while my wife stayed warm ashore. I asked why I always had to go into the cold water and she said it was a time for father-and-son bonding. Ha!

But when Kai got back to land, he made sure to press his ice cold body against Mom.

Another favorite activity is to play games with Bubbe and Papa. This weekend we had several matches of Rummikub.

Papa is a particularly competitive player so it is extra satisfying when Kai and I teamed up to beat him a time or two.

On our last evening, we strolled back to the lakefront to see the sunset.

Of course, the time went fast and then it was time to say goodbye. We took one more photo before leaving.

On the way home, we made a side trip to go to Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket, a restaurant in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago on old Route 66 that specializes in fried chicken. My wife saw it featured on the Food Network and suggested we could go there to celebrate my birthday since I love fried chicken but don't get to eat it too often.

We ordered chicken wings, sauteed spinach, baked mac and cheese, and the fried chicken, of course!

I loved the fried chicken!

And so went our weekend. Hope you had a nice one, too!

An Early Hanukkah Celebration

Socializing with others remains a challenge for Kai. At school, we're told that he prefers to sit by himself at lunchtime and usually prefers not to interact with the other kids, even when the staff tries to facilitate. He has said that he wants to use those occasions as breaks for himself whereas interacting with others adds to his stress.

But with his family coming over this past Saturday evening for an early Hanukkah celebration, we encouraged Kai to talk with everyone and to play with his cousins. We did not want him to be alone on his iPad all evening.

We were happy to see that he not only made an attempt, but actually enjoyed playing with his cousins.

Here he is partaking in the annual dreidel game with his cousins. He enjoyed the game and came away the big winner.

After dinner, we got him to play some Wii Sports Resort games with his cousins. He was very involved even when it wasn't his turn to play. Watching them play, you likely wouldn't be able to easily tell that he usually has big challenges with socializing.

And then it was time to open presents. My favorite part was when he showed heartfelt thanks without his mom or me having to prompt him.

Here he is with his grandfather.

And with here with Bubbe, who along with Papa gave him a bunch of Mario and other plushes.

And so it was a good evening in many ways. It was nice for all of us to get together, and a good time was had by all. But it was especially nice that Kai fit right in.

Scenes from Our Weekend

We went to visit Kai's grandparents in Michigan this weekend.

We headed to the beach. The air temperature was only in the low 70s and the water temperature was much colder. In the past, Kai never let that stop him, but on this day even he did not want to go much more than ankle-high into the water.

I think all that swimming in the warm ocean waters of Hawaii softened him up. Ha!

We played a couple of games of rumikub with Papa and Bubbe.

The pancake breakfast sponsored by the local Rotary Club is one of our traditions. Kai had a little bit of pancake with his blueberry sauce.

After the big breakfast, we wanted to take a walk and went out on the pier to the lighthouse.

Later we went to a craft fair where we had shave ice that was very reminiscent of ones we had in Hawaii.

Of course we had to go back to the beach. It was a bit warmer than the day before, but water was just as cold. Still, Kai wanted to get in the water this time.

There was a pretty good surf, also a bit reminiscent of Hawaii. What wasn't like Hawaii was that I was numb from the cold within seconds of being in the water.

Before we left, we had Kai stand back to back with Bubbe. By this photo, it looks like he has grown a lot.

And so went our last summer weekend of the year. It was a good one!

Weekend in South Haven

We spent the holiday weekend visiting grandparents in South Haven.

Of course, Kai and I spent part of the time out looking for Pokémon. Here he is by North Beach with the lighthouse in the background.

Later, we went to the beach to go swimming.

Well, Kai wanted to go swimming. My wife and I wanted no part of going in the water. It has been an unseasonably cool spring so far and Lake Michigan has yet to warm up. The air temperature was also cool on this day, only in the upper 60s.

But that didn't stop Kai from going in.

He wanted to try out the snorkeling equipment we bought for our next vacation later this summer.

I was just happy that he didn't implore that I come in and join him in the water.

The next day, Bubbe took us to use the pool at her health club. The water was warmer and much more conducive to swimming.

And speaking of Bubbe, Kai is now taller than her...

The above photo was taken after she demonstrated to Kai how to use the paddle ball.

We always do fun activities in South Haven, but best part of going there is to visit with Bubbe and Papa. We had not seen them since Hanukkah and they were especially happy to see us, and Kai in particular, this time. Here we are getting ready to have the best hot dogs I've ever had (Kosher dogs from Chicago's Romanian Kosher Sausage Co.). Bubbe had red, white, and blue plates and decorations for both Memorial Day and to commemorate my wife recently becoming a U.S. citizen.

On Monday, we took a walk together to walk along the lakefront. Here we are just across from the South Haven lighthouse.

And here we are looking back toward shore. It was a very windy day and there was a man doing kiteboarding. It is hard to see, but in the picture below you can see the giant "kite" in the right top portion of the photo. The kite/sail is connected by rope to a man on a board in the water. With the wind blowing so strongly, he was really sailing across the water very rapidly.

After that, we walked down beside the river and found a spot where Kai could feed ducks.

The ducks here get fed regularly so many of them were not hungry, but Kai found one that eagerly gobbled up the pieces of bread he had.

On the way home from Michigan, we stopped in Chicago to celebrate my birthday with dinner at Chicago Kalbi, a yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku means grilled meat in Japanese, and yakiniku restaurants are where you can barbecue your own meat right at the table. I believe this cuisine originated in Korea, and you can have a similar experience at Korean BBQ places.

We ordered the kalbi (marinated short ribs), beef tongue, and bulogogi (thinly sliced ribeye in marinade).

Kai said his favorite was the beef tongue, while I liked the ribeye the best.
In addition to the meat, we ordered vegetables to grill. They also brought out kimchi and other fermented Korean and Japanese vegetables which were delicious.

And after we got home, I got to blow out candles and we all enjoyed birthday cupcakes.

So it was a great weekend all around!

Holiday Weekend with Bubbe and Papa

We spent the holiday weekend in southwestern Michigan with Kai's grandparents. As usual, we were able to do a lot of fun activities with Kai.

On Saturday, while Mom and Bubbe enjoyed a craft fair, Papa and Kai enjoyed snow cones. I am normally not a fan of snow cones as the idea of a snow cone always far exceeds the reality. From my experience, snow cones are way too icy and have far too little of the tasty syrup. Most of the time you are just crunching through pieces of ice. And so, I declined to have my own snow cone. But I did have a little taste of Kai's.

It was the best snow cone I've ever had!

There were several things that made this snow cone so outstanding. First, while most snow cones are made from way too big shavings of ice, on this one the ice was shaved very finely which made it have the texture of soft snow. Secondly, the server was generous with the syrup, so there was a lot of flavor throughout. And finally, this place had a vast variety of flavors to choose from. Kai and his grandfather each had root beer and coconut, with Kai also adding on cinnamon. An cinnamon-flavored snow cone? Yes, and it was delicious!

After that, we hit the beach. It was a bit of a cool day, temperatures in the mid 70s, which was great for walking around but cool for going to the beach, especially since the water itself was very cold. I didn't go in too far, but Kai still enjoyed splashing around on a boogie board.

The next morning we went to a pancake breakfast sponsored by the local Rotary Club. A good friend of Kai's grandparents specially made Kai some Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes. He's not much for pancakes at home, but with a little chocolate syrup, he ate these all up.

Later we had to go back to get more snow cones. This time I had my own and Mom came with us as well. Kai ordered root beer and cinnamon "with a hint of coconut." I had guava, mango, and blueberry. Yum!

Next we debated whether to go back to the beach or to go to an indoor swimming pool instead. The outdoor temperature was a little warmer - around 80 degrees - so perhaps the water would be more tolerable. We tried to look up the water temperature; I found two figures - one said it was 63 degrees and the other said it was 29 (Fahrenheit) which doesn't make any sense. Since it was such a sunny day, we decided to go to the beach.

I found out that the 29 degree figure was a lot closer than the 63 degrees. It was really cold!

But Kai likes it when (at least) one of us goes in the water with him so I went into the freezing water. We had great fun having a water fight.

On our last morning, we went to a nearby farm to pick our own raspberries.

Kai enjoys tasting some as we pick but we managed to fill 8 containers.

So we had a great time, and I didn't even show you the pictures of all the great meals we had as I was too busy eating to think of taking pictures. :)

Hope you had a nice weekend, as well.

The Busy Last Days of Summer Break

Kai starts school today but he made the most of the last few days of break with a fun visit with his grandparents in Michigan.

Kai looks forward to going to the beach there, and this time he went five times in five days.

Bubbe always has fun activities on tap. This time they went on two different boat rides including this duck.

The duck ride was fun, as was getting ice cream afterward.

Another of Kai’s favorite activities this time of year is going fruit picking. This time he picked blueberries, apples, and peaches.

And best of all, he spent a lot of time with his grandparents, including hanging out on the front porch with Papa.

You would think after all that, he would have been tired out, but as soon as we got home late yesterday afternoon, he wanted to head over to our neighborhood pool to get in one last swim before it closed for the year.

Kai has been a pretty good swimmer for a while now, but this was the first time that he wanted to go to the deep end of the pool and dive in. I was happy to see his courage, until he started to insist that I try it, too.

I am not nearly the swimmer that Kai is now, and going to the deep end of the pool makes me a bit nervous. But what could I say as Kai persisted?

“Come on, Dad, you can do it!”

“I’ll catch you!”

Well, after years of encouraging my son to be brave and try new things, I couldn’t be a hypocrite now. I went over to the deep end of the pool, climbed out, and then dove into the water. And then we each did it over and over again.

Kai also tried the small slide at the pool for the first time in years. In the past, he has always shied away from this little tunnel slide, but once he went down yesterday, he wanted to keep going again and again, alternating between diving at the deep end of the pool and going down the slide.

We stayed at the pool right up until they rang the bell that closed up shop for the summer, making the most of the last moments of summer break.

It was a fitting wrap to summer, one full of fun and momentous times. But it went by fast.

Is it really nine months now till next summer?