August 2019

I'll start August on the last evening of July with the best Korean BBQ with Luke and Sunny and Palo Alto.

After dinner they took us to a crazy good and weird shaved ice place. I can't even describe it. Something like shaved ice and ice cream?

The next morning Mark headed off to Apple for work and the boys and I checked out the hotel while waiting for our tour guide (Luke) to pick us up.

Luke came and took us all around to all the cool places!  Google first to check it all out and eat lunch with Sunny.

Then on over to Stanford for a quick tour. Hoover Tower was first.

We learned Timmy got his dad's fear of heights. He couldn't even step up to the bars. Brian was all about it!

Then Stanford Memorial Church.

I LOVE this place.  I love the stained glass chronological stories from Christ's life.  They are beautiful!  I am so glad it was open and the boys could see it.  They knew every single story through our study of the New Testament this year.  So grateful for the new Come Follow Me curriculum.

Then to the arched hallways around the quad.  So beautiful.

Getting in contact with Mark to meet up after his meetings.

We went to dinner and had the best Korean fried chicken and Bulgogi tacos. Oh I want some of both right now.

There was a festival out on the street we walked around and enjoyed. I was certainly enjoying the perfect weather knowing it was 100 degrees at home.

The next morning Mark did not have to work and Sunny and Luke took off work to spend the day with us in San Francisco! We started the day at the amazing Exploratorium Museum!  Our Googler tour guides got Mark and I in for free!

We could have spent all day checking out the hundreds of hands-on exhibits.  It was so much fun!

 After our fill at the Exploratorium we headed to Fisherman's Warf and Ghirardelli Square.

We could not keep Timmy from the ocean!

Mark helped the boys pack as many chocolates as possible into that little tin.

Then we said goodbye to the warf and headed to Chinatown.

I love Chinatown!

We were hoping to eat our way through Chinatown and find some good places.  We found a couple of great places and one really not so good place.  We went against the reviews and tried this dim sum place where Mark went a little nuts and got us tons of food and NONE of it was remotely good. We laughed at Mark's exuberance in the ordering and went back to the yummy bakery we found for a second time.

While at the bakery Mark was playing thumb wars with Timmy and somehow Luke got this picture. I think Timmy was winning.

Best egg custard ever!

Then it was off to view the Golden Gate Bridge! It was the perfect fog free view!

After that we were getting tired and decided to head back to Palo Alto where we watched the boys play in the hotel pool.

Then the pool closed and we had the hotel start us a table fire.  It was a very lovely and beautiful evening together as a family with Sunny and Luke.  The perfect end to a perfect day!

Our last morning I convinced everyone to get up early and I made Luke drive us to the coast to find some tide pools.  I am so glad everyone was willing to take me up on my random adventure ideas.  It started cold and warmed up nicely.  It ended up being my favorite part of the whole trip (besides the food)!

The ranger at the nature reserve told us to walk down these coastal paths to another beach to find more tide pools.  We followed the advice and it made for an even more fun and beautiful adventure!

We had to say goodbye to the ocean to make it back to Palo Alto and check out of the hotel.  Before dropping us at the airport, Luke and Sunny took us to another Korean BBQ place, which also included personal hotpot soups.  It was amazing and almost overwhelming with the amount of food we were eating and making!

We sadly said goodbye to Luke and Sunny and headed home. That trip was definitely my favorite part of Summer 2019! Back at home the boys started tennis lessons.  Here is Mark giving them a few pointers in the basement.

Timmy's black widow grew to an unimaginable size and then died.  We think of old age.  She was like three years old. Here she is a few weeks before her death.

We did one more horse camp for the summer.

And took pictures of silly animal tricks.

Then it was time to register Brian for middle school! Yikes! How was this happening already?

And it was back to the weekly 5:00am temple trips with the youth. So early!

And a very large Hsiao/Hurst family party.

Then when all the summer horse camps and parties were over I could finally take the horses to the ranch!  Look at that green grass!  They were and still are in heaven up there!

At home we hosted a Trek get together and let the boys watch an outdoor movie.

Friends invited us to a baseball game.

Where Mark caught a foul ball!  It was not an easy catch.  He was quick as lightening and reached way out in front of the glass box behind him to catch that ball. It was so exciting!

It also happened to be Harry Potter night!

The next morning was another early temple trip.

Back to the ranch to ride the horses.

Or to play around for the boys.  They aren't too into the horses.

Pip found where the hens were secretly laying their eggs. 

Mark got some antique bamboo fishing rods for a great deal.

And then summer was over.  Over because school had to start.  I am never fully ready for summer to end, but the boys (Brian especially) were excited to start school.  They were looking forward to seeing friends and getting back into a good routine. This is the first day of sixth grade for Brian.

First day of fourth grade for Timmy!

One night I decided to finally try to kill the yellow jackets that had taken over the inside of our barn wall. We had sprayed and sprayed and they still lived on in the cinder blocks! Mark was willing to help try to block the hole they were using.  He didn't put on any protective gear and got stung several times.  Then he got decked out to finish the job.

But the damage was already done.  Apparently he is super allergic to stings and I was grateful that he didn't get stung near his face. This picture was just after he got stung.  That little swollen bump was nothing compared to how it swelled in the next few days.

Those stings swelled and swelled and stayed swollen for weeks.  He still has scars that itch three months later!  I felt so bad.  I will never ask him to take care of bee problems again. That swollen hand is from one yellow jacket sting!

Mark did snow cones for a quad stake dance.

Mark fixed a friend's kids dirt bike the boys got to try around the field.  Timmy still wants one.

Brian and Timmy had orchestra auditions and met their favorite cellist ever. Steven Sharp Nelson was so nice to take a picture with them and we learned that his daughter is Brian's age and even in his math class at school!  She is in their same orchestra too. 

Mark took the boys weekly to coach them on tennis.  They learned so much!

He got his electric skateboard and the boys had lots of fun trying it out!

The end of August brought a beautiful trip to Flaming Gorge to the Cooke's cabin!

The kid's favorite was catching crayfish at the lake!

But there was plenty of fun to be had at the cabin as well!

Mahjong has become a Cooke cabin tradition.

Along with movies.

My favorite is the sunsets.

And the friends.

Goodbye August. You were amazingly full of fun and work and family and friends and beauty. Looking back on you brings so much gratitude for my wonderful life.