Croce had their annual hoe down. Jack was excited to do his grade-level square dance; Hazel was not.
All year long, Jack's been pretty unenthusiastic about first grade - it's hard to compare to kindergarten! Finally, during the last week of school, he got honest and sentimental and realized he's had a great year after all.
The first weekend in June, we embarked on a big adventure. Todd's brother, Vlad, has a daughter, Luna, who has come to live with us during the week. Vlad picks her up Saturday morning and brings her back Sunday evening, but the rest of the time, she's with us. She's just over a year old. All the kids have loved playing with her and embraced her into our family culture. It's been a big change for us!
We had a visit from my sister Kathryn that same weekend, and it was so crazy, we didn't go anywhere cool or even take a single picture.
On the morning trip to school, my kids have started a game where they hurry to get to the street crossing and then make peace signs at the passing cars, trying to rack up as many peace sign returns and horn honks they can get before I catch up to them with whoever's the slowest kid of the day. Hazel, in particular, has kept a close eye on her watch and tried to time her arrival to be able to greet the city bus each morning. The bus driver is a good sport and always honks for my kids.
Hazel is a voracious reader. This year, she took AR tests (comprehension tests) on many of the books she read in an attempt to earn a trophy as the 3rd grader with the most points. Well, she went far behind that goal without even breaking a sweat, being honored as one of the top four reading point-earners in the entire school, with 632 points. She is aiming for 800 points for 4th grade, and a thousand for 5th. Should be easy.
All we had to do to motivate her to take the tests (on books she was already reading anyway) was to offer to take her out to dinner wherever she wanted to go if she was top reader in 3rd grade. At first, she wanted to go to In and Out, but happily, we were able to convince her that she'd earned ribs with her hard work.
Hazel had a fabulous school year in Mrs. Wranovic's class. She loved it from day one and never stopped. Her teacher was interesting and patient and fun and created a really safe, positive learning environment in her classroom. I think Hazel is going to revere Mrs. Wranovics forever as one of the best teachers she ever had.
Jack had a good year as well, with Mrs. Wooten in first grade.
We joined the Rhonewood Sharks swim team this summer. Gemma was thrilled to be big enough to participate. She was adorable out there, working her heart out in the pool.
Todd ordered these rubber mats to go on the ground under the play structure so the kids won't have to walk on the wood chips with their bare feet. We all worked hard putting them together. There was a lot of griping, but Bonners work hard! Pull it together, kids! (See Gemma loafing over there with her book? There was a lot of that, and a lot of complaining about it from someone whose name starts with H.)
The week after school got out, we left Luna at our house under Todd's parents care, and went to Sitka, Alaska, with Todd's sister Missy, her husband Burke, and their four daughters, Aleah, Kayla, Shaylee, and Carly.
It was fun to have cousins with us. Hazel and Shay were tight the whole time. We rarely saw one of them without the other.
Jack and Carly were great buddies, as well. Carly and Shaylee taught the kids lots of fun songs and hand games to play. Down By the Banks was especially popular.
The sunsets were really beautiful. This may be the first year I've stayed up late enough to see them. They last a long time, in the sky around 10:30 at night.
We came across a Blackhawk rescuing a sinking boat. Todd was especially excited to see his bird in action.
As always, we saw lots of wildlife. Plenty of seals, sea lions, and otters, a dolphin, fish, and, of course, bald eagles.
Jack helped Todd drive the boat, as usual.
Our first full day, we went hiking on the Herring Cove Creek trail. It was gorgeous and green and had some lovely waterfalls along the route.
On the way down the trail, Gemma tripped on a rock and hit her hip on another rock. It split wide open. We had to take her in to urgent care for (eight) stitches.
I distracted her during the procedure, in part, by having her look at my eyes while I described what her eyes looked like. She was amazed to realize we have twin eyes! Jack's used to match mine as well, but they are getting lighter and a little bit green these days.
When everyone was back on the island, we played our traditional hide and go seek. Gemma was my buddy again, and I must say, we did a mighty fine job of hiding.
That afternoon we drove up to the top of Harbor View Mountain and checked out the view of Sitka Sound. It was lovely.
The next day, we did some more tide pooling in the morning. Jack found a teensy tiny starfish. We took the boat out to a beautiful deep water inlet surrounded by pine covered mountains. We stopped to try and fish for halibut, but kept catching rock fish.
Todd showed us a trick he'd learned coming out here with Tom and his crew. He threw the rock fish back out, and we waited for the bald eagles to come get their snack. It took a while the first time, but we did this several times, and after a while, the bald eagles were coming quick and competitive, soaring overhead and diving in, grabbing the rock fish and carrying them back up to the tops of the pine trees. It was an amazing experience!
We went to the Raptor Center afterwards, which was less cool than usual, after hanging out with all those bald eagles up close in the wild. There was a really cool broken glass sculpture of eagles I liked, and found out that the same artist made a dinosaur head for the library, so we had to check that out later on as well. It did not disappoint.
Sunday we went to church in Sitka and then went to the Totem Pole Park and Museum. It was a cold, foggy Father's Day. We also went up a road above the Fortress of the Bears to try to sneak a peek at the bears for free.
The next day the others went fishing again in the morning and caught a couple of halibut that we grilled up with dinner - they were actually delicious! We rode the boat out to the Salmon Lake hike and saw lots and lots of bear scat on the trail, and I even found a huge bear track in the mud. We never did see any bears, which disappointed Todd and Burke, but I was kind of relieved. I mean, ideally we'd see some, but from across the meadow! I think they were close by but staying hidden due to all the noise our group was making.
That night we grilled up a scrumptious barbecue dinner and had s'mores. I still think they're best with Reese's.
Our last full day we road the boat out over choppy water and saw a dolphin and lots of otters floating on their backs, as well as some sea lions. We went to Goddard hot springs, where someone had taken the natural resource and turned it into a nice natural hot tub. It was such a lovely spot, and kind of surreal to be soaking in our swimsuits in Alaska.
Gemma bonded with Aleah over games and music on her phone.
The kids played a silly game of Clue where they were the characters and were talking out their parts. I thought it was darling.
Hazel says: "We were playing where we were characters and then there was one bad guy and that guy blamed the other people - I mean, one of the other people - for killing somebody else. And then they went in the dungeon. And then a private eye came and found out who the bad guy was."
Gemma's highlights from the trip were going shell hunting, roasting s'mores, and looking for bears on our hike. Jack's favorite parts were the hot springs, shell hunting, and fishing - especially catching the big halibut. Hazel liked the hot pots, having the cousins come with us, s'mores, shell hunting, hanging out in the loft bedroom, and enjoying the scenery.
I rocked the airport with my hip pack. Yeah, you know it!
Jack, especially, has been thrilled to have Luna with us. He kept saying on the way home from Alaska that he'd had a great trip, but he was looking forward to coming home and seeing Luna again. He's unselfishly given up his bedroom for her - sleeping on the floor in the playroom most nights - and hasn't complained at all. We need to come up with a better longer term solution for him, but in the meantime, he's been a champ.
We were home from Sitka for only a few days when Todd's grandpa, Gramps, passed away. We scrambled to make arrangements to get to the funeral in Utah two days later.
Missy's family was generous enough to let us crash at their house for the next few days, and took us around town to splash pads and swimming pools, and out for shakes and fries and fried cheese curds, while we waited out the rest of the week. when we were planning to be in Utah anyway for my Bingham family reunion.
We met up in Smithfield at my parents' house, and had some fun and games and visits with my grandparents. We went to a Welsh festival in Malad, Idaho, where my Grandma Holley grew up.
Gemma fulfilled her biggest dream, riding a horse. She reported that it was scarier than she had thought it would be, but that she loved it.
The kids loved this baby animal area we found, with kittens and puppies and baby chicks and ducklings and bunnies. It was a petting dream come true. Sadly, Hazel came down with an ear infection at the same time, so it was off to an urgent care for the second time in one month.
We had dinner at my Grandpa Bingham's backyard and I just loved seeing my kids playing with their cousins on the old swing set I loved so much as a little girl.
