Paddle Away

Now.. we are back to our regular programing... a sudden death can do that to you especially when I had a few more summer posts all lined up to share.

The last summer field trip was to the Shoreline Lake Aquatic Center in Mountain View where we tried out paddle boating!

No dads this time around!

We split up into three boats of four.

The first (Boat 1) was Carolyn and Calina with her two boys, Joshua and Zachary. I thought that they were so lucky.. the boys will be doing all the paddling and they would just lounge and chat the whole time.

Boat 2 was the big boys... Cory, Daniel, Craig and his friend Trent.

The boys felt that paddling without shoes was more effective along with using their arms and hands as oars!

Boat 3 was the Girls boat.. me, Emily, Hannah and Priscilla. After further reflection (after I got on to the boat), I realized that my boat may be of a disadvantage. I was the only adult; one who could not swim, had a bad knee and was with the two youngest kids of our group... hmmm... not a good situation.

And paddling was HARD!! It looked easy but apparently it's all looks. I was exhausted after a few minutes of paddling and we didn't really move anywhere significantly.

Happy pedaling girls.. Priscilla barely reached the pedals. She was actually pedaling off her seat!

But I underestimated my girls.. Priscilla wanted to pedal and she had the stamina of two or even three of me! (and that's not saying a whole lot!) Emily, Hannah and Priscilla pedaled away like there was no tomorrow!

After the hard workout (we were just out there for one hour and that's plenty of time Carolyn says) we headed to lunch at In and Out and McD's... (the hamburgers are better at In and Out and the fries are better at McD's.) with dessert at Krispy Kreme!

The last time these boys will see each other until next summer!!

Until next June..

Final GoodBye

Last night was BunnYee's funeral service. She was around 4-5 years old and Rachel was her owner for about 1-1/2 years of her life.

Her little plot was located on the side of their house and next to the graves of their guinea pigs, Marley and Quantas.

BunnYee was kept in 'status' in a cardboard box in a freezer until this day. She's underneath the plastic brown bag with the roses on top with a portrait of her looking so darn cute.

Michael officiated the service sharing how BunnYee came into their family (through their neighbor friend, Kimbo) and that Rachel, BunnYee's main caregiver, spent $150 of her own money to pay for her 'surgery' (to have no babies).

Technology is wonderful.. see Jessie waving in Brian's hand?

Rachel's sister, Jessie, was at the service .. all the way from Biola University in So. CA. She could not miss saying good-bye to an important member of her family.

We had an open mic to share what our favorite memories of BunnYee were... and all were of how cute she was when she jumped around, how she splayed out laying down relaxing, hiding, eating or hopping around happily like all bunnies do.

Michael shared an appropriate verse from the Bible, "The godly care for their animals," (Proverbs 2:10a) and ended the service in prayer.

After all the girls dropped a flower onto her box, Michael covered it up with soil and laid her to rest.

Rachel

Emily

 We brought a bunny statue that Emily picked to put on top of BunnYee as a 'tombstone' of sorts.

The family will plant Forget-Me-Not seeds that they got from their Auntie Caroline's memorial service on top of Bunn's grave. Hopefully they will bloom next Spring.

Good bye BunnYee.. thank you for bringing so much joy to both our families.

Now... Rachel wants another bunny... maybe even two!! Emily agrees wholeheartedly!!

Angela wants a dog.. may be like one of these?

What do you think Angela???

We'll see what happens next. :)

Gone but Never Forgotten

"BunnYee died!!" Rachel sobbed as she and her mom came by unexpectedly this evening. What a shock! We were all trying to figure out what had happened to her.

From Angela (BunnYee's grandma): "She was normal all day, but didn't really want to eat her veggies in the afternoon, even passed up carrots.  She seemed a little more mellow than usual so I checked on her a lot.  I could see her move around while we had dinner, by the time we were done she was lying still on the ground behind a box (her litter box) that she pushed away. "

Emily sobbed, hugged Rachel and immediately went online to find out why rabbits die. She said she couldn't find anything. And sobbed some more.

So I went and googled why rabbits die and there were various theories:
- "When rabbits are about to die they hop less and eat less; Usually they want to hide themselves before they die." (Probably why she moved her litter box and sat behind it which was something she never did before.)
-"Because rabbits are prey species, they still may hide signs of disease until they are extremely sick. Rabbits hide their illness for as long as possible. So the rabbit was actually very ill even though you did not recognize signs of disease. This means that by the time an owner notices that their rabbit looks sick, it is very late in the process of the disease. In such cases, what appears to be an acute death is actually a chronic illness that only became evident when there was not much that could be done to save the rabbit"
- "Extremely rare cases, rabbits can have a blockage of the intestines, usually near where the stomach opens into the small intestine. This can be caused by ingestion of foreign material (like carpet fibers). The typical scenario is a rabbit that looks fine the night before and in the morning is not very interested in eating. Very soon afterward, the rabbit looks lethargic and may not even be able to ambulate well. Within the next 30 to 60 minutes, the body temperature plummets and the rabbit becomes almost non responsive"
- "Rabbits are very sensitive creatures and can die from stress, loud noises or fear."

Sigh... our first pet-that-wasn't-our-pet death. This was the first animal that both girls were 100% in charge of caring for. I was not involved at all. So sad and painful. Emily was like a second Mama to BunnYee.

But we were blessed to have had the short period of time (1-1/2 years since Rachel had her) to know her especially the last few times we got to BunnYee sit her.

BunnYee's last time in our home was when she was able to explore our kitchen.

This video is to commemorate the joy she gave our family while she was here:

RIP BunnYee... we love and miss you!

Explor-away

This summer we explored the new Exploratorium at Pier 15 in SF. Same group of people came but the dad who came this time was Matthew. This was a huge museum. They did a great job remodeling it and you'll need at least two visits to go through the whole place. Parking is expensive since it's the waterfront but we BARTed here. It was only a 10-15 minute walk to Pier 15 from the Embarcadero station.

New sign in front of the museum

Hannah is floating!

Joshua and Zachary making it rain!

Hannah listening to music through her teeth!

Wow.. Hannah sure grew a lot this summer!

Checking out Zachary's insides

Priscilla's got pins through her hands!

Right next door to the the Exploratorium is the TCHO factory where they make yummy chocolate.
I blogged about this place in Dec 2011..TCHO and More

Nice to end the long day with some chocolate!!

BunnYee Comes a Hoppin'

The girls were so excited that our friends were going on vacation. That means they would need to find a bunny sitter for BunnYee..

She's been shedding... so Emily has been collecting bunny fur in a cup.

She got kind of 'plumper' while she was here the last time and we figured it was all the food we gave her and no exercise space. She just lounged around, ate and pooped.

So this time around we opened up our kitchen for her to roam. After securing all the spaces she could 'escape' through,  she slipped and slided on the hardwood floor.

She was such a joy to have in the house! But she literally TOOK OVER the house! Boy, bunnies need a lot of space!!

First Summer Field Trips!

We got the chance to go on some summer field trips again! My sister and my nephews and our friends Carolyn and kids were able to check out some new sights this summer...

First being the Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab (which is a part of UC Santa Cruz).

Priscilla and Hannah

It was a nice little aquarium where we were able to touch a shark...

Emily touching a leopard shark

...check out the coast...

My three nephews on the left; Ken, Carolyn and Calina with Craig in the back; Cory and Priscilla with my girls on the right.

... and Priscilla was almost eaten by a gray whale...

... or what was left of one.

Afterwards we checked out the Santa Cruz tide pools at Natural Bridges. Usually Matthew comes with us on this voyage but he couldn't this time around (something about having to go to work), so my brother-in-law, Ken, joined us.

This is the scariest part of the tide pools.. crossing this fissure.. it's a slippery and wide climb over. My sister and I always stop at this point while the kids cross over.

After all the exploring, we headed to dinner at the Korean Food Court. Matthew and Greg met us there. They couldn't miss out good food!

We also visited Great America. Same group except the dad who came was Greg. Hannah went on the new GoldStriker roller coaster. She has no fear...really!

Hannah is in the front in white (too bad we can't see Priscilla next to her); Daniel and Cory are behind her; Craig and his friend Trent are behind them

Priscilla, Cory, Zachary and Hannah in the wave pool. Zachary even found $10 in there! He was so excited!

Ended the day with a soft serve (she can eat that!) and an Icee!!

What Nemo said

"First day of school! First day of school!" was actually yesterday for my girls.

I think our school started the latest out of all the area schools but my girls weren't complaining. We enjoyed a longer summer.

Emily is entering 7th and Hannah 4th grade. Hannah has Mrs. Hinton.

September 2013

Oh look at that.. there's Emily with Mrs. Hinton when she was in 4th grade! We are so lucky to have her as a teacher again! She's a awesome teacher and colleague of mine!

September 2010

Here are the girls three years ago when Emily was entering 4th grade and Hannah 1st grade.

Here are some of Emily's classmates now in 7th!

Can you recognize some of them when they were in 4th? They are all in the above picture... just a little taller and more beautiful!

Hannah with her cousin, Marissa, who is starting 2nd grade!!

My how the years fly by!!