Monterey

I'm sad to say that this is our last entry for our Summer Blog. *sniff, sniff* It flew by but we had a lot of fun.

For our last hurrah we decided to take a trip to Monterey. We took a glass bottom boat into the bay, but only saw a jellyfish and a couple of fish down below. We did see a mama sea otter and her baby eating. And of course the sea lions.

How do those sea lions smell, guys?

We hung out on the beach for awhile. We saw about a million dead sand crabs. The boys collected some on the best shells and now have them rotting in my car. 

We also went on a 3 hour whale watching trip. We saw a huge sun fish, 5 humpback whales, a porpoise, and many sea lions and sea birds. 

We drove out for nearly an hour before we spotted the whales. They are just magnificent animals! Seeing their flukes flip up before they dove was just beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the whales. You'll just have to take my word for it!

This guy was hanging out on the dock just before we boarded.

 

The sun fish:

The boys stood at the rail almost the entire ride out.

We sure had a fun summer! We're sad to see it end but we're glad you followed our blog and kept up with the Walkers. See you next summer!

Language Camp 2013

 

Last week was Dry Creek Rancheria's Youth Language Camp at Alexander Valley Campground. There were several fun activities for the kids to learn and practice the language, as well as some traditional food preparation stations.


There was a Twister game using Southern Pomo words for red, yellow, green and blue.

 

Red Light, Green Light using Southern Pomo for red and green.

Bow and arrow game using animal names and numbers.

  

The boys liked the remote controlled helicopter.

 

There was a station for preparing a drink made from manzanita berries. 

Here is a picture of the unripe berries. 

 

When the berries are red and ripe they are harvested off of the tree and then are "winnowed" in a basket to separate the berries from the leaves and twigs.

Then they are gently pounded to get the break the skins.

They are placed in a colander lined with a cheesecloth, then over a bowl. Water is then poured over the berries. This process is repeated until you have your desired flavor. 

And you get this yummy drink:

Another station was set up for shelling and pounding bay nuts.

 

These days we like to take the shelled nuts, roast them in the oven, pound them out, roll them into balls and cover them with chocolate. They are really tasty. Almost like a chocolate covered coffee bean. 

There was also fried seaweed:

 

A tasty muffin made with pounded acorns and cornmeal:

  

And of course, hot dogs and Auntie's famous frybread:

 

I LOVED these cool signs:

And these cool hats:

And this awesome language sign with QR codes to hear native flora and fauna in the language.
Like those pictures? Alex drew them!

It was a fun time! We're looking forward to next year.

Soccer

The boys started soccer 3 weeks ago with Just 4 Kicks. The first day was orientation and figuring out the teams.  Josh and Chris are on the same team, which is called Team USA. Nathan is on a different team called The Vipers.
 
We are enjoying this program for a few reasons:

1) The coaches are very kind and encouraging. (Unlike Kidz Love Soccer, whose coach threatened to kick Nathan off of the team when he was 4, then proceeded to argue with Alex about it right in front of the kids. Classy.)

2) Practice and games are on the same night! I love this the most. There's 20 minutes of drills, then a game.

3) Teams that will play against each other do drills together. I believe this encourages good sportsmanship.

4) The park they use is in Vacaville and it is really nice. Too bad that it's right across the street from the prison though!

Since Josh and Chris are on the same team, I don't have to wait around for 3 hours. I feel blessed! Not that I don't love watching the boys play sports, but 3 hours is a long time to be hanging around. Especially with Maayu. Luckily there is a lot of grass for her to run around on for the 2 hours we are waiting.

So far Josh and Chris' team is undefeated. I've been really impressed at how well Chris is doing! Not because I don't think he has the ability, but because he gave so little effort into playing basketball. Apparently he hates basketball.

Nathan has been doing a great job too. He hasn't played as much soccer as the other boys, so he's unsure of himself. But he runs back and forth with his team and has kicked the ball several times. He played goalie last week and did really well.