Summer becomes Surfer Chic!

9-14-08: Summer has officially become a California girl! She is now a surfer chick! We were invited to the beach house of the Schlenk's--the kids are on the same swim team with Summer. It's practically the end of summer and it was our first time to go to the beach! It was our first time to try out our boogie boards we bought during the fall last year, and Summer got to try out surfing!

Thanks to the Schlenk family for being great hosts and teachers! We had a great time there.

Summer catching a wave on her boogie board...
She's wearing goggles because the salt water stings her eyes! And the wetsuit because the Pacific is COLD!!!
Marina and Summer pose with her surf board.
Dan and Ronly sit with Keri, watching the girls play in the water.
Surfer chicks getting ready to catch a wave!
Marina teaches Summer her first surfing lesson. Here she helps get the tether on her ankle.
Heading out into the wild, cold, Pacific Ocean...check the video clip below to see how she did.

The first video clip is Marina teaching Summer how to surf. You'll see her several tries, then her best run; the 2nd clip is of Marina catching a nice ride into shore.

Pathfinder Induction

9-13-08: Today was Pathfinder and Adventurer Induction (dedication) service at church. Pathfinder Director Mike Sabangan led out. Primary 1 also did special music, led by Mephi & pianist Gladden. Later that evening, went to Souplantation with some friends!

Summer (middle), with friends...
You can see cousins Josh (sleeping) and Jake.
Cousin Javan...
Cousin Joelle sings with Primary 1...
Mephi conducts the Primary 1 choir
Carly does a jig in her t-shirt dress!

The Girl Gang posing at Souplantation

While moms away, dads play!

9-3-08: While many of the moms went to a Women of Faith event all day yesterday, the left-behind dads and kids met for lunch and Sabbath activities at the Elias residence after 2nd service. There were a few moms who stayed behind that helped out--yeah!

The dads helping the kids get their food.
Pastor John plays a new version of rock-paper-scissor with Summer while Emily looks on.
The fearless hardworking moms who stayed behind (L-R): Sylvana, Conchita, Keri, and Nanci
Some of the crazy kids!


Working hard in the kitchen....
Look at the sweat on their brows...
Pooped out after a long afternoon in the kitchen!Some dads were pooped out without slaving away....Once the rest of the moms returned, we had a massive sundown worship
Holly helps to lead out in guess-what-song?
Todd (in the background) thinks: "Hmmm, I'm a physician, so I should probably help this poor lady who is trying to strangle herself. Eh, on second thought, I'll see where this goes first. I don't know what insurance coverage she has."
Todd does some wild crazy dance moves while helping Holly lead out in song service.
Pastors Alex and John help leading out.
After most had gone home, we started up a ping pong tournament, which went on till after midnight! The competitors were: Dee (aka Moadeeb, aka the "Table Tennis Terror"), Mike, Corey, John, and Ernie. Round robin format to determine seeding in a single elim. tourney. Here Dee and Mike battle like ping pong gladiators.
Dee is the victor! He defeated the #1 seed (Ernie) to win the coveted "Ping Pong Gladiator" trophy, which I'm sure he'll proudly display in a prominent place in his home.

4 b-days @ PF Changs

9-1-08: Lots of b-days happening, and we celebrated 4 of them at PF Changs tonight: Josh (11 on Aug. 27); Keri (Aug. 27); Todd (Aug. 31); and Kim (Sept. 2). I missed getting a picture of all 4 of them together--what kind of photojournalist am I...I'm slacking!

Look at the winner of our Beach Body contest just a week after we ended and a day after doing a half-marathon--chowing on all that dessert!
One of the b-day celebrants (Kimbo), sneaks into my picture of me flashing my "I love U" hand signals. (No, there are not gang signs!)
All the kids had their own long row of tables while us adults sat at another row next to them. We were pretty loud!
Pastor John and Nanci taught us a Korean twist to Rock-Paper-Scissors (or as Rasheed and I like to call it, "Ra! Pa! Sci!"). It's a cool new way to play!
Our waiter Evan definitely earned his tips tonight with our group! He did a great job.
Must've been some additive in the food that caused the kids to go bonkers afterwards. (Missing are the Makowski girls and the Martell boys.)
I know hurricane Gustov is a long ways off, but look at how the winds are just blowing Dee away!

Markus' 40th b-day

8-31-08: Today we surprised Markus Perkins for his 40th b-day. It went off without a hitch! He had no clue, and was completely dazed. We all had a good time with him, and he was a great sport. Here are a few shots, some of special visitors!

Who is that riding up on that girlie bike? Could it be? No, it couldn't...but I think it is...it's the one and only, Bambi and Babi, come to wish Markus a Happy B-day!
Wow, what a lucky dude, to be between these 2 hot chicks.
Two Androids (AU alum) help celebrate the big guy's 40th.
Summer looks like she's taking a bath in the jacuzzi!

Junior SS up front in church

8-30-08: Today was the Junior SS class's turn to be upfront, participating in the services today. The whole class sang, "Dare to Run", and then a smaller group of girls sang, "Be the One".

See if you can find Summer! Clue: she's wearing contacts!

They all did a great job, even when there was some technical difficulties in 1st service. Way to go, kids!

A special thanks to Conchita (mom of Natalie) for video taping and taking pictures.

The whole Junior SS class singing, "Dare to Run", accompanied by Thomas "Rasheed" Makowski, Pastor John "White Lightening, Neutralzier" Choi, and yours truly (sitting down).


Some of the Junior girls worked long and hard on he song, "Be the One".

Makowski summer secret!

8-28-08: For over 2 months, the Makowskis (and Martells) have kept a deep, dark, secret. (Ok, not deep and dark, but a secret nonetheless!)

Today, Thomas, Mike, and I had taken the day off months ago to take Thomas's catamaran out sailing at Lake Perris. Unfortunately, I had to bail on them and couldn't go afterall.

Thomas said he "needed a 3rd guy to help load something with the boat" so feeling guilty about bailing, I said I could come over in the AM to help for a short time.
Here's what we saw when we finally went outside...Vivian's car...and trailer hooked up to it carrying a...

...Ski Nautique???!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?! What in the world?!?!?!?!
Needless to say, we were all dumbfounded, especially when we learned they had had it for a couple of months to learn how to drive it and all. No wonder Jenny and Gaby were so good on the knee board and wake board at Mivoden!!!

We were very impressed that they...especially the girls...could keep a secret that long. Wow!

Well, now it was hard for me to bail, so Thomas urged me to take one lap around the lake and then they'd drop me off at the dock so I could go back. So with a borrowed pair of swim trunks and a t-shirt, off we went!

Hmmm, who is Thomas talking to???
Unloading the speed boat at Lake Perris
Mike, White Lighting, and Captain Rasheed
Taking my lap around the *large* lake...notice how dry my hair stayed the whole time. That came in handy later on. ;-) Great wakeboard too!
Nice form, White Lighting!
Mike is still working on getting up...he's almost there, and maybe Rasheed will teach some of us to drive so he can wakeboard if Vashti isn't with us!

I'm sure all the kids will now want to go out with Uncle Thomas on the lake!

Summer in 3rd XRGames Olympics

8-24-08: Summer participated in our 3rd XRGames Olympics at the XRtainment Zone. It was also a fund raiser for her swim team, the Redlands Swim Team. Even though she rarely gets to go to the Zone and play the exergames, she did well, as you can see in the above picture.

Check out the slide show with some of her friends who participated in this tournament!

End of Beach Body Contest

8-24-08: After 3 months of exercise and eating better, our Beach Body Contest ended with our body fats being measured at Todd's house where we then were free to party and eat! Everyone (who came to get measured, about 8 of the 12 guys) lost body fat % and fat lbs, so that was great!

And the winner? Mike Sabangan, with a 5.8% loss. Training for the Disney Half Marathon (this Sunday!) helped a lot! A close second was Corey, who started out at 12% and dropped to 8.4%, so he got 2nd place and his $20 refunded.

Thx to Todd for hosting the end-of-contest party at his place We all had a fun relaxing time playing, eating, and fellowshipping.

Camp Mivoden

Aug. 3-9 - This summer, instead of going to Michigan's Camp Au Sable for our 8th family camp, our group ended up going to Camp Mivoden in Idaho! Why there? Long story, but needless to say, we all had a great time with a very large group of friends from SoCal and Azure Hills Church.

Also saw had a chance to see some friends from way back in our pre-Summer days...Art and Janice Minagawa and Jae and Kristi Lee!

Check out the slide show for all the fun activities that we did with the SoCal gang. Like unicycling, which as you can see, Keri picked up very quickly--look at the trick riding she was doing by the end of class! Amazing!

The staff was great, and we especially enjoyed getting to meet "Dr. Phil" (who's at AU so watch for him at Fil-Am church) and Nolan, Dee's cousin! (Team Asia wants a re-match with Team Middle East in table tennis).

Enjoy just a fraction of over 3,000 pictures from this week at camp!