Boookie's 10th Birthday

After his birthday dinner, Boookie was sent to check the mail, where he discovered he was invited to a Treasure Hunt.  Puzzling over the first clue:
Out of the gate
Along the edge
The treasure you seek
Is under the _____

Having found the second clue under the hedge, Boookie and Ela started really getting into this:
It's big and it's green
It's been known to float
The treasure you seek
Is under the ____

Too easy!  Third clue:
The squirrels used to eat here
When we used it, it smelled gross
The treasure you seek
Is behind the bins of _______

Compost!  Fourth clue:
A silver shiny box of flame
To cook meat good to chew
The treasure you seek
Is in the ________

This one took awhile, particularly when Boookie decided the answer was "stew" and insisted the treasure must be inside.

The clue was eventually found.  Fifth clue:
A lofty perch to say awhile
(This clue, it doesn't rhyme)
The treasure you seek
Is in Boookie's ___ _____ (2 words)

Boookie delightedly reading the final clue, taped to the roof of the tree house:
While you've been busy finding clues,
You'll need the master plan
The key to all your treasure
Is back where this all _____

"Started!!!" he shouted and ran up the hill.  Not the word that the rhyme would suggest, but it worked :-)

LEGO Quinjet!

We are blessed indeed to have had this amazing lad in our family for ten whole years!

Seafair

The Mayor took Boookie, Ela and Semi downtown to see the Navy ships down at Fleet Week.  The line was long, but the sun was shining, the sea breeze was blowing, and we all were still in good spirits when we finally stepped on board.

The two ships at the pier we went to; we got to go on board the USS Gridley (DDG-101)

Boookie snapping a crisp salute next to the first weapon he could find on board, an M2 50 cal, which as our sailor tour guide repeated unnecessarily after Boookie announced it, "...has been in use, pretty much unchanged, since World War 2."

 Seimi, still working on his salute crispness, next to the M2

Salutes in front of the 5-inch main gun

 Salutes at the bow of the ship

 Salutes in front of the Phalanx 20mm Close In Weapons System

No salute?  Drop and give me 20, sailor!

 An F-22 Raptor flying overhead on the way to the airshow.

 

On Friday, when the Mayor announced he had seen an F-22 flying over downtown, Boookie scoffed in disbelief.  The look of amazement and joy on Boookie's face is sufficient apology for doubting the Mayor.

US Navy C-130 "Fat Albert" on the way to the air show.  We saw glimpses of the Blue Angels but everyone was hot and hungry by that time, so we caught the end of the show just listening to the roars overhead from our booth at Taco Del Mar.

 

  At the end of the tour

After the tour, all went to the Mayor's office to write on the whiteboard walls, have chair races, play golf around the office, eat snacks and dinner, run, scream, and otherwise pilfer our weasely guts out.