School started! // Camping at Portola Redwoods // Odds and Ends // Amy changing jobs // Jad "cracked his skull"

The kids are back in school! Yes, the parents have a taste of freedom again in the mornings until 1pm. This is the one and only year we have all three kids in one school with Kai in 5th grade, Sora in 3rd and Jad in Kindergarten. It's hard to believe that Kai has been at Noble for 6 years now and we used to drop him off at the same Kindergarten area while towing Sora along in a stroller so many years ago. They are growing up fast..

First day of school!

Just before school started, we squeezed in a couple of other activities. We got a chance to go to see Evelyn and William's play. It was cute and I'm glad we were able to support them. Sora is also very interested in the dramatic arts. She is always making up plays and scenes with the other kids though she hasn't gotten over the hump of actually being in a performance yet. Maybe next summer, they can join the kid theater group too.

Super cute pic of all 5 kids

The Aoalins also hosted the neighbors at their cabin so Amy took the kids up for the weekend. They had fun hanging out at the lake and playing lots of video games. I had to work, unfortunately, but got a bit of a break for about 36 hours to myself. Which also meant video games and some instant ramen for food as well :D I mean, I can cook, but it's hardly worth it for just one person

Kayaking on the lake with Kai

Kids enjoyed the SUP as well

We also went for our second camping trip of the summer with our friends Bonnie and Tony and their group. They are just a very nice, low key group of families who camp once a year. This year, we went to Portola Redwoods State Park which is pretty close but up a lot of very windy roads into the mountains west of San Jose. The site was nice though and there weren't any yellow jackets so that's a win already.

We were also allowed to light a campfire
(we couldn't do that the last couple years at Napa)

Interestingly, one of the group members grew up on a family farm near Pescadero and they still have the property so she invited us to come visit. They don't really farm on it anymore but there were lots of fruit trees and vegetables that were still being grown. There was also a creek the flowed in the back that the kids played in. Super nice!

Playing in the creek

The raspberry patch was just ripening
so we all got a bunch of them

A few little odds and ends here.

Men's group finished our study of Tim Keller's Prayer book so
we celebrated by going to Topgolf for an evening

I made a succulent arrangement (thanks to
neighbor David for making the box!)

I gave jad a fohawk, per his request

Lastly, Amy recently left her job. Well, got laid off actually. Her hospital, Good Samaritan, is run by HCA (Hospital Corporation of America.. can you have a more terrible name?) and when they figured the Pediatric ICU wasn't profitable, then decided to shut it down this summer. Amy works in the Neonatal ICU, of course, so she didn't think that this would affect her but the nurses who were in the PICU were allowed to move to other pediatric units, including the NICU. Because Amy is part time, she has lower seniority than the other nurses and when two nurses moved into the NICU, she was bumped and laid off. It was a bit of a shock and she's still trying to figure things out, whether she wants to continue with bedside nursing or do something else, but other jobs like public health nursing (which she is more interested in) are less flexible with hours, which is something we need with the kids and my schedule. I tried to make it out to be an opportunity for change but Amy didn't like that so much and I was in the dog house for a few days for not being serious enough about it. We figured it out though and now I'm trying to be more empathic and better support. She's taking some time off to figure out the next steps. Such is the bumps in the road of life..

Lastly, we did have a scare last weekend. Jad fell off a play structure and whacked his head. After 3 hours of obs at home, he was still sleepy and then vomited so I brought him to the ER and, sure enough, he had a small subdural bleed and frontal/temporal bone fracture. He stayed in the PICU on Sunday night and repeat CT was stable so we went home for close observation. He is recovering quickly and went back to school Tuesday where he promptly told his classmates that he "cracked his skull". Almost back to normal now and generally doing well. Kids fall all the time, just bad luck he hit his temple. Crazy..