Time is flying by and it's already Dec.. Yikes! Since we got back from Yellowstone, things have been good. Amy's mom's cancer treatment is stable and they have increased their caretaker hours so Amy has not had to go over to help as much. Chemo may start soon so that may be a hard time but we'll take it one day/week at a time. Amy is feeling a bit better and has some more time again so that means our house is neater and more functional so that's huge. The brisk winds of Autumn have arrived so we've pulled out our jackets and are hunkering for winter.
Finishing up October..
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| I went with Sora to the Monterey Bay Aquarium |
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She got grouped with her bestie
Kaitlyn so they had a lot of fun |
Noble also had their annual fall festival / fundraiser so that was a fun afternoon.
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| Kai came back for a visit |
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| Jad immediately spent some tickets on cotton candy |
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Annual RCC pumpkin carving.. Ethan came over and joined in
even though he says he's not celebrating Halloween anymore (too pagan?) |
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The final products .. cat's paw (Kai),
Jack o Lantern (Ethan), Owl (Jad and Nik) and Cat (Sora)
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| Jad helping mama.. baking is good for cold weather |
I thought we could go to Monterey or something for a night but we had been traveling so much that Amy didn't want to go anywhere for our anniversary. The Connicks were kind enough to watch the kids though and we went out to Japantown for a nice dinner and walked around a bit. Very low key but we've had lots of good times this year so this was pretty good.
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| 15 years! |
Soccer also came to end for both Kai and Jad. Kai has improved a lot and is a moderately good player now, mostly defending. He still had fun playing with his team including Eden, Aiden, Ben, Anthony and others. Anthony has been with Kai for years and his parents are super nice. It's getting harder though as there was only enough kids for one U12 team this year. I guess as kids get older they narrow their interests or join a more competitive team so that leaves fewer for the rec group. Maybe Kai will come back in the spring or he may join the school soccer team as well as do track and field so we'll see if there is another season of rec soccer for him.
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The U12 kids.. I don't think we even had a team
name this time :D |
Jad also finished up his soccer season. His team has some good players including Jad and they won about half of their games. Jad's best friends are trying out for comp next season and we have been encouraging Jad to do the same even though he is scared that he may not be good enough. He will get teary and say, "why are you pushing me?" which is a bit sad as he used to be so overconfident before. We definitely don't want to push too hard but also don't want him to regret not being on a team with his good friends. We have signed him up for now but told him that he does not have to play comp if he doesn't want to.
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| The team after their last game |
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| Jad was awarded the best overall player! |
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The last game also coincided with Jad's birthday so we
celebrated with a giant donut along with team potluck |
Halloween was fun as usual. Kai actually asked for a costume this year, after being a black cat for 5 years straight, so we felt we had to get the dinosaur costume, he asked for. It was a silly costume and actually difficult to wear for any longer than an hour (I tried it too) but he had a lot of fun with it.
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| Kai is tall! |
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Jad at the Noble Halloween parade..
guess who the ghost is next to him? ;) |
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| Sora was Eevee though it's getting small for her |
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| Some hoops before heading out to trick or treat |
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Smaller group this year, though a bunch of teen friends
came with Tien and Tam |
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This picture is hilarious.. Kai took off the costume
halfway through because it was too unwieldy |
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We ended up with 12 lbs of candy.. what
are we going to do with all that? |
A few more random moments..
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Ngoc and Yvonne came to visit! They are both doing
great and it was awesome to see them |
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We did Hearty Harvest through church
again.. always a nice giving tradition |
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| Nice fall sunset (from jujitsu parking lot) |
I had most of a week off in mid Nov and thought I'd be relaxing .. but there is always something with the house. Amy and I decided to replaced our faulty bathroom faucets and it was hard. Three trips to home depot, lots of elbow grease, even a call to the plumber when we were desperate, but we managed to do most of it ourselves.
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New faucets are so much easier than
the old plumbing |
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| The plumber showed me the part I needed |
Jad, Amy and Sora have their birthdays in November. Sora and Jad have always had their birthdays party together, helped by the coincidence that many of their friends are siblings (there are at least 5 pairs in their class at Noble), though this may change in the future as Sora gets older. We kept it simple and got pizzas and spam musubi and invited everyone to our house.
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We got a pinata.. that's where all of the
neighborhood's leftover candy went :D |
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| Bounce house and just general chaos |
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Turned out we overloaded Spongebob and he basically
broke and fell to the ground. |
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The kids were savage and rushed up for candy, then proceeded
to tear Spongebob to pieces.. Lords of the Flies vibes |
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| Cake from Peter's Bakery and Rainbow Jello too! |
Amy also didn't want to do much to celebrate her birthday as she has been down due to her parents' health situation. It fell on a Sunday this year so we went over to her parents' as usual and just had a little family celebration.
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| Happy 44th to the love of my life! |
The rainy days then started to roll in on Veteran's day weekend. We have a tradition of visiting Amy's Uncle Wilson's grave on that day so we headed out despite the dark clouds.
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| Storm coming! |
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It's always nice to see the little flags
celebrating our veterans |
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On the way back, we swung by and had a nice hang out
and lunch with the Shaws |
Sora's birthday followed closely after on Thursday and we went to Yogurtland to celebrate and had brownies with the neighbors. We also had a dentist appt in between which Sora was not happy about :p
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| Yogurtland is always a win! |
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| I love our neighbors, who are willing to come by at the drop of a hat! |
Some other misc events..
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| Sora went to a birthday party at Lasermaxx |
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Kai had won a free round of Golfland
so we took Ethan and Brandon one afternoon.. |
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It was fun playing around and Sora and Jad finished
all three courses (mostly :) |
With soccer season over, some of Jad's teammates are doing futsol (indoor soccer on a small court) so we signed him up to. Hopefully, this will help him develop some footwork skills.
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| He's having a lot of fun |
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| Also likes being goalie |
Amy's parents celebrated their golden anniversary! It's tough that as you get older, you can't do too much. Gotta enjoy it while you can. Amy went over to decorate their house and we brought a cake over to celebrate. They were happy to have the grandkids visit :)
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| Happy 50th!! |
Callie has been hanging around our house most of the time now, especially since it's gotten cold. We don't know where she sleeps exactly, but it's not in the little shelter that we put out for her. She still remains very feral and will hiss and spit at us when we open the door then back off a bit. She gets really close as we pour out the food (probably because she's desperately hungry) and sometimes, I worry if she'll get aggressive. We're doing our best to feed her and mamacat as the cold sets in.
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| She's often right up against the window |
Filling out the days of Thanksgiving week when the kids are off..
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| We went for a walk at the Great Mall |
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Salmon were spawning at Los Gatos Creek so we
went to see them.. saw a couple jumping up the river,
which was pretty cool
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| Matt and Nicole brought Lucas up for Thanksgiving |
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| Massive feast as usual.. David smoked a small turkey and made ginger soy sea bass |
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| Amy's dad enjoyed it |
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| Lucas and his turkey leg |
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| Babies are so cute! |
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| How about some soup dumpling, Lucas? |
We also spent many hours hanging out with the neighbor kids. Casanovas came for a visit too so it was nice to see Paige and Casey with everyone!
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| Chess craze lately |
That about wraps it up. I'll leave you with this picture of my shirts. Why, you ask? I've said this before but I think as we get older, we can all become more stubborn and set in our ways. This is very evident in dealing with our parents. For me, I've always folded my t-shirts a certain way (just half and then half again) which Amy has never liked (she prefers folding the sides in then half to keep the front smoother) but recently, I've forced myself to do it Amy's way and make it a habit. It's a small thing but I want to know and show that I can still change and adapt even as I get older. Hopefully, it lasts :)
Take care, everyone! Til next time :) Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!
