Summertime! / Valley Crew Reunion / Cherry picking

School is finally out and now it's summer time for the kids.  We're really looking forward to a restful summer :) 

I always think it's silly to do these pictures when Amy pulls the kids for them..

.. but honestly, it's super cute to have these memories. Thanks, Amy! :)

We celebrated the last day with a pizza party with our neighbors.

Pizza followed by swimming at the pool

Last weekend, we had our usually hangout with Mia and Joyce. Really nice to have a chance to have these conversations about being a parent, talk about faith and everything in between.  Hope to continue getting together even as they split off from our small group.

I do like how we can talk about both serious and trivial things

We also had a chance to meet up with my friends from Internship.  We met both Wei and Ray's babies for the first time and the Mukesh and family came all the way from Sac.  The kids had a great time swimming in Lin's pool, even Jad.  It was really awesome to see everyone :)

Getting the band back together

Monkey walking in the hot tub

Lastly, we went cherry picking on Monday in Brentwood.  Took advantage of Kai and Sora being out of school and pulled Jad out of daycare for the day.  Lots of fun though it felt like we walked a half mile into the orchard before we found any trees with cherries

Til next week!

1st post-COVID illness / Memorial Day / Last Week of School / Jad's bed upgrade

This week:

Last week, Kai picked up some sort of viral illness (just a runny nose and mild cough) then promptly passed it along to the rest of us.  We've all gotten over it already but it did seem somewhat momentous as our first illness as our society gets going back towards normal. 

A truly epic post sneeze snot-fall

Memorial Day weekend was nice and warm.  I worked a lot but Amy and the kids spent much of the day at the Villa Sport pool.  Our neighbors were there too which was a nice bonus.

Lunch at In-n-Out before hitting the pool

This current week is the last week of school.  Thank goodness for the end of this weird school year.. I hope we are back to normal in the Fall (assuming COVID numbers stay down).  I think we're all looking forward to a mostly carefree summer.  We're planning a road trip to Portland in June and Kai (maybe Sora) will enroll in a new jujitsu gym but otherwise, hoping for a mostly carefree summer!

Kids attack!

Lastly, Jad finally asked us last week if he could take the side rail off of his crib.  He's been it in for much longer than Kai and Sora so we said ok.  It has taken a week of restless sleep but I think he's now used to it.  Littlest is growing up .. a bit 😢 but mostly 😃

Restless nights..

Kai's besties birthday / new friend dinner / rejoining the fancy gym

 Let's see.. what happened this past week :)

We've been hard pressed to keep the house orderly over the last year, mostly because Amy and I have not had the wherewithal to dedicate ourselves to cleaning.  But last week, we finally did some spring cleaning and got the house back in shape.  

Kai also had a birthday party this Saturday with his friends from church.  Four families got together and it was really nice to see all the kids running around together.  I thought they would just play Switch all day but actually much of the day was spent running around. 

That's a brownie and  mangos Amy arranged into his name :)

A friend of mine from work also invited us to their house for dinner.  It would have been easy to say that we were busy but Amy and I both consciously made an effort to go.  Honestly, we haven't been to a new friend's house in many years so it was really nice.  Rohit has two teenage boys who were just so caring and engaging towards the younger kids.  Hope our kids are like that when they are older.

They also had a hammock which the kids rolled around in

One sad thing is that Kai's jujitsu class is ending.  I think there were just too few students who had come back and his coach had to move to another job.  Sad because we really liked him.. sigh, another toll of the pandemic. 

Lastly, we joined the nearby gym for the summer because they have a pool and we wanted the kids to be able to get back into swimming.  It's more expensive than the 24hr fitness but we figured it would be worth it as the kids aren't in any summer camps (which are expensive too!)  The kids have gone swimming a couple of times already and they love it.  The other good thing is that a lot of our  neighbors and friends have joined too so we can meet up with people there.  Also, I've restarted working out myself which feels really good after a whole year of low physical activity.

They are old enough to be in the hot tub now!

Take care, everyone!

Some pictures to augment Nik's post

First day of school jitters.. in April

Top of Bald Peaks on my 2nd MUTT Half try.. I ran the open course 3 times :)

Zoom classroom birthday celebration for Covid times

Neighborhood birthday cupcake celebration

In-person extracurriculars are back: Sora is back to piano and Kai is back to BJJ and soccer. Dining indoors and going to the gym for the first time felt transformative, complete with many selfies to document the momentous occasions. We also went to an indoor church service.

A Case of the Mondays (and Tuesdays)..

 Looking at the title, you would think maybe something bad is happening but actually this is good news :) 

I have just recently begun to work more in the Kaiser minor injury clinic.  This means that about two days a week, most Mondays and Tuesdays, I'm working in the clinic .. the schedule is more consistent, it's not as stressful as the ER and the clinic staff is great to work with.  As an added bonus, since the clinic is about 6 miles from home, I can bike to work!  I'm still in the ER but about half as much as before and no more overnight shifts.  It's a bit of change but I think it'll give me more time to focus on Amy, the kids and myself.  

Since I'm in front of the computer more now, I'm also going to try to update the blog weekly.  Though this last year has been tough, things are looking up.  Amy finished the trail half marathon that she had been training for and is already looking forward to the next one.  Kai's 8th birthday was last week and we had a good time celebrating with friends, family and neighbors.  Kai and Sora are back in school for two afternoons a week.  It's short but they really enjoy seeing their friends and teacher.  Jad remains rather opinionated for a 3 year old but we're trying hard to be firm and not indulge him too much.  The weather is basically perfect right now here, warm in the daytime and brisk at night.  We're trying to keep getting outdoors and took the kids rock climbing outdoors with some friends this past weekend.

Take care, everyone!

-Nik

My (shared) office with commute bike

Learning the ropes, literally

A belated welcome to 2021

Last year, cases of Covid began escalating again in early/mid-December and the new normal of outdoor dining and getting a haircut while wearing a mask were shut down yet again. This shut down wasn't as dramatic as the first, since playgrounds and retailers remained largely open, although with reduced capacity; but the first thing we did was get Kai a last minute haircut once we got wind of the news.

We paused our weekly visits with my parents through December and January, although we had a brief masked backyard Christmas meet up with my parents and Matt, and reconvened on video chat as we ate our Hawaiian BBQ takeout at home in the virtual company of family.

Nothing says Christmas like L&L

A few holiday traditions remained intact. In the days leading up to Christmas, I made sugar cookies with the kids and they decorated a gingerbread house. The kids also enjoyed riding around in the car and looking at the various neighborhood light displays.

The kids grazed on the gingerbread house for weeks until we finally tossed it

And though NYE is never much of a thing with young kids, we celebrated with sparklers that we had squirreled away from before Kai was born and had a "cheese party" as requested by Jad. We also watched various fireworks celebrations from different cities around the world on YouTube to help ring in 2021.

Charcuterie plate AKA "cheese party" for NYE

There has been cause for hope as Nik and I are now both fully vaccinated against Covid and cases in our area have been steadily declining. We are also hopeful that the change in leadership in DC will help with logistical and administrative delays that we had unfortunately seen through 2020.

As the shut down eased, we also began seeing our friends again, starting with the Rongs and Ngs, and then on to resuming playdates with Micah and Wally.

When schools first closed in March 2020, it was supposed to be a three week closure. As things progressed, it became clear that schools would not reopen through the remainder of 2020. We were hopeful that schools might reopen in January until Covid cases spiked in December. It's been mentally exhausting to have this constantly moving goalpost, but at this point, I'm resigned to the fact that the kids may not return to in-person school for the rest of this school year. It's disappointing, but that seems to be the direction things are headed as we are now in February.

Kai was offered a spot in the parent participation group, so he recently switched teachers. I was a little concerned that the change would disrupt the routines that he's established, but he's taken the change in stride. Being in the parent participation group also gives him access to more programs and field trips, for instance, today he had a chemistry presentation over Zoom. Kai and Sora also celebrated their 100th day of school.

"The future is now! Thanks to SCIENCE!"

100 leaves for a 100 days of school

Staying active has helped preserve my sanity through these times. I've signed up for various mileage challenges and virtual races to keep active, and ran a half marathon in January. Nik and I have been trying to encourage the kids to get outside as well. We're fortunate to live by Alum Rock Park and various regional parks, so we've been trying to make use of our awesome natural resources.

I perhaps bit off more than I could chew when one of the first hikes I took the kids on was an almost 5 mile descent from Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve to home. For a while "hike" was a 4-letter word for the kids

Half marathon! My first since 2013 :)

SIP birthdays and Christmas in the Park

I had totally thought that we'd be done with Covid and SIP by the time we reached fall, so in the spring, I hadn't imagined that Jad and Sora would have SIP birthdays, and yet they both celebrated their respective 3rd and 6th birthdays during this season of pandemic.

Since Jad was only turning three, we opted for a simple preschool celebration. I brought cupcakes and made goodie bags, and he celebrated with his preschool friends. In the evening, it was our weekly visit to my parents' house so we then had a combined November birthday celebration to celebrate Matt, Jad, Sora and my birthdays.

I think Sora was displeased with having to share a birthday celebration with three others *eye roll*

Since Kai had had a small birthday party with close friends we decided to do the same for Sora. We invited over two classmates over for a painting and jewelry making party. I think she had a good time, and I'm grateful that she had a chance to celebrate with friends in spite of Covid.

Today, we went to Christmas in the Park. I checked back in our photos, and we've basically gone every year since we've had children except for 2014, when Kai and Sora were both little, so it's something of a tradition for our family. This year they've reimagined the spectacle as a drive through event and I have to say that it made me tear up as I was driving past the familiar dioramas in their reimagined forms. That said, the kids loved the lights and their only complaint was that they couldn't drive through it again after we had finished. It was a nice bit of Christmas cheer in the midst of these trying times.

Then (circa 12/2016)..

.. and now 😢

Not the best picture of the kids, but really the best we can do in the light of the situation. A fitting analogy for 2020

As an aside, when we got home the kids played Battleship and Sora lost. She promptly stormed upstairs and slammed the door. In the midst of her post-loss throes of misery, she mourned, "You don't understand what my life is like!" Nik snickered and I had to restrain myself. Six going on sixteen, much?