Virginia Adventure

November came with a bit of medical drama from the east coast. Dad was admitted to the hospital after Thanksgiving with a bladder infection, severe dehydration, ketoacidosis, COVID-19, brain shrinkage and dementia-like symptoms. He had also lost 30 pounds and was refusing to eat or drink much. After the hospital got most of his acute issues under control, they sent him home and he was receiving some in-home nursing care and physical therapy with follow-up appointments with a neurologist and his primary physician. He continued to have mobility and cognitive issues that were concerning.

With no definitive diagnoses and a great deal of uncertainty about his memory, I received a phone call from Diane offering to pay for all of us to fly out to visit and see him. While I had been planning on flying out in January when the kids had gone back to school, this plan had a lot of benefits. I did discover why we don't travel like this as a family ($$$$$). It was an amazing offer. Pulling up our family Google Calendar, we picked the dates 12/28-12/31 and got ready to fly.

All three older boys have flown this year (Josh got back from Germany two days before Christmas in fact), but this was Isaac's first plane ride. 

None of them had ridden a horse before, but our time in VA fixed that. Kenna helped the boys into saddles and led the horse around on mini-trips.

Oma did a fabulous job of planning adventures to keep the kids occupied and make memories with their Virginia cousins. The older cousins did an escape room. 

Isaac and Lyssa spent some time at the children's museum.

And to add another item to their list of new experiences: axe throwing. 

And I had to include this epic picture Jason took of the boys in the hotel pool.

Too soon our time in Virginia was up and we were boarding a plane for home. 

December on FB

The kids and I have this really fun winter tradition where they hope and dream and pray for snow days and I remind them that any days they get off now get added to the end of the school year. They tell me they don't care and then they get angry in June when they end up having to go to school to the end of the month.

Good times. Good times.

We put the Christmas decorations up yesterday as a family.

So tell me, how did you torture your teenagers this weekend?

It turns out that when Isaac blows his nose with a tissue that he ends up with copious amounts of green snot all over the OUTSIDE of the tissue.

So, yeah, we're all going to get this one.

Our house in one word: ca-cough-any

If these kids ever go back to school, I'm going to send them off in the morning with "I love you, have a good day, and for the love of all the good in the world don't touch anything or breathe near other people"

 

If you are still looking for a gift for someone in your life who could potentially get someone pregnant one day, I HIGHLY recommend this book. Also would work for a graduation gift. Or a "just because" gift.

Parenting pro tip: if you put a pile of used tissues by where the Christmas gifts are hidden, the kids will definitely stay away

Forgot to post about this guy's birthday last week

Good news: he can make his own lunch

Bad news: he doesn't fit quite as well on my lap anymore

I made it!

My top 5 this year:

-Ejaculate Responsibly (Gabrielle Blair)

-Secrets of the Sprakkar (Eliza Reid)

-How to Be Perfect (Michael Schur)

-Pandora's Jar (Natalie Haynes)

-Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr)

What should I add my "to read" list for next year?

Winter Break Family Fun

Jason took a week off of work between Christmas and New Years so we decided to fill it with some family fun activities. Later in the week we have a trip to VA planned, but started the week with bowling and rock climbing.

It's been a while since any of us have bowled. After a few rounds I am pretty sure that we should play this game MarioKart style and give the loseriest loser some pity bumpers to help me them out. Though Isaac did manage to actually miss all of the pins once even with bumpers so I guess it isn't a guarantee.

Round one was a little rough.

And round two Jason blew us all out of the water. 

For some reason the older boys don't think taking selfies with their mom is super cool. Weird, right?

Next up: rock climbing. Our choices were limited to the auto-belay lines and the bouldering walls (except Isaac). 

Although Isaac never made it to the top, he spent more time on the wall than any of us. He loved it. Up and down and up and down and up and down. Most of us were done after a little bit, but he would have been happy to stay longer. I am thinking next time we save ourselves some money and just take him and spend the day.

After two days of arm intensive activities we spent the evening packing for our trip to Virginia.

Christmas

Another year, another tree, another stash of gifts.

 

We let the boys open one gift on Christmas Eve. They are all really bad at pretending to be shocked that the gift is pajamas.

This year's pajamas have antlers so head-butting chaos ensued.

After some sleep it was time for the yearly photoshoot with the yearly threat that I can take hundreds of pictures if necessary so they might as well stop moving (Isaac) and look at me (the rest of the boys).

I don't have any pics from the gift opening session, but there were plenty of "awesome!" and "let's go!" with a few "thank you!!" thrown in. Since Nana is still in Germany, this is actually just first Christmas but it was a good one. Later in the morning we played JackBox over Zoom with Nana and Aunt Rachel.  Good times!

Our Christmas letter:

Jason continues his upward climb in state government as he was promoted to Executive Director for Elementary Education, Early Learning, and Federal Programs. Say that 5 times fast! They may need to start increasing the size of his business cards to fit all those words. He also turned FIFTY and took a big leap….out of an airplane.  He may never be the same again. Irene hasn’t failed out of her graduate program (yet) though she does have plans later this month to roast marshmallows over a bonfire of all of the articles she has printed out this semester. She bought a MetaQuest2 headset for one of her classes and the kids are now very supportive of her graduate program. She also squeezed in a couple of backpacking trips this summer and is already planning for next year. Josh graduated from high school and the ceremony was thankfully under 5 hours. We are crazy proud of him. He learned some excellent life lessons working at Taco Bell (mainly that it is not fun working at Taco Bell) and is now working at the movie theatre learning a similar lesson. This fall he began an A.S. in Cybersecurity degree which appears to necessitate even more computers in his room. Michael is thriving in high school. He has been on two new sports teams this year: cross-country and swim. The teams and coaches have been incredibly supportive and he has several PRs under his belt. Music continues to pervade his existence as he sings in the choir, takes voice lessons, and often decides to practice piano after his brother is already in bed. Ben added Jazz Band to his schedule because apparently more concerts = more fun? Also, with a cello AND a bass we might need to build an extension on to his room. He played two more seasons of soccer and continued to hone his defense skills and tolerance for playing in the rain. Isaac continues to work his way towards the position of “family social butterfly” and participates in what appears to be a thriving black market in the 2nd grade. After a break, he is back in swim lessons which he loves and it is difficult to extract him from the pool twice a week.

Isaac and Friends Party On

This is our only winter baby. One of the bonuses of spring/summer babies is that birthday parties can be held in the great outdoors with lots of room for lots of kids and lots of natural entertainment.

Winter in Washington does not lend itself to outdoor parties unless you really, really enjoy being wet and cold or happen to own head-to-toe rain gear. We decided to assume that indoors warm and dry would be the preference for Isaac and his friends. Based on the size of our house and the personalities of Isaac's friends (kidding...mostly) we had to limit his guestlist to 4 kids.

His party consisted of a bunch of games and decorating cupcakes. Unfortunately, I finally caught the cold Michael had brought home and so isolated myself in the bedroom during the festivities. So Jason ran the show and everyone had a great time.

 

Isaac is EIGHT

When you are 7 years old, it takes FOREVER for your birthday to come. This kid has been waiting FOREVER for this day. Our Christmas countdown calendar is also an Isaac birthday countdown calendar - he just subtracts 10 from the days left until Christmas. 

The day FINALLY came. Isaac had very specific ideas about today: chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and chocolate chip pancakes for dinner. For dessert: chocolate chip pumpkin cupcakes with chocolate Legos on top. Notice a theme?

And, of course, he got Legos for his birthday. Happy boy!

I think it was a good birthday.

Snow - It's a Four Letter Word

What is this?  What IS this? WHAT IS THIS?????

It turns out that no matter how many times I say the phrase "it isn't going to stick", it did in fact stick.

Insanity.

Or pure excitement - depends on who you are. The kids had two days of 3-hour delays (yes, THREE) because of this cold, white stuff. 

The timing could have been better. Today was the end of semester livestream event for one of my classes. It would have been ideal if I hadn't needed to spend a bit of time getting the kids out the door all morning in addition to trying to provide tech support to the rest of the team in SoCal, but it was what it was. I actually wasn't too disappointed to use the excuse of a wiggly 7yo to take a break and get in some outdoor exercise.

For context, Isaac's class had earned a wear-pajamas-to-school-day so no, he doesn't usually traipse around outside mid-morning in his pajamas. Just on special days. 

It was a short-lived blip in our rainy weather and hopefully western Washington will confine the snow to winter break for the rest of the year.

November on FB

Why is it that having three kids who are quite talented at Geometry doesn't translate into having three kids who can load a dishwasher well? 

When I got home from my walk this morning I took off my out-for-a-walk-on-a-chilly-day fleece and put on my stay-warm-at-my-desk fleece and that's when I realized that I am now "Mr. Rogers" years old.

How my 40s are going

Me on Thursday: Look at me! I can run!

My right knee on Friday: If you're lucky, I will let you walk

To all my intrepid friends and family braving the grocery stores today: may the odds be every in your favor

Happy Thanksgiving! May your turkey be juicy, your cranberries tart, your stuffing stuffy, your extended family dinner conversations free of politics, and your public school history curriculums include the voices of indigenous peoples!

Thanksgiving

I am definitely slacking on the holiday picture taking. Behold the only pictures I took of Thanksgiving this year at Nana's (and evidence that we did not eat turkey): 

There were good eats, some Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes, and several Jack Box games. And ham. Can't go wrong with ham. Unless you're Jason. So there were also plenty of vegetables (not seen here). 

Veterans 5k (or 5k PLUS)

It is fortunate that pics are not only a visual experience because otherwise this one would be blasting out frigidly cold air that cause you to lose sensation in your toes.

In case you were wondering how the weather was on the Saturday after Veterans Day - sunny. And without our nice blanket of clouds, very chilly.

I made the last minute decision to sign Michael, Ben, Isaac, and myself up for a 5k hosted by our local running/walking group. They are a very welcoming and low-key group (the group, not my kids). We started the morning happy and excited.

I say 5k, but some us decided that was more of a "recommendation" or sort of a "starting point" rather than a definitive description of the race course.

See, the race course had been posted the night before and I sent it to Michael but neglected to suggest he screenshot it. And then, before we started, Scott talked us all through the race course giving us rather vague instructions like "turn left on Y---- at the Burger King". Or maybe those directions weren't vague, but the fastest runners were the worst listeners. Because ready, set, go and Michael, another XC kid, and the only adult male who "looked like a runner" (--Michael) sped off and then completely disregarded the directions both oral and visual. Ben was close behind them (more on that in a bit). 

All that to say that in his first 5k race, Isaac crossed the finish line before both of his brothers. Honestly, I was shocked when I got the news, but it was true. Which isn't to say that Isaac didn't run a good race, because he did. I was also very surprised when he managed to run the first 0.7 miles without a break. I also learned that he can run and talk at the same time as he chatted away with everyone we came across. 

So he finished before his brothers and was thrilled. As we crossed the finish line the mom of the other XC kid told me the boys hadn't made it back yet. So we waited and waited and waited. 

And waited.

Eventually Ben came sprinting down the home stretch with the news that at the start of the race he and the others had NOT turned at the Burger King but kept going. Right into our neighborhood interestingly enough. When Ben got to the elementary school he realized they must be off the race course. Sadly, he could neither catch up to Michael nor yell louder than Michael's ear buds. At which point he turned around, got back on the course, and finished the race. The other XC kid finished too and said they'd gone a long way before turning around.

So we waited some more. And waited and waited and waited. The walkers crossed the finish line. The folks with strollers crossed the finish line. The group with really slow dogs crossed the finish line. Scott officially ended the race and started to thank the sponsors and hand out the raffle prizes.

Finally, Michael (and the other "runner" guy) ran into view and Scott welcomed them as the only half-marathon runners of the event! Turns out he was exaggerating only a little bit. They had run over 7.5 miles - awkwardly the fact that the sidewalk disappeared on the road they were on and they never saw any event sign didn't bother them for over 3.5 miles. 

Michael had been hoping to place in the top 3 and to get a PR, but those will have to wait for another race. His approach of "just following the other runners" works better at XC meets where he's in the middle of the pack than a small, local 5k where there is only one or two runners ahead of him....and they don't know where they are going.

It was a fun morning and now we have a fun story to share.

Halloween

The boys' interest in this holiday is definitely dwindling. Well, except for Isaac who has enough interest for everyone! His mom didn't have a lot of mental or emotional energy for this sugar-laden holiday, but I did get a Lego costume for him off of the Buy Nothing page and it was a great match for our Lego-loving kid.

Ben is more glucose motivated and seemed content to dig in the costume bin for something that would cover him and hide his identity if it facilitated the acquisition of CANDY.

Michael volunteered to answer the door for the evening and I volunteered to do my homework for the evening. Josh went to a friend's house so that left Jason on Trick-o-Treating duty. It's a school night so we wrapped it up early but there's plenty of sugar in the house for the next 24 hours or so.

Team Dynamite

 I did an accidental bait and switch on Ben this season. When it became clear that his told team was disbanding, I was at a loss. He had a marvelous coach AND Ben does not do change well. When the coach's wife told me about the team that her son (Ben's friend) was on this summer and that there was a possibility that Ben's old coach might be the assistant coach, I was excited. I sold Ben on that possibility.

That is not what happened, BUT Ben still had a great season with a great bunch of kids. He was finally playing closer to his age after playing up 2 years for a while, so I think it was a confidence boost to see his skills matched against kids more his size. As an added bonus for his parents, this fall was fairly dry so he didn't finish many of the games looking like he'd gone for a swim. His team finished first in their division so a success all around! I don't know how many more seasons of rec soccer he has in front of him, but we're grateful this was another great one.

October on FB

 

The mountains were calling....

Crazy proud of this kid, but his face when he runs does not make it look fun (photo cred: XC dad with sweet camera skillz)

It is Friday morning and I can't decide if Isaac deserves a mom with more patience or if I deserve a child who doesn't have to be told EIGHT times to get dressed.

When we bought this house we were mostly considering the number of PEOPLE who would be living here. What we did not take into consideration is the number of INSTRUMENTS that would be living here: current count is 14 including the bass Ben just brought home.

I asked this question on FB 8 years ago and I am going to ask again to see if any of the answers have changed:

Facebook poll for my own curiosity:

Ladies, did you/would expect your SO to ask your father/parents for your hand in marriage?

Gentlemen, did you/would you ask the father/parents of your SO for her hand in marriage?

ETA: What are your expectations in this regard for your kids? (if you have any/intend to have some)

"I hope when I have kids they question every damn thing I say" said no person ever.

Our visit to a local farm fall festival did not cure Ben of his desire to have a kitten