Anniversary Trip

Jason and I have recently returned from our 10 year anniversary trip to Italy!  It was such a great way to celebrate the occasion, and we really enjoyed ourselves.   We visited four areas.   First we flew into  Florence, where we spent 3 nights.   We climbed the duomo, saw Michelangelo's David, toured the Uffizi museum and enjoyed walking around and taking it all in.   We also made a pretrial commitment to try and go running as much as we could, so we did some nice runs in Forename along the Arno river, and one morning we ran to a viewpoint over looking the city.    We had some great food in florence, and the sights were great, but we were a bit overwhelmed by the massive throngs of tourists and tour groups around every corner.  


   

Next, we headed to Tuscany.   We spent 3 nights near Castellini in Chianti, and took day trips to hill towns in the regions.   Our favorite was Siena, which was a beautiful city.   We also enjoyed taking a pasta making class (yum!), and had a dinner at an "agritourismo"--a farm that hosts tourists for dinners featuring food from the farm.   Gary and Eileen had been to this particular one a few years back and recommend it to us--it was delicious!

     


From Tuscany, we drove to the Cinque Terre, with a stop in Lucca along the way.   The Cinque Terra is a group of 5 town which are nestled in between 5 hills along the mediterranean.   Historically, people could only get to the towns by walking or via boat.   Now, there is a train service that links all 5 towns.  Jason and I had plans to hike the trails between the towns, but on the day that we arrived we were told that the trails were closed due to weather conditions (indeed, it was raining).   We were quite dismayed and even considered leaving that night, but I am glad we stayed, as the next morning the weather had cleared and we were able to hike (although officially, the trails were still "closed", this was not really enforced.  The following day, we took another trail along the top of the peninsula to a small town called Porto Venere.  The trail was spectacular because you could see the ocean on both sides and even better it was totally off the beaten path, so we had it mostly to ourselves.   Returned by boat.  Although our first day in cinque terra was rough, it ended up being my favorite part of the trip.   And the food, I must say was spectacular.   The best focaccia ever and also really good pesto.

The final part of our trip was in Sardinia--we wanted to have some beach time to relax at the end of the trip, and sardinia looked to have the best beaches in Italy.   And the books did not lie, they really were beautiful.   Light sand and crystal clear water.   We were there at the end of the season, so it was a bit windier than we would have liked, but still warm enough to go in the ocean.   We were struck by how rural Sardinia was--apparently there are more sheep than people.  It really had a much different feel than all of the other places we went in Italy, so I am glad we got to check it out.

    

Meanwhile, the kids seemed to do ok in our absence.   We facetimed into a parent teacher conference from Cinque Terra in the dark, when it was raining (wifi only worked outside!), so at least we tried to stay present in our absence.   And we also facetimed with the kids each night.  They were still in one piece when we returned, so I guess that everything was fine!  With our busy, crazy schedule, I am really glad that Jason and I got to take this trip together.   It was a great get away!

First Day of School

Our school district started late this year, as they are doing construction on the middle school campus. September 5 was Ethan's first day of third grade.   He was excited, but as usual annoyed that I made him "dress up" on the first day and not wear sports clothes.

When Jason went to pick him up, Ethan's teacher recognized him--turns out they were classmates at Northwestern way back in the late 90s!    What a small world.

Alaina also had her first day in Pre-K today.   She has joined the "Llama" room, and now will be attending school 5 days per week.   She was pretty excited as well.

The coolest thing was that my dad was still in town so he got to walk Ethan to school with me.   Both of us reminisced that we did not remember our first day of third grade 30 and 60 years ago, respectively.   So probably Ethan wont remember this day either.   Good thing we have the blog.

10th Anniversary Celebration

       

This weekend marked Jason and my 10th anniversary.   Wow, we have come a long way in 10 years--from residents renting a small first floor apartment in san francisco to having 2 kids, owning a home, and having real jobs.   I have to say, the time really has flown by!

To celebrate our anniversary, we decided to have a chef come and cook a dinner for us, our families, and our friends Matt and Gretchen.  Jason found a great Italian chef--and he made a 5 course feast for all of us to enjoy!  My dad flew out for the occasion, and it was so great to celebrate with the important people in our lives.

Unfortunately, the Bay Area was hit with the hottest heat wave ever recorded this weekend--so even though we ate after the sun went down, it was still pretty warm!

Regardless, it was a special way to celebrate, and I am really glad that we were able to do it!

The following day, we took a drive up to the stonetree golf club--where we got married 10 years ago. The place has been taken over by the Bay Club.   But it mostly looked the same and was fun to walk through again.

We are so lucky to have a great marriage, and a great family!   Here's to many more fun years together!

Weekend fun for everyone.

Our au pair, Rebeka, sadly (for us) will be leaving in about a month.   She has gotten engaged to a great guy, Alex, and they will start their life together soon.   As a good-bye present to the kids, she wanted to take them with Alex to an amusement park.   I suggested Waterworld--a waterpark in the east bay.  So this Saturday, she and Alex took the kids for a special adventure.

Meanwhile, Jason and I were left with a weekend day at home alone without kids or work--what a treat!  We decided to take advantage of our time and took a long hike in Point Reyes--Alamere Falls--a 8 mile round trip to a waterfall that drops into the ocean.  It had been almost 10 years since we did the hike.  Unfortunately, it has also been "discovered" by social media since then, so it was a lot more crowded than I remembered.   But still really beautiful, with a lot of water running even at the end of september.

The kids returned home shortly after we did, equally jazzed about their day.   Perfect!

Powered by the sun

A few months ago, we decided to invest in solar panels for our roof.  It faces southwest, so has the perfect positioning for harvesting the afternoon heat.   In about eight to ten years, the energy that we generate will have offset the cost of purchasing the panels, so we will be making energy for free.  Meanwhile, each day we can track how many kilowatts that we produce, and give back to the energy grid.  What is really neat is since I drive an electric car, all of my transportation is pretty much sun-powered.   I do worry a lot about global warming, and the environment that we are leaving to the future.    But now, we are doing our part to keep our earth a beautiful place for our children and generations to come.

Half Birthdays

Well it is has been a busy summer.   But we still managed to mark the kids half-birthdays with small celebrations--but I am only getting around to posting them now.

Alaina hit 4.5 this year.  I cant believe it.   Most days, I look at her and wonder what happened to my baby?????   She has developed quite a sense of humor.  She loves telling jokes and rolling her eyes. Whenever we take a pic, she always wants to take one silly one after the "formal" one.   She has really gotten into coloring, and her manual dexterity has improved tremendously--she is writing all of her letters quite well, although she still tends to write her name backwards.

When Ethan hit the big 8.5, I had another "wow, what happened" moment.  Ethan continues to be a happy, loud, and loving kid who is really maturing quickly.   He recently got a new haircut--a schlitzie, as jason calls it, otherwise known as a buzz cut--and it makes him look older.   He continue to love playing sports--I think that baseball is his current favorite--and of course eating.

Life sure flies by.

Summer Harvest

Well, this is the first year we have had a usable backyard in a really long time.  When we planned the yard out, we put in several fruit trees--as well as left room for a veggie garden.

We have finally gotten to taste some of the sweet reward.  Earlier in the summer we had our first fruit--pluots.  The tree produced quite a few, and man were they delicious! The nectarines came next--these were a bit small, and not as flavorful.  I am hoping that is a first year issue.  We will see.  Next will be the figs--they look like they will be ready soon.

In the veggie garden, we have been making good use our of herbs.  I learned the hard way that planting mint was a bad idea--it took over like a weed, and since has mostly been removed (I hope), but the basil, thyme, and oregano are doing well.   We also made a novice mistake planting pumpkins--the plants grew so fast and tried to take over so much of the veggie box--we apparently do not have enough space for pumpkins!  But tomatos are doing great--though I will try different varieties next year--and we would have had cucumbers had Jason not mistaken their vine for a pumpkin and cut it back!

Anyhow, it is kind of fun to have an urban farm and teach the kids how to grow food.  Next year we hope to expand along the hillside and plant some raspberries!