Jason and the Kids Ski while Mom Works

This weekend, I was on call.   Jason has been itching to get up to Tahoe for some spring skiing--the snow keeps falling up there!   Plus, Alaina had 2 more pre-paid ski lessons that needed to be used before the end of the season.   So, when he considered his options, he decided to ski wth them for the weekend, instead of contend with them at home.   Now, before I get too far, this is the second weekend in a row I have talked about how Jason had the kids all weekend.   But actually, he has the kids two weekend ago when I went to Houston--and I had them all of last weekend while he worked--and now he has them again while I work.   So, yes, we have been working a lot and not seeing much of each other!

In any event, by all accounts this weekend was a hit.  Alaina took two more all-day ski school lessons, and Ethan worked on perfecting his techniques with Jason.   Jason tells me that he made some serious strides, and was skiing well on black diamond runs by the end of the day--which certainly seems impressive to me.   You couldn't pay me to go down a black diamond!

The crew made it home around 7 tonight, dirty and exhausted, but very, very happy.   I am glad they got to get away!

Opening Day

Last weekend, the kids had this opening day parades--Ethan for baseball and Alaina for softball.   They were supposed to be the previous weekend, but rain cancelled them (It has been a super rainy spring!).

As luck would have it, I was out of town last weekend, on a work trip to Houston.   (Houston was really quite forgettable, other than a delicious barbecue lunch that truly put Jason's grilling to shame).  Check out this shot from a run I took in Houston downtown--yes, that is trash!

I did get this funny picture, though.

In any event, that left Jason to shuffle between the two parades and try to catch both--which is probably why we don't have such great pictures.   But both kids really had fun.  And, Ethan's basketball season ended early so we don't have overlapping sports--always a plus!  Let the games begin!

Alaina's New Accomplishments

Alaina has been really growing in strides these days.   A few new things:

-Being able to cross the monkey bars, by herself.   She has developed quite the set of blisters on her hands but she is getting quite strong!

-Joining a softball team--like her big brother, she wanted to play baseball this spring.   There is a girl's softball league in town, and she has joined with a bunch of her kindergarten friends.   Jason can't believe how many uniform accessories a girls team has--there is the uniform (complete with her name), a purple undershirt, and purple socks, a windbreaker, and of course a hair bow.   It is very cute!  They haven't had a game yet, but hopefully I will be able to share an action shot soon.

-Gymnastics.   For the longest time Alaina refused to do gymnastics.   She finally expressed interest, and I signed her up for a kindergarten class.  She loves it.   As an added bonus one of my work colleagues game me a bunch of hand me down leotards!

So, yes, she is busy!

Ethan's First Slumber Party

Last weekend, we hosted Ethan's 10th birthday party.   He really wanted to have a slumber party, and we begrudgingly agreed.   

Three boys came over around 5pm.   We ordered pizza for dinner.   

As an activity, I designed a treasure hunt, which involved the boys solving riddles to find 21 clues.  

An example: If you pull my plug out, I will drain, but I don't run on electricity.   They would then have to figure out that meant the bathtub, go to the bathtub and find the next clue.   They really enjoyed the activity, and a couple of clues stumped them.   At the end was hidden a cache of candies and sundae toppings--Ethan asked for ice cream sundaes instead of cake.

They all had huge sundaes to celebrate the birthday boy followed by some night time hot tub time!   

Afterwards, they came in and watched the old movie classic "The Goonies".  But the end of the movie it was almost 11pm--far after a normal bedtime--so time for lights out--and miraculously, they did sleep until 6am.   This was much better than anticipated, but likely due to the fact that we told Ethan that if he didn't sleep he would not be having another sleepover anytime soon.   So happy that worked!

The following morning we served the boys blueberry pancakes and bacon before they all left at 9am.   

Afterwards, Ethan told us it was the best birthday party ever.  Glad he enjoyed it!

Dad Comes for A Visit

Last week my dad flew out to spend some time in California, and get away from the cold Chicago winter.   He arrived on February 13, and we all celebrated Valentine's Day together!   Friday was Rancho Day at Ethan's school--which is a celebration of California's Mexican heritage--they are in the middle of studying California history in Social Studies.   My dad and I were planning to volunteer, but Dad got a case of the stomach flu.  :(   So I went alone and served a Mexican lunch to 160 4th graders!  At least I didn't have to cook!

We had originally planned to head up to Lake Tahoe for the long holiday weekend--but a huge storm blew in, closing the Interstate.  Plus, Dad was still under the weather.   So we stayed home and enjoyed some local sights instead.  Saturday and Sunday were still pretty rainy, but by Monday we were able to go on a cool waterfall hike--Cataract Falls.  

The kids were also off from school on Tuesday, and I took the day off of work.   We did a spectacular, 5 mile hike that my dad did when he was here back in September.   It started by the top of Mt. Tamalpais and looped downhill and then back uphill through a ravine.  Funny how he knows more of the trails than us locals!

Anyhow, we made the best of the visit, and I am glad he was able to come and spend sometime with us!

Brrrrrr...

It has been really cold here!   Ok, nowhere near as cold as the polar vortex hitting the midwest, but still quite cold for California!   In the past week, it has snowed twice on this top of Mt. Tam.  Here is a pic that I snapped this morning on my chilly run.  Yes, just a dusting--but super rare around here!

It has been at least 5 years since we have had snow on Mt. Tam--of course, this is also probably cease we have had such little precipitation over the past 5 years.   This year, the snow pack is already 125% of normal--we have had a lot of rain!

Ethan Turns 10...in Andorra!

We just got back from a vacation.....this year, Jason was assigned the week of January 28.  We found an excellent airfare to Barcelona.  Since Ethan's 10th birthday fell during the week, decided to make the trip a surprise.   And because his favorite thing to do is ski, we decided to spend a few days skiing in the Pyrenees.   Before planning the vacation, I didn't realize you could ski just 3 hours from Barcelona.

In a lot of ways, the geography is similar to San Francisco--Barcelona is on the Mediterranean and quite temperate.  We were lucky to have sunshine most of the time when we explored the city.

 A highlight for us was that we got to see our friend Alberto.  He came to Barcelona from Bilbao, and we spent Sunday hanging out with him and his girlfriend Isa.   It was so great to see him again--we last saw him in the summer of 2013, when he came to our house.  

 

On Monday and Tuesday, we spend the day exploring the city.   We found it to be clean (especially compared to San Francisco), and very easy to get around.   We toured the Sagrada Familia, which allegedly his going to be completed in 2026, the Park Guell, and the Picasso Museum.   We had some great meals, and Jason and Ethan especially loved the seafood.

For the second half of the trip, we rented a car and headed north to Andorra.   We skied for two days at Grandvalira, a huge ski resort.   We were lucky as there was a ton of snow--and it snowed each day we were there.   Alaina is doing a great job with her skiing, and Ethan has for sure surpassed me.

We had a nice birthday dinner with Ethan--and he had the "best day ever".   I can't believe that he is a decade old!

We feel fortunate we were able to take this trip!