Caching in on the Birthday Gifts

It might take us awhile to get around to experience gifts (we are so bad at this!), but at least the experiences are still fun when they happen. In January, when we gave Daddy-o one-on-one experiences with each of us as his gift, I didn't think it was going to take us a year to see them through (and, this is actually only #2 of 4!) But to be fair, this one was dependent on actually snagging a spot at the very limited redwood zipline location and I couldn't get one all summer, so. . .

The two bundled up and went adventuring together and had a great time in the treetops--crossing bridges and zip lining.

Looks like it was a fun way to experience the redwoods!

Saturday Fun

Bean, Peanut, and I went to explore a new park on the bay in Fremont.

We "hiked" along the water,

and spent quite a bit of time trying to identify the birds we saw. (We also realized this would be a better bird spot in the morning, so the sun isn't behind them, making everything just look like dark blobs.)

And while we were hiking, Daddy-o cashed in on one of his gifts--a boy's day with Bug. They went bowling, miniature golfing, to the arcade at Dave and Buster's, and out for burgers and pie at Nation's.

 

SF Exploring

Got out for a date with my Bean. She is always up for some fun in the city.

We grabbed a late lunch from Bean's favorite Italian restaurant and went to eat in Golden Gate Park. It was a beautiful day with lots of people out.

Then, we went looking for some of the tiled staircases on the west side of the city.

Just a little bit of urban hiking and art appreciation. I love this quirky city.

On the way home, we stopped by Balmy Alley to see the murals. It was a fun afternoon, which got cut a little short when Daddy-o called. I had been nervous about leaving him with the boys since he has been nowhere near top form. And sure enough, he had run out of pain killers and was in excruciating pain. He needed us to get back so I could take him to urgent care.

So, we drove home, and Daddy-o and I went to see about getting him more pain killers. By 7 p.m., we had a prescription, and then found out that NONE of the pharmacies in Livermore are open on Saturday evenings. The dr. gave us the prescription and directions to a 24-hour pharmacy in Fremont, so we made the 30-minute drive, turned in prescription, and then ran next door to get some dinner from Panera. Daddy-o was in quite a bit of pain, although they had given him a painkiller in the office.

When, just after 8 p.m., we got a phone call from the pharmacy, telling us that yet again, the doctor had not included all of the correct information, and they wouldn't be able to fill the prescription, and since urgent care had just closed, nothing could be done until morning.

This was the point when we both started crying. The pain management has been nothing but a disaster. The idea that Daddy-o was going to have to make it through the night with nothing wasn't okay. I texted a friend, first one who I thought might have spare painkillers. It's ridiculous that the medical community has made it impossible for people to get the painkillers they need without resorting to illegal means. But giving people a couple days of painkillers after losing a finger isn't remotely adequate.

Luckily, we were able to pick up some pills on the way home, to try to take the edge off until the next morning.

 

One-on-One Time

Bug and I got to go on a hiking date this morning. As the only two morning people in our house, we figured we could go out for a few miles before things really got going at home. 

We hiked 6 miles on the Bay Area Ridge Trail in Castro Valley, and at the peak, had this amazing view. The hills we climbed were the steepest I've done, maybe ever, definitely during this quest to do the whole ridge trail.

Our turn around point. Beautiful fields.

We saw a few lizards, lots of rabbits, a flock of quail, and tons of other birds as well.

Walking and talking with Bug reminded me of what a cool kid he is. I'm so glad that I've been able to be so involved with his life these past few years and have a front row seat for his learning and growth. I don't claim to have taught him much, but I get to hang out with him while he figures things out and then teaches me. Whatever he decides to do, he's going to be great at it.

We made it back in time for an appointment at the post office to submit the kids' passport applications, and then a birthday parade for Peanut's friend. Bean had written on our car for her friend, and I think we'll just leave it until this whole thing is open so we can go drive by all our friends for their birthdays.

We had a busy afternoon. I hung out with friends again in our social distancing square in the church parking lot. It does me so much good to have a couple hours off-duty and talking with people in person. Then, we had a virtual talent show with our church congregation. There were the traditional entries--piano pieces and quilting and art work, and then a few people took advantage of the recorded format and did musical pieces where they sang all the parts, or played multiple instruments--very fun!

Bean and Peanut submitted artwork, and Bug played the piano.:

Bean shared a few of her Star Wars watercolors.

Peanut wanted to share his earth chalk pastel.

And Bug played Pachelbel's Canon.

It's weird that so much about this is becoming normal. It makes sense that we'll adapt and figure out ways to celebrate things, but at the same time, having a busy Saturday full of friends and social activities under the current circumstances is odd. Just a few weeks ago, all of this would have been unimaginable, but here we are.

Today's Achievements

A date with this Peanut. We do so much as a group, but I'm still trying to carve out a little one-on-one time with each of them each month. He rode his bike slowly while I walked alongside for 2.5 miles and we talked about Harry Potter the whole time. If we got off topic, he quickly reminded me what we were supposed to be discussing ;)

Gameschooling--we tried Quiddler and it was a hit. Peanut loved it, and the other two kids jumped in for the last two rounds and agreed it's a fun one. Peanut also liked that the scoring involved a lot of mental math, so we counted it for the day.

Multitasking--Bug decided to fit in his outside time while on a video chat with his friends. I guess that counts? haha. He mentioned afterwards that video chatting is awkward in good circumstances, but now, they have a hard time coming up with things to talk about because no one is doing much different than the last time they talked.

Sibling bonding--These two have been having so much fun together. I love seeing it. They were inseparable for years, and now that Bean isn't gone so much, they are spending a lot more time together again.

Baking--A cheaters sourdough loaf for dinner. I still haven't made the commitment to baking and revived my sourdough starter (if it can be done), but I have made a few loaves of bread in the last month. Gotta keep my family fed and happy. We ate it with beef stew and it was delish.

Working towards a new goal--And finally, pardon the terrible picture, but it's all I got to document the new obsession. We play NERTS at least a couple evenings a week ever since Daddy-o and I returned from our cruise a few weeks ago (we played a lot on the cruise with friends, too). Everyone loves it and the hope is that we will all get good enough to take on Aunt R the next time we see her. It's been a few years since we've played with her, but Daddy-o and I have both been demolished by her any time we've played, so this whole quarantine is good for our practice time, haha. Gotta have goals!

Sabbath Sunday

Sundays are turning out to be one of the best days each week. It's not that I dislike Sunday normally, but it's a very different monster. I am typically out of the house by 8:30 or so, spend a few hours at the church building, between worship service and meetings with the other leadership or interviews with individuals. It's a lot of work, and can feel pretty frantic. It's just been so peaceful at home.

Today, I actually had one of my leadership meetings so we could touch base and make sure all the needs of our area are being addressed, but it's a lot simpler to jump on a Zoom meeting at home than actually have to show up in person.

Later as a family, we spent an hour on a Zoom call where 4 of the missionaries spoke to us who had recently returned home because of Coronavirus threats in their countries. It was so fun to hear their stories and see how they've grown. And then we did another video call with my mom for our at home church service. It's so nice to be able to do this. 

Peanut followed up that church with watching a singing time video that I friend of ours from San Diego is doing each week. She usually runs the children's music in her church and gets really into it--the video was hilarious and I think Peanut liked singing familiar songs.

After church, we played Bug's new game. 

He was inspired by the game Rat-a-Tat Cat and illustrated his own slightly different version using the art style of Exploding Kittens, so it's a bit of a game mash-up. He worked on this for months, and was finally able to order the cards a few weeks ago. We had a fun couple rounds.

Then, we got out for a walk around the neighborhood. That was probably the least peaceful part of our day because someone didn't want to ruin pajama day by actually getting dressed, so he put clothes on over his pjs, and then was crying about how hot he was most of the walk, haha.

But even with the whining, it was good to get out and find more signs of spring.

After dinner, the other three had zoom meetings to get on, so Peanut and I had a game date night and got to play 5 different games. We took turns picking, so had a fun mix of Chutes-n-Ladders,

Boggle,

Mole Rats in Space,

and Mastermind. Mole Rats in Space was a new one for us and we both really liked it, even if the snakes technically won and our poor Mole Rats only made it out of the infested Space Station because we cheated and gave ourselves a few more turns:) Peanut was devastated when he realized we were going to lose, haha.

Both boys also got haircuts today--Peanut is very happy with how smooth his hair feels now :) They were getting pretty shaggy, and with no chance to get to a barber any time soon, it's a good thing Daddy-o can do a decent hair cut. Peanut was praising his hair cutting techniques until he got knicked.

There wasn't anything hugely out of the ordinary, but it was just a nice day, filled with little family moments and even a few quiet moments. I could get used to these Sundays.

A Rainy Saturday

 The past 24 hours, I have watched a perfect example of the power of play, and why child--led learning works. It's why we homeschool the way we do.
Watching The Sandlot has kicked off an extreme interest in baseball for this one. He started asking questions about all the rules and how the Major Leagues work. I see more baseball movies in our immediate future. He was so excited to get out between rainstorms today to play, and then, when the two of us were practicing batting, he started making the rules for a two person game, which he named Bi-baseball (using those Latin prefixes.) He kept pausing our game so he could write down the rules.

I could have given him an assignment at some point, but how much more meaningful is it that he writes down instructions for games he makes up all the time? He'll make things up, play, go back to edit as he finds a better way. And it isn't work in his mind--it's all part of the game.

Other happenings on a drizzly Saturday:

I took a long walk "with" my mom--we video chatted while I circled the neighborhood, enjoying my kid-free break for the week.

We finished the puzzle while listening to a live Jack Johnson concert on Instagram. The outpouring of free music and art lessons and book readings from all of the professionals has been a bright spot in all of this.

Bean and I had a date night with Gilmore Girls, dinner, and junk food. She convinced me to stay up too late and we binged several episodes, which was just what we needed. I'm trying to still do my monthly one-on-one dates with the kids, but with our options being few, we're going to have to get creative :)

Fairyland Date

While the big kids played at blacksmithing, Peanut got to cash in on a Christmas present from 2017, haha. We are terrible at giving coupons for activities, or sometimes actual gifts, and then taking forever to make it happen. This one was for a trip to Fairyland in Oakland. He may have enjoyed it more a year ago, but we still had a good time. Running around the Wild West and the train ride there were his favorite parts. He's pretty much at the upper age limit for a lot of the stuff.

We explored the different fairytales and stories, watched a puppet show, and then went to IKEA for lunch, which ended up not being the most brilliant idea because holiday weekend + IKEA = crazy. And they didn't have any of the glasses that I wanted to buy, so it really ended up being a wasted trip. As Daddy-o said, we can probably find the same glasses at Target and pay less than lunch costs at IKEA. :)

Either way, it was fun to spend a few hours with just our little guy.

And while we were in Berkeley, we also looked up the house that Daddy-o's grandparents lived in when his dad was born. It's fun to track down old family sites.

Sharing Adventures

One of Bean's birthday gifts was a backpack, with the promise that we'd take her on an overnight hiking trip, just the three of us, spending time with our now teenage daughter. We figure we need to enjoy the time with her while she's still excited about weekend trips with her parents. It may not last forever, and there will be bumps along the way, I'm sure, but that's why now is the time to build the good memories.

And this one will go down in the books as a great memory for all of us. About 17 miles of hiking in two days, beautiful scenery all around us, and good times together.

We had to make some last minute changes to our plans because of forest fires in the area of Yosemite we'd wanted to hike, but we found a good alternative that may have been even better for a first backpacking trip. We parked on Tioga Rd, and hiked about 2 miles in to the Yosemite Creek Campground. It wasn't nearly as far as we'd thought we'd be hiking before we set up camp, but we made up for it after we ditched our packs.

The rest of the day was a 12.5 mile hike to the top of Yosemite Falls and back. Easier because we didn't have our big packs, but still a physically challenging day for all of us.

But the landscape was incredible. We hiked through shady, fern covered forests along the creek, 

climbed over granite boulders and cliffs (more than we should have because of a few detours we took off the path),

and walked through sandy fields. And we kept reminding this girl of ours that we can do hard things. She was loving it all, in spite of the blisters, and getting a little tired the last couple miles. This girl is strong and determined, and also a talker who really enjoyed having our undivided attention for miles and miles of walking. We heard more than a couple Studio C sketches recited as we walked, along with stories and lots of observations.

The view of the falls and valley from up above was incredible, and terrifying, all at once. I don't know what it is about being up high with my kids, but I just can't do it without feeling sick. I don't really have issues with heights on my own, but even the open upstairs hallway in our old house used to make me feel sick when I was carrying one of the kids. I'm just can't keep the image of them going over the edge out of my mind. So this wasn't totally fun for me, but we got to see it, and rest for a bit, and then started back so we could make it to camp before dark. 

Back at camp, we pretty much just wanted to eat and go to bed. All the talk of looking at stars and soaking our feet in the creek was forgotten. I didn't even care too much about dinner, but we did cook up the mac'n'cheese we'd brought, and even made a fire, which was no easy feat with all the damp wood from a rainstorm a couple days before. We didn't last long, though and were all in bed by 8:30. Of course, as soon as we laid down, we saw flickering just outside our tent--the fire, that was so difficult to get started, decided to be equally difficult to put out. The coals reignited twice before it finally went out for the night. And then, just as we were all drifting off, a couple of guys walked into our camp, talking pretty loudly. We're pretty sure they didn't know anyone was there and whether they were going to take firewood, or our actual belongings, we don't know, but when Daddy-o called out from the tent, it startled them and they left quickly. Finally, we got to go to sleep.

The victorious hikers! Second day was pretty easy. We all felt a lot better after a good nights sleep, and only had 2 miles to hike back to the car. 

I'm so glad that we made this happen. Having three kids can be loud, hectic, and complicated, but getting to spend time with them one at a time makes it easy to enjoy them. Our Bean is an awesome person--she's strong, funny, creative, passionate, determined, and a million other things that we sometimes lose sight of in the day-to-day rush of life. This weekend, we got to slow down, breathe deeply, soak up some nature, and just enjoy our firstborn child.