Happy 15th, Peanut!

It's crazy that our baby is only one year away from a driver's license! He's taken high school in stride, is getting excellent grades and keeping up with his schedule mostly on his own. He got himself up all year, for seminary class before school, and swim practice even earlier than that, and walks home every day without complaining about it. He's still reading and writing at home, working on his own projects, and even tried his hand at running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign this year which has been quite the experience.

He had school on his birthday, which is a first for him, so we saved the party for later, but his D & D group came over and they spent a few hours fighting goblins.

We love this kiddo!

Celebrating Daddy-o in the Best Way

Daddy-o had a birthday this week and while his birthday was a day full of school and work, we surprised him with a pizza crawl in San Francisco scheduled for the weekend. I picked 4 places that offered pizza by the slice in 3 different neighborhoods to try and we had a fabulous day!

Besides the pizza, we also walked around a little between places (had to keep our appetites up so we weren't forcing pizza down by the end, haha.) It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we started in the neighborhood south of Golden Gate Park (Inner Sunset) and then went to the Mission District, so we walked over to Delores Park for the views. Also stopped by the Dog Eared Books for bit and picked up Amy Tan's Backyard Bird Chronicles for me (I offered to buy Daddy-o and birthday book, but he declined so I figured I should get me a book, haha.)

Exploring those two areas took all afternoon so it was basically dinner by the time we headed to North Beach for the final two spots. We had saved Tony's for this point because it gets such high ratings so I figured we shouldn't start with what was likely going to be the best pizza. And it was really good pizza.

And then we went to Golden Boy which was the most unique style of pizza of the day (more of a deep dish, where the other three were thin crust.)  We grabbed some amazing gelato to finish off the night before we headed home.

We didn't eat any bad pizza the whole day. Arizmendi Bakery only has one flavor a day, and the mushroom with ginger and sesame oil was surprisingly delicious (and the scone we got to split was delicious!) Tony's had an amazing veggie pizza with so many toppings and great, floppy, NY style crust, Golden Boy was good, but the overall winner was Hi Hat! Daddy-o loved the spicy vodka and thought the crust was the best we had all day, and their other pizzas flavors were so good, too.

The best part is that there are still so many pizza places to try so we can do this again! (And Tony is opening a new place in Livermore, so maybe we'll need to do this with a few of our local places when that happens, although I can only think of one other place that does pizza by the slice.)

Happy Birthday, Daddy-o! 

Quick Birthday Trip

After I finished teaching on Wednesday, I caught a flight to Utah to celebrate my mom's birthday with her. We mostly just relaxed and talked all day, and then went to dinner with both of my brothers. We realized that it may be the first time as adults, or at least since I got married, that it's been just us--the OG McClellan group. We always have kids or spouses with us, and as much as we love all of them and want them around, it was kind of neat, too, to be together like that.

And Cam's family came to the house afterwards so we could sing happy birthday and have pumpkin cheesecake (or ice cream for the crazy people who don't like cheesecake, which is half of Cam's family.)

And then I got a bonus birthday celebration with my sweet niece because her birthday is the next day!

I love my nieces and nephews and don't get enough time with them, so it was really fun to be there for this.

These two crazy girls had a lot of fun with the balloons,

sometimes a little dangerously.

But mostly just fun.

R. was hilarious with the gift opening. She was so expressive with her disbelief at each amazing gift she got--especially her favorite treats, like mint lifesavers, chick-fil-a sauce, and pirate booty. She'd look in the bag, and then throw her head back in shock, and then start to smile. It was so cute.

And. . . more cheesecake! Although R only ate ice cream, but she REALLY likes her ice cream. We finished up with a rousing game of Yahtzee and then I flew home the next day. And despite the flight cancellations to work with the (still going) government shut down, I got lucky and made it to Oakland a few minutes early. 

It was a fast trip, but so worth it to have the time with family!

 

Belated Birthday Celebration

It only took us 6 weeks to reschedule Peanut's birthday party this year. He was sick the week of his actual birthday, so we postponed his party. And with the end of the school year and all the prep for church camps, this weekend was the first chance that we had to celebrate.

He had a few friends come to the pool to swim, play some games, and have dinner.

The kids had fun, and it ended up being the best night for it--really warm, but there's so much shade around the pool, it was pleasant in and out of the pool. And there were a couple other families there, too, so it felt like a real community pool. We barely saw anyone all last season, so it was fun to be there when it was being used.

It's a good group of boys. I'm glad he has kind friends.

Peanut's been 14 for awhile now, and it's almost starting to seem normal. In a lot of ways, he really is growing up and it's fun to see the changes over time.

Birthday Boy!

Our newly turned 14 year old! 

We had a pretty lowkey day--

building bridges for the guinea pigs in science class, park with friends afterwards,

and he requested homemade mac and cheese for dinner, and a mint brownie "cake", and a Marvel movie for the evening.

But then, one of his gifts was a night at the Great Wolf Lodge with cousins that weekend. From all reports, all the kids, and dads, had a fantastic time.

Daddy-o splurged and got them the whole package,

so they had credits for the arcade,

ropes course,

bowling,

and mini golf.

They got to hang out in their bunk room,

and the outdoor pool even opened, earlier in the year than we'd expected, so they spent some time on Saturday out there, as well as doing all the slides and fun in the water park indoors. experiences make the best birthday gifts!

Birthday Week

Daddy-o turned 48 and celebrated with a couple of friends and lemon cake.

And then, later that week, we took our first van trip since the big one.

Just one night up near Pinecrest in the snow.

And all so we could go skiing the next day.

I'd set up a few ski days for our homeschool group at Dodge Ridge. They have such a great group rate (and we even got two free tickets because of the number of people who signed up.) Peanut took a lesson again to refresh himself and Daddy-o skied with him in the afternoon.

And while they skied, I went for a little hike down the road and into the forest.

It wasn't snowy enough to snowshoe, but icy and snowy enough to make it a bit of a challenge walking around.

I followed the same path that we often snowshoe on and found the stop sign that we have taken pictures of in the past. I always thought the snow was so deep, but turns out it's just a short sign, haha.

We finished the weekend with another birthday gift for Daddy-o: a movie at the historic Stanford Theater. This place is beautiful and such a crazy good deal--$7 tickets, $1 candy and $2 popcorn.

We saw Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and it felt very timely. The best part was everyone in the theater cheering after a particularly moving monologue from Jimmy Stewart's character. We'll be back for  more movies for sure!

The Big 1-7

Bug is now a 17-year-old and this is the only picture we got of the day, haha. 

It's been weird having a 16-year-old senior, so this feels right. I don't think I've bragged about this boy lately and he deserves a little bragging. We don't put a ton of stock in grades and test scores, and that means that we don't really push our kids in school or whatever else they do. We encourage them when they take things on and are happy to support them, but most of their achievements are self-driven.

Well, Bug is killing it this year. He aced the PSAT last year and was selected as a National Merit Semi-Finalist which means he scored in the very top for our state, and in the country. They only give this honor to 16,000 out of over 3 million seniors each year. We have to wait until February to know if he made the cut for finalist, but his SAT score was similarly high, and he had a solid resume to submit, so we're hopeful. It could eventually lead to a scholarship, and even more importantly, it is a huge honor and looks great on those college apps.

He also is going on over 3 years of solid A+s in every class. We almost hope that he'll get something lower just because it might take a little of the stress off, but he's so determined to keep his grades up and works really hard. This year is tough--two AP classes and two IB classes, so he's not coasting through senior year, but he's learning a lot and maybe he'll even figure out how to sleep one of these days.

And on top of his scholastic achievements, he's just such a great kid. He's kind, he tries to be a good example to the younger kids at church, he wants to improve himself, and anything he is a part of. I have people tell me how much they enjoy working with him and being around him all the time and how much they appreciate his attitude in everything he does. And his classmates recognize the good guy aspect of him as well--he won "Best Guy to Bring Home to Mom and Dad" when they voted on Sr. Accolades. As a parent, that feels like a big win.

We love this guy with all of his talents and skills, his kind heart, and creative genius. We're glad we get to be there for the ups, and the downs. 

We had a party for him this weekend--a group of friends came over for pizza, desserts, and a movie (and this is the only picture I took--but we were trying not to hang out too much. We don't really know most of the kids he hangs out with these days, so as much as we'd like to get to know them, we're supposed to be chill, haha. They seem like fun kids, though, and Bug really likes them all.)

Birthday Trip to Yosemite

What better way to celebrate a birthday than a day in Yosemite? We had perfect weather, so much water everywhere, and overall very happy hikers!

Got up crazy early to get on the road before 5 a.m. Traffic getting into Yosemite can be miserable in the summer, so we didn't want to chance it and it paid off nicely--only 2 cars in front of us at the gate and plenty of parking when we got there at 8:30.

The Merced River is so full this year. We didn't want to miss the chance to see all the falls at their best.

Once we found a parking spot for the day and ate breakfast, we were ready to hike! 

We've never done the mist trail before, and since that offers great views of two waterfalls, we thought this was the year to do it.

The hike to the bridge below Vernal Falls is steep, but paved and fairly shady.

 

After that point, the trail continues up and turns into rock steps--

and it gets WET. 

All of the mist coming off Vernal Falls makes it a really wet hike. 

But all that mist makes some beautiful rainbows! 

We brought rain jackets just for this, and were glad we did.

Past the falls, there's a view from above.

We stopped at the top for awhile to have lunch and dry out a little.

Then, took the trail up to where we could connect to the John Muir trail to loop back down, and got a view of Nevada Falls up above. We didn't have time (or energy) to hike up to that waterfall.

But there were views of both falls along the trail. The hike is rated as difficult, and it was--steep and pretty technical with lots of rocks. Honestly, it was a little too much for my ankle and where I'm at endurance-wise and I was hurting on the way down, but I survived and could still walk the next day :).

Once we made it back to our car for snacks and changing out shoes/jackets, we went the other direction for about a mile to see Yosemite Falls. The meadows are so beautiful this year. It was a really nice walk.

We didn't last long for the view of the lower falls from the bridge. The mist was COLD!

Plus, we had to get on the road so we could make it to the birthday dinner that Grandma and Grandpa had planned.

So glad we got to have a great day with our Bean for her birthday. We feel pretty lucky to have her around--it's weird that she's gone for a big chunk of the year now, but we're soaking up the time we have. And love watching her grow into this awesome adult. She's doing a pretty good job of managing the new challenges and taking advantage of all of the opportunities that this stage of life offers. Her adventurous spirit makes my mama heart happy.