First and most important – my note of appreciation to all those who have and will serve in the armed forces, protecting the peace that I hold so dear in my heart. For those men and women and their families, I am thankful. For their willingness to risk and give their lives defending our country and ideals, that is the greatest gift and one that I can never express enough thanks for.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, we all sometimes forget how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy the weather and all that the area has to offer. Four seasons are for other states, and we basically just get to enjoy two different types of summer – one with rain and one without. This year was made special with a few trips to Truckee, California (up near Lake Tahoe) where we got to see it snowing and see snow on the ground. Both really firsts for Sofi and Natalie, who have been in the snow before, but not in a way that they could either remember or play in it.
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I’m not sure that we’ve gotten (or will ever get) the whole story, but you read it right – Natalie broke her arm last month playing in her room. Apparently her sister told her one thing, then something else happened and then… well, apparently, in her words, “I forgot to put my feet out.”
She was a trooper, though, and the compound radial fracture is nearly healed!
Papa
The holiday season is here, and I have more than most to be thankful for. So much, in fact, it’s almost impossible to put into words everything that is in my heart and mind. I have a beautiful, loving wife, two daughters that mean more to my very being than any words could ever express, good health, and more of life’s basics (clothing, food and shelter) than any one person deserves. These blessings are with me throughtout the year, and thanks to my daughters the ones that really matter will be with me, in their words, too, “always and forever.” Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve decided, as we get closer to the end of the year, that I am going to make every effort to write about the holidays that have passed in 2009 before they come around again in 2010. That said, I was looking through some of the pictures that we had from Mother’s Day 2009 and realized that I hadn’t shared a wonderful experience brought along by my beautiful wife, mother-in-law, and my two daughters. If you don’t see it, the symmetry in those three things is that combined they are my joy.
There are some positives and negatives about not having posted for a while, and for most they should be pretty obvious. On the negative side we have – restless readers, big gaps between updates, and a waste of space on the internet. All terrible things, but none-the-less countered by the positives of so many things to write about . And, with that, I thought that I would share a little about a exploration day that we had on Mama’s August 4th birthday (she was turning… 29, again).
The first day of school is one of life’s first rights of passage. It’s a change from being in Mama and Papa’s fold to being judged by a relative stranger and held up to the opinions of other students that at some point (very quickly) become your peers. With Sofi going into kindergarden this year it was also a wake-up call that my babies are growing up.
There are few things more exciting to a child than an amusement park, and we’re fortunate enough to have a few pretty good ones in our metaphorical back yard. Paramount’s Great America and their partner organization Gilroy Gardens are both pretty close and offer a wealth of rides for young and old alike. Personally, I think that Gilroy Gardens is more suitable for children under 10, but the fact that Great America is about 15 minutes from the house makes it a lot more appealing than the hour or so it takes to get to Gilroy Gardens.
I’m way behind in writing about some of our recent adventures, but thought that I would take a moment to catch everyone up on our recent New Brighton State Beach camping trip. For those that haven’t heard of it or visited, it’s south of Santa Cruz and is touted as a beach-side campground, which is probably about as accurate as one can get. You don’t get to sleep on the beach, but it’s a short walk from the campground and adds quite a bit of fun to what otherwise might just be a trip into the forest. Hopefully the pictures and following story will share a little of the experience from our perspective.
In a perfect world I would have a way to spend every minute of every day with my children, but it’s not a perfect world and sometimes it is necessary to just accept that there will be days that I miss and time that I can’t be as close to them as I might otherwise desire. Fortunately, during the summer months, Mama has the time and opportunity (being a teacher gives her summers off), and this year, as the girls are older and more able to get around, they’ve been making the most of the summer months and it would seem as though they’re really enjoying themselves.
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