A New (In-Person!) School Year

We were so excited for the beginning of the new school year. Elsa headed off to middle school (6th grade) and is so independent.  She started on Wednesday the 11th and biked off to Greene Middle School.  

The next day Liam started 3rd Grade at Addison.  It was nice to drop him off and see many of the parents for the first time in a long while. 

After the first week of school fun, we headed up on our annual trip to Foothills park for a fun overnight.  Now that the kids are bigger they brought friends for some of the fun.  They helped make dinner. 

Had fun toasting marshmallows. 

Then they all played stickball, or as they called it, barkball, because they played with a piece of bark.

We had a small issue in that there was a wasp nest near our campsite, so everyone got stung.  This led us into our tents early for an early night to sleep.

The next morning we loaded up the car.

And took some pictures before heading home. 

A good start to a new school year.

Summer Fun 2021

It was our second summer of Covid modified camps and adventures.  The kids were both able to have a number of great experiences.  Liam started out the summer going to Galileo Camp. He made a cool pinball machine and a fancy backpack.  He really loved the pinball machine.

Then next week he returned to Run for Fun Camp, before going to Avid Rock Climbing Camp.  Rock Climbing was hard because it was a 40 minute drive both directions in a van, but by mid week he already had new friends that he did zoom playdates with at night.

The last two camps of the summer were the Berkeley Botanical Gardens Green Stuff and the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo Down By The Bay Camp.  Liam just loves the outdoor nature camps.  Down By The Bay was a favorite last summer and again this summer.  They hiked, explored the Baylands, learned about local plants, and even dissected a fish!

He ended the summer with 3 days of Soccer Camp.

After camp, Liam worked on his tricks on the bike and scooter. Trying out jumps at the Bayland's dust bowl and routines at the skate park. 

Liam spend much of the summer making some cool LEGOs - a motorized train and a motorized roller coaster.

Liam and I were also able to do some fun Mother/Son adventures.  We went camping with some of his friends from school in Half Moon Bay.

We also did a SF Zoo and beach day.

I took him for a day at Great America. He went on all the roller coasters and we played in the water park.

Then I took him, along with Elsa and her friends, for a day at Great America.  Because he did all the rides, Elsa's friends tried many rides for the first time.

Elsa had an almost totally different set of camps.  She started with 2 weeks of Casti Camp with her friend Maya.  Each day she would bike to camp, then bike to her swim team practice then bike home.  It was great to see her independently navigate town. After this she headed up to the Sierras for 2 weeks of Mountain Camp. This was a great sleep away camp experience.

Once home, she did a week of Avid Rock Climbing and then a week of Paly Robotics camp, where she was also able to bike over with a friend.

Elsa and I ended the summer with a girls trip to Santa Barbara, so that she could spend a week with a friend who moved there last year and I could work remotely from a hotel. With Josie, she did a week of Lobster Jo's camp in Santa Barbara.  

After camp, the girls would come to my hotel to play at the pool.

They would also play at the beach.

Josie's brother joined in the fun and when they were not at the pool, they would play games on the iPad, or Monopoly on the balcony.

It was Fiesta Week in Santa Barbara, which means confetti filled eggs that the girls enjoyed smashing on each other!

I enjoyed hanging out with Josie's mom Jazmin and having margaritas at the beach. 

I also saw some Princeton friends in Carpinteria. One lived on the mountain side with a great view of the area. 

Best of all was working from my balcony with a view of the beach. 

But another fun thing was doing a 1K ocean swim - a weekly race down there. 

We ended our time with our friends by going on a whale watching adventure. We saw thousands of dolphins (literally thousands!).  They would race with the boat. 

And then near the end we saw a humpback whale!

It was such a great outing and way to end our trip.

Overall, a pretty amazing summer for the kids!