Stokstad Family Holiday

This July we headed up to Groveland and the Lillaskog Lodge for a Stokstad family holiday to celebrate Bob & Julie's 50th wedding anniversary.  The kids had a great time on the way up at the Groveland park, playing on monkey bars and sliding into me on the slide.

It was a beautiful location, with perfect days and awesome sunsets and games with glowsticks.

The days were idyllic with blackberry picking that wore Liam out.

And a visit to the local watering hole - Rainbow Falls.

We had an anniversary celebration all dressed up in matching Flag Shirts!

We then spent a day in the Yosemite Valley, enjoying a lovely lunch in the Majestic Lodge (formerly known as the Ahwahnee), before hiking to Mirror Lake (where Arne and I first met in 2008!).

Before leaving, the cousins had a chance to play in the sprinklers and create some great family mountain memories.

The end of Kindergarten

Today was Elsa's Last Day of Kindergarten!  She is now ready to advance to first grade. She can read books at her level, knows math concepts, and writes fun stories.  My favorite story is the one about the queen.  It goes like this: "The Queen pushes the baby.  The Queen eats the baby. The Queen goes to jail." I really enjoyed dropping her off every morning and watching her wait in line to enter the classroom.

Fridays were a real treat; we would come early and she would show off her classroom.  Liam always wanted to go into the class with Elsa to enjoy the story time.

To cap off the end of the year, on May 23, Elsa joined her classmates and was able to sing the national anthem at the Giant's game!  It was quite a lot of fun to take the train to the ballpark, watch the kids play and practice before the game, sing on the big field, then watch the game.  Liam had fun with his friend from DCC.

Elsa had a great year at Addison elementary. It was a pleasure to watch Elsa grow from the first until the last day, and we are looking forward to first grade starting August 16th.

Pictured above is Elsa leaving for her first day of kindergarten on her scooter, and a picture taken today as we left the house for her last day of kindergarten. 

Going Back...

I was very excited to take the kids back to Princeton.  We took Elsa 5 years ago for my 15th Reunion and it was exciting to return for my 20th! We headed out on a red-eye on Wednesday night, and my little monsters were quite good, sleeping most of the flight.

We then headed via train to campus and got our room - Blair 103 - in the same courtyard I lived in as a student! It was also nice and quiet; the 50th reunion was celebrating in that courtyard.  The highlight for the kids was playing in the fountain. We spent a lot of time in the fountain because it was very hot and humid.  We made 5 trips to the fountain!

The other highlight was going to get ice cream!  Yummy!  We ate a lot of ice cream.

The kids stayed up very late (1:30 AM, but they were still on Pacific time) and slept in late. They were pretty good sleepers once we got them down.

I enjoyed seeing friends from from the east coast and doing things we did in the past, like going to Arch to listen to the acapella groups sing, eating together, watching the fireworks, and even racing on Lake Carnegie.

I also enjoyed visiting with my old professor.  I wrote my thesis on autonomous vehicles, which are now almost a reality!

The kids really like riding the Rover (golf carts) - a very fun way to get around - maybe in 5 years there will be autonomous rovers!

The big highlight for the weekend was the P-Rade - a Princeton parade.  We hung out with friends on the grass waiting for it to start and then enjoyed walking.  Liam was on my shoulders, until he fell asleep!

I flew home with the kids on Sunday and Arne flew off to volleyball Nationals in Florida.  A great trip for all.

Six Years Ago

Six years ago we were married. To celebrate our anniversary we went to Carmel and spent the night at the Tickle Pink Inn. Amanda stayed with the kids in Palo Alto. We enjoyed the wine and cheese hour at the Inn. It has a beautiful view of the ocean. We spotted many whales spouting near and far.

We drove to nearby Carmel and had fresh seafood dinner at Sea Harvest Fish Market. Back at the hotel we watched TV, something we don't do at home. 80's movies were on - Adventures in Babysitting and 16 Candles, which is the theme for Karna's upcoming 20th college reunion. Sunday morning we went for a hike at Point Lobos State Reserve. The wildflowers were stunning on the cliffs over the water.

Time for a selfie. 

After the hike we went to Carmel Valley Athletic Club. They have spa with sauna, hot tubs and invigorating cold pools. On the drive home we stopped in Castroville at Alfonso's and had artichoke enchiladas. We returned home relaxed, refreshed and grateful for our wonderful life together.