Thursday, May 14, 2020

Shelter in Place Memories (the first 2 months)

Looking back to early March, who would have expected that two months later we would still be sheltering in place.  Initially we just had to get set up for work/school from home - this included buying desks and iPads.
Arne uses his desk, but also sometimes works outside.



With so much time at home, we also rearranged the kids room (to make space for the desk).

The kids found fun home based activities, like Liam creating a giant Lego train track.

Holidays were a bit different, but some traditions remained, like Elsa making a special cake for St. Pats.

In the beginning we had a few outdoor outings, like a walk along Crystal Spring trail.

A nice outing to the beach.




But days became weeks and weeks are becoming months, and we are trying to have fun.  Elsa missed her bars, so we got a pull up bar/swinging bar for her to play with.



Liam and I took a bike ride through Stanford.


Liam loves board games and has been playing a lot.  He even made a Lego chess set.



We even did a game (battle crib) double date night via video conferencing.
Arne and Liam cleaned behind the couches.

Arne is spending a lot of time in the garden, with help from Liam (and sometimes Elsa).

He also now has a home gym setup on the deck.

Elsa has become the home cook, making all sorts of fun foods for us, from many variations on caramel, different kinds of cookies to fun dinners like meatloaf wellington and potato pie.

Liam's Boy Scout Troop did a Zoom Pinewood Derby.  Liam came in 3rd in the Tiger Den (out of 9) with his Silver Spike.  Elsa won the Sibling coolest car (but turns out slowest car) award.


We are lucky to have help from my mom and sister.  My mom takes Liam one day a week and plays games with him.

My sister has been taking Elsa for overnights and time at the beach.


We are trying to do things together remote, like Liam going for bike rides with friends, or my morning sculling in a single.

We continue to distance and continue to find fun things to do, and are continuing our traditions that we can, like making Strawberry Jam for Mother's Day.

But I do hope we can soon interact more!



Thursday, April 30, 2020

Pinnacles National Park


We were lucky to be able to take a weekend to visit, for the first time, Pinnacles National Park (made a National Monument in 1908, National Park in 2012) for a weekend camping adventure.  They are one of the few National Parks in California that is open, and they are only open for those with camping reservations.  I had a reservation, because this was the weekend Elsa's girl scout troop was going to go camping.  Since we couldn't take the troop, we went as a family.

The first thing we did was set up our tent and make a fire.  The kids love fire.  We grilled cheese sandwiches and toasted s'mores.





Then we headed to sleep and for our Saturday in the wild.

Saturday morning, Arne got up early and explored the park and all the wildlife.




Once he was back we had a simple breakfast, before heading over to the store for more wood.

We then went on a hike to explore nature and see the actual Pinnacles.



After some time on the path, we went off path and found a small creek, and set up our hammock over it!



The big excitement was the snake that slithered toward the hammock!
We then headed back to camp for board games and a Frisbee game.

And of course, another fire for dinner.


After another night under the stars, and pancakes by Elsa, we headed home.
A good social distancing weekend away.