Foolish

I'm going to ask you to think about all of the members of our family, and try to decide who you think is most likely to go all-out for April Fool's Day. Think hard.

I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. Think again.

Nope, still not right. Think again.

Luke, with a self portrait of his internal organs.

OK - I'm just going to give it away - It's Luke. Yep, good old serious and thoughtful Luke. He got me, and he got his friends, over and over again. Here's a brief summary of what went down on April Fool's Day:

7:30 a.m.- Luke wakes up in the morning and I give him a bowl of cereal with a drop of green food coloring at the bottom. I tell him to pour his own milk, and when he does, it comes out green. Gotcha! Laughs all around.

Sometime around 8:00 a.m. - Luke switches the keyboard on my phone so the "y" and the "z" are reversed. I don't notice this until mid-morning when I am trying to text someone about "Yach." It requires the assistance of two different people to fix this. 

8:10 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. - Luke repeatedly pranks his friends, including, but not limited to: Offering them part of a cricket bar for snack and telling them it is a power bar; switching out items in their pencil boxes; leaving fake phone numbers in their pencil boxes; telling them his peanut butter and jelly sandwich is actually onion jam; and last but not least - bringing a change of clothes to school and completely changing his outfit mid-day (he went from wearing all all-neon outfit to dark colors).

3:00 p.m. - Luke and his friend come home from school; I offer to make them French fries. They're actually apples cut in sticks, baked and sprinkled with cinnamon. I serve them with raspberry jelly and even though Luke catches on right away, his friend is still clueless even after eating two "fries" - he's more concerned when he realizes the red stuff is not actually ketchup.

3:30 p.m. - Luke puts tortilla chips under the toilet seat so they crunch when I sit down. Boooo.

6:00 p.m. - Dave comes home and we offer him a cold glass of "beer," which is actually apple gelatin.

April 4, 8:00 a.m. - Luke, frustrated that I STILL haven't noticed his final prank, calls attention to the fact that all of the pictures on the mantel in our bedroom are upside down. I always take off my glasses in the bedroom so I hadn't even noticed. Bahahahaha! You got me, but I also kinda got you, kiddo.

Homebound

This is HUGE, people. It is already the end of February and we have not (really) gone on vacation yet in 2015. (Smack me now, please.) The bigger point is that Ski Week came and went and we didn't go skiing or desert-ing. We pretty much just stayed home. And everyone was extremely mellow and OK with that. Imagine that.

OK, technicalities: The boys and I did go away for one night, two days at Legoland. Two days at Legoland doesn't seem like a lot, but it kind of is a lot, at least for one parent, and really, the boys were pretty much done after about four hours each day. (Side note: We just got sent a deal for "Buy one day at Legoland, get four days free" - Four days?!?! Who are you people?)

Anyway, the one thing Legoland had to offer was some of the boys' favorite things (Luke = Frank Gehry, or more specifically, the Sydney Opera House; Zach = Einstein).

We also had a most astonishing experience at the Mindstorms robotics lab: The boys were given a project to program a robot and they Worked. On. It. Together. Like a team! They solved the problem! This is significant!

And then we went home again, and they were more or less OK with being home and hanging out together. The trampoline we got for Christmas is no small factor. They'll bounce for hours. Every two or three hours they have some sort of collision or fight and they get angry and swear they'll never bounce on the trampoline together again. But they do.

On Saturday we went mining for gems. This turned out to be a very good use of time. The boys, like pro miners, found tourmaline, aquamarine, kunzite, lepidolite, and a few other -ites I can't remember. But it was good clean (OK dirty) fun.

The mining day was made even cooler by a four-wheel drive tour around the mountain and mine entrances. It was ostensibly led by a tour guide, the driver, but it was really led by the miners' dog, who happily scampered ahead of our little buggy the whole way along the mountain path. I don't think we stopped smiling the entire time. Oh, to be a miners' dog...

So now we're back home, and school's back in, but we're gearing up for even more adventures ahead. More to come!

Now you get around to it.

What? Did I miss something?

You know, you quit your job, and then all of a sudden you don't have any time left to do anything. But honestly, I'm sad about having skipped the updates in the past few months. Here are some highlights:

Time in the Berkshires with Lauren, Liz, and the gang:

A selfie with our hiking group:

My trip to Idaho:

Our weekend at Terranea for Mom & Dad's 49th anniversary:

Our family Christmas stromboli contest:

Three of us in Central Park (looks like we're standing in front of a painting but it's real, people!)

...Followed by the famous Bow Bridge in Central Park (did I mention that it was freezing?):

...And finally a selfie in front of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center:

 
My lovely Luke turning 11 on the "best birthday of his life":

 And Zach in love with his motherboard:

Now, was it really that hard for me to do the updating? No, it just took a while to get around to it. As for 2015, they say it's going to be a great year. I'll get back to you as soon as I finish all the laundry from 2014.

Trackers

You've probably already read the whole train trip rundown on South Bay Sparkle, but I somehow don't think I managed to capture the total glee that we all experienced on that trip. From the moment we boarded and saw our family cabin, until the moment we hopped off the train in Seattle, we kept looking around and congratulating ourselves on our cozy good fortune. That was a fun trip.

In fact, there was no one time when we felt claustrophobic or tired of our surroundings. Somehow both the days went by so fast we barely noticed...and we still felt like we were having a great time right up until the end. When we got off the train, right before we saw the cousins, Luke stopped by the window outside our room to give it one last wistful look. Until next year! (?)

In Seattle, you probably already heard about the raspberry picking from Jolly Tomato but you may not have heard about this crazy bunch of berries. (How did they all fit in there anyway?)

...And once we got home, Julie and Zach teamed up to make an incredibly delicious (and incredibly beautiful) gluten-free raspberry-peach pie. Zach did such a good job on the lattice crust that I decided to make a second post out of it on Jolly Tomato. ("It's easy - First you do the crisses, then you do the crosses.")

The weather was actually cooler than expected in Seattle, but we still took an afternoon out for a lake swim. Luke, Helena, and Antonia took the big kid "swim test" to get access to the floating dock. And although it took me several rounds, I finally got a picture of Luke taking a giant leap off the diving board:

On Day 2 we were supposed to go kayaking but it was too windy, so we spent the day at the innovations museum and we went to a special chocolate tasting there. That museum had just about something for everyone (Retro video games? Check. Inventor's building laboratory? Check.) and we probably could have gone again a second day without any complaints.

Nevertheless, the weather improved (declined?) by Sunday and although we had a light rain, there was no wind so we got the all-clear for the kayaks. We split up into three boats: Julie-Antonia, Jeanne-Luke, and Eric-Zach-Helena. It took us all a little bit of time to get used to rowing with our partners, but pretty soon we were maneuvering like pros. Luke was thrilled to kayak up and down some of the little water "streets" to see Seattle's famous boathouses.

We also paddled over to Gas Works Park, where we ate our picnic lunch and climbed on the "no climbing" structures. (Hey, everyone does it!)

...and then we finally paddled back to the landing spot, slightly damp but exuberant.

What do you think - does a day like this call for some pie? High five to that!

See you again soon, Seattle!

Island Time

So, did I mention we visited this little-known island called Hawaii? It's such a cool place; I hope for the locals' sake that it catches on soon. Anyway, if you want to read the technical play-by-play on the trip, you can check out South Bay Sparkle. But if you want to know the real inside story on the people, the personalities, the emotions... then read on.

I'll start with Luke, arriving in Hawaii, and discovering that *his* new drink is passion orange guava juice, known locally as POG. Happily, the Gold Lounge on our hotel floor kept a steady supply of POG available at all times, so he could POG to his heart's content.

The hotel was amazingly flexible in that it had every imaginable activity to cater to the kids, but we never got the feeling that it was swarming with kids. It felt just private and secluded enough that it probably was perfect for the many honeymooners who were there at the time. Speaking of honeymooners, it was 15 years since Dave and I were last on the Big Island. It was almost exactly the same this time, except we brought two additional small people with us.

What did we do at the hotel all day? We snorkeled. Between Dave and Luke, I think they saw every single creature in our little lagoon. Then we kayaked, we canoed, we fished, we paddleboarded, we boogieboarded, we swam in the pool and roasted in the hot tub.

Oh, and did I mention there were rocks? Lava rocks and coral as far as the eye could see...a beautiful black and white seascape and hiking grounds.

This area is rich in archeological finds, including petroglyphs.

And it was agony - agony! - for Zach to learn from our driver that the volcano goddess Pele will place a curse on anyone who takes lava rock from the island. (Of course a little piece wound up in our laundry once we got home - I'll let you know how that turns out.)

But that didn't stop Zach from spending as much time as he could exploring every cave, nook, and cranny. I liked this shot because he was illuminated, Indiana Jones-like, from a "window" hole on the top of the lava cave.

The final activity that was voted hands-down the most exhilarating fun, was our jet ski adventure. It started out a little dicey, with some random guy jetting us out in a motorboat to a little floating dock "island" about a mile out. But once everyone got on the jet ski, all cares were thrown aside.

And then, of course, there was the famous and unbelievably memorable giant trampoline in the middle of the ocean. Holy cow, was that fun. And the water was so warm that we couldn't resist jumping in the water, clambering back up, jumping in, clambering back up, on endless repeat.

After we were completely rocked-out and waterlogged, we dried off and took the shuttle bus to the nearby shopping center where they had a 4D movie theater. Yes, 4D. That means that the seats moved and shook, and you get blasts of air or sprays of water in concert with what's on the screen. Each movie is only about 8 minutes long, so you can sit there and watch a whole bunch at a time.

Now you know that I'm generally in charge of finding restaurants and planning activities but Dave is in charge of the science. That's why on Sunday night we found ourselves zooming up Mauna Kea through the clouds and up to the visitors' center at 9,500 feet just in time for sunset. Here's our felfie (family selfie, for those who are scratching their heads). Just after this was taken, it got truly dark and we were able to see billions of stars, and even large swaths of the Milky Way.

After six glorious days at our hotel, we took off to drive around the island. We hung out at an amazing macadamia nut farm (see Jolly Tomato), and we made it all the way to Volcanoes National Park. We got there, tired, toward the end of the day, and it took every ounce of willpower to get back outside (in light rain) to see the volcano at night. But when we did get out there - wha-wha-whuh? - Nighttime rainbow. Unbelievable. The glow from the lava illuminated the sky enough to show a nighttime rainbow over the volcano. Absolutely unreal.

Oh, and here we are in the lava tube the next day:

Are you tired yet? Because I was. How much vacationing can one person take? This shot is from the last day, on the long drive back to the airport in Kona. I think "Exhausted in Paradise" pretty much sums it up.

Loss

We are one less than before.

Three days after I posted here last, Dave's dad left us, peacefully, for a place of eternal rest.

It's nearly impossible to think of him as gone, because we see little snippets that remind us of him every day: The endless varieties of fruit we keep on the fridge and on the counter. The knowing smile Dave gives me as he cleans my car windshield. Dave and Zach watching the Indy 500 together. Luke's seemingly limitless patience as he waits for me to make a decision in the shoe section.

We are diminished in number, true, but our hearts are swelled with love, our minds are enriched with memories, and our lives are sweeter with traditions and traits that he passed along.

Zach is convinced that he is back with us, in the form of another creature - and if that's the case, I know he is watching us with a characteristic twinkle in his eye, and probably a happy tear or two.

As the summer begins, Dave and I are going through transitions of our own. I quit my job last week and I'm getting ready to embark on a new web project that Dave and I have been developing in the background for the last few months. We're about to head to Hawaii for Dave's first few days of "vacation" all year (even though he'll most certainly be on the phone). The boys are in motion - literally and figuratively - growing in leaps and bounds and ready to enjoy the fullness of summer ahead. And even though we all continue to feel a sense of loss, we have comfort in feeling Dick's presence and love that is around us every day. How lucky we were to have him as part of our family!

We will miss you here, Dick, but you will always be in our hearts.

Hyper speed

And...we're back! Seems like just yesterday, or not, that we were all in this space together. Where did the time go? No, seriously, where did it go, because I need it back. Since I last checked in, we've been to Montecito and Terranea, Zach and Dave have gotten a year older, and our marriage has gotten a year sweeter.

So, to rewind back in order, first the boys and my parents and I went to Montecito for spring break. We stayed at this amazing hacienda ("estancia") that had so many gates I was compelled to photograph all of them.

And we had a special Argentine barbecue that yielded some amazing steaks, plus it came in handy for marshmallow roasting. (I don't know why this picture always makes me laugh, but it does.)

And then we all basically chilled out in various relaxing spots throughout the hacienda (I'm sorry, estancia).

Two weeks later we had our annual Eastover egg hunt:

...and then Luke aged 10 years overnight to become 70s Guy for Decade Night at cotillion. By the way, last year he declared he would "NEVER, EVER" go to cotillion, and this year he loves it and at one point was named King of Cotillion. He was not-so-secretly pleased with this outfit because all the girls were telling him how cool he looked.

And then THIS adorable guy turned SEVEN YEARS OLD. Hold me. Wasn't he just a little bundle in a stroller? He is so sweet and funny I just can't resist giving him a big squeeze every time I see him. Me: "Do you looooooove me?" Zach (exasperated sigh): "Well of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

On Zach's birthday night I had an invitation to a behind-the-scenes event at Dodger Stadium. Instead of forcing Zach through something that he probably wouldn't enjoy, I had Zach and Dave stay home and entertain a series of Zach's friends who came over to the house. Meanwhile, Luke and I went ahead and met Tommy Lasorda:

And of course as EVERYONE knows, the day after Zach's birthday is Dave's and my anniversary. (Insert image of cooing doves pulling a banner draped with flowers, and then cut to me with big cartoon hearts popping out of my eyes.) We took off as soon as I got home from work and headed out to Terranea, where we had a most romantic dinner looking out over the ocean.

And then the next day, Dave brought the boys out and we all celebrated together in the hot tub. Why? Because it was outrageously windy and only the most insane people (OK, Luke and Zach) were venturing into the regular pool.

And then some more time passed and next thing you knew I was gone again, this time to San Antonio for Unk's jubilee celebration. It was a great weekend because I got to spend some nice grown-up time with my parents and my sister and my uncle.

And that brings us up to date! Sorry if anyone got whiplash... and stay tuned until next time when I try to capture the entire summer in one post!