Fall 2025

Before a Christmas tree takes its place in our home today, I wanted to reflect on some of the moments the last couple of months served up.  

With Lily starting to drive more and more, Nate back at work 4 days/week, and Nate and Paul REALLY making it clear how much they love Toyota 4Runners, we bought their dream car.  It's fun to drive but the most fun was seeing just how happy Paul and Nate were and still are about getting to drive it.  Elise, Lily, and I like it a lot too but on a different level.

From an activities perspective, Elise continues to row with Rose City Rowing Club on the Willamette without much complaint and is super active with her Girl Scout troop.  She also really likes taking German lessons and asks me a lot about going to Germany.  I need to make that happen.  Paul had a lot of fun competing with his mountain biking team, running x-country, and continuing his tennis training.  He continues to be a super fun teammate and really enjoyed the improvements he saw this season while competing. 

Lily continues to really love volleyball and it shows with just how dedicated she is to improve.  It's fun to watch her hit the s*it out of the ball and only get smarter on the court.  She puts in the time to get stronger and smarter and her dream to play college volleyball continues to take shape. She made the team she wanted for club season too so her volleyball journey is about to kick into higher gear.  

  

I had a really good start to October visiting family in Chicago. I was spoiled with summer-like weather the whole trip.  Visiting my brother's grave, his new memorial bench overlooking Lake Michigan, hanging with family, and going to a UofM tailgating party with the friends and family that really knew my brother was what I came for. My sister and I laughed and cried so much together on that trip.  

One of Lolo's happy places is going to Cubs games and she took me to the final wildcard playoff game.  I get it!  Super fun atmosphere.  

A family picture on Eric's memorial bench recently installed near their Lake House in Fennville, Michigan at Pier Cove Park.  

I was most distraught at Eric's grave.  I was a bit blindsided by the intensity of emotion I'd feel being there.  It didn't bring a level of comfort like the bench did.  The finality of it, like the biggest punctuation period at the end of a sentence of the last line in a great novel can bring.  I didn't like the feeling one bit and I made the mistake of fighting it instead of leaning into it.

We had fun together exploring Holland Michigan too.  What a fun little town.

Family picture with Opa doing the signature Eric signal.  

A picture of my brother Eric exploring the beach near his bench.  My sister reminded me of this picture and I'm glad I found it.  

Elise underwent her 4th surgery this Fall in relation to her macrodactyly condition.  For the first time, it wasn't an operation on her special foot.  Instead, it was addressing her leg length difference.  The doctor said to Elise that she was putting Elise's growth plates to sleep in the tibia and femur of her longer leg.  This will hopefully give the other leg time to catch up during Elise's expected final growth spurt...and yes hopefully stop at the right time and not overshoot it.  This was a preventative surgery to have a lower chance of future pain related to mobility.  Elise made it clear in "Eric" fashion how she felt about it but overall she did great.  

Birthdays and Thanksgiving is what keeps us the fun kind of busy in November every year.  My Dad turned 88 and my mom turned 84!  I know it's kinda weird to say as a daughter but I'm simply super proud of them and what they do and endure on a daily basis.  It's great to have them back in Portland.    I'm inching closer to 50 too and felt the love.  Sharing a meal with friends of over 25 years was a highlight.

Thanksgiving with my parents and neighbors brought some fun laughs thanks to Elise and the secret dares everyone had.  I had to speak in an accent throughout the meal and Opa had to bring up the penny in conversation every chance he could are some examples.

Opa/Paul - soccer time

From a work perspective, the company I work for, Ampere Computing, was acquired by SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, and the deal officially closed this past week.  The CEO has an AI vision that we are now a part of.  I like to think the work we do designing technology for AI solutions will help solve humanity's issues and help empower humanity rather than replace it. From a personal perspective, it was nice to see my 5 years at the company get a bit of a reward and be part of a start-up that reached this point.

Nate's work has been more rocky, as his manager who he's known for 25 years was let go and he now has two new layers of management above him which are unknown quantities.  At least the company is now on more solid footing than it was a year ago.  Hopefully the seeds for a big turnaround have been planted.

Nate and I were spoiled with an overnight at Silcox Hut on Mount Hood celebrating one of our favorite friends turning 50.  Silcox Hut is part of Timberline Lodge, about a 30 minute hike up closer to the peak.  You can see that ski season is definitely not underway with how little snow there is.  Stunning views.  

End of Summer and First Month Back at School 2025

We are about a month into school and in between taking kids where they need to go and working, it's been really nice to enjoy the warm and sunny days Portland has been serving up for a while now.  Sitting on the porch for a little respite or the quick walk to Trader Joes for the umpteenth time in a week actually are some of the lovely moments to help break up the day-to-day.

Summer break 2025 ended with some notable highlights for our memory book.  We celebrated our 10th annual Irving Street Block Party and we went big with a dunk tank this year.  Building connection in our little Irving community is really important to us, it's as simple as that.   Paul competed in his first triathlon and Lily did her first season of beach volleyball.  They both would say they'd do it again.  Nate went to Michigan not once but twice to see his family and took a different kid each time.  Paul got the special treat (he was the only one interested) to get to watch a Michigan football game in the Big House.  

Lily definitely had quite a summer with passing her driver's test, being officially done with Invisalign after 2 years, and hiking and exploring all over Washington and Oregon with her boyfriend.  

My sister flew out to surprise the kids at the start of school.  This time she successfully surprised each of them separately.  You'd think they'd catch on by now with how often she comes but nope, the fun reveals continue.

8th grade for the twins and Lily's junior year are almost a month in now.  Lily is very busy with school volleyball season.  She is really proud to be captain this year and spends a lot of time giving her best to the team on and off the court.  Paul is busy competing on his mountain biking team taking up most weekends racing around the state.  He is also enjoying x-country season with friends.  Elise is back to rowing, piano, German, and Girls Scouts.  We just scheduled her next surgery for 11/13 to address her leg length discrepancy with the hopes that it'll be a preventative aid in minimizing lower back pain and hip pain when she's older.  She is interested in doing the surgery and we are supportive.  This means she'll have 2 more surgeries on top of the 3 foot surgeries she's already had.  That's a lot of surgeries for a 13 year old.  

In terms of growth, Lily still grew an inch the first part of this year as a 16 year old and seems to be topping off at 5'10".  Paul is 5'8'' and growing quite quickly.  His voice hasn't changed yet and I'm trying to record his voice a bit more these days because that deeper voice is coming soon.  Elise is 5'7'' and her x-ray in preparation for surgery showed very open growth plates which means she will probably still grow 3-4 inches.  I remember thinking back in the day that if I have girls, I hope they aren't as tall as me because I had a hard time.  I got my wish: I just didn't calculate on having a daughter obsessed with being the best attacker there is on the volleyball court.  She'd love my height.  Funny how things work out.  Paul is my only hope for surpassing me.  We shall see.

Here are a few more moments from the last couple of months.  The world outside of our family continues to feel uneasy, tense, and divided. It sucks.  I miss hearing eloquent, thoughtful, empathetic, and unifying words from our leaders during times of crisis.

10th Annual Irving Street Block Party

Our block party co-hosts Ken and Cari specializing in grilling and pool setup. They make it all extra fun.

Paul's triathlon at Hagg Lake.  Thanks to the Ushers for hosting the Xterra race.

                    Paul getting ready for a bike race.  There are a lot of youth in this league (hundreds), more than I anticipated.

Lily at Seaside for a beach volleyball tournament

Elise at Girl Scouts Wow Camp - Counselor in Training week.

                                                           Visiting Nate's parents in Michigan.

Big House with Grandpa

                                Lolo practicing her surprise for Elise.  Paul joined in on the fun.

1st day of 8th grade and 11th grade. Paul, Elise, Lily

Lily just passed her driver's test so had to celebrate.  She doesn't have her actual license yet but soon.

School photos.  Paul cracks me up because his looks exactly the same as last year - same shirt too.

Enjoying sitting in the Timbers Army for a game

                                                    This just makes a Momma's heart smile

Midsummer 2025

Summer with all teenagers for the first time is definitely a bit different from previous years.  They all want to make money, sleep in very late, and hang out with friends between impressively lazy days.  Sure, it can drive us nuts at times because we believe this is a great time to develop life skills but we are also teetering very close to the next phase of our oldest not only driving more and more but also leaving home and we just like hanging around at home (most of the time).  

The biggest excitement at the end of the school year was watching Lily compete at Hayward Field for Track and Field State Championships in high jump.  Paul and I had a blast taking in our first full track meet.

Celebrated with a few friends to mark the end of the school year.  Instead of sliders,  I made what are now coined "smashers" because I used way too much beef.  The beef was probably 2 inches high.

A recent routine has been giving Moxie her treat during breakfast and eats in a "civilized" manner.

I never thought I'd say this but a weekend in Yakima was one of the best trips ever.  Paul had a tennis tournament there so it was just the two of us having a blast in the Yak.  The tennis was disappointing.  The city is equally disappointing.  Yet, Paul and I stayed busy creating memories together.  He's such a fun travel buddy. 

Elise enjoyed a week away in Orlando with her Girl Scout troop.  They have been saving $$ for many years to plan a dream trip for the group from cookie sales.  They planned it all from location to accommodations to activities.  From swimming with manatees to holding a gator, we are so proud of Elise and the whole troop for what they experienced.

We made our 8th summer trip to Sunriver as a family.  We didn't go last year because of our big Japan trip.  It felt really good to be back.  Complaints were minimal so cheers to that.

Nate and Paul were able to squeeze in a couple 1/2 day mountain bike rides by Mt. Bachelor

The girls and I enjoy cruiser rides on paved flat roads taking in the views.

We usually hit the SHARC pool complex but they preferred the quiet pool at the cabin complex instead. Lots of Marco Polo.

Kayaking on Sparks Lake

We redid the Tumalo mountain trail after a 7 year hiatus.  Of course we had to recreate the photo.  

Watching Arrested Development and beach volleyball were probably the most frequent activities during our time there.

My "I hate hiking" Lily has changed.  She is now a regular hiker and already has plans to explore more this summer.  Go Lily.

                            
Nate's sister and family came to to the PNW.  Good to see the cousins together and having them out here for a visit.

Nate's cousin Georgia made a stop in Portland on her solo 3 month trek around the US in her car.

With our close long-time friends for a beautiful summer evening celebrating birthdays

Cheers to more summer memories and the work stress to disappear as quickly as my kids do whenever I ask them for help around the house.