September/October 2024 - Back to School mode

 The 1st term of the school year is officially done.  Paul finished his first season running x-country.  After Paul had to deal with a broken foot for most of the summer, we especially enjoyed watching him run races with his friends and see him find his stride again. He enjoyed being with his friends, and continuing to improve his 3K PR throughout the season.  We'll see if he'll do it again next year.  Paul really loved his first season on the local mountain biking team racing against other 7th graders and traveling around the state on weekends.  He is an easy yes for doing it again next year.  No question, Lily will be back for her 3rd season of high school volleyball next year.  She continues to love the sport and it shows with how much time she puts into it and the goals she sets for herself.  We are super proud of the team making it to playoffs, Lily making 1st Team All Conference, and recognized as co-MVP of her team.  Nate and I stay focused on cheering her on,  supporting Lily's goals,  and gently reminding her to stop and enjoy the ride and the friendships thanks to her passion for the sport a bit more.  I'd like to say Elise is on the hunt for her next sport but table tennis is the only sport to make a fall showing a bit more in Elise's life.  She decided to quit karate for good.  She continues to do Girl Scouts, piano, and German which is fantastic.  She just needs to move her body more and we haven't found a new activity yet.  

Oma and Opa are back as of a couple weeks ago.  They are finding their routine again and we appreciate their culinary spoils.  We are all glad they are back and feeling good overall.  Our lives are at very different speeds but the check-ins we have throughout the day to share the going-ons of our lives are our micro-connections that we all look forward to.

I wouldn't say our work is thriving for either of us these days.  Nate's company has had to go through multiple rounds of layoffs and reorganizations. Nate's job is currently safe and he works so hard to bring the morale up for his team and get good work done every day.  My company is private but also working to find its footing in the same industry.  

It was the first Halloween that we didn't have our kids all together at any point for a costume pic.  Paul fulfilled his childhood dream of being a hot dog and Elise loved donning her own face paint creation to turn into the Joker.  Lily was planning on being the sun but ended up chilling with friends instead.  

The morning after Halloween felt like a noticeable shift to what takes up headspace - the pending election, so many November birthdays, and Holiday prep.  It's a tense time for our country with election day right around the corner.  No question I am anxious and nervous what the results will be and how the country will react.  I will do my part by voting and keeping calm-a-la.  

Elise at Fall Girl Scout Camp

Paul after finishing his first x-country race

 

Paul racing at Mt. Bachelor

                                                    

After the final race of the season

                                                    

Lily in her element as a front row hitter.

                                          

Annual pit stop for wellness checks

                                           

                                                                           

Halloween decor

Welcome back to Portland hugs

    

 Elise showing off her wine pouring skills.

Fun trip to Bend with both a volleyball tournament and mountain bike race on the same weekend.  Elise opted to stay home with Oma and Opa.

Our creative and artistic Elise

Happy hot dog Paul

    

       7th graders Paul & Elise. 10 grader Lily

Sabbatical, Japan, Oahu, Traverse City, Lolo Surprise and Back to School

Our family trip to Japan was a whirlwind adventure.  It is easy to fall in love with Japan as a tourist with the chance to peek in on a culture that intertwines nature, history, and modern technology so beautifully.  The food is delicious and the Japanese have created this clean and impressively safe society.  

Overall, I'll remember the following from Japan

- Seeing our dear friends Aya, Ichiro, and Ren from Okinawa.  We had one of our best days ever spending time with them.

- Goosebumps moment:  seeing a sticker that says "Eric Around the World" on a railing while taking a picture of Tokyo Skytree during an early morning walk.  No other sticker in sight - my brother Eric and family were very much on my mind due to Eric's 1 year heavenly anniversary.  

- Observing my kids fall in love with new food and new sights. They were troopers moving around every couple of days to someplace new.

- Missing being able to chat with the locals freely; I really do love the light chitchat with strangers. Grateful for Google Translate which is as necessary as taking your passport to navigate Japan.

The good easily outweighed the bad.  Japan was really good to us. 

Oahu stop on the way back to Portland.  Turtle Bay Condos on the North Shore. 

Nate took Paul and Elise to Traverse City shortly after our Japan trip to see his family while enjoying life on the lake for a week.  

Lolo came to visit during the first week of school.  We always LOVE having Lolo here.  Lily started her sophomore year at Lincoln and is busy in some new classes like Journalism and Computer Science and playing her 2nd year of varsity volleyball.  Paul and Elise started 7th grade and they have mixed feelings.  They have math, language arts, and art together which was a nice surprise.  Paul is going to do a mountain biking team, cross country, and tennis this fall. Elise will start up karate again.

Paul was able to take his boot off shortly after returning and slowly get back to enjoying his sports. He joined a mountain biking team and completed his first race. He and Nate also love watching Timbers games together.  Our 9th Annual neighborhood Block Party also happened with special remembrance of our dear neighbors and Block Party regulars Johanna and David who passed away this summer.

We are quickly all coming back down to Earth as we think past Labor Day Weekend.  Nate's 2 month sabbatical is ending. He is returning to work on Tuesday in a new managerial position for a company that is going through a lot of layoffs right now.  The day-to-day routine and fewer family dinners together is about to start.  We knew it was coming.  It's okay.  We had a heckuva summer.

2024 Start of Summer & Japan Eve

We are leaving on a family trip to Japan tomorrow.  Nate has very much taken the lead in planning this trip. We both went on separate work trips to Japan years back and loved it.

Nate earned a work sabbatical that started in early July and will extend into early September.    This provided an opportunity to take a "big" family trip and Japan won. We will explore several cities around Japan.  We are especially excited to see our good friends Aya, Ichiro, and their son Ren whom we haven't seen for about 5 years now.  

Other than this trip taking up plenty of real estate in our heads, we have also taken advantage of what Portland is so well known for - wonderful summer weather. 

Here are some glimmers from these past couple of months. As I was looking back at pictures I had taken, I noticed that I was picking family and sibling shots for a certain reason: there wasn't any fighting between my daughters for +/- an hour or so from the photo snap, a true glimmer reprieve. Yes, it's hard to believe looking at the pictures how much our girls fight.  Paul really does a good job staying out of it.

Family trip to Bend over Memorial Day to cheer on Paul in his baseball tournament.  Enjoying an easy Spaghetti dinner at our cute Airbnb.

Our girls did a nice job cheering on Paul overall.  Giving Elise the fancy camera to take pictures definitely helped.  Had a little fun with a sibling shot 10 years apart.

End of year 6th grade band concert.  Paul really likes the drums and plans to continue band next year.

Elise made this crafty vase out of shattered Paulaner beer bottle and fabric flowers

Thank you Inside Out 2 for helping me get all my kids to the tennis court for some family tennis before hitting the movie theater to watch what will easily be one of my favorite movies of the year. 

Elise and I took a quick 24 hour trip to Bend to see her favorite band, Vampire Weekend.  It was in an outdoor theater. I was watching her almost as much as the stage.  The moment they started playing, her face lit up. I included a couple links to the concert below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/65ad9GTEFHB9QDA99

https://photos.app.goo.gl/16hXAji63HREW3R69

Father's Day at Olympia Provisions.  Charcuterie and Octopus for the win.

Super proud of Paul and his bike crew riding to school regularly throughout the year up a steep incline in the early morning for several miles.  

Gma and Gpa came in early June for a quick visit after their Canada adventures.  This visit ended up being a bit of a doozy with both Gma and Gpa bringing Covid with them and most of us ended up getting sick too - but testing negative...?  At least we got to enjoy one meal out together with Gma.  

Proud of Elise for marching in the Pride parade with a couple of her friends in an inflatable unicorn costume.  She had a blast.   She even made it on the news.

Enjoyed a quick weekend getaway with dear friends on Bainbridge Island.  It was super chill, calm, and relaxing.  This is at Boedel Reserve.

Fun Girls Night on Abby's boat.  20+ years of Girls Nights.

This is the first picture of 12 year old Elise where it took me aback looking at it because I saw a grown up Elise in it...like I know what she'll look like when she's much older for the first time.

Family dinner celebrating the first night of Dad's sabbatical.  Sushi of course.

Paul and Nate making time for mountain biking in between baseball games.  Ironic that just one month later, it would be a baseball game that resulted in a broken foot for Paul just a day before he's supposed to leave with Nate, a couple of best biking friends, and their Dads, on a mountain biking trip/camp.  Trip canceled.  Nate and Paul were super bummed.  This was how Nate was kicking off his work sabbatical too.  Oh well.  Best silver lining is that a walking boot will suffice in Japan.  No crutches - yay.

May 2024 - Spring moments

There are two phrases I tell my kids a lot before they take on whatever it may be:

1) You only have control over your preparation, effort, and attitude. 

2) Work hard, play hard, and be a good sport.  

We've been saying these phrases a lot these days.  Raising tweens and teenagers feels like putting our foot on the gas of time (literally) in different directions.  

I think Nate and I are pretty chill overall with what is thrown our way - a teenager with minimal interest in hanging with her family, troubling health news from loved ones, job stress and security, and child anxiety come to mind. We are so very grateful for the good thrown our way too seen in the pics below.

Lily is now 15.  She is a focused and competitive young lady, whether it's being super motivated at improving her volleyball game or staying on top of her school work.  She is super independent with big goals and little interest in spending time with her family.  She is kind and goofy with her friends. Slowing down to learn life skills like doing her chores correctly (psst sweeping the floor or helping cook dinner) has plenty of room for improvement.  She isn't a hugger but she is responsive and ready to help when we ask (even with the eye roll) which we appreciate.

Lily loves playing front row

Here are a few more heart happy moments from the recent past.

                Our robins Lenny and Larry are back on our front porch.  The amount of joy and the number of "Hi Lenny" we say when entering or exiting our home is high these days.

Elise tried Track and Field for the first time.  High jump and long jump were the events she enjoyed the most. Super proud of her effort sticking with it the whole season.

We are no longer a home needing a playset in our backyard.  Paul and Elise enjoyed destroying it to make way for we don't know what next. 

Lolo and I took Oma and Opa to the Indian Wells Tennis tournament.  It was tennis heaven.  We all enjoyed the warm sun and the high quality tennis. My "heart beating fast can't stop smiling" happy moment was watching Sinner play.  

Elise spoiled us by teaching all of us how to make our own sushi. Even Oma and Opa rolled their own sushi.  

Our good friend Sara visited Portland with her beautiful family.  Just a simple visit with a good friend.

The only change to this year's Easter traditions was Lily being out of town at a volleyball tournament.  The rest of us made sure to enjoy Solleier and a backyard egg hunt.

Honoring and celebrating Eric on his first heavenly birthday sharing memories while out for lunch together.

Enjoying Chipotle late on a Sunday night after Paul won a tennis tournament.

Mental health day for Elise landed us in the Gorge enjoying the wildflowers.

Over 20 years of Monday nights with these beautiful ladies. Enjoying a change of routine with a private fashion/styling party at a local boutique from an auction win.  I'm so grateful for each of them.

Obligatory Mother's Day ask - picture of my kids.  Elise wearing jeans is the biggest surprise in this snap.

Speaking of surprises, my sister and I had so much fun laughing while prepping for her surprise visit to Portland wearing an inflatable unicorn costume.  Lolo is such a good sport.

On Lily's bday, we did some shopping before dinner.  Such a random and kinda mundane moment but it makes my heart happy being all together.

Lily on her 15th Birthday.  She wanted Indian food (mostly for the Mango Lassi).

My two faves at the Fireside bar talking about how many times we say Gesundheit before it's annoying and won't say it anymore.

Progressive dinner with our SDC friends crew.  It was a super fun night being all together. We all knew each other before Covid but Covid really brought this crew closer and we continue to have a blast and support each other however we can.

One more month of school left.  Unlike previous years, we don't have much planned other than our big trip to Japan in July.  The days of camp spreadsheet tracking activities are fading.