Looking back 20 years

This weekend we look back at our lives and the events that happened 20 years ago and the impact those events had on all of us, some much more than others.  We remember those who are no longer with us and the sacrifice that still impacts those who are still here.  As I remember that day, the moments seemed to be in slow motion, from telling my parents to turn on the news after hearing something on the radio as I got ready for the day; watching the news while at work during the day while listening to by boss just stay on the line with his brother who lived across the river from the twin towers to support him as he witness such trauma; and ending the day calling my grandmother to wish her a happy 70th birthday.  The day, and the many days after, were filled with shock and pain but also a desire to come together to support each other.  

That desire to support each other is still within us but also clouded as we now have so much information coming to us that it becomes hard to sift through the information and determine what is solid and what crumbles.  The pandemic is real, it has torn people apart, and we must come together globally to get to a point where we can live somewhat normally again.  

But in a effort to share positive news, we got this note from Anna's PE teacher:

"For P.E. during 5th period, Mrs. D. brings her Special Education students to participate in P.E. She decided to put the entire class onto the Wall of Fame because everyone is working so well with them.

Everyday the special education students participate in the activities with a squad line and rotate throughout the week. So once a week, your student will be participating in activities with special education students. So far, the whole class has been super positive and inclusive working with them.

It is a great experience for all students to be able to work with and communicate with each other. It is awesome to see it in action and I am so proud of period 5!

I just wanted to share and I hope everyone has a great weekend!"

Anna has shared her excitement with having this group as part of her PE class most days and we love seeing positive news to lighten the load!  The boys have a volunteer requirement this year at school and they have both already done some volunteer time, with Olivier volunteering almost every day!  

We hope in this time as we struggle to come together, that positive new in the world reminds us of the desire we all have, to support each other.  

Much cooler Labor Day weekend!

This weekend we enjoyed the much cooler temperature than we had last year!  It was still warm but we are super thankful to have the temperature not at the melting point!  We had the boys back to school night (via Zoom) and there is still a lot of uncertainty with activities but they are striving to make the best of what they do know.  

This weekend Anna had her second lesson on Giselle and has been making great strides.  

Olivier did his jiu jitsu drills to try and keep his stills up.  Mason and I played a lot of ping pong and got good at redirecting the ball off the chandelier!  Today Matt took Olivier and Anna to the beach.  It was sunny and beautiful!  The three day weekend was nice and it will be a long time until we get another long weekend!

 

First full week of school in a very long time...

 This week is the first full week of regular school the kids have had since early March 2020.  It is so weird how long ago that feels.  It has been an adjustment for all of us but it has gone smoothly.  And although the school is back to normal, some things are not - like back to school night.  We attended the middle school back to school night via Zoom this week.  It went well and most teachers have Zoom under control and it allowed us to work on things at home while listening which was nice.  We will take the good where we can!  

The weather has been warmer this weekend but not crazy hot.  Today we enjoyed watching the Cal Poly women's soccer team beat Sacrament State!  Nice to enjoy a game and not have to worry about COVID because we could stay away from others easily!

Unfortunately, speaking of COVID, there is a significant increase in cases, hospitalizations, and those being cared for in the ICU.  We are thankful thank we continue to be health and safe but are concerned as more and more around us get sick.  Those that are vaccinated are having much less of an issue recovering but those who are not are getting more ill.  And given the boys are too young to be vaccinated we worry about their safety but continue to take it one day at a time.  

This week we will attend the elementary back to school night, also via Zoom and look forward to a three day weekend next weekend!  

First Day of 8th Grade and 6th Grade!

Well things are still in a very weird place but the kids are back on campus and ready for hopefully a bit more of a normal school year.  So of course I made them humor me and take the first day of school photos!  :-)  

I have to leave this one in, see if you can figure out why!  

Mason has passed up Anna and it is becoming more and more clear, and she had a slight advantage too with standing on the door mat!

I also did individual photos.  Last year these ended up being their school photos!  

They all had a good first day and we enjoyed talking about the new adventures back on campus!  Fingers crossed for a smooth year!
 

First day of school tomorrow

Today we enjoyed a bit of a lazy day after traveling home yesterday.  Thankfully everything went smoothly and we are all happy to be back.  The last couple of days we have been overwhelmed by notices from the schools about returning to school tomorrow and we looking forward to the kids being back in the classroom for a more normal school year, but...you knew there would be a but, the situation with COVID is getting increasingly worrisome.  The new variant called Delta is much more transmissible, and kids are getting it more often.  

We are trying to take it one day at a time but reminding the kids of the importance of their masks for everyones benefit, along with washing hands and physical distancing, as we constantly did during our vacation is still needed at school too.  So hard when all you want is for things to be "normal", but the kids really want to be at school and masks are not a big deal. We will continue to do our part and get the boys vaccinated as soon as possible to try and keep us and those we love safe.  One day at a time...

Last full day of vacation!

Today was our last full day of vacation.  We enjoyed it by being a bit lazy!  One thing that we hadn't done yet (because we didn't know the schedule and had missed it on a prior day) was the splash pad.  Since we now knew the schedule we made sure Olivier got his chance to run through the splash pad.  

After dinner we took a walk to the park down the street and just enjoyed the relaxing day!  
 

Visit to Colorado Springs and the Olympics and Paralympics Museum

This summer we all enjoyed the summer olympic games and we were excited to visit the Olympics and Paralympics Museum.  It is new, less than a year old, and had a lot of very interesting historical information.  Thankfully they were not busy at all and we got to check out a lot of interactive displays including this one on archery.  

The boys raced against a Paralympian (on the screen).  

 We all tried skiing!

And the skeleton!  

They also had the score board from the 1980 Lake Placid arena.  The informational sign explains why 3 seconds are left on the scoreboard.  

We were happy to be inside when we saw the rain come pouring down outside!  

On the drive back we saw lots of rain happening around us but thankfully not on us.  And this cool rock formation (and if I remember correctly this was in a place called Castle Rock).