This blog is so late because I selfishly decided to use my week off, after a world wind of activities, to get caught up on 5+ years of scrap booking. I had every intention of writing this blog and checking off a few clerical items I need to do, like making a new lease and renewing my APTA membership, but after putting off the scrap booking for years and years, I put my foot down and pushed through. I have many more hours before I am done, but I have most of the pictures laid out through July of 2025. I will be very excited when I can complete my 2018-2025 scrap books.
Now lets get started on the Szolusha happenings! Mr. Keith Szolusha, Daddy-o, had a milestone birthday turning 50 years old on July 8th. He wanted to celebrate it by running up Mission Peak again, this time the less steep side. We were up early and at Mission Peak by 7:30 am. It was a lovely 7.5 mile run, this time, much less crowded than last time. It was the perfect temperature as well, in the mid 60 to high 60's. Here is the birthday boy at the top! 50 years old!!!
We could not have asked for a more picture perfect day.
We were able to take a picture of a gentleman who had just moved to the area and made it up Mission Peak for the first time. He returned the favor by taking a picture of us. It was a much different experience only have a handful of people at the top instead of the hundreds of people who were there the last time we went on the weekend.
We managed to get home in time for me to take Phoenix to her 10:30 am practice and after Rubix and Axel got home from their practices we celebrated with a quiet relaxing evening together. Daddy requested running tank tops so he received a couple of them along with a pound of chocolate chips, thanks to Phoenix!
Phoenix and I also spend the week putting together a poster board of all of Rubix and Daddy's soccer photos over the past 3 years. I think it turned out well and it now has a permanent place on the wall.
We couldn't go without Daddy's favorite giant cookie!
Happy 50th!
I am not sure if I mentioned this last time, but Axel has been officially named Captain of the boys cross country team. He is co- captain with his teammate Robinson, but with Robinson injured he has been working with the girls co-captain, Ava to organize running practices for the Harker team 2-3 times per week, when their club team doesn't have practice. He has done a great job rallying the kids and as you can see they have a lot of fun.
Here is Ava!
Samara, who is at the front is the other captain of the girls team. She just got back from a month long business camp at Harvard. Axel is right behind her. It looks like they will have at least 30 kids this year, hopefully more if they can advertise more when school officially starts on Monday August 25th.
Here is a picture of Daddy and Jonathon "twinning" at the first Axel and Ava hosted practice. Axel thought it would be good to have a parent there the first time for new cross country kid's parents to have an adult to ask questions to. Axel and Jonathon often "twin" with their Harker gear and love for the color blue!
Axel in the weight room at practice.
I had the privilege of being able to go to my Uncle Steve's 70th birthday party on July 20th in Folsom, CA. I drove down solo, after Phoenix's private swim lesson in the morning and was able to stop by the Jolley's for about an hour before heading to Uncle Steve's celebration. I also had a chance to chat with Braylin and Aya, as the drove the 30 minutes with me from their house to Folsom. It was very special for me to have time to spend with them.
I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with all of the Burgesses too! Uncle Steve has been such a great role model in my life and his birthday celebration solidified how special he has been in so many peoples lives. Every person in that room talked about how he has been a spiritual role model for them. It is what every God fearing Christian wants; to have others see the Holy Spirit working in and through them and to have others catch the spark to want to come to walk with Jesus. I had such good tears of joy on my car ride home. My heart was filled with so much love for Jesus and how He has worked in the lives of my family. I didn't get a picture, but I was able to see Gpa Bruce and Gma Sonia and visit with them for a half an hour before heading home. I also had a few special minutes talking with my Aunt Ginny, Uncle Steve and Layla (my late cousin Kendra's daughter). I have been praying for them for years since Kendra past, and to see how God has continued to walk closely with Layla (and Easton her twin brother) gave me such joy. I can only hope and pray that the Szolushas can come to know and walk with Jesus the way this family has.
I have been lucky to have the time to ride up the mountain early in the morning this summer. People often ask me why I do it or what is appealing about it. I took a picture the other month with the beautiful inversion layer where the clouds were covering the valley. This time I took a picture of the view at the top of Bohlman. It is the peace and quiet. No cars, no noise except the sound of the birds and rustle of leaves from the wind. It is just me in God's beautiful creation and time with Him praying for others and seeking his guidance. It is the peace that fills my heart. It is only something you can discover by experiencing it yourself. Oh, how grateful I am for this blessing, even on the days I am tired and can hardly make it up the hill.
With three weekends in between Age Group Champs and Far Westerns, Rubix and Daddy also had time to go to the Saratoga Classic Car Show. Here are a few pictures from their two hour adventure.
Back To The Future.. Time Machine!
It was an adventure because the line for the bus at West Valley College was an hour long. West Valley is 1 mile from our house and downtown is about 3 miles from our house. They ended up coming home after waiting in line for 20 minutes to have Axel drop them off downtown. When they were done they took a shuttle back to West Valley College where Axel picked them up.
I was able to arrange my schedule on Wednesday July 30th to take Phoenix to the pool in the morning before heading to work at 9 am by seeing more patients on Tuesday. I also managed to get off of work early at 2 pm in time to get home and pack the food to get to Morgan Hill by 4 pm. Keith, Rubix and Phoenix headed to the pool at 2pm in order to get in for warm ups, set up the tent and check into the hotel. I was very grateful that my boss didn't give me a hard time about me changing my schedule and to be there for the kids. I was excited to get them to sleep by 7:30pm because the next 4 days were long ones.
Rubix and Phoenix raced beyond any conceivable expectations during Far Westerns. Both of them not only made finals, but also placed in their events! They both walked away with 6 AAAA time cuts! The time cuts are nice, but what I am most proud of was their effort, focus and how they handled themselves. Phoenix is almost like a new person. She is happy, doesn't seem to get nervous in a bad way and if she doesn't do her best, she shakes it off quickly. She also was an incredible big sister, taking care of Rubix during warm ups. You can see them through the splashes waiting in line to do starts. She let Rubix "cut" in front of her, in order to not have him wait at the back of the line. I love seeing her grow in to a caring and attentive sister.
Keith and Axel drove up early on Thursday. Phoenix started the meet out with the 200IM and unfortunately, didn't race very well. She added 1.7 seconds finishing 12th overall. It was foggy and cold and instead of getting upset about not racing her best or making finals, she easily moved on to have an incredible 1500 race later that day. Phoenix was really happy to have Axel there to cheer her on. She went an 18:54.91 crushing her previous time by 50 seconds! She finished 3rd place and this time gained her a ranking of 7th in the nation for all 11/12 year old girls!
Rubix's day 1 of Far Westerns was just as exciting. He had the 100 fly and the 200 IM. His finished 6th in the 100 fly and 2nd in the 200 IM with a time of 2:47.23 almost achieving his first 11/12 year old Far Western cut! This time places him at 28th in the nation for all boys 10 and under!
Rubix and Phoenix eating their favorite hotel breakfast of waffles with whip cream and chocolate!
Day 2 was even more incredible as Phoenix dropped 3 seconds in the morning and another 3.5 seconds in finals for the 200 back, reaching a blazing fast time of 231.46 just 2 seconds shy of sectionals! She finished 4th overall. Phoenix raced the 400 free dropping 3.4 seconds in the morning going a 4:46.54, just 7 seconds off of sectionals. Although she added a couple of seconds from her prelim time during finals, she still finished 5th overall, out of the 8 finalist!
Phoenix twinning with her teammate Sophia!
Rubix day 2 started with the 100 back where he finished 4th at a 1:19.33 and the highlight of the day was his huge effort in the 400 free dropping almost 6 seconds in the morning and then dropping another 3 seconds to finish 3rd overall at a 5:06.67, placing him 13th in the nation! Here is the podium. Robert Legg 1st, Anay 2nd and Rubix 3rd! Way to go boys! Robert is the other 9 year old who is on his way to breaking national records. Anay turned 11 during Far Westerns, so he was the very oldest 10 year old at racing in the 10 and under category since he was 10 on the first day of competition.
This year Rubix's coaches goal is to have him with a handful of top 10's in the nation. We will see how well Rubix continues to do with school starting. During the summer he had a lot of time to focus on training with Daddy and his club which allowed him to become as fast as he did. Robert is already in the top 10 in the nation for several events. I am excited to see if Rubix can join him!
Day 3 was another big day for Phoenix. She raced the 200 Fere and 400 IM making the final for both. She did a 2:20.27 placing 7th in the 200 Free and she went a 5:32.96 in the 400 IM finishing 6th. I was really proud of her lying down and napping between prelims and finals on Friday and Saturday because she swims such big events, her body needs the rest.
Rubix had a chill day, only competing in the 50 fly, finishing 3rd overall at a 33.45 seconds. He also raced the 50 back in the 200 Medley relay. His team was a bit disappointed finishing 3rd rather than winning like they did at AGC.
Rubix with his 200 medley relay. (Rubix back, Anay fly, Albert breast and Lucas free)
(Lucas, Anay, Albert, Rubix)
We got a sweet spot for our tent right next to the warm up pool. We had a lot of Phoenix's teammates congregating in our tent, often waiting to warm up together. It was fun to see her having fun with her teammates.
Day 4, was Phoenix's "chill" day, with only the 800 Free. I put it in parentheses because the 800 is a long race and she had a ton of racing in her body. Her and her friend Emelia were the only two swimmers who had the hardest schedule racing every big event along with three 200's. Emelia finally achieved her first sectionals in the 400 free. We have been rooting for her the past 6 months and Phoenix was there to congratulate her through tears of joy. Emelia is in the middle in the blue suite and P is on the end with the yellowish towel.
Despite all of this racing Phoenix was able to push through and finish just 1 second off her best time. This was good enough for 3rd place beating 4th place by a mere half a second! Job well done!
Rubix had the 50 back where he finished 4th with a 37.05 and the 200 free where he went blazing fast dropping 4 seconds overall in prelims and finals, finishing 3rd overall at 2:24.33 just a half a second off of 2nd place!
We had to check out of the hotel by noon and with Phoenix's 800 Free ending around 1:30pm, we were able to hang out in the dining area of the hotel for a couple of hours. We were glad to get some relief from the heat.
Just before finals started we presented Coach Victory with his birthday gift and card from on of the Yellow Bells (10 and under swimmers). Only Rubix and a few other of the boys showed up by it was still a nice jester that Coach Victory enjoyed.
After finals we were able to get a picture of all of the relays with Coach Victory.
Rubix with his 9 medals, 7 individual and 2 relay medals!
The winning 200 Free 10 and under boys relay! Rubix, Lucas, Albert and Anay!
Coach Victory and Rubix!
I unfortunately, woke with the start of a headache on Sunday, the last day of Far Westerns. My headache took a turn for the worst turning in to a full blown migraine around 6 pm. I barely managed to get through finals and get home. I was so grateful to not throw up in my new car. We managed to get home just after 8pm and I was in bed through 3 pm the following day. I felt so bad calling out sick for work. I had not set up my out of office message or anything, but luckily, I have a great coworker who I was able to text who managed my inbox while I was gone for the next two weeks! That's right. The very next day, Tuesday, the kids were dropped off to take the bus for Elk Grove.
Keith, Axel and I headed to Gma Susan's house for dinner! We had a really nice time visiting Gma Susan and Gpa Brian. We left Axel there for the rest of the week and Keith and I headed to Elk Grove. Western Zones Age Group Championship was hosted in Elk Grove, CA this year and hosted the 17 Western Local Swimming Committees. Although California has 4 LSCs, the other LSC's cover 1 or even 2 states as you can see from the map below. It was a really fun meeting people from other states. I befriended the Hawaii crew who had a team of 40 swimmers from 4 of the islands.
Phoenix did her nails for WZAG champs! I love how much she loves doing her nails!
Keith officiating the entire 8 sessions of Western Zones and was evaluated to become an N2 official which will allow him to officiate the higher level meets like Sectionals. Gma and Axel came to watch prelims on Wednesday morning. I signed up to time every morning at 8 am. The sign up was not well organized and no one came to relieve me. Axel ended up timing for an hour after my 2 hours and I managed to beg the crowd for someone to relieve Axel. A lovely woman from Alaska agreed to time the last hour of prelims, bless her soul!
Phoenix had an excellent meet making all but one final. They had every swimmer to an off event and Phoenix had to do the 100 fly the last day. Let's just say, she was happy when that event was over. Highlights for her is that she dropped again in the 400 IM going a 5:30.43, finishing 8th overall! This puts her at 16th in the nation! The other crazy drop was in the 200 Free where she did a 2:18.53 and was the second seed going into finals. She ended up adding almost 3 seconds in finals, finishing 8th. I was timing in the morning so I wasn't able to film her winning her heat in the morning. I was incredibly proud of her effort and her attitude. The last highlight was her 400 free where she finished 4th overall and Pacific Swim swept 1st through 4th place. Their coach said he would shave his head if they managed to sweep the first 4 places so on Sunday morning the girls watched him buzz his hair!
Rubix had a bit different experience at the meet. He struggled a bit with self regulation being on his own with the team. He didn't really communicate with us for the first two days. It was a good learning and growth experience for him. He still managed to make all finals, but he definitely didn't swim his best. He added in most events and got pulled from the A relay twice! Here is a picture of him "warming up" that I managed to take while I was timing. He managed to have one small drop in the 50 back by .06 seconds. Keith and I choked that we would be surprised if he would have any drops, but he somehow managed despite him being somewhat out of sorts.
I was glad on the third day when he finally said "Hi" to Keith and I and gave me a hug while I was timing and he was behind the blocks waiting to swim.
On Sunday night Keith and I took advantage of him getting off of officiating early and went out to celebrate our 17 wedding anniversary. We found a small family owned soft serve yogurt place while the kids stayed for a night of playing on the water slides and a pizza party.
On Sunday morning at pick up we were able to snap a photo of the winning trophy that Pacific Swimming earned. Way to go Pac Swim!
After pick up we headed to Braylin's soccer game. We had fun watching Braylin and her team win her soccer game. It was nice to finally be able to support the Jolleys since they have been to quite a few of the Szolushas sporting events.
The Szolushas and The Jolleys!
Cousins!
Phoenix and Braylin!
Gma dropped Axel off at the Jolley's before her walk so Axel met us there. After Braylin's soccer game we went back to Gma's house where we enjoyed one last meal together. We left Phoenix and Rubix to stay for a few days. Keith, Axel and I headed home. I got back just in time for another migraine to set in. I luckily had the week off. I pushed myself to get up at 9 am to start working on the scrap books. I knew I only had Monday and Tuesday to work on them because I was picking up P and R Wednesday at noon in Tracey.
Phoenix and Rubix had a great time. They had a sleep over with their cousins on Monday night, which included playing in the pool and a BBQ at Aunties.
Phoenix with Braylin at Auntie's house and Aya with Rubix at Gma's house. On Tuesday Gma picked up P and they spent the day at Scandia, Auntie and my favorite place as kids, now P and R's favorite place when they go to Gma's!
Gpa sent me these pictures. All I could say was, "Since when does Scandia have rides?!" Rubix said, "They have a whole new section and even a roller coaster."
The bumper boats!
The good old Arcade!
Their favorite race cars!
Phoenix was a speedster and Rubix finally worked up the courage to drive on his own after riding with both Phoenix and Gma.
Here is the brave boy!
I don't think this video works, but this is a video of P and R in the cars. So cute!
Hi Gma and Gpa! Thank you for a super fun filled day!
The kids had so much fun! I am really glad that were able to spend sometime with Gma and Gpa. I love this yearly tradition. I am not sure how much longer Phoenix will be able to join with high school just around the corner. Only time will tell.
I met Gma and Gpa at In-N-Out on Wednesday for pick up. We had a quick lunch before saying goodbye!
Goodbye to Gma and Gpa!
Since we have been back from Western Zones, we have been getting ready for school. Phoenix has been doing a ton of art work and finishing up her summer reading.
Rubix had an optometry appointment and has new glasses coming. These are the new frames he chose.
Phoenix had an all day visit with her favorite friend Audrey!
We met them at Noah's for lunch and then brought some bagels home for Axel.
The girls painted nails before we headed to the pool.
They spent the afternoon at the club jumping off the diving board and playing in the water.
We ordered pizza for dinner and then said good bye at 7pm. They have another visit planned for Audrey's birthday in September. We will be meeting them in Palo Alto when Axel and I will be touring Stanford. Audrey and Phoenix have manicures and lunch planned.
Keith has returned to work after his 6 week sabbatical. Axel started school on Thursday. His class trip went to Angel's Island. He had a blast kayaking and spending time with his friends. Yesterday he had matriculation and found out he got a parking spot for the first semester of school. Yay! That takes some stress off of us knowing he has a place to park on campus. Currently, I am typing this at Starbucks in San Francisco as Axel is taking the SAT's. It was a crazy experience seeing thousands of kids flood into the Mascone Center this morning as it took me 45 minutes to go a mile and park in the parking garage. The funny thig is Axel got out of the car with a half a mile to go because it said he had to be there at 7:45 am. He got there at 7:40 am and he texted us that he didn't start until 9 am because kids were still checking in! I am waiting to hear from him so we can make his cross country practice at 1 pm in Crystal Springs.
Here are a few pictures of Axel driving himself to school yesterday!
Phoenix starts school on Monday and Rubix on Wednesday. Soccer has started for Rubix and cross country starts for Phoenix on Tuesday. It is going to be a fun filled fall! I will likely post again towards the end of September. We will have several cross country meets and soccer games under our belt with our first swim meet September 27th and 28th. Until then!
Today at Axel's cross country practice. We used the opportunity for the rest of us to run while the high schoolers did their thing. It was a beautiful day!
