The first day of school, visit with Gma/Auntie, and 16 year Anniversary

I ended the last blog with the drop off of Phoenix and Rubix with Gma Susan and Auntie. Axel stayed behind because he had cross country practice. Before diving into their trip, here is a picture of Axel with his swim coach, Dave. The team celebrated his birthday on the last day of swim, back at the beginning of August, before the 2 week swim break. 

Keith was sent photos of the officials that volunteered for Far Westerns. I had fun finding Keith in both of the photos below. I thought it was a nice gesture to take professional photos of the officials at this final championship meet of the season. 

Axel's cross country practices are at several of the local county parks. Here are a few of his teammates (and a younger brother of a teammate) at Rancho after practice. 

Gma and Gpa hit a homerun by taking Phoenix and Rubix to Scandia. The kids had a blast riding the GoCarts and playing games. 

Rubix was a little bummed he missed the height cut off by 1 inch to ride a car alone. He had to be a passenger with Gma as the driver. Gpa Brian was the photographer and shared these photos with me. 

Let's not forget about the water bumper carts. Gma and Gpa went back the next day with the addition of Braylin because these features were not open the day before. My kids were in heaven!

Look at that smile!

Happy campers!

The other highlight of the trip was a cousin sleeper over. Phoenix slept at Auntie's house with Braylin while Aya slept at Gma's house with Rubix. It was a wonderful opportunity for the cousins to spend time together. 

While the kiddos were busy with family, Keith and I went out to a lovely dinner for our 16th wedding Anniversary. We went to a Thai restaurant. I was able to get steamed veggies with scallops and did great with no stomach issues! Keith enjoyed a Thai ice tea and a Pad See Ew. 

Axel was our photographer and we had fun taking a photo together!

He is so funny!!!!

Keith and I also enjoyed a lovely bike ride for our anniversary. 

Phoenix is running cross country for the middle school this year and Rubix loves to run, so we try to go with Axel to his weekend practices when we can, or we go to a different park together. Since non of us run as long as Axel does, we often will pass the football or frisbee while we wait for him. 

We made sure to go out for breakfast during our last week of summer vacation. 

Axel started school on August 15th with an all class trip. He had matriculation on Friday the 16th. I unfortunately, did not get a photo of Axel dressed up in his suit because I took Phoenix to a 7 am swim lesson. I was a little bummed that I forgot to remind Keith to take a photo. 

Phoenix had an all day get together with her favorite swim friend, Audrey, who moved away to Pleasanton. They went and got a manicure and then we went to the club for swim fun. 

They played for hours and enjoyed some pizza, while Audrey's mom, Veronica, and I chatted. It was a lovely day. 

Phoenix continues to do artwork in her free time. She initially painted a giant jelly fish deep in the ocean on these 9 canvases. She disliked it so much, she started over with this interesting piece. Unfortunately, she doesn't like how this turned out either, so it is just lying on the art room floor for weeks now. 

She decided painting was difficult after trying to paint on the 9 canvases and went back to drawing. This is her first drawing in a month or two. It is not done, but I still snapped a photo because I thought it was a good start. 

The kids managed to be very creative with their extra time at home. We are home so little most of the year, it truly is a luxury to be home with some restful fun. Phoenix decided to make "air hockey". They put a bouncy ball inside an folded origami shaped polygon of some number for the puck and Phoenix created the sides and goals. 

So much fun!

Trader Joe's was selling dragon fruit so we bought one. It was absolutely delicious! I wish we could purchase them more readily, without going to an Asian store, because it was such a tasty treat!

The kids being silly!

Axel's friend had an end of summer get together last weekend before classes started. Ava's parents are so nice they asked for Rubix and Phoenix to come back and enjoy some food and play in the water. 

Axel started classes on Monday August 19th. Phoenix had all day orientation. She was not ready in time before we had to leave, so I drove Axel to school without getting a picture of her. 

Phoenix started classes on Tuesday August 20th after an all day orientation the day before. Hard to believe she is a big middle schooler now!

Rubix had a 2 hour orientation on Monday the 19th, but didn't start school until Wed. August 21st. Here he is a big 3rd grader. 

In 3rd grade the kids get their own locker and start changing classes for every period! 

Rubix assured me after the first day that it wasn't difficult and that he had his schedule and classes already memorized. The funny thing is, he has a couple of classes that only meet once or twice a week, so I will see if he feels the same way after the end of the first full week of school. 

Rubix starts soccer this week. In preparation, Coach Daddy got a larger goal for the kids to practice on. Rubix and Daddy tried it out and said it will work great! The cool thing about soccer this fall is that it is primarily kids from Harker so Rubix gets to play with his classmates!

We have one more week of our "soft start" to swim, which means the kids a couple of days of no swim. We have been taking advantage of going to the cross country courses on Saturday for Axel and Phoenix to get familiar with the courses. Today we went to Bedwell Bayfront Park for Phoenix to run for the first time, since we went to Crystal Springs twice already. Axel is the sweetest big brother pacing her and cooling her off with water :)

Axel's teammate Jonathan joined us, which made it even more fun!

We have fun plans for next weekend. Phoenix and Rubix invited some friends to play at the club, since it will be the last weekend with the diving board. We plan on ordering pizza and having somewhat of a pool party on Saturday and then we will go to another pool party at my high school friend's house, Tiffany, on Sunday. It will be a nice end of summer weekend with our lives getting very busy starting in September. I hope to write at the end of September with updates on soccer, cross country, swim and school. 

Oh, I am not sure I mentioned but Phoenix got her expander put on at the end of July. Axel and Phoenix have a follow up early on in September. We should be finding out when Axel gets his braces off and Phoenix gets her braces on! 

The other big news is that Phoenix got her own phone/ smart watch. We now have 5 lines on our Verizon account so that each child can be contacted at anytime. This is what happens when the kids are at three different schools and have practices at different pools/locations! We are hoping that their devices are used properly, and don't get lost or broken!

Until next time....happy end of summer!

Age group champs, Far Westerns and more!

After my last post Phoenix and Axel both were able to get over the long illnesses. Phoenix took 10 days of antibiotics and I tested positive for Covid. Rubix had very little symptoms but his virus was not Covid, nor was Axel's or Phoenix's, but mine was. Rubix did have swollen lymph nodes, which are hard to appreciate from this picture. 

Covid wasn't bad. I was a little more tired than usual and had a little congestion, but the third day of post nasal drip somehow set off my stomach and I went into a horrible flare and unable to eat for 3 days. It took me more than 2 weeks for my stomach to feel better and for me to eat without discomfort. I pretty much felt bad for most of July. According to Strava I was down 16 hours, 130 miles and 26,000 feet of climbing from June. I only hit 15 hours of exercise for the entire month! That means I really wasn't well!

I can't remember why I took this picture, but this could have been one of the evenings where we found time to play Old Maid or Monopoly Deal before bed. 

July was big swim meet, after big swim meet. Age group champs was Friday July 12th through the 14th. Keith managed to official most of the meet which included prelims in the morning and finals in the evening. 

I think he looks handsome in his white polo.

Phoenix had a huge program of big events and it was quite a character building weekend for her. She was on day 5-8 of her antibiotics and she had missed 6 days of practice and tried to squeeze in 4 practices before the meet. The meet started out with the 200IM and she added nearly 8 seconds! She was devastated, but it really looked like she was out for a training swim and was not racing. She managed to only add a second in the 100 back and 5 seconds in the 400 free, which allowed her to make finals for the 100 back and the 400 free. She was ranked 5th going into the 200 IM so she was shocked that she did not make finals, but then again, she did not race well. I thought she was lucky to qualify for the 100 and 400, but she came back and swam them just about the same and managed to get 5th in the 100 back and 7th in the 400 free. 

Rubix had an amazing first race and dropped a ton of time in his 200IM to make finals! Unfortunately, he missed his 100back race (totally my fault) which caused him to have a penalty scratch for the 400 free. This was one of the worst moments I had as a parent. Rubix was devastated, as was I. It was one thing to not make his race on time, but to get punished and not be able to swim the next race was brutal! The scoreboard could not be seen from the warm up pool and you also could not hear the announcer. Rubix managed to drop even more time in his 200IM final ending up 8th! 

Phoenix was able to squeeze into the 200 free final, despite being more than 5 seconds off her qualifying time and get the Far Western time in the 800 free, finishing 2nd overall. Rubix dropped more than 3 seconds in the 200 free and more than a second in the 50 fly, but it wasn't enough for the final. He did get to swim the medley relay on Saturday night and his team got second over all for a silver medal! On Sunday Phoenix pulled off a drop in the 200 back making finals and finishing 3rd overall and also had a great drop in the 1500 meter also finishing 2nd overall and getting the Far Western time. Rubix had a great drop in the 100 fly on Sunday managing to make it to finals and finished 9th overall. It was a huge feat for Phoenix to come back from being sick and find her racing form over the course of the 3 days. Rubix had a stellar meet making multiple finals against mostly 10 year old boys, many who are about to age up to 11. 

Little Grammy sent me more running tank tops that I love, now that I have to run more often due to the kids swim schedule. 

Here is Rubix's 2nd place medley relay. Rubix lead off with backstroke, Berg did breast, Edward did fly and Bennet was the anchor with free style. 

Happy kids!

Relay teams with coach. Phoenix was also in multiple relays, but I was not able to get her with her team. There is a little more drama with the 11/12 year old girls. 

Two weeks later we had Far Westerns which was Thursday 25th through Sunday the 28th. It is a bigger race with teams travelling from Arizona, Canada and other western states. If you look closely you can see Rubix in the blue cap in the second lane. 

Santa Clara Swim Club  hosted Far Westerns at Morgan hill Community swim center. Keith decided not to official all of the sessions for the 4 day swim meet. It was nice to have him help us get the kids ready for their events. He was strutting his new swim dad shirt little Grammy sent. 

He absolutely loves it!

Rubix had many of his teammates to play cards with between events. 

I love how much Rubix gets along with his teammate. 

Audrey and Phoenix hung out at Age Group Champs and Far Westerns! I am so glad they are still good friends, even though Audrey moved to Pleasanton. We are so proud of Audrey because she is improving and getting faster and made the cuts to go to both of these meets!

Here is Phoenix with her relay crew. She swam in the 200 medley, 400 medley and the 400 free relays. She has the green towel on her back and the black cap. 

It went from being from hot on Thursday to very cool on Saturday morning. It was overcast and 55 degrees when the meet started. This was quite the contrast to the 95 degrees on Thursday. 

I am so glad the kids had warm clothes! Only in California can the weather be so extreme from day to day. Rubix is sitting next to his teammate Anay. Anay just turned 10, but Rubix and him get along like to peas in a pod. 

Even us parents were trying to stay warm. Sarika and I were under blankets too!

We were lucky enough to be able to stay in a hotel across the street from the pool. It made the long days with prelims and finals more manageable. We even had one evening where we hung out at the hotel and did not go to finals, because Phoenix got pulled from the 200 free relay and neither of them made finals. It was especially difficult to make finals because the pool was only 8 lanes, vs. 9 lanes and at Far Westerns the age groups are combined, 11-12 girls, rather than separated into just 11 and just 12 year olds. There are also more athletes from all over, so the competition is harder. This is Friday night and we were excited to try Uber eats for the first time and watch the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics. We enjoyed salmon, veggies and linguini with clams and oysters! 

It was such a nice relaxing evening. The kids and I got more rest which was exactly what the 3 of us needed. Keith managed to drive back and forth every day to manage Axel and his events. 

Rubix started the meet out with a great 100 fly, but missed making finals but .15 seconds. His AAA time, was just not fast enough! He also raced the 200IM, but did not have the race he wanted. Instead of dropping 1.5 seconds to get the AAA time her added 3 seconds! Phoenix only had the 1500 meter on Thursday and she had a good drop and managed to get 7th. On Friday, Phoenix had the 200 back and did not have a good race, adding more than 3 seconds. She was very disappointed because she had a chance to make finals. She was also very disappointed in her 400 free time as well, even though she only added 1.78 seconds. She was hoping to break the 5 minute barrier. Rubix swam the 100 back  and 400 free on Friday dropping more than 2 seconds in the back stroke and 5 seconds in the 400 free. He had great swims and was beyond excited. On Saturday Phoenix continued in her frustration as she added 3.8 seconds in the 200 free, but came back with a vengeance in the 400 IM dropping almost 5 seconds and nearly reaching her goal of AAA time. Rubix added some time in his 50 fly, but came back and helped the medley team win gold!!! He got pulled from the fly and put on the back stroke leg because his teammate beat him in the fly during prelims. I told him it was a blessing he was put on backstroke because he PR'd dropping almost a second and helping his team start the relay ahead of the rest of the 10 and under boys teams. Sunday started tough with Phoenix's 100 back, but she ended her long meet on a high with a 13 second drop in the 800 free, which was a AAA time and 8th place among a very strong field. Rubix had more than a 2 second drop in the 200 free and added half a second in the 50 back. Overall the kids had highs and lows learning how to handle overcoming their expectations and frustrations. I do hope they continue to learn and grow and become more resilient.  

On Sunday Axel came to cheer on his siblings! 

Rubix could not wait to show Axel his gold medal!

Audrey and Phoenix with matching Far West shirts!

Phoenix free styler....Audrey IMer!

One of my patient's has been giving Phoenix art supplies and she has not let them go to waste. She has been creating and making things with all of her supplies. Surprisingly, she decided to make white elephant gifts for her visit with Gma Susan/ Gpa Brian and the Jolleys this week. 

I was especially impressed with her making hair pieces out of painted cardboard and my old barrettes, let alone the cool boxes she made. 

All 3 kids had doctor's appointments this past week. Axel is 5 foot 7.5 inches and 114 lbs. Phoenix is 5'4 " and 95 lbs. Rubix is 4'7" and 66 lbs. 

Axel has been slowly working through his driver's ed course and folding incredible origami pieces. Here is his latest one that he worked on most of the time we were at Far Westerns. He made the paper and figured out this impossible fold. 

I think this bee is incredible!

Yesterday I met Auntie Shannon and Gma Susan in Concord for dinner and to drop Phoenix and Rubix off to spend most of the week with family. 

Sisters!

The kids are having a blast spending time with their cousins! I can't wait to hear about their adventures. 

Next up is the start of school! Axel starts next Thursday, Phoenix starts on the 19th and Rubix on the 21st! I can't believe summer is over. Check back next month for the first day of school pictures, the start of soccer and cross country! We hope to enjoy time together as a family the next couple of weeks with no formal swim practice. Happy end of summer!