The start of the 2020-2021 academic school year

Rubix started school on Monday August 17th. I was at work all day. I requested that he get his normal front porch, first day of school picture. I was pleasantly surprised when Daddy texted me these photos of his first day of school. 

This was a nice touch, in front of the sunflower.

Here he is at his live class session. He has a live class at 9 am every morning that lasts 30 to 40 minutes. We were told that he was going to have 8 kids in his class, but he had 5 on the first day of school and quickly went down to just 4. You can see here he could see his classmates, but that only lasted a week or two and then they started hiding the participants to cut down on distractions. 

Our eggplants started to finally grow in early August and this is one I took around the 17th of August. 

We also harvested all 4 of our pumpkins as our second round started growing. We now have 6 new pumpkins that are growing at a rapid rate!

Rubix continues to fight naps, but the first week of school brought several spontaneous well needed naps. Here he is on Axel's bed sleeping while Axel was working on his computer. 

Unfortunately, we had weeks of 90 and 100 degrees temperatures and then the worst dry lightening and thunderstorm system that has been documented in years. This resulted in hundreds of lightening strikes and fires all over California. Several small fires combines to create several big fires. This one here is a picture of the smoke from the CZU fires in Santa Cruz. We are at the top of Bohlman and this is the wall of smoke. If you look closely you can actually see the fire itself. 

Here is another view from a different angle/part of the hill.

We also got a shot of the smoke on the opposite side of the bay from the LNU fire on the East side of Mt. Hamilton. This was just one of those lucky days where our air quality was 80 something and we took the opportunity to go for a ride. We find it amazing at how the air quality can change so rapidly and be quite different just 10 miles away. 

This is on Friday, the end of Rubix's first week of school. Phoenix was finishing up her breakfast, Axel was in his room doing all day orientation for 6th grade and Keith was at the pool swimming. This was one of the last times Rubix would see his friends. 

This is typically all he sees now during his live classes, Mrs. Dhruva. Rubix doesn't mind because he loves to learn, but this Friday, on the last day of week 3 he finally asked Mrs. Dhruva if he could see his friends again. Mrs. Dhruva was nice and allowed them to "earn it" so at the end of class she gave the boys permission to see each other and sing the Challenger song together. 

Luckily, he is still getting instruction on how to hold a pencil and start forming the letters of the alphabet. 

Phoenix's desk and chair arrived just in the nick of time. Here she is on Friday, the week before school school started, with her school supplies picked up and organized. 

We were lucky to have her entertained with an art class the last week and days before school started so that she was busy doing something while Axel and Rubix were in school. 

Here is Axel on Friday the 20th of August. He had an all day orientation which allowed him to build his Zoom schedule in advisory and meet all of his teachers. The teachers went over class expectations and made sure the kids had all of their supplies. 

Here is the set up when I am on duty in the mornings. Axel's door is usually closed and Rubix goes to his room for his live session. When I am working, Rubix goes to the dining room table where Daddy works. 

We were blessed with another day of good enough air (<100) to go for a ride up Hwy 9. We were both wondering what to expect at the top. Here you can see the cones and signs preventing through traffic to the other side of Hwy 9. All homes on that side had been evacuated because the fire had rapidly spread and burned through most of Big Basin State Park which lies just 6 miles from where we were. 

As a celebration for the last weekend of the summer we rented and watched Kung Fu Panda 3. The entire family loved it!

I thought this was a funny picture. The other day, Rubix got up and ran to the fridge and then came back and started drinking juice from the container. Apparently, Daddy wants him to be independent and was excited at his new skill. I am not sure what happened to teaching the kid to pour liquid into a cup, but I guess that will come with time. 

Rubix has been really into building Legos the past couple of weeks. He has build all 3 of his "Creator Legos" multiple times by himself! I helped him with the first one by finding the pieces, but the next 5 times were solo!

The air quality was too bad to go outside for Axel's and Phoenix's first day of school. I was at work all day. Daddy was sweet to send me this photo of Axel in class on his first day of school, Monday, August 23rd. 

I also received a text of Axel in PE class on his first day of school. 

Here is Rubix catching another spontaneous nap after Axel finished PE in the pinball room. It made my day to receive these texts as it is hard for me to be away from the kiddos when they are at school. Luckily, my schedule changed last week and I was able to be home in the mornings, which makes a huge difference. The only bummer thing is I am now gone all day on Saturday. I know this is best for everyone, but I wish I could just cut my hours again. The promotion was great, but with this very different time, I much rather be home more to spend these precious months of sheltering in place with them. The good news is I will be only going into the office Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays. This puts me home a lot more than my old schedule which had me gone all day 10-11 hours Monday and Wednesday. 

I thought it might be fun to see Phoenix's class schedule. Her specialty teacher's join Ms Mehta's Zoom room which allows the 2nd graders to only have to join one Zoom room at the start of the day, after snack recess and after lunch. This was really well thought out and has been pretty seamless. 

Here is Axel's schedule. He has a Zoom link for each teacher and jumps from link to link. You can see he has an "x" on one period per day. Currently, this is a 'free' period until September 28th. After the fall break day, on Sept. 28th it will become a collaboration/project period. They are hoping the kids will have more time to work together. We will see how successful these periods become. I am optimistic that it will aide in Axel's emotional health to see friends more frequently. We had a talk about having him "eat lunch" with his friends. I know the teachers want the kids to get away from the screen, but Axel had a very valid point that at school there are lots of opportunities to just be with his friends and talk and he is really starting to miss it. I encouraged him to reach out to his friends to see who can have lunch with him. Even once a week will be nice. 

 This week is back to school day and night. Phoenix's is on Thursday night and Axel's is on Friday afternoon. I am a little bummed that they changed the time and Axel's is while I am treating patient's but I am hoping Keith can attend. Axel also has an orthodontist appointment. He might be getting fit soon for a retainer that he will wear until his teeth fall out and he is ready for braces. It could be another 1 to 2 years. Dr. Nejat said that he thinks the expander and head gear have provider full correction and that there should be adequate space for his adult teeth to come in. We are patiently waiting for a few to emerge. The last xray showed the adult teeth ascending where his teeth were pulled, but only time will tell. 

I will leave you with a picture of the kids after completing a puzzle little Grammy sent. We are looking forward to completing more puzzles in the coming weeks and months! This one was really fun. Who doesn't love kitty cats and ice cream?!

Arnold, CA, 12 years of marriage, end of summer!

I think I mentioned that Rubix stopped napping most of the time. For awhile he was taking one or two naps a week and then he just all together gave them up. However, there are occasions when his fatigue catches up with him. Here is one of those days where he comes to give me a hug/sit on my lap and before I know it he is asleep. I can't exactly remember what I was doing, but after an hour I had to wake him up because I was overheated and could no longer feel my legs :)

I am not quite sure what happened here, but I discovered this selfie of Phoenix getting her breakfast.  

At the end of July we stopped by Tyler's on one of our typical after dinner bike rides. Tyler decided to have the girls ride socially distanced with us home. It was nice to see them leave their house. I think Zoe and Jade had a blast riding the one and a half miles to our house. 

Rubix came to me while I was working and said, take a picture, so I took a picture. :)

Daddy has a habit of eating food that is in front of him. The other day he started eating my eggs, so Axel decided to make labels. I thought it was beyond sweet of Axel to be so thoughtful so I made sure to use it on my lunch that I had prepared for work. I did it more to let Axel know how grateful I was, but Daddy wasn't sure so he made sure to label his food later in the day. I thought it was really funny. 

We had to harvest one of our pumpkins early because it was starting to show signs of getting moldy. Luckily, it washed up well and we are hoping it will make it to Halloween. The other three are still on the vine, and we are uncertain of how long to keep them on the vine. We want them to make it to Halloween, but we don't want them to get moldy or pecked if we keep them on the vine. Decisions.....

After 5 solid months at home we had the privilege of retreating to Arnold Ca. It is a small town off of Hwy 4 at about 3800 feet elevation. It is 40 minutes from Bear Valley or 22 miles. We stayed in a cute little cabin and enjoyed many hikes and lake swims. We also celebrated our 12th anniversary. The picture below is a picture that Axel took of us after dinner on our anniversary. 

Daddy had a different idea of how the picture should be taken so we took another one, but selfie style. 

Phoenix finally had the enjoyment of playing in the sand. She was very happy to make and then sit in her throne. 

On our last day before heading home Keith and I went on a ride together and were able to capture a picture of us at the creek in South Grove, Big Trees Park. 

The first full day we were there we were able to check out the Arnold Rim Trail. It is not quite what we expected, but it was fun to go on the first mile or two with the kids until the trail got a little too technical for the little ones and me on my road bike. Keith is very skilled on his road bike and Axel is amazing on my mountain bike, but the rest of us were doing more walking than riding.

On the second full day we spent the day in Bear Valley at Alpine lake. it is amazing there. Absolutely, beautiful! We wanted to rent a canoe but were stuck with a row boat. It was very windy out because a storm was blowing in. Keith did a great job of rowing us. I had a little more trouble. Here is Keith getting back in from a swim. 

Rubix and I were happy in the back, until he saw Axel and then Phoenix get into the water. 

I wasn't able to get a good picture of Axel, but here is Axel next to the boat. 

Here is Daddy and Rubix in the water. I wasn't able to get a picture of Phoenix as she jumped in and then quickly climbed back into the boat. 

On the first night the kids and Daddy jumped into Fly in Acres Lake. This is a perfect little lake that would be amazing to live right next to. We were 1 mile away , which wouldn't normally be a big deal, except that we were up on a hill with 600 feet elevation gain that was difficult for the kids to ride up, although they were able to do it.

You can't see Keith her, but Rubix is holding onto his neck/back on the left. 

I love this picture of the boys. I can't remember what they were looking at, but they are cute regardless. I just love how close they are despite being 7 years apart. 

The first day we went to North Grove Big Trees State Park and did the famous less than 2 mile hike/walk. The trees were pretty amazing. 

With all of the down trees I was wondering how dangerous it is to hike through here. I was curious if there is some warning if a tree was coming down and how carefully the trees were monitored. Can you imagine this tree coming crashing down? I sure can't!

Excited Rubix!

Mother and son Trees with Mom and Axel.

Mother and Son Trees with jealous Phoenix :)

The old father of the forest which was hollowed out. 

It was fun to walk through,but again a little scary for me.

Daddy on the other side. 

Another Tree we walked through.

The tree that recently fell down in 2017 in the bad storm we had. It shows a picture of it up with a car going through it. 

Axel excited to head down a trail to the rapid river. 

Daddy splashing the kids....

and Rubix not so happy about getting splashed. 

Our little monkeys climbing back up.

Daddy jumping off a rope swing a While Pine Lakes with the boys waiting with him in the lake. They swam across the lake without any issues. Phoenix and I turned around half way. I was afraid of getting tired not being a swimmer. Phoenix agreed to come back with me. The kids all had their kick boards and she was already complaining of her legs getting tired, so it was good she came back with me instead of Daddy having to try to pull both Rubix and Phoenix on their kick boards. 

The boys arriving back to shore and Phoenix excitedly greeting them.

On our Anniversary morning we enjoyed a lovely hilly 2.5 mile hike through the Lava Bluffs Trail. 

It was fun with the up and down terrain. The only disappointing part is that the view of the bluffs were covered by a forest of trees!

After the hike the kids played in the river on very slippery rocks. It was extremely stressful. We watched several people slip and fall. We later found out that our neighbor's family member became paralyzed after having a fall here 30 years ago. 

This was the kids highlight to the entire vacation and they asked to come back. Keith and I cringe at the thought and feel blessed to have come out all intact. Keith had a slip and neither of us want to put anyone at risk again. 

I will end with another picture of Keith and I on our Anniversary night. I managed to pack enough food for the entire 5 days in a cooler/grocery bags. We didn't have to go out to eat once. Our last night was home made pizza with zucchini and hot dogs, as we had already consumed most of the other food. It was surprisingly delicious, or we were just extremely hungry! 

I hope to post again after a couple of weeks. Rubix starts school, preschool 4/5 class, on Monday, Axel starts Friday, with an all day orientation, and Phoenix starts the following week on the 25th with orientation and the 26th with classes. Wish us luck as we head into another Szolusha adventure. We are all a little nervous and stressed out. I am still waiting for a schedule change. I will be home 4 mornings to help the kids get through 5 of their 8 periods and will be working afternoons and Saturdays. It is going to be a tough transition for me, but I hope it will help the family have a smoother time with remote learning. Tuesdays I have to work a long day, but it will be from home. I have too many meetings on Tuesday to not work that morning. Hopefully, this day will go smoothly too. This should start August 31st so the first two weeks might be a little rough for Keith and the kids:) Until next time!