The past 2 and a half weeks have been a whirlwind with having 4 children, swim practice/meets, cross country practice and more. The exchange students were slated to arrive at the high school around 12:30pm and lunch was scheduled for 1 pm. This gave me time to come from work and Axel to finish up with his morning computer programming class before meeting Takuto and the other students on Friday, July 15th at the high school. Axel and I agreed Zooming with Takuto a couple of times before he arrived made the transition easier, as we knew his communication level and many of his likes and dislikes. I do have to admit, I was really impressed with how much Takuto consumed at Harker. He was not joking when he said he was really hungry. Knowing him now, I understand he does not eat snacks, so of course, he must have been starving if all he ate was the plane food.
I was a little concerned that Takuto would be tired from the long travel, but he made it very clear he wanted to do everything that the kids did and he did not want to go to sleep until they did. So Friday evening, Takuto went to swim practice with the 3 kids. Keith took them and after they watched for about 20 minutes they played basketball for over an hour. Takuto learned that evening that basketball was really fun and from then on, he could not wait to play basketball again with Mr. Keith.
On Saturday morning Axel had cross country practice. Surprisingly, Takuto woke up and said he was not tired and was ready to go run with Axel. The 4 boys headed to practice while Phoenix and I headed to a Harker playdate for the new incoming lower school families. Phoenix and our family were invited because she is a buddy for an incoming 5th grader next year and Keith and I are ambassadors for 4 incoming families. Keith dropped off Rubix, at the lower school, after cross country practice because Phoenix and Rubix had swim practice at noon.
Rubix ended up spending his time shooting baskets for the 30 minutes that he was there, while
Phoenix played with a few of her friends.
After swim practice the kids had some down time folding origami with Takuto.
They all enjoyed themselves. It still amazes me at how much the Szolushas like the same things and how blessed we are that they get along so well. I was saying thank you prayers for how well Takuto fit in with the family. Who would think that he likes to swim, run, play basketball, fold origami, hike, play games and do math. I definitely, think it was a God thing, to have such a positive experience with Takuto.
Saturday evening we decided it would be fun to invite a few friends to the Los Gatos Swim and Racquet Club for Takuto to experience good old American fun. Taktuo, Rubix, Keith, and Axel's friends played for hours throwing a football around in the water and diving off the diving board. Phoenix ended up mostly hanging out with her friends Helen and Catherine. I was able to integrate into the older child group and then have some time talking with a couple fo the moms. We were all having so much fun we ended up staying until 7:30pm!
On Sunday Keith, Axel and Takuto woke up and went to the pool for lap swim. Phoenix, Rubix and I joined a little later for their swim lesson. Takuto was impressively in the water swimming for nearly 2 hours! Later in the afternoon Takuto had his orientation at the middle school, where he would be taking classes for 2 weeks. That evening there was a BBQ at the lower school for all of the Harrker families who were hosting the exchange students.
A group photo of us before going into the BBQ.
Apparently, being on time at 5 pm was a little late because all of the tables were taken. We happily found the bleachers to eat on. I thought it was a cute photo of the kids eating.
After eating it was time to play. The kids played soccer until all of the Japanese students came over. Takuto made it very known to us that he wanted to play with the Szolushas and not just his Japanese friends. Rubix and him were first to leave the soccer field and then Phoenix followed. She taught him how to play wall ball. Once the rules started changing, Axel explained that this is often what the younger kids do with this game and that the rules don't typically change.
After wall ball the kids tried out the hula hoops. Phoenix showed off her skills while Rubix and Takuto struggled to keep the hula hoop spinning for more than a few revolutions.
Sunday night Takuto asked Axel if he wanted to do some math. Phoenix made a model of the lobes of the brain at school. Axel thought it was funny to put it on his head.
Takuto was convinced he needed to give the brain cap a try to help him solve the math problem. It was very funny!
Takuto and Axel had so much fun doing math together it became a regular thing. I think they must have had a half a dozen times where they worked on a math problem together after the little ones went to bed and before they headed to bed.
Takuto and Axel also had many days and nights where they worked on folding difficult origami together or playing games together the hour they had alone together after the little ones went to bed. They seemed to both enjoy each others company.
The first week of school for Takuto was busy as all of the kids were in school. We had to get out of the house early for me to drop off Takuto and Axel at the high school and then Rubix and Phoenix at Challenger before heading to work. The evenings consisted of swim and cross country practice and Takuto playing basketball with Mr. Keith. I was able to stay home and prepare meals the days the kids were all at the same pool. This was really nice because I had to make even more food than I normally do. We typically eat double what most families, but after seeing Takuto's appetite, I made triple the amount because I didn't want anyone to go hungry. I had the kids choose their favorite meals. He was able to eat lamb ball and orzo, chicken parmesan, calzones, sweet potato/carrot soup, Italian turkey meatball sub sandwiches, curry lentil soup, salmon with sweet potato casserole, and all of the breakfast favorites as well. He even loved our famous pumpkin bread and wanted to make it a second time!
Takuto also got along well with Phoenix and Rubix. He helped build different K'nex toys with them. They build this cool basketball hoop that moved back and forth and you had to catapult the ball into it.
They also made a foosball table that fit on our game table. That was a very big hit.
Did I mention basketball. Rubix, Phoenix, Keith and Takuto went and played whenever the opportunity allowed, despite the heat.
They would have so much fun, Rubix would come back covered in sweat and dirt! Takuto and Phoenix, not so much, but Rubix would be black from the black top!
Speaking of Rubix and Phoenix, their swim group made posters for the 7 Santa Clara Swim Club kids who are going to Junior Nationals this week. They were able to present posters to them before swim practice one day. It was a very nice jester to have the younger kids support the older kids.
Last weekend we made sushi rolls with Takuto. He had never made them before, but knew exactly what he liked inside of them. We went shopping together at Mitsuwa Grocery store and purchased sashimi salmon and tuna.
Yum! Everyone ate until they were full!
Last Sunday the boys and I went on a beautiful hike at Castle Rock State Park. Phoenix had one event to swim at the swim race. I forgot to mention that the family went to the swim meet the day before and Takuto got to experience a local swim meet with many kids in the sweltering heat. Axel had an amazing meet and dropped 6 seconds in his 400 free. He won the event and is now just 5.5 seconds from JO time which is a AA time standard. He is now closer to the AA than the A time standard! He also dropped time in the 100 fly and the 200 free. He dropped 3 seconds in the 200 free taking 2nd overall and getting another A time. He is just 3 seconds away from JO or AA time standard. He was beyond ecstatic as he finally sees the improvement from all of his hard work. He also feels like the JO meet in December is now within his reach and he hopes to qualify for at minimum the 200 and 400 free, but hopes his 200 and 400 IM times come down too. We will see how things go, as next week starts his cross country season at the high school and it is going to be tough to manage his very heavy academic work load on top of swim, cross country and math team!
Back to the hike..... We chose a 5.3 mile loop with views of the ocean as we were atop the Santa Cruz mountains.
The kids and I have never done this bigger loop. We have always turned around at the falls overlook, which is pictured below. There were a couple of times where the hike/trail seemed a bit dangerous, but the views and beauty were well worth it.
Keith said the night before, "I can't imagine Takuto would be one of those kids to start climbing off or do anything dangerous." Well, 3 miles into the hike we came to goat rock and Takuto couldn't help himself. He apparently climbed a lot of trees as a kid and couldn't wait to climb the rocks. I was a bit nervous because I didn't want him to get hurt. I kept reminding him that the sandstone is slippery and it is always easier to go up than down. Luckily, he was careful and a skilled climber and we made it home without any injuries!
After the 5 mile hike we went on the small 1.2 mile loop with all of the rocks. The kids managed to climb into the rocks and I was able to capture some photos.
I believe the morning was a success with our 2 hour hike and bouldering.
A hike in the mountains....check!
Axel decided to make a very intricate dragon for Takuto's mom as a surprise. Takuto brought very nice origami paper for the kids to fold with. Here is Axel very proud of his completed work.
The second week was just as busy with work and school. Takuto joined Axel for cross country practice on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Rubix also likes to join. Takuto decided that on Thursday he wanted to run with Rubix and I because the cross country team was doing a speed workout and he wanted to do something more reasonable. The three of us did a half a mile warm up, then a 10 minute Fartlek workout before deciding to jog easy the last mile. I was very pleased to only run 3 miles and that Rubix got tired with the Fartlek workout because my legs were tired from riding up the hill earlier that afternoon.
We walked a half mile back to the parking lot and captured a picture of the artwork on the bridge that connects the damn trail to the Los Gatos creek trail.
While I was with the boys, Keith was with Phoenix at Far Westerns on Thursday. Phoenix managed to make the finals for the 200 IM.
She was beyond pleased that she earned the black Far Western cap by making finals on her very first day! She managed to drop a couple of seconds in the finals and get the AAA time standard! She was 9th of 9, but she was still happy with her 9th place medal!
Her with coach and the other swimmers from Thursday.
Another group shot of the Far Western 10 and under girls team.
On Friday morning Phoenix and I headed back to Concord for day 2 of the meet. Here she is with Helen and Amy and their new Far Westerns sweatshirts! Phoenix swam the 100 back and 50 breast on Friday. She dropped over a second in the 100 back, but it wasn't fast enough to make finals. She ended up 10th and a second off the 9th place girl. All of the girls in the finals had a AAAA time standard and Phoenix's AAA just wasn't enough. She took a second off the 50 breaststroke and finished in the teens. She had 3 of her teammates make the finals for the 50 breast and she had not expectations in that event.
We decided to get a hotel room for Friday and Saturday night because we thought she had a good chace of making finals and she was in the A relay for the medley race on Saturday night.
It was really nice to have a place to go after prelims on Friday and get out of the sun. Phoenix and I watched Rio on Amazon prime. It was a really cute movie.
I was very pleased to have a kitchen to cook meals so we didn't have to wait for food at a restaurant.
The girls on Saturday morning. Phoenix only had the 100 breast, but she thought she had a chance to make finals. Unfortunately, she missed finals by .1 of a second. She was pretty bummed.
I took Phoenix and Helen out for lunch because Phoenix really wanted to hang out with her, but her mom would not let her come back to the hotel with us. She wanted Helen to take a nap before finals. Helen made it into the 100 breast and 50 breast finals and finished 2nd and 4th, respectively. She is going to the Western Zones meet this week because she is one of the fastest 10 and under breast strokers in the Western states. They enjoyed pancakes and bacon while I had a salad and tuna sandwich. :)
Although Phoenix was bummed about not making the finals, she was pumped to be a part of the A team for the medley relay. Phoenix is the backstroker, Helen does breast, Victoire butterfly and Annabelle free style. Annabelle is on the left, the Helen, Phoenix and Victoire.
The girls swam their hearts out and were able to take first place! They were ranked first going in and managed to take 4 seconds off of their seed time! This was a big deal to be the fastest relay and get a gold medal!
The champions with Coach Vicotry!
While we were busy at the race, Daddy was busy with the boys. They had cross country, swim practice and had to manage meals. Here they are enjoying Lox and a Greek Salad.
On Sunday, day 4 of racing the boys drove down to see Phoenix race her last 2 races. She competed in the 200 free and 50 back. Phoenix dropped 2 seconds in her 200 free but again missed finals by .2 seconds. She was absolutely defeated and broke down after holding it together the previous 3 days. She worked so hard and was beyond frustrated that it wasn't enough. I reminded her she achieved her goal of the 11 year old JO time and she improved by 2 seconds and that is an accomplishment in itself. Although she said she was fine, she seemed to take this frustration into her last race of the meet, the 50 back. She was ranked 8th and all she needed to do was get the same time that she has swam before. I am not sure what happened, but she ended up adding nearly a second and again finished 10th for the 3rd time! This time missing out by .2 seconds. I felt really bad for her, but I think these races teach us how to persevere through ups and downs and we talk about this often.
It was a hot day and after Phoenix's individual events I drove the boys home while Phoenix and Daddy stayed for the 200 Free relay that was happening Sunday night.
We made sure to get one last group photo with Takuto before heading back home.
The boys and I decided it was the perfect time to go to Stacks for lunch. When we arrived in Campbell it was packed because of the Farmer's Market. We got really lucky with parking and after placing our name on a wait list we were able to walk up and down the street looking at all of the vendors. Takuto says he has these types of Markets in Japan too.
After we were stuffed to the brim we went home for Takuto to pack and for some game playing. Right before heading to the upper school to drop off Takuto, Axel remembered that we never made home made popcorn for him.
The boys happily watched the popcorn pop, we filled a bag for Takuto to take and then headed out to drop Takuto off.
It was bittersweet saying goodbye. We were so thankful to have these two wonderful weeks with him and wish him all the success in the world. We hope to stay long time friends with him and Axel and him will do their best to stay in touch via email and "Line".
This week I am off of work and we are getting ready for school. Axel starts cross country practice daily on Monday and takes his preCal challenge test the following Monday. School officially starts on the 21st with Field Day and class pictures the week before. It is going to be crazy having a high schooler! Speaking of high schooler, it looks like Axel was just asked to the movies by his "friend" Samara and they are going to see the Barbie movie on Sunday afternoon! He thought it was going to be a group of friends, but found out it is just going to be the two of them. This could qualify as his first date, but I am not sure he is really interested in having anything long term. He likes Samara, but she is just a runner and not one of the "smart math" girls, so we will see what happens.....
The next post will include our 15th Wedding Anniversary, Phoenix and Rubix's visit with Grandma Susan and Gpa Brian and the new school year activities. Until then.....
ier.
