Phoenix turns 11, ISC closes, Axel gets promoted to Senior 3A

The past 3 weeks have been filled with impactful events in our lives, but before I get to that we will start off with Axel's promotion to the Senior 3A group at Santa Clara Swim Club. He is now with the top high school swimmers who are freshman and sophomores. He has been stressed since school started because he didn't have the time cuts to make this team and he really didn't want to go to Senior 2 because the workouts are too easy. He had been to several Senior 2 practices because he had to miss his group practice for cross country this fall. Well, his coach, Coach Sveta, believed he has the potential and is a hard worker, that they promoted him despite not having the time cuts. He has shown incredible growth since moving up 3 weeks ago. He has been going to 6 am morning practices twice a week and doing 2 double days. He is fully vested in giving his all this Spring to see how much he can improve. He is making friends with kids his age and learning to enjoy the process, even if the results don't come. Keith and I are incredibly proud of his growth and hope he learns many life skills with this new opportunity he was given. 

After swim practice on Dec. 30th, Phoenix and I drove up to Sacramento to have a sleepover date with the Jolleys! The girls enjoyed playing together and yummy food made by chef, Uncle Ryan, while Auntie Shannon and I were able to enjoy a sushi dinner and much needed sister alone time! 

We had such an incredible time, we hope to do it again Easter weekend at our house!

Hot cocoa before bed....

Waiting for yummy breakfast!

On New Year's Eve we partook in our annual mega family game night. 

It was full of fun, laughter and tears as always. 

The tears tonight came from Rubix, although laughter outweighed his moments of frustration. 

Why Rubix, your ears get so red when you laugh! "Yes, Mommy... that is my secret power!"

On New Year's Day we did our annual family hike. This year we tackled the trail from Sanborn park up to Skyline. 

We hiked 3.25 miles straight up the mountain in a forest of beautiful redwood trees. 

We enjoyed the beautiful pond and views of the sun coming through the trees. 

We managed to keep our feet dry this year going over little streams. 

At the top of the mountain on Skyline Blvd!

We did it! We hiked back down the 2000 foot elevation gain for a total of 6.5 miles in 2.5 hours. We were all happy to keep up the tradition since we have been busy doing other things. 

We have had winter weather off and on for weeks. With rain, wind and storms we have beautiful skylines. 

Phoenix asks me to take pictures of these with the hopes of painting them some day. 

Over the winter break, Axel picked up his baking again. He made this delicious carrot cake (although I had to grate the carrots for him). 

The kiddos continue to grow. Phoenix is now officially 5 feet 3 inches and Axel is still just shy of 5 foot 7 at 5 foot 3/4 of an inch. Rubix is 4 feet 5.5 inches. 

Phoenix and Axel both really want to catch Keith and I. We hope they do too!

The big news that happened just about 2 weeks ago is that ISC, the international swim center was deemed unsafe and closed permanently. The diving structure and the cover to the stands, along with the buildings are at risk of falling down and collapsing according to architectural engineers. The funny thing that our head coach and the staff continue to joke about is that the boiler that needed rebuilding is working great and that the pool itself is usable. We are hoping the city will figure out how to take down the unsafe structures or the city will pass a bond to help rebuild ISC. For now the head coach is working hard to find pool water for the kids. This morning, Axel is at Sunnyvale Middle School. This afternoon he will be at Peterson with Rubix and Phoenix will be at Santa Clara High School. With high school swim starting this coming Monday, we are uncertain of where the kids will be swimming, but we trust the community will come together to help our swimmers find water to swim in.

On Saturday, Phoenix wore the birthday swim camp at practice and I made the biggest chocolate chip cookies to hand out to her swim group.

The birthday girl in the middle with the white birthday cap. 

Happy birthday Phoenix!

Her teammates sang to her and they did fun kicking at the end of practice!

After practice, she had 6 of her swim friends over to celebrate. Sarah T, Savanah, Helen, Anabelle, Victoire and Audrey! 

They enjoyed food and games. 

I was really impressed at how well everyone got along! Everyone seemed to have a good time!

They played twister and this fun chicken and hot dog game where you have to flip the chicken and hot dog and get them to land. 

Here Phoenix is throwing it over her back after spinning in a circle. 

We also did a white elephant gift exchange. If anyone knows Phoenix, she loves playing white elephant. With the extra gifts we bought they did trivia to disperse the last prices. 

Most importantly, the girls ate all of the sushi and enjoyed each others company. 

I would say it was Phoenix's best party yet! Good, simple, old fashion fun!

I can't believe she is 11!

Happy birthday Phoenix!

Axel had the Winter Ball on Saturday. 

He did not go with a date, but went with a group of friends. He had a great time dancing with friends and said Harker out did themselves with a good spread of food. 

On Sunday, Phoenix's birthday we enjoyed a yummy pancake breakfast, got homework done and then went to the Olympic clinic with Abbey Weitzeil. The clinic started with Abbey sharing her story and a question and answer. The kids then had the pictures taken and she signed different paraphernalia. 

Here are the coaches with Abbey. 

After pictures the kids finally got in the water and went through her favorite drills, starting with free style. 

Here they are in the water. 

 It was a very cold and windy day, so the clinic ended at 3:30pm instead of 4 because she said it was too cold to do starts. That was a bit disappointing, but I think the kids enjoyed themselves and learned a bit too. 

The big milestone that happened for Phoenix is that she started her menstrual cycle on Friday, January 19th. She called me at 3 pm asking me to pick her up from school. I reminded her of the pads we packed in her backpack. She managed to take care of things and stay at school until 3:30pm. The past several days has been a huge learning curve for both of us. I am sad that she has to deal with this at such a young age, but she was very well prepared and is taking it in stride. I am so very proud of her for managing to get through all of her swim and birthday activities despite all of the fun side effects that come from having your menstrual cycle. 

In other Phoenix news, she started basketball and has her first game tomorrow. We have a 3 day swim meet starting Friday and Phoenix's 5th grade show next Thursday and Friday. We have more on our plate than we would like, but we are loving supporting our kiddos and helping them thrive and grow. We are already looking forward to ski week break the 2nd week of February. It will be nice to be home with the kids and spend some downtime together. I likely won't write until then, but thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas 2023 and Happy New Year

We are incredibly blessed to have such wonderful communities that we are a part of at Harker and Santa Clara Swim Club. The Li's gifted us their 4 VIP tickets to the December 22nd Warriors game since they were going to be out of town. We asked Axel first and he said he wanted us to take Rubix and Phoenix because they had not experienced a game before. We dropped Axel off at swim practice and made sure he had a ride home and then headed to SF. We were able to see warm ups and get all kinds of delicious food at the J.P. Morgan Lounge. 

Crazy thing is my friend Tracey and her two girls saw me as they were in line for the Chase Lounge and texted me. The even crazier thing is that their seats are just 2 rows behind us. They are here company's seats so she takes the girls every year to a game. Tracey and I use to race bikes together and we saw her at a swim meet a year and a half ago. Rylee, her daughter is 15 and a phenomenal swimmer and has handed down a lot of her old gear. What a small world it can be at times. It was really nice to see her, Rylee and Harper. 

It was our plan to surprise the kids, but I totally ruined it at breakfast when Daddy was asking what our plans were for the night. I said, "We will drop Axel off at 4pm and then head to the city to make sure we get to the Chase center in time to see Steph Curry warm up". Everyone looked at me with confusion....the kids, because they were excited at what they heard and Keith with, why did you ruin it look?!....oops! I wasn't thinking!!!! It was still totally cool and fun!

Rubix was very interested and watched intently.

At times it was a little loud, but...

overall it was the most thrilling thing to see Steph and the team make great shot, after great shot. 

We stayed until the very end and got a Warriors ball and....

yummy desert and coffee!

Phoenix happen to not be feeling 100% and woke with up on Saturday with a full blown cold. I made her the most delicious chicken noodle soup with good old fashion dumplings. It doesn't look very good, but boy, we all (except Rubix) loved it. 

On Christmas Eve we went to the track for a workout. Harris and his dad were able to join us. 

That afternoon I finished up the pumpkin scones, persimmons cookies and prepped the sugar cookies for decorating. I also was able to make the sweet potatoe casserole and put the ribs in the oven before church at 3:30pm. 

We enjoyed hot chocolate, coffee and cookies as well as a family photo before the service. This was my and our first time back to in person church service since the pandemic. It was absolutely wonderful to be in person again!

Rubix and I singing Silent Night at the end of the service. 

Daddy, Axel and Phoenix...

After our yummy dinner we opened up our Christmas PJ's!

So cute, except Rubix's pants are too short!

My favorite three persons!!!!

Christmas is almost here.....

We can't wait...

I read Christmas books to Rubix and Phoenix while Axel finished sewing his Christmas gift for Phoenix. 

He was done at 9:30pm with this cozy Axolotl.

I was impressed as always. No pattern, just his amazing 3D brain at work!

Rubix was up at 6:45 am and snuggled until the allotted wake up time of 7 am. We made our pumpkin lattes and drinks and then got to the stocking stuffers. 

Rubix's "big" present was accidently put in his stocking. He really wanted a fitness tracker watch and he was beyond excited to receive it. 

After opening the stocking stuffers we enjoyed our yummy pumpkin scones. Axel was particularly happy and enjoyed two of them. 

After scones it was time for the main affair! Yay!!! Christmas is here!!!! Rubix could not wait!

Phoenix made me this lovely painting of baby Jesus in the manger. 

She loved her Axolotl. 

Axel loved his presented and dug right into his book, "What if? 2"

After Daddy and I climbed Hwy 9(since the kids decided they did not want to go on a Christmas hike) we enjoyed breakfast for dinner (breakfast burritos with spinach, sausage and potatoes and Phoenix with an omelet) and then finally decorated the sugar cookies that Phoenix prepared two days previously. 

Axel showed us how it was done by getting out the toothpick and putting much thought and detail into each cookie he decorated. 

Amazing@

Phoenix followed suit and made a gingerbread girl with just as much detail. 

Here are the ones that Axel and Phoenix did with care.

On Tuesday I worked until 1 pm and then rode up Hwy 9 again and then enjoyed Tiffany and her girls over for dinner. Cliff was supposed to come, but had a work fire he had to put out. We thought it was ironic that we dressed in the same outfit! We must have been best friends in high school for a reason!

The kids had a blast playing games all night, and we enjoyed catching up and a couple rounds of Telestrations with the kids as well. Here is a picture of our kiddos with Avery and Charlotte. Avery turned 13 on Christmas! Charlotte is just 10 days younger than Phoenix. Tiffany and I have been getting together since Avery was one and Axel was two. Where does the time go?

On Wednesday Ethan joined us for swim, brunch at Stack's and an all day playdate.

The kids ate an incredible amount of food. Here is a silly picture as we were waiting for our food. 

Ethan's mom asked that he do math if he stays, so the boys played pinball, built Legos, and did math together! They got along seamlessly. Ethan swims with Rubix and this was their first playdate outside of swim practice. 

After practice on Saturday, Phoenix and I drove to Sacramento for a sleep over with Cousin Braylin. The cousins had so much fun eating dinner and playing, while Auntie and I stopped by Gma's to say hello and then went out for a sister's date at Auntie Shannon's favorite sushi restaurant. When we got home the girls were enjoying hot chocolate. 

Lets not forget about Aya!

We were able to stay until 11 am. We had a lovely breakfast and played cat's cradle and Chinese jump rope. It was a blast from the past for Auntie and I, and a cousin's date to remember. Hopefully, we can continue this tradition.  

Tonight is family game night as we celebrate the ending of 2023 and the exciting beginnings of 2024. We are looking forward to Phoenix's 11th birthday, our first short course swim meet of the winter/spring season, another visit with the Jolleys and a swim clinic with Abbey Weitzel. I hope to post at the end of January after all of these exciting events. Until then..... Happy New Year! May 2024 be filled with joy and peace!