CMU/ Caltech campus visits

Axel finally sent me a few photos from the Winter Ball. Here he is with two of his friends, Christine and Cynthia. 

I love how close he is with his friend group and how much fun they have with each other, regardless of how many members of the group are together. 

Rubix started school soccer and has been having intramural games between two 4th grade teams as well as games made up of teams that are a mix of 4th and 5th graders, called the league of Champions. He appears to have one game a week. We are allowed to attend only the intramural game between the 4th graders. This was his first game and Keith and I were both surprised at how big the field was. They were using a field equivalent to the U12 field which is quite a bit bigger than the U10 field that the boys are used to. Rubix did A LOT of running! On top of the field being bigger they had two 25 minute halves that happen to go to nearly 30 minutes, so the game was nearly an hour, rather than 40 minutes! We haven't really seen Rubix get tired, but he has been so tired he hasn't wanted to always attend the harder, Gold 3 (11/12 year old) swim practice that is 2 hours long afterwards and even decided to skip swim one night. 

Rubix has been playing multiple sports for nearly 5 years and has never really complained about being tired and this has been a common theme we have been hearing from him for the past month. I think that he happens to be going through a growth spurt at the same time as his training is becoming harder, which is taking a toll on his body. He is also getting to bed at 9:30pm or sometimes later because his swim practice goes until 8:30pm and he doesn't get home until close to 9 pm. 

If you ask him if he wants to give anything up, he quickly responds, "no". He absolutely still loves to play basketball and soccer and run and swim. He has actually been asking to skip swim at times in order to not skip out on the other sports. I am really proud of him for making hard decisions like this because this will become more and more important as he gets older to figure out what makes him happy. 

He is also still learning how to not win and have fun. He often gets frustrated and loses focus when his team is not winning or the score is tied. We continue to work with him on focusing on what he can control and that is his effort and his attitude. He was able to apply this for the first time at a swim meet last weekend, which I will get to in a moment. 

Before I jump to this past weekend and week, I will quickly share on Phoenix's first prelim/ final senior meet she had a couple of weeks ago. The big change, now that she is 13 years old, is she can wear an official tech suit. Phoenix and I were both surprised that the difficulty in getting this on is how tight it is around the hips and waist, rather than on the shoulders like her other 12 and under tech suits are designed. It took her about 20 minutes to get her suit on and it takes about 10 minutes, with my help, to get the suit off. 

Phoenix and I spent the weekend in Pleasanton because Superleague was a prelim and finals meet that was poorly attended. They also had 3 heats of finals. Phoenix had a great attitude and despite not swimming her best times she was able to drop 4 seconds from prelims to finals in the 500 free and more than a second in the 200 back. On Sunday she dropped in the 50 free during prelims, finally breaking 27 seconds, not in a relay. She made finals for the 200 free and 50 free, but decided to scratch to go home and study for her math test! She is very focused on trying to cross grade and she needs to maintain a 95% in the class to do so. Before we left for home she competed in the 1000 free, having a nice drop of 16 seconds, achieving the AAAA time and feeling like sectionals is within reach with just 25 seconds to go!

Here she is getting ready for the 200 back final. 

Last weekend, Rubix had a meet as well. I took this picture that captured Keith officiating and Rubix getting ready to get on the blocks. Rubix had a much better meet, relaxing and learning to have fun, despite not dropping in most of his events. He did have a nice drop in the 100 breast, dropping to a 1:19.19, which is very close to a AAAA time. 

Rubix 100 Breast

Rubix felt playing with his friend, Tatsu, helped him relax. Tatsu and Rubix played Shogi, which is a chess like Japanese game. Tatsu was very excited to beat Rubix since Rubix always "beats" him in swim. Tatsu just turned 9 and is in 3rd grade. He is from Japan and will be here for another 6 months to a year before heading back home. His dad's work assignment was supposed to end, but has been extended. His mom was telling me that they will get a 6 months notice. They are hoping it will correlate to Tatsu going back in April of 2027 when the Japanese school year starts. 

On Sunday, Axel and I got up early to make a 7 am flight to Pittsburgh. We had a 2 hour lay over in Dallas, so it made for a long day. We captured a picture with the chicken for Phoenix, since she is still obsessed with chickens. 

We had no line at the security check in, which meant we had nearly an hour of waiting before our scheduled departure time. 

Here we are sitting and waiting at 6 am!

Yay! Now we are on the plane! Axel was very excited to check out Carnegie Mellon. 

Another view of the excited Duo. Our first leg of the day was just over 3 hours. Keith was having trouble sleeping again, so I was up since 2 am trying to calm him from all of his work stress. I slept off and on, but managed to do some reading. Axel finally gave in to his short night of sleep with a solid nap the last hour and a half of the flight. 

During our layover I started feeling a migraine come on. It hit really hard when we took off from Dallas to Pittsburgh. I quickly took a Nurtec, but struggled with nausea and pain the rest of the day. Axel was very sweet and walked slowly with me and allowed me to go to bed as soon as we checked into the hotel. I asked him to text his dad since Keith was texting me and I couldn't do much. Apparently, he snapped this picture to show dad that I wasn't in a good place. I was very grateful to go right to bed just before 7 pm East coast time (which is 4 pm our time!). I managed to get enough sleep to allow me to function the next day for our big CMU day. Axel managed to get dinner, run on the treadmill and get himself to bed by 10/11pm. 

Axel found himself a Ramen house .1 miles away. He sent Keith and I a picture of his dinner and the empty bowl that pursued.

I was extremely proud of how bold and confident he was in exploring and taking care of himself. I felt very lucky to have a son I could trust and who was very understanding of my current state. 

We both had the privilege of sleeping in . I brought protein waffles for Axel and oatmeal and fruit for myself that we ate in the room before heading to CMU for our 10 am information session and tour. We left at 9:15 am not knowing how long the mile walk would take with all of of the stop lights. It was about 6 degrees, but both Axel and I were dressed well and quite comfortable. We were both surprised at how beautiful the University of Pittsburgh was on the way to CMU. There are three universities on Forbes Ave. starting with the University of Carlo, then Pittsburgh, then CMU. There were students everywhere!

We had a grad student lead our information session that was an hour long. We then had a second year student lead our tour that ended up being 2 hours long!

We were able to see first year dorms, along with several labs, lecture halls and buildings. Axel and I were both impressed with the tunnel and bridge system that connected many of the buildings. This allows the students to not have to walk in the elements very often. There are several buildings that are not connected, but many of the buildings with the majority of their classes are all interconnected. The last building we visited was designated for the college of performing arts. It was absolutely beautiful. 

I had to take a few photos of the "lobby" with the sculptures and beautifully painted ceiling. 

The mascot for CMU is the "kilt" which depicts the interwoven nature of the different colleges and the collaboration that CMU promotes. Along with the kilt is the "scotty dog". Axel rubbed the scotty dogs nose for good luck, which is one of CMU's traditions.  

After our tour, Axel and I rushed across campus to the athletic building to meet the cross country coach. We finally picked up some lunch at 1:40pm and then quickly headed back to the hotel. We had plans to meet Veyd, a Harker alum, that Axel use to run with at 3:30pm which meant that Axel would have to do his run and meet me (and Veyd) back at campus. Axel managed to squeeze in a nice 5 + mile run and I walked back to campus with his second layer of clothes and parka. 

Veyd was really nice to spend the next 2 hours with us, bringing us into the labs and answering all of our questions. It was an extremely informative and useful day spending nearly the entire day ( 10 am-5pm) (minus an hour)) at CMU. We stopped by a "farm fresh" restaurant for dinner, on the way back to the hotel, where Axel was able to get pasta and I was able to get a grain bowl with veggies!

The next morning our flight to LAX didn't depart until 12:15pm which meant we both had time to exercise. I woke up and made myself get on the treadmill at 8 am. Axel called me around 8:37 am asking my advice at what he should do. He managed to get out for his run at 8:55 am which made the morning a little stressful for me because he didn't return until 9:54 and we needed to leave by 10 am, both to make our flight and because that was check out time. He took a very quick shower and we managed to be driving by 10:08 am and luckily traffic was not bad, which allowed us to arrive on time and make our flight. 

I ended up having to take another Nurtec and sleep the hour to Midway. After my nap and lunch and another nap the first couple of hours of our 4.5 hour flight to LAX I was finally feeling myself again. I was overjoyed to actually converse with Axel. I was able to listen to his Japanese music and we watched the men's Olympic ice skating short program together. We took a picture, excited to learn what Pasadena and Caltech had to offer. 

It was a beautiful day in the sky. 

Wednesday morning we had the entire morning free. Axel and I walked to breakfast. On the way we passed several beautiful churches. Here is one of the more majestic ones. 

We both enjoyed an amazing breakfast. 

Spinach omelet with salad and a matcha latte! Axel with two pancakes, 2 eggs and bacon!

Afterwards we spoke with Gma Susan who was worried I didn't call her for our weekly 10 minute chat on my way to work and then we went for a run together. After our run and shower we headed to Caltech. It was about a mile away and we managed to get on campus just after 12:00pm. 

We explored for about an hour. 

The turtles are actually a part of the most popular club at Caltech, which is the turtle club where the students take care of and help breed them. 

I love this picture that shows how close the mountains are to campus. 

One of the many labs. 

After our hour of self exploration, we experienced lunch at their main dining hall before we headed over to Braun Athletic center to meet the cross country and track coach. 

Here is Axel in front of the beaver, which is apparently Caltech's and MIT's mascot. We had a great meeting with Coach Kelli. Axel really liked her training philosophy. She spent nearly an hour with us, answering all of our questions and telling us as much as she could think of about her program. She then walked us over to our 3 pm information session. This session was run by one of the admissions officers who was very well spoken and gave a very detailed presentation on academics and life at Caltech. We then had the privilege of meeting a Harker alum, who is a current Senior at Caltech for a guided tour with him, since the tour component was cancelled due to a death of a student a week or two before our arrival. Ishaan showed us his dorm room, explained the housing situation, showed us the other dinning halls, a lecture hall and answered all of our questions. We felt very lucky to spend the nearly 5 hours getting to know all about Caltech. On the way back we stopped by a restaurant for dinner before getting back just before 7pm. Axel and I covered 15.39 miles on our feet, 5.15 of those with our run. It was a great day/week of informative visits, which has propelled Axel into trying to solidify his summer plans. We meet with Tyler, Keith's MIT buddy, tomorrow morning to brainstorm some "research/intern" ideas that he can try to partake in once he returns from Japan on June 27th. Axel is also trying to find time to "study" tonight and tomorrow for his ACT he takes on Saturday. As of now, CMU is Axel's top choice, but he still has his East Coast/New England trip planned for Spring break, so we will have to see where he stands after he visits, MIT and other New England schools. 

Tomorrow will be busy with Tyler's visit, swim lesson, Keith and I lifting together, Costco trip and preparations for Phoenix's 3 day prelim/final swim meet Saturday through Monday. We had a little scare while Axel and I were gone with Keith continuing to have work stress and trouble sleeping, he also peed blood again, but the doctors, and myself, are pretty certain it is due to his change in diet and exercise. He had just finished a 6 mile run when it happened on Wednesday and he has cut down from 6 carbonated waters to just 2 or 3 a day. He has also cut out the 2-4 glasses of juice without necessarily replacing these lost ounces of fluid with water. He is going to start weekly therapy and Zoloft and hopefully, he will have reduction in his stress or a different perspective on his stress which will allow him to find peace in the chaos. He has been reading one of my books called The Sacred Marriage and resonates with what the books says about faith, God and marriage and he wants to do a Weekend to Remember with me, so I am excited to find a weekend that works for us this year. I am very hopeful this year will be a year of growth for all of the Szolushas, where we can find more patience, love and trust in our beautiful Savior and His plan for us. 

Until next time....

 

Phoenix is 13!

Although the Szolushas were unable to do our normal family New Year's hike together because of swim practices, Keith and I were able to manage to run St. Jo's trail, which is a hilly 5 mile loop in Los Gatos. We were able to sneak away on Friday, January 2nd. Here we are at the top. 

Here is a view from the other side. It was perfect weather and the trail was surprisingly runnable/ walkable, despite the inches of rain California received the preceding two weeks. 

On Saturday, Phoenix and I headed to her Pacific Coast All Star Swim meet in Pacifica, while Daddy took Rubix to get soccer cleats. Here is a cute picture of him with the big blow up soccer outside of the store. He was able to get the same cleats he had a size or two up, but this time they are purple instead of teal and pink. I love that he doesn't care about the color. Rubix's school soccer started upon the return to school, January 5th. 

Phoenix and I left the house and saw rainbow after rainbow, after double rainbow all the way to Pacifica. It was really nice that we had a 10 am arrival and a 2 pm start to the meet. Phoenix was able to meet her teammates, receive swim gear and eat lunch before warm ups started at 12:30pm. I hung out in the car reading until the officials check in and meeting started at 12:30pm. 

Phoenix was in 2 relays and 3 individual events per day. Saturday and Sunday were difficult for her because her 3 events were right in a row. She swam the 100 back, 100 breast and the 500 free on Saturday. She dropped in the 100 breast down to a 1:12.99, very close to the 13/14 year old far western cut. On Sunday she swam the 200 IM, 50 breast and 200 free, dropping in all 3 events. She also had the privilege of leading off in the 4 x 100 free relay, which meant her time counted and she dropped in that race too! It was an exciting weekend for her after coming off the holidays. 

I drove home after the meet ended at 6 pm on Saturday and then drove back Sunday morning for the 10 am start. I barely make it by 8:50 am because I was in an absolute downpour and there were many parts of 280 that had standing water. Phoenix stayed the night with the team in a hotel near SF airport. Her roommate was Greyson. Here they are before we left on Sunday. We drove very cautiously home because there were cars all over the road that had spun out due to standing water. We couldn't believe how many accidents (single car) there were. We felt lucky to make it home safely. I forgot to mention that Keith brought the boys up on Saturday after Rubix's swim practice to cheer on Phoenix and Axel and Rubix did the lap counter for Phoenix during her 500. It was very sweet. I wasn't able to take many pictures because I was working the entire time. I did get lucky and was able to film her 200 free which I included below. 

Phoenix 200 Free

So I am such a nut with my new hybrid. I love seeing the mileage go up. I had to take a picture of my gas mileage hitting almost 60 mpg! This only happens if I am driving very conservatively after I fill up my tank. I get great gas mileage in city, typically 38-40 mpg. High driving the gas mileage plummets to usually 34 or so. The faster you drive, the worst the gas mileage is, so good thing for me I have to drive slower to fulfill my own competitiveness to get a higher avg mileage number. :)

The following weekend we had no swim meets, but the kids were into the full swing of school and already had tests to prepare for. We also had swim lessons for the kids and time at the track which was fun, as Phoenix and Rubix and of course Axel, are gearing up for track season. Axel is already running with his club and has his first track meet tomorrow morning. He will be running the 1500. This is technically winter season, so it is an open meet, which means Rubix gets to try the 1500 meter race as well! 

During our free weekend we discovered mold on the kids windowns and blinds. We had a busy weekend of taking down and throwing out the old blinds, cleaning the windows and setting up appointments to get new windows!

We are scheduled to replace the kids and bathroom windows in the next 10 weeks. We are still waiting for an install date once we get a solid ship date, once our windows are started in manufacturing. Our new blinds already arrived. We also were able to get some mold out of the bathrooms. It was so nice to take care of the house. We have been so busy, we haven't been staying on top of the details. 

Last weekend we had the Brian Mallick meet. The meet starts on Friday night. Both Phoenix and Rubix were not feeling their best. Phoenix had a cold that came on and Rubix was really sore from the start of soccer. He gutted out nearly the same time in the 500 free and Phoenix added over 10 seconds in the 400 IM. She decided to stay home on Saturday after talking with her coach. Rubix, Keith and I headed back on Saturday. I didn't get any videos because I officiated Friday and Saturday, but I did get the kids events on Sunday when Keith officiated. I was so proud of Phoenix who decided to come on Sunday because she wanted to have fun with her friends and wasn't concerned about adding in her events. She said she felt a lot better after the day of rest. 

Here is Rubix getting ready for his 50 fly. He is jumping. He has yellow sandals and cap with a pink suite and goggles. Although he didn't get a personal best, he gutted out a win with a good second half of the race. You can watch below. 

Rubix 50 fly

They took a picture of all of the officials on Sunday. You may be able to pick out Keith (5 in from the left). 

Both Rubix and Phoenix had a good 100 IM race, both dropping time and getting a personal best. You can watch them both below. This is technically the last time Phoenix will swim the 100 IM because it is not a sanctioned event for 13 and over swimmers. 

Rubix 100 IM

Phoenix 100 IM

Phoenix ended the race with another personal best in the 50 Free. We were both surprised in the drops with her getting over her cold, but I truly believe the attitude is everything and by her going out and having fun, her body was able to perform. I was so incredibly proud of her character and seeing her grow as a person. 

Phoenix 50 Free

The other really cool thing is she still wanted to celebrate her birthday despite her friend Emelia not coming over for a sleep over because of her cold. She had such a great attitude and said, "No, the party must go on. We will celebrate with sushi and ice cream cake!"

The kids and I made sushi while Keith got his swim in (after officiating all day). He got back just in time for the eating festivities. 

Our plate of sushi! Yum!!!! Don't worry, this was for all of us, not just Phoenix. 

Phoenix ordered chocolate cake with cookies and cream ice cream on top. It says Happy Birthday Phil because her two closest swim friends nick named her Phil. Emelia was coming over for a sleep over before Phoenix got sick and Audrey was coming over on Monday to spend the afternoon with Phoenix, but both of these are rescheduled for February. 

Hard to believe we have two teenagers in the house now!

On Monday I made her pancakes with strawberries and whipping cream. She ate so much sushi and cake the night before she was hardly hungry in the morning. She was also not feeling very good. She woke up with a headache. 

Here she is on her birthday, Wednesday, January 21st!

Swim practice Wednesday night. She has the orange chicken cap on. I made homemade chocolate chip cookies for her group. Forty cookies! Not everyone was there which meant I came home with 5 extras which made the boys quite happy since I told them to not touch them earlier. 

After practice she finally opened up her presents. She also had her ceramics pieces come home, which means I know have a coffee table full of Phoenix's art work. 

Her official first tech suite. It is all one piece and apparently makes for faster swims than the 12 and under tech suites that has seems and multiple pieces. 

Phoenix received one more gift from the Jolley's, yesterday which was more art supplies. She received gift cards to Amazon and Home depot from two of her grandmothers. She is hoping to buy paint for her room from Home depot and earrings and gel nail polish from Amazon. 

Here is a quick sketch she did with her new metallic markers. She did another piece today which she showed me. I just need to take a picture. It is really cool. 

Today the boys ran the 1500 in an All Comers Winter track meet at Los Gatos High School.

 Axel was in the first heat of boys and ran a 4:20/21 (not sure because the official results we can't seem to find yet) and Rubix ran a 5:37?. It was so much fun to watch them both race! Rubix said it was harder to breath on land than in the water and felt like he was able to get as much air as when he is swimming. I think he didn't recognize that it is because he has to hold his breath in swimming that the intake of air is more noticeable! Axel was happy to not have any pain during the race. He has been dealing with some mild knee pain on the right and left shin pain. He modified his training Thursday and Friday which allowed him to race today. We were all very happy for him. He raced really well and was in a screaming fast heat with Henry Hauser breaking 4 minutes. This is the boy he has been racing against since middle school who is an incredible runner. 

I did take videos, but with our new Go Pro. I tried from the stands with Axel and from the infield with Rubix and Axel and I agree I need to take videos with my phone to zoom in during track meets and I can also use the GoPro, but more for a general video of the meet because I can't zoom in. The GoPro has been working really well for swimming and getting the kids form underwater. The key is being close up. 

I was only able to capture these three pictures. Two of the boys above and Daddy congratulating Axel on a nice first race of the season!

We are gearing up for a very busy 10 weeks through to mid April. I am hoping to try to live in the moment and be more present. We have lots of swim and track meets coming up and now with Phoenix going to different meets than Rubix, nearly every weekend is booked. I hope to do a Feb. post of Axel's college tours and updates on the kids. Until then.....