End of Year Swim Party, Good bye to Aunt Susan and Little Grammy comes to visit

On Sunday July 22nd Axel had a play date with Kristin at the pool. They played for almost 3 hours until Kristin had to leave because the pool was closing early for the end of year swim team party. They had so much fun! They didn't want to say good bye!

 The pool party started at 6 pm with an hour of pool play before the awards ceremony started. Here is Phoenix getting her swimming award.

 Such a big girl!

 I wasn't able to see Axel while he was receiving his swim award, but here is a picture of the 9/10 boys.

 This was the first year I was able to stay the entire swim party. Keith generously offered to take Rubix home, so I could stay and enjoy the video. Here is a picture of Keith with Rubix as they were leaving.  Rubix was quite the trooper. He wanted to leave much earlier, but managed to stay until just before 8 pm. The video lasted until just before 9 pm, so it was a late night for all of the kids.

 This Friday, the 27th Elisa, Max, Sophia and Christian came over for a visit. They were in town from Singapore visiting their new baby cousin who was just 10 days old. It was so nice to catch up with Elisa and Max and Axel had a great time playing together.

 On Saturday, I drove to Uncle Dave's house to celebrate the life of his wife, Susan, who passed 3 weeks earlier. It was emotional seeing pictures of her when she was much younger and healthy. She fought a good fight for many, many years. I am glad that she is no longer suffering. Here is a picture of Uncle Dave, my mom, GG and Aunt Cindy. I don't think I have any pictures of the Goldstein's all together, ever! Too bad I didn't have enough light!

 On Friday night, very late, Little Grammy arrived from MA. Keith took the kids to the Harker play date in the park on Saturday and Sunday we spent time at the pool. Monday we went up to Castle Rock with Axel, Grammy and Axel's friend, Alex.

 We had so much fun hiking and playing on the rocks.

 I felt like a kid again. I didn't realize how taxing climbing rocks can be until the next day!

 This was the most beautiful tree I have ever seen. I can't believe how pink it is! I had to take a picture to show my little princess Phoenix!

 These rocks are awesome!!!!

 On Tuesday we went to Santa Cruz to go whale watching on the Monterey Bay. We had 3.5 hours on the ocean and over an hour watching the hump back whales. Keith loves the "before" and "after" photos. The one on the left is before Phoenix and I got sea sick. The one on the right is after being sick for over a couple of hours.

 

Axel, Daddy and Grammy got to see quite a few different water species. Phoenix and I were able to see the sea otter and hump back whales. We were limited by our sea sickness and were not able to move around the boat. 

 It was pretty cool to see the whales, but I was done after seeing them once.

 I was shocked to learn that we were going to hang out watching them for an hour!

 Axel had a great time at the very front of the boat!

 I would have been a bit nervous seeing Axel at the front of the boat with how big the waves were, but he was a real champ and Keith was confident that he was safe!

Wednesday was "recovery" from our sea adventure the day before. In the afternoon, though, Keith took Carol wine tasting. That went to Savanah Chanelle Vineyards. 

As you can see in these pictures, we had a happy customer! I am so glad they had a good time!

Thursday was all about the zoo. We had planned a day in San Francisco, but we just didn't want to deal with parking and traffic. So Keith, Carol and Rubix went to the Oakland Zoo for the first time. 

 The Baboons were the most entertaining today. They were playing quite the plastic bottle chase game until one of the adult Baboons put the kids in order.

 We went on the Gondola for the first time and saw an entire other portion of the zoo that we hadn't explored before.  The California Condor was awesome!

 Rubix was in absolute heaven. He was full of energy and walked everywhere the first 2.5 hours until.....we hit nap time. At 12:45 pm he asked to be held and then he took a quick cat nap in the stroller before getting up and having a blast the last 30+ minutes of our visit.

 Love this smile!

Look at that face! Such delight!

 Our little jumper!

Lets not forget Phoenix!

Look at how mature this girl is looking these days!

 The beautiful view from the look out. Bison and San Francisco in the background!

 Here is Axel, Rubix and Alex. What I didn't mentioned is that we ran into Alex last week at the library. Alex was Axel's best buddy in second grade. We thought he had moved, but he hadn't. He actually moves to Los Altos at the end of September, but he is still a half a mile away right now!

They played together last Thursday and all day Monday. Axel slept over at his house on Tuesday night, they spent all day together Wednesday. Alex then spent the night at hour house Wednesday night and then he spent the entire day with us on Thursday! After dropping Alex off, Axel said, "when can we play next?"
 Rubix couldn't get enough Alex time either!

When we got home from the zoo Phoenix decided to make a list of all of the animals that she remembers seeing. I just love how neat her hand writing is and at how she is not afraid to try to spell. The only one I couldn't figure out was bummne. She accidentally put m's instead of n's, but it is suppose to say bunny.

On Friday we dropped Phoenix off for her last day at Challenger. We will really miss Challenger, but will be back in a year or two when Rubix starts there. 

 While Phoenix was at school we took Rubix to the Bobcat train in Vascona park for the first time.

 He was really excited before we got there, but was a little afraid while on the train. The whistle was a little loud for his liking.

 After the train ride the boys rode the Merry Go Round, while Granny and I watched.

 Rubix really didn't want to go on this either, but he had a great time by the end. Good thing Daddy is so much fun!

 We had to capture a picture of Axel's authentic play doh spaghetti and meatballs.

 Yesterday we went over to my friend Tiffany's house. She moved back to the bay area and we were all excited to spend the evening together. Grammy enjoyed herself but was anxious to head to the airport.

 We all played in the very nice warm pool before dinner.

 After dinner Avery and Axel played a game of pool (as they now have a pool table) and then had play doh fun.

 Charlotte and Phoenix played dolls and Rubix went back and forth to trying to play pool and play with the other girls.

We got back late last night. Today we had over Axel's best buddy Lucas and his family. They came over for lunch and are now at the pool. Rubix is napping so I decided to catch up on the blog.

We had such a great visit with Grammy and are looking forward to seeing her again soon as we head to the Cape in a couple of weeks.

This week Keith and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary and then I fly out to St. Louis for my first weekend of the year long fellowship I am doing. I am so excited and nervous! My mom is coming in on Wednesday so she can watch Phoenix and Axel on Thursday and Friday. I feel so very blessed for all that we have and our wonderful family and friends.

Hopefully I will get a change to post again before our trip to the Cape, but if not check back at the end of the month!

Summer Fun

I posted last time during nap time on Daddy's birthday so I did not get to include pictures of our little celebration that evening. Daddy requested chocolate vegan cake and ice cream. 

 Everyone thoroughly enjoyed both.

 I think Phoenix liked the ice cream a little bit more!

 Last weekend we had a long weekend with a swim meet and two big BBQ's/ gatherings. Our first gathering we had two families over that included new incoming 4th graders for Harker. It just so happens that the 4th grade boys also had siblings that are going to be new to Harker as well. The kids got along splendidly and we were able to answer the questions that the parents had. I really enjoyed helping these families out as we really appreciated the advice and help we had last year as a new family.

On Sunday we had Keith's work team over. It was really fun. I didn't realize that half of his employees are fresh out of school. Granted some of them are PHD's, but they are in their mid to late 20's. I really enjoyed the energy they brought to our house. They were all really great with the kids as well.

A pretty significant summer cold has slowly worked its way through our entire household. Phoenix was the last to come down with it. She slept almost all day last Sunday with a total of 4 naps. She also missed two days of summer school. I can't remember her missing a single day of school all year from being sick. I was surprised at how much it wiped her out. Axel had it the week before and he went to bed at 5:00 pm right when he got home from summer camp. He did go to school the next day but I picked him up after the morning academic portion of camp.

Rubix has been home for 2 weeks as Angela's has been closed. It was really fun hanging out with him as I stayed home for a week on vacation to care for him. The second week we had Camryn one day and Marlena the other two days to care for him. Rubix is essentially potty trained. He still doesn't necessarily tell us when he has to pee, but he is able to hold it for 2 hours. He holds it during his nap times most of the time, but we are still putting a cloth diaper because I rather not have to wash the sheets more than I already have to. He is very good about going number poopoo in the toilet, which is very nice.

Rubix continues to amaze me at his physical abilities. He jumps off a surface over a foot off the ground by himself. I want to say he can jump off something 2 feet high without assistance. This amazes me because he has the confidence to do so. The funny thing is he isn't overly risky or dangerous. He really does seem to know his limits. Today, at the park, he started climbing the climbing wall and then said, "too high, too dangerous". He also will ask me to spot him while climbing up the big ladder. I love how he makes good choices at just 2 years old.

Rubix and I took down the crib about 2 weeks ago and that amazingly solved our problem with him waking frequently in the night. He sleeps through the night 80% of the time. He does cry sometimes in the night, but he falls asleep pretty easily, either by himself or once I go in there. Sometimes, I think he had a bad dream, but the great thing is he really does not wake to drink milk anymore!

Phoenix continues to amaze me at how well she reads and her basic math skills. The ability to do basic addition and subtraction up to 20, count by 10's to 100, and to count to 1000 is pretty remarkable to me. She can also do addition and subtraction of 2, 2 digit numbers, but it does take her a bit longer to solve and sometimes she gets frustrated.

Axel amazed both of us at how much he loves to read. The kid is the ultimate reader and goes through books like they are candy. He is also really passionate about coding and designing computer games and programs. He really wants to do more, but we have to restrict him as his behavior still appears to be effected by too much computer time.

This Thursday the Gators had a paint party to make posters for Champs. Axel made a vomiting alligator. He still likes to make people laugh.

I was impressed with Pheeny's gator!

 Westgate Gators won champs. Axel tried really hard and swam well. He finally broke 20 seconds in his 25 yard free style and he also PR'd in his 100 yard medley with 2:01. Phoenix had fun and did great considering she didn't swim all week and was sick in bed for half of the week. Rubix had fun too!

 Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed a quiet evening at home.

 We played outside and went for a nice short walk.

Everyone has been talking about Venus. If you look closely you can see this bright spot just below to the right of the moon. So cool that we can see Venus with our bear eyes. 

 I will leave you with a baby lizard that Rubix and I observed today at the park. We are headed to the pool for the swim team pool party. It will be a late night for the kids, but everyone will have fun. Axel has been at the pool since 3 pm playing with his buddy Kristin. Luckily, he is home tomorrow as summer camp is over for him so he can sleep in as late as he wants.