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!

 

Times are a changing....work, life, love

On July 2nd, nearly 2 months after Phoenix lost her right front upper tooth, her left front upper tooth fell out during dinner. She did not want this tooth to come out, but it could no longer hold on! We were very pleased that it wasn't lost or accidentally swallowed! The tooth fairy forgot to come and the next day when the tooth fairy came, Phoenix woke. The took fairy was in a scramble and wasn't able to take the tooth. When asked why the tooth fairy didn't come and then take the tooth we had to explain that things were different during Covid times and that the tooth fairy thought she didn't want to give up the tooth since she didn't want it to come out. Luckily, we found out that the tooth fairy didn't go to Braylin's house the night she lost her second upper front tooth. This was very reassuring to both girls that the tooth fairy was taking extra precautions because of "the virus"!

 On the days I work 9+ hours I like to go for a walk after dinner to get some movement. Axel often walks with me. We both enjoy our time together because we don't typically get other one on one time. For a few weeks he kept mentioning the bus stop sign. Finally, we stopped to take a picture so he could blog about this funny sign. He just loves the part that says, "Essential trip?"...."No"...."Go home!"

 It is amazing that so much time has gone since I last posted. Time feels like it is going very fast, but when I look at this picture from just a few weeks ago, it seems like this was such a long time ago. This is mostly because the sun flowers are so giant now and two of them have flowered.

 Here you an see the sunflower is Rubix size.

 This one is "Axel" size.

 Here Phoenix is posing in front of all of our little green beans, cucumbers and watermelon. They are now so much bigger.

 I think Phoenix made this on the 3rd of July. I loved how she used hearts inside hearts and then put hearts all around the hearts.

Here are two of our pumpkins on July 5th.

Look how big they are now on July 18th! 

 For Daddy's early birthday present we harvested our first fruits, zucchini.

 I then made zucchini boats. He absolutely loved them. The kids, not as much!

 Speaking of Daddy's birthday we made him a yummy cookie after a nice swim at the pool to celebrate his 45th birthday. Here is the handsome young man with his 3 kiddos.

 Last weekend while I was working all weekend, Daddy took the kids swimming and then to get donuts. Apparently, the typical donut shop we go to was closed, but he found another shop to purchase 6 donuts from. Can you believe they ate almost all 6 in one sitting. Shortly after I took this picture, Rubix said, "Mom, my stomach hurts." I was on a short 10 minute break between presentations. I felt bad, but had to tell him that is why we typically don't eat a lot of sweets all at once.

 Here is Phoenix enjoying her donut.

 Here is Axel trying to enjoy his donut, but more worried about what happened to the other half of the last donut.

 Here is Axel enjoying our fresh zucchini with hummus. The kids and I prefer it in bread or raw, where Daddy loves cooked and grilled zucchini. We have now made it almost every way possible except deep fried. I have 5 more to use in the next few days with half a dozen more growing. It is non stop zucchini at our house.

 This is our first watermelon. It is the cutest little thing.

It has now quadrupled in size, although I don't think you get as much appreciation of the size difference from this picture.

 Our  babysitter who started helping us in June decided to go visit her father and family in Arizona from July 3rd through the 10th. Axel has become our babysitter since she left. I was called back to work two times per week starting that same week so I was gone for nearly 11 hours on Keith's birthday. I asked Axel to help Daddy have the best day possible by keeping the kiddos happy and well behaved. He has done an amazing job over the past 2 weeks. Camryn, got tested for Covid and tested negative, but she has only been back for 8 days. She plans on traveling again this coming weekend, so I think we decided that we are done with hired helped this summer. It was a great month and such a blessing to have her help, but we just feel it is a risk that we don't want to take. Here is an example of the kids playing exceptionally well together. We are so incredibly proud of Axel. He is taking his job seriously and loves the 10 dollars a day he is earning. $100 dollars for an 11 year old in 2 weeks is a lot of money. He already spent $40 on Pokemon cards for the three of them.

 The kids continue to take classes over the summer. Phoenix and Rubix love the Friday art class they take. Phoenix also takes a coding class on Fridays and piano lessons on Tuesdays. Axel has coding on Mondays and Math on Wednesdays. Most of their classes are private tutoring which they absolutely love. The one on one attention is fantastic. Rubix still has his phonics, math, story time and worksheets that Challenger has provided. Phoenix also does daily math and the kids are finally reading again. The library opened a month ago for curbside pick up which has been huge for our family. Phoenix has read 10 huge chapter books and Axel has read half a dozen. He really like the Hunger Games. I am trying to get him interested in reading the Maze Runner series, but he decided to start reading the books for his "Tournament of Books" for school.

 Today was a big day in the garden. The cucumbers are taking off and we have half a dozen that will be ready in a few days.

 Our tomatoes are finally starting to grow too. It seems like it has been forever since we planted them.

 Keith loves the garden and he loves to help the bees pollinate. Today he said, "This is a good picture. Get a picture of the pollen on the brush." I dno't think that you can see it, but I tried!

 We also harvested our first carrot. We weren't sure if they were ready, but we needed to find out. We all picked what we thought was the biggest carrot and then patiently waited for Daddy to pick it.

It wasn't quite what we expected, but it was cute. The only carrots left at the store were seeds for short and sweet carrots. I looked at the package once we were back inside and they are only suppose to grow to 4 inches long. 

As you can see, the one wasn't quite there. It was super delicious though and packed with flavor. 

Here is a great picture of the sunflowers today. Today was day 101 since we planted them. Can you believe the difference just a few weeks does? They are all different sizes and all at different stages of the flower cycle. It will be cool to see how it looks once they all flower.

Besides the garden, us no longer having a sitter and the kids swim team winding down, the other big news is Keith and I both got promotions! Keith took his bosses job and his group has now doubled in size! He has 15 direct reports with the possibility of that doubling in size as ADI just bought their biggest competitor Maxim. Once they start to reorganize their power group to incorporate Maxim employees things will change even more. Keith had a killer first week on the job this week and had well over 20 hours of meetings. I am so incredibly proud of him and beyond excited what the future holds. He got his all time dream to no longer work for his boss AND to take her job! I reminded him of how good the Lord's timing is because he got way more than he ever expected!

On my work front, I found out I passed the all day exam I took in March. I passed with flying colors and then finally got my promotion to Clinical Specialist at work. On top of that, I was able to teach all weekend last weekend for the ankle lab for Kaiser's Orthopedic Physical Therapy Residency. It was soooo much fun! I loved every minute of my very long week. I, like Keith, was reminded of God's goodness as everything I set out for has come to fruition. It has truly been God's timing and every door has been opened by Him, and Him alone. It has been beyond cool to see God work in both of our lives, changing us and molding us. He has answered every prayer as it was prayer and trust in Him that got me through the past two years.

I will leave you with this cute picture from today. We will see how well they continue to do with the rest of 2020 looking like it will involve remote learning and continued sheltering in place.