Axel leaves for Japan, school ends!

Keith and I were very excited and I  nervous about his trip solo across the world. The first challenge was getting through security and to his gait at SFO by himself. He was happy to text us that, although his bag was flagged he was through security, after checking his bag within 20 minutes of getting dropped  off!

He was fully boarded by 10:25 am and the plane took off as scheduled at 10:55am! Axel on the plane!

We were thrilled to hear from him at 9:59pm that he had landed on Tokyo safely. He had his luggage by 10:45pm and was through customs and on the bullet train, the Shinkansen by midnight! Here he is on the train. 

Keiko sensei picked him up and took him out to dinner when he arrived in Tokyo. They, of course, had a lovely sushi meal for his first dinner in Japan. 

He was safe and secure at Keiko sensei's house at 2 am. Here is a view from her house. I was able to finely turn my phone off and go to sleep, just to wake up at 6 am :)

On Friday, he met with the principal and purchased any remaining items that he needed for school. He also was able to meet the distance track coach. He purchased one more shirt so he wouldn't have to do as much laundry. This shirt has the official school symbol, which I think he liked. 

Axel had a very embarrassing incident while purchasing his school supplies. He had a 10,000 yen bill, that happen to be "toy money." He did not know and tried to pay for his school items with it. Keiko sensei had to pay for it and Keith paid her back when he sent her money for his lessons. We couldn't figure out where the fake money came from and when Keith was telling Rubix and Phoenix the story, Phoenix came out and said she had fake money that she received from Japanese class! We felt really bad for him. Luckily, Keith had also given him "real" yen that was left over from previous business trips. 

After their visit to the school they went to the mall to get lunch. Axel snapped a shot of this manikin that caught his eye because he thought his dad would get a lot of enjoyment out of this picture. Can you see what both Axel and Keith picked up right away? If you said the position of the right hand fingers, you are correct! 

After work/school got out, Axel went to Ayako's, his host family house, where he would be staying the rest of his time in Japan. He had dinner with them and played with his Ayako's 5 year old son, which I think is named Naru. Here is his first meal with them. We are very excited that Axel now has a new found enjoyment of salads/greens and is eating one for breakfast, lunch and dinner! He says the difference is the dressing and he now likes the taste. Incredible!!!!

Over the weekend he was taken to the Nagoya Castle. It looks quite similar, but bigger, than the Osaka Castle that we visited when we were in Japan. 

Axel said it was a significantly better, as the castle was actually set up like a castle/home, rather than a museum. The Osaka Castle was strictly set up like a museum, which wasn't super fun for the kids to visit.  I believe this is a picture of one of the many living quarters. It looks beautiful. 

While Axel was enjoying his first weekend in Nagoya, Japan, we were at a three day swim meet. Here is Keith in his cool new hat, that he received officiating the International Swim Meet on Friday, May 29th.

 Rubix swam the 400 meter free race at 12:30pm that day. Keith picked him up from school at 11:20 am and took him down to Morgan Hill for warm ups.  I managed to go to an appointment, meet a friend for a hike and then make it to his race, just in the nick of time. I literally arrived at 12:25 and he was behind the blocks waiting to be called up. This allowed Keith to officiate while I timed for him.  After Rubix's race, we headed home, which allowed me to get Phoenix from school (she had her final review for Finals that day) and eventually take her to swim practice. Santa Clara Swim Club has been hosting the International Swim Meet for over 50 years. It was a very big swim meet with top Olympians in the past. However, the past couple of years, it has been poorly attended. To help provide another long course swim meet for the club and to make more money, they host a separate "block party" in between prelims and finals. Many of the Santa Clara Swim Club officials who worked prelims and finals for the International Meet kindly helped officiate during the block party from 12 -3 pm. This makes for an incredibly long day, officiating from 8 am until 7 pm. Keith officiated the block party and finals on Friday. I officiated the block party Saturday and Sunday and he officiated finals again on Sunday. This is our way to give back to the club. 

Rubix had a great weekend, getting many personal best swim times. Phoenix also had a great swim meet considering she raced two 50's both days without getting too tired! She actually had 3 personal best times. The 50 breast and fly she hadn't swam in a year or two, but the most impressive drop was the 50 back that she swam the week before. She is actually only half a second off of Far Westerns, which would be amazing if she can achieve a couple of Far Western times in shorter events to allow her the option to not have to swim as much volume during the championship swim meets this summer. 

Here is Rubix's 100 breast. He dropped an additional 3 seconds from the week before finishing in 128.88, which is another AAAA time and 11th in the nation! He is so close to another top 10 U.S. time. The best thing about it, is how much he is enjoying breast stroke! This is a complete change from a year ago. We are so grateful for his private swim coach, Nick, for helping him learn and improve his breast stroke technique. 

Rubix 100 Breast

I don't have Rubix's 100 free on film (because I was officiating and Keith doesn't always film the kids). He dropped 3.98 seconds finishing in 108.90, which is a AAAA time and a couple of seconds off of the Far Western cut for 11/12 year old boys. This also bumps him up to 13th in the country for 10 and under boys. 

Unbeknownst to me, Keith snapped a couple of photos of me "walking" or being the stroke judge during the meet. I absolutely love getting to move and officiate, rather than just standing still for 30-60 minutes at a time. 

Here is Phoenix's 50 breast. She dropped 1.5 seconds, finishing at 40.26 seconds. She wasn't very pleased with her performance, but I was! I thought she did great and tried hard in a race that she doesn't usually race. 

Phoenix 50 Breast

Here is the 50 back where she dropped .73 seconds from her time the week before. She finished in 33.99, just half a second off of the Far Western cut! Go Phoenix!

Phoenix 50 Back

The 50 fly is also not a race that Phoenix usually races or enjoys, but I was even more proud of watching her try so hard. She dropped a second off the last time she raced this, finishing in 33.99. She is going to continue to race 50's and try some 100's on the 20th and the 27th and 28th of June. When we had to sign up she was still feeling quite tired, but a spoiler alert is that she started being able to train harder for the past 3 practices. We are cautiously optimistic and hope she continues to feel more and more like herself. 

Phoenix 50 Fly

On Sunday afternoon when we arrived home we saw some exciting text messages from Axel as he was starting his first day of school. The board in the back of the room had a nice welcome message for him. 

The teacher and students also gave him a warm welcome. He had many students wanting to meet him during lunch. Ayako has been providing home packed lunches. Axel was so impressed with his first lunch, he snapped a photo to send to us. He said it was delicious!

 

Here he is with one of his classmates. Although, he forgot his running clothes in the excitement and nervousness of getting to school early on the first day, he had the best day ever!

It rained on Tuesday and the Typhoon hit that night at midnight. His host mother was notified that school was postponed until 2 pm on Wed. after the typhoon would pass. Axel had track practice on Wed. from school but he had practice at "the stadium" Thursday night, where the team did a workout. Here he is taking a picture. His practice started at 7 pm, so this was after practice had ended. 

On Friday, June 5th, Axel had the privilege of celebrating Atsuta Matsuri that is held at Atsuta Jingu Shrine in Nagoya with his host family. He wore the traditional clothing and then enjoyed watching performances and fireworks!

This festival celebrates the arrival of the summer season. They set off nearly 1,000 fireworks over the course of 40 minutes! They also have ornate floats and paper lanterns around the shrine's entrance. 

The next day Axel went shopping with Satoshi, the host dad. Here he is with one of the outfits he bought. I sure hope he likes the clothes he purchased. His friend Samaara really wanted him to get new clothes that were not running clothes or sweats! 

Phoenix had finals the first week in June and Rubix had fun all week. They both had their last day of school on Thursday, June 4th. Rubix came home with his art work from the year. He didn't want to save very many pieces this year, so I did what I always do and that is take a picture of it and then recycle it. I included the photos here, for your viewing pleasure. 

He doesn't seem to enjoy art as much as Axel or Phoenix. 

I thought these last two pieces were quite good. He seems to do better with more concrete pieces that are include less drawing and painting. 

Rubix shared with us some of the cool things he has been watching in class the past week or so. He has really enjoyed Mark Rober's videos. We watched Squirrel Maze 2.0 and the Crow solve 9 puzzles. In the enjoyment of sitting down and relaxing, I noticed how big Rubix's feet have become. I thought they looked the size of my feet and they are!!!

Rubix is growing up and has started to prepare some meals for himself and take over Axel's chores, while Axel is out of the country. I am excited to see Rubix grow and mature and am looking forward to the person he becomes. 

This week I am off of work, on "continuing education." I have luckily finished all of my course work so I am here with the kids, taking them to practice and enjoying their company. Phoenix and I went clothes shopping. Rubix and I have baked. Keith and I went to Costco together. The simple things in life are such a joy. We are excited to hear from Axel and I hope to write again by early July. We will have to see how busy we are with work, the kids starting their summer programs, the summer swimming schedule which includes every morning from 6:30-8:30 am and every afternoon Monday through Thursday from either 4-8 pm and Saturday mornings from 7-11 am! The best birthday present will be picking Axel up from SFO on my birthday!!!

Until then....I hope you enjoy the summer weather! 

 

More track, swim and other happenings....

The day I finished up the last blog, I received a phone call from Axel saying, "Mom, I just hit a Tesla!" "What do you mean, you hit a Tesla?" I asked. "I was trying to park, and I heard a little bang, so I tried to back up and I think I made it worse while backing up! What should I do?"

Initially, I wanted to panic, but quickly realized it was a little fender bender and could be much worse. The little blemish gets finished this Friday, May 29th for a whopping $3300! We will just pay cash and not use our insurance in order to avoid any incidents under Axel's name, which would cause his (I mean our) insurance to sky rocket for years. 

Axel was able to wipe up most of the paint on the Tuscan, so you really cannot tell it was involved in a minor fender bender. This happened to be Axel's first time driving his sister. They went to the hardware store for me and then wanted to go to Mitsuwa to pick up some sushi. I should have gone with my instinct and said no to the Mitsuwa stop, knowing it would be packed just before dinner time. Now Axel will be helping drive his brother and sister around this summer to pay us back. We are going to have a very complicated schedule with camps and work, and once Axel returns from Japan, he will have an entire month to help us. Praise the Lord!

We finally or randomly received Rubix's certificate of recognition for being nominated for 9 year old swimmer of the year (in the USA) via the ORCA awards that he went to in Florida. It came in a bit of shambles, so I have to try to flatten it out and frame it for him, as this is quite the honor. 

On May 5th, Axel had his league track championship prelims meet at The Kings Academy. The entire family was able to be there and support him during his 1600 meter race. Keith picked up Rubix and I managed to get Phoenix and make it to the track in time to not only watch Axel, be enjoy my dinner during his warm ups. DJ, Samara's dad who takes all of these great photos, caught us eating our dinner. I was a little embarrassed when I saw him taking the photo. He was kind enough to get several photos of Axel racing and our family after Axel's event. 

Axel was excited to race in a fast field and was hoping to PR. His goal was to break 4:30. Unfortunately, Henry, leading the pack, decided to control the race at 70's, which would be a 4:40.

Axel had a bit of a rough start, but worked his way up to the front. He sat right behind Henry. He would have tried to go in front of Henry, but Henry is crazy fast and did a 4:09 at CCS finals and Axel knew he would be wasting energy. 

 

Henry sped up and Axel did his best to stay with the tall Menlo crew, but got boxed in at the finish. He finished with a 4:40. 89. with Henry finishing in 4:39 and the 3 other boys who boxed him out in 4:40 as well. The other heat was even slower. He qualified for finals still, but decided he wanted to just run the 3200. He was tired from his AP Bio test earlier that day, and he had AP USA on Friday before finals, so one race was likely the best choice. 

Axel also participated in the Varsity 4 x 800 relay on Tuesday after his mile. He was the anchor, which resulted in him running solo as the two other teams were way ahead of our team. 

Axel during the hand off. 

Axel running a slight PR with a low 2:12 time. Not bad, for not training for shorter races. 

Great effort!!!!

Go Axel!!!

The Szolushas supporting Axel!!! Only because Phoenix had mono and wasn't going to swim, was it possible for us all to be here! I left with the kids and dropped Phoenix off at home to go to sleep and then took Rubix to practice from 6:30-8:30 pm. Keith was able to stay and cheer for Axel, which was a nice treat for him. 

The Szolusha kids!

Proud mom and dad!

The cross country crew carrying on their tradition of WOW, MOM during track.  

The friend group with the two seniors, Robinson and Emily in between Axel and Samara (Ava on the end). 

The cross country crew saying they aren't worthy to our two seniors who will be greatly missed!

The track team celebrating a great night of racing!!!

Senior night ceremony!

All the track seniors holding up their posters with the track team behind them!

On Friday night I headed back to Kings Academy to watch Axel's race the 3200. This time we drove together. He was very tired from the long week of studying and all of the testing, but he was still excited to have a good crew to race. DJ snapped a photo of me while talking to his wife Davika. 

Axel started the race as he usually does and took off leading the first 3 laps. He unfortunately, started to slow when the "fast guys" started to pick up the pace slightly. 

 

Axel did his best to stay on, but went from 1st, to 2nd, to 3rd and ended in no man's land between the top 3 (who went 9:27, 9:28 and 9:38) and the next 3 who ended up passing him and finishing 9:53, 9:55, 9:58). Instead of picking it up the last 500 meters the three guys behind him did exactly what Axel does and threw down a very fast last 4-600 meters. Axel ended up 7th at 10:03.06. He was bummed that he didn't have the legs. He really wanted to PR and break 9:50. That will just have to wait for next year. You can see the effort and pure drive on little sleep. 

What makes me most proud is not the crazy effort, but the amazing attitude he has, all of the time. He embodies what every parent hopes for their kids. A kind heart and soul who respects not only others, but himself. His positive nature and smile are absolutely contagious and his teammates and coaches respect him for his great attitude and nature. 

Coach Jorge and Liz, congratulating Axel at for his efforts. It is hard to race the distance events, solo, with no teammates to support him. 

Axel, exhausted after the 3200! Yet smiling!

We stayed around to watch the 4 x 400. They were absolutely exciting. The girls and boys teams managed to qualify for CCS with MaryAnne, the one on the right, flying on her anchor leg running a 56/57 second 400 to first by .4 seconds and breaking the school record. Go Harker! I forgot to mention that Axel's 4 x 800 team, although young and not super competitive bettered their school record time by 15 or more seconds from last year. Axel is excited to possibly have a solid 4 x 800 team for next year, since last year was the very first year that Harker ever put together a 4 x 800 boys team!

The very next day, on May 9th, we had the track and field banquet where the kids were all honored. There were many school records the team achieved and nearly a dozen kids qualified for CCS (including the relays). It was the biggest representation that Harker has ever had at CCS. May 9th was also Phoenix's friend Leeor's birthday. She painted her these beautiful flowers for her birthday and gave her the present during swim practice the following Monday. 

On Sunday, for Mother's day, the kids an Keith helped me clean the house and then we all went to the pool together like old times. I drove the kids home while Keith picked up sushi for dinner! We also managed to play a few games, which made for a lovely day. 

Keith has been trying to help me prepare dinners, as I typically need to prepare meals for Sunday through Wednesday on Sunday night in order to work, get some exercise in and get the kids to their events and practices. He always asked what he can do. This particular night, after enjoying our sushi, he helped me chop the butternut squash. The kids noticed their was a face, so he took a tortilla that was extra from the chicken enchiladas that I had made and put hair on the butternut squash face. So fun!!!

On Saturday night, Keith and Axel went lifting together. Keith had a ton of fun with Axel, he decided to take this photo, so I didn't feel like I was missing out. :)

On May 15th, Axel had the baccalaureate ceremony to send off the seniors. Here is a picture of his friend group.  

And the cross country crew with Robinson and Emily! They will be missed!

And a photo of Axel!

That same night Phoenix had the last dance of the school year. I helped her get ready and had the privilege of dropping her off and picking her up. They are really short, so a 7 pm drop off and a 9 pm pick up, only leaves you about an 1 and 20 minutes to do anything, but I was glad to get an hour and 20 minutes of work done being at home, while Keith spent his evening at the pool with Rubix. 

She was able to take photos with her friends and shared them with me. 

The theme was, A night in Paris!

With Phoenix only swimming once a week for 2 weeks and about 3 to 4 times per week now, she has a lot more time on her hands to study and sleep, but that also allows time for her to draw. I am sure she is going to be a little upset with me, but I finally snapped a few photos of her drawing, since she does these sketches in about 30 minutes now. 

Her first week with mono, she did this painting as well. She said not to take a photo because she wasn't done, but it has been sitting in this state for more than a month now, so I decided to take a photo of it anyway. Yes, I took these photos while she was brushing her teeth and I was waiting in her room to say good night. This is only for family or close family friends, so I only feel a little remorse for taking these photos so that she has her growth as an artist documented! 

The pictures for the middle and lower school track team also came out since their league final championship meet. 

Here is Rubix and the lower school team picture. 

Here is Phoenix and the middle school team picture!

On Friday the 22nd of May, Phoenix had her athletic awards ceremony. The track team was recognized for being league champions. The boys and girls team from the lower and middle school all won the league championship. 

Here are the girls heading up to receive their medals. 

The 7th grade crew!

I was able to get a selfie with her before she headed off to the 7th grade, all day end of year party. They went to the arcade, ate pizza and then to a movie. 

I saw these great photos of her on the wall. I wish I had a better photo of her racing to the finish line in this cross country race. 

Her with the cross country team!

I managed to pick her up from school and then drop her off at swim practice and then head to the high school with Axel for his academic and athletic awards ceremonies that were back to back from 6 to 9 pm that night. Keith took Rubix to race at 5 pm and then managed to get Rubix home and to bed and then pick up Phoenix from practice at 7:30pm!

I had the privilege of watching Axel receive not only the Love of Learning award that he received as a freshman, but also....

the Harker Mission Award that he received as a Sophmore. It is only fitting that he received both this year as an exemplary member of the Harker student body! The head of the high school, Mr. Barsky gave him the Love of Learning and Mrs. Gargano, the assistance head of school, under Brian Yager, gave him the Mission award. Mr. Yager, gave out the Leadership award, one that Axel has yet to be nominated for :)

Here he is with his friend group after the awards ceremony. He has such a great friends group. They are outstanding students and citizens!

We headed to the athletic ceremony, right after, where Axel received the Eagle award. The Eagle award is given to one member of the team and the team votes for the team member who exemplifies leadership, respect and kindness for his teammates. Axel was voted by his cross country teammates as this person. 

Here he is receiving the award from Coach Jorge!

What was on the projector during his recognition. 

Again his friend group receiving recognition for the athletic accomplishments! These were all of the track members who received awards. 

This past weekend was the first long course season of the year. Rubix met a new friend and competitor Thomas, who turned 10 on March 27th and had the same swim suit and some pretty good times for his events. 

They were "twinning" so I had to get pictures of them! His mom was really nice. They are from Monterey. 

The heat winners received box cars for winning their heat. 

They also had interesting relays, called 49er relays, where the age of the 4 members had to be 49 years old or less. Leeor, Phoenix's close friend and teammate raced with Rubix! Phoenix was at home recovering from her Friday night practice. 

On Sunday, Phoenix decided to come and swim the 50 back and the 50 free. She thought it wouldn't be too hard on herself to swim 50's. She was wrong...it was exhausting for her to be there and after her 50 back she said it felt like she just swam the mile. The really cool thing is she won her heat and was only .04 off her PR from last year. She was only .7 off her PR in the 50 free, which isn't bad for someone who is recovering from mono and has only swam a half a dozen times in a month!

Rubix ended up winning all 7 of his events and getting the highest points of any swimmer at the meet, which resulted in him receiving another high point trophy. 

Rubix 100 Breast personal best

Rubix 100 back, personal best

Rubix 50 breast, personal best

Phoenix 50 back

We had no idea they were giving out a high point award, but it was icing on the cake. He had a great meet with an amazing attitude. He focused when needed and had fun with his friends when the time allowed. He wanted to make sure I noticed how well he was doing in regards to his attitude and mental perspective. I definitely noticed and was very proud!

Rubix with his new coach, Coach Luba on the right and his old coach, Coach Victory on the left. 

We were all grateful for Monday off for Memorial day. Phoenix was able to hang out with Millie. Rubix had a play date with Tatsu at the pool. Axel got much needed homework and packing for Japan done and I had the privilege of getting in a nice 2 hour bike ride. We were able to enjoy dinner together as a family and an hour of game night before P and R went to bed and Axel and I continued his packing and getting ready for his last day of school. 

Rubix, Tatsu, Axel, Daddy in the pool during their play date. Axel went home after his swim while, the others stayed to play on the diving board. 

Tatsu and Rubix being silly. 

This morning was absolutely bitter sweet. I am so proud and excited for Axel, but incredibly nervous. He managed to get through security and on his plan and is now more than half way to Japan. We will be patiently waiting for his text in the middle of the night that he has safely landed. I will likely not sleep well waiting for the other text messages that he is safely through customs and on the train to Nagoya and that he is safely with Keiko once he arrives in Nagoya. He should be done with all of his travels before I get to work at 8 am tomorrow. He will arrive in Nagoya just in time for dinner and hopefully and early bed time as Friday is a big day for his to get ready for school, meet the principal and his host family. 

And when this amazing child of mine returns from Japan, he will no longer just be a 17 year old high schooler. He will have learned to problem solve, think for himself, make simple and difficult decisions on his own, navigate public transportation in a foreign country and learn how to connect to a different culture and the idiosyncrasies of the Japanese culture. He will be changed forever! Please pray for him and his safety. Pray that God will give him the wisdom, patience and open mind to love on all of the people God brings his way during this time. May he also be a blessing to the host family as well. 

While Axel is in Japan going to one more month of high school, Phoenix and Rubix will be finishing up school. Phoenix has finals next week and Rubix has a party week. They have a swim meet this weekend. We will have a week off together as they transition to the summer swim schedule which means morning practice every day for one of them and afternoon practice every day for one of them. Yes, a lot of swimming. We are hoping Phoenix will be ready to swim more, but will let he body guide her. 

Phoenix will start Geometry honors on June 15th and spend 6 weeks of her summer completing this course. Rubix starts Basketball camp and a writing camp on June 22nd. After the two weeks of basketball camp, he will do two weeks of a pre-algebra math camp and continue his online writing camp. He will also be working with little Grammy on Thursday evenings. They will be reading and annotating / discussing books together. Phoenix will also start her weekly Japanese lessons with Keikosensei for the summer. We have a lot of swim racing in June as well, so I am sure before we know it Axel will be returning on June 27th! I might write a short blog about the first month of the summer for Phoenix and Rubix before Axel returns and we do a mega blog on his Japan trip. I will have to see if I am able to get all of my work stuff done before my June 30th deadline. 

Take care and God bless you!