Karl and Angela Rees

We've had a total of maybe five days above 85 degrees this year so far.  Three of them were last week, where we even hit 100 on Tuesday.  But things are sadly back to normal.  By yesterday, our high was 69.  Angela joked, "We had summer.  It was three days long."  Aside from some air conditioning funny business (electrical problem, possibly aided by the power tools our chimney repair guy was using), our "summer" was actually pretty tolerable.  Angela and the boys actually went to beach on the hottest day, one of those rare NorCal days where the water actually feels great.  We rented a power sprayer on Wednesday and spent much of the day cleaning ugly paint off of our back patio.  It was a great day for getting water all over us.

So I mentioned chimney repair--we learned last fall that our chimney had a structural break at the roofline, so much that it could easily be tipped with a good push.  Although we don't exactly know when it happened, people in the know say that it happened to a lot of chimneys in the area back in the 89 quake.  We decided to have it rebuilt to code this summer, when the demand is theoretically low, and right before we have our roof and gutters done.  So that's been progressing slowly over the week.  Meanwhile, on Saturday, we bought materials for our next two big projects--a new fence for the backyard, to keep our boys from wandering around all over the place; and a small cement slab to expand our front patio.

Our boys were a little sick this week, which stopped us from having dinner guests on Wednesday.  But they were feeling mostly better by Friday, when Thomas had Logan over.  But Karl and Angela now have runny noses.  Karl went on splits with the missionaries Tuesday night.  He apparently was "signed up" on a list, which was news to Karl when he found out 30 minutes before the appointment.  But a good experience nonetheless.  Thursday evening we had a BBQ/football game with friends.  Saturday night we went to a free movie ("Up") in the San Jose Giants baseball stadium.  Aside from not being as prepared as we should have been for the cold, that was a blast.  Even though the kids played soccer during half of the movie.

The week before last was packed with bicycle action.  Karl decided to start riding to work again, so we had to figure out the best route for him (he hadn't biked to work since we moved into the new house).  We eventually found a way that is mostly on streets with designated bike paths.  Right now, it takes him about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, on Saturday we explored the Los Gatos creek trail.  We found out about all sorts of fun parks we never knew existed.

Karl took Thomas to another soccer game on the Saturday before last.  Thomas had been talking about the last soccer game for a while, and loved to re-enact the corner kicks we saw.  This time was fun too, but we decided we like goal-line seats better.  You get to see more corner-kicks that way.  Karl enjoyed watching Landon Donovan play.

Tuesday of the week before last, Angela took the boys on a train ride to Palo Alto where she had lunch with some other people in the ward.  Of course,  taking a train to Palo Alto is not the fastest way to get there, but Thomas and Jonah sure got a kick out of it.

Thomas starts pre-school this week, in a twice-a-week program.  He's so excited about it.  We hope that translates to a cry-free experience when we drop him off, but we'll see.

So what do you do when your son just randomly blurts out, “I like my cousins more than mommy and daddy?”  It wasn’t like Thomas was mad at us and saying this out of anger.  Rather, he had been having a lot of fun with Ciera, Gavin, and Tristan.  So, we explored this sentiment a little.  Would Thomas cry if we just left him with his cousins?  No, he says matter-of-factly.  Dejected, we proposed, what if mommy and daddy were gone a really long time?  “Then I’d cry.”  That made us feel better.

In case you missed the meaning of that anecdote, yes, Thomas had a blast this week hanging out with his cousins.  And with his grandparents.  At one point, we left for a short activity without Grandma.  Thomas threw a fit.  He wanted his grandma to come with us.  Which is cool, because now we know that Thomas likes his Grandma for more than just her toys.  And he really really really loves Grandma’s toys, by the way.  And so do we.  We had all sorts of fun building a lego city and a marble roller coaster for Thomas and Jonah.  Meanwhile, Thomas had all sorts of fun pretending to make meals for us with the toy food.

We are fairly sure that Jonah would have expressed similar sentiments, were he capable.  There was so much to do that it took until the end of the week before he started fighting with his brother over toys.  He seemed to have no problems being left with grandma while mommy and daddy went out.  And even though he was scared of grandpa at first, he thought grandpa was a blast by the end, and even seemed to be looking for grandpa when we left Sunday morning.  Jonah only had one bad night (he was up for 3-4 hours in the middle of the night Tuesday).

Karl had a last minute work deadline crop up, so he spent all of Monday and Tuesday and a chunk of Wednesday working remotely.  This meant, sadly, that he missed out on the water park Tuesday.  The park was apparently awesome, even if Thomas didn’t like the slides after being splashed at the bottom of his first slide (mommy took him down a few more, at least, until he started screaming in terror).  Karl's work projects also meant we never got to go hiking in the surprisingly green mountains.  Oh well.

But we packed a lot into the last half of the week.  On Thursday we went to the zoo while it was nice and cool and even a little thunderstormy outside (as it was many times this week—thunderstorms are fun and we sure miss them in Silicon Valley).  We had the most fun watching the tigers, elephants, and orangutans.  Thursday evening, after Angela and Karl snuck out to see “Despicable Me,” we went to a pool party.  Thomas showed off his swimming skills to daddy and his grandparents and his cousins.  Then we had snow-cones and other goodies.  We didn’t get home until well past 10.

Friday, after some shopping (clothes are cheaper in Utah), we had a picnic with Karl’s aunts Sharla and Ginette at the “duck park” near their house.  And in spite of Thomas and Jonah falling off the tire swing, we had a pretty fun time.  If only the sprinkler system had stayed on longer for us to run through.  Friday evening we had a big dinner with everyone and played games.  We were introduced to a fun card game called picky six or something like that, and Angela was the queen of it Friday night.

Saturday morning we went with the Timothy’s to a parade put on by the city of Highland.  Thomas managed to net a hatful of candy (and his cousins probably had double that—seriously, half of the parade budget must have been on candy to throw out).  Thomas was also chosen to “break” a board with his karate chops.  Who knew he was so strong?  After the parade, we played for a long time at the Timothy’s, where Angela turned into a rock star for Rock Band, and Karl turned into a monster and was attacked by a quartet of little kids who thankfully couldn’t kill the beast.

We wish we could say that the travel to and from Utah was as fun as being in Utah.  But that would be a lie.  We didn’t get into Utah until well after midnight Sunday night/Monday morning, and Jonah had a really rough time for the last two hours of the trip.  We skipped church for an earlier start to our return trip, and it went better.  Although, as Thomas astutely observed, “Nevada has nothing.”  In any event, the trip’s worth it to have such fun with our Utah relatives.

Tuesday, the week before last, we went to San Jose Giants game with Karl’s firm. Both Boys seemed to enjoy themselves. Jonah spent the majority of his time playing with our pop bottles by putting them in and taking them out of the cupholders and switching them around. Thomas watched the game, posing many questions about what was going on. Baseball is a ton more complicated to explain than soccer. We even made it until the 6th inning before the boys were ready to go.

Wednesday of the week before last was Thomas’ final swim lesson and Karl came to watch his progress. He has done a great job and we are proud of him. Hopefully we will be able to go swimming a few more times this summer. The strange thing about living in California is that all of the pools are outdoors and closed for most of the year. This is silly especially since our summer has been cooler than normal.

Saturday of the week before last we went on a 10 mile bike ride around the Alviso salt ponds. The boys loved this and we got a good workout.

Angela and the boys had an adventure going to the beach this last Tuesday. Karl meanwhile has been super busy at work. But somehow we managed to get away for a Friday night campout at Manresa State Beach. Unfortunately Karl had to work while the rest of us played. But this is a great location and the campsites are not as densely packed as Wright’s beach. The boys had fun kicking the soccer ball, running down the little hill on our site and playing in the sand. Thomas enjoyed looking for seashells, or sea shovels as he called them.

Jonah has improved his vocabulary. He says “Me” whenever he wants something. He says “go” when we race (are your mark get set…). He “sings.”

Thomas is turning into a sweet little boy. He encourages his mother to bike even though her legs are tired by telling her “It isn’t hard for me”—this from the boy sitting carefree on a seat on the back of daddy’s bike. When the fast food place gave Angela only one burger instead of 2, and she didn’t realize the mistake until already at the beach, Thomas offered politely offered her a “big bite” of his.

The week before last was Karl’s birthday.  So we packed up the car early Thursday and headed north to Sonoma Coast State Beach.  Specifically, we camped at Wright’s Beach, which is a very nice campground right on the beach.  Tragically, it was abnormally cold and foggy the entire time we were there, but we still had lots of fun with campfires and sand castles and hikes and tide pools and playing with Thomas’ “camping friends” (the families that were camping right next to us happened to have kids that were about Thomas’ age).  We even headed up the Russian River a few miles to a little town called Monte Rio, where it was actually hot enough to enjoy being in the water (we went canoeing—we now want to buy a canoe or kayak).  

After three nights of camping, we were very sad to come back (even though we hadn’t showered the whole time).  But we scouted out some other great spots to hang out/camp north of the Bay on our way back.  And we had a light Sunday afternoon hike to Point Bonita lighthouse.  Jonah was so excited about that, he almost hiked the whole way down (half a mile).  We arrived back just in time to have dinner with some of the families in our ward, where we somehow conspired to force one of the couples there to go camping with us next month (the wife loves camping, but her husband is less than enthusiastic).

For Karl’s birthday, Angela bought Karl a nice telescope.  It’s very cool.  It was too foggy to try out while camping, but so far at home, in the middle of the city, we’ve gotten great views of the moon and Saturn.  We’re waiting for some better lenses to arrive as well (courtesy of birthday money from various parties).  It was really fun showing the moon to Thomas.  At first, he was in a very “aw, dad, why are you forcing me to do this” mood, but when he actually figured out how to look in the telescope, he had this huge expression of amazement.

Yesterday we had another day of fun.  We installed another bike seat on Karl’s bike for Jonah (one in front, one in back).  That took much longer than we were expecting, so we couldn’t try out our bike carrier for a ride on local trails, but we did have a nice ride around some local streets.  Then we went to a party for Chloe (the sister of Thomas’ “best friend”—though Thomas says they are both his best friends).  It was a carnival theme, and we liked the idea so much we just might steal it.  

Then Karl and Thomas headed to a soccer game—San Jose Earthquakes versus Totenham Hot Spur (it was an international “friendly” match).  Little did we realize that the game had sold out and was going to set an attendance record, so Karl was very lucky to find someone scalping a pair of tickets.  The seats were pretty good, and after being overwhelmed for a little bit, Thomas had a blast.  He even got our whole section laughing and then cheering by randomly shouting “Go team go!” during a quiet lull.  The game was a scoreless draw, but was still very entertaining.  Apparently, it was on ESPN, so let us know if you just happened to see Karl and Thomas.  The stadium is only about half a mile away, so Karl’s thinking now that maybe we should do some more games.

We canceled our satellite and have decided to rely solely on local broadcast channels and Netflix/Hulu for entertainment.  Karl’s a little worried about ESPN withdrawals come fall, but for now at least he can get baseball and soccer and Tour de France online.

It’s amazing how quickly kids can learn to swim.  Thomas is already jumping in the water, pulling himself out of the water, diving after rings, turning over from his front to back and from his back to front.  He’s certainly come a long way from screaming for five minutes after getting in the pool, though he still seems a little nervous about swimming on the mornings of his classes.  Thomas is also a little gadget geek.  He knows how to log himself into the computer even though we put a password on it (but the threat of changing the password actually makes Thomas listen to us).  He knows how to find his games and websites and videos, and even how to print things.  He turns on music from his little alarm clock (an old phone) before going to bed.  

Jonah is learning how to nod his head to answer our questions—like “do you want out?” or “more?”  Hopefully, this is a precursor to an explosion of words, because I think we’re all frustrated trying to communicate.  He’s starting to explore more sounds, so hopefully it’s coming soon.