August 2023

Sauce and More
We’d barely had time to unpack from Hawaii when Sauce weekend was upon us! The Smeefers arrived from Kansas late afternoon on the day the kids and I had gotten our back-to-school haircuts and picked up Annika’s school schedule (she was able to make the change from weightlifting, which she’d inexplicably been assigned, into Advanced Sculpture, whew!). We all hung out until R. got home, having a couple of cocktails and picking up right where we’d left off, then went out to dinner (since we don’t have a kitchen) and ended the night in the pool (the kids swam, but we grown folk mostly hung out in the hot tub). The next day, R. had work, but the kids and I joined the Smeefers for our first-ever tour of the Winchester Mystery House (we had an awesome guide — a very serious, somber young man who spun a great yarn). That afternoon, they went to visit some other friends while the three of us met up with Ami, Manir and Amira to see the Barbie movie; we all loved it, even if some of us (me) also teared up a couple of times. Sauce itself was a blast from beginning to end — we went down early and dropped off our stuff at the Compound, then dashed off with the Smeefers to go zip-lining at a place nearby in the mountains; all the kids were fearless (and Lukas particularly hilarious), while we grownups were a little more leery — but it was exhilarating and so fun! After, we went to lunch at a restaurant in Felton that was right next to the Bigfoot Museum, which was our other planned must-do, and then on back to the Compound to get ready for a rockin time with the Maalgaards, Tom, Mandark, and Lacie. And rock we did — Lukas was the drummer for several songs each night (he owned it, no kidding around — so proud of the little dude!!!!), and even Annika played bass on a couple of songs — wooooooo!!!. R. had taken the Monday afterward off, so we went to the Boardwalk for the first time this summer; we had great weather and rode a bunch of rides (short lines ftw), but the Giant Dipper was closed. booo. 

School Starts Too Damn Soon
SJUSD moved the start of school up one week from its traditional timing, so that students would not go so deep into June — which will be great next summer, but cut this summer short. Ugh. Lukas and his friends used what little time we had left to practice walking to Castillero from Owen’s house (just down the street from Los Alamitos in the direction of the middle school). Annika went with our group twice, to offer advice and counsel; we tried to get inside to get the lay of the land, but were very rudely shooed out by staff (and I mean rudely — I’m still mad, two months later). Sixth grade orientation was the day before school started; Lukas said it was mostly pointless, but he did get his schedule, and he’ll be in the accelerated math class with all the blade kids except Reid, who is in another accelerated section. On the first day itself, we got out there early, taking pics in front of the palm tree per tradition … but unlike in years past, the photos also featured a port-a-potty and construction fencing & debris, lol. We got Lukas to the rendezvous point, made them let us take some more pics, and saw the walking group off. Then it was time to take Annika to her rendezvous point with Alana, and the school year was begun. At the end of the day, happily, there were no tears — both kids seem to have gotten good teachers (even if the math teachers were uhhhh intense) and knew people in every class, and things seemed off to a good start — whew! 

Social Circles
We had bought tickets to see Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo at SAP center as a Christmas present, and chose the first Friday night of the school year for the date — figuring the kids could use a treat and a diversion by then. It was really, really wonderful — genuinely transfixing, super-fun, just a delight. The next day, we had Ben’s birthday party at their swim team’s cabana club (all of us but R. went), then finally another pool day at our house on Sunday (I mention all of these because they were so rare this summer, ugh). Soon after that, Lukas and Manir were invited to Lawson’s birthday party — it never stops never stopping! Lukas also got back into parkour, going one evening with Sam and Reid — he remembered how much he loved it! We had a BBQ and movie night at the Grants’, with the Jacksons also there. But the rest of the weekend, Lukas was limping around, and was in so much pain that he agreed to go to the doctor that afternoon — who said it was an Achilles strain, and put the kid in a boot cast. Whoa! It got him out of PE for two weeks, but threw his intention to try out for team handball in doubt; I emailed the coach to explain, and said I understood if he couldn’t take a chance on a kid he hadn’t seen play, but the coach was willing to work with him and as it turned out, he made the boys’ 2 team (with three other 6th-graders and the rest in 7th; the Boys’ 1 team was all 8th-graders). He’s excited to play, and keeps watching videos of pro and Olympic handball matches to get a better sense of the game. And finally, their schools had back-to-school nights, where R. and I got to go through their schedules and meet their teachers — we seem to have hit the jackpot on both slates, although again, the math teachers are pretty intense, so we’ll see how it all goes — but so far, we’re all really optimistic for a good year.