Rosarito Ensenada

I am getting a bit nervous. Tomorrow around noon I am heading south, way south, different country south, with my father-in-law, Bob. We are staying tomorrow night in a town called Ensenada, which is in Baja California. Early in the morning on Saturday (6 AM wakeup, are you ready Bob?) we grab a shuttle up the Baja coast to a town called Rosarito. Then, at around 10 AM PST, we take off with 10,000 other cyclists on a fifty mile journey along the coast of Baja back to Ensenada. Although this ride is billed as a party on wheels I am still a bit nervous. There is a hill in the middle of the route (about 22 miles in) called El Tigre. When we scouted the route a few weeks ago it seemed like a pretty good hill. In fact the whole route seemed like it took a long time to drive, much less ride. I am hoping to finish in about three and a half hours. That is a long time for me to be on a bike. Since I ride to work pretty much every day I am very used to spending time on my bike. Usually that means about 30 minutes. 30 minutes, three hours, what's the big deal?

Anyway, I am getting a bit nervous. Not for any valid reason, I have been training, and am in good shape. I think that it has to do with me being adventurous. I am by nature not a 'risk taker'. I like sure things. Going to Mexico to ride bikes with a bunch of other crazy folks is not my standard weekend. As I get older, though, I am realizing that taking a few risks is not a terrible thing. I am trying to appreciate adventure, trying new things. Taking the longer path through the woods. That sort of thing. Hopefully this attempt at taking chances doesn't lead to me in a Tijuana jail with poor Bob having to bail me out, but there is only one way to find out!

Wish me luck...

Week 2

So today was the first day of the second week of school. I think we have worked out a pretty good routine. The night before school we have the boys pick out their clothes for the next day. Dan gets the boys up at around 6:45 am and gets them dressed and teeth brushed. I get their breakfasts ready by about 7:10 and then we are out the door by 7:45. It is a little hectic getting breakfast ready and trying to remember all the bags and blankets and papers we need to bring with us, but all in all it has been good.

Sammy and Daniel appear to be having a great time in school. When I pick them up they are beaming and energized (how they can have so much energy after all day at school I don't know). They don't appear to miss me too much, though they give me lots and hugs and kisses when they get home, but I sure do miss them. The house is strangely still and quiet and seems less full of life without them here. It is funny how when the boys are in the house I often crave just a moment of peace and quiet and yet when I have the house to myself and all the peace and quiet I want, I miss their little voices. I guess after almost 6 years of being around my boys almost constantly, it will take some time to get used to having extended time away from them.

I have to say this transition has been pretty smooth. The school has been awesome and I couldn't be happier Daniel and Sammy's teachers. The boys are happy and that makes me happy. And if Mama is happy, as Dan likes to say, then every body's happy.

My Country Boys

Sometimes a story and pictures just can't capture a moment or memory. Sometimes you just have to be there. This was one of those moments. Luckily I had my camera on hand.

First Day of School

Today was the BIG DAY. My little baby boy of not so long ago went off to kindergarten. I could tell he was both excited and a little nervous, but he did not cry or beg me to stay with him. I gave him a kiss and he gave me a kissing hand (if you don't know what a kissing hand is, read the book 'The Kissing Hand', it makes me bawl every time) and he was off. Amazingly enough I didn't cry, although I wanted to. Mostly I just wanted Daniel to have fun and enjoy school.

All day long my mind strayed to what Daniel might be doing, how he was behaving and if he was doing okay. I was feeling a little down and depressed and Sammy must have been playing off my mood because he was a wreck after dropping Daniel off.

When I went to pick up Daniel at the end of the school day and talked to some of the other moms in Daniel's class I found out that I was not the only one who felt a little disoriented and sad throughout the day. But then the door opened and there was Daniel with a big smile on his face. Daniel's eyes lit up when he saw me and he ran to me a gave me a great big hug. Just what the doctor ordered.

I was only able to get a little bit out of him about the day's events, but he told me he had fun and made friends. Relief.

My little boy is now my big boy. I am so proud of you Daniel and I love you so very much.

And He's Off

Sammy and Suzy have taken Daniel downtown for his first day of kindergarten. Suzy last night was pretty nervous, worrying that she would get him there on time, worrying about the logistics of battling for a downtown parking space, worrying about a little bit of everything. After being a guy for a while and trying to fix it, I ended up just letting her worry. Daniel has been worrying too. He is worried about not having any friends there and worried about having to take a 'long nap' (his words). Two out of the last three nights he has woken up with a bad dream. Needless to say I was a bit concerned about how he would be this morning, but when I entered the boys room at 6:45... he was happy. He had a big smile on his face, and quickly went to put on his snazzy new school uniform. Boy, did that put me in a good mood. Seeing him be excited about his first day, what a relief. Hopefully he comes home today in as good of a mood. Pray for Suzy and her parking spot!

Tenth Tin Anniversary

Today is Dan and my 10th anniversary. Now that may not sound like very long to some people like my parents, who celebrated their 37th anniversary yesterday, but for me that is almost one third of my life, so I consider this anniversary a pretty big one. I mean, ten years!

Dan and I are not quite conventional when it comes to our anniversary. Most married couples, at least this is what I think, celebrate their anniversaries by the husband buying flowers and/or a gift for the wife, the gift usually being some type of jewelry or such. Since I have never been much of a store bought jewelry type of person, Dan and I decided to buy something together instead of buying gifts for each other. The anniversary gift to ourselves could be anything. Just something we both agree on. It could be something as simple as matching Tony Gwynn 3000 hits t-shirts, something as practical as a Dyson vacuum cleaner or something that just catches our fancy as we walk by, like our air chairs. We have yet to decide on our anniversary gift this year. I have been thinking and thinking, but all I have thought of is a nice new sewing machine, and I don't think Dan will go for that...

Just out of curiosity I looked up the traditional wedding anniversary gifts and found that the 10th wedding anniversary gift is tin. Not too exciting, but better than the first anniversary gift of paper. The diamond is the stone of the tenth, very nice, and the flower of choice when celebrate ten years of marriage is the daffodil. A bouquet of bright yellow daffodils in the summer might be a bit hard to get though.

This year we are going to celebrate our anniversary a day late. Tomorrow the boys are spending the night at Nana's. Yippee! We will have a nice romantic dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours, The Godfather. Then we will have the rest of the night and morning to ourselves. Pure heaven.

So here's to 10 great years and hopefully many, many, many more.

Say?!?

When Sammy was learning to talk if you said something that he didn't understand his response was a loud and clear, 'Say?!?'. At that point in his life Sammy and I were getting on each other's nerves fairly regularly, and probably as a result of that 'Say?!?' would grate on me each and every time. For a while now we have been getting along much better, and I realized that at some point my attitude on 'Say?!?' has changed. What used to be grating and annoying has changed to endearing and funny. Now it has become a bit of a cliche in the house, he still says it a lot, and when Suzy and I hear it we smile, look at him and respond back with a loud and clear, 'Say?!?'. It has become one of the examples of the funny things that our kids say that make us smile.

Probably my favorite saying of the boys now, and one that I want society at large to pick up on, is 'tippy'. Now, we are all familiar with the common English usage of 'tippy top' to mean something that is all the way at the top. Daniel started to extend the use of 'tippy' to cover much more ground. It really was an under utilized phrase. For example, when building Legos, Daniel will say, 'No, Dada, that piece goes on the tippy bottom.' Or while listening to a Jack and Annie story on books on CD he will let us know that the story has reached the 'tippy end'. Sammy has picked up on the usage, and now has incorporated 'tippy' into his daily vocabulary as well. I haven't yet used it here at work, but I fear it is inevitable.

Since today is Suzy and my tenth anniversary I would be remiss if I didn't say Happy Anniversary to the tippy best wife in the world. Happy Anniversary, Suzy, I love you.

Me at 33!

Yesterday was my birthday. Yep, I am now 33 years old. WOW! I still wasn't used to being 32 and now I've moved on to 33. This birthday also means that I am now only 2 years away from being 35 and that is only 5 years from 40 and then sooner than I know it I will be 50. Pretty frightening, huh? Boy, how the years have flown by. And on Thursday Dan and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary. Just amazing.

I had a great birthday. I was spoiled with so many cool presents, including a heart made out of Legos from Daniel, a beautiful handmade purse from my sister and a hand knit shirt from Nana. We hung around the house and relaxed yesterday as we are all trying to get back on San Diego time. Dan made a delicious Cajun shrimp dinner and got a mint ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery. Delicious!

This year I will find myself in a new stage of life. Daniel will be entering kindergarten in just a week. In addition to being a stay-at-home Mom, I will be learning how to be a school Mom. I also hope to get back to working a little bit while the boys are both in school. This is definitely going to be a transition year for me and I will have to adjust to a new daily life. I am both excited and scared to be leaving the familiar and venturing out into the unknown. But I have had 32 great years and each year seems to get better and better, so I know this year will hold many great memories and experiences. Here's to 33! Hip-hip Hurray! Hip-hip Hurray! Hip-hip...

Hanauma Bay

Yesterday we decided to brave the crowds at Hanauma Bay in the hopes of seeing some amazing sea life. Being only ten minutes or so away from the famed snorkeling beach we decided to head out early and see what adventures we could find.

We arrived nice and early, around 8 a.m., but we were definitely not the only people hitting the beach early. Already there was a crowd of tourists waiting to go down the the bay. Why was everyone waiting, you may ask. Well, Hanauma Bay is very different from the Hanauma Bay I visited years ago. My memories were of parking at the top of the bay and then lugging all your beach paraphernalia down a steep hill to the water. This time we had to pay to park and then we were surprised to learn we had to pay $5.00 a person to get into the beach. After paying we were required to wait to watch a 9 minute educational video about Hanauma Bay. Finally we were free to go down to the beach.

I have to admit that I was seriously wondering if the whole thing was going to be worth all the money and hassle, but it definitely was because Daniel actually went out snorkeling with Dan and Papa. And the best part of all was Daniel saw a sea turtle. After all the years I have gone out snorkeling I have never spotted a sea turtle, and my son's first snorkeling experience includes a sea turtle sighting. How exciting! My Dad said Daniel didn't take his head out of the water the whole time they were out there.

I thought Sammy might give the snorkeling a try, but he was happy to just float around in the water while I tried to point out fish swimming below him. I didn't get to go out too far because I was tugging Sammy around, but I did get to follow along behind a rather large humuhumunukunukuapua'a. There is something about the quietness of being under the water, watching fish so close you could reach out and touch them and the oneness you feel with the ocean that makes snorkeling such an awesome experience. I am so glad Daniel was able to experience it.

Snorkeling must be very engrossing because before we knew it it was already time for lunch. We packed up our gear and said our goodbyes to the bay. Back when I was a kid we had to hike back up the big hill with all our bags feeling much heavier than when we arrived. I am sure we complained the whole way up. Luckily there is now a shuttle that will take you back up to the top, for merely one dollar a person. My dad and I were ready to hike it back up, but looking back it was probably worth the dollar not to hear my kids complaining or having to carry them.

I am glad we went even despite the crowds, hassles and fees. Daniel swam with a sea turtle! So totally worth it.

Back to Hawaii

I am sitting here on a plush sofa staring out over the Pacific ocean. Earlier this morning we visited with some family friends/extended family up in Kaneohe Bay. What an amazing place to visit. Living here for over six years I lost my sense of wonder at the amazing beauty here. Immediately on the first evening here just a few days ago, the wonder came back. Papa and Tutu invited us to spend almost two weeks here at the beach house they rented for the month. Papa is already convinced that next year he wants to get the same house again. Just down the beach from Bellows, we are literally just feet from the Pacific. Sammy has been serenading us with requests to 'go to the ocean'. So much so that on our first day I think that he got washed off/showered four times. It is a good thing that this place comes with a huge closet filled to the brim with towels. I, of course, got toasted the first day, and spent most of yesterday in doors trying to calm my burning legs down. That didn't preclude an early evening walk with Papa, Suzy and the boys searching for crabs last night.

The one story from yesterday that I wanted to get down before I forgot is from our visit with the boy's great-grandparents, Thelma and Homer. They live in the middle of Oahu in an area called Mililani, which was about a 30 minute drive away from the beach house. After stopping for a short visit with the family we made a quick run to the Walmart that is just down the street from Homer's place to pick up some stuff for our house. As we all were walking back to the car, Sammy, in all of his worldly wisdom said, 'Can we go back to Hawaii?' 'Uh, Sammy, we are in Hawaii.' 'No, this isn't Hawaii'. And looking around we all agreed that no, the Walmart parking lot really is not Hawaii. So we rushed back to the great-grandparents place so that we could return to Hawaii.

I just paused again, so I could stare out at the blue, blue ocean for awhile. The boys are both 'napping', Tutu, Papa and Suzy went to the store, so it is just me and the sound of the surf. I didn't think that vacations with the boys could be a vacation, but so far there definitely have been moments where I have actually been able to relax and enjoy myself. Thanks Tutu and Papa, for inviting us out. When do we come next year?

A Contest

A momentous event occured in the Walls household today. Suzy and I have moved Daniel's bed into Sammy's room. It is something that we have talked about fairly regularly over the last year. For various reasons we have put it off, but we wanted to do it this summer, before Daniel starts school in the Fall. So far it has gone great. Okay, it is now 8:03, and we just put them down 3 minutes ago.

So, what is the contest? Glad you asked. We have decided to offer a 25$ gift certificate at Amazon to the person who correctly guesses how long this lasts. By 'lasts' I mean we move the boys into separate bedrooms again. Suzy and I are not eligible. Put your guesses in the comments. If you can't comment, email your guesses to us and we will put them in there for you. Guess whatever you want. One week, ten years. It is totally up to you. The winner will be the guess that is closest, without going over (in honor of Bob Barker retiring). Good luck, and let the games begin!

A Great Idea

I have come up with a great idea. Well, actually I came up with this idea the last time I suffered from a bad head cold, but this latest cold that wreaked havoc on my poor sinuses reminded me once again of my great idea.

My great idea is this... drum roll please... invent a drug that blocks your sense of taste and use it for weight loss. I kid you not. I think it is a great idea! I went for about 10 days without being able to taste a thing and let me tell you it definitely takes away any desire to eat. I ate only to stop any hunger pangs. There was no enjoyment and I had no desire to overeat. And since a low-fat cracker tasted no different than a cookie, it was easy to make a healthy choice.

Although I think a drug like this would do wonders to take off the pounds quickly, I don't think it would become popular because, well, it really sucks not to be able to taste. To see a Krispy Creme doughnut and know what pleasures it holds and then take a bite and taste nothing can become quite depressing over time.

I have to say that I am so glad to be able to savor the sweetness of a strawberry once again. And chocolate, oh, chocolate... I just couldn't do without that taste. But if you really want to drop a couple of pounds quickly, go out and catch yourself a nice big sinus infection. Trust me, it will do the trick.

Today's Ride

Part of the adjustment that we are making as a family is that I am no longer going home for lunch. For ten years, all of my time with RCK Controls, I have gone home for lunch. Now with Daniel in school Suzy needs our van to pick him up in the afternoon. That means that I am carless. That also means I need to find things to do during my lunch hour.

Today's adventure for me was to go on a long bike ride. I was hoping it would be about an hour, but it ended up about 90 minutes. My boss, who is an avid rider, suggested heading up Pomerado Road. I gave it a shot, and have tried to document my journey through a Google Map. I don't know if this will work, but here goes: My Route

I'm Back Baby

Despite Suzy's lack of faith in my motherboard replacing skills, as you can see, we are back. Maybe not better than before, but certainly not worse. The kind folks at Dell sent me the replacement motherboard, and it took me about two hours this afternoon to pop it in and run it up.

But wait, you ask, why are you home this afternoon? Why are you not at work? Thank you for asking. Today Daniel went to his first day of Summer School (sick yesterday), and Suzy has gone off to pick him up. Normally Sammy would go with her, but he has succumbed to the bug that has been ravaging our household. I am coming to realize that it is only a matter of time for me. I will fight the good fight, but I fear that there are no winners in this battle, only survivors.

At least it has given me a chance to hone my computer repair skills. The other good news for us is that our new computer (a father's day present for me, what a wife I have), has been shipped and even as I type this it is on its merry way south from Riverside. I am hoping that the big Dell box will be waiting for me when I get home from work tomorrow.

Trouble on the Home Front

There's trouble afoot at the Circle K. Okay, I admit that is a bit of a dated reference. We here at the SanDiegoWalls household are going through a bit of a rough stretch. Suzy and Daniel have been hit hard by a bug that is dwelling in their respective skulls. Daniel wakes up in the middle of the night screaming that his brain is broken. He describes the pain as, 'My brain is being squeezed out the back of my head.' Suzy, on the other hand, is having a hard time falling asleep at all. She has a brutal cough, bad sinus problems, and just a general bad time. Sammy and I, so far, have escaped. I don't know how long that lasts, but hopefully until the other two are better.

On top of that Daniel is supposed to start summer camp tomorrow. We thought it would be a good idea to send him to some of the summer school programs at the school that he will start at in the fall. Tomorrow the Science and Exploration week starts, but unfortunately he will miss at least the first day.

To top if all off, my Dell died. To be a bit more precise, we think that the motherboard has gone to where ever motherboards go in the afterlife. I chatted with Dell support today and they are sending me out a new motherboard. So, if you send us an email over the next few days, odds are I am not going to get it. I will be checking the walls.dan at gmail.com account, or my work account would work, but our standard home email address is done for the short term.

East Coast Trip 2007: Accommodations

Back to the East Coast Trip memories. When planning this trip we definitely were considering how we all (five adults, four children, two cats) would fit in one house. The last time we went to visit Jeff and Cassi they were talking about moving. More than talking actually. I think that we did cruise through some neighborhood possibilities when Daniel and I were there in 2006. Well, soon after we left, Jeff and Cassi made the plunge for a new place, a place so new when I looked it up on Google Maps it was a dirt lot. Nice house Jeff, it doesn't even exist.

Well, it turns out that Jeff and Cassi have great taste in houses because it did turn out to be a beauty. A huge place in a wonderful neighborhood. The kind of place you dream about when you are starting a family. Plenty of room for the kids, a nice park nearby, lots of kids living nearby. In talking with Jeff during the pre-trip planning stages he mentioned that there is a room upstairs near where the boys would be, or we could have my mom stay upstairs and Suzy and I could be down in the basement. The basement was finished, and had its own bathroom. I immediately piped up for dibs on the basement apartment. Nana could deal with the boys if they needed something, I had visions of a little vacation get-a-way for me and Suzy.

A quick story, so that I can remember it twenty years from now. The house has a main floor, an upstairs (bedrooms) and a basement (big kids play area, another bedroom). Sammy somehow lost track of the other kids and I saw him head upstairs. I paid attention and I saw him wandering up and down the hallway up there. I went up and asked him if everything was okay. He looked a little confused, and said, 'Where's the basement?'. I took him back down to the main level and showed him the door the leads down to the basement, he was very relieved and thankful. It was then that I realized that Sammy had never been in a house with a basement before. The whole concept was a bit foreign for him. By the end of the trip he had it mastered, though.

Back to the accommodations... The three boys were initially going to all sleep in Alex's room. I thought that would be fun for them, and was willing to put up with a little goofing around in the name of cousinly fun. I think that survived two nights. Sammy just couldn't handle it. The idea of having two buddies in the room with him just drove him to complete distraction. He couldn't bear the thought of sleep when there was so much fun to be had. This discovery, combined with the fact that Alex was feeling under the weather, led to some unusual and particularly dynamic sleeping arrangements. Daniel would be in Nana's room to fall asleep, I would lug him into Alex's room when they were all asleep. Daniel and Sammy would be downstairs in the play room, Daniel would be in our bed downstairs while Sammy was in the play room and Alex was in his room. By the end of the trip I was pretty tired of carrying around a heavy sleeping child and gently laying him down without disturbing him or any other small sleeping forms nearby.

All in all it worked out well considering the conditions. Poor Jeff and Cassi had to make a trip to the emergency room in the middle of the night for Alex, unfortunately it was closed. Thankfully the boys, and Suzy and I, slept through that incident. Jeff and Cassi have a beautiful house that we are looking forward to invading again sometime in the near future. And Suzy and I learned that our plans for the boys sharing a room starting this summer might not go as smoothly as we thought.

Next up... Road Trip!

Bachelorhood

I am a bachelor for the week. The boys and Suzy went to Portland to visit Suzy's sister and her family. My first act as a bachelor was to spend my lunch break yesterday at Fry's Electronics (100 ft ethernet cable, awesome!) and at Performance Bike Shop (new bike pump, new odometer, pedal straps). Yesterday afternoon I was not looking forward to going home to an empty house so I stopped off and picked up a large sausage pizza from Filippi's. I am conducting an experiment, how many consecutive meals I can ring out of that one pizza. My hypothesis was six. Wish me luck.

Since I didn't go home for lunch (standard operating procedure) I went on an extended bike ride with my co-worker, Tony. We headed north for half an hour and turned around. The nice thing about going north for us is that we get to ride through Miramar Marine Corp Air Station, and on the way back a jet flew over us on its way in to land. It couldn't have been more than 100 feet directly above us. The sound was deafening, and the spectacle of having the sky filled with this plane was amazing. A very cool end to a good ride.

Suzy and the boys get back Saturday. I might need to order another pizza. Maybe pepperoni this time...

School's Out

Well, school is out for us and our summer has officially begun. Yes, Daniel and Sammy had their last day of school today. Daniel had his last day of Preschool. I am a little sad, though we will still be going to Teacher Laurie's summer school and I have the whole summer with the boys.

The kids had a fun day making hand prints and recording their height and weight on their last day of school. After snack they had ice cream sundaes with a cherry on top. YUM.

This summer will be very busy with an upcoming trip to Oregon, visits to Tutu and Papa's house and a much awaited trip to Hawaii. In between we will be having summer school, swimming lessons, vacation bible school and all the other fun stuff you do in summer. We will be busy, but I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

Our Garden

Last week one of the Moms working in the boy's preschool told me about a conversation she had with Sammy about our garden. Sammy said how much he loved his garden and went into detail about all the yummy things he picks and eats in the garden. I have to agree with Sammy, I love our garden. This is my favorite time of year in the garden. The flowers are flowering and the fruit and veggies are just asking to be picked and eaten ripe from the vine or branch. Sometimes we can't even eat the stuff fast enough. It is probably a good thing we have a small backyard or we would be overrun by tomato, zucchini and pea vines. Two of our favorite this year are the blueberries and baby tomatoes. If you have never had a tomato picked fresh from the vine then you are missing out. And I have about 5 beets the size softballs in my fridge that I have no idea how to prepare. June in the garden is truly the best.

San Jacinto Mountains: Day One

Yes, I am back from my backpacking trip. Yes, I survived. And yes, it was an amazing time. Seven women, four days and one mountain.

We started out in Palm Springs where we took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway two and one half miles up into the San Jacinto state park. The tram ride itself was quite amazing. As it rose 5,873 feet into the air the floor rotated so you could get a 360 degree view of the landscape. Although I could have done without the swinging motion each time we went by the supporting towers, a little too reminiscent of the sun wheel ride at Disneyland.

After lunch and some backpack adjustments we set off for Tamarack Valley where we would spend our first night. On our 2.6 mile trek to our first campsite we met one of the park rangers, Chris, who asked to see our permits. Chris was quite surprised at our planned route up, over and back around the mountain, about as surprised as we were to learn Chris was a woman, not a man. Not only did we learn from Chris that the day ahead of us was going to be hard, we learned that water was going to be sparse.

After a couple of miles of uphill hiking at a high elevation, we were all relieved to drop our packs at our first campsite. Chris had recommended staying at the Andesite Camp as it was near to water and deers often hung out nearby. Although I was not able to find the water, I did run across two deers in my search.

I had felt pretty good on the hike in, but about an hour after reaching our campsite a major headache came on and I was extremely sleepy. I am guessing it was the altitude. It was only 6:00 p.m. and I could barely keep my eyes open. We had fondue for dinner with bread and apples and chocolate for dessert.

Once I had snuggled down in my sleeping bag under the moonlit sky I began to feel much better. It was very cold outside, but I was warm and cozy in my bag. Slowly the stars began to come out. The stillness and silence of the nighttime forest settled around us and I slept.