The kids had last week off from school so we headed to Tahoe. Two things were working against us though - very dry weather and Tom's sore back. The ski conditions weren't great and Tom didn't ski much, but the kids are old enough to go out on their own and with their friends. On Saturday and Sunday, they skied in the afternoon by themselves.
There they go!
On Monday and Tuesday they skied with our housemates and Leo landed this sweet jump.
While we were in Tahoe, my Uncle Tim was visiting from Michigan and hanging with my mom. They did some fun sightseeing.
The art museum at Stanford.
Sausalito.
Haight Ashbury in San Francisco.
The dry, warm weather wasn't great for skiing but it was great for a trip to Santa Cruz.
Tim was even brave enough to put his feet in the ocean, which wasn't warm at all.
And like almost all visitors to our house, Tim had to try the VR headset.
It was hard to say goodbye to Uncle Tim since he is a very helpful and easy-going guest. I think he was pretty sad to say goodbye to our gorgeous weather.
The weather was so nice on Saturday I insisted the kids play outside. Serafina walked to meet Millie halfway between the houses and they spent some time in our cul-de-sac.
Leo has gone on the Guadalupe River Park field trip twice - second grade and fifth grade. Serafina went once in first grade. I've gone zero times. In all my chaperoning, I've managed to avoid this field trip. Honestly, I don't love outdoor only field trips in the winter and this one always ends up getting schedule during the winter months when there is a risk of rain or cold weather. I don't like being cold. But today I finally got to experience Guadalupe River Park for the first time. Leo's middle school needed drivers so I said yes and crossed my fingers for good weather. We got beautiful weather and I'm glad I got to experience it.
Here's the middle schoolers milling around waiting for the docents to take them to their first station. This was after they tortured me with bad rap music on the drive over.
Our first station was encountering different animals. The first animal we observed was a rat who was quite active and cute. Our next animal was these crayfish that were not very interesting at all. In fact, Leo was much more focused on assembling the model crayfish.
This toad was completely unimpressed by my stellar chaperoning skills.
Guadalupe River Park is in the middle of a very industrial part of San Jose and very close to the airport, right under the flight path. There were loud planes coming in for a landing every couple of minutes and you can see the power lines in the distance in this picture.
The park got its name because a archeologist found a woolly mammoth skeleton in the park and named her Guadalupe. There is a river there, but we weren't able to visit it because there is a large homeless camp on the river and the water has become very polluted.
After a nice nature walk, the kids learned about salmon and played a game. I took this picture right before a loose dog came wandering over and distracted the kids. I corralled the dog away from the kids before a docent came to get her and find the owner. She was a sweet looking pit bull and Leo asked if we could keep her if no one claimed her. That wasn't going to happen today.
After lunch, the kids were allowed to play at the adjacent park. When I had little kids and all I did was visit parks with my friends, I would have been so annoyed if a bunch of huge middle schoolers came to invade the park. But these middle schoolers had so much fun. They were full of joy and energy and it was awesome to witness.
This seesaw was their absolute favorite. They kept trying to launch each other off of it and several kids, including Leo, went flying off. I was worried someone would get hurt, but they were all just laughing and screaming. It was all they talked about on the way home.
Leo got new glasses last week. They are pretty different from his prior pair and took a little getting used to but they really suit him. He looks like a Beatnik poet to me.
On Saturday, we took Tom to the airport so he could fly to London for work. On the way home, we stopped by the Burlingame library to see our talented friend Sofia's artwork on display.
We didn't really watch the Superbowl except for the halftime show. Instead, we did our preferred bowl.
I don't know why Serafina's school decided to hold a Spirit Week with dress-up days in January. It's not something I had the energy to deal with so thank god Serafina is old enough and capable enough to handle it herself. She loves to dress up.
I didn't photograph every day but here are the ones I got.
Wacky Wear and Crazy Hair.
Western Day (though she looks like more of a 90s grunge band member.)
Character Day. Her character was "Disney Fan" and there were a lot of Minnie ears at school that day.
The week ended with the Snowball Family dance, which Tom was nice enough to escort her. He ended up handing out glow sticks to hundreds of kids and I think he enjoyed it.
Here's what she wore - my dress and leggings, her own shoes.
