4th of July Weekend

So this blog thing is tough to keep up with...I nag the boys almost daily and then I can't do it either. We were away from the computers for a few days last week...got to do our first trip to Tinsley last Wednesday through Friday. Thought I would give the boys a break from vegging out at home and Peter a chance to continue the bathroom project without interruption. So we packed up our stuff and told Stash to make room. It was a nice little mid-week visit to the island to set up our lockers and check out the new bbq's and work out room. Everyone on the island was getting ready for the big family weekend. Last year I swore "Never again" and we were set to bug out on Friday afternoon before it kicked into full swing. The boys spent their days eating, meeting their old friends, jumping from houseboat to houseboat, swimming in the pool and kayaking around the island. It was nice and everyone got their initial sun burn going. We left just in time - beat the crowd and the traffic going the opposite direction. The rest of the weekend was filled with dinners at the Neulight's and Schwart's and a bike ride to Sausalito. We watched the Coast Guard pull an airplane out of the Bay that had crash landed in front of the old Houlihan's. Yesterday, the 4th, was spent at Dave Calabretta's wedding in San Leandro at Dave's Place, the club house for the Henchmen Motorcycle Club. We were surrounded by tattooed, pierced, leather Harley riding individuals-quite the spectacle. Everyone had switchblades hanging from their leather vests and everyone was passing a joint around. Fortunately, the boys were all glued to their iPhones and barely noticed anything unusual. Like the bride was fully tattooed with bright red hair! It was Son's of Anarchy in real life...

The wedding ended at 4:30 and we headed home for naps before the fireworks. The plan was to head down to the boat just before dark and motor over to downtown Sausalito to watch the fireworks. We got in just in time...putted around the barge just far enough away to keep the Coast Guard happy. We had front row seats complete with sparks falling around in the water around us. I swear our children are never going to appreciate watching fireworks from a distance-they've only watch them up close! When it was all over we zipped away before anyone else could pull up anchor. Perfect evening to a fund week.

Capsize

Yet another experiment...I just figured out how to embed a YouTube video! Nice.

This is Peter's latest obsession-America's Cup is getting fired up and they have mini-racers in the bay now practicing. These are the 45 foot version of what we'll see when the real deal comes to SF. They're using them as practice boat and training in the bay. They started three days ago and they've been filming them and posting these videos. Looks insane and dangerous. Today one of them flipped over-I'm guessing there won't be any guest rides on these things like in years past.

Yesterday was the third day of our summer vacation and I decided it was necessary to get the boys out of the house while Peter worked on my bathroom. So we decided to go on an all day bike ride. I had no idea where I was going but I was pretty sure that there was a bike path from Mill Valley to Larkspur that went past Edna Maguire and around Horse Hill. It was a piece of cake. The boys had no problem riding up and over, along the freeway, through Corte Madera and all the way to downtown Larkspur. I was huffing and puffing a little but I managed! It was really beautiful and the bike path pretty much starts at my front door and goes all the way to Larkspur. We wound around along the old railroad tracks, through neighborhoods I've never seen and along the main streets of town to window shop. It was awesome. On the way back we stopped at Town Center for lunch and then rallied for the trek back up and over Horse Hill. I was worried on the way down that we'd all be walking the bikes back up the hill, or calling Pappa to come and get us, but we all made it-no problem! I'm ready to do it all again.

As for the fourth day of our summer vacation-it was a rough one. I tried to work from home and humor the boys without breaking our "no TV during the week-yes even during the summer" rule. I only snapped once or twice. All the while there was a construction crew out front digging up the street and installing a new water line from Sycamore to Oxford. Very exciting for the boys a little loud and dusty for me. I was working on the IAP tax return (got it 99% done amazingly enough) while they bickered, trashed the house and cooked their own meals. William actually made waffles this morning. By about 3:30 I had had enough of the taxes and the boys were ready to go out so I took them to Marin Yacht Club to swim while I took some insurance paperwork and sat by the pool while on hold with HealthNet to discuss why I've spent over $1,000 and still haven't met the deductible. Insurance companies SUCK!

Checking on the progress.

It's day two of our summer vacation and each boy has his own blog and has created his first post. All we have to do now is get them to use the Shift key to capitalize and we're making progress.

I'm just now recovering from the graduation festivities. I was asked to be on the committee and really enjoyed working with a great bunch of super creative women. They surprised me and many of the other 5th grade parents with the attention to detail. We had beautiful decorations, goodie bags and diplomas. All following a travel theme..."passport to middle school". The ceremony began with a slide show showcasing the last 6 years, we then sat through 83 "I remember's" and wrapped it up with the grande finale (attached). It was perfect. The kids did a great job and were all surprisingly articulate and confident speakers, including my handsome kid who was number 83 (they lined them up shortest to tallest) and brought it home with "what I learned was to think before you act". A proud moment for me.

How does this thing work??

OK this is an experiment...since I told my recent graduate of the Edna Maguire Class of 2011 that his summer assignment was to start a blog I thought I should probably figure out what the heck a blog is before I set him off into the unknown. The main reason was so that he could practice his typing but the end result could be an insight into his young brain. First order of business is a nickname...so that the paranoid husband doesn't freak out. So, if I have to think of names that would suit my number one son it would have to be about his size-he's recently bypassed me in height. I'm 9'9" and his father is 6'5"-this kid has been on a growing spurt since he was 2 years old and there's no slowing down in sight. He's a whopping 5'11" at the ripe old age of 11. The first name that comes to mind is a name that me and my sweet pre-teen friends at San Jose Jr. High back in the 80's had for a guy, named Keith, who was also a giant. We gave him sh*t on a daily basis and hopefully karma isn't going to bite me all these years later. Here goes... The Adams Family was popular back then and the name "Lurch" was born. So, in the hope that this name never jumps from the screen and ends up sticking to him-I'm going to take a chance and from this sentence forward he shall be known as Lurch. The other two shall be called "Thing One" and "Thing Two". Lurch has two 9 year old brothers that happen to be identical twins. They are mischevious little boys with a lot of energy. They loved the movie, The Cat in the Hat, when they were young and the two bushy blue haired devils in red footie pajamas seem to suit them perfectly. I think I'll have them start their own blogs too. I'll have to come up with some sort of bribe to get them to do it every day or almost every day. We shall see how this goes...