Well, I am massively behind on our blogging for various reasons. That said, I’ll start with the most recent activities and work backwards:
School FINALLY Started
The kids finally started school last week, Katherine on Wednesday and Allison on Thursday. They seemed to really enjoy their classrooms and teachers. Katherine has had the biggest adjustment, but she loves having her own desk, her own snack (not school-provided) and a workplan that she works on everyday. She told us today that she sings something before lunch…at which point she started reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Allison was sure to mention that she sings something too. ๐ They both have wonderful teachers, so we’re looking forward to positive years!
Allison on Two Wheels
We probably should have worked on this over the summer, but there didn’t seem to be a big rush. Well, we dragged the old 12″ Trek steel bike out of the garage today and popped Allison on it without training wheels. I did this once or twice this summer, and she seemed to enjoy having me run up and down the street with her. She and Katherine also “practiced” riding on the front lawn last month. That mostly involved shrieking and falling and laughing.
Today I popped Allison on her bike, pushed her and she TOOK OFF. She rode down the street at least 20 yards and then promptly braked and fell over. So, we practiced stopping the bike another few times and she got the hang of braking, keeping both hands on the handlebars and straddling the bike. By the end of the week, I expect she’ll be proficient.
I told Steve tonight. It was almost like Allison just said, “I can do it.” And, then she did. This was very different than our experience with Katherine, who was ~4.5 years old when she went to two wheels. I guess this goes to show how different two siblings can be!
Encyclopedia Brown
One of my favorite books ever (besides Rats of NIMH) is Encyclopedia Brown. I loved how you can read one chapter, ponder it, and then inevitably flip to the back of the book to read how he solved the mystery. Well, I’ve been trying to find books that Katherine would enjoy reading, aside from fairy books. I bought two books for her – Encyclopedia Brown (original) and The Case of the Absent Auther (A-Z mysteries). Katherine read both this summer. She first read the Case of the Absent Author. This took her perhaps a couple hours after bedtime. She kept asking me to come in to answer questions like, “What’s kidnapping?” So, then I decided to try Encyclopedia Brown – because the chapters are self-contained. Nevertheless, Katherine started reading and couldn’t stop. She told Steve, “I want to keep reading, but I’m kind of scared.” Steve then explained the concept of suspense. I’m not sure what types of books she’ll end up reading, but she does seem to have a penchant for mysteries like me and Steve. I’ve promised Katherine that when she gets older she can read the books that I’ve kept since my childhood (Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew and a bunch of great classics). They’re just sitting on our bookshelf…waiting for the kids to read them.
Allison likes to think that she reads the Fairy books, like Katherine. But, Cam Jansen and Henry and Mudge are more her speed. ๐ Sometimes at bedtime, we’ll rotate reading various chapters in Cam Jansen. This drives Katherine crazy. She says things like, “Allison is SO SLOW.” Then I remind her that she used to read that slow and that Allison is still young. That just motivates Allison to finish her chapter.
Don’t Stop Believing
I definitely need to spend some time on this, but here are the quick highlights from our Yosemite Trip which was AMAZING.
1) Our kids are now huge Journey fans…yes they like big hair band music! Our Backroads guides took them to pizza dinner, while we had an adult dinner. And we came back to Journey fans. They love “Don’t Stop Believing” and can sing many of the words. They laugh hysterically at other Journey songs. They also have started listening to John Denver – the total antithesis. Favorites on Steve’s iPhone – Thank God I’m a Country Boy and Take Me Home.
2) Katherine and Allison hung in there on the family hikes and rides. For Katherine, her big accomplishment was overcoming initial tears (at being left behind by the other riders except for me…) and then chugging uphill over 2 miles. It was about 4-5% grade on a rocky fireroad- pretty respectable! For Allison, she was definltely bringing up the rear, but she did a 4+ mile hike that involved lots of hills w/out any complaints.
3) Both kids went rock climbing, fully harnessed up Puppydome! While Steve and I climbed Lambert Dome, the kids were down below being helped up a fairly big rock by a rock climbing instructor and a Backroads guide. As Allison described it, they wore “sticky shoes, helmets and used a rope and harness” to get up different faces of the rock. Very cool.
4) Overall, we loved learning about Yosemite and it’s history. The kids talk a lot about Galen Clark (Bing him if you don’t know who he is). We also spent a few days in Fish Camp around the big Sequoias.
5) We were blown away by the Backroads guides, who focused on flexibility and enabling each family to have the type of experience they wanted.
6) Last, but not least, we spent another 4.5 days in Bay Area running around, seeing the sights, family and old friends. Notably we manage to squeek into the King Tut exhibit at the deYoung museum. Allison is now a devotee of King Tut, his sarcophogus, mummies and Ancient Egypt. She told us, “I want to see Egypt before I die” (Where did THIS come from??) And, she recently insisted on buying a book about mummies at a book fair. Yow. Other very cool things in SF: going through the Science Museum in Golden Gate park, watching the kids with the street entertainers in Fisherman’s Wharf (they were amazed by the jugglers, the impersonators, etc), learning about 7 gill sharks at the Aquarium on the Bay, and many more things.
Now that the kids are older, we can really enjoy travelling with them and going to cool places. We’ve already got a short list of future Backroads trips and ideas for other amazing destinations.
Winthrop
In early August, we headed east to Winthrop to stay at the Sun Mountain Lodge for an extended weekend. The girls loved the experience for many reasons. One major highlight was staying in their own room – which was connected to our room. They also loved riding and swimming along with the paddleboats on Lake Peterson and then hitting the lodge pools in the late afternoon. We went with a few other families, which made the trip more special.
One of the benefits of a water-focused weekend was the opportunity for the kids to keep practicing their swimming. We also did this during our Bay Area trip, where we swam daily at the Tenaya Lodge. Both girls practiced swimming with big arms and big kicks. Funny enough, Katherine has finally gotten into gear with swimming. After years of swim lessons where she didn’t want to get her face wet, she can now plow through the water. Allison just can’t keep up with her shorter legs and arms. Katherine is now enrolled in Level 3 swimming at the gym, while Allison is still in Level 2.