Tag Archives: family

family, trips

11 weeks

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What better time for a blog update than a hot, lazy afternoon off? We spent the morning acquiring sand (350lbs of it) and building the new sandbox Sarah bought a couple days ago. The girls had been really into digging in the dirt, and we have some relatively wasted space under the redwood, so we thought why not? As with everything, it took longer to build and fill than we thought it would, but it’s great and I can already tell it’s going to be a nice addition to our backyard.

Tomorrow we’ll be spending our first 4th of July in Fresno and will have been here 11 weeks. I can’t really believe it’s been that long, but at the same time that’s not very long at all. I must say I haven’t had any regrets about our move. I am still adjusting to the weather of course- a week of 100 degrees or more isn’t even easy for the natives- and the people are different here, not necessarily in a bad way, but different. Everyone actually seems more friendly and down-to-earth though, making eye contact and saying “hi” in public. Imagine that. The absence of gun fire and sirens is pretty damn nice too.

I think part of what’s made the time fly is how busy we’ve been. Some of the big events I haven’t detailed yet are as follows:

June 6-7:
We headed to Uncle Vic and Aunt Kristie’s in Orangevale for what I’m calling Peterson Clambake 2009.5. Everyone’s so busy on the Peterson side of my family that we usually only see each other once a year, around Christmas, which I think everyone would agree just isn’t enough. So Mom and Sam flew out from Texas and drove up with Peter, Grandma and Grandpa headed up from Los Altos, Aunt Janet bumped over from Folsom, and of course we drove from Fresno. The drive wasn’t bad and when we arrived we were happily greeted by cousins McKenna, Cassidy, and Riley. Keana and Maia were SO excited as they absolutely adore those girls. Uncle Vic and Aunt Kristie have a great house that’s kind of like an amusement park to us. Swimming pool, huge trampoline, chickens, massive garden, play set with swings and a slide, horse shoe pits, and a fire pit. How could we not have fun, right? So we stayed the night on Saturday and Keana had her first sleep-over of sorts, sleeping with her cousins in a studio with assistance throughout the night from now sophomore in high school cousin McKenna. On Sunday we went to this great, private park near their house, came back for lunch and had to the hit the road. But the fun wasn’t over then…

June 7-9:
Mom, Sam, and Peter caravanned with us back to Fresno so they could see our new place and hang out a little before heading back to Texas. Everyone was pretty fried, so we basically relaxed, hung out, bbq’d, and on their last day, Tuesday, we went to the Fresno zoo. It was my first time there and I was pretty impressed. There were these crazy birds that sort of looked like big cranes that were guarding some eggs, and when Peter stepped up on the curb to see them better, they freaked out. One tossed it’s head back and made the loudest sound you’ve ever heard and just about scared us to death. Poor little Maia was especially surprised and for the the entire visit kept saying, “Bird, bird.” in a low, concerned voice, eyes wide, sort of in shock. She still talks about it sometimes. Pretty entertaining. After the zoo we headed to the Tower District for lunch and then had our tear-filled goodbyes as Mom, Sam, and Peter headed back to the Bay Area.

June 21:
Father’s Day. Ahhhh, a glorious day indeed. Maybe not as glorious as Mother’s Day in this world, but a day I do look forward to. On this day we headed to the mountains, Shaver Lake to be exact. We got sandwiches on the way out of town and had a nice picnic by the lake, putting out feet in and hanging out on the granite.

June 26-28:
Iana came up to visit for the weekend and it was fun to see her and the every-growing baby inside her. Ryan’s studying for the bar exam at the end of July, so he had to stay in Long Beach. On that Saturday we headed up to Robert and Cindy’s new place just outside North Fork which was pretty cool. It’s a big house with an amazing view of the mountains and Willow Creek nearby. Robert cooked up some trout he had caught and tri-tip and we put it in tacos for a late lunch. Then headed down to the creek to cool off. There were some small snakes and turtles in the water, so that was pretty cool. Pretty much a little person’s paradise.

So that brings us back to now. It’s 98 degrees outside, creeping up to 104, and I have the day off. Keana’s watching Peter Pan, Maia’s sleeping, and now I hear Sarah digging up a snack. We have air conditioning. We have a sandbox. We have PBR in the fridge and stuff for homemade mac ‘n’ cheese for dinner tonight. Life is good. Life is busy. But life is good.

Happy 4th Everyone.

family

Heating up

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Well, we’ve been in Fresno about a month now. It’s really hard to believe because on one hand it seems like the time has gone by so fast it couldn’t be that long already, but on the other hand, it seems we’ve been here for months. We’ve really hardly had a chance to breath as I jumped right back into work, Keana started preschool, and either I’ve been out of town or we’ve had visitors just about every other weekend. So without any time to establish a pattern with those crucial free moments on the weekends, the weeks just fly by.

Last weekend (5/13-18) Iana, Ryan, and their new dog Janie (sp?) came up for a visit. We were super-excited to see them, and Iana’s belly is ripening nicely with the new baby. She’s only 5.5 months, so there’s a ways to go. Janie was a new addition though and seemed pretty sweet right off the bat. Unfortunately the second day here though, the neighbor’s dog bit Janie’s paw and she had to have surgery and be under constant care the rest of the visit, so that really put a damper on things. But that’s the way with new “babies”—just can’t have everything fall into place as neatly as you’d like sometimes. At least Jani was okay in the end, and both girls, Maia especially, definitely had dog fever when they left. I don’t know, might be a dog happening some day here for Team Hokama. Maybe when we move out to more space.

Practically every day Keana asks to visit Grandma Jennie and really hates the fact that Grandma has to actually work. She definitely got her wish this weekend though, because I got food poisoning. That’s right, the Master of Disaster. We went to Sarah’s best friend Mary’s 30th birthday party on Friday night, which was fun, but kept us out late, and at 3:30 a.m. blissful sleep was interrupted by gut wrenching badness. Don’t think it came from Mary’s party, but I was almost in a daze of discomfort and fluid loss on Saturday, so all our great holiday weekend plans were foiled. Luckily Grandma was there to save the day and Sarah took Maia and Keana over to her house to play and hang out Saturday through Sunday morning while Papa excised his demons. Nasty. Luckily I’m on the upswing now and it appears Sarah and Maia only have a slight touch of whatever I got.

So those are more of the details of what we’ve been up to in the last couple weeks. We have a trip planned to the Sacramento area to visit with the Peterson Clan, hosted by Uncle Vic, Aunt Kristie, and The Cousins, so we’re definitely looking forward to that. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Sam are flying out from Texas as well, and if we’re really lucky, Uncle Peter will come too, to complete the whole clamb bake. One good thing is we’re used to “their” kind of weather now, as our weather here in Fresno has reached into the hundreds already; record temperatures for May I guess. It’s amazing how fast you acclimate. I still don’t like the heat, but 70 almost feels chilly to me now and if it stays 90 or under, our house remains a cool 75 with no AC required. Even running the AC when we want, not stressing about it too much, our PG&E bill was only about $100, so this whole thing may be doable after all!

Sarah has been amazing with the unpacking on top of taking care of the girls and the house, and has joined a nice gym not far away. There’s so many classes to choose from that she hasn’t found her “thing” yet, but will probably end up rolling with yoga, aerobics of some sort, and her own whatever. I’ve taken to running through the hood three days a week and lifting weights, and trying to find a consistent time before/after it gets too hot. I figure if I run fast enough my shoes won’t melt to the asphalt.

Hopefully these nights will continue to stay relatively cool because they provide the perfect backdrop to Giants Radio, and some much needed relief from the hot days. The upcoming months will be heating up though, and hold some camping for us, a baby shower for Iana, hopefully a trip back to the bay, visits from friends, more settling in, some tasteful decorating, some tasty bbq, and we’ll top it all off by not being the only one’s with rug-rats, as Iana and Ryan’s baby is due at the end of September! (I guess that last one isn’t really something we’re doing, but I think “the rules” specify that an event that big can be roped in by anyone hovering around.)

birthdays, family, trips

Going through it

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We have really been going through it. In the beginning of March, we lost our little friend Loden who was only 14 months old. His parents were in our homebirth group, and their oldest son Sage is Keana’s best friend. It has been extremely sad and we’ve been doing our best to support them while dealing with our own grief. They also live on our street so while they have a ton of support, I hope having us “right there” has been some extra comfort in their during this tough time. The memorial celebration was Saturday, April 4, at Sage’s preschool where Loden loved to play as well. There were lots of tears, but having all the kids dance—with Keana right up front in the lead with Sage- was a great celebration for the short life Loden led.

In the midst of this, life goes on. Keana’s fourth birthday was sort of a last-minute small affair. Iana was in town for work, so Jennie drove out from Fresno and we had a small celebration. She was very excited about getting Mulan and Pocahontas dolls, and enjoyed a little treasure hunt, complete with map, for her tinker toys, sand toys, and magn-a-sketch tablet. Given the circumstances I think things came together really well.

And, of course, we’re packing and preparing to move to Fresno. Sarah has been amazing and we’ve started to convert the garage into a staging area for the big event. I’d say we have about 30 boxes/crates packed so far, 29 of them done by Sarah. Oh, and on top of this, my best friend Neel is getting married May 3 in Massachusetts, and his bachelor party is this weekend. I think a bulleted list will best describe the crazy timeline:

  • April 8: Grandma Jennie comes from Fresno, on the train, to help Sarah pack
  • April 9-12: I’m in the Valley of Fire and Vegas for Neel’s bachelor (camping) party
  • April 10-13: Sarah, Keana, Maia, and Grandma Jennie drive to Fresno for Easter celebrations. (Sarah and the girls will drive back with Iana on that Monday).
  • April 15: My last day in the Berkeley office
  • April 16-17: We pack it all up (at least what’s left)
  • April 18: Load up the truck and drive to The Fres and probably unload
  • May 1-4: I head to the MA for Neel’s three-day wedding extravaganza. Yes, we were totally bummed that we couldn’t afford for all of us to, but Neel will be doing a West Coast wedding thing that all of Team Hokama will attend in full cuteness.

I’m not sure how much is sinking in for Keana and Maia at this point, but Keana did say today, “I don’t want to move to Fresno! I want to stay in my house forever!” So I think though everything has been really positive until this point, it’s just a reminder that this will be a big move, running the full gamut of emotions.

As we pull ourselves out of sadness and mourning the loss of Loden, we are looking forward to the exciting times ahead. Yes, it will be tough and I think it’s about to really sink in, but we still feel this move is the perfect choice for our family right now, and look forward to the new adventures and possibilities this move will bring us. Life is pretty wild right now, but I’ll do my best to bring the highlights.

family, holidays

Quadripod Christmas: Done! (almost)

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Well, it’s almost over. I’d say Christmas day has been a success and it’s still going. The girls eagerly arose this morning, Keana swearing she heard Santa and reindeer last night, and couldn’t wait to investigate for clues, specifically presents. So we all rushed out of bed and headed upstairs. Sure enough, there were plenty of clues left behind by Santa and his helpers.

Last night (Christmas Eve) we celebrated with a super-fine rib roast followed by peach cobbler, and bedtime for Keana was easy for once, with the promise of reindeer bringing gifts as soon as she fell asleep. I know, it’s a little coercive, but hey, it’s fun for her and it works. Admittedly I was useless and fell asleep on the couch as Sarah wrapped gifts. It’s been a rough couple days with our busy schedule and everyone being sick and it made me sleepy, so I checked out. But Sarah saved the day—as only a mother could I suppose—and got it all taken care of for the morning.

So we opened gifts this morning, had a delicious cinnamon roll snack courtesy of Great Grandma Jacquie, followed by our traditional biscuits and gravy. Maia, Sarah, and I took a nap as Keana crept around the house, playing with all her new stuff. After Maia and I woke up, Maia, Keana, and I continued to play as Sarah slept. Today’s a little bitter-sweet as we can’t exactly lounge about since we have to pack for Fresno and L.A. Christmas, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

Laundry’s in the washer, Keana and Maia are running around without their shirts off cause they’re hot, and it’s almost time to heat up the rest of that kick-ass roast. So, Merry Christmas to everyone out there and we’ll see you after Christmas Tour 2008.