Tag Archives: trips

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.

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, trips

Peterson Christmas: Done!

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If I didn’t already mention this, we have six Christmases this year. You can’t have too many right? Or can you? Anyway, we all met at Great Grandma Jacquie and Great Grandpa Vic’s for Maia’s first Peterson Christmas on the 21st. Maia was around last year, but she was only 3 weeks old—and Keana was sick—so we had to skip out last year. But we were there in full force this year. Keana had a blast playing with her second cousins McKenna (9th grade), Cassidy (6th grade), and Riley (4th grade) and I think Maia had fun too. She wandered from room to room charming everyone in her cute little Christmas kilt. It was the first time Uncle Vic, Kristie, and the cousins had met Maia, so I think that was pretty special. It was a great time, as usual, and we had lots of laughs and of course the girls got tons of gifts. It’s great to have such generous family since we don’t really have the resources to buy Keana and Maia all the fun things they get this time of year. Aunt Janet had to work at 6:45 the next morning, so we all took off a little earlier than usual (around 8 p.m.). It was pouring rain on the way home and both girls fell fast asleep while Mama and Papa debriefed the night.

It was a lot of fun, but just as Keana and Maia were recovering from their flu/colds, Sarah and I picked it up and had tough days on the 21st—though I don’t think anyone really noticed—and yesterday as well. I think we’re all on the mend though, just in time for Christmas and our tour of lower-CA. Next stop will be Fresno for a little celebration with Grandma Jennie and Uncle Michael on the 27th, and Grandpa Robert and Nana Cin on the 28th.

Well, Keana’s been asleep since 7:30 and Maia is finally done unfolding laundry, trying on tank-tops, and rolling around on the ground with Miko, and has reluctantly fallen asleep as well, so I must hurry and enjoy some “free” time (read: update the rest of this website and sort pictures).