Birthdays

Kira turned 12 this month.  She is a good sister to Hanna, rides her bike to school, excels at diving, and spends time reading.  

Hanna doing her favorite thing, watching youtube.  

Tyler had some band thingy on Saturday.

For some reason I don't have any pictures of Blake opening his presents.  He got a Selmer alto sax and some candy.  He was going to have a bowling birthday party but it's been postponed because of bad behavior.  Parker got a tree swing and a wubble ball.  

Kira had her party on Saturday.  Pizza, hot tubbing, and outdoor fire.  Kids had a great time.  

 

de la Salle invitational

Scott had his de la Salle invitational meet.  He swam for Northgate.  Some of his Aquabear teammates swam for different schools.  

200 free in 1:43.xx

Strong man getting psyched for the race

Andrew is in the center.  I liked this picture because I got a bonus grimace from Scott.  Must have been cheering on his relay.  

Tom was Heidi's Aquabears and Northgate coach when Heidi was young.  He claims that he quit because she gave him attitude.  

The 400 free relay came down to Northgate vs. de la Salle.  

Scott's split was okay.  Not his best time.  He was against Zach, who had a better split.

The last leg came down to Andrew vs. Tommy.  Everyone was screaming because it was so close.  Andrew got majorly dragged on by his club friend Tommy and they overtook Andrew.  Tommy went a 44.5 and Andrew a 45.5 but Andrew overtook him and their relay won by four hundredths.  This is the shot of everyone looking at the scoreboard.  

 

But wait!  De la Salle got disqualified for a false start!   Some were arguing that the blocks registered 0.0 even though the officials and coaches saw a false start.  Because of the false start, Northgate won that relay.  de la Salle still won the meet by 24 points.  It will be fun at Northcoast.  Heidi liked seeing all of her friends from the various teams she's coached.  I liked using my big camera.  I shoot Scott's friends and Scott texts them the pictures.  For North Coast Sectionals I'm going to get a little badge with Nitroblue Photography Services and an orange vest and be a "pro" photographer.  Okay, bye.  

Walnut Creek Masters vs. Aquabears swim meet

Today was the Walnut Creek Masters vs. Aquabears swim meet.  The old against the young.  It was my first swim meet ever.  Here's Heidi on the blocks getting ready for the 200 free.  She went 2:10.  

Heidi and Scott swam against each other in the 100 IM.  Scott gave himself a two second handicap by calling out from the blocks, after the buzzer, "Thousand one, thousand two."  

My best shot of his butterfly was not the best but he and Heidi were in adjacent lanes and I was trying to photograph both.  

Mike and Steve, my coaches, who helped me reach my goal of 1:09 in the 100 free.  I went 1:09.42

Scott, Heidi and Jacob

Hanna was a good sport.  She played at the park the whole time with Parker and Blake.  

pot luck brunch.  Heidi made an egg casserole which was pretty tasty.  

 

New patio furniture!

Okay, bye

Weekend

Had a fun time in Monterey on Saturday.  Scott was in San Diego at a swim meet and Tyler opted to not come.  

Beach at Lover's point

Tide pool exploring

Hunting for hermit crabs

The weather was nice.  The water was cold.   

 

Feb 2021

We used to have three cats.  Suzie was alpha cat, trying to assert her dominance over Buster, a feral-turned-domestic short hair; and Rocky, a feral Himalayan.  Suzie and Buster would mark their territory all over.  Then one day, Buster was gone.  I missed Buster but having him around caused a lot of cat drama.  I focused my attention on Rocky, who was so shy that she wouldn't let anyone approach her.  Eventually she'd let me pet her and she would like her daily neck scratches.  Suzie then became jealous of Rocky and has been much more affectionate, especially to the kids.  Now the kids fight over who gets to sleep with Suzie.  

Hanna being cute in her dress for church

At the halfway point of the activity days bike ride.  We did over 10 miles that day.

Good turnout from Northgate 1st and 2nd wards

Blake let me cut his hair.  It looks nice.  He was excited to comb it up for church.

Last night Scott had over 13 or 14 friends to celebrate his birthday.  They did a photo scavenger hunt in teams of four.  Scott's team won.  Everyone had a good time.  

 

One of his friends gave him this nice Cal sweater.

Today we turned off the screens.  The kids played outside.  The weather was nice.  I like 9:00 church.  Okay, bye.