Summer break is here

So, summer break officially started here last week. Last Tuesday, I moved Micah home from the dorms at CU. Despite his migraine issues (which thankfully appear to be done now that he's home), he finished the semester strong. He did not, though, do any packing before I showed up, lol...

Unlike with Asher, an evening check out time was not an option, so I was the only one available to go move Micah. (Asher resumed his YMCA after school job till the end of that school district's academic year so was also not available.) We got some lunch then started on the packing. Fortunately, Micah had a great number of varying bags to pack things into and the dorm had wheeled carts available that we could load up with stuff and push to the van. It took us just under three hours but we got everything packed up, loaded out and cleaned. Very thankful for those carts and for still having a mini-van (that currently only has one of the middle captain's chairs in it to create more cargo space in the main cabin). I don't think we could have fit everything otherwise, lol.  

Incidentally, Micah had a lot of stuff. Whoa. I really didn't think it would be so much. We moved him down there with just one mini-van load and he hadn't had a car all year to bring more back with him. Except that he did, lol. It seems that on infusion weekends he took back a bag here and a bag there. He ended up with a lot of bags...of sparring gear, climbing gear, extra gear, etc. But. We got it all in the van. Whew, all good. :) 

And, when we got home, Nathan and Noah were ready and waiting to help unload everything...yay! The front room got full again...

The first picture is after Asher's unload and the second one is after Micah's. Yup, very thankful that our front room is usually mostly empty so that there's room to pile stuff temporarily.

After unloading Micah and once Asher got home from work, we had dinner and then enjoyed some family game time. We had a great time with some CodeNames and then Noah found an online game of connecting two actors through their movies and other actors. Noah, Micah and I had a lot of fun with that one. :)

Since then, we've had conversations about summer expectations...Micah's been down to Children's (that'll be for another post)...Asher and Noah have been working...friends have been hung out with...Micah's managed to put away and/or store everything so that the front room is empty again...and plenty of other tasks and paperwork and such have been tackled. And now we're settling into our summer and adjusting to how to live altogether again. Whew.

Thankful Thursday

Happy start of May! Today's list, working backward in time a bit...I'm thankful for...

1. Finishing up at UNC for the academic year. So, tomorrow is technically the end of the spring semester for UNC, but Asher's last final exam was on Tuesday. Given that students were required to move out of the dorms within 24 hours of their last final and given that I wanted Nathan and Noah to be available to help, we moved Asher home Tuesday night. Wow, he had a lot of stuff, lol.

The top right photo is a look at the last two loads staged in the common area just outside of Asher's dorm room. The bottom right photo is our front room yesterday...keeping in mind that Asher had already taken a few things up to his bedroom, the mini fridge isn't in this photo, and the large standing desk was still in the back of the car at this point. (For what it's worth, Asher brought home a load of things the weekend before and then we had both our minivan and the SUV Asher drives to bring back everything Tuesday night.)

So, yes, very thankful that we had extra people to pack Asher out (particularly given that Asher's still recovering from his sprained ankle and since his room is on the third floor and a decent walk from the elevators).

I'm happy to report that the mini fridge is the only thing still left in the front room today! (Had to clear the room before we move Micah home next week, lol.) Asher and I spent yesterday clearing stuff out of his bedroom and sorting things before finding a place for everything (in his room, back in his car, in the guest room, etc). Yay!  

Thankful, then, for a successful move home...that Asher finished out the semester strong and is still very happy with UNC...and, oh!, for the incredibly fun shopping spree the four of us had using up most of the remaining money on Asher's dining plan at the convenience store in the student union building after we'd loaded everything up on Tuesday. :)

2. Micah's eye health. Last week, Micah started having issues with migraines. He's never had them before. On Friday, he finally went to Urgent Care to see if they could help. He was thoroughly unimpressed by their "help" (to be fair, they're maybe inundated with college students right now...still, they didn't really do much other than to tell him what he already knew and had been doing). But. In preparing to go to Urgent Care, Micah had been looking up whether his arthritis meds would prevent him from taking migraine meds. This prompted some back and forth communication with his rheumatologist's office and concern over his eye health, as apparently sometimes his arthritis can lead to eye inflammation that would present as persistent headache and could be rather bad news (leading to things like vision loss).

There was enough concern and potential downside that Nathan and I ended up driving the hour down to Boulder on Saturday, picking Micah up, driving back up here to have him seen at our optometrists' office (very thankful that one of them was able/willing to come in for an emergency visit on a Saturday!!) who have been monitoring for that since his arthritis diagnosis already, and then taking him back to Boulder. (Thankful, too, that our sons ended up close to home, as it's made dealing with health issues considerably easier than if they were out of state for college.)

Fortunately, after all that, Micah's eye health is excellent. Whew. Great and appreciated news, but we still haven't figured out what's causing the migraines. Since Micah has finals and final papers this week and next and since he's already tried Urgent Care and has ruled out possible eye health issues, the current plan is for Micah to just power through until he's done with the semester and then talk more with his rheumatologist at a previously scheduled routine appointment at the end of next week. Ugh. As of last night, though, Micah says he's starting to feel a bit better.

3. Not having a commute. With all of the driving lately back and forth to both UNC and CU, Nathan and I are thankful to not have commutes. Truly.

4. A good rain. Last Friday and Saturday brought a good spring rain. While I dislike the grey of it, I'll be thankful for the precipitation and how it's helped in turning things from brown to green around here.

5. Not having seasonal allergies. With everything turning green, I'm very thankful that I don't suffer from seasonal allergies. Nathan and Micah aren't as fond of everything turning green and have been battling allergies the last month or so. For Nathan, at least his allergies here haven't been as bad as when we lived in Eugene or in Durham. (It was pretty horrible for him from April to July...he was wearing masks when outdoors.) This year has been worse than others, though...enough to get Nathan to try other allergy meds. Thank goodness for Allegra, as it seems to be doing a better job than the Claritin he'd taken before. 

Okay, that's a good list for now. So much to be thankful for!

Thankful Thursday, on Friday

Clearly I had a lot to share yesterday so I didn't get to my Thankful Thursday post. Since I definitely *am* thankful...here's my list a day late:

1. My haircut. Very thankful that I went ahead and had as much hair chopped as I did just before our trip. It was lovely not having to keep pulling it out from behind my backpack or worrying about it in the San Francisco wind.

2. Normal sized sinks. Not complaining but I just want to say that I appreciate normal sized sinks. The sink in our hotel was a quite small pedestal sink. ;P It was tricky not splashing water everywhere when washing my face, lol. Let's just say that I put an extra bath mat down below the sink during our stay.

3. Quiet. While I enjoy visiting new places and loved the convenience of our hotel location in San Francisco, I'm not crazy about city noise. Our hotel room was right on the street and I'm a light sleeper...so all of the boisterous conversations, street sweepers, garbage collection, cars playing loud music, emergency vehicles, etc were rather annoying to me. (The hotel actually provided ear plugs right on the night stands...which Nathan used...but I'm too paranoid about not being able to hear things.) So thankful for our beautifully quiet little neighborhood here. :)

4. Phone photography & editing. I'm often thankful for technological advances. Today I'm thankful for the quality and ease of taking photos and editing them with just my phone. I remember when I used to take photos on trips with my big camera and then had to wait until I got home to upload them to my computer so that I could go through and edit them. These days, I can just use my phone for both taking the pictures and editing them...so I can have most (if not all) of my photo prep done before I even get home. Nice.

5. Public transportation. Sometimes on trips, we rent a car. San Francisco, though, suggested that renting a car wasn't the best option. (Yes, the city, itself, told me this, lol.) I'm thankful, then, that our location made it easy to just walk or take public transportation for everything. (Yes, we did take an Uber a couple times for speed, but we knew that public transportation would also have worked.) We also appreciated how easy it was to use the app to track buses/trains and the ability to use our phones to pay for everything.

6. Travel partner. I love Nathan. :) Beyond that, I'm so very thankful that Nathan and I travel so well together. We've done it enough now that we have our routine pretty well down...and that makes travel considerably nicer. 

7. Asher's ankle. Unfortunately, Asher sprained his ankle Wednesday night (landing badly while flipping during taekwondo practice). A trip to Urgent Care yesterday verified that nothing's broken, but it's a decent sprain and Asher headed back to campus yesterday in a boot and hobbling. Hopefully he'll heal up okay and quickly...it's not the most fun way to end the semester. Thankful, though, that this happened after Nationals and not before. Also, thankful that it's his left foot so he can still drive just fine.   

So that's my list for now. :) Happy Friday to you all!

San Francisco

So, Saturday was our "parent" day. We took the metro from our place in San Francisco over to UC Berkeley and spent a very loud day in a very crowded fieldhouse. (In case you're wondering what a taekwondo tournament smells like, by the way, it's feet. It smells like feet, lol.) We helped video and photograph things for the UNC team (particularly when all four of them were required for each board breaking competition...those not competing held the boards to be broken) and cheered everyone on. And then we took the metro back to San Francisco and enjoyed a lovely dinner...switching back to our "traveler" mode. :)

Let's backtrack a moment...

Thursday, after about 4.5 hours of delay, we finally made it to San Francisco. We'd helped arrange lodging for the UNC team and our flight delay meant that they weren't able to check in to both of their rooms until we got there. Fortunately, one of the rooms was in Asher's name so they were at least able to chill altogether in one room for the afternoon/evening after their long road trip. 

Friday, Nathan and I took ourselves on a walking tour of San Francisco. (The UNC team did their own sightseeing and practicing and also had to go over the UC Berkeley for sparring weigh ins.) 

We started just down the block from our hotel at the Dragon Gate...entrance to Chinatown. We wandered Chinatown and stopped at the famous Good Mong Kok Bakery for some sesame rolls, steamed pork buns and other things. We also visited the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, saw them making fortune cookies and bought some to take with us. From there, we wandered Little Italy and then walked up Lombard Street. We ventured down to the wharf, with stops at Ghirardelli's and the Frisco Legendary Waterfront National historic site museum. We had a wonderful chowder lunch at Blue Mermaid then continued to Pier 39 where we saw the sea lions and I rode the carousel on a beautiful green dragon. 

From the waterfront, we climbed the hill to Coit Tower and climbed the 234 stairs to the top (lots of climbing in San Francisco, lol) before climbing back down and heading to Little Italy for some gelato and chilling. We then had a fabulous dinner at the House of Nanking in Chinatown...a favorite spot of Keanu Reeves after the Matrix movie crews ate and filmed there. (Serious yum!)

On the way to dinner, we spent some time at City Lights Bookstore (finding a book for the plane ride back since I finished the one I brought for the plane ride out) and stopped after dinner to photograph some of the murals just outside the bookstore. And then, on our way back through Chinatown, we chanced upon a huge street festival that apparently happens every second Friday of the month. There were soooo many people and booths. We particularly enjoyed the musical performances and watching the little grandmas reading tea leaves.

So, that was Friday. And then we did the parent thing on Saturday. 

On Sunday, we headed for Golden Gate Park. We took the Muni train and found ourselves at a fun flea market that we wandered a bit before heading into the park. We enjoyed the Japanese Tea Gardens and ordered matcha and dango at the Tea House. Then we walked a good ways west toward the ocean (about 2.5 miles) and found ourselves at the Queen Wilhelmina windmill and tulip garden. (The tulips were a bit past their prime but it was still fun.) We then stopped at the Beach Chalet for a yummy lunch.

From there, we did a quick Uber to the Palace of Fine Arts, where we were entertained by all the figures with their backsides to us. We walked to Chrissy Field for a view of the Golden Gate Bridge then decided to go ahead and walk to the actual bridge (about 1.6 miles). We made it inside Fort Point (directly under the bridge) but were late in the day so couldn't go past the ground floor. 

From there, we walked the waterfront from the bridge back to the wharf area for dinner (about 3.6 miles). We then caught a bus back to our hotel because we were already at more than 30,000 steps for the day and I somehow injured my foot the day before so it was swollen and sore and had been bothering me all day. Bleh.

Monday, we all checked out of our hotel (us and the UNC team). Given that the team wouldn't get back to Greeley until Tuesday and that Asher had a morning class he needed to be at, he flew home with us. So, the three of us left our bags at the hotel for storage for the morning and made our way to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. We had a great time wandering Alcatraz...particularly enjoying the very well done cellblock audio tour and the gardens outside. 

After that, we caught our ferry back to the pier (along with a bird hitchhiker) then did lunch at Pier 39 before walking back to Little Italy for gelato again. :)

From there, we Uber'd back to get our bags and continue to the airport...flew home...drove Asher to UNC...and finally got home to Fort Collins just before 11pm. Whew. I have more to say but it'll have to wait for another post...this one's gotten long enough, lol.

NCTA Nationals

So, last weekend was NCTA (National Collegiate Taekwondo Association) Nationals at UC Berkeley. Both Micah and Asher's college taekwondo clubs sent teams. Nathan and I flew out and cheered them on. :) 

The tournament, itself, ran Friday thru Sunday, but Asher and Micah only competed on Saturday so we only attended on Saturday. The day started with the demo team competition. CU Boulder went first...

Yes, more than once, they throw Micah in the air so he can break boards. The team did a great job and ended up placing fourth.

Next up was board breaking competition. Competitors had three minutes to break up to 8 boards and were scored based on technical difficulty and presentation. All four members of UNC's team competed in their respective divisions (based on belt and gender) and did a fabulous job. Here's Asher...

He took home the silver!

And then both Micah and Asher competed in sparring. For various reasons (having to do with official/school recognition or something), neither competed as a black belt. Micah (in red in the top two pictures) won his first match but lost his second...

...and Asher (in the blue in the bottom two pictures) didn't make it past his first match. Both boys lost to the person who ultimately won their bracket. It's not the style of sparring either of them grew up with (scoring is different) and we were so proud of their efforts. (Also, quick shoutout to the CU Boulder team for helping out the UNC team! UNC doesn't practice this sparring style nearly as often and didn't have everything they needed. CU helped them borrow enough gear and provided a coach for each of their matches while at the tournament.)

So, that was Saturday. Perhaps more importantly, though, both teams had a great experience together! UNC's team made the 20 hour road trip from Greeley to San Francisco (the three pictures on the left)...brought home three medals in board breaking (each of the four competed in both board breaking and sparring)...and had a blast hanging out in San Francisco--practicing on the beach, riding the cable cars, visiting Chinatown, etc. 

(The rest of the pictures in this post were taken from the clubs' Instagram accounts.)

CU's team flew about 50 team members to San Francisco and then spent pretty much all of their time shuttling between their hotel in Oakland and UC Berkeley...cheering on each other and all the other Colorado teams all three days of the tournament...

I'm unclear on the reasoning but apparently the tournament awarded fourth place finishers (in events other than sparring??) bronze medals alongside the third place finishers...hence the bottom left photo. And that last photo is part of a video highlighting how so many of the CU members lost their voices from all of their yelling at the tournament, lol. 

Many thanks to all who helped either or both of our boys get to Nationals! So thankful they were able to have this experience!

I'll be back later with the rest of our trip...