Black Widows Assemble!

Hello, friends! 

With the start of the new school years also comes the start of extracurriculars. Thaliea will be starting a new dance studio (she's already been cast as a flower in the Snow White ballet) soon. Scouts is starting a little later than usual but we'll be getting going soon enough with all 3 kids in the pack. The big one for me though is the start of Ezra's soccer season. If my math is right, this will be my 11th season coaching Ezra's soccer team and our 8th season as the Black Widows.

As soon as I had Ezra, I knew that I wanted to be really involved in his extra curriculars, whatever those may be. I lucked out that he loves sports like I do; the wrench in the plan was that I wasn't anticipating soccer being his sport of choice. I never played soccer growing up, so it was a new adventure for me. 

In the early years, coaching was easy. All you have to do is make sure the kids aren't using their hands, are kicking the ball and not their friends, and know which goal is the right goal. There weren't even formal practices during the week. It was a lot of fun all around. Usually, the Y puts a bunch of random kids together so it's a new team each season. In 2022, Ezra decided that he wanted to ask a bunch of his friends to play with him and the Black Widows were born. We've been together ever since. 

For the past few years, I've felt a lot like Marge Simpson giving piano lessons: she doesn't know how to play the piano, but she's just trying to stay one page ahead of the kids. =0). I've spent many an hour watching YouTube videos trying to figure out what drills to run during practice to build the kids in their skill as well as understanding of the game. I'd like to think that the team has gotten better under my coaching. What I lack in skill and soccer knowledge, I try to make up for in positive attitude and encouragement. 

Honestly, last year was a bit of an up and down year. During the Fall season, we went undefeated in the 3/4 division so we decided to make the jump to the 5/6 division. During the Spring Season, as a team of 3rd and 4th graders playing against 5th and 6th graders, we had another undefeated season, which was lots of fun. But, we also tried our hand at entering a club tournament and got absolutely crushed, showing us how much more we had to grow. We had our first in-practice fight and had one kid leave the team because of trash talk gone too far. It was the first season where I wondered if it was a good idea to keep the team together. 

We'll see how much longer the Black Widows go. YMCA soccer goes through the 8th grade, so, in theory, we could go until then. Ezra has already told me that he wants me to keep being his coach (which is encouraging to hear). But, with this being the last year of elementary school, next year everyone may be headed out to different middle schools. Maybe that will mean they want to stick together. Maybe it'll mean it's the end of an era. 

Either way, I'm trying to enjoy this season. If the Black Widows continue beyond this year, I'll be happy to keep coaching. It it's the end of me coaching Ezra, I'll start coaching Jonah and we'll start the cycle all over again. For now, I'm just thankful that I've been able to invest in these kids over the years. Hopefully, it's been as much of a blessing to them as they've been to me. 

#GoBlackWidows

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

New Rhythms

Hello, friends! 

Today marks the end of the first full week of school for the kiddos, which means we are fully into school season now. This weekend will also start soccer for the boys, so it's all starting for real. 

With Jonah is kindergarten and all 3 kids at the same school (#GoldenYear), that means that some of the rhythms from last year have changed. None of these changes are bad, they're just different.

- Full Day Sabbath. For the first time since we had Ezra over 10 years ago, Megan and I can enjoy a full Sabbath. We've been taking Sabbaths on Mondays for as long as we've been married. Before we had Ezra, we would say goodbye in the morning and not see each other until dinner. For the past 10 years, we've split Sabbath in half, with one of us watching whatever kids weren't in school for half the day then being out and about for the other half of the day. With JoJo in school now, we can go back to that full day experience. So far, it's been pretty great. 

- Making lunch. Our elementary school has had free lunch for the past few years, so this one is brand new to us. Because JoJo has so many allergies, we decided that it would be easier to just make him lunch instead of risking cross-contamination or some secret ingredient we didn't know about. So far, we've been doing a good job of giving him some variety. I'm sure that ham sandwiches every day would grow stale after a while. 

- Getting to the Panera. A few years ago, we moved daycares, and JoJo's daycare was right across the street from a Panera. So, on Tuesdays, I would drop the older kids off at school, then drop JoJo off at daycare, cross the street to the Panera, work there all day, then pick up JoJo on my way back to grab the older kids. Now, with JoJo in kindergarten, I park the car at their school after I drop them off, hop on the bus, then take a quick walk to the Panera. It's a little more inconvenient but not terribly so. 

- Snack Time is forever. Apparently, learning takes it out of you! This was true for both Ezra and Thaliea when they started kindergarten. It seems like just yesterday we stocked the snack drawer full but it's already looking a little sparse! The culprit? JoJo is SUPER hungry when he gets home from school and just wants to eat. He can't even wait for dinner to be ready. I think it's at least in part because he doesn't have a morning snack and he's learning to eat faster so he can finish his whole lunch during the alotted time at school. 

These are a few of the new rhythms that we've had to adopt. We also changed soccer practice for Ezra to a different day, Thaliea changed dance studios so her lessons are on a different day, and things like that, so the after school rhythms are up in the air too. I'm sure we'll get it. It'll just take a little time. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

The School Year has started!

Hello, friends! 

After 10 very full weeks, the kids are back in school! Today, we dropped all three of the kiddos off at school to start the new year. There weren't any tears (today) and everyone is excited to get back into the school year rhythm. 

School actually started yesterday for Jonah. We're not sure when they started this (definitely after Thaliea was in Kindergarten), but this year, kindergarteners, 6th graders, and freshmen all started a day early. I think it was so they could get used to their new surroundings before all the bigger kids showed up. So, yesterday, we dropped JoJo off for his first ever day of school! He came home very excited, VERY hungry, and at least a little bit crankpants on account of being so tired. He slept very well last night. =0). 

Ezra and Thaliea started today, which means that today was the first day of what I have called the Golden Year. This is the only year that all 3 kids will be at the same school meaning we only have ONE dropoff. It's going to be absolutely glorious, not having to spend any extra time in the car, getting to daycare and school. 

One thing about the start of the school year is how much money we're going to save. We're massively cutting down on our lunch budget since the kids will be eating at school. Also, since Jonah is in kindergarten, we won't be paying for preschool or daycare anymore. Added to that, Megan is going to have more available hours for work, which means that we can go on lunchtime dates instead of evening dates, saving money because lunch is cheaper AND because we won't need a sitter. We had our first school time date today and it was great! 

Don't get me wrong. I love my kids. I love spending time with them and I hope they know that we're always going to be there for them. The start of the school year also means the start of soccer (#GoBlackWidows), Scouts, and dance and I try to be involved in all of those things so I can spend time with the kids. It's just, well, this was the first year when I thought that maybe those Year Round School kids may be onto something. Summer felt SOOOOO long, especially after we got back from our trip. I'm glad that the school year has returned and that we can all go back our rhythms. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

One Year With Phoebe

Hello, friends! 

Yesterday marked one year since we brought Phoebe home and officially became a dog family. She was actually born in June but she stayed with her mom a few months before we could actually pick her up. 

Friends, it has been quite a year and I'd say that Phoebe is very much a part of the family. She has her own personality and honestly, even though I've never considered myself a "dog person," I'm very glad that she's a part of our family. Here are a few observations about Phoebe and about her being a part of our family for the past year: 

- Phoebe is a smart dog. Apparently goldendoodles are a smart breed of dog. Phoebe follows that tradition. She's picked up on the little training that we've done pretty quickly. She was housebroken pretty quickly too, which was a huge blessing. She just learned how to play fetch, which is great too! Of course, there are still some areas for learning but that's true for any of us, right? 

- Phoebe is a creature of habit. She's found some things that work for her. She has her spot on the floor where she likes to lie. She knows when it's dinner time. No matter how many times we tell her that there's no reason to bark, she goes apoplectic when someone opens the front door. She has her favorite toys and the toys she won't even bother with. We've been learning her likes and dislikes so we can all get along. 

- Phoebe is ridiculous. There are some quirks that I'm not sure I'll ever totally understand. When Phoebe sits, she sits on the side of her hind legs instead of on her bottom. Apparently, that's a goldendoodle thing but it looks silly. Phoebe loves holding hands. Phoebe doesn't eat socks anymore but she does steal them and lays on her rug with them, daring us to get them back. 

One of the pleasant surprises is how helpful the kids have been with her. I was worried that the kids would be all about playtime but not actually want to care for her. We're still working on them picking up poop but at the very least, they haven't forgotten about Phoebe. 

So, we're one year in! Goldendoodles are supposed to live between 10-15 years, so the plan is for Phoebe to be with us until all the kids are through high school (for context, Russian tortoises live 50-60 years, meaning that Gus will be around longer than I will...). Here's to many more years of holding hands, playing fetch, finding socks where they shouldn't be, and in general, that dog dad life. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

=

California Trip Superblog!

Hello, friends! 

Greetings from Omaha! After being away more or less for the past 3 weeks, the Omaha Leongs are finally back in Omaha. We spent a LOT of time with family and a LOT of time exploring this great country of ours (#Murica). It couldn't all fit in one blog so here comes a SUPERBLOG! Down below, you'll find a few different posts about different parts of the vacation experience. 

To get you oriented, here's how our past few weeks have looked:

July 3 - Travel to Watertown

July 4 - Fourth of July in Watertown

July 5 - Travel to Marshall, Minnesota for Megan's cousin's wedding

July 6 - Back to Omaha

July 7 - Pack for California

July 8 - Fly out of Omaha

July 9 - Get to Long Beach and drive to Joshua Tree

July 10 - Sequoia National Forest

July 11 - Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park

July 12 - Back to Garden Grove and Pool Day #1 at my sister's house

July 13 - Church in Anaheim Pool Day #2, and family dinner with Megan's cousins

July 14 - Whale watching and spending time time at a park, with a family dinner to finish before the rest of my family gets back into town

July 15 - Beach day #1 and celebrating Ezra's birthday

July 16 - Beach day #2, a tea party for the girls, and some time at the park

July 17 - Water Park with the whole family

July 18 - Another day at the park and another family dinner, and not getting to finish a movie because of a fire alarm at the theater, finished off by our traditional walk to Dairy Queen

July 19 - Park day, Pool Day #3 and family dinner with extended family up where my brother lives

July 20 - Beach day #3, Pool Day #4, and one last family dinner with some extended family

July 21 - Fly back to Omaha

If you're looking for stats, here are a few for you: 

Miles driven on the National Parks portion of our trip: 950

Miles flown to and from Omaha: 4000

Beaches visited: 3

Times at my sister's pool: 4

Boba's consumed by my family: Approximately 10, which honestly, feels kind of low...

Pounds gained by your humble blogger: 5, which again, honestly feels a little low...

Times I had stand perfectly still in the middle of my sister's pool so Jonah could swim to me: Somewhere between 100-1000 =0). 

Really, it was a great trip. The kids enjoyed themselves and were mostly well behaved. It was good to see family and eat lots of good food (although not all of it). The travel mostly worked (although not totally) and the car held up. Megan and my hope is that this trip will have a Core Memory feel to it for the kiddos. I guess we'll just have to see! 

If you'd like to read a few different musings on different parts of the trip, you can read those here: 

Adventures in Travel

The Other Side of the Family

Which Beach?

Goodbye to good food

Cousin Time

Phoebe and Gus

God Sightings

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

California Superblog: Adventures in Travel

Hello, friends! 

When we decided to move from Columbia, MO to Omaha, the biggest reason was to be closer to Megan's family, especially her parents. They live in South Dakota, so when we moved to Omaha, we cut a 9 hour trip down to 4 hours, or 2.5 hours if we drive to Sioux Falls instead of Watertown. That meant that instead of only seeing her parents twice a year (once when we visited and once when they visited), we could see each other more often. Now, weekend trips have become the norm and we've been totally blessed by being so much closer. 

However, to visit my parents, we're still a flight away, which means we're looking at adventures in travel. Add a National Parks trip to our agenda, and suddenly travel becomes a BIG adventure. =0). 

The plan was simple: Fly from Omaha to the Long Beach Airport with a stopover in Denver on the 8th, then start our National Parks Trip on the 9th after a good night's sleep at my parent's place. Then we'd drive to each park, staying at a hotel at about the midway point to our next destination so we broke up the driving. It was perfect!!! 

Or so we thought. 

Allow me to breakdown for you what ACTUALLY happened: 

July 8:
- Our flight gets rerouted so instead of flying into Denver, we're going to have a stopover in Dallas instead

- On the flight to Dallas, do circles over Oklahoma City because there are storms in Dallas

- Wait in the Dallas airport to see if the storms clear up enough for us to leave

- Miss the Long Beach Airport curfew, meaning we can't leave Dallas because we wouldn't get into Long Beach before their noise ordinance goes into affect, meaning we need to find a place to stay in Dallas

- Realize that since we booked our reservations on two different Southwest accounts (so we could use our miles) Megan and I were rebooked on different flights. She was going to fly out at 10am and the kids and I weren't flying out until 3pm

- Accidentally book a hotel that's close to DFW instead of Love Field, meaning a longer trip and a more expensive ride share

July 9: 

- Wake up and decide to go to the airport with Megan so we can see if there's any standby for her flight

- There isn't so we're stuck at the airport for 5 hours while we wait for our flight

- Run into some coworkers who are also stuck in the airport for a bit, allowing me to not have to drag the kids all over the airport while I try to catch another standby flight

- Get to Long Beach with a stopover in Phoenix

- Megan picks us up from the airport since she got in much earlier. Thankfully, our bags got into Long Beach already, so she was able to grab them, consolidate the bags for the roadtrip, and grab some snacks for the ride

- Hang out with my sister in the cell phone waiting lot before driving to Joshua Tree, getting us back on our itinerary because the hotel wouldn't let us move our reservation

From there, the driving all went according to plan. I'll just make two observations about our trip: 

1. I'm not sure that the decision to use halfway points was the right one. I think especially at the end of the day, after a long day of hiking and being out and about, having to spend a few more hours driving to our hotel was not ideal, especially since we were driving up and down mountains, which means narrow roads and wildlife. It probably would have been better for us to drive longer during the beginning of the day and shorter at the end of the day. 

2. I can't wait for JoJo to be done with his car seat. My parents were super generous in lending us a car during our trip so we didn't have to spend money on a rental. However, it wouldn't have been bad to have rented a minivan or an SUV. It was TIGHT back there, especially with Jonah's car seat. Do you want to know the best way to make sure that your kids fight? Put the three of them in the back seat for hours at a time, constantly able to touch each other, both purposefully and accidentally.

Still, we made it! It took us 3 or 4 tanks of gas and about 950 miles, including a bonus trip King's Canyon National Park because we told the kids we were thinking about going to do a cave tour, seeing how far the cave tour was (the closer one was sold out), deciding to not go, then hearing Thaliea say in the morning, "I'm so excited to go see a cave!" There were a few tense moments on the switchbacks and a little more nighttime driving than I would have liked, but we made it there and we made it back. 

And, you know what? I think I'd do it all again... Except for Dallas. That was pretty rough... =0). 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam

California Superblog: The "Other" Side of the Family

Hello, friends! 

Most of our trip was spent in California with my parents and my siblings. However, that wasn't the whole show. Even though there was one day back in Omaha between trips, our vacation actually started July 3, when we went to Watertown, South Dakota to see Megan's side of the family. 

We're out in SoDak every Fourth of July and the trip usually looks the same. We'll head to SoDak on the 2nd or 3rd, celebrate the 4th by heading out to Megan's Aunt Mary's house, grill up some burgers and dogs, play some corn hole, let the kids splash around in the hot tub, then at night, set off some fireworks on Aunt Mary's property. The past few years, I've graduated from "bystander" to being one of the fireworks lighters, which has been tons of fun (if not VERY dangerous). =0). The next day is all about Ezra as it is his birthday. It's usually a chill day but the important thing for Ezra is that he gets to open some gifts and eat some ice cream cake.  

This year, things looked a little different. Megan's cousin, Aunt Mary's son, picked July 5 as his wedding day! That meant that there would be no 4th of July at Aunt Mary's (since she'd have the rehearsal and such), and no real celebration of Ezra's birthday on the 5th since we'd be in wedding mode. It was definitely going to be a new experience. 

Honestly, the 4th was a little bit rough. We tried to celebrate both the 4th and Ezra's birthday but it was a bit of a bust. Ezra knew that things were different and he didn't like it. On top of that, the weather wasn't super cooperative. We were able to see the Watertown parade but had to cut our little fireworks show short because of rain (Megan and her sister bough sparklers and such for the kids). I wasn't sure how the 5th was going to go. 

Thankfully, the 5th was actually pretty great! The wedding was tons of fun and it was so good seeing Megan's aunts, uncles, and cousins. I bought Ezra a button that said "Birthday Boy" so a number of folk wished him a happy birthday. The dance party was kickin' (I solidified my spot as best dancer in the family, despite what Ezra tells you), and there was a hayride for the kids, which JoJo enjoyed thoroughly. There were even fireworks! 

Oh, and a little girl asked Ezra to slow dance... =0). 

We stayed in a hotel so on the 6th we were able to do two of my kids' favorite vacation things: eat waffles and swim in the hotel pool. From there, we went straight back to Omaha to get ready for California. 

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! 

Did I mention that Megan's uncle lives in Southern California as do his two daughters? I didn't? Well, now you know! 

While we were in California, after we got back from our National Parks trip, we were able to spend a dinner with Megan's cousins. Her uncle was still in SoDak so it was just our three families. We went to Megan's cousin's house and pulled "a Horner" (Megan's mom's maiden name), which is when we sit in the same place for hours on top of hours just chatting while the kids get themselves into various forms of mischief (in this case, it was the kiddie pool). We used to meet at restaurants but since Megan's cousin got married and moved to Orange County, now we now do it at her house, which is WAY better for all of our kids. This was the longest that I'd spent with those cousins and it was great. Many sliders were consumed and laughs had. 

So, that was the vacation spent with the "Other" side of the family. I'm so glad that I married into a family that genuinely cares about one another and enjoys spending time together, just like my side of the family. It's good to see family, no matter the side. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam