Back to School

Julia started 11th grade on Sep 2. She is playing soccer and doing Eagle Eye and is part of the leadership council. She will take the SAT this weekend. She is taking English, History, Physics, Calculus, Economics, and Statistics. Alex went back to Boston Sep 6 and starts classes at Tufts Sep 8. He is taking Statistics, Microeconomics, Politics, Ancient Egypt, and Philosophy. He is in a double in Hill Hall. Maeby is back to better energy after going on medication for low thyroid. She still enjoys her naps, of course. 

Summer Jobs and Fun

Alex went back to work at Pacific Regent and also coached tennis at SRC with mom. He reconnected with high school friends and played a decent amount of pickleball. Julia was head life guard at SRC and also taught a lot of private swim lessons. She also won YCC with her 7 Hills Ultimate team. John took a pickleball class and taught an online class at the U of Maryland. Besides coaching at SRC, Joanna spent a lot of time trying to (slowly) rehab elbow and hip issues. As a family, we went to a few Mariners and Reign games, hung out with grandma and grandpa and Maeby, and went to the Somerset 4th of July BBQ. Julia also went to the Noah Kahan concert but didn't share photos. It was a great summer, especially since we got so much time together at home. 

Oregon Coast Trail with Kelly and Chase

Fires in the cascades forced us to relocate our backpacking trip from Mount Hood to the Oregon coast. Plan B was a little plusher than we planned but we still put in the miles. On Monday, we started in Fort Stevens near the Wreck of the Peter Iredale, hiked about 12 miles on the beach, had lunch at McMenamins in Gearhart, took a taxi to Tillamook Head trailhead and hikes another 4 miles or so to a beautiful forest campsite. The next day we got a great view of a secluded beach near the lighthouse and then hiked down the head, through Ecola State Park, past Crescent Beach, and into Cannon Beach. We camped at Wright's in Cannon Beach and did a really fun fat bike ride on the beach the next morning. Then we spent a few more hours cruising around Portland, including an amazing pizza dinner at Dimo's (new haven style). It was so great to connect with Kelly and Chase before Chase heads off to college and Julia goes back for junior year. Hoping we can keep up these trips.

Portland Sectionals

 Once again Joanna's 18+ team made it to sectionals in Portland. Unfortunately, without our top 2 players, we got smoked, losing all 4 matches. Joanna had one singles win and 1 great doubles match with Beth that was a super tiebreak defeat. Considering the plan was to only play 1 doubles match (due to elbow issues), it was a very positive experience. We will get 'em next year. And we had a lot of fun as always.

Montana Road Trip

Our summer vacation was a road trip to Montana to support John at his Belgian Waffle Ride. We visited Missoula, Yellowstone, and Bozeman. Maeby really enjoyed all the new parks. Yellowstone in the evening with all the bison and other animals was incredible. While John did the BWR, we visited the Museum of the Rockies and learned about dinosaurs. Afterwards, Maeby found her inner sheepdog and herded some alpaca (llamas?). John did great in the ride and we loved visiting the shops and drinking coffee in Bozeman. It was a long drive but well worth it.