Year end review 2020-Part 5-July/August

July

For 4th of July, we had a socially distanced get together with the Frosts at Conejo Creek Park, at which we also celebrated little Andy’s graduation from high school. We sat six feet apart and watched as Deonna’s boys played with stomp-rockets, a toy that they had to run up to and stomp on with their foot, to launch a spinner toy. They had so much fun competing to see who could get them to fly furthest! Then it was time for Alex & Athan to learn how to do cart wheels. I think Travis and Deonna and maybe Kenny took turns demonstrating and explaining the techniques. Athan gave up pretty quickly but Alex kept trying until he did a pretty good one.







Brayden got passed between his grandma and grandpa while all that was going on. He didn’t seem to mind.

July 8-Vladi received pictures of the celebration of the Bat Mitzvah of his youngest niece, Celia. She turned 13 in May. He stays in communication with his sister-in-law even though his brother passed away. His nieces and nephews are in Israel.

Rivkah, David and Isaac holding Celia.




I worked on a slideshow/video for Debbie’s birthday July 10th, consisting of pictures and tapes that we made in 2003 when the kids and I visited the lake house (still under construction at the time.) I also found some letters that she had written to me and sent those to her as well. She was quite touched.

Gideon’s birthday was in July also and Vladi and I talked to him and Yael on Facetime, where we captured this still shot.

I think it was right after that that Olya asked if I wanted to spend a little time keeping Yael busy on Facetime while Gideon did a couple of classes and she-Olya-tried to work from home. I thought it sounded like fun but I also think I over-prepared and overdid it because after a couple of days, Yael was no longer interested. I felt bad. I so want to spend time with them in person. I love children in general and them in particular. And I feel like I have so many ideas for things I’d like to do with them. But Facetime on a phone is not an ideal mode of communication for a 4-year-old.

August

So as we slogged into August, there was still no light at the end of the tunnel of this Virus. . .

But, on the 21st we celebrated our 10th anniversary by taking a drive toward San Luis Obispo. Along the way, we found a place to take a walk in Avila Beach where there were big fancy expensive houses on one side of a street overlooking a beach that didn’t look like one that a lot of people could easily get to. There was a real nice walking path and we had fun looking at the way rich people could live.


 

After we took our walk, we continued on into San Luis Obispo. We walked around there for awhile, looking for a nice place to have dinner. We found a place called NOVO restaurant and bar that fit the bill perfectly. We were seated on their beautiful patio, shaded by huge old trees and overlooking a greenbelt with a stream running through it. And omg was the food ever good! And beautifully presented. We felt very content with our celebration.








Zuli turned 7 on August 26 (National Dog Day). Janeen discovered that both of our dogs liked edamame.