Landscaping finished, Thanksgiving weekend

The last few weeks have been somewhat uneventful, the landscapers did finish up their Fall portion of the job (the lawns are getting fixed in the Spring as I previously mentioned). It looks nice! We are happy with how it all turned out, now we just have to hope that we can keep up with it. Likely we will have the landscapers come out at least twice a year to do a proper cleanup of weeds etc. but I think we can manage the day to day maintenance of it. The sprinkler system is all set up for the new plants so we should be able to keep everything properly watered. We'll see how it goes!

What else is new . . . we are in the middle of a very long holiday weekend, we are just hanging around at home for this one. We made a nice roast for Thanksgiving yesterday instead of a turkey, since I made a turkey when Lynsey was home - it was delicious! Today we are just having a lazy day, kind of nice to not have any plans. Tomorrow we have tickets to the Oilers/Kraken game, not sure I'm super excited for that one. I feel about as excited as I did a few years ago when the Oilers were 2-9-1 going into the game we were going to watch, and that game ended up being a bit of a season turnaround so I guess I can only hope there will be a repeat of that! I remember the days when there were no expectations of the Oilers so when they lost it wasn't a big deal, times are different now as people are expecting so much of them - I've always said it's a dangerous place to be when you start to expect them to win all the time! Anyway, we will try and enjoy the game no matter what happens, what else can you do!

Christmas shopping has begun, I can't believe we are here already! We are putting up the tree later today, first year doing it without Lynsey. I know Adam likes the tree so maybe it will bring a smile to his face:-).

 

A visit from Lynsey, piano recital, volleyball starting!

Phew lots has been happening these last three weeks! Halloween was pretty uneventful, Nathan was unsure if he wanted to participate so we didn't get him a costume, but at the last minute he decided he DID want to go trick or treating with his friend Luke. Thankfully Luke's family is a Halloween family so they had an extra costume for Nathan to borrow. It was a rainy night so we got hardly any trick or treaters, like three or four groups only. It's definitely becoming less of a thing here at our house! 

There's been lots happening with my volleyball team, we had makeup tryouts on Sunday the 2nd to fill some extra spots on both 14s teams. Then that following Tuesday we had all the players come to one practice to try and split the teams as evenly as we could while also accommodating requests for practice location (Claire, the other coach, would be practicing up in Bothell while my team is practicing in Redmond). It was definitely a tricky process, not everyone was totally happy with the team splits. We did our best but it's hard to make everyone happy! We had our first practice as a team the next day and it was good to see what the team make up is. Definitely a change working with U14 from U16, but I'm excited for the season! We have a good group of girls and a good mix of strengths, we'll see how it goes:-).

Brian and I went to see Nate Bargatze at Climate Pledge on Thursday the 6th, it was a fun evening! He was hilarious, and his opening acts were also really good. On Friday we got to pick up Lynsey from the airport! We all went to get her and it was a bit of a long time in the van for Adam so he was a bit grumpy, but we all went to Tropea for supper after and that helped. We picked up a birthday cake for Lynsey and went home to celebrate Lynsey's 18th birthday as a family since we weren't together on her actual birthday. Lynsey and I went to watch Redmond High's volleyball team on Saturday, they were playing a playoff game and sadly lost in 4 sets - it was an exciting game though! She was able to say hello to a bunch of her old teammates which was nice. On Sunday I made a turkey dinner for our early Thanksgiving celebration (thought it was better to do it while Lynsey was home than on the actual Thanksgiving day!). There was some drama with the Civic on Saturday, we had to get it towed to the repair shop because it wouldn't start (not the battery). We did end up fixing it even though it wasn't super cheap, the repair guy thought it was perfectly good to go other than the distributor which is just something that goes periodically, so we decided to invest to keep it limping along. Over the week Lynsey worked a few shifts and hung out with friends as well as spending time with us, it was nice to have her home!

We are getting some landscaping done that started a few weeks ago, it's not done yet but they are making good progress. A patio in the back and new sprinkler system to accommodate some new plants, I'm excited to see how it will all look! It was definitely time! They are going to fix the lawns in the Spring as well.

Adam has been so stressed lately, I think I've mentioned this in prior posts. He has enjoyed having Lynsey home but it seems to have also stressed him out a bit. I think he just doesn't understand the new normal, Lynsey comes home but only to visit. He has brought back some verbal repeating that we haven't heard in years which is pretty discouraging. I can only hope that he will drop it when he gets more comfortable with the changes going on, he's dropped it before so no reason to think he can't do it again. It's just rough in the meantime, that repeating is something we were QUITE happy to see disappear and were not wanting to see again:-(.

Nathan had a piano recital yesterday, and as usual, he killed it! This was a recital he wasn't actually looking forward the way he usually does, he didn't lock in and practice as much as he probably should have to really perfect it (he was playing an extended version of the Entertainer, a very difficult piece). He knew that he could have played it perfectly if he practiced the way he should, but for whatever reason he just didn't put the work in this time. So, he was dreading it and waiting for it to be over. Well, as it happens, he locked in and played it SO WELL! It was not perfect, he made a few small mistakes, but I have been hearing him practice this piece a lot and I've never heard him play it as well as he did for the recital. Not sure he learned the right lesson as far as putting more work in to get the best results, but I am glad he did well! I think he knows it could have been even better, hopefully that knowledge is enough to motivate him for next time:-).

This morning we went for breakfast at Farine in Redmond before driving Lynsey to the airport. She's on the plane almost back in Edmonton. Glad she had this time at home! Just over a month until she is back again for Christmas:-).

 

Trip to Calgary and a visit from the Daveys!

October has definitely been an action packed month for the Kroekers! We got back from our Tokyo trip on Tuesday the 7th, Brian's parents went home on Wednesday and then on Friday, we got on a plane and went to Calgary for Canadian Thanksgiving. Also, Andy and Kristy came into town on Thursday, so that evening we had dinner together with Philip and Yelena so we could see them at least briefly before we left on our trip. Glad we got to say hello, and we did see them more after we got back:-).

Our trip to Calgary was really good! We were so happy to see Lynsey again, so nice to have the whole family back together. It was a busy weekend with lots of family time, as Steve and Andrea were there as well. Nathan would have liked more time alone with Lynsey, but that just wasn't going to happen this time - she is coming home for reading week soon so we will have more time for just our family then. I took Lynsey and Nathan shopping on Monday before bringing Lynsey to the airport to catch her bus, the mall was a bit crazy but we were able to find her a good winter coat at the very last minute - was about to give up and then Sport Chek came through! We flew home Monday night, good to be home after so much time away in the past three weeks. We had a nice time hanging out with the Daveys while they were here, they came to stay with us on Wednesday (although they were gone for the weekend, trip to Yosemite with their daughter Elli). We got to go for walks and go to the gym and go for dinner, fun things we used to do when they lived here. Sounds like Kristy might come again in April which would be lovely! 

Brian had hernia surgery on Wednesday (the same day the Daveys left) so life just keeps going! He is recovering pretty well, although he is sore (to be expected). I had club volleyball tryouts this past weekend on both Saturday and Sunday, was leading the tryouts for the first time ever which I think went okay. It was pretty overwhelming, I was a bit unsure of myself but I did the best I could. I find it so hard to know who is going to be a good fit on a team, it's such an imperfect science. I'm sure there are players that are being overlooked that shouldn't be. Now the offers are out and we just have to hope they get accepted!

We also went to the Kraken/Oilers game on Saturday night, two losses in a row for our in person games:-/. Watching the Oilers in October is painful - hopefully they get their act together by the time our November game rolls around! Sheesh. It was still fun.

Japan Trip Day 11, Tuesday October 7th: Back to Tsukiji Fish Market, Plane Ride Home

Last morning in Tokyo! In Japan! We didn't have breakfast included with this hotel, and I was looking forward to checking out 7-11 for breakfast. The 7-11s in Japan are incredible, way better than any I've seen in North America. So many good food options (seeing a theme about good food available everywhere??). We got some food and headed back to our hotel and ate our breakfast in the room. Did not disappoint!

We checked out and left our bags at the hotel so we could make one last trip to the Fish Market for some more Wagyu and fatty tuna. We were not disappointed! Both just as good as we remembered them! Glad we got to have them one more time. We made our way back to the hotel to collect our bags and got to the train station to catch the 2pm Narita Express back to the airport. Check in was smooth and we got to the lounge with lots of time to kill. I think I already mentioned this, but I was once again struck by how polite and unassuming Japanese people are. You don't get harassed at markets, they just leave you be, and even the TSA agents at the airport were kind and apologetic! It was such a contrast to the experience you usually have at American airports.

We hung out in the lounge and then went to try and find ways to spend the balance on our Suica cards (we each had 980 yen left that was going to expire in a few days, so we thought we might as well spend it!). We got some candy and then it was time to board the plane for home. The flight was smooth and uneventful, although as usual I didn't sleep very well. I also thought I lost the case for my ear buds in the seat but I ended up finding it in my bag when I got home, oops! Mark and Frances picked us up at the airport and around 12:30pm we were on our way home! What a fantastic trip!

Things went pretty smoothly at home with the boys. Adam had his moments, but he has been having moments with us, too. He's just been a bit stressed to start the school year so we expected it might not be perfect while we were gone. It didn't sound like anything too crazy, and Mark and Frances handled everything really well. They stayed until Wednesday and we got them off to the airport, the last few days have been about laundry, organizing pictures and trying to get this blog post done, and try not to go crazy from the jet lag:-/. I had a nap this afternoon which was much needed! Hopefully I sleep well tonight!

Tomorrow we are off to Calgary, so we will be seeing the airport again soon! Just can't stay away apparently:-D.