Now that we’re finished posting pictures from our year-long remodel project, we can return to our slow-motion processing of regular old family snapshots. In that vein, here’s a large-ish collection of photos from the fall of last year.

In this timeframe, we’d been cooped up due to the COVID-19 pandemic¹ for more than six months. And, because we had moved out of our house and into the rental, we were feeling a bit restless and untethered. With that in mind, we set out to to try some new activities, just to keep busy. We went on a few hikes, including a pleasant walk on the Los Gatos Creek Trail on Thanksgiving; we went for a scenic train ride on a narrow-gauge rail line in Felton; and Julie, William, and I took a road trip up to Alameda to visit a drive-through Dinosaur Adventure exhibit.

The trip to Felton was a hoot—and a little poignant—because it took us back to the railway where we took Julia for a Day Out with Thomas all the way back in 2007. It’s hard to fathom how much time has passed since then; sometimes, it feels like it was just a few weeks ago. To commemorate the occasion, we tried to take a comparion shot, but toddler Julia was a bit more interested in having her picture taken than the teenage version.

The set also includes a number of photos that highlight our year of distance learning. There are a few shots of William in class in Willville—he was often cold in the morning, so he loved to wear the Grandma Wong’s handmade sweaters—and a fun series of pictures of Felix waiting somewhat impatiently outside Julia’s door while she took an exam.

Finally, the album also covers Julia’s and William’s birthdays. Because kids weren’t really able to see their friends socially at the time, the trendy thing to do was rent yard signs to make their special days feel more festive. The installers do their work under cover of darkness the night before—you have to make sure to water the lawn so that the ground is soft enough to allow the signs to be staked down—and haul them away the next evening. You can even customize the iconography in the displays to match the recipient’s interests. We had done this for Joe over the summer, so Will (naturally) and Julia (perhaps a bit surprisingly) were both looking forward seeing to their signs. It gave them something new and different to anticipate amidst the blur of days blending together at home.

Between the pandemic and the move, it was a strange and occasionally surreal time for us all. The one clear upside was that I got to see a lot more of everyone, both after work, when we sat down for dinner together, and throughout the day: I got to watch William at the start of school every morning as I ate breakfast and chat with Joe and Julia when they took breaks for lunch. It’s better for everyone now that they’re back in school in-person, but I do miss having them around.

Gallery: Fall 2020

1. Still going strong, with more than five million deaths worldwide and more than 750,000 here in the U.S.↩