Category Archives: Joseph

Summer Camp & Chicago 2015

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To celebrate the Fourth of July this year, we’re bringing you a set of pictures from around this time last year. These photos date back to last July and August, when I took the kids to Chicago to visit Grandma and Grandpa Wong (while Julie went to Nebraska to see her mother), and include a number of pictures taken from the older kids’ trip to Camp Campbell.

While we were in Chicago, we drove down to Wheaton, where I lived until about the age of seven, to see Cosley Zoo, a small park and zoo run by the Wheaton park district that my mother took my brother and me to when we were little. It was incredibly hot the day we visited—our California-born kids weren’t quite ready for the heat and humidity of Chicago in July—but it was still a treat to take them there thirty-plus years later.

This set is noteworthy for the fact that a number of the pictures were taken by Julia and Joe: many of the animal shots were capture by Julia, who insisted that I not leave them out; I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide which photos originated with Joe.

In more recent news, Julia is at Camp Campbell again as I write this post. This year, for the first time, she’s staying for a two-week session, which she’s a little more than halfway through today. Joe elected not to go this year, after having a somewhat less-than-great experience last year. This has more to do with the quirks of Joe’s personality than it does the camp or counselors, for many of the same reasons he’s taking a little hiatus from organized sports: it doesn’t seem to make sense to put him in a position in which he’s likely to fail.

In about two-and-a-half weeks, we’re taking a road trip down to Anaheim, where we’ll be meeting up with my parents and visiting Disneyland for a few days. We have quite a bit of packing and preparation to take care of—all the things I‘ve read online strongly recommend that you plan your Disneyland trip with military levels of precision—but will try to get back on track with respect to posting pictures regardless.

Gallery: Summer Camp & Chicago 2015.

Chicago 2011

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Here’s a retro treat: pictures from our 2011 trip to Chicago. On this visit, we took the kids up to Necedah, where my grandfather used to have a house on a bend in the Yellow River, and where my maternal grandparents are buried. It was my first trip up there in years, and the first ever for Julia and Joe.

My memory is a bit fuzzy—it was nearly five years ago, after all—but I seem to recall that the kids handled the long car ride pretty well, though we broke up the trip a bit by staying overnight at a motel in the Wisconsin Dells, where everyone could relax and swim. Julia enjoyed sliding down the little waterslide at the pool, but Joe was a bit more fearful, choosing instead to dog paddle alongside Julie the whole time.

While we were there, we took a boat tour on the Wisconsin river to see the Dells itself, a gorge containing cliffs and rock formations carved out of sandstone when Glacial Lake Wisconsin drained. Many of the rock formations had names, some of which I was even able to recall with the help of Google.

Gallery: Chicago 2011.

Spring and Summer 2015

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It’s Super Bowl Sunday here in the Bay Area, and rather than fight the insane traffic it’s causing, I decided to stay in and post pictures. Actually, because we’re so far behind, posting an album is on my to-do list pretty much every weekend, but circumstances often get in the way.

This set of pictures is relatively recent, dating back to the Spring and Summer of 2015. It covers Easter (William’s first as an active participant), the spring band concert at Booksin, Joe’s ninth birthday, Julia’s fifth grade promotion ceremony, and a trip to Great America with Angelisa, one of Julia’s friends from school, which Julia won for being one of the top sellers of Girl Scout cookies last February.

The promotion ceremony was brief but poignant. I don’t remember having anything of the kind when I finished elementary school, but I’m certain I would have enjoyed it. And, mercifully, it was much more temperate than the last graduation ceremony I attended, which was in Houston in May.

The trip to Great America was the first time we’d taken the kids to a proper amusement park, and despite some initial trepidation—especially from Joe—they had a great time. Julia and Angelisa were braver than I was at their age, hitting most of the roller coasters in the park that weren’t completely insane, while Joe’s enthusiasm was a bit more tempered by a healthy fear of perishing in a catastrophic failure of the park’s safety systems.

This was my first visit to the California version of Great America, as well (though I remember seeing it from our hotel or the highway during our family’s visit way back in 1982). Having been to the larger one in Illinois many times, it was strange to see a mix of familiar and unfamiliar sites. The two parks have been completely separate entities for years, but a number of rides, like the main carousel, log ride, bumper cars, and Sky Trek tower (called the Star Tower out here) are more or less identical. The vague sense of familiarity mixed with novelty made me feel at once young and old.

Gallery: Spring and Summer 2015.

Christmas 2015

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A few weeks ago, we returned home from our bi-annual Christmas trip to Nebraska. Although we took a vast number of photos, in typical fashion, we haven’t gone through them yet. For now, all we have to share is a brief video.

At some point since our last holiday trip to Norfolk, it seems that the airlines have restructured their routes so that the relatively convenient flight we used to take, which delivered us from San José to Omaha via Denver, no longer exists. Instead, we were presented with an array of unappealing options with stops in relatively out-of-the-way places like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Ultimately, we chose a route that originated in San Francisco and stopped in Dallas. Total travel time was longer than we were accustomed to, but the kids got a kick out of seeing two new airports.

Actually, saying that they got a kick out of it might be overstating their excitement a bit. Ten minutes into the hourlong drive to SFO (and just after we passed the San José airport), Joe asked whether we were almost there. That said, both of the older kids were suitably impressed by the relatively grand scale of the terminal in San Francisco.

Dallas was fun for everyone because we got to take the train between our arrival and departure terminals, which were spread out over the approximately 1,600 square miles of the airport. William was especially excited to be able to ride the “toot–toot,” and he didn’t seem fazed by the fact that it didn’t particularly resemble Thomas the Tank Engine.

Side note: on the way home, which also took us through Dallas, it was immediately clear which state we were in when, as soon as we deplaned, we were faced with a sign that read, “Shopping is bigger in Texas,” and a information desk staffed by a white–haired gentleman in a cowboy hat.

We arrived in Omaha mid–evening and, after picking up our rented minivan, headed directly to Norfolk. We made it to Julie’s mother’s house at a relatively reasonable hour once the time change was factored in, and got the kids tucked into bed without too much fuss.

The weather was dry and the ground was clear when we arrived, and the kids had plenty of time to scope out the creek and open space behind Grandma’s house, though they were a bit disappointed that there wasn’t any snow. On Christmas Eve, however, snow started to fall, much to everyone’s excitement. The blanket of white stuff did little to deter the older kids from further exploration: Joe discovered a small retention pond a few houses down, which he insisted was a lake, and Julia somehow managed to fall into the creek three times in one day.

After Christmas, Julia and Joe were extremely eager to try their hands at sledding. To kids growing up in California with parents who, unlike the vast majority of their peers, don’t know how to snowboard or ski, the whole concept is highly novel. On what turned out to be an especially blustery afternoon, we took all three kids out to Skyview Park for a few trips down the hill, as seen in the video. We lasted longer than I expected—I thought I was going to lose a finger trying to hold the camera without my gloves—and everyone had fun, including William, who seemed to enjoy the idea of throwing snow at me as much as anything else. Apparently, all the time we spent reading Snow by P.D. Eastman and Roy McKie paid off.

In fact, Joe enjoyed it so much that he begged and pleaded for us to go again the next afternoon. Julia and William demurred, but I took Joe back to the park for a second go. This time, I elected to stay in the warm van while he played in the snow, but he did just fine on his own. True, he was in tears by the time he finished and returned to the car, crying that he was cold and wanted to go home to California, but I don’t think that in any way diminishes the fact that he enjoyed himself right up to the point where he decided he was going to freeze to death.

Christmas itself was the usual blur of presents and food. As usual, the kids were excited about their gifts: Joe received a Lego TARDIS set, which he insisted on starting right away, and Julia dove right into reading The Martian, which originally interested her because she’d heard it contained a lot of swearing—which it does—and plowed right through it in the space of a few days. As a reward, we let both kids see the considerably less profane film version this past weekend.

William was, by and large, happy and excited to be there. He’s definitely starting to get the knack of the present thing, though, and is more than happy to help unwrap others’ gifts as well as his own. He was easygoing and well–behaved more or less the entire trip, including all four flights.

Going in, we knew we were in for a bit of trouble on the way home, as our flight was scheduled to arrive around 10:30 in the evening after a late afternoon departure. It was windy and snowy the morning we left, and the forecast called for significant snow in Omaha, so we left Norfolk before noon, hoping to avoid any delays that might cause us to miss our flight.

As it turns out, we needn’t have worried about the drive, as our flight to Dallas was delayed significantly. It could have been worse, though: we still made it out in time to catch our connection in Dallas, whereas some families were told that their flights had been canceled and that they would not be able to travel for days.

Things went from bad to worse in Dallas, however. The area, including the airport, was still recovering from a series of severe storms that had swept through over the preceding days, and our flight was delayed several times, largely (and frustratingly) without explanation. We finally arrived back in San Francisco after midnight local time, which made it past 2:00 for the kids. Julia and William napped on the plane, but Joe somehow managed to stay awake the entire time, finally passing out on the ten-minute shuttle bus ride to long term parking with Julie to pick up our car.

In the meantime, Julia and I waited with William at the curb outside the baggage claim, watching people flout the no-stopping rules and listening to an irate man who seemed to have lost a bag, forgotten to arrange for ground transportation, or otherwise failed to anticipate one of the many ways a trip can go wrong, repeatedly scream the f-word at the top of his lungs. Having just read The Martian, at least she was prepared.

Video: Christmas 2015.

Summer 2011

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Things have been hectic this fall: soccer has been in full swing; the kids have been busy with schoolwork; and I’ve taken two business trips and gone camping with Joe’s Adventure Guides circle. Hopefully things will slow down for a bit—just in time for us to careen headlong into the holidays. Here’s a small collection of previously un-posted photos from the summer of 2011 that I wanted to get online before working on the next batch of more recent pictures.

After much back-and-forth between Blue Shield of California and the Center for Speech, Language and Occupational Therapy, William has finally started speech therapy. He’s doing two 30–minute sessions each week and seems to be taking to it pretty well. They’ve started him off with some simple sentences that are of direct value to him, such as ”I want milk,” and it seems to be working in that he’s talking a bit more around the house. He still uses single-word imperatives most of the time—“up”, “down”, “house”, etc.—but his vocabulary is definitely growing; sometime this last week, he started to say “toast”, which he pronounces as “oash” and uses for everything from english muffins to frozen waffles.

Joe started wearing orthodontic headgear this weekend, and he is none too happy about it. Fortunately, he only has to wear it at night, so there’s no social component to his disdain—he just finds it uncomfortable. I’m sure he’ll get used to it soon; the good news is that if this goes well, he stands a good chance of avoiding the need for braces, which would be a minor miracle considering how hard he found it to give up sucking his thumb. It would also be a lucky break for our finances, considering the fact that it seems likely that Julia will be having work done nearly though the end of the decade.

Speaking of Julia, she continues to adapt to junior high—or, as they call it out here, middle school. She’s having a great time walking and biking to school each day with her friends and genuinely seems to be enjoying her classes. There have been a few hiccups both academically and socially, but I‘m optimistic she just needs to calibrate her mindset to the different level of expectations in this new context.

Gallery: Summer 2011.

Early 2015

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We’re well into the second half of the year, so it seemed as good a time as any (other than few months ago, which I concede probably would have been better) to put up some pictures from the first few months of 2015. This set contains a trim and tidy 187 photos, down from more than 600 originals, so it’s probably a good thing that I exercised a modicum of editorial control rather than dumping the whole pile online; this way, you get slightly fewer underexposed shots of my shoes.

The first part of the album contains a number of pictures of Julia hard at work on her fifth grade science fair project, in which she measured the effect of weight on the distance traveled by a Pinewood Derby car. As I mentioned in an earlier post, she earned perfect marks for this project thanks to her hard work, some of which is very evident in the pictures. I’m not sure whether they’ll be doing science fair projects in middle school, but we’re not off the hook, regardless: as a fourth grader, it’s Joe’s turn now. Does anybody have some good project ideas?

Girl Scout activities also feature quite prominently in this collection, as Julia and Julie were both very involved in scouting this spring. The troop went geocaching in a county park—a hobby that seems to have been trivialized a bit by virtue of the fact that nearly everyone carries a phone with a built–in GPS receiver nowadays. Julia had a lot of fun, right up to the part where she tumbled down a hill and into a creek, holding onto Julie’s phone the entire time. The girls also visited the Hiller Aviation Museum, where they simulated crashing planes during takeoff, landing, and pretty much every other phase of flight; dissected bird pellets; and took part in a cleanup day at a local park.

Julia also had her braces removed this February, a much-anticipated and eagerly awaited event. She celebrated with what she and Julie termed a “candy extravaganza” and showed off some of the biggest smiles we’ve seen from her in recent years. Unfortunately, according to her orthodontist, she’s going to need some more work in a year or two once her jaw is finished growing, but we’ll worry about that when the time comes—for now, Julia is enjoying her newfound freedom to drink pop and eat gummy bears.

In other orthodontic news, Joe had an expander put in last week, so he’s been drooling profusely and making strange slurping sounds whenever food gets stuck in it for the last few days; I’m sure he’s very popular at lunchtime at school. The expander is there to correct a minor crossbite by pushing his upper teeth farther apart. Each night, we get to use a tiny allen wrench to turn a ratchet and increase the width of the device by ⅛ mm.; it’s like a tiny medieval torture device on the roof of his mouth. If all goes well, however—and he can stay on the straight and narrow with respect to his thumb–sucking habit—this may be the only intervention he needs, meaning that he won’t have to have actual braces. That would be a great outcome, but in the meantime, we’re stuck with another set of dietary restrictions

William remains adorable. He’s still not talking nearly as much as we’d like, and we’re in the process of getting him started in speech therapy on the recommendation of Dr. Kim. Or, I should say, we’re trying to get him started: the recommendation actually came in around his eighteen-month checkup, but thanks to a spectacular collision among multiple slow–moving, easily befuddled bureaucracies, we are just now getting to the point where his initial appointment is in sight. The good news is that his evaluation indicated that his comprehension is easily at or above the norm for toddlers his age, so he understands what’s going on around him. He’s just not ready to talk about it yet.

Julia turned eleven last month, and we’ll get pictures of the limited festivities up soon. This year, she got one primary (and expensive) gift: tickets to a Taylor Swift concert at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. She and Julie went to the show together and had a great time: Julia has been listening to Swift’s album, 1989 non–stop ever since.

Gallery: Early 2015.

Spring 2011

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As part of our continuing series of posts with pictures from the ancient past, here’s a collection from Spring 2011.

Summer vacation is winding down for the kids—school starts midway through the second week of August—and we’re busy getting ready for the new school year. Julie and Julia spent yesterday shopping for school uniforms, which was surprisingly time-consuming given the limited amount of choice you’re afforded. Joe has his school supply list, so everyone will probably spend some quality time at Target this week stocking up on pens, spiral notebooks, Kleenex™, and the like.

Both kids are looking to the new school year with a mix of anticipation, trepidation, and fear. For my part, I’ve shared their sense of pain, anguish, and hopelessness by spending the better part of the last few days trying to install Windows 10 on our home PC. All told, it’s been a fantastic reminder of why I use Macs. For example, consider this paraphrased exchange with the helpful support technician I spoke to after three+ hours of waiting this morning.

Microsoft: Your PC is part of a domain, so we need $500 to help you.

Me: And if I remove the computer from the domain?

Microsoft: That’s free, but you have to wait another three hours on hold.

Me: sigh

On a somewhat happier note, Julia and Joe just got back from a week at Camp Campbell. This was Julia’s first stay that wasn’t planned ahead of time to coincide with her friends’, and it was Joe’s first visit without me. Julia had a great time: she got to stay in the rustic 49er cabins instead of the resort-like Treetop cabins, and she did a great job of making new friends and trying new things. She particularly enjoyed the climbing wall—she chose that as one of her activities almost every day—so we’ll have to try that on our own someday.

We think Joe had fun at times, but he continues to be plagued by his inability to cope with adversity without throwing a fit. Twice, he ran off from activities and had to be chased down by a counselor, which resulted in us being on the receiving end of awkward phone calls from camp. He did seem to settle down a bit in the second half of the week: by Wednesday, we were convinced we were going to get a call letting us know that we needed to take him home early, but the the call never came. Nevertheless, this remains something we need to continue working on, because it’s sucking the enjoyment out of all of Joe’s activities and is going to cause some real problems down the road—possibly as soon as later this month, when school starts.

Gallery: Spring 2011.

Class Pictures

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We’ve updated Julia and Joe’s school picture galleries to include their class photos from this past year. Interestingly, Julia’s teacher, Mrs. Kammann, left Booksin for another school at the end of the year. That makes four teachers that have been driven to make a career change immediately after having our kids in their classes. And if you count teachers who left within a couple years of exposure to Julia or Joe, the number increases to seven. I’m not sure how to interpret this data, but it seems as though drawing the assignment to teach one of our kids might be hazardous to one’s career prospects.

As an aside, I just noticed that I’m not able to locate the kids’ class pictures for the year before last. Either they both managed to miss school that day, or the photos have been lost in the chaos that is our home. We’ll do our best to track them down.