Category Archives: William

Last Walkathon

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This year’s Booksin Walkathon was bittersweet: it marked William’s last as a student and our last as a family. Our first was all the way back on October 10, 2009, when Julia was in kindergarten:

Hailey and Julia at the Booksin Walkathon in 2009

This was our thirteenth Walkathon. Starting with our first in 2009, we didn’t miss a year until 2017, when Joe had moved on to middle school and William was still in preschool. We picked our streak up again in 2018, but lost a couple years to the pandemic and bad air quality. In the end, we’ve spent a lot of hours over the last decade-and-a-half listening to music and watching hundreds of kids walk in circles in the sun. Naturally, we have pictures of this year’s festivities.

This year, William went in with a mission: he wanted to earn the top prize, an LED-adorned, light-up frisbee, which would require him to walk 20 miles over the course of the five-hour event. This would make him the first Wong to reach the highest prize tier: neither Julia nor Joe ever pulled that off, which would have required 25 miles in their day (though they would have had a couple extra hours to reach that milestone).

William had never come particularly close before: the lure of chasing friends around the playground was always too strong. But he told us weeks ahead of time that he was committed to making it happen this time around, so we let him skip his soccer game so he wouldn’t miss two critical hours. We arrived at school in plenty of time for him to be ready at the start (Julie had already been there for a couple hours, running the registration desk), and he walked or ran more or less the entire time, stopping only for bathroom breaks and to grab a hot dog for lunch. In the end, he made it to his goal with a little under 15 minutes to spare and, exhausted, claimed some well-earned rewards. Julie and Julia were there at the finish line to congratulate him as they wrapped up shifts punching lap cards.

Thus concludes our Booksin Walkathon story. William will most likely want to return as an alumni walker at some point, and he may work some volunteer shifts to fulfill high school graduation requirements, but our days of dedicating an entire Saturday in October to celebrating the Booksin community are behind us.

Gallery: Last Walkathon

Last First Day at Booksin

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It’s the beginning of August in California, and that means one thing: after an all-too-brief summer, it’s back-to-school season, and as usual, we have a collection of pictures.

School started on August 8 in San José this year, which feels even earlier than in years past. This particular first day was poignant because it wasn’t just the start of William’s seventh and final year at Booksin, but also the beginning of our final year as Booksin parents. Our time there started with Julia in kindergarten all the way back in 2009; all told, we’ve had fourteen distinct school years at the school, with a year off between the time Joe moved on to middle school and William started TK.

Of course, none of that mattered a bit to Will, who was much more concerned about what fifth grade was going to bring than what things were like during Obama’s first term. His teacher this year is Mr. Lau, and he’s lucky to have some good friends in class with him. Hanging around in the school courtyard before the first bell, he derived obvious energy from being around his pals after two full months away.

We took the usual assortment of pictures in front of the car before we left the house, and you can see the first signs of adolescence starting to creep in at the edges of the posed shots. He remains a joyful, amazing kid, of course, but it’ll be just a couple short years before he’s officially a teen.

Gallery: Last First Day at Booksin

Fourth Grade Spelling Bee

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William had the opportunity to try something new in January, something I remember well from my own childhood: taking part in the school-wide spelling bee. The linked album contains pictures from the occasion, as well as a video consisting of compiled clips of his part in the competition.

I don’t remember Julia and Joe participating in anything like this, so the format was new to me. They recruited the top two spellers from each of the fourth and fifth grade classrooms and put them together in one big contest. As a result, the field was large, numbering more than twenty students in total. The competition also differed from the spelling bees of my youth in that the student following an eliminated participant was not required to spell the word that knocked the previous kid out. This prevents a single difficult word from knocking out the bulk of the field, but also slightly increases the role of luck in the contest: a kid who draws an extremely challenging word can’t cling to the hope that they might be saved if it wipes out everyone else.

William is generally a fairly confident and unflappable guy, so it’s unusual to see him looking nervous. In this instance, however, he looked downright scared. It’s possible that I’m reading more into his facial expressions than he actually felt, but I thought he looked genuinely spooked as he sat on stage waiting for the competition to begin.

He needn’t have worried, however, as he did very well considering that he was up against older kids as well as his own classmates. We spent some time preparing in the weeks leading up to the event—the printed list of spelling words in multiple columns brought back some powerful, visceral memories for me—and he cruised through the first eleven rounds of the contest. He was finally tripped up in the twelfth round on the word “antechamber”, with fewer than ten competitors remaining alive.

He remained on the stage for the rest of the round, after which he was ushered out of the auditorium. We left through the rear entrance and met him outside. He was downcast and visibly upset, and our attempts to console him fell on deaf ears. His mood only brightened when a fifth grader named Paxton came over to share his own story of being eliminated and cheer him up. It was at once heartwarming to see and a sobering reminder that William is fast approaching an age at which the having the approval of his friends and peers will feel more important to him than feedback from Julie and me.

For posterity, here were William’s words:

  1. again
  2. endless
  3. expressway
  4. disdain
  5. ambush
  6. wafting
  7. replica
  8. bunions
  9. nondescript
  10. spawned
  11. boba
  12. antechamber

Gallery: Fourth Grade Spelling Bee

A Field Trip, Thanksgiving, and Gingerbread Houses

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This update, A Field Trip, Thanksgiving, and Gingerbread Houses, covers the brief-but-busy interlude between Halloween and the start of the Christmas season. The set kicks off with a few photos of William on a field trip to the Marine Science Institute in Redwood City, or MSI, where the Booksin fourth graders were presented with the opportunity to learn about the incredible variety of marine life in the San Francisco Bay. This field trip is a longtime staple for Booksin students—more on that in an update to come—and it’s a treat to see these pictures if only because William has been on relatively few field trips in his time in school, thanks largely to Covid, which put the kibosh on class outings for a couple of years

MSI aside, William had very a busy month. In the space of eight days, he attended a bowling birthday party for his friend Henry; he went bowling again for his friend Caeden’s birthday; he learned to solve his Rubik’s cube for the first time; and he played mini golf at his friend Julian’s birthday party. His social calendar is vastly more full than mine.

Most of the gallery is taken up by pictures from the weekend of Thanksgiving. Julie’s Mom joined us for Thanksgiving dinner, of course, and the holiday meal was a resounding success. We were fortunate to have one of the best turkeys we’ve had in recent years, and we even finished the green bean casserole that day, neatly avoiding the challenge of reheating that dish without making the onions soggy. For dessert, William worked up the nerve to try pumpkin pie for the first time; as a result of his experiment, he decided that he’s a big fan of whipped cream.

That Sunday, we decorated gingerbread houses at the eleventh annual Gingerbread Decorating Party at the San José Woman’s Club. We’ve attended this event since Julia was little, and the comfortable routine is familiar and uncomplicated. The basic outlines have remained unchanged for years: you pick up your gingerbread house; put together a plate of candy and snacks with which to decorate it; and enjoy hot chocolate, apple cider, and cheese and crackers as you festoon your creation. William always looks forward to entering his house in the contest at the end of the party—he’ll win one of these years—but this year we had to duck out early due to another commitment.

The set concludes with a few snapshots from a brief ceremony UPA held to honor students who did well in the National Merit Scholarship competition. Joe was part of the largest group of honorees, the Commended Students. He was a little reluctant to attend, perhaps because he was dissatisfied with his performance on the PSAT, but he was ultimately convinced to go, which gave him an opportunity to goof off with his friend Caitlin, who was also recognized that evening.

Finally, I snuck in a picture of a pizza I made, because I think I might be finally starting to get the hang of our pizza oven.

Gallery: A Field Trip, Thanksgiving, and Gingerbread Houses

Camping, Haircuts, and Snacks – November 2015

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This post is another look back, covering a timeframe almost exactly eight years in the past: November 2015. As always, we have pictures.

This brief update highlights just how much we had going on back then. It includes Will at speech therapy and playing in the park; Joe camping out with the Y Guides; and Julia working fall sales booths selling snacks for her Girl Scout troop. The photos show her selling with no fewer than three different girls over the course of a couple weeks.

The set also includes some video of Joe taking part in competitions at a Y Guides campout at Mount Madonna. You can see how seriously he took these inconsequential games by the look of intense concentration on his face. I was also struck by how good his throwing form was in one of the clips, even if the result wasn’t what he was aiming for—watch the video, and all will be made clear.

The album wouldn’t be complete without a selection of photos of William doing William things. We have William playing with his food; William goofing off with his sibling in nothing but his diaper; William after convincing some firefighters to let him sit in their truck; and what we think is his first real haircut outside the home.

There are a few work-related photos thrown in, highlighting that year’s offsite in Napa. If I recall correctly, I dozed off in the front row of a talk in the wine cellar that looks like a bomb shelter. It wasn’t the highest point of my professional career (though, to be fair, it was a really boring talk).

Gallery: Camping, Haircuts, and Snacks

Walkathon, Soccer, and Autumn Adventures

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October and November have been extremely busy months for us, mostly for the best. Julia started a new job; William wrapped up the soccer season and the annual school Walkathon; and Joe continued his long slog through the college admissions process with some campus visits and the completion of his first batch of college applications. It wasn’t all sunshine: we had some health scares and minor todos that we had to get through, but nothing worth spelling out here. As always, we have a batch of pictures documenting the fun and frivolity.

One exciting development is that Julia has started a job at Engenius, an on-site after-school care program at Booksin. It’s kind of a spiritual successor to the Y-Care program that Julia and Joe both attended when they were younger—Y-Care is still there, but greatly diminished—and some of the caregivers that used to look after the two of them are now supervisors at Engenius. Julia is working with the first graders and is enjoying herself so far; she is worn out by the end of the day. She’s still taking classes as well, but work gives her a little more independence, which she craves, and helps her to structure her days.

October also brought the annual Booksin Walkathon. We had to cut our time there a little short, because Will had a soccer game that afternoon, but he still managed to walk 13 miles and spend some quality time with friends. Julie ran the registration desk, as she had the year before, and I volunteered to supervise the bounce house in the morning. We didn’t see too much of Will until it was nearly time to go, but I did managed to snag a few photos as he raced by.

The week after the walkathon, William wrapped up the soccer season with a pair of games at the league’s end-of-season jamboree. This was his first season in this particular recreational league, run by Almaden FC, and he improved his skills significantly during the year. His team had mixed results in the win/loss columns, but he learned quite a bit about the game and has decided that midfield is his favorite position.

The same afternoon as the soccer jamboree, Joe and Julie jetted off to southern California for another round of college visits, probably the last of the year. They stayed for just one night and crammed in Caltech, UC San Diego, and San Diego state before flying back midday the next day. With Julia at a party, Will and I were left to our own devices that evening. We treated ourselves to homemade BLTs and had a quiet evening at home. Due to an unfortunate confluence of events, Julie and Joe missed their flight home the next day, but caught a later flight and were home by bedtime.

Joe is slowly working his way through the very long list of schools he’s decided to apply to. Princeton remains his first choice, and he submitted his application just ahead of the early action deadline on November 1. The University of Washington was next, as their regular application deadline was November 15. After that, he completed applications for the University of California system schools and San Diego State. That puts him at seven schools so far, which is already more than the total of five I applied to when I was a senior.

This Thanksgiving weekend, we’re hoping to push through the process for a number of additional schools on his list, including Rice, the University of Chicago, and others. The application deadlines for all of the remaining schools are in early January, but we’re hoping he’ll be able to finish up as many as he can now, so he doesn’t have to worry about college essays as the end of the semester approaches. It’s been a challenging process, as Joe is very conscientious about not coming across as fake or misrepresenting his interests and accomplishments; playing the game of selling himself to admissions officers doesn’t come naturally to him. Nevertheless, Julie and I have enjoyed helping him fine-tune his essays: we’ve been spending an hour or so with him most evenings after William goes to bed, and we’re grateful for the chance to share this quality time, even if he’s not always happy about it.

William has always loved dressing up in costume, so Halloween is one of his favorite holidays. This year, he chose to go as the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who, wearing a fantastic ensemble that Julie put together, complete with a sonic screwdriver.1 I took a number of pictures of him in costume, but the best one was taken by another parent in the classroom during the school day; it’s a fantastic shot.

In the evening, William went trick-or-treating with his good friend Bridget. For the most part, they wandered around the neighborhood by themselves, leaving Julie and me at home; if Will hadn’t decided that he wanted some company toward the end of the evening, it would have been the first year since 2005 that we accompany someone in search of candy. I think Will was a little less excited than Bridget about going out without parental supervision, but it definitely seems likely that we’ll be out of a job next year, nonetheless.

The rest of the gallery is a potpourri of miscellaneous shots: a few pictures of a work kayaking outing on the Monterey Bay; patio string lights that were the fulfillment of a long overdue promise; and a picture of Grandma Moravec’s pork and rice recipe, which we make all too infrequently.

  1. Astute observers will note that he actually has the Fourteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. It was all we could find on short notice. Don’t ask what it cost.

Gallery: Walkathon, Soccer, and Autumn Adventures

October 2015

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After a couple posts’ worth of recent pictures, today we have a set of photos from long ago: October 2015. In many ways, these pictures aren’t very different from the ones we’re taking today: like current collections, they cover school, extracurriculars, sports, and holiday celebrations. They’re eerily similar, except we’re all quite a bit older now, and the kids’ roles have changed dramatically. These echos are all the more poignant because the next set of photos I’m working on covers roughly the same time of year, but for 2023. They both feature soccer, Booksin, and trick-or-treating, but through a radically different lens. Sometimes, it’s hard to comprehend how we got from there to here.

William is omnipresent in this collection. We have pictures of him doing dishes, shopping with Julie, trick-or-treating, and—reflecting how he spent much of his time that fall—lots of photos of him playing in the park at the older kids’ soccer games. A particular favorite is a picture of him helping to collect drinks for the Booksin Walkathon.

Julia and Joe aren’t neglected, however. The gallery includes Julia’s Girl Scout troop making SWAPS to exchange with other scouts, pumpkin carving, Halloween hamminess, and numerous action shots from soccer games.

There is also a smattering of pictures from a sailing excursion on Monterey Bay that Julie set up for our anniversary. Neither of us had any previous experience sailing, and we were probably more hindrance than help to the captain of the ship who took us out, but it was a unique and fun experience that I’m grateful to have had.

Gallery: October 2015

League Champions

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A few months back, William wrapped up his first season in the Minors division of the local Little League in thrilling fashion: his team went on a tear at the end of the campaign, winning three out of four games in the end-of-season tournament to claim the championship. We have a giant pile of pictures to commemorate the occasion.

The championship was decided via a double-elimination tournament featuring the four teams in the AA division. William’s team had decent success during the regular season, finishing with a record of 8 wins and 5 losses. However, a number of those wins came against teams from another league: against the teams who would be competing in the tournament, they were a more pedestrian 5-5.

The team started the tournament strong, winning their first two games. This gave them chance to win it all in their third game, as the other team left standing had already suffered a loss. This team, the TinCaps, had been their nemesis all year: they had played them on three separate occasions and lost every time, by an average of more than five runs. This time, the matchup was close throughout; William’s team had a lead in the late innings, only to see it, and the game, slip through their fingers. Some calls didn’t go their way toward the end of the contest, which only added to everyone’s frustration.

This set them up for a do-or-die matchup three days later. The deciding game was a back-and-forth affair, with the TinCaps jumping out to an early lead, only for William’s team to charge ahead in the middle innings. Heading into the bottom of the sixth, however, the TinCaps were leading by a score of 8-7. The tension didn’t last long, though: the first two batters walked and advanced to second and third on wild pitches. They were brought home by a long single to right field, winning the game and the championship in dramatic fashion. The entire team erupted in delirious joy.

A on-field celebration followed, including a presentation of championship rings—William especially loved that part—and the kids ran the bases one last time in jubilation.

A couple weeks later, the team took the stage at the annual St. Christopher parish festival—most of the kids on the team go to school at St. Chris—to be fêted by the crowd.

William was thrilled with the way the season ended, of course, and he had a fantastic year overall. He took great strides in the field, and made several very nifty plays at third base. By the end of the season, he was starting to get more comfortable at the plate, though he was still somewhat apprehensive about getting hit by a pitch. As I write this, we’ve just received an email letting us know that Early Bird registration for next season has opened up, and William can’t wait for it to begin.

Gallery: League Champions

William’s Fourth Grade Picture

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We sent out Joe’s school pictures a bit early this year, so now that William’s have finally come in, he’s on his own for this post. There’s a small version embedded here, but you can find the full-size photo in his gallery.

Booksin changed photographers this year, so the William’s portrait has a bit of a different look; it has a much more dramatic feel than his earlier school photos. Of course, he took pains to dress up on picture day so that he would look dashing: that much is unchanged.

William's fourth grade picture

Gallery: William

William Turns Two / Fall 2015

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This set of photos is a time warp back to eight years ago and the fall of 2015, when William turned two. Julia and Joe were still in middle school and elementary school, respectively, and William was living a the carefree life of a toddler.

Looking back on these photos, it’s hard to believe that Joe was almost a year younger than William is now: he seemed like such a big kid at the time. Even at that age, it was clear how much William looked up to him, as evidenced by the pictures of them practicing their instruments together.

For his birthday, William had an amazing train cake that the older kids helped decorate (and eat). He was thrilled to receive a pile of colorful new presents, but as usual, he was completely content just playing in the dirt on the sidelines at Julia’s soccer games.

Gallery: William Turns Two / Fall 2015