Another New House

When I made the House category on the blog, I was under the impression that Atchison would be our last house. I couldn’t believe our fortune in getting such a wonderful place, and I planned to never move again. Well, plans change, as they say, so here’s another post about another new house.

We have really struggled with whether to buy in this area over the last couple of years. We may have been able to afford something if we’d bought the second we arrived in town a little over two years ago. But, we couldn’t believe the prices and thought it had to be a bubble about to burst. We were wrong, and quickly we were priced out of Palo Alto. It’s not that we just had to stay in Palo Alto, but the kids liked their school, had made friends, and we were hesitant to move them again, so we decided to just keep renting. Finally, though, we’d had enough of our tiny rental house and of not being in the housing market and we revisited the idea.

A neighbor friend had told me that a friend of hers was about to sell her house and asked if we wanted to see it before it went on the market. We decided to just go look. We didn’t end up liking the house (or its proximity to the very loud train), but it got the ball rolling for us to look at other homes. Pretty quickly we saw an Eichler we liked and promptly got in a bidding war for it (of course). We got it, and started what would be a very difficult and stressful escrow. But it all worked out finally and we moved on April 30th. Here are pictures of the house and a couple from moving day.

IMG_4498

Our realtor took these when we visited to show the boys who hadn’t seen it before we bid on it.

IMG_4826

They were pretty happy.

IMG_4828

Ezra was very concerned about his Sydney Opera House being transported in one piece. So he did it himself.

IMG_4566

The rest went in the big truck.

IMG_4564

We’re still trying to unpack all the boxes, so I’m not going to post any pictures of the inside. But here’s the album with the photos from the listing. Hopefully we’ll be in shipshape soon!

Two Hikes

I’m going to combine my last two hikes in April into one post. The first, Arastradero Preserve on the 11th, isn’t the most strenuous hike, but we added a bike ride with one fairly tough spot to the hiking mileage for a good day’s workout. Here are a couple of photos, including our somewhat smaller group that day.

IMG_4462

IMG_4463

IMG_4465

The second hike, Rancho San Antonio PG&E Trail on the 18th, was much more difficult. I’d been to Rancho San Antonio and remembered a pretty easy hike, but this was not the same trail. So much up hill! I guess the silver lining is that it makes for great views, if you don’t die of heart failure.

IMG_4512

IMG_4514

We had a big group for this one — lots of gluttons for punishment!

IMG_4515

Finn’s 9th Birthday

Poor Finn’s birthday came in the middle of escrow craziness, so we have yet to schedule a birthday party for him. However, we did have a family celebration, of course, and I think he had a pretty nice day.

He got some presents.

IMG_4470

IMG_4472

On the way to dinner — at Five Guys, his pick — I snapped this picture of the brothers.

IMG_4475

Peanuts at Five Guys …

IMG_4479

And finally, back at home, there was cake.

IMG_4481

Among the moving boxes.

IMG_4483

Happy Birthday, to my sweet, silly nine-year-old.

IMG_4486

FSOC Movie

When the boys got an animation set for Christmas, Bruce decided to try it out. He was taken with the process and decided to make a movie commemorating his team’s first successful flight using optical communication between balloons. We went through several set up iterations but finally he ended up doing most of the work in the garage.

IMG_2346

It’s a time consuming process but the final product came out great.

First Pinewood Derby

I got a little sidetracked with the whole buying a house thing so I am woefully behind on the blog. Let’s see if I can catch up …

Way back at the beginning of April, the boys participated in their first Pinewood Derby. Bruce guided them through the process, but they did almost all of the work on the cars from design to finish. I think the wheels were the only part that Bruce felt was beyond their skill level. Here are few shots of the building process.

IMG_2349

IMG_2350

IMG_2359

Finn went full LA Kings with his design, including his favorite player, Tyler Toffoli’s number 73.

IMG_4406

IMG_4408
Ezra’s car had a less specific theme, but was just as cool.

IMG_4409

Here’s Ezra at the pre-race weigh-in.

IMG_2393

My shots from the actual race are terrible, so there’s no point in posting them. Both cars were pretty fast. I think Ezra won his group and Finn got second, if memory serves. Here they are with their certificates. Finn was disappointed that there was little appreciation for his Kings car (his award is for best use of racing stripe) but I guess that’s to be expected in Sharks territory.

IMG_2405

Ezra won for coolest design.

IMG_2408

Good work, Moisions!