California 2011

After endless discussions about going to California, we were so excited to finally get there earlier this month! The trip was a complicated one, but we managed to do everything we had planned for in advance.

We arrived to Oakland late Tuesday night, and met up with Uncle Ryan at our hotel. The kids were so excited to see him, and Max immediately spilled the beans about the contents of our wedding gift for him and Aunt Allison. After renting our minivan the following morning, we drove to San Francisco and met my parents. The seven of us spent a fun afternoon walking through Pier 39 to Ghiradelli Square and then going on a cable car ride. That night we drove to Sebastopol, where we'd be spending the next few days before the wedding. Fillis and John met us there as well, and we spent the next few days preparing for the wedding with tuxedo rentals, a BBQ, a bridal shower for the women, a golf outing for the men, rehearsing and rehearsal-dining, using the hotel pool and exploring a bit at Goat Rock beach. We also caught up with my uncle and two aunts, whom I had not seen in a very long time.

The wedding day was a glorious one. The weather was just perfect for an outdoor venue. We spent the morning getting our hair done, and then joined the bride in her room to witness the last minute preparations. Allison looked absolutely beautiful. Her dress was just gorgeous, but it was the smile on her face that truly made her glow. The groom and bride were trying not to see each other, so they were sequestered on different floors of the hotel. At one point, Ryan yelled down to me from a balcony and said, "I'll drive," which both my mom and I interpreted to mean he was taking his own car to the vineyard. My mom said she and my dad would ride with him. So after seeing the bride had departed, the four of us drove off to follow her there. A few minutes later, we got a panicked call from Ryan! He'd meant that he would drive OUR car there, not his! So we circled back and picked up the groom and my parents, and only got us slightly off the day's packed schedule. I think that was the only thing that went wrong all day though, as everything was just beautiful. Ryan's breath was taken away when he saw Allison. We posed for some photos, and then got ready for the ceremony. Hannah and Max did a very well as flower girl and ring bearer. Max in particular was so proud of his role in the wedding, and he loved watching the whole thing. He was very taken with the breaking of the glass, so much so that he broke a plastic glass of his own during the reception. Hannah was a flower girl veteran, and did her job with grace, wearing a beautiful floral wreath on her head. The ceremony was lovely, and I couldn't help tearing up a bit, but managed my reading well enough. Allison and Ryan are a wonderful couple, and we were so happy to be part of such an important day in their lives. We had a great time dancing, eating and toasting at the reception, and watching them drive off in their convertible when the day was done.

On Sunday we were up early, ready to move on to the next part of our adventure. We had a nice breakfast with Aunt Mary and Haillie before we headed back to San Francisco. We said goodbye to my parents there, and then headed back to Oakland to exchange the minivan for a sedan for the rest of our trip. We spent the rest of the day driving down the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at a state park to see seals and having dinner in Big Sur before stopping to watch the sun set. The drive was beautiful; I had worried I'd be scared, but it was really fine. We stayed overnight in San Simeon, and toured Hearst Castle the following morning. I think the bus ride up the hill to the Castle may have been Max's favorite part of the trip. It was a beautiful place, and we even got to see some behind-the-scenes areas when the kids needed a bathroom break. Very cool.

We spent the afternoon driving the rest of the way to Los Angeles, which took longer than anticipated, but we finally made it to my Uncle Marc and Lexie's beautiful home. Their daughters Cheyenne and Dakota took an instant liking to Hannah and Max, and they had a great time swimming while I caught up with my Aunt Allison and cousin Samantha too. The following day we went to Disneyland, and the kids were very excited, but it was Hannah's favorite part of the trip. We managed to see Mickey Mouse without too much of a wait, and enjoyed a bunch of rides before taking the monorail to Downtown Disney for lunch. Then we did some driving around downtown LA according to Marc's carefully crafted agenda while the kids took a much needed nap. We saw the Hollywood sign and drove down Rodeo Drive before having dinner at Jeff's Gourmet Kosher Sausage Factory. We drove back to Disneyland for the last couple hours, and kept the kids up until midnight seeing the Fantasmic show. While I prefer Disney World to Disneyland, we still had a really great day.

On our final day of vacation we saw the amazing Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center, which the kids really enjoyed. We drove from there to Long Beach, and had dinner in the Shoreline Marina before catching our 9 pm flight home to Boston. It was a great trip, but I was definitely ready to head home.

Thank you to Ryan and Allison for getting married, and giving us the excuse to have such a nice getaway! And now, a few pictures. Enjoy!

Toast for Ryan and Allison’s Wedding

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Cheryl Pollock Stober, Ryan’s older sister. I appreciate having the opportunity to share a bit with you about my brother on this special day.

Now Allison, I’m sure you thought you knew my brother well, but I’m not sure you knew that he is in fact a doctor. You see, when he was about three or four, he invented a character he called Dr. Missumio. It involved a piece of string tied just so around his head, with a blue connecting piece from his beloved Fisher-Price Construx hitting somewhere between his eyes. He would speak in the most proper way a four year old could muster, and do whatever it took to make his big sister laugh.

Growing up, Ryan and I were always very close. He’d patiently play along while I arranged my large collection of Cabbage Patch Kids, and I tolerated playing a few rounds of Sonic the Hedgehog on his SEGA. We attended the same overnight camp, and during his last summer there, when I was too old to attend, he brought me home a bag of dirt because he knew how much I loved it there. When I went off to college, I emailed him and my mother every day, beginning a tradition that has gone on for almost 15 years now, taking us through email addresses at AOL, Brandeis and Cornell universities, Yahoo and ultimately Gmail. Ryan always kept us on the cutting edge.

My parents have succeeded at one of my top goals in raising my own children - that they should be best friends. Ryan, while we may live on opposite sides of the country, you have been and will always be one of the most important people in my life. Allison, I couldn’t ask for a better woman for his wife. I knew Ryan had found his soulmate when I first saw them order in a restaurant together, agreeing to each split their meals, with Ryan willing to eat something more exotic than I’d ever heard him order on his own. Allison, you are not only sweet and loving, patient and kind, but willing to put up with Ryan’s gadget addiction and great love for the San Francisco 49ers. I look forward to celebrating many happy times together, and being there to support you as you have always supported me.

So please raise your glass, to Ryan and Allison, mazel tov, l'chaim!

Boston's Ballerinas

If you follow me on Twitter, you know about my daily hassles with my commute. It's often crowded and uncomfortable, and the lack of control over the situation drives me crazy. But there are a few bright spots for me: listening to my favorite Glee tracks, playing endless games of Revomem, and of course, the people watching.

I've been taking the Green Line for many years now, and by far my favorite phenomenon is the return of the ballerinas. Each summer, a group of teenage ballerinas starts getting on the train at Kenmore Square, and riding the few stops to Copley Square. With their yoga mats and hair done up in perfect buns, I'm just fascinated by them. I don't know anything about their program, but seeing them as I'm trudging off to my office tower just makes me happy. I imagine that they're putting a little more grace out into the universe (whereas I don't a graceful twitch in my body). I've noticed that other commuters seem to cheer up in their presence too. They're on the T for such a short time, and only for a few weeks, so it's like this elusive, hidden part of Boston, and I feel lucky to get to see them.

What are the insider parts of your neighborhood that make it feel special?

The Kids Grow Up

The last few weeks have been beyond hectic, with a big event happening almost daily. We had birthday parties, class parties, a block party, a goodbye party, a school party and a family party. We hosted my sister-in-law Rachel and two year old niece and nephew, Evie and Nate, with my in-laws staying locally as well for a few days. There's been so much to celebrate, but it's also been a time of transition with the ending of first grade for Hannah, and moving on to a new classroom for Max.

Hannah has been looking forward to the start of camp for months, and is beyond thrilled to be in a group with her oldest friend from Gan Yeladim and her best camp friend for three years running. But when I picked her up from the last day of first grade, well, some tears were shed at the thought of moving on and being in second grade. It's been such a big year for her, and she has been so proud of all the progress she's made at school, that it was difficult to say goodbye to it all, but she seemed happy at camp drop off this morning.

Tuesday was Max's last day in the Room E Elephants, and he proudly sang along to all of the songs with his friends. He's moving on to Room K Koalas (the animal aspect is a big part of the identity to him), and unfortunately, away from the group of kids he has been with for the last two years. We didn't point that out to him, and have been talking about all of the positive aspects of the new class, but my heart breaks for him a bit. Hopefully, he will enjoy the new class too much to notice. After five days at home, going to school today made for a rough morning in the house, but he seemed resigned to it by the time we dropped him off.

Marc said I seemed more excited about all this change than the kids do, and I guess I'm trying to show them that they have so much to be excited about (and they really, truly do). But it's another year done too - and I'm not going to burden them with the lump in my throat that forms while hearing Green Day's "Time of Your Life" during the first grade slide show or leaving them to navigate their way through a sea of new faces.

Last night I watched the documentary "The Kids Grow Up" (dumb idea to watch it on a Sunday night, leaving me too amp'ed up to fall asleep afterward), but it's the story of filmmaker Doug Block's only child, Lucy, and her last year at home before going off to college. But seeing as she doesn't actually want him filming much of her life anymore, it's generously supplemented by many scenes from throughout Lucy's childhood and adolescence. Lucy is ready to go, but dad Doug isn't ready to let her. Some would say it's narcissistic, that he's filming her but it's really all about him, but isn't that what so much of the parenting experience is? Aren't we spending all of this time and effort on them with our own hidden agendas (or sometimes even in plain view)? How can we not focus on our own feelings about what our children are going through, when they are ostensibly the most important thing in the world to us?

My friend Candace snapped a picture of the kids at the JCC picnic last week, and I put it on my desk at work today, updating the picture I had there from three years ago. We're not ready for college yet, but time is flying.

June 2008, 4.5 and 0.5 years old



June 2011, 7.5 and 3.5 years old

Fast Few Weeks

It's been a fast few weeks around here. Frustratingly, my latest blog posts on Allison's bachelorette and the Temple Emanuel Retreat didn't pull into facebook, so I'm sharing the links to those here. Here's what we've been up to since then.

After the retreat we dove right back in to Temple Emanuel, and I attended quite a few meetings in the last three weeks. They mostly centered around the Yom Hashoah committee and the direction that group is going to go during the next year. It's been a really interesting process, and I'm really proud of the work our committee is doing. It's great to be part of a group that has such a high level of dedication. We also had Hannah's last day of religious school for the year, with its closing assembly. While she really enjoys religious school, I have to admit that I'm happy for one less morning of rushing around now that it's ended for the summer! And we had our 12th Ruach Shabbat Family Service - so exciting!

Marc and I accomplished a big goal of refinancing our house, and we had the closing for that recently. The transaction was a bit complicated, but we had an excellent experience with Sovereign Bank and everything went very smoothly. It's been something we've been waiting to do for quite some time, and I'm happy that we were able to get that completed.

Work has been really busy for me. Really good, lots of exciting things going on, but really busy. And so with all of this going on, it would be a really convenient time for my back to start acting up again, right? Sigh. Yea, The Back (it gets capitals now because it's really become a separate entity from the rest of me and deserving of proper noun status) got pretty bad for a while there. I had to go to a couple of doctor's appointments trying to get it functioning properly again. Last Friday I began a round of prednisone, aka The Wonder Drug, because Gd knows what it does but it has helped. I'm pretty close to normal again, for which I am very grateful. Prednisone is loads of fun for me, as I get very jittery and PRODUCTIVE with a major caps lock. If only this level of energy was sustainable! But it felt good to get so much done after coping with pain for a few weeks. Yes, I promise I'm being really careful not to aggravate The Back again, and I think I will be starting physical therapy for it soon. (This has also meant the exercise project has been put on hold - hopefully temporarily.)

Which brings us right up to today. It's a beautiful day here in Newton. Hannah's wearing green for Color Day at Bowen, and Max is wearing pajamas at the JCC to simulate staying up all night studying Torah for the holiday of Shavuot. Tonight I won't be attending any study sessions per se, but I will be going to the Glee Live concert in Boston. As Marc said, it's Torah in its own way, or at least it is for me. Tomorrow night Marc is planning to bring the kids downtown to meet me after work to check out the Jimmy Fund's Scooper Bowl, a Boston event I've always wanted to attend (and in keeping with Shavuot's dairy theme). Thursday night is Hannah's after care group's annual picnic. Then the weekend has some birthday parties and Village Day to look forward to. Time is just flying by, and even with The Back issues, I've been really happy lately. Hoping you're all having a great start to summer as well.

Retreat

For the first time, Temple Emanuel opened its annual 6th grade family retreat to the entire synagogue, and as soon as I'd heard about it, I wanted to go. I LOVED camp (hi, GUCI facebook friends) and have often said I'd go back today if they'd let me.

We spent the weekend of May 13-15 at Camp Yavneh in New Hampshire. It was a lot to pack up four people and the traffic to get there was hairy, but once we pulled in to camp, it was perfect. We stayed in a brand new bunk, and I was SHOCKED at how nice everything was. While it was secluded in the woods, everything was close together. We sang and prayed, ate and played, and mostly spent lots of time talking with one another. That's always the most difficult part for Marc and me - as much as we want to create a community at our synagogue and are often busy attending events there, we're still constrained by the presence of small children who interrupt conversations or need to go home to nap. The retreat gave us a prolonged opportunity to let those conversations develop and deepen. And of course the best part of the weekend was the unscheduled time spent with friends, laughing under a porch roof while the rain fell down around us.

I had a great time, and it sounds like we'll get to make this an annual thing. Temple friends, mark down May 11-13, 2012, and I'll see you there!

22 Hours Away

Gah, I can't believe May is almost over. It's been such a busy month, so forgive me for the gap between posting.

On Saturday, May 7, I got to spend a glorious day in NYC to celebrate my future sister-in-law Allison's bachelorette party. It was a surreal experience, mostly because it all went by so quickly, but also because I was without Marc or the kids for the day.

I took the Amtrak from the Rte. 128 station in to Penn Station, catching the train at 6:55 am. Which meant I was up from about 5 am on, heading in to a very full day. Maid of Honor Charlotte planned everything expertly and we all had a great time. After a really good brunch, some of the group took a bike ride through Riverside Park, and then we all gathered together for presents, cupcakes and bride-themed Pictionary ("to have and to hold" is very hard to illustrate!) while wearing our matching t-shirts. Allison and I got our make-up done at Sephora and then we all went to drinks and then dinner at Bread Nolita (the only place I'm listing by name here because it really was fantastic). We ended the night at a bar with the future bride and groom texting each other for most of the time spent there, which I thought was very cute. I caught a 2:40 am (no, that is not a typo) train back home. I managed to stay awake for 22 straight hours, but I had so much fun meeting Allison's friends and spending time with her that it went by in a flash.

Marc and the kids picked me up at 8 am and we went out for a Mother's Day breakfast. As wonderful as it was to be on my own for a day, I really missed them, and can't wait until we can all go to NYC together some time.

Thanks to Charlotte for such a wonderful day, and to Allison (and Ryan) for giving us all something to celebrate. Now on to California - July can't get here fast enough!