Christian Brothers at Inderkum High School – a 10-minute drive from my house.

Friday evening, Avery played flag football at Jesuit:

After the game, Avery (7th grade) got ready to go to his first school dance.

Saturday morning, Carson had a soccer game at St Ignatius.

Sunday afternoon, Carson played flag football at Christian Brothers.

To celebrate two September birthdays (Justin and me), Thais and Lenin arranged for a new experience – Rail Explorers in Amador County, near Ione.

Cars hold four people or two. Everyone pedals, the right rear person pedals the electric assist and controls the brake.

There was a short break after 4 miles while all the cars were turned around.

What a great experience to do together as a family.

Christian Brothers v St Francis at Cosumnes River College: girls’ volleyball. Crowd support and enthusiasm is about 1000% improved from when I was in high school. There were no girls’ sports in 1966. This is St Francis’ student cheering section, about 1/4 of the seating on their side, always standing, loud in-unison chants, funny exchanges with CB’s student cheering section at the other end.

The moment the CB varsity team won their third game:

I went over to stay with the boys a couple of days this week. Sophia started school on Tuesday, Carson and Avery start on Thursday.

Go Carson!

This week when I helped out, Carson shared that he is the most-hydrated person in the family followed by a demonstration ..

until full capacity was reached.

I took Avery to his weekly piano lesson and got to watch. Such a different technique from when I took piano lessons 66 years ago. At the end of the lesson, I took a video of Avery playing as the teacher narrated – essentially a video summary of what Avery should practice next week. Later in the car, I air-dropped the video to Avery’s phone. Yup, many changes from the 1950s.

More entertainment:

On Monday it was Carson’s 8 1/2 birthday. He asked for a game called Hydro Strike. Shoot a small yellow ball at your opponent, defend and shoot with paddles. If the ball strikes the center position just right, a little squirt of water is received in the face.

Good idea to keep a towel nearby.

I spent a few hours with Sophia, Avery and Carson on Thursday. No sports camps this week. We went out to pick up lunch. While inching forward in the drive-through fast food line, I checked my phone and got quite the surprise. “Well, you guys are going to be the first ones to hear some pretty amazing news. I’m going to be a great-grandma.” You could see the wheels turning in their heads – who? They decided it had to be their cousin Kellen. After we finished our various lunches we played a couple of rounds of Cover Your Assets. Carson won first, then Avery.

Sophia said she had a picture on her phone of her, Kellen and Odin and sent it to me:

Avery is quite self-motivated to sit down every so often and practice the latest song he’s learning.