Travel weary and tired

 I can't imagine life being any other way. What I mean is, life with my family. This week will mark three years since Orion was born...THREE YEARS! Whoa! Where did those years go? We seem to be busier than ever and have a huge time deficit. Sleep is on the losing end of the spectrum when trying to fit in all the things that we want to do in any given day, week, or month. Its summer after all and we are taking advantage of the beautiful weather and warm sunshine, spending every moment we can out-of-doors.

  I was fortunate enough to take the family to Hawaii this year. What a great time that was. Even more fortunate was my wife, Apollo, and Orion who subsequently took a trip to Oregon followed by a week in North Carolina. A friend made the comment to me when learning that my family was on their 3rd vacation in two months, "Wow, your wife sure gets a lot of paid vacations!"
"She doesn't get any paid vacations," I refuted.
"Why sure she does," he replied, offering up his infinite wisdom, "She vacations, and you pay!"
I walked right into that one.  The truth is, we have both worked for it. Yes, I stayed behind and worked to pay the bills and tend to the zoo, but taking the kids by herself, was the real job.
  Although I would have loved to have gone with them on both of these adventures, I am glad that Melanie and the boys had the opportunity to spend some good quality time with parts of the family that they normally don't see too often.

  For my part, the house was empty, quiet, and lonely. I stayed busy with work, catching up on home projects, running, swimming, and biking. I tried to spend as much time in the sun as I possibly could and tried to keep my mind occupied. I don't care for the quiet house. I will take the mess and the noise any day if it meant that I was spending time with my family.

  After being gone for eight days, I picked Melanie and the boys up from the San Francisco Airport this afternoon. They were a sight for sore eyes. Travel weary and tired, I loaded them up in the car and spent the next two hours in traffic listening to the highlights of the trip from three different people. Now its 7:15 pm, and all three of them are already sleeping. They are on east coast time after all, and have been up since 1:30am (our time) so they could catch the early flight out.
 I tuck all three of them into their beds, one at a time, and then I watched them sleep for several minutes; silent, motionless, peaceful... I miss them dearly, and the four hours between the airport and bedtime was not enough time for me. All I want to do is wake them up. I want to tickle and wrestle with Apollo and Orion. I want to hear them laugh and scream while I chase them around. Then I want to talk to Melanie. So many things I want to ask her about.

As luck would have it, I will arise before they wake and leave the house while they are still deep in slumber. I will make my rounds from one bed to the next, kiss them, tell them I love them, and then slip quietly out the door on my own adventure. They are safely home, but I am still missing them.

Summer Bliss

This has been an amazing summer. I have to confess that it is the best summer I have had in a few years. I can list all of the reasons, but suffice it to say, most of it comes down to attitude. This has been a year of change and the pattern of stagnation that I felt at the end of 2013 (and the past few years prior) has been broken. Giving credit where credit is due, I have to say that Melanie was an integral part of the process. I feel liberated in ways, uncertain in others, but stronger and happier for it. Many new challenges have presented themselves, and the process of working through them is exciting. This is also the busiest summer we have had in a while. We are constantly on the go, never a moment or a day where we just sit back and relax. School starts in a month and there will be plenty of times that we will be forced to slow down to adapt to Apollo's school schedule, and honestly I am not looking forward to a regimented routine.
  The Airport Club has been our guilty pleasure this summer. I have to say that it is a really nice club. We are there nearly every day. With the warm weather, we are in the pool with the boys 3 to 5 times per week.
   Its hard to not love swimming, but to watch the boys hone their skills has been a real treat for me. Apollo started the season hesitant to put his face in the water, and now he is swimming all over the pool,  doing front and back flips underwater, swimming to the bottom of the pool, and interacting with new friends. Orion, started the season wanting to spend his time in the shallow kid pool, or on the steps of the big pool. In Hawaii, he decided to start holding his breath and go underwater. Once we got back, he gained momentum at the club, and started to go deeper and hold his breath longer and longer. This past week (a month after Hawaii), Orion started to tell me that he couldn't "swim like Apollo," and would do so in an unhappy manner. I kept telling him that his mom and I would teach him how to swim like his brother, but in his normal defiant manner, he would yell, "NO! I don't want you to teach me!"
  As with everything else he does, Orion decided on his own, when he would let go of the hand rail at the pool stairs, and try his hand at swimming. That day was this past Saturday.

  "Dada," he began, "I'm going to swim now! Go under water and watch me!" He took a deep breath, dropped his head below the surface of the water, let go of the hand rail and started kicking his legs. He was smiling from ear to ear as he made his way towards me.
  After a few seconds, I grabbed Orion and pushed him above water, worried that he would run out of breath.
  "Dada! I was swimming!" he snapped at me, "don't take me out of the water!"
For the next two hours, Orion swam his little heart out. We couldn't wait to show his mom when she finished her shift and joined us at the pool. In the mean time, I enjoyed the proud father moments as person after person asked me how old he was and how long he has been taking lessons for.
  "Not yet three," I would answer, "he has never had a lesson. His mom and I are teaching him." Now it was my turn to smile from ear to ear. The truth is that Orion taught himself, all from watching his brother and other kids swimming. In the mean time, I will take a bit of credit for his swimming abilities, until he is old enough to call me out on it...which will probably be sometime in the near future.