Life seems to get in the way!

On our way out from Colorado to California Mason received the phone call saying he made the coveted soccer team he wanted with the coach he wanted.  Thrilled is an understatement...he was ecstatic and we were pretty proud of him for working hard to get what he wanted.  Then I find out at the end of June that he had a mandatory team camp in Boulder the third week in July.  Fortunately our family friends The Blessings graciously offered to host Mason and we are flying him back.  This past week it got even more complex, he has not one but two tournaments before August 15th when we had expected to be back in town.  Ultimately what this all means is that our plan to sail south to Catalina is out the window.

I've heard people say many times that parenting is the most challenging job in the world.  As a new parent when you hear this you think about temper tantrums, sleep deprivation etc (or at least I did) but what I find the hardest is constantly questioning whether you are making the right decision.  This was one of those moments that I find myself questioning.  In some ways I want to just flip the middle finger to life and all its complexities and yet sometimes, as in this case I know it's the right thing to do for Mason since he worked so hard to get here.  Doesn't mean I have to like it though...and I do not! :(

The debate is on for how and when we will take the boat back up to the San Francisco Bay and Napa Valley Marina for winter storage.  I would like to wait till the last possible moment, Keith is so disheartened by the change of plans that he wants to take it up tomorrow.  Somehow we'll figure out the happy medium we can both live with.  In the meantime I plan on enjoying my summer home as much as possible.

We've been hang'n out in front of the Boardwalk and I'm really getting to like that location.  I love the peace and quiet in the mornings and the background noise of the Boardwalk in the evenings.  We've taken advantage of a couple of the Friday night bands on the beach...last week we saw Modern English and that was a blast.  On Wednesdays they have a movie on the beach so I think we might try that out this week.  The only drawback seems to be we still get rock'n pretty good when the wind pushes the boat parallel to the surf and the ride in on the dinghy early in the morning (which is infrequent luckily).  I think the kids are also adjusting as they opted to stay on the boat last Saturday and just hang out vs whining to go or do something. They read, played Lego's or watched Mason play his computer games.  One of the funniest things they do is play hide-and-go-seek on the boat.   For that type of game you wouldn't think that there would be many choices of places to hide...after all the boat isn't THAT big.  Amazingly they find hidey holes and more then once given up on the find.  I love when they play like this as it makes for great memories they will always share.