BACK ON THE HORSE (cont’d)

Last night’s soccer game went well. After being overly self conscious about my foot for the first few minutes I fell back in to the rhythm of the game, although my touch was severely lacking, I felt no ill effects of the play on my foot or ankle, and this morning I walked out of bed without a limp. A large hurdle in my recovery has just been cleared. I think next week it may be time to test things out on the slippery moss-covered rocks of a trout stream.

Back to the long overdue update of the past few months…

I celebrated my 33rd birthday with a few new gray hairs, and a number of close friends that had already journeyed up to our pad to hang out at the aforementioned pirate party. We all went out to dinner while my parents hung around to put the boys to bed. We followed up with a few drinks and laughs as we all circled around the table for a game of Kings. We made up about half of the rules as we went along, but still had a fun time reminiscing over a classic college card game.

A few weekends later the boys headed south to Poway for a weekend with their grandparents while Rhiannon and I enjoyed a quiet weekend as a couple. We toyed with the idea of getting out of town ourselves, but in the end decided that a relaxing weekend away from any responsibilities or schedules seemed a better option than the complications that a last minute vacation might create. We found a few new restaurants in town including a great Mexican restaurant down in the canyon with huge oak trees rising out of its patio, and a new teppan Japanese restaurant that rivaled the always dependable Beni Hanna’s. We went to the movies twice which doubles the number of trips we made in all of 2007. I caught up on some college basketball (how romantic) and we both slept more than we probably had all year. It was a good break, but by the end of the weekend we were definitely jonesing for our son's little giggles to fill the quiet house they had left behind. The boys meanwhile enjoyed a fun weekend with their grandparents complete with a ride on the new commuter train, the Sprinter - they still haven’t stopped talking about it.

The first weekend of the NCAA basketball tourney I headed out to Vegas to enjoy the festivities with a number of friends, including all three of the Reynolds’ brothers. It was a little awkward hobbling around town in my walking boot, a few times I had to ask people to walk a little slower for me, but the lights of the city quickly washed out my anxiety. On Friday we spent the entire day at a poolside cabana, yelling at the television while our fortunes bounced up and down. USD pulled off the upset of the tournament by beating Connecticut, and much celebrating was had after their incredible win. It was a rare treat to spend a weekend with Ben, Nate and Jay, (not to mention Iwan and Justin) and we all began hashing out a time this summer when we can hopefully all again converge together at a river in Utah.

We had a fun Easter complete with several Easter egg hunts. Landon’s egg hunting skills have improved significantly over last year, and he also seemed to be aware of the widening gap between his skills and his younger brother’s. As the boys poked around the yard Landon would often find an egg and then pull Colt over to ask him if he could find the egg after pointing him in the general direction. Considering Landon’s love for the sugary jelly beans held within each egg, this was a very thoughtful and selfless gesture that kind of caught his parents off guard. Landon and Colt become better friends with each passing day. They now have conversations in the car together, invent new games, and generally seem to enjoy sharing the day. At night Landon gives Colt four kisses (because he is four years old) and wishes him goodnight. It’s awesome to watch them develop a bond that they will share for the rest of their lives.

The summer is rapidly approaching, and plans for the months ahead include a backpacking trip to the Sierras, a family trip to Hawaii, some family camping trips into the local mountains, and hopefully a trip to Utah. Next weekend I will be registering Landon for his first soccer season, scheduled for the fall of 2008, and I will be registering myself to be his team coach – I can’t wait!

I’d love to fluff up my feathers and announce that I will be back to this journal soon, but rather than make an empty promise, instead I will vow to visit here again…period.

BACK ON THE HORSE

I am going to play soccer tonight. It will be the first time I will have kicked the ball around for almost nine weeks. I got clearance to ditch the walking boot that was protecting my broken foot three weeks ago, and have been running a few times recently, crawled around on some boulders with the family at the local trout stream, and am ready to test it out between the chalk lines. Regrettably, those nine weeks also represent the last time I have written anything in this journal – not for lack of events or interest, but mostly due to a lack of time.

Six weeks in a walking boot and crutches is not a fun way to spend the end of winter/start of spring. No fly fishing, no surfing, no running after or carrying my boys. The end of lobster season came and went. I don’t think that Landon or Colt ever really grasped the extent of my injury. They would look at my funny shoe and acknowledge that I had an “owwie” and they seemed to understand that I couldn’t pick them up or carry them around. My crutches made fun toys to wave around. But almost every day they would hopefully ask if my “owwie” was gone, and disappointedly frown when I pointed to my still armored foot.

But all is better (knock on wood) and forgotten now. Last Sunday we journeyed over the bumpy dirt road that eventually parallels Trabuco Creek, and the boys spent the late afternoon throwing rocks in the water, looking at bugs, and generally relishing in getting dirty. I was able to not only pick them up, but to also navigate stream crossings and boulder hopping with a boy in tow. I didn’t see any trout, and the only newt I tracked down scurried under a large rock before I could point him out to Landon, but it was an awesome way to spend a spring afternoon nonetheless. The flowers and trees were embracing the season, there was even a small stone fly hatch to watch. Colt repeatedly licked dirt from his fingers.

March 1st we celebrated both of the boys’ birthdays with a pirate themed extravaganza at the local park. It’s hard to comprehend that Landon is already four and Colt now two, it seems like we were getting ready to go to the hospital only weeks ago. The party included a thirty foot long pirate ship bounce house and slide that dominated the park. We had a treasure hunt, cupcakes adorned with skulls and crossbones, and lots of kids running around with pirate hats on their bouncing little heads. Landon’s two close friends from school, Andrew and Jack, attended, and the three of them raced around like a miniature version of the three musketeers. I hobbled around like a peg legged participant, and even grew a pirate beard of sorts for the festivities. The boys both got overly spoiled with presents (again) and all of the family and friends coming together to celebrate our little munchkins made for a memorable afternoon.

A few weeks later we headed out to celebrate Colt’s actual birthday as a family, with a second attempt at an Amtrak ride to San Juan Capistrano. This time we boarded the train and Colt giggled as he bumped along on his first ‘real diesel’ train ride. We got a quick bite to eat at Ruby’s and watched the model trains chug around the ceiling. Then we raced back down to the station (as much as I could race on crutches) so we wouldn’t miss our return connection. We got there just in time and sat down on a bench to catch our breath and wait for the train’s arrival. And we waited. And then we waited some more. It was a hot spring afternoon so eventually Rhiannon decided to trudge over to the ticket booth to find out what had caused the delay. She returned with a look of disbelief - another bummed out person decided it was a good Saturday to die, and jumped in front of the train down in Solana Beach. This was the second suicide that had confounded our plans to ride the rail within the past three weeks! Either this is an epidemic that I was never aware of, or we are some sort of beacon, pulling miserable souls to the tracks like moths to a flame. Regardless, we were stuck at the train station with two tired boys in the ever warming afternoon sun. It was a long three hours, but we finally made it home. The boys were pumped again on the train ride, although I informed them that we wouldn’t be coming back for a very long time…

I have a lot more to write, but my commute home and soccer game are beckoning, so I will be back soon… I promise… maybe as early as tomorrow.