Summer vacation is over

Wow, what a busy several days it's been. And it promises to be another busy week, now that Todd's back with us full-time :-) Summer vacation is over! But at least it ended with a bang :-)

So, I left off my last blog post anticipating our work's annual Tech Retreat, in which the entire engineering department (nearly 200 people) goes somewhere overnight to blow off some steam.

This year, we headed up to Pismo Beach (about 1.5 hours north) to partake of some team-building exercises reminiscent of "Amazing Race" (anyone ever see that TV show?). Essentially, we were split into about 17 teams of around 8-10 people each, and given 5 hours to complete 7 missions. A bit of strategizing was required to ensure we completed them all successfully within the allotted time.

Our missions? Involved a variety of talents. Building sand castles and taking photographs took some creative skills. The four-person bicycle relay race and kayaking required physical strength. Throwing frisbees through small targets entailed a bit of hand-eye coordination. Finding the answers to the quiz made us put our thinking caps on. And eating oyster shooters? That took a bit of nerve-- and stomach (and for me, dousing my fresh, raw oyster in plenty of sauce)!

Our team did reasonably well. We came in 2nd place for fastest time to finish the 4-person-bike race, and we won the sand-castle building competition, hands-down! Not only was our creation the longest, but it was the most fantastical-- instead of creating an actual structure, our "castle" evolved into a beached dragon (sea monster?) complete with stone eyeball and teeth!

We wound down the evening by heading off to our hotel rooms (we stayed at the Cliffs Resort, a boutique hotel) for some serious scrubbing down. That's when I discovered my face was quite sunburnt! We enjoyed dinner and casino night (fake money, of course). I didn't play, but I did have fun wandering from table to table, watching everyone else play.

Next morning, I realized just how physically exhausting the previous day had been, running around the beach all day. I was so stiff and sore I decided to skip what Allan and I had originally planned for Friday-- a trip to Hearst Castle. Which is too bad, since I'd never been there before, and it was a free trip, but I would never have survived all that walking and stair-climbing the tour would've entailed. Instead, Allan went by himself and I slept in till checkout time, and then just hung out by the pool, spending quite a bit of time soothing my aching muscles in the jacuzzi. I think if I didn't have to drive to LA that same night, I might've chanced the Hearst Castle tour and just spent the weekend recuperating.

Anyway... picked up Todd and brought him back Saturday night. Sunday we had a barbecue on the beach (no! not more SAND!) for Todd's school, where Todd met one of his classmates and proceeded to have a blast playing with his new friend in the sand and on the playground. We got to chat with the boy's parents, and got along pretty well.

And then... drumroll... Todd's first day at school today! He looked adorable in his uniform. Although after dropping him off this morning, I realized he was the only boy wearing a white polo shirt-- all the other boys (and most of the girls) wore burgundy. Yes, I was the silly mother who decided it would be a good idea to stock her rambunctious little boy's closet with half burgundy shirts, and half white shirts-- where inevitable stains show much better! D'oh! Well, when it comes time to buy bigger shirts for him, I will do it the right way then :-P

There are only 6 kids in Todd's class, 3 boys and 3 girls. Good mix, methinks. And it turns out that although he is the youngest in his class, he is also the tallest. How's that for a combination? At least he won't be intimidated by any of his classmates ;-)

Ok... one more hour till we go pick him up, find out how he did on his first day, have lunch, and drop him off at after-school care for the rest of the afternoon. And so another busy week begins...