Anna baked the challah for our Shabbat celebration on Friday night

Our weekend began on Friday with Anna wanting to do a formal shabbat celebration. When Jude was in third grade (when they study Judaism in the Waldorf school) we had these nearly every weekend but for Anna we have only down it a couple of times. So, Anna found a recipe for challah bread, kneaded the dough and wrapped the braids to make the challah. The result was a delicious warm bread to have with our grape juice.

Jude making a “countdown” until the end of term, 23 1/2 school days to go

The weather was fantastic this weekend, the warmest of the year so far with both days close to 80 degrees. Jude had soccer on both Saturday and Sunday which made him happy. He also scored his first goal of the season and played well during both games.

Anna after her golf lesson with her new bag

Anna decided not to play soccer this season so she has had tennis and golf lessons. Tennis ended this weekend, it was just a four week program but Anna would like to continue to play. She is in the middle of the golf program and she seems to like that too. She also loves the accessories and we had to buy her a new bag because the one we got her last year broke. We picked up a nice $5 used bag that she loved.

Anna making her pizza crust

There was more baking tonight as we made our own pizza from scratch. This was something we used to do regularly a few years ago and it was Anna’s idea to do it again. Marcy made the pizza dough and we each made our own pizza with our favorite toppings.

Anna and Reed eating cupcakes and enjoying the fruits of their labor

We woke up on Saturday morning to snow. It is not unusual for late April in Denver but it is still disruptive nonetheless. We only had a about 2″ but it never stuck to the sidewalks or roads. It was enough snow that all sport was canceled on Saturday, this included Jude’s soccer, Anna’s tennis and Jude’s golf.

We just hung around at home most of the day venturing out to the bookstore and for Indian food at lunch time. Then on Saturday Anna went for a play date at Reed’s house while Jude had a friend over here. That evening Jude, Eric and I went to the school to see the senior projects which was really fun. Reed came over to our house for a sleepover – they slept on the top floor where they built a fort.

This morning they wanted to make cupcakes. So, Marcy found a recipe and for the most part left them to it. The made their own frosting and they were quite delicious.

The weather turned gorgeous today with bright sunshine and 65 degrees. Anna had her golf lesson at 10:30am and then afterwards we met up with her for lunch at the golf course and then did Aqua Golf (putt putt). It went much better this time than last time, with no meltdowns. Then we had a bike ride around Wash Park to end the day.

Speaking at LendIt Fintech USA 2018 in San Francisco

Last week was the annual LendIt USA conference. This is an all-consuming event that takes up a huge amount of my time. This year it was in San Francisco on April 9-11 which was last Monday to Wednesday. Marcy’s mom (Baba) came out to from Des Moines to stay with the kids so Marcy could make the trip to California.

The view from the Lounge where we had every meal at Half Moon Bay

On Thursday morning we checked out of the Marriott in San Francisco and headed to The Ritz-Carlton at Half Moon Bay where I had cashed in a bunch of Marriott points for three free nights. It was fantastic. The view in the above photo was literally our view for every meal we had there. We never tired of this.

Walking along the coastal trail at Half Moon Bay

We had a full three days in Half Moon Bay. On Thursday, we went for a long walk along the coastal trail that hugged the shoreline. Friday, I played golf on the Ocean Course while Marcy went for a 20-mile bike ride and explored the town. Saturday, we caught an Uber out to the redwood forest where we did another long hike but this one was in the Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space so it was a forest trail the whole way. And we had some decent elevation gain along the way. We then rented bikes in the afternoon and went down to the end of the coastal trail.

Hiking in the redwood forest

Today, we went down to the beach. If you know this area you will realize that at any time of year the ocean is cold but in April it is downright freezing. We planned on spending a bit of time walking along the beach but after a few minutes our feet were numb from the cold so we headed back.

Walking along the beach with the hotel in the background

Meanwhile, back in Denver the kids were having a great time with Baba. They had ice cream every day, watched movies and Baba drove them to their regular weekend activities like soccer, golf and tennis. But they were both happy to see us when we arrived home this evening.

Enjoying some frozen yogurt at Pinkberry

Outside the Buell Theater getting ready for Hamilton

We got very lucky back in January when Hamilton tickets went on sale in Denver. There were tens of thousands of people going for only a few thousand tickets. Tickets were allocated at random and we got in early so we got good seats for the Thursday matinee show while the kids were on Spring Break.

Jude was not all that keen to go as you can see in the above photograph. But he ended up loving it, as did all four of us. Despite the hype and the buildup it was the greatest show I have ever seen and Anna said it was the best night of her life. Marcy wants to see it again in New York or even Puerto Rico where it will be playing in January.

Decorating Easter eggs at our neighbor’s house

With the kids on Spring Break this week and no major commitments they were very much into the Easter spirit. We decorated eggs at home yesterday and then went over to our neighbor’s house for dinner where the decorated some more. Last night Marcy and I set the eggs in the backyard and some in the house for the kids Easter egg hunt. They found them all pretty quickly. They were filled with coins or candy.

Doing the backyard Easter egg hunt

The big presents we gave the kids were golf clubs for Jude and a new bike for Anna. She was eager to test it out so she went for a solo ride around the neighborhood. Then we all got on our bikes and went to Aquagolf, the local putt-putt place.

Anna testing out her new bike for the first time

Finally, in these pages I focus on the highlights of our week and I intentionally leave out the difficult or painful parts of our lives but of course these things do happen. Today was one of those days that was difficult. We all went to mini golf and what started out as a fun family outing ended in screaming, crying and worse as Jude and Anna had a huge fight. We tried to deal with it as best we could but it was very, very difficult for all of us. It lasted most of the rest of the day and we could not get past it. We continue to work on managing conflict and meltdowns, and it is by far the hardest part of parenting for us right now.