HKfamily5 Closes 2018

2018 was a year of travels and significant steps for us as a family. Our family grew in 2018 by .25. Five years ago when our chihuahua Artemis had to be put to sleep because of cancer, I was granted my wish to take a break away from dogs. The deal was for a 5-year break. That was 2013, and after five years of the kids begging, I finally caved and started the search for our next pup. The pup of choice landed on a German Shorthair Pointer. We picked up the little puppy right before Xmas, so in a way, the kids got a puppy for Christmas. You probably couldn’t tell from our Xmas tree this year.

We took P. on a road trip to Chico where we picked up the puppy. We wanted her to pick the pup out because we wanted her to bond with him. So we are now the HK5.25 with the newest addition of little August Nova or “Auggie” for short. The kids love him to death and papa has fallen in love with him for sure. Everyone says this changes everything for us now as a family, but I expect him to tie us down too much. If it does change, we did get out on a bang in 2018 it was a considerable travel year for the whole family.

We skipped our annual pilgrimage to Aptos to spend Spring Break in Hawaii with AMA and Uncle Chris. Besides enjoying paradise with family, the kids got to experience their first real dose of snorkeling and Margot and Paley adventured so far to swim with the turtles. Paley and I got so close to touching them. In May, Clem and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary early with a trip to NYC to see a few shows. We got to see the opening weekend of The Boys in the Band starring Jim Parsons and Matt Bomer, and then Laurie Metcalf in her much deserved Tony win in Three Tall Women. We also got to see the limited run of In and Of Itself an illusion and mind twist show.

Later in the summer, we did our first family only trip to the east coast. We spent a week on Nantucket, several days in Provincetown, followed with almost a week back in NYC. The kids got a treat seeing three shows on the trip; the highlight is 6 hours long Harry Potter and Cursed Child. Along with trip Coney Island and the usual visit to Serendipity, which let's be honest is in dire need of updating. With the amount of money that place rakes in, they should at least buy some new tables or chairs. It seemed like every table was lopsided.

All three kids headed off to camp this summer, each spending two weeks straight at camp. The twins are still doing day camp, while Paley did her second summer at away camp but doing two straight weeks. We survived, and Paley started getting homesick the night before she was to head home. She’s already talking about next summer and of course, which we have already booked. The twins will probably go to away camp after First Grade. They’re still too young.

Paley turned 10 this year, and already we are seeing the middle school years on fast approach. She spent her birthday with close family and close friends on a catamaran ride on Monterey Bay. The whole family loved the trip and us eager to do it again soon. Sadly some of our guests weren’t that in love. The twins turned 6 this year, and instead of a big party, we opted for Disneyland Trip to celebrate. This time we took the Grandmas to make it extra special.

At the close of the year, we decided to keep close to home for the holidays. The kids are spending a lot of time with their new puppy, and we are enjoying some home time. We are looking forward to 2019 because we have some big events coming up in the New Year. From Clem’s cousins wedding the fall to Clem turning 50 right around the same time. We have two family trips planned for the New Year. We also look forward to more significant changes coming with Paley moving on to Middle School. See you in 2019.