The Railsback Family: March 2024

March is time for spring soccer!

Annika's team moved up to P2 and will have their work cut out for them this spring.

They did get second in the spring kick off tournament, and only lost by the difference of one more goal against them in a tiebreaker.

Annika was selected for the district honors orchestra which is comprised of students from eleven middle schools in the district who audition for a spot.

Conducted by Dr. Renee Gilliand, Director of Orchestras for the University of Colorado, Annika loved the opportunity to play with other highly motivated musicians.

In March Sarah got Student of the Month for the trait of kindness.

Catie and I took a half day to go snow shoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park.

And Naomi got an academic pin.

I should take a second here to say that if you only look at these photos, you get a tiny snippet of our life and it might look like we've kindof got it together. Don't be fooled -- what you don't see in the photos are the arguments, sometimes relevant, sometimes over who stole the sweatshirt out of someone else's closet. You don't see the miscommunications and the tears that can result. You don't see what passes for dinner on crazy nights, which is many nights. You don't see the unfinished home projects like the half painted ceiling that has been that way for a year, and it's not even slightly subtle. The point is, I love our full and wonderful life, and we're still a mess. Maybe one of these months I'll do a blog of only our messes to keep it real. Until then...

Here's Naomi on the first day of Spring Break with a fruit pizza for breakfast to start her Sweet Sixteen celebration!

As is typical for Saturdays, she spent all day dancing. This day a subset did a performance at the library to advertise their upcoming ballet, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in which Naomi plays Susan.

While she was gone we did a little decorating at home.

Dave and Val travelled from Florida with these Gulf shrimp for a shrimp boil they did to celebrate Timothy and Naomi's birthdays!

Sweet 12 *and* Sweet 16!

It was so yummy!

Amelia came by with sixteen gifts for sixteen years of friendship.

The birthday kids and the amazing dessert Val made.

Opening the presents that Sarah and Annika bought for her.

The next day these two skiied A Basin with Clifton...

...while Naomi had a dance party with Atticus who hung with us for the weekend.

That night Naomi had her friends over to hang out for her birthday.

It was pretty laid back, but I did at least make a cake.

They decided to spend their evening painting portraits of the person to their left.

Early the next morning we flew to San Francisco which was Naomi's surprise birthday present. Every time I buy a 6am plane ticket, I think it will be worth it for all the money we're saving. And then there's the getting up at 2:30am to make a 6am flight part.

We were in SF by 8am, got our rental car, and grabbed some breakfast.

Early impressions of city life with a dead rat on the sidewalk. :) I should say that it was otherwise one of the cleanest cities I've visited.

We hit all the highlights starting with walking through Chinatown.

This is such a great part of SF!

We walked Lombard Street, the "crookedest in the world" with its eight hairpin turns in one block.

And we visited Fisherman's Wharf.

I've never had such good weather in SF.

We ended up with a Jeep Wrangler which brought out a side of Clifton that apparently our minivan doesn't.

Naomi was digging it too.

On our way to our Air B&B we hit the beach.

Is there anything better than the ocean?

We got pretty good at navigating public transportation to not deal with parking.

Boat ride to Alcatraz

We highly recommend this outing -- it was a favorite part of our trip.

There was a self-paced audio tour which had really great information.

This is Naomi's actual level of anxiety to take one step into a solitary confinement cell. I'm pretty sure a life of crime is not in her future.

Sarah? Less anxious. More crime.

This is the cell from one of the most famous escape attempts (depicted in the movie Escape from Alcatraz).

This is the view of SF from Alcatraz.

Can't pass up clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl.

We were super tourists on a cable car and learned that the cable car system in San Francisco is the last manually operated cable car system in the world.

They actually did this during the ride and no one lost a limb.

Annika wanted to run the 1.8 mile span of the Golden Gate Bridge to get in shape for track season.

Off she goes.

I walked. Sarah ran a hefty chunk of it too.

We spent a half day doing an eight mile hike in Muir Woods.

It was gorgeous to hike among the redwoods.

So massive.

That afternoon we hit the beach.

We drove to Drakes Beach because we heard it was a-mazing only to learn that the beach was closed due to mama seals raising their pups. So you can't even be mad about it. Those brown lumps that look like logs? 800 pound baby seals.

Instead we hit North Beach which was perfect with waves like the girls had never seen.

Pictures cannot capture the majesty and power of the water.

We took turns riding shotgun along the PCH.

We did this fun hike along the shore with this amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge. I rarely add filters to photos, but when I try to make the bridge red, you apparently get cotton candy clouds.

If you have a half day in SF, Lands End Trail is worth the walk.

We had a rainy last evening on our trip and found last minute tickets to the San Francisco Ballet!

We watched one of our favorites -- A Midsummer Night's Dream.

On our last day we went to the Marine Mammal Center and learned about all the animals cared for and released again to the wild. So cool.

Back at spring soccer -- better competition so a lot of opportunity for growth and working as a team, even when a game doesn't go your way.

Sarah's been playing mostly center back but she'll hop into scoring position when given the chance.

Easter baskets. We know someone who sets out empty Easter baskets every year with a note "Your baskets are like the tomb -- empty!" I considered it this year given all we had going on but apparently our kids still enjoy this tradition so....