Cake Boss

The other night Hrishi came over and introduced Vaughn to a show called 'Cake Boss', a TLC show about a baker named Buddy Valastro in Hoboken, NJ. The Cake Boss website sells shirts that say things like "Bada Bing, Bada Boom!" and "You Want a Piece of This?"

Fifteen episodes (in 24 hours) later Vaughn is saying things like, "I WILL own my own cake shop in exactly one year- mark my words!" When we pointed out he had chocolate on his face, he snarled, "It's a cake scar!"

Yesterday was his first attempt to make a "cake" on his own, despite the fact that I wouldn't drive him to the craft store for special molding chocolate. I put cake in parenthesis because the base of this culinary feat was rice crispy treats; something that felt permissible to Vaughn since Buddy uses them for framing. I'm including a picture of him next to his slightly overly decorated basketball masterpiece which you know is too sugary when 11 year olds won't even eat it.

While we were getting ready for bed last night he was lamenting the fact that between comic book writing, shoe designing, cake decorating and the NBA - he was really filling up on hobbies. I felt like a kill-joy but I had to point out that next week middle school was starting and so there'd be that too.

The Adidas Tour

My recent crusade has been to introduce Vaughn to careers that touch basketball but aren't actually playing basketball in the event that the NBA becomes a dream deferred. I'm hoping this will also help him see that school can lead to really cool jobs since after he starts middle school I imagine we'll be in for one long string of why-do-I-have-to-learn-this?

One of the things he loves to do is design and draw basketball shoes- a natural combination of his skills and passions. Like Jacob, he's doggedly determined when he's into something and he told me that he spent a half hour on the computer the other night trying to find out what the fabric was that lined the inside of his shoe. At the risk of seeming like a helicopter parent, I enlisted my friend Jill to use her connections to get him a tour at the Adidas campus with her friend, Anthony, who does shoe design for the skateboard division.

Vaughn got up early today and in typical fashion, carefully picked out his best all-Adidas outfit for the occasion and then pulled together his list of questions and two shoe designs (which, despite gentle prodding on my part, were never pulled out of my bag).

Anthony was amazing and spent well over an hour taking us around to see all the steps in the Adidas shoe design process. When he had to leave for a meeting, he left us with his co-worker, Thomas, who designs for the basketball division. Unfortunately by this time, Vaughn was wearing down a little, which was understandable since we had been there for almost two hours and had walked all over the campus and learned so much.

Out of all the people we met, three of them said they had begun drawing and designing shoes when they were right around Vaughn's age. It will be interesting to see where he ends up in life but I think a job where you get to play basketball at work on your lunch hour has to be high on the list.

Vaughn with Dwight Howard and Damian Lillard's shoes

Whitewater

Last weekend my dad invited Vaughn, Jacob, Hrishi and I to go rafting with him on the White Salmon river. None of us except my dad had ever been and whitewater rafting is one of those quintessential Oregon things and so we were definitely overdue.

I came well stocked with a giant tube of sunscreen but realized that I had totally forgotten to bring any sun-protecting lip balm. After getting burnt in Hawaii, I wasn't taking any chances and so I went to Wet Planet's store and bought the only lip protectant they had - a tin of zinc-based lip AND face sunblock.

There were about 40 people in our group and we all gathered around in a large circle to listen to the instructions as to how to get our gear. I wandered over kind of late and so I was positioned across from everyone else.  Jacob also got burnt in Hawaii and although he had already applied a base coat of normal sunblock, he decided to use this time to layer up with a coat of my white, zinc paste. Zinc based sunblock does not blend in. It stays like a layer of creamy paint on the skin and by the time he was finished, Jacob really looked like a splinter version of that Blue Man Group. Similar - but different. A woman standing next to me leaned over and said to her mom, "Man, that dude's really putting on the sunblock." It was a totally fair comment and one I probably would have made if I wasn't married to the river-going mime. Still, I kind of had to bust her. I turned and said, "It's zinc-based sunblock - it doesn't blend in. It was the only kind they sold in the store" and then smiled sweetly as I watched her face squish up as her brain

tried to connect my relationship to the man across the circle while figuring out how embarrassed she should be. For his part, Jacob wasn't even a tiny bit embarrassed - which is why we love him.

Unfortunately, I don't have a single picture of this or any shots from the day. I had to steal this picture from someone else's White Salmon experience.

You May Be Experiencing Some Changes

Vaughn's class is doing the big fifth grade puberty talk this week and he and his class are all aflutter. I felt a little remiss in our parenting duties when I saw that his pre-test was basically a series of 'don't knows.' We did the big talk on where babies come from a couple years ago (complete with a book!) but I guess we neglected to think a refresher course was necessary since just recently he asked me if families where two men have a baby would have a shot at super tall kids (probably mentally replacing me with any number of our tall male friends to increase his NBA chances).

Anyway, they have been disappointed each day that the separate male/female talk gets postponed and yet each day when he thinks it is going to happen there is a bit of posturing about how it is likely to be 'the worst day ever' since it will be 'so boring' with health class. The other fifth grade class is ahead of them and has already had their big separate talk. Apparently Vaughn's class spent recess yesterday peppering their more worldly collegues with questions only to be told that it gets 'much worse.' That's puberty for you.

Into the Clouds - Goodbye Hawaii

I read recently that Hawaii was again voted the 'least stressed' state in the U.S. It's not surprising; things move slower here and you either get with the program and get on Hawaiian time or you get frustrated.

For our final day here, the Mestman family decided to go hike Waihee Ridge trail while the Moyers opted to stay behind and get in a final snorkeling trip. We had a really hard time finding a consistent set of directions to the trailhead and were already kind of nervous to return to the area where we'd been foiled by a locked gate earlier in the week. Inevitably we got lost and had to pull over to ask directions twice. The second time we drove down a narrow dirt road toward a sign pointing toward a farmer's market. The "farmer's market" turned out to just be a guy at a card table in the middle of a road surrounded by maybe ten houses. Jacob parked the car and walked up around a bend to get directions while Vaughn and I stayed with the car.

After maybe fifteen minutes I was hot, antsy and maybe a little worried. Where the heck was Jacob? There were a bunch of trees blocking my view so I couldn't seen where he had gone off to. Was he being axe-murdered at that very moment (faithful readers of my blog will remember that axe-murdering is a logical conclusion in my mind)? He finally came back with directions and a small bag of groceries. Apparently the farmer had to go into his house to retrieve the laptop to hunt down directions. Then there was the pouring over various reviews of the trail we were going to hike. When Jacob bought papayas, he had to stop him from leaving the stand to go chop down new ripe ones for him. Jacob mentioned that we had been a little confused and frustrated by the lack of signs to which he just smiled and shrugged saying, "This is Hawaii dude."

The trail was 2.5 miles up 1,500 feet to the top of the ridge and it was every bit as thrilling and idyllic as we hoped. Though he started off apprehensive, Vaughn really got into it and carried his own pack the entire way. The top was packed in fog and so our valley views were obscured but the damp breeze felt heavenly after the steep climb. When we got to the top there was a family with several young Hawaiian children picnicking. We had already decided we wouldn't linger at the summit and would instead eat on the way down. As we turned to go I heard one of the little girls say, "That was quick. They must be on their way to a party." Ahhh, Hawaiian life.

Hawaii Days - Pt. 3

Jacob and Vaughn are taking advantage of the time difference from home and getting up every morning at 5:30 to drive down the road and play basketball for a couple hours. I admire their dedication. I'm also up at 5:30 each morning but I just lay in bed and wonder if I'll really eat the kale we bought today or if it will be another day of Costco mai tais and dark chocolate.

We've seen three different groups from Oregon here. I know this because, unlike other states, people from Oregon seem to like to wear shirts that signify we are from Oregon (confession: I brought my Portland shirt). Apparently the weather in Portland is miserable right now and it's a good time to be away.

Today we decided to brave the road to Hana - as much of it as we all could tolerate anyway. The road is super narrow and windy and if the carsickness doesn't get you, two 11 years old occupying themselves with repetitive rhyming games will. Plus, that awesome spot you read about in the guidebook? Yeah there's good chance the three available parking spots for that area are taken.

We stopped off at a great bamboo lined trail that had so much promise but after about 15 minutes of hiking we had to admit that it seemed unlikely there would be a waterfall anytime soon. Back in the car we went and shortly we came to a great little waterfall and pool area where we hung out for about an hour of swimming. It definitely felt like what we were looking for and so when the next spot up the road was a bust, we decided to turn back around and make a short pit stop at a state park to eat lunch and then head down the road in search of gelato.

Tonight Jacob and I have a date night and we are going to see a comedy/magic show. Normally this is not my cup of tea but the reviews have been great so I guess you could say I'm cautiously optimistic.

A Jacob Fish

Hawaii Days Pt. 2

Now I've done it. It's only Wednesday and I'm burnt. Oh to have genetics that translated into "sunkissed" instead of "Tan Mom's Twin - the pink one" (a comparison driven home by the fact that my hair has become like straw with the salt water and pool). Still, it was a pretty epic day. We found a fantastic beach for boogie boarding, a sport I've come to term "extreme neti potting" based on how many times I bail off the board (one time losing my bikini bottoms down to my knees, mercifully while deep in the drink).

Here is a picture of my sweet guys tuckered out after hours of sun and surf.