Jordan and Kyra and Bad Parenting

How not to set a good example for your kids (I don't remember my parents ever doing anything like this):

Steven and Doug heading out for the tournament

• August 2007: Make arrangements to play in a golf tournament on a school day .
• Wednesday October 3, 2007: Pull the kids out of school at noon to drive 500 miles to the golf tournament.
• Thursday October 4, 2007 (a school day): Spend the day playing a practice round of golf.
• Friday October 5, 2007 (a school day): Play the tournament. Eat way too much food at the banqet.
• Saturday October 6, 2007: Lounge by the pool all day. Get up off the chaise lounge to shower and eat a decadent dinner.
• Sunday, October 7, 2007: Get up late. Pack your stuff slowly. Eat a huge brunch and try not to think about the 500-mile drive home.

View Larger Map

• Sunday, October 7, 2007 (1:00 pm): We're getting a late start, the kids have school tomorrow...
  I-5, Highway 1, I-5... OK, Highway 1 it is.

Sean at Bird Rock Beach

• Sunday, October 7, 2007 (5:00 pm): It's late and we've got 500 miles to go tonight but 17-Mile Drive is so beautiful and any place that beautiful must have great educational value, shouldn't it?
• Sunday, October 7, 2007 (8:15 pm): Wow it's late, and we've got 340 miles to go and the kids have school tomorrow-- let's spend the night in Cambria.

Harbor seals along 17-mile drive

• Monday, October 8, 2007 (8:00 am): Hello, this is Steven/Sean's mother. Steven/Sean won't be at school today, we've been, uh, delayed, getting home ...
• Monday, October 8, 2007 (1:00 pm): Let's drive through the Santa Maria wine country just like they did in Sideways.

The Lone Cypress

• Monday, October 8, 2008 (11:00 pm): Thank God we're home. Kids, get busy on your school work, tomorrow's going to be a rough day and just think of all the work you'll need to make up.

It's been over 3 months and I think I'm still feeling a little guilty about that trip.

But the weather was breathtakingly beautiful and clear and we could see for miles and miles across the ocean and there was nobody on the road because it was a regular school/work day and for that weekend it felt like California might just be God's Country.

Monterey Cypress

And we helped raise a bunch of money for kids with brain tumors and their families.

The last time Doug and I took that drive down the coast together was on the way home from Kyra's funeral, baby Steven strapped into his car seat, Sean a mere gleam in his father's eye, the pouring rain a fitting accompaniment to our tears.

Sunset

Hopefully we did right by our angels Jordan and Kyra, maybe, just maybe they were smiling back at us.

- Kathleen