We Asked, You Answered July 2018
What Does Your Family Get Up to Do Now That School is Out for Summer?
By Ann Carin Niland
Mike Hance, 37, of the West Side, two girls, 5 and 2. Interviewed at
Anna Jean Cummings Park
“Both girls will be in preschool this summer,“ said Mike. “that will be for most of the day. I’m a teacher at the University, so I have a relaxed summer schedule and so I spend some time with them in the afternoon. Will go to Tahoe for a week. Will go to visit family for a week. And then they start back at school in August.”
Coryn Gardiner, 42, a boy 7, of Live Oak. Interviewed at Live Oak Elementary School
“My mom will be coming down, so he will be hanging out with
grandma a lot, and also at the Boys and Girls Club. There might be a trip to Idaho to visit grandma. The beach… A lot of beach. We are doing Tahoe for a little bit. I am actually going to meet my mom there for my birthday. She’s going to meet me there and then come back with us. This is the first time we are doing that. It’s kind of halfway between both of us”
Cameron McCracken, 33, of the West Side, two boys, 2 and 10. Interviewed at Anna Jean Cummings Park
“I’m busy with them when I’m not working. I’m a firefighter so I’m busy with the wildfires a lot during the summertime. But my days off I usually spend with them, we hang out at the house, go to parks, go to movies. things like that. Every once in a while we will take a little road trip. Their mom‘s sister lives in Minnesota, so sometimes we will road trip across the country, and camp.
Steffanie Martinez Oranika, 35, of Live Oak, three boys 16, 16 and 15. Interviewed at Live Oak Elementary School
“Every year they’ll visit family on the East Coast,” said Steffanie. “I
have family there too, so they will go visit their side of the family and I go visit my family, and we meet in the middle. We are out there for at least three weeks. While we’re out there I’m going on a cruise. We’ll leave from Florida. We are going to be going to Bermuda, and some of the islands near the Bahamas. We kind of spin around for five days.”
Ian Dixon, 40, of Live Oak, two boys 10 and 7. Interviewed at Live Oak Elementary School
“Last year we took a lot of trips to the grandparents,” said Ian. “They live in pretty fun areas in Colorado and Oregon. It was a lot of travel last summer, so this summer we’re not going anywhere we’re staying home. So we’re getting heavy into park and rec camps, Gymnastics camp, Beach, baseball camp stuff like that. And that’ll be maybe half the summer, and the other half were just leaving open so we can veg out on video games or have people come to town and just be spontaneous. We try to have a mix.”
Jennifer and Jack Eskenazi, have a boy, 7 and a girl, 5.
Interviewed at The Farm
“She’s doing little guards, and he is doing Junior Guards at Simpkins,” said Jennifer. “They’re doing a couple of camps. She’s doing a ballet camp and he is doing a camp at Cabrillo.” The little boy was sitting nearby, and said that he wanted to keep his camp a secret. “We’re going down to LA for about a week. And we’re going to Yosemite for a few days, so it’s a mixture of camps and trips for our family.”
Ann Carin Niland is a parent, student, and intersectional feminist. She hasn’t quite adjusted to writing about herself in the third person.
