This time, last year, we had both of our boys in high school together for one year, while Logan was waiting on college acceptance letters, hoping to stay in California and, ideally, close to the water. Well…
UC Santa Barbara for the win!
Mission accomplished on not only staying in California, but close enough to surf in a moment’s notice, as the campus is literally on an ocean cliff – CHECK!
Logan has 2 great roommates, including one of his best & life-long friends, Tyler. He’s joined a fraternity, Sigma Chi. And, perhaps one of the best things he’s said about it is, “The guys are so chill, it seems like we’ve already been friends forever.” We had a blast at Parents’ Weekend, and you’ll see what I mean about “on a cliff” with the deck party at one of their fraternity houses on a gloriously perfect Saturday afternoon…in November!
In looking at his graduation pictures in the video, it is already starting to seem like a long time ago. Emily & I are super grateful that we’ve really gotten closer to his local friend group and especially over 2025. Sure, we’ve known most of them for years, but there’s something about the end of high school that naturally makes them all want to hang together more. A lot! Like at our house – on our back deck – fire pit flowing. And they’re even gracious enough to chat with us old folks! We honestly feel like hugging every one of them every time they’re over (and, again, trust me, that’s a lot of hugs!). A few months into college, and it’s exciting to see his new UCSB friendship group start to grow, and we’ve already enjoyed a few of them staying with us around the holidays.
(Tattoo sidebar: you’ll see in the video, Logan has a tattoo! He told us that he wanted one about a year ago – couldn’t decide what he wanted, but we told him that his uncle, Chris, would have to be the one to do it during our annual summer trip to Indiana. A week before we left, he said, “I want Tanaka on my arm.” I lost it, and I’m still losing it as I type. His grandfather’s mind would be blown.)
Vaughn will turn 16 at the end of May, and you know what that means…it’s learning to drive time! Before he hit that marker though, he finished his 2nd year of high school football, however, that deserves an asterisk! He practically played two seasons in one, because the sophomores had to also play up on Varsity and also practice with them whenever possible. All told? Instead of 10 games, it was 20, and multiply that by a lot of extra practices to boot! Needless to say, the kid was exhausted by the end of it, and we’re so glad he made it out uninjured. What’s more? He was Defensive Player of the Year on the Frosh-Soph team (plus the Scholar Athlete award, humble brag!).
Vaughn has also taken up a far less physically-risky hobby…he’s playing guitar – a lot! About a year ago, I was asked if either of our kids showed any interest in music, if anything maybe got passed on (IYKYK). “Nope, nothing.” Then, within a week of that question, I came home one day, and Vaughn had a guitar on the sofa, doing what all the kids do nowadays, “Learning a song off YouTube, Dad.” It was all 100% out of nowhere! Fast-forward, and he’s playing just about every day – all on his own – acoustic & electric – and we’re loving it!
Emily thought 2025 would be busy… and then it completely blew past expectations. She wrapped up her biggest project to date with California SMASH, a massive new indoor pickleball/social club in El Segundo. What started with nearly three months of hand-painted exterior murals, turned into an all-in creative collaboration, moving indoors with large-scale digital mural installations, and full branding throughout the space. Seeing her name etched into one of the steps alongside the founding partners still feels surreal. Beyond SMASH, she kept the paint flowing with several other mural projects and rolled straight into her next big adventure with Beach Babies. She’s creating large scale murals in the playgrounds of all five of their locations (2 down, 3 to go!). It’s been a full, meaningful year of creating — one she feels extremely thankful for.
In last year’s post, I loosely mentioned playing in a band for the first time with some local friends, and that we aspired to possibly play a “gig” one day…in front of our wives…or something similarly intimate. Well, that “intimate event” for our debut turned out to be a full-blown summer rager, basically the “Goodbye Bash” for all of our college bound kids. As much as the invite list might’ve gotten away from us a little bit, we simply couldn’t have possibly imagined the invisible “hug” that was around us for the performance. What’s more? We had the idea of doing an acoustic set, which meant that yours truly got to accompany Logan and his best friends, Tyler & Will, who were wonderfully born with absolutely zero shame! Not one of them would call themselves a singer, but they are performers! They sang 2 songs, and Logan got to call his brother up to play on the 2nd song. To say it was a wonderful moment for all – but maybe especially for the Tanakas – would be an understatement.
It’s “big” moments like these, but also small normal things like just going to the gym together, which make our hearts so happy, watching them spend time together. By default, those moments are happening farther apart since Logan is now barely here. Somehow, that just makes everything a bit more special when we’re together.
We’re adjusting to our new normal with one kid here, one kid there. But life is good – it’s wonderful – when we see our kids having fun and thriving! Long may that continue, and cheers to 2026!
Love,
The Tanakas
Check out our annual video. 🙂