Seasonal Essentials

Brian, Kristie, Jaevyn (10), and twins Kyrion and Kaleesi (8) might be a bit more busy than the average family. Brian and Kristie own two small businesses (Lawrence Re-Cyclery & Bella Hair Extension + Color Studio) while raising a house full of kids. COVID-19 has caused them to pivot a bit on activities, but luckily, their Seasonal Essentials center around being outdoors and staying active.

photos by Amber Yoshida

Bike Rides - We are a BIG bike riding family. Our favorite places to ride in and around Lawrence are the Baker Wetlands, the Lawrence River Trail, the Lawrence City Loop, and gravel rides outside of town. We really enjoy connecting with nature and pedaling together as a family. The Wetlands and the River Trail are awesome because we can all just relax, enjoy nature, and not worry about cars. The Lawrence River Trail is beginner friendly and our kids enjoy the Race Loop portion of the trail. It’s about a 5K loop, so it’s perfect for them. Gravel rides are super fun too! We like to start on the Levee Trail by our bike shop and head toward the disc golf course in North Lawrence, then jump off at the road by the train tracks and ride that gravel loop.... it has super pretty scenery and a very low volume of cars, so it’s safer than city streets. My husband and I are avid mountain bikers so we enjoy challenging our kiddos with various types of terrain on their bikes. Even if they complain that it’s “too hard” sometimes they are always very proud of themselves when we finish a ride. Another favorite area to ride our bikes is nearby our house. We call it the “fancy neighborhood.” It’s down the road and up a steep hill. The kids enjoy pedaling hard up the hilltop and then we pedal around admiring all the gorgeous “mansions” as the kids say, lol, and then race down the hill.

Kayaking - We LOVE fall kayak weather. We enjoy taking our kayaks out to Lonestar Lake or Douglas County Lake and paddling all around the lake. Jaevyn can kayak on her own and Brian and I typically each have a twin with us in our kayaks. The twins are learning to paddle and navigate on their own with one of us parents helping when they get tired. We always have a blast on our kayaking adventures.

Schaake’s Pumpkin Patch - This is an annual event for our family. We go every year and walk around forever finding the perfect pumpkins. I have photos of the kids from when they were babies on in front of the “How Tall This Fall” sign, so it’s fun to look back at how they’ve grown.

Tennis - Fall is a beautiful time of year to be outside in Kansas. I’m from California originally, and tennis is big there. We go out to Rock Chalk park or the tennis court in North Lawrence and play tennis together as a family. The kids enjoy hitting balls around and since there are five of us we will play doubles and have one person rotate out and be the “ball fetcher.”

Dog Hikes - We have an Old English Sheepdog named Fiona and an American Bully named Floyd. We love taking them over to that cool little nature/hiking area off Folks Road...Lawrence Nature Park. Also we utilize a big open field nearby our house to play frisbee with our dogs. They LOVE frisbee! And the kids have gotten really good at tossing frisbees. They compete to see who can throw it the farthest and everyone comes home happy and worn out, including the dogs.

Our Backyard - Last spring, during the initial phase of the pandemic when the stay-at-home orders were in effect, we decided as a family to put in a big garden and urban chicken coop. We raised baby chicks and built a chicken coop and chicken run area out of 90% recycled materials we salvaged. We got a big multi-person hammock and enjoy laying in it together and reading books. Instead of going on a summer vacation this year (COVID-19 bummer!) we decided to use that money and purchase a hot tub for our backyard. The kids love it, and so do we. We enjoy getting in it after a long day of biking or kayaking and soaking our sore muscles, and with the weather getting cooler it’s amazing. We explained the therapeutic benefits of warm water soaking for our bodies as athletes and humans and the benefits of mindful meditation. It’s a nice way to wind them down for bedtime too!

Take Out - We get takeout from our favorite local restaurants. We’ll enjoy the food at a park or out at the Baker Wetlands! We enjoy going out to various local parks or the Wetlands picnic tables and enjoying some yummy food and then biking or hiking around. We let the kids vote and take turns picking food. They LOVE Mad Greek, Papa Keno’s, and Burger Stand. They are also obsessed with Boba Tea fruit smoothies from House of Cha or Presotea and Tad’s Shaved Ice.

It’s a Family Tradition

For the Rabiola family, teaching the kids of Lawrence is more than a common profession... it’s a shared family passion.

“Oh, I knew for a long, long time that this is what I would be doing,” Natalie Rabiola, Library Media Specialist at Deerfield Elementary says. “I’m pretty sure my mom knew, too.”

For Natalie, life always seemed to revolve around school in Lawrence. Her mom, LoriKay, is a 6th grade ancient world history teacher at Southwest Middle School and Sam, her dad, teaches English at Free State High School.

“Some of my first memories are visiting my mom’s classroom,” Natalie says. “I know even as a kid I wanted to be in charge, so being in front of a room full of students is pretty natural for me.”

“She’s always been bossy,” LoriKay says with a big laugh. “Since she was a little girl Sam and I always kind of thought teaching would be a good fit for Natalie, but we never pushed her into the profession. She could do anything, I really believe that. But, we’re thrilled she’s in Lawrence, with us, teaching.”

Sam and LoriKay have been teaching in the Lawrence school system for more than 30 years. They raised their two grown daughters in the system (Natalie’s younger sister teaches in Arkansas City). Now doing it with Natalie is a bit of a dream.

“If teaching is the family business, we’re thrilled to have our daughters join in,” Sam says. “When Natalie started her career, LoriKay and I would always kind of keep our eyes open for possilbe openings she might like. We never pressured her to moved back, but we’re happy she did.”

After graduating from Lawrence High and Emporia State, Natalie started working at an elementary school in Arkansas City (yes, where her sister is now—sense a pattern?). She was happy, but always knew she would eventually head back to Lawrence. Luckily, her parents thought so, too.

“Every now and then I’d get a message from my mom about a job that opened that I might be interested in,” Natalie explains while laughing. “Sometimes mom would hear about someone that might be moving or retiring and suddenly Mom was on the phone just, you know, passing along the news.”

Eventually, when the position opened at Deerfield, Natalie made the move.

“I’m confident I got the job becuase of my qualifications,” she says. “But having my parents be who they are certainly didn’t hurt.”

The idea of “being a Rabiola” in a town where so many people have experiences with her parents didn’t deter Natalie at all.

“I never thought twice about it,” Natalie says. “There aren’t too many Rabiolas around Lawrence, so I get asked a lot—I mean a lot—if I know LoriKay or Sam. In fact, at this point whenever somone starts with ‘Oh, do you know’ I just stop them and say ‘Yes. They’re my mom and dad.’ And almost everytime I get to hear about how my mom or my dad was the best teacher someone ever had.”

It’s not uncommon for someone to explain to Natalie that they had both of her parents as teachers. She says that never gets old.

“I’m so proud of my parents,” Natalie says. “I love when someone tells me about the impact my mom or dad had on their life. It’s inspiring for me to keep doing this so that maybe I can impact kids the same way. I’ve taught the kids of some of my parents older students, so that’s really neat.”

Now that Natalie is teaching in an elementary school, LoriKay is teaching middle school, and Sam is teaching high school, there is one obvious possibility.

“Oh, I think it’d be so cool if we can all teach the same kid,” Natalie says.

Sam agrees, kind of.

“That would mean we’re kind of old,” he says laughing. “I’m proud of my family, so I’m sure we’d serve that kid well.” LK