August Update

August has been another great month. Here are some highlights and funny moments:

1. Laura's brother Val and his family came for a visit from the Netherlands. The girls really enjoyed meeting their cousins. Here is a shot of Carina at a Mariners baseball game at Safeco Field in Seattle during their visit.


Carina and Gavin at the ballpark.

2. We enjoyed our weekly visits to our local CSA farm to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables and to play on the farm. The girls have been in "farm school" once a week, helping the farmer pick vegetables, move cattle and other farming chores. They also got to swim in the Snoqualmie River, which runs through the farm. Here is Natalie looking at the pigs. I'm not sure who was dirtier: Natalie or the pigs.


3. We went for a hike on Tiger Mountain, which is only three miles from our home. Once again we didn't see any tigers on the mountain. Fortunately, Natalie didn't cry about it this time. We hiked along this trail, which was crowded with ferns and blueberry bushes.


4. Lachlyn has discovered the world of solid foods! She has tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, peaches and peas. We introduced peas for the first time today and she wasn't sold on them at all. Maybe she'll warm up to them tomorrow.


5. We went on a day trip yesterday out to the Olympic peninsula to visit the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim and to hike along Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.

The game farm lets you drive unescorted around the fields where buffaloes, elk, deer, zebras, yaks, alpacas and peacocks live, and you can buy bread to feed them. The animals walked right up to our car and ate bread out of our hands. Carina and Natalie learned first hand that buffaloes have really bad breath and aweful table manners. There are also bears, lions, tigers, cougars, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, etc in cages. Some of the bears are former trained Holywood movie bears; if you wave to them, they'll wave back!







Hurricane Ridge is a ridge at the top of a mountain that rises up 5,500 feet from Port Angeles, which is a town in the middle of the north end of the Olympic peninsula. Looking out to the north from the ridge you can see Port Angeles, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island. Looking out to the south you can see a wide swath of the Olympic mountains, including Mount Olympus. Lachlyn really seemed to enjoy the hike, as you can tell from her face.

The view to the North.



Views to the South.

6. Lachlyn is mobile!



And not only can she drive the car, she can crawl! She mostly army crawls, but she can get up on her knees and move a little too. Right now she only crawls to reach things that are within a few feet in front of her, but it won't be long before she's cruising around the house serving as our very own cute little Roomba. She's already shown to us that we'll need to start vacuuming and sweeping constantly or she'll do it for us.

7. And a couple random moments from the month:

We caught Natalie "brown-handed" eating chocolate chips that she had pilfered from the bag in the freezer. As if we wouldn't notice. At least she had a good time.


Milkmen of the world, beware! You never know what might be lurking in that little box.

Summer Vacation

We're back from a great vacation. It started early Saturday morning when I donned my cycling clothes and started pedaling toward Portland. I was one of 10,000 riders participating in the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP), a 200 mile ride from Seattle to Portland. I rode 6.5 hours on Saturday, covering 120 miles. I met up with Laura and the girls in the tiny town of Winlock, Washington, and we drove to the Great Wolf Lodge to spend the rest of the day at their indoor waterpark. The girls had a great time at the waterpark. Carina tried 7 different waterslides and the wave pool and loved it. She is already lobbying to go back. On Sunday, I rode another 4.5 hours to cover the remaining 80 miles. Natalie very maturely (and without prompting) told me as I left: "Good luck Dad, I hope you have a good time on your ride!" I did. We met up at the finish line at Halliday Park in downtown Portland and enjoyed the party there for a couple hours. When Laura drove into Portland she made a point of noting to the girls that "Wasn't that a long drive, and to think your dad is riding his bike this whole way." Natalie was pretty impressed with herself too and replied "Yeah, I can't believe we drove all the way to Portland." Here are a couple shots at the finish line:

I'm the rider wearing the red long sleeve jacket.



From there we headed west to Cannon Beach, Oregon for a couple days at the beach. Cannon Beach is a wonderful little town with an amazing beach, great restaurants, unique shops, and a peaceful atmosphere. The only downside is that it is very temperate like the rest of the beaches on the Oregon and Washington coasts, so most days the temperature never gets above 70 degrees and you can't get in the ocean without freezing. Here are a few scences from the beach:

We then drove to Mount Rainier National Park. Natalie was very well behaved on the ride, and we found out why when we arrived -- she spent a good portion of the ride drawing on her pants with a pen. Here she is holding up her handywork:


We spent the night at the Paradise Inn, a lodge built in 1917 in a sub-alpine meadow on the south side of Mount Rainier (or, as Natalie insists on calling it, "Mountain Rainier") at an elevation of a little over 5,000+ feet. The lodge was a fun place to stay and the main hall and dining area are very charming. Here are pictures in and around the lodge:

Paradise Inn

Carina and Natalie sitting in "thrones" in the lodge.

The next morning we hiked around the meadows of Paradise. Some of the wildflowers were out, but most of the trails were still partly covered in snow. They had over 700 inches of snow last year and it hasn't quite melted off yet. Natalie and Carina proudly wore pins that a park ranger gave them that showed a picture of a hiking boot and the words "Don't be a meadow stomper." Though it wasn't long before we had to tell Natalie to stay on the path and she replied "But I want to be a meadow stomper." At another point on our hike, Natalie also complained to us that "Carina is going to push me off the steep cliff." Carina enjoyed the hike but repeatedly expressed concern that she didn't want to hike all the way to the top (which I explained to her would require mountain climbing gear and another 8,000 feet of elevation gain) and couldn't understand why we were calling it a volcano since "it doesn't have a volcano hole." Here are some pictures from our hike (and a few shots from a scenic overlook on the drive up to Paradise):

An Avalanche Lily in the meadow.

And here is some of the wildlife we spotted on the hike :

Marmots

Deer

Lachlyn (And don't worry about the snow, it was 70 degrees!)

We then drove around the south end of the park and made a pit stop at the Grove of the Patriarchs to look at some 1,000 year old Western Red Cedar and Hemlock trees.

Lachlyn in the Grove of the Patriarchs

Our last stop was at Sunrise on the Northeastern corner of the park, elevation 6,400 feet. The snow had all melted at Sunrise and the meadows were starting to bloom. The views of Rainier from there were amazing! We could also see Mount Adams as well (or, as Natalie called it, "Volcano Adams").

The meadows at Sunrise

The view of Mount Rainier from Sunrise

June Update

It has been another great month. Some highlights from the last few weeks:

1. Lachlyn often will get a little fussy on long car rides. About a week ago Natalie apparently had enough. Laura overheard Natalie tell Lachlyn, who is 4 months old: "Lachlyn, stop making unreasonable demands!"

Does this look like a child that makes unreasonable demands?






2. Natalie likes exclamations and she recently coined her own: "Holy Smokeamoly!" A combination of "Holy Smokes" and "Holy Guacamole!" It's hilarious hearing these words in her squeaky voice.

3. Laura stopped by Walgreens the other day with Carina in tow to pick up a prescription. Carina, being a curious 6 year old had to delve into this, and the following conversation ensued:

Carina: "What's the medicine for?"
Laura: "For my brain."
Carina: "What's wrong with your brain?"
Laura: "It's not working right."
Carina: " What is 4+4?
Laura: "8."
Carina: "What is 4+6?"
Laura: "10."
Carina: "Sounds to me like your brain is working just fine."

[If you are wondering, Laura's brain really is just fine. She is finishing up her course of treatment for the post-partum depression and anxiety that she experiences after the birth of each baby.]

4. Natalie has two of the most skinned up knees I've seen. I realized why when I looked at the pictures of her I've taken in the past month. She's never standing still or on two feet!

Natalie playing with paper dolls:


Natalie "juggling" an orange:


Natalie rocking out naked with her guitar (one picture slightly edited for modesty; this is on the internet after all...):

5. Here is Carina giving Lachlyn a bottle. Carina is enjoying playing the role of big sister. Notice that she is now missing four teeth. Pretty soon she'll be eating all her meals through a straw.


Lachlyn taking the initiative and trying to hold it herself:


Lachlyn saying "Look ma, no hands!":


And, finally, Lachlyn living every baby's dream:

Cycling

I have been training the last few months for a long bike ride called the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic, which is an organized bike ride (about 10,000 people participate each year) from Seattle to Portland the second weekend of July. The ride is 206 miles. Most people do it in 2 days, but about 25% of riders each year do it in one day. I'm going to do it in two days this year. I've ramped up my mileage each week in preparation for the ride, and yesterday completed my first 100+ mile ride in one day (with 5,200 feet of elevation gain too). It took 5 hours 45 minutes.

Here are some interesting sights I've seen around the Seattle area on my bike over the last few months:

1. Snoqualmie Falls. The ride up to the top is only a couple miles long and the grade is a steady and reasonable 5%. The view at the top is amazing.


2. On my most recent ride up to Snoqualmie Falls I heard a police motorcycle siren behind me, followed shortly by the throaty, growling sound of cars with big engines. I then got passed by one Lamborghini, two Lamborghinis, three Lamborghins, four, wow!, five, six, seven, how many are there?, eight, nine, and then a procession of about 20 Ferraris, Porches and some classic sports cars. They were headed up to the Salish Lodge (a nice hotel at the top of the falls) for some sort of Lamborghini club event. Here are some shots of the procession of cars and some of the Lamborghinis. I got to see them again as I passed them going up the hill because the valet parking attendants at the Salish Lodge couldn't park the cars as fast as they were arriving. So, I guess I can also say I've ridden my bike up a hill faster than a Lamborghini.

3. Here is a shot of Lake Sammamish from on top of Cougar Mountain (about 1,450 feet). Not sure whose house this is, but they've got quite the view.


4. This is Mount Si in North Bend, Washington. I've hiked to the top before with Laura (and Carina, who we carried up in a baby backpack).

5. You know you are in a rural area when you see this kind of sign by the side of the road:

6. And, lastly for now, I happened to stop for a drink in front of this house and noticed the fenced in pen in front of the house was full of kangaroos (or maybe wallabies). I wasn't expecting to see that in the Snoqualmie valley east of Seattle. My phone couldn't zoom in on them well, but they are visible in the full size picture (which you can see by double clicking on the picture).

Some Highlights from April and May

We've had a great time with the girls the last few weeks. Here are some highlights:

1. Lachlyn rolled over for the first time. She isn't quite 3 months old yet, so her rolling over came as a surprise to us. Lachlyn is also starting to like to put weight on her legs and to be held in a standing position. Here is a shot of her earlier today standing upright by herself, just leaning against the couch. We don't try to encourage this, but she just seems to like it.

2. Carina was in a musical play in kindergarten. The musical was "The Little Red Hen," and Carina was the Steal-eyed Fox. She had a few speaking parts and sang along with her class on all the songs. Carina acted a little shy during her performance -- her voice was a little quite and she was standing turned at an angle away from most of the people in the room -- but she managed to say all her lines right and everything went smoothly. Here is a picture of the class after the performance.

3. Carina is a on a "treats time-out" right now. She stole a few bites of her little sister's ice cream (and wasn't completely truthful about it when questioned about it and other crimes later), so her punishment is that she doesn't get any treats for 10 days. Well, on Saturday morning we were planning to go to the farmers market. The girls had been to the market last week and had been ogling the stand selling fresh doughnuts. Natalie did something good before we left for the market, and Laura told Natalie that she could have some doughnuts at the market as a reward. Carina overheard this and must have come up with a plan because she called Natalie into her room to talk. A minute later, Natalie comes out of her room and tells Laura: "I don't want to eat the doughnuts all by myself. I want to share them with my best friend." Then she turned around and yelled down the hall: "Okay, Carina, I said it!"

4. I caught Carina in the midst of a classic six year old moment this afternoon. I walked into the office to grab a tissue, not realizing anyone was in the office, and suddenly Carina pops her head out from under the desk and says, in a panicked voice: "I wanted to be alone in here!" I decided that this comment and her location merited further investigation, so I asked what she was doing and peeked under the desk and saw this:

She was using a butter knife to shave a large piece of sidewalk chalk into chalk powder, which she was then putting into plastic bags. I'm not quite sure why she was doing it, but she said it had something to do with an experiment she was planning. I let her proceed with her work, outside.

5. And, for good measure, here are a few more cute shots of Lachlyn. She looks pretty good with her underpants on her head...

Easter

We've had a great Easter so far today. The girls woke up at 7:00am, delighted to find a trail of candy leading down the stairs. They were so focused on the trail of candy that they didn't notice we'd moved all of the living room furniture into the dining area and moved the dining table into the living room (and they had to walk through the middle of it). We are cooking for 16 people -- by far the biggest group we've had over for dinner, and we had to shuffle everything around so that everyone will fit.

Here are some cute shots from this morning.

Lachlyn's Blessing

Lachlyn had her baby blessing last week. Here she is in the dress Laura made for her:


The blessing was a sweet, spirit filled experience. It was great having my parents in town for the week. Natalie especially enjoyed having her grandparents here and must have talked my mom into reading her 100 story books over the week.