Sunny California

I had the pleasure of going to Sacramento, California for a business trip. Sometimes, you can mix business with pleasure. The business part was well executed and only took two days to complete. I ate good Mexican food (currently unavailable in Maine), and spent a night under the stars in Yosemite. It felt great to soak up some warm weather while I was there. The winters in Maine are long.

 An 18" burrito called "Gigante". No, I didn't polish this whole thing off. I did eat about 14 inches of it though. I was pretty impressed!

 Pete, my old coworker at Lawrence Livermore, drove up to the Hodgdon Meadow campground off the 120 to spend the night. We drove around for a few minutes trying to locate an ideal camp site, and thought we found one. We got out of the car to scope it out and saw a couple of eyes glowing behind some trees about 50 yards away. It was a bear! We decided to let the bear have that campsite, and we would move onto another. We slept under the stars and woke up early to watch the sunrise give light to Yosemite Valley from the Tunnel View. 

 Yosemite Falls. The fact that it was flowing with this drought was encouraging, but it won't last much longer. It wasn't too long ago Mal, Madie and I hiked to the top of that. So many memories here. 

The icon: Half Dome.

 We made our way to the back of the valley past Mirror Lake. We found this boulder field right below Half Dome that looked like a graveyard. These trees were getting blown in half regularly...

 Looking up at Half Dome from the boulder field. Yup, I can see how these trees would be chopped down. 

A sampling of some of the boulders that fall into the valley which created a tunnel. 

After hiking up the Snowcrest trail, we headed to the bottom of El Cap to look for climbers. I found this sleeper vans that a climber lives out of. True dirt bags. 

El Cap!

Great trip and needed therapy in the mountains.

Family Home Evenings

For those of you who may not know, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encourages families to hold a family night once a week, generally on Monday, but really any night that works best for your family is fine. It typically includes a short lesson and an activity, and most families include a treat too.

In the past our family nights have been close to nonexistent, despite the help from my sweet mother-in-law to make it easier. I guess it's just been that since our kids are so young every even is spent at home with everyone. Not to mention trying to keep anyone's attention for a lesson--even a short one--is difficult. But this past year we have been fairly good at it. We at least grab one of the pre-arranged lessons my mother-in-law has provided us and give it--but still I was feeling lately like maybe we should be putting a little more effort into things. Like, maybe pick our lesson a little bit earlier, instead of right after dinner. So I downloaded this FHE app to my Android. It's basically just a rotating calendar. I input each participant's name, and each of the tasks involved in our FHEs and the app just rotates once a week so each week we all have a new task. I must say, our FHEs have been so great lately! Obviously not because of the app, but because we know in advance who will be doing what, and we involve everyone now in the planning, instead of just me and Dad. Here are some shots from our most recent FHE.

Okay, this one is a little posed, sorry. We didn't get a picture of Madie giving her lesson, so Mike handed her the picture she was using when she did give it and told her to hold it up like she was teaching again. 

Mike and Finn have each taught one lesson so far, Finn used one of those lessons Nana sent us. Honestly, I can't remember Mike's. (Love you!!) Madie and I have each taught two, and Petya has taught one, which means I've actually taught three. Madie's lessons have been great. Her first lesson, five weeks ago, was on Esther (see next image). Esther is her favorite scripture story. When she can't fall asleep she often will ask me to tell it to her. I've tried other stories--one about Eve, one about Goldie Locks, and others--but she always goes back to asking for this one, despite my poor story-telling skills. Last night she taught a lesson about the creation. I asked her on Sunday what she'd like to teach about and she said she didn't know anything other than Esther. I got down this book of scripture-based art and told her to stop me when she saw something she wanted to teach on. When we turned to the second page she saw these pictures of Earth and Space and said, "Is that Space? I want to teach on that." I asked if she wanted me to help her come up with what to say and she said she already knew, so that was it. Really, other than a little prompting from me during her lessons, she teaches all by herself and even asks us questions. Last night it was, "What's your favorite animal." She shared hers, then Finn shared his, then I shared mine. When Dad didn't jump in right away to share his she said, "Dad? What's your favorite animal?" 

Madie's drawing of Esther. I don't know what it says, so don't ask. I love her drawings though--she feels no need to only use one color on anything. Hair, dresses, faces--they all have multiple colors.

Finn had the treat this week. Normally I let them pick the treat themselves, but Saturday Mike showed up after a visit to the store with a bag of dates. This was a couple days after Grammy Boone's date squares had come up briefly in conversation, so I knew then that the thought of date squares had pitched a tent right in the front of his brain and settled in to watch him give in to the craving. "What are those for?" I asked. "Oh, I think you know." So, I guess in a couple weeks Finn will get to pick what he wants when it's actually Dad's week. 

Finn was distracted when I was making the actual date squares, despite my trying to get him to help me. He did help whip the cream we ate on top of them, and he got out the dessert bowls and forks for everyone and he took a square to each person.

Delicious date squares.

We didn't get a picture of Dad's activity, which was a riotous game of Moneda, Moneda. Quien Tiene La Moneda? (Penny, Penny. Who Has the Penny?) Technically, I didn't have a job this week, but I did help Petya by telling everyone what she told me about her job, which was to pick the music. She wanted to sing Tick, Tock, Cuckoo Clock really badly. Then we sang I Lived In Heaven while she conducted. I have been enjoying our family nights so much lately, and I feel like the kids are participating so much more, and getting more out of it.

Snow, snow, and more snow

We have received a bit of snow lately...and by a bit, I mean a LOT. We have set records this winter for snowfall and temperature. The average temperature in February was 4 degrees. That's right, four! We have been hit with storm after storm of light, fluffy powder with no thawing. It has been quite impressive, though expensive to plow. Our plow guy is having a great year though. I'm just thankful this year had a mild December and half of January. We have also only lost power once, and it was when everyone was here for Petranella's blessing (of course!). 

It's amazing what you can do in the cold weather though. I've really made a solid effort to get outside this winter because I need it. If I don't, I'm pretty miserable. So I go out with the kids, and they can't get enough of it. We will be out playing in 5 degree temperatures, and they just love it! A huge element in their enjoying outside play has been great winter boots. If you don't have the right gear, you will be cold and miserable. We didn't have the best boots for Madie last winter, and I was afraid it would ruin her desire to spend time outside. But this year, Madie has told me multiple times that winter is her favorite season, and she loves the snow. I asked her why, and she said "Because I can climb on it and make things." That is a really cool part of snow. You can make almost any dream come true, as long as you can build it! It's the American Dream, except for a child. She is loving school, and is making a lot of friends. She gave the scripture in Primary today and (from what Mallory said) was able to recite it at a level that was audible to the human ear. Usually, she whispers it so quietly nobody can her. Kudos to her! She is feeling more comfortable in front of people. I think school and church are easing her social anxieties a bit.

This is not the latest photo of the snow cave...I don't think a photo would do it justice at this point. We have at least three feet of snow on the ground right now, with some areas that were victimized by snow drifts. I don't know if a snow cave is worth my effort since the kids never go inside! We'll see how it goes in future years. The kids climb on it more than anything. 

Petranella loves being on her belly, and is finally getting into a sleep groove. She just rolled over for the first time this week, and sucked on her first strawberry tonight. She is such a cuties. 

This little guy has been my right hand man for taking care of the snow. Well, sort of. He loves going out with me no matter what temperature it is outside. He loves getting the blue shovel to push snow around, which is awesome. He has always been helpful and interested in doing whatever I'm doing. Lately, he has been going through this phase of being scared of No Noggin (character from curious George), and bad guys. He can psych himself out pretty bad if he is alone in his room, so we have had to be extra cognizant of what he is watching and adjust his quiet time routine to leave the door open. One thing I love about Finn is his imagination and creativity. I got him a toy power tool set for Christmas, but he turned all of those into weapons. A gun (the drill), and a sword (jig saw attachment).

Madie takes such good care of Petranella. She loves her little sister.

Sunday Ramblings

 To me, there is something very exciting when it comes to waking up early in the morning. There aren't many people out at that time, the morning light is soft and invigorating, and you can usually find some interesting natural phenomenons. I love to witness these phenomenons. In California, it was the marine layer that would blanket the Bay Area, and the sun that would pierce the granite monoliths of Yosemite as it would rise over the crest of the Sierra Nevada. In Maine, it's watching the shore birds floating on what appears to be sea smoke in -7 degree weather, and waking up to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean at 4:45 am in June. It's also a special time for me to be alone and collect my thoughts for the day. I find that my days go so much more smoothly if I'm able to get out of the house early and do something active. This last week, I was able to cross-country ski twice before work. On Thursday I skied around Eagle Lake. When I got to the southern end of the lake (most inaccessible part), it was so quiet. No hint of cars, airplanes, or people. It was pure bliss. I love Maine.

We went to Grammy Haskins on Friday night and had a good time. The kids love visiting her. I think they also like the fact that we don't exactly enforce our family rules has strictly at her house. The kids eat more snacks and watch more movies there than they do at home. That's pretty typical for us whenever we go on trips.

For the third winter in a row, we've made a snow cave. It started out as a 'boat'. I shaped it that way to begin with anyways. Then after some more snow, I just started piling it on. Now, we have a decent cave that Madie and I could sleep in. That's the goal anyways. I dug some stairs into the side, that they like to climb up, and they have a slide on the side that they go down. These are all the reasons I wanted to live in a snowy area as a kid. Think of all the possibilities!

The Bella Nella is finally perking her head up when she is on her belly, instead of near-suffocation, face-planting. We are working on sleep training her so that she has some sort of routine, because things have been somewhat rough lately. I guess we were just spoiled with Madie because she just slept after we fed her and put her down. She was very predictable. Finn, was not at all. I just figured he was an anomaly. It's too early to tell where Nella is. I think we are getting in the a groove though. 

Finn saw most of A Knights Tale the other day (Mal edited a few parts), and has been turning his toys into swords & jousts, and his tiger into a horse. He is very creative in that he tries to make swords and tools out of whatever somewhat resembles his object of desire. This boy is fully potty trained, even at night. Quite the accomplishment. And no more diapers! Hurray!

Madie has been very helpful with the baby, and loves to hold her. Lately, she's been saying things like "You're too cute to be on earth!". She is doing well in school, and is actually starting to read. She read us a very simple book the other day, and can decipher words surprise me. For example, we were looking at an app the other day called Star Chart. She was reading the names of the planets almost without hesitation. I was pretty amazed.

Finally enjoying belly time.

Hitting the ski trail in the morning. The woods are so beautiful with fresh snow.

Sea smoke and the shore birds.

Ice fishing shacks on Eagle Lake.

The kiddo's.

I love this one of the kids at Grammy Haskins house. They loved sitting next to the fire. When Finn woke up in the morning, he asked Grammy for a fire like 2-3 times.

The snow cave.

New Years Day

Welcome 2015! I think it was probably one of the more exciting days with all that happened. First of all, I participated in a polar bear plunge. I had never done one of those before, but I was pretty excited to do it. It all started when I heard that a group of people gather at Sand Beach every New Years morning to do the plunge. I mentioned that to Trevor Casey a while back, and he said that we should do it. It was one of those things I was on the fence about because it's not exactly fun to do alone. But once Trevor mentioned he was interested, and Eric Maughan mentioned he was also interested, we had ourselves an event. We have actually been talking about this for the past couple of months now, and the day finally came. We also invited a few other people to join. 

I showed up with Madie, and we were some of the fist to arrive. It was 28 degrees when we showed up, with wind chill factored in it was probably colder than that. The Atlantic breeze was pretty chilly. The water temperature according to NOAA was probably slightly above 40 degrees. Madie was pretty cold when we were waiting on the beach for people to show up. That wind was cutting right through our clothes. I was trying to keep some form of body temperature in me, so we tried to move around a bit to stay warm. Luckily, everyone else started to file in. Madie was complaining about how cold she was the whole time, poor girl. She just wanted to go home, she kept saying. But, the final few showed up and it was show time. 

Knowing Madie was feeling really cold, I wanted to get in and out ASAP. So as soon as everyone started getting ready, I stripped down really quickly, yelled out something inspired by adrenaline, and ran in. I was the first, and only one to begin. I trotted in, not thinking about the temperature my body was feeling. I just had on objective: immerse myself, and get out. I ran in 15 yards, flopped my body into the water for total immersion, and pulled myself out fast. I lost my balance when I stood up and tried to run, probably because of the cold. But I recall being pretty pumped and yelling. It was actually a good feeling. I made it back to my spot to get dried off and changed and watched everyone else head out. After me, Anne Dalton ran out which caught a lot of people by surprise because she was on the fence about going. She was followed by Sunshine and two of her kids, followed by the men. It was fun to watch everyone's reactions and how quickly everyone got changed. This will probably be a new tradition going forward!

After this, we had a special night: we had a guys night and a girls night. The guys night consisted of camping in the backyard and roasting marshmallows (both a couple of Finn's favorite things). The girls night consisted of building a fort in the living room, watching a movie, and eating some sweets. The kids absolutely loved this. A few highlights:

• Finn calls s'mores "Marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, camping"
• After Finn had his s'more fix, he looked at me and said, "Okay, let's go in the tent." Apparently, the show was over and he was done being at the fire by 6:30 pm. 
• After the movie was over, Madie looked at Mallory and said "Well, what should we do now?" Mallory replied, "Well, we need to lay down in bed." Madie said, "Good, we can lay next to each other and talk." She was really excited to talk to Mallory one on one. 
• Madie asked Mallory: "How do we build a fort?" Mallory said, "You just leave that to Mum." By the time it was done, she thought that was pretty cool. 
• For the record, Elvis sat next to the door and cried for 30 minutes after Finn and I left.

Getting ready to go in.

There I go!

The masses.

Post-plunge.

Madie was so excited to be in her fort.

Petranella even joined in on the fun.

Madie watched Annie. It's a pretty long movie, and about 90 minutes into it she said "Is this a really long movie?" Which means "When is this going to end?!?"

Meanwhile, in 20 degree weather...Finn was poking the fire.

And snuggling down. He slept so well and stayed very warm.

2014

Okay, I failed. We threw a New Years Eve Party for Early-Risers last night. It went from 7 to 10:30 and was a lot of fun, buuuut I didn't get any pictures. Sorry folks! I was too busy eating gumbo, pavlova, nachos, no-bake cookies, and whatever Trevor calls those brie pastry things. And around all that eating I was trying to carry on polite conversation and nursing a baby, so no time for picture-taking.

As I've thought over the past year I've determined that I can't really hold a grudge against 2014, although I may want to. I will admit I couldn't bring myself to send out an update on our family this year to those we usually do. I sent out far fewer cards than in the past and only included some highlights of the kids. When Mike first suggested I get started on a family update, I sat down to do it and just couldn't get past the very beginning of the year. 2014 promised to be so bright from the get-go and only 4 months in it proved to be a bit of a liar. At the beginning of December I was feeling pretty putout with the whole year.

But you know, it's hard to stay angry when there have been plenty of blessings, even some surrounding Kait's death. So, on with the highlights of 2014!

I got a brand-new niece! Real early in the year--was it January 5th?--little Miss Mary came along! And she is one bright-eyed, big-cheeked wonder.

The day after Mary was born, we adopted my brother's dog. This was great for our family. We had been looking to adopt a dog for a few months, but it proved to be expensive and Mike in particular was having doubts we'd find a good fit for our budget and family. Then Levi offered us Elvis. It was perfect: he cost us nothing, and we already knew him. And the best part was he came perfectly trained.

I got a brand-new brother-in-law. In fact, amongst my siblings, he's my only brother-in-law. I haven't had the chance to really get to know Connor as well as I hope to yet, but I have enjoyed getting to know him as much as I have. I do hope he'll come to Maine for a visit sometime this year or next.

I've been prompted to foster a closer relationship with my Heavenly Father and that has proven to be uplifting at times when nothing else has been, and I'm sure will continue to be so in 2015.

I got to visit Holly's family in Idaho, and although almost everyone in the house fell ill, it was nice to see them. Especially since it's not something we get to do often. And we were able to celebrate Emily's first birthday!

I got a brand-new daughter! (Sorry everyone else, this one tops the charts.) Petya is smiley and has even started giggling if I play peek-a-boo with her. Finn loves her and her feet and Madie loves her and her "plotched-out cheeks," and her "silly eyes," and she is "too funny and too cute to be on earth."

The delivery of my brand-new daughter was the easiest, fastest delivery I've ever experienced. Now THAT'S a highlight!

My mum and in-laws came for a visit around Petya's birth and blessing. It was great to get together with them.

My brother Jacob came for a visit with his girlfriend Cindy and surprised my mum. And he surprised us all with a mission call! He reported to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah yesterday at 2 pm. And although all of that is great, the best part is Finn has forged what I hope will be a long and lasting relationship with his uncle.

I got a brand-new nephew! Seven days after Petya was born, so was Mr. Chase. I haven't had the chance to meet him yet, but his pictures are pretty cute.

So you see, overall, 2014 has been good to me and mine. And looking at things pragmatically, it's hard to believe 2015 could do worse or better.  And I'm striving to live by a quote I saw on Goodreads:

"How would your life be different if...You could control the outcome of your day, your week, your year? Let today be the day...You embrace the truth that you do have such control to label every event in your life, and create an agreement with reality that empowers you and propels you to greatness." 

- Steve Maraboli in The Power of One

The Season of Giving

This must have been before we got the tree straightened out, but there she be!

This Christmas was a lot of fun. We decided for advent this year, aside from our usual advent calendar scriptures, to choose as a family something kind to do for someone(s) each week. The only rules were it was going to be something we did as a family and it had to be carried out by Wednesday. Our first week we had a friend over for dinner. She's older and although she still has her adult children living with her or very nearby, she mentioned it was nice to get out on her own. She is a remarkable woman and one that Mike and I both have mentioned we would like our kids to know on a personal level. The next week we make cookies and fruit baskets to deliver to our neighbors. The next we had the sister missionaries over for dinner and we all went out and caroled the neighborhood. One neighbor has mentioned twice since then how nice it was to have carolers. It was such a pleasant, fairly laid-back way to feel great, I want to do it throughout the year. And it gave us something nice to discuss as a family on Sunday evening.

I also feel like this year was a success as far as gift-giving, except that I didn't get around to giving gifts to everyone I wanted. Part of that is, ONE person in particular is hard to give to. At least in my opinion. So I just decided to take my dear sweet time and she can get, I don't know, a Martin Luther King gift. 

In the past, Madie has been a hard one to shop for. Here's the thing: she sees dolls and toys in the store and really wants it. So, we'll get one for her and she'll be very excited. Starting around noon on the 25th, she'll stop playing with it and we won't see her touch it again for the rest of the year. The next year, we purge and give it away to someone who might actually care. This year we had it figured out. She thinks she likes toys, but what she really likes and plays with are puzzles and games. She also likes dressing up and getting new clothes. So, we bought and made suggestions to grandparents along those lines. Everything was a big success.

Madie with her two favorite gifts: a silk kimono robe like my own (thank you Grammy and Grampy) and a new board game (thank you Nana and Papa). Other hits seem to be her Supergirl/Wonder Woman/Batgirl panties, her slippers, and the large Frozen coloring book Finn picked out as his gift to her.

 Finn is the exact opposite. He loves toys, especially trucks and tractors and cars. But really any toy. He's okay with getting clothes, but he's not really excited about them. Clothes are hard to guess for him though, sometimes we get something in a hand-me-down box or from the store and he falls in love with it. He even has a shirt he's entitled his "school bus shirt." It looks nothing like a school bus, but he loves it. His favorites this year are the dump truck we gave him and the John Deere truck he bought with the money Grandma Clark sent him. He really likes that one because it came with a little man he can take out of it. He loves that. He even asks to sleep with his "man." 

Here's another favorite. Mike got him a set of power tools and goggles. One of the first sentences said in the house after he opened it was, "No, you don't saw people in the face." That was shortly followed by, "I don't really know how much Elvis likes being sawed either."

Finn and I worked on a Christmas gift for everyone in the house for the week leading up to Christmas. We had tried potty training a little in the past but this time I was in a good place to really do it. So a week and a half before Christmas I told Mike we were really doing it and stayed home for a week. No library, no gym, no playground. He wasn't thrilled, but by the end of the week, he was even napping without a diaper. So on Christmas day we gave him a pair of Spider Man underwear. He refused to wear them for the first four days after Christmas, but when he came trotting out one day with a pair of jeans with a zipper I told him underwear would keep him from getting pinched (he understood this from prior experience). Voila, on went the undies.

It's like watching Kramer at Calvin Klein.

I think the favorite family gift was The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak, a gift from Alexa. We've had to implement a one-read-a-day policy for it.

Mike bought me some new boots from L. L. Bean. They're pretty awesome, I must say, and I've received a lot of compliments on them. For Mike, I teamed up with my parents, his parents, and my sister Alexa to buy Mike a new bike. A nice bike. His old road bike was just from Walmart and lasted as long as you would expect for a bike from Walmart. So we trashed it this summer. His winter bike is heading in the same direction, but that's the way with winter bikes. So we got him a brand-new Trek road bike. It came with great reviews and a good recommendation from the man at the shop I went to. He said it was a nice choice for commuting (the primary purpose here) and made a decent race bike (the secondary purpose). 

Unfortunately, we don't have pictures yet of either of those gifts, but we DO have pictures of the gifts we got from my mum, who I am sure feels as confident in her choice of gifts this year as I do in mine.

A compilation of some of C. S. Lewis' best writings. I want to read this together with Mike. Even the few I've already read could stand a re-read. And yes, that GIANT dust pan in the background. We are eternally grateful.

Merry Christmas to you all!