The Weatherman

I picked up the kids from daycare yesterday.  The report was that the boys were wound up, talking back, and acting sassy.  I guess living with Auntie Jan is finally rubbing off on them.  Got home and let them watch Polar Express while I made dinner.  They had hot dogs, cheese, pasta, bananas, and oranges.  They chowed down and neither wanted yogurt or ice cream after.  (That was a shocker.)  After dinner, Zach and I read a book.  Nate and I did a puzzle.  We played some. Zach continues to love his new bed and pretends to sleep in it.

Jan looked at a house that she loved.  She can’t wait for Mike to see it this weekend.  It is close to us, so that makes me happy. Paul made yummy steak for dinner.  (And as grandma would say, he then ruined it by serving corn on the side. But I liked it.)  I did some more wrapping but still have stuff to wrap.  Grandma – I may need to clarify from you some gifts you sent as to whether they go to Jan or Mike.

Eventually, I went downstairs to enjoy the new TV sensation “The Sing Off.”  Jan was working hard on a transcript but found time to laugh at my nerdiness in liking this show.  Paul played with the kids some upstairs.  Nate was reluctant to go to bed and kept wandering downstairs.  Not sure if Paul tried to get him down or not.  I went up with Nate at 9:15 and put him to bed.  I laid down (lied down?) with him for about 2 minutes and he was good and went to sleep.  Zach went to bed at 10 with a book and a flashlight.  He fell asleep quickly.

Nate woke up coughing about 2:30.  I went to check on him and his body was up on his pillows and his head was down on the mattress.  Thus, he was facing downhill.  I got him situated with his head on his pillow and he was back asleep and good to go for the night. Of course, then I could fall back asleep for awhile.  Thus, I got up a little late this morning in order to spend more quality time with Jan in the bathroom.

Paul states that the boys were really good this morning.  I guess Nate was whiny and unhappy yesterday morning.  I think part of that is him still getting over a cold.  I guess he is better now because they were their happy selves.  They walked with Paul to get coffee in the morning.  Maybe this will cut down on the sass and back talking at daycare?

Finally, Congratulations to Boeing for the first flight of the brand new 787!

Boys were hyper last night.  I think being kept in so much with this cold weather has made them both stir crazy.  They were running from a pretend tiger and doing laps throughout the house.  I think the LOVE the new beds.  Especially Zach.  Anytime it is mentioned that Nate needs to go to bed, Zach calls out “Nate on the bottom, Zach on top!”  When I checked on them this morning before leaving for work, Zach was sound asleep with his little face in the space by the ladder. Nate was sideways next to his pillows.  Paul had to lay down with them last night to get them to go to sleep (and probably to prevent Nate from just wandering out of bed?)  But they were down and good by like 9:15 or so.   We borrowed Polar Express from the Alessi’s and Zach loves that movie.  He has watched it a ton.  He talks about needing his ticket for the train.

Yesterday was an odd day at work.  There were no cops around.  We joked that if you wanted to commit a crime in WA, then yesterday would be the day to do it.  I was able to watch some of the funeral on TV and heard a lot of it on the radio.  I know Jan watched once she got home (and cried, of course, because it is sad and she is a big softie.)

I took Zach to speech therapy yesterday.  Katie pointed out how when he slows down, the words and sounds come out better and easier.  But we he rushes, then he loses it.  Too bad Zach is a fast talker like me, so he needs to slow down.  We put coins and buttons in play-doh and he used pinchers to grab them out.  He is working on the phrase “Grabbing the money.  [or]  Grabbing the button.”  He tends to say gramming instead of grabBING.  So that is part of his homework.  He needs to put it in a phrase because that is when it gets jumbled.  When you just ask him to say the word, he tends to get it right.  The other homework is the phrase, “Mom, where is it (or you) hiding?”  You can hide or we can hide toys.  Need to get him to use the “where” question and also say “hiDING” correctly.

Once home, I read the Thomas book with Zach.  He almost has that one down as well as the Cars book.  He only needs help with one or two words on the Cars book.  There are still about 10-15 in the Thomas book he needs help with.  He is going to love when Santa brings him so many new books.  (I am also glad because I am SICK OF THOSE TWO BOOKS!  I almost pulled a new one out, but waited.)  Nate worked on puzzles.

Both ate dinner well.  We had quesadillas, lima beans (curtesey of Jan’s leftovers), and banana.  Both earned yogurt and Zach also had ice cream.  Paul gave them a bath last night and got them ready for bed.  I went to bed early.  Nate cuddled with me a little but willingly went in his crib around 9:15.  Zach said how he wants a new bed.  I told him that one was being delievered and should arrive soon.  He said that he wanted to go to the store to get one.

Guess that is all I have.  It is freezing here. It was 20 at our house when I left this morning and the car temp read down to 18 during part of my drive.

If I get a chance, I will attempt to put some of this report on the blog.  No one cares what I have to say, though.  All they want are pictures. 

What is this?  Steph’s writes a morning report on most mornings and sends it via email.  I’m going to start including it on the blog (maybe she’ll start posting it herself).  Unfortunately, this mornings is a boring report – so I’ll add to it.

From Steph:

Very odd commute this morning.  There were probably about 17 police cars from all around that passed me in the carpool lane on their way to the funeral for the Lakewood officers.  When I arrived at work, there is a big empty parking lot next to City Hall, it was full of police cars here starting the staging process to go down to Lakewood.

From Paul:

When I walked out of the bathroom after showering and brushing my teeth, Zach was already up and taking off his jammies.  Nate was completely naked in his crib.  No sign of the diaper!  Hopefully he put it in the diaper champ otherwise it could be hiding under the crib.  Both were good at getting dressed and putting on two jackets.

For those who don’t know, the mornings have been in the high teens (ie, 19 degrees) and the daytime high is at or below freezing.  So a bit chilly in these parts.

Don’t blame me…blame Steph.  She’s been writing these excellent daily updates via email – I keep telling her to post them and she won’t.  I don’t know why not.

I don’t think I can update on everything that has gone on.  Quickly, I’ll say that Halloween was fun (pictures to follow) with the PEPS kids, Jan moved up (not so fun…just kidding), and Thanksgiving occurred (lots of fun except Uncle Mike was sick).  Work has been very busy as this is our ‘all hands on deck’ time of year.  As for weather, it’s cold now – which is cool but no snow.

I’ll little tiger and zebra for Halloween.

All of the little monsters.

Ummm, chocolate.

I like chocolate too.

Getting into the Christmas spirit.

Yeah, OK, I’ll wear the hat too.

So first the J&M news…they are moving to Seattle.  Jan accepted a job offer in Seattle and they have decided to relocate.  She starts work on November 16th but Mike will be staying in Eugene working at his current job until their house sells.  Auntie Jan will be moving in…Zach and Nate are very excited.

Before I get into our Spokane weekend, here is a shot of the two completed pork shoulders I smoked last weekend.

They tasted as good as they looked.

Last Wednesday, Steph headed over to Spokane for some attorney conference.  I held down the fort with the boys until Friday morning.  I got them up at 5:30am and hit the road in the Pilot for Spokane.  The boys were great on the ride out.  We were making record time until mile 236 – that’s where I got my speeding ticket.  I probably shouldn’t have been doing 85.  It was cool while it lasted – no one (and I mean no one) passed me on I90 from downtown Seattle to milepost 236.  After that, everyone passed me.  Sigh.

We arrived in Spokane at around 10:30am and headed to Riverfront Park to check out the falls.  Very cool.  Zach and Nate loved watching the water fall down the rocks.

First part of Upper Falls on the Spokane River.

The other side of Upper Falls.

After the falls we strolled through the park where we picked up acorns.  Now this may not seem exciting, but the boys have only seen acorns in the movie Ice Age.  So when I introduced them to real acorns – well that was a big treat.  We never went anywhere without our acorns the whole weekend.  We took them to breakfast, lunch, and dinner…and to the movies.

We met up with mommy at noon and had lunch.  Following lunch we had afternoon naps and then we headed back to the park with mommy and then we did some shopping.  For dinner we ate at the hotel (We stayed at the Davenport – very nice place) restaurant.  We had awesome service, good drinks, and a good meal.  On Saturday we ate at Frank’s Diner – a converted railroad car so Zach loved that.  We then drove out to Idaho just so the boys could say they’ve been to Idaho.  We stopped at Cabela’s which had a bunch of stuffed wildlife.  The boys loved that – it was basically a still-life zoo for them.  Cabela’s also had an aquarium and a shooting gallery that the boys liked.  From there we drove to Cat Tails Zoological Park to check out the 40+ cats (ie, tigers, lynx, pumas) and two bears that were there.  It was a small place but fun none the less.

After lunch and naps we went to the movies and saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  The boys were very good during the movie which meant they were extra surly at dinner (again at the hotel).  We drove home early Sunday.

Playing at the park.

Nate still not certain about riding the carousel.

Another happy customer at Frank’s Diner.

Space helmets made at nursery school!

This last weekend Marla, Simon, Sophie, and Alex visited us in Seattle.  They arrived on Friday to a beautiful evening – unfortunately that was the end of the great weather.  We ended up getting close to 2 inches of rain over the weekend.  But that didn’t dampen the activities.  We went to a fun center with a 3 story kids habitrail.  All of the kids loved it.  It was obvious once we got home – they all took naps.

Later on Saturday we had all of PEPs over for a Labor Day weekend bar-b-que.  We had chicken, hot dogs, sliders, and sausages – plus a bunch of side dishes.  Yummy.

Sunday was a very wet day so we spent most of the day at home.  After Marla/Simon and family left on Monday, Zach wanted to go see the animals – the penguins, bears, and giraffes.  Off we went to the zoo.  We fortunately had very good weather while we were there.  The rest of the weekend was quiet until Monday night.

Zach and Nate were playing on our bed and Zacher fell off.  He seemed more agitated than normal so we checked him out every 30 minutes for signs of a head injury.  He kept falling asleep and only complained of a sore neck.  About 2 hours after the fall he woke up complaining of pain.  So I took him to the ER.  They saw nothing wrong and sent me home.  The next morning Zach could not get out of bed because of the pain.  He also started protecting his right arm and shoulder.  Steph made him another doctor appointment.  Within about a minute the doctor guessed that Zach had broke his collarbone – the x-rays confirmed it.  Age 4, 2 broken bones…he’s like a little stunt-man.

Here are some photos from the weekend.

Cute Kid!

Happy Alex in the swing.

Sophie playing ball.

Zach playing ball (pre-break).

A guest Blog by Steph

Immediately after returning from our big Summer Camp trip, we turned around and went camping again with our PEPs group.  (8 adults, 4 four-year-olds, 3 around two-year-olds, and one infant).  Guess what?  Still don’t love camping.  The trip did not get off to a great start.  We left the house at 6 and decided to go out to dinner to avoid a long line at the ferry.  I thought of it as The Last Supper.  Had yummy dinner at the Brew Pub (Elliott Bay) and hopped in the car ready for our two hour trip to the campsite.  Two hours?  Riiiiiight.
Got to the ferry line at 7:00pm.  This line is about a mile from our house.  Paul did not consult a schedule because “the ferry leaves every twenty minutes.”  We missed the ferry by two cars and thus began our wait for the next one at 7:15pm.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  Finally, a ferry arrived.  Hurray!  But wait.  It was only going to Vashon and not to Southworth where we needed to be.  So we waited and waited and waited some more.  Two hours later, we got on the ferry.
Thus, after 45 minutes on the ferry and another 45 minute drive, we arrived at the campsite at 10:20pm.  Upon arrival, we saw that the gates were closed and there was a line of cars outside.  Then we saw the sign that the park closes at 10pm to campers.  Paul and I would have gotten divorced right then if it weren’t for the fact that a park ranger was just opening the gates to let the cars in – so we didn’t have to wait.
So we checked in and arrived at our site around 10:40pm.  In the complete pitch dark.  Always fun to set up a campsite in the dark.  Fortunately, the PEPs group pitched in to help us out.  By the way, Zach and Nate were excellent during this entire long car trip.  They just watched their DVDs and hung out.
We got the tent up quick and got the kids settled.  They actually went to sleep, so Paul and I got to hang out with the adults for an hour.  Paul did make me a cocktail to help me get through the evening and erase the memories of the fact that it took us 3 hours to go 7 miles from our house.
Saturday, the boys got up around 7ish.  As it was finally light outside, I could actually see the campgrounds.  I was thrilled to find close bathrooms that have running water, hot air hand dryers, and flushable toilets (and these bathrooms were cleaned daily).  Breakfast was assigned to Kathy and Mark.  They made yummy blueberry pancakes and sausages.  After breakfast, all the families went over to this “playground” and open field to play.  It was chilly in the morning so we decided not to play in the water in the morning.  The playground were just various structures made to look like rocks.  Zach loved climbing to the highest levels and jumping off.  (Matthew is also fearless when it comes to jumping off high structures).  Eventually, we decided to play races with the kids.  We wore them out having them run back and forth to a tree. Jacob decided to take off his shirt as he was getting hot, so all the other kids followed suit.  Too cute.
Got back to camp for lunch.  Shellie and Devin were in charge of lunch and made hot dogs and PB&Js.  Perfect camping lunch.  I also decided that it was wine o’clock and others joined me in that endeavor.  After lunch, all the kids went down for a nap.  Eventually, all the adults did too.  (Except Paul, of course, who used the time to check out the campgrounds).  After naps, we all went down to the water.  Zach loves the water and had fun playing in it.  Nate is not into it that much (but has to follow Zach around).  We were having a great time playing until Zach threw sand in some other kids faces.  Thus, ended water play.
Went back to camp and it was our turn for dinner.  Paul had made yummy marinara sauce before we left, so all he had to do was boil water, make pasta, heat the sauce and some bread.  We also mixed some bag salads.  I watched the kids as he cooked.  Then he watched the kids as I did the dishes.  Dinner was yummy.  Others brought stuff to make smores for dessert.  Zach is more into watching the marshmallows get set on fire then eating the smores.  After dinner, we were all sitting around the campfire when Paul asked if anyone had tums.  A few people responded that they did.  Devin then said, “Paul, we are in our thirties and we are camping.  Of course, we have Tums.”  Quote of the trip.  (Also we often made references to the fact that Tom and Lynn have a cabin around there.  Funny at the time – but doesn’t translate well to the blog).
More drinking and enjoying the campfire, but then it was time for bed.  The kids had napped so well that they were hard to get down.  Nate finally went down but Zach would not go to sleep.  Eventually, I was done and went to bed.  Zach cuddled with me and we both fell asleep.  Which means that when Paul finally came to bed, he slept with Nate.  This presented a huge problem.  Paul eventually started snoring. . . loudly.  I was too far away from him to just hit him to make him stop.  It made me nuts.  I was forced to throw his underwear at him, wake him up, and yell at him to stop snoring.  (He actually sat up and asked if Nate was snoring.  He has no memory of this).  Zach was fidgeting a lot and it was cold, so I did not sleep well.
The next morning, Zach woke up and declared that we were going home.  When I said we had to pack up camp and have breakfast first, he replied that we were going home in five minutes.  Zach decided to wait in the car (so Nate followed, of course).  This actually worked out well since it allowed Paul and I to pack up camp and get everything ready while the kids were contained in the car and weren’t roaming around.  Also, Sasha and Heidi were in charge of breakfast, so we could pack while they cooked.  Sasha made yummy omelets and bacon.  It was really good.  Zach and Nate did not eat much and hurried back to the car because Zach was ready to go home.  (Maybe Zach does take after me more than Paul.)
Overall, this camping trip went pretty well.  While camping is still not my thing, the campgrounds were nice and the kids were being good.  Zach loved pushing his truck around the campsite.  Nate picked up pine cones and put them in his watering can bucket.  Those two activities alone provided hours of entertainment for them.  Having the kids being good made me less stressed and able to relax some.  (Also, only two nights instead of three made a HUGE difference).  The PEPs group is already planning for next year.  (Maybe they can pick their date and I can figure out a work conference or something for that then???)
Paul will hopefully add some pictures of the trip.  At least I am done with camping for the year.

Playing in Hood Canal

Most of the kids eating.

Eating again..Nice face Jake!

Our campsite.

So I’ll be in Japan for Mother’s Day so we celebrated early by going to brunch at Salty’s on Alki this last Sunday.  All of the boys dressed up – slacks and collared shirts.  And all of the boys were on their best behaviour.  No tantrums, no annoying habits…just messy hands and mouths.

Pre brunch photo.

Hammin it up with the Seattle skyline in the background.

Look at all that chocolate on my pants.

“h-i-p-p-o-p-o-t-a-m-u-s”

We weren’t the only ones having an early Mother’s Day brunch.

In other news, we had a decent rain storm blow threw last night.  Definitely had some pretty heavy rain and high winds.  No lightning and thunder though.   We got over an inch of rain from this system and we are close to two inches for the month of May.  From 4:37am to 4:53am we got .41″ of rain!  That’s pretty damn heavy.  Otherwise, fortunately, it’s been warm.

I returned home yesterday morning.  Unfortunately, I had no energy to work on photos until this morning.  Nothing posted yet.  But here goes a quick trip summary.

I spent last Sunday through Thursday morning in Dublin.  Overall a good week of work- I met with everyone I set out to meet plus I was able to spend some good time with my team.  Tuesday night was the drink Guinness while watching soccer night and on Wednesday I took the team to dinner at Chez Max (good call on the restaurant Oleg).  The weather was similar to Seattle – some rain, gray, cool, and a bit breezy.  I was able to get two runs  on Monday and Thursday – 5 laps around St Stephens Green.

Thursday afternoon I headed to Dublin airport for my 4:15pm flight to Munich on Aer Lingus.  Flying Aer Lingus to Europe from Dublin is easy – they have a revamped check-in area that is easy to get around.  Not much notable about the airport except for the fact that all the trash cans by gate are covered in Guinness glasses as everyone finishes their beers before boarding.   My flight had an Irish football club on it – they sang loudly for the whole flight (it was actually pretty cool).

I arrived a bit early in Munich.  First impressions of the Munich airport – very clean and organized.  I picked up my shuttle to the Marriott Munich Airport hotel.  Upon check-in, they had my name correct but all of the associated info (like address) was completely wrong.  No biggie, I just changed it.  My plan was to meet my coworkers in downtown Munich for some dinner.  They told me to catch the U6 blue line and it would cost 5 euro for a day pass.  At the hotel front desk they gave me a map to the subway and said the day pass would cost 10 euro.  Plus I would need to take the S1 blue line.  Hmmm – this was a bit odd, but oh well.  I got lost walking to the train station (took a right turn too early), but eventually found my way.  I hopped on the train and proceeded to blackberry my coworkers.  They said I had to go 5 stops.  That’s strange, I show 13 stops.  After going back and forth we realized that I was at a different hotel.  They were at the downtown Marriott where I was about 35 km out at the airport Marriott.  Oy ve.

I finally arrived at city center which has this huge plaza, church, and clock tower.  Very beautiful.  I arrived at the restaurant with my meal waiting for me and a full glass of wine – that was pretty cool.  Next up, we went to the Hofbrauhaus for some very large beers.  Upon their closing we returned to the downtown Marriott and closed down that bar.  Then I took a taxi back to my hotel getting in at around 3am.  That wasn’t so bad, except I had to get up at 6:30am and return via taxi to the downtown Marriott.

We drove up to Salzburg on Friday.  That took about 90 minutes.  We got checked in and headed out on the town.  It was absolutely beautiful in Salzburg – low 70s, no clouds, and now wind.  On Friday we toured Mirabell Gartens, Mozart’s home, the old town, and finally made our way up to the fortress overlooking Salzburg.  What an awesome fort with grand vistas of Salzburg valley and the Alps.  There we ate out on a patio enjoying the vistas.

We returned to the old town and sat out in one of the plazas enjoying an iced coffee.  That evening was mellow – hung out in the hotel bar drinking martinis and eating hamburgers.

Saturday started off with an 11 mile (110 min) run along the Salzach River.  Followed that up with an outdoor breakfast as the Salzach grill along the river – again, a very sunny 70 degree day.  That breakfast was probably the best meal as we enjoyed the weather and scenery.  We completed Saturday in Salzburg with shopping then returned to our Sheraton Hotel in Munich (out by the airport).  This hotel was at the end of a runway in Munich – so I really liked it.  It was also in the middle of farmland – so there were many tractors cruising along the streets.  We ate dinner at a cute Italian place down the road from our hotel.  Again, we ate outside on what was another beautiful evening.

I had a final beer in the hotel bar at the hotel on my last night.  I returned to my room only to find my room key didn’t work.  Down to the front desk to get it re-swiped.  Back to the room – it didn’t work again.  Back to the front desk.  This time the reception person came up with me.  Guess what, I was going to the wrong room.  That’s what 4 hotels in 4 nights in 3 different countries will do to you – not to mention the 2 bottles of wine, grappa, and beer.

Sunday was an uneventful flight back – Munich to Amsterdam to Seattle.

I flew out to Dublin overnight to hang with my team in our offices here.  This is my 3rd trip out – probably found the best/easiest flight combinations.  Northwest/Delta from Seattle to Amsterdam, then Aer Lingus from Amsterdam to Dublin.  Transfers are very easy in Amsterdam – way less hassle then at Heathrow.  The plane was nice as well – an A330 with on demand video entertainment in the headrest (I watched Quantum of Solace, Front/Nixon, and most of Body of Lies).  The only problem on the plane was where I sat – the last row.  You know what that means, right?  Anytime someone takes a real stinky shit – the odor attacks you in your seat.

Also, for the first time in my life I saw the Northern Lights.  We over Greenland and I noticed a glow out the window.  These were faint green lights slowly dancing across the sky.  It lasted about 15 minutes, but sure made the flight enjoyable.

Schiphol was a very easy airport to get around in.  I was a little concerned as I didn’t have my boarding pass for my connecting flight…but just outside my arrival gate were these ‘Transfer Desk’ kiosks.  I scanned my passport and Voila!  A boarding pass.  My next gate was about a 3 minute walk away.

I was able to get a room at the hotel (I arrived 3 hours before checkin).  So showered, took a 1 hour nap, then went for a walk.  I need to stay awake until 8 or 9pm so I can onto ‘normal’ schedule.

One final note, this was by far the hardest trip on me emotionally when leaving Steph and the kids.  It’s getting painful to leave them so long and go so far.  They’ll have to start going on these trips…Zach and Nate would love the pubs.

Some shots from the trip to zoo.

A happy Zach.

Nate did not like this 18mo old that kept trying to kiss him.  He wasn’t happy as you can tell.

Nice feathers.

They seem happy to have some sun.

The photos were a tad hazy.  For some reason, circular polarizers on my canon 70-200 tend to get a film on them if I leave the filter on the lens for a long (ie days) time.  Not sure what is up – I probably just need to keep the filters off until I need them – a small nuisance.

On Saturday I fly off to Dublin.  Nothing too exciting planned in Dublin.  The fun will be a 2 day side trip to Salzburg, Austria at the end of the week.  Then I return home the following weekend.

This sucks.

http://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=15252

It appears two men robbed and assaulted the teller at our corner store.  We watched the helicopter fly around around neighborhood for a half hour and watched cop cars cruising the streets…but so far they haven’t found the assailants.

Hopefully the teller is OK…he was taken to the hospital.

Well kind of…it is Seattle…that just means cloudy and showery.  Actually, the mountains have been getting snow dumps – on the order of several feet in the last few days.

So what has been going on?  Last week was the opening game for the Seattle Sounders FC – our new MLS team.  We have season tickets so we went to the opening match with 35,000 other fans.  It was very cool.

A rare shot of us without the kids.

I’ve started doing research and meeting with contractors for redoing our back patio and putting a cover on it (mainly so my mother in law can smoke without getting we).  I want to replace the red brick with gray pavers or concrete and then cover it with a pergola topped off with a smoked-color polycarbonate roof.  Oh, and paint the wood white to match the house trim.  That’s the plan in a nutshell.

Saturday night is our next Sounders game.  On Friday afternoon we are going to a very nice lunch at the The Met with some co-workers as I lost a bet and this is the payoff.  It should be fun since the Met has good food and good drink.

Next week I’ll be prepping for my trip to Dublin and Salzburg (the latter is a quick 2 day trip for pleasure).  While these trips are fun, it’s tough to leave the family for so long but fortunately Steph will have lots of family help while I’m gone.