March 19–Nate’s Turns 7

 

Good morning birthday boy!

 

Finally, a bigger bike!

 

Finally, another fish!

 

For lunch we had a fun picnic at the park and played on the playground and in the fountains.

 

It's always a special birthday when Grammy and Grampy come to celebrate with us!

(From these pictures it looks like he spent nearly the whole day in his pjs. He didn't, but we had an after-dinner outing planned--see below--and wanted everyone to be ready jump in bed as soon as we got home.)

 

On friend-party years I make birthday cakes from a box mix and try to decorate them in creative ways to match the theme. On the off years, since I don't have to spend time decorating, I decided I will let the birthday kid choose any flavor and I'll make it from scratch. For inspiration, I read aloud the all the cake recipe titles in my cookbook. A few caught Nate's interest, but when I got to Carmel Cake we all knew that was the one. Making the frosting was a harrowing experience, but in the end it turned out great. Garnished with white chocolate chips and served with Moose Tracks it was sickeningly sweet. Perfect for Nate!

 

After dinner it was back to the park to watch the moonrise. March 19 was a "supermoon," a phenomenon which occurs roughly every 20 years when a full moon coincides with the moon being at the perigee point in its elliptical orbit (the point closer to the earth.)

 

Watching and waiting.

 

Young astronomer.

 

See that little orange dot? It was bigger and prettier in person. Not quite a Supermoon in my opinion, but a fun outing anyway.

 

We love you Nate!! Happy Birthday!!

February 21 - Field Trip to Seattle

This winter Erik realized he had two back to back weeks of meetings and conferences in Seattle, so we decided to turn it into a family outing and all go for ten days. We knew there would be plenty of things to see and do, plus two families from church had recently moved to the area and we were looking forward to visiting them as well.

Our first adventure after arriving, settling in to a small rental condo, and doing some school work was to meet the Jacksons at the Ballard Locks. This was one of the few days the distant mountains were visible.

Minutes after arriving at the locks our toes were completely numb (and seemed to stay that way until we returned to Atlanta.) But the locks were fascinating; several boats/ships came through while we watched. Oops, I didn't actually get a picture of one going through.

After watching for a while we went to look at the fish ladder. (See picture below the beach photo--accidentally posted them out of order.) If there had been fish traveling through it would have been more exciting. (On one of my two previous visits to Seattle--in the summer--I remember seeing lots of fish and it was fun to watch.)

Next we drove to the beach at nearby Discovery Park. This was the definition of raw weather. Cold, icy drizzle, wind, gloomy gray skies, damp gray mud, and choppy gray water. We would liked to have stayed longer since it was so different from any "beach" we have been to, but we quickly retreated to the warmth of the car.

Here is the aforementioned fish ladder. (There is also a viewing window below water level.) This provides salmon and other fish a way to travel to and from the Sound, bypassing the locks. They can jump from one weir (section) to the next or swim through tunnels under the divider walls. Because the locks separate fresh and salt water bodies the last several sections of the ladder gradually mix in salt water. The fish can smell the "attraction water" up ahead which motivates them to travel. Fascinating.

When Erik had some time off we went to see Pike Place market.

We saw some of the famous picturesque produce

displays at the market and also the fish throwers.

We bought spiral hair ornaments for Meg and Kate.

We also drove by the Space Needle (too cheap to buy tickets to the top). It was

so cold and windy; we could barely stand still long enough to pose for this picture!

From downtown we drove to the flight museum. We couldn't believe all the huge cranes we passed and thousands and thousands of shipping containers.

Seattle - part 2

We spent several hours--could have been several days--at the flight museum.

We walked through the Concorde and an old Air Force One.

It is funny to think this used to be the height of Presidential luxury and technology.

The most interesting sections to me were the WWI & WWII displays. We also walked through part of the original Boeing building and saw some of the machinery used in early aircraft production.

We hoped the day of our ferry ride would be clear enough to see the spectacular mountains all around the Sound. Of course it was actually quite foggy and windy, but still interesting.

In Bremerton we toured the Turner Joy, a Navy Destroyer. Erik and I both had grandfathers on Navy ships in WWII, so this was interesting to us even though this ship was from a different era.

Between sight seeing and school work we watched lots of tv.

One of the prettiest days was Friday when we visited the Point Defiance Zoo with the Funches and Jackson families. Here's our motley crew of 11 kids:

Seattle - part 3

On Friday we headed to Spokane to visit the Macks. We enjoyed

clear weather and beautiful views as we drove over Snoqualmie Pass.

Chrissy was a great hostess. It's not easy to have our crew and paraphernalia descend on your house! The girls, especially Meg, hit it off with Annie, who generously shared her dress up collection.

Ben, Ryan, and Nate enjoyed some time on the Wii.

The big hit was Brandon's backyard ice rink!

The trip back to Seattle on Monday proved to be rather eventful. We drove part way Sunday night to get a head start. Before going to bed we heard pessimistic weather reports for conditions on the pass the next day, so we planned to wake up early and check the forecast again. Sure enough, by morning snow chains were required, so we decided to go back to sleep until stores opened. After breakfast we started toward the pass. To make a long story short, as we climbed toward higher elevations we went from clear skies to overcast, to flurries, to driving snow. When the truckers started pulling over to put on their chains, we took their cue and did the same. We stopped several times due to road closures (avalanche control, accident clean up, actual avalanches, etc.) Finally around lunch time (after sitting still for over an hour and half) we were all ordered to turn around and head back--the road was closed. Part way back down we stopped to eat in a funny little town. Huge piles of plowed drifts lined the streets and surrounded the buildings. Everyone was out and about as if it were a fine summer day--the power of snow chains! (Incidentally we lugged our set home on the plane and are really hoping it snows in Atlanta this winter!) Meanwhile we talked with Bekie and she confirmed what we had heard over lunch: there was a clear pass farther north. Thankfully it was, in fact, smooth sailing and a mere 12 hours after leaving the hotel that morning we arrived back in Seattle. It was actually a very interesting day. The kids did pretty well on our unplanned road trip marathon, the scenery reminded us of Narnia under the White Witch, and the experience was certainly one of a kind.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of our time at the Jackson's house. They had plenty of space for us and a great piece of property to explore. The kids had fun romping for a few days around while Bekie and I visited and Erik concluded his work responsibilities.

Goodbye Seattle. We hope to see you again--in the summer. :)

February 20 - Caleb Turns Three

This year we implemented the one-year-on, one-year-off system for "friend" parties on the kids' birthdays. This is the year off. However, since 3 is traditionally the year they have their first party with little friends, I couldn't skip it altogether for Caleb. So, the night before we had three families over for a simple celebration with pizza and cake. The birthday boy was very pleased.

assistant birthday cake baker / chief batter taster


train cake


happy boy

the most precious three-year-old in the world



beautiful Avery




fellow train-lover, Luke


(not pictured, cute little Katie)

Something always seems to come up on Caleb's birthday: year 1 was an ear infection and a huge dinner party the next night; year 2 was a family wedding the same day. This year we all were leaving the next morning to fly to Seattle for 10 days. But we still fit in a happy birthday breakfast before church and family presents and cake before bed.

We love you, Bubster!! Happy birthday!!