Christmastime

We had a really nice Christmas this year.  Headed to Chicago the Sunday before the holiday.  We were busy!  Caught up with high school and college friends, saw Grandma and Aunt Judith, and got to meet cousin Zachary.  I'll say he is pretty cute!  And growing quite fast.

  

We also got to check out the Winter train exhibit at the Botanical gardens, and take a train ride downtown--Alaina's first time!

We celebrated Christmas with my family, before heading back on the 26th.  Santa had paid a visit while we were gone, and although Ethan was concerned he might get coal this year, he was pleased to find presents for him under the tree.

Now it is time to ring in the new year!

Nail-Biter

So, I guess my last post was premature.  The desktop has crashed again, and now we are trying to get it returned, I think it is a lemon.  Anyhow, I am still struggling with posts with no regular desktop access.  So here's a quick post on something Alaina has (unfortunately) learned.

With our busy, somewhat unpredictable lives, I have gotten in the habit of cutting the kids fingernails on Sunday nights after their bath and before bed.  About a month ago, I noticed that Alaina's nails were still short after a week, which was unusual.  The next week, same thing, short nails.   Hmmmm.....Then I caught her in the act.  She has started biting her nails.  :(

Now, those of you who know me, know that I have been a lifetime nail-biter.  I don't know when I began.  But it is a pretty annoying habit, one that I wish I could get rid of.  Instead, it seems as though I have passed it on to my daughter.  So sorry Alaina.....A lifetime of ugly nails awaits you unless you stop now.  I bought her some nail polish for Christmas, maybe that will keep her from biting?  In my experience, no, but I thought I would try.  Actually, the strange thing is that I am  not sure that she has ever seen me bite my nails, as I tend to bite them at night after she is in bed.  Either way, genetic or environmental, she bites.  At age two.  Ugh.

Catch up

I got a bit behind in blogging this fall because our desktop computer crashed.  It all started when I tried to "upgrade" to Windows 10.  Apparently a big mistake.  Since the computer was encrypted for my work, it make the whole thing completely inaccessible.  Since all our pictures are on there, and I had not done our annual back up and our external hard drive was mysteriously not backing up daily as promised, I kind of freaked out. The windows store could not help, and ultimately, the IT department at my work was able to unencrypt and recover my data.   The computer was still acting slow thought, so back it went to IT, and then back tot he windows store.  Long story short, we finally have windows 10 and all out pictures and data back, but we were computer-less intermittently for over two months!

A few fall pics to share:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration this year!  Luckily Jason and I had the holiday off (although I worked until 4:30 am the morning of), and we headed to Sonoma to celebrate.

Since I was working the day before, Jason prepared a dessert to bring: Peppermint Cheesecake.  And I  have to say, it was delicious.

We also enjoyed introducing Rebeka to Thanksgiving.  Ethan told the story of the pilgrims and their "66 day journey" for religious freedom.  Overall, a very nice holiday, and we have a lot to be thankful for!

Ethan the photographer

Ethan has a new hobby: taking pictures.  Whenever I leave my phone out he goes to town taking selfies, and shots of his sister.  I then "discover" them days later, usually at work.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Maybe it's time for a selfie stick!

Meanwhile, our desktop has been "under repair" for almost a month.  I have some great fall pics of my own to download once I get it back!  Stay tuned.

Panda Girl

I have to devote a blog entry to Alaina’s current favorite outfit:  The Panda Outfit.  Although it is a bit hard to make out from the picture, the pants are covered in panda heads.  She loves them.  Best of all, she found a shirt that happens to have a panda on it, and she insists on wearing it with the pants at all times, even though the shirt does not match at all.  To the adult eye, the outfit is a terribly busy clash, but to her eye, they go together perfectly.  It’s funny how one’s perception changes with age.  T

o a two year old:  of course they match, they both have panda bears!

Welcome Zachary! and Happy Halloween!

This week was a very exciting week--Ethan and Alaina now have their first cousin!
My brother Jeff and his wife Janice had a baby on Thursday.  His name is Zachary Everett...and he is a big baby.....weighing in at 10 pounds even!
We can't wait to meet him at Christmas.

Also, of course, today is halloween.   This year, Ethan chose to be Darth Maul, and Alaina asked to be a bunny.  Here's a pic from this morning:

Yesterday, each of the kids had school parades.  Alaina's class dressed up as the San Francisco Fog.  She refused to wear her costume.  Yes, she is exerting her independence these days!

   

United Family Fun Day

Last weekend, we were able to attend a super cool event: United Family Fun Day.  My brother Jeff got us tickets through his work (he does a lot of business with United's shipping department) and since it was in San Francisco, we got to go!

The event was huge, and right on the tarmac off the airport.  There were tours of the mechanical shops, demonstrations of the plan landing gear, planes to look at and walk though, and of course a huge kiddie area with jumpy houses, games etc.
Ethan had a blast.

Another highlight was that it was Fleet week in San Francisco (the air and water show) and so one of the air teams, called the Patriots, had their planes there on display, and took off right near us!  Those planes are amazing. I have no idea how they fly in their formations so precisely...immediately after take off they were exactly together.  Very neat to watch.

Welcome Rebeka!

Last week we welcomed a new member into our family: Rebeka!  Rebeka is an au pair from Brazil, that has moved in for the year.  She will take care of Ethan and Alaina before and after school.  We are excited to welcome her, and have had a great first week so far.

She hails from the town of Londrina, which, although I had never heard of it, has a population of half a million, and is located in southern Brazil.  Besides taking care of the kids, she is here to improve her English for a business career.

Last weekend, after she arrived, we took her to the Marin headlands so see some of the spectacular San Francisco views, and quite frankly sell her on the place!  So far, so good.  She seems to be settling in, making some new au pair friends, and learning how to get around the area.

Harris House

When we were in Minocqua for John's wedding, we took a side trip to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Harris' home on Bear Lake.

This house, which they built in 1978, is where I made some of my most vivid childhood memories.  Every Christmas day, we would drive up to the house, and spend the week between Christmas and New Year's with them as well as my cousins, aunt and uncles.  Days would be filled with snowmobiling, cross-county skiing, ice skating on the lake, and of course sledding down "scream mountain", a hill in the yard.  

We would visit in the summer too, many times I would go without my parents.  Summers were hot and buggy, yet I have fond memories of riding the "honda 3-wheeler" with my grandpa to go pick blueberries in the woods, swimming and boating on Bear Lake, looking for rocks for my rock collection along the 1 mile gravel road that we walked each day to the mailbox, and learning how to quilt with my grandma.  I remember being lonely at night as a small child, so my grandparents would set up a cot in their room so I could sleep with them.  That was great until my grandpa would wake me up with his snoring and I would in turn wake him up and ask him to "stop"!   That very same room is where my grandma died of renal cell carcinoma in 1999.   

I clearly remember being up one summer to celebrate my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.  I never remember seeing my grandma so happy as she was the day of the celebration.  Even though I was only in high school I knew that they had something special, and I remember thinking to myself, wondering if someday I would be lucky enough to celebrate 50 years with someone.  

So of course, the house is merely a house, but it was the house that my grandparents built, their retirement dream, and a truly special place to my whole family.  I could go on for pages and pages with all of my memories, because there are hundreds.  It was just one of those magical childhood places.  I hope my own kids have a place like this that they can someday fondly remember.

Anyhow, we drove out to the home, which is 20 minutes or so off the main highway, and found a man in the driveway.  With some encouragement from Jason, I got out of the car and introduced myself.  He was a friend of the owner, but yes the owners were in, and so we all got out to meet them.  Turns out they are a family from the Milwaukee area, a contractor and a high school teacher with 2 older kids.  They plan to retire up there, and have put a tremendous amount of work into the house since they bought it in 2002.  We got a full tour.  May things had changed, but some were the same: the kitchen cabinets, the backsplash in the kitchen (which I remember my grandma adoring), the woodshop in the back of the garage where grandpa did his woodcarving, the gravel in the driveway.    Overall, it looked amazing, and although a little bit of me was sad to see the 70s era wood paneling and bright orange and yellow carpeting had been replaced, overall I was so genuinely happy that another family cared about this home so much.  

While we were there, they pulled out a small checkbook box that they had found after buying the house.  It contained small collectors license plates from each state, and was dated 1953.  They gave it to Ethan, saying that maybe he would like something that was his great-grandfathers, and besides, he could use them to learn his states.  They said they had kept it all this time, not sure what to do with it, but now they knew.  Wow, what a cool gift!  We are working on framing them for his room.

I may never make it back to 11091 Church Dr., but I am glad that I got to make this visit.

Rest in peace, Grandma and Grandpa.  Your house is being well taken care of, and will provide some special memories for another family.  I love you!

New Street

We live on a small cul-de-sac, technically in unincorporated Marin county.  Our cul-de-sac was pretty banged up--lots of cracks, pot holes and general disrepair.  The 9 homes on our street got together and petitioned the county last year for re-paving, and we were told "No".  But we were persistent...and eventually our street got the attention that it deserved.

They closed down the street for two days, and ripped it all up.

The result: smooth as ice!  A great surface for the kids to scooter and bike on, and well worth the effort.

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Johnny's Wedding and a Midwest Reunion

We have been busy.  We got back from Tahoe, washed, unpacked, started first grade, and then it was time to pack up again.  This time to the midwest to celebrate the marriage of my cousin John to his new wife Diana.  Alaina and I headed out a few day early so we could visit my mom and dad who were not able to make the trip up to Minocqua.

 

We enjoyed some nice weather in Chicago.  Alaina got her second haircut at this cute little shop in downtown Park Ridge.  And, of course we enjoyed some Chicago pizza!

  

On Friday, my parents, Alaina and I headed up to Milwaukee to visit my grandma.  She looked great, and we had a nice lunch together.

Jason and Ethan landed in Milwaukee at 2pm, and the four of us headed to the  northwoods for the wedding.  Minocqua holds a special place in my heart.  It is where my grandma and grandpa Harris lived while I was growing up.  I have fond memories of spending Christmases and many summer days at their home on Bear Lake.

The drive up was a long as I remembered, although the speed limit is now 70 much of the way.  We headed directly for the rehearsal dinner, which was well underway, but we were welcomed anyhow.

It was wonderful to reunite with my mom's greater family--many of whom I haven't seen since my wedding 8 years ago.  And although Ethan and Alaina do not have any first cousins (yet), there are 10 second cousins on that side that they got to meet and play with!

We stayed in a cabin with my cousin Angie and her 4 kids, as well as our family friends from Norway.

Besides the wedding, another highlight was the loggers breakfast at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty. This restaurant is a Minocqua icon that has been around for ages (or at least since I was a kid).  It is an all-you-can eat breakfast with all the fixins.  Here is a cousins picture and a cousin's kid's picture out if front:

  

John and Diana had a lovely wedding, and the kids loved tearing it up on the dance floor.

                         

On Sunday, we hung out at the cabin, where Jason and Ethan learned how to fish from Angie's husband Kurt:

We then headed to visit my grandparents old home (post about this coming soon) before dropping Ethan and Jason off at the Rhinelander airport.  Alaina and I then made the drive back to Chicago (ugh), and flew to SF on Monday afternoon.

Overall a really fun, super-busy weekend.  We will need a vacation to recover!!! LOL.

New School Year!

So the school year has begun.  Ethan is officially a first-grader, and Alaina is now in the "horse room".  Ethan was really excited.  Alaina not so much (there were a lot of tears her first day).


Here are a few first day pictures:

  


   


A first grade development: Ethan gets his own desk!

 We will see how the year goes!