Fiona Online

Febuary things

2012-02-11T09:46:00.000-08:00

Febuary is screaming by but we have captured a few pictures along the way.

Playing Pac Man with her dad at the brewery. Wholesome upbringing!

Showing her Girl Scout pin at her school Gym.

Saying her girl scout pledge where she substitutes "God" with "our good Earth"

A picture for her teacher: A mother and father bird bringing worms to the nest.

And a middle of the night picture she drew in bed...i think the upper panel is the monkeybars and the lower the door to her classroom.

Water Cycle

2012-01-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

Here is Fiona explaining her water cycle bracelet that her class made this week.

Fiona at play...

2012-01-18T18:54:00.000-08:00

Here is fiona practicing Fiddle last night...she took her fiddle to show and tell on tuesday and played so well...what a proud mum was I .

Our practices have morphed to using instant rewards...one m&m per song. The instant reward has saved countless whining episodes and made practice fun for all.

New Years Came and Went

2012-01-14T12:30:00.000-08:00

(Midnight at the town clock)

Christmas came and went and new years already seems like a long time ago...better have a post for January...

We had a flurry of activity over the holidays: Visitors of many sorts: Real, magical, and infectious. Christmas chaos left in time for us to have friends visit, family stay, our dreams of a snowy holiday dashed on the rocks of la nina, and a flu. Now with that behind us we are back at work and school and January is halfway over... or at the very least Febuary is around the corner.

Here are a few pics of our new year fun.

(up a tree in san francisco)

(King Lyle and Queen Fiona)

(Christmas tree on the beach in San Francisco)

(Almost like snow! on a North Coast beach)

(Mavericks Mural, Half Moon Bay)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

Fiona went to bed last night with dreams of sugar plums or at least a lot of sugar in her head...and woke up this morning with a rejoicint HE CAME!!!!!!!!

As expected he brought an owl and plenty of books and puzzles. We all sat in front of a beautiful christmas morning fire and not one of us was swept away in the a slide of wrapping paper.

Hope that you and yours are having wonderful day too.
Love

Louise
A note left for Santa and the cookies munched on.

reindeer poo outside!

Stocking loot.

Owl found in the tree.

Salmon Art

2011-12-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

Fiona made this picture of a salmon for Devon the other day. Its good to have art supplies in the car...you never know what will come out of the back seat!

The Visit

2011-12-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

We made the annual pilgrimage to the mall today to meet up with Santa who visits there every year. On the way there Fiona accounted for the "few"times that she hasn't been "nice" and wrote them off as days when she was, "just a bit tired." She insisted that there wouldn't be many more of them in the future.

Her request of Santa this year:

An "owl of any size" as we discussed that if he brought a "Giant Owl" which had been a first choice there wouldn't be much room on the sleigh for other kids' stuff. This owl thing comes from her recent Harry Potter obsession and the owls featured therein.

She also asked that Santa bring a "present for kids who don't have a mother or father"...Sniff sniff. He assured her that he would.

I don't know if she will still be a true believer next year...but I hope so.

Love Louise

By The Book

2011-12-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I've used this picture before somewhere, but now I use it to remind myself what a bright wonderful happy girl we have...BUT...Will the sass ever stop?!?
It seems like every morning starts with the same endless negotiations, storming off, whining, manipulations and then end with the whining, negotiations, manipulations and then some storming off for good measure.

I smiled today at dropoff to kindergarten when another mother looked like she was having the same interaction with her kid. I didn't smile to show that I was happy that she was about to throttle the child, but rather that I was not alone in feeling like I am in some sort never-ending psychology experiment... and I'm not sure if I'm the test subject or the investigator.

The book we have about five year olds uses words for the five and a half year old as: "indescisive, overdemanding, dawdling, antagonistic, and as having an all-too -great-readiness to disobey"....At least she's by the book!

Two Wheelin!

2011-11-23T09:53:00.001-08:00

Today I biked on a two wheeler. It was my first time. I thought it was fun. My mummy ran along the side and sometimes she would not hold on to my bike. Then I rode by myself. I went to the end of the street. It was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.
I want to ride all the time.
love,
FIONA

Big Sur Again.

2011-11-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

Our little family went on a expedition to Big Sur with no particular aim this weekend. It was a sweet getaway and didn't involve any small engine repair or laundry which is a nice change for us. We relaxed at a friends cabin ant Big Creek. Apparently there was rain...perhaps even snow in the night but I was sleeping too soundly to notice. We thought back to the first time Fiona came down here with us . One story we apparently failed to put in that entry was the bit about changing a crappy nappy in the night in the tent without a flashlight.YEEECH..Things were much easier this time around! We hunted abalone shells on the beach, missed whole food groups for lunch and dinner, and Fiona was sure that she could see Australia on the horizon. So lovely to get away from the daily grind! Autumn is here and life is good.

Fiona and Louise at Big Creek under the bridge.

Our fire.

Devon and Fiona on the rocks.

INCOMING!!!

Fiona and her Giraffe and the whole ocean behind them.

Witch & Cheetah

2011-11-01T22:46:00.001-07:00

Pumpkins

2011-10-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

It must be fall because there are pumpkins everywhere, but we've been having the best weather of the year these last few weeks. Here are a couple of photos from recent activities-- the annual search for the perfect pumpkin (which Fiona intends to decorate with glitter instead of carving), and then her biggest fiddle performance yet, on a real 'stage' (a farm wagon) at the fall harvest party at a local organic farm.

Butterfly time

2011-10-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

We welcomed the butterflies to Natural Bridges park this weekend...Fiona took part in making her own wings at one of the craft tables...there she is in the front of the picture, orange pants facing the action...it took her a bit to figure out the point of the interpretive dance segment when the kids all followed one of the grown up butterflies around to the eucalyptus grove and back, but by the end she was as silly as the rest of them.

A good time was had by all and we even saw some of the butterflies when the sun came out.
Love
Louise

Family Portrait

2011-09-20T16:10:00.000-07:00

In the first week of kindergarten the kids have all drawn their families. Here's Fiona's representation of her's. That's her in multi-coloured glory holding Rio's leash. I like too that she has the dirt under the grass and that she didn't include any of my gray hair.
Love
Louise

the napping returns!

2011-09-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

Photo has nothing to do with text...

Fiona started Kindergarten a couple of weeks ago and decided that she no longer needed to nap. Today she cuddled into bed while I was getting a prework snooze in and she said that she was going to rest but "didn't want to sleep"... That I may "rub her back but not too hard" or else she would sleep and finally that she was going to sleep a little but wanted me to wake her up after "not too long." ZZZZZZZZZZZZ...Snoring child. Little did she know that now I would revert back to the NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING CHILD LAW that we had suspended briefly so that she could get to school on time.

HA HA
Love
Louise

check out those boots!

Hair and Nails

2011-09-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

Hi All, No new picture to post just and oldie with fiona pre-hair and pre-care. ...technology is in the way of new photos for the time being.

Fiona has made it through the first week of school at Westlake and is doing very well. I am amazed at how fast the fashion show was upon us though. I knew sending her to elementary school would be a change from her beautiful peaceful preschool...and I was prepared for her to be inculcated into the world of fashion etc...I was not ready for how fast it would all happen though.

Through the week there has been some grumbling about clothes and shoes and backpacks not meeting up to the standard in her class. (fiona by the way has an awesome backpack, new shoes that she picked, and a lovely array of clothes to choose from) but this morning something that I had not expected..."Bronte says my hair it tangled and sticks up." Now aside from the easy ad hom attacks one could make about a 5 year old saddled with a name like bronte for her whole life, her hair sticks up too, is straggly and tangled.

SINCE WHEN DO 5 YEAR OLDS CARE ABOUT THEIR HAIR STICKING UP!

I reminded fiona how lovely her hair is and not to worry about what other people think about our hair........ but DAMN FARKETY FARK! Would there be a big penalty for accidentally spilling glue in Bronte's such that it needs to be shorn?

Love
Louise

Fiona's First Day of Kindergarten!

2011-08-31T08:37:00.000-07:00

The outfit: Giraffe pants, Cheetah hoodie, australian animals tshirt, silver shoes, music socks and skirt with pink flowers!

Outside the school room

The day finally came....August 31st! Fiona has been counting down to for the past 6months or so and we made it! Fiona's first Day of Kindergarten in Miss Erny's class room 20 at Westlake School.

We were worried that we wouldn't be there in time but all our practice these last weeks has paid off. With an alarm were at the table eating breakfast by 7AM, already dressed with hair brushed. That's a feat for our family.
Bag was packed with snack, and teeth were brushed, then OUT THE DOOR bu 7:50

We went on bikes, fiona's skills on her own bike aren't quite up to the challenge so I had her on the trail-a-bike. We're going to try to do a mix of walking and riding depending on the weather...Almost there...

It did feel different dropping her off in Kindergarten rather than at preschool. Certainly she's ready, it's just the thought of leaving her in the sea of all those kids that feels different than the familiar arms of her Preschool teacher Laura. But we left her there happily reading and at the beginning of her great adventure in school. She's ready and we're right with her. Fiona reading in the reading spot.

Fiona running with her friend Amelie

Bits and Pieces

2011-08-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

Fiona had her ceremony at the park near her preschool, whereby she is no longer a "preschooler" and is considers herself a "kindergartener." All the mums and dads made a tunnel and the kids walked through emerging to receive their candle and paper which says: "May the light of this flame shine in our hearts on this day."
Fiona and her teacher Laura

We had a fun party in the park and Fiona enjoyed some good rolling in the sand with her friend Isabelle.
We came home and ditched the winter wear and fiona went about a favoured pastime: mixing chalk dust to form potions to heal animals...or kill them.
She is still interested only in being an animal rescuer when she grows up.

Here's one from a couple of weeks ago: Devon's band playing... and fiona up on the stage at her dad's feet.

Tilt your head to the Left...

2011-08-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

Fiona joined up with some of the members of Devon's band to play her first gig...she said that she felt a tickle in her tummy....BUTTERFLIES! she liked that idea and even made enough in busking money for some Bubblegum blue ice cream afterwards.
Enjoy!

Duet Time

2011-08-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Here are Devon and Fiona at the end of a "good practice" Indeed we have several kinds of practice here...some involve a lot of fidgeting, awesome smiles, itchiness, occasional tears, glaring, did I mention feeling itchy...all in the pursuit of giving our daughter skills and appreciation of music. Tiger Parents we are not. We are just trying to have a bit of discipline for a few minutes a day. Hopefully Devon will post one of his closely guarded, "Bad practice videos." In the meantime...
Enjoy.

Love
Louise

Story time...

2011-07-30T20:47:00.001-07:00

Story time is still awesome...here are Fiona and Devon reading one of my favourite books...

You can lead a horse to water...

2011-07-10T21:18:00.001-07:00

Found this tonight when I almost tipped over their trough. At least they're not drinking out of the toilet though.

Summer Safari

2011-07-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

We made it home after our 48+ hour girls getaway. Fiona and I left on Friday morning up to Santa Rosa for a bit of what is called "Glamping" as there was a luxury tent involved...had a safari ride on Friday afternoon, had yummy food served to us...Marshmallows were roasted, wine was drunk (not by Fiona). What a wonderful place...on our tour we saw all sorts of antelope/gazelle/buffaloish things, monkeys cheetas fancy birds, even one gazelle just a few minutes old and trying to stand up. At the end of the evening which involved the feeding of monstrous catfish just near our cabin we went to bed (tired as dogs) listening to the sounds of exotic birds and other creatures talking in the night. We'll have to come back with Devon one day.

Rather than drive home in the heat of the valley we opted to stay between the two places...I would have stopped near the IKEA in Berkley but damn if that exit wasn't meant for me....so we ended up in Fremont and stayed at the holiday inn alongside 880.... but it has a GREAT pool which we lounged in for countless hours...we saw a movie at the mall (hate malls): Mr Poppers Penguins which made Fiona laugh out loud, and slept had breakfast in bed and then swam again before coming home today.

It was really good to be away together...It wasn't the same kind of mothering as the daily grind kind 'twas more relaxed and more joyful.

Happy to be home and looking forward to Devon being back from trip on the Frosti.

Here are some pictures from our trip...

herd of something...

Something extinct in the wild.

A sweet girl rhino.

Fiona and our ride...it broke down near a herd of zebras and we came back in a similar one.

Post safari bliss.

Asleep after a swim....can never get tired of watching her sleep...

love, Louise

Summertime

2011-07-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

Summer has arrived with warm weather and odd schedules. Fiona has been able to spend several weekends with her Grammy and Grampy and is working on her behavior. We had to have the talk about what to do when you're feeling WILD recently....

We have been mixing fun local adventures into our days like this trip with a kayak down to our local pond. Rio wasn't quite sure what to do with the boat, but devon and Fiona had a blast.

Devon is away on a ship off the coast of Northern California and so I have given Fiona a bit more responsibility in getting herself moving in the morning. We made this list yesterday and she followed it to the letter this morning. Was sweet to hear her practice violin on her own and all I had to do was put her breakfast on the table before I went to sleep...this bodes well for getting to Kindergarten in the Fall.
Fiona and I are headed off to an overnight Safari tomorrow night so our next post might include wild animals...stay tuned...Love Louise

Boil them cabage down

2011-06-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

Tattoo

2011-06-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

After years of waiting Devon finally settled on a tattoo design. He wanted a rainbow unicorn but this is what they had...

Coastanoa

2011-06-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here we are (sans Fiona) at the top of our morning hike on our 15th anniversary. Can't believe that Devon went to all that trouble to plant a million wildflowers to line our path and ordered the perfect day!

The list

2011-06-16T10:10:00.001-07:00

Devon and Fiona camped out on our boat last weekend...I found this list in the morning when I got home from work. I liked especially the list of animals thought essential for camping.
Happy Summer!

Starting the summer early

2011-05-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

We started off the summer a bit early with a camping and cabin weekend with Fiona's Grandparents to celebrate a 75th birthday. The finale included a canoe trip down the Russian River. At the end Fiona jumped into my kayak to have a turn...note the purple ball rescued from the riverbank. A wonderful weekend!

Oh $#IT

2011-05-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

Well the day finally came...I had been hoping for years now that Fiona wouldn't be the first one in preschool to swear. I had just had a conversation with one of the teachers...that day...she had lamented that some of the boys were bringing bad words to the fairytale sanctuary that is the Village School. Then, that night as we puttered in the garden I casually mentioned to Fiona that we needed a bit of straw to put down as mulch. Fiona dutifully went to get said straw, but when met with the closed gate..."SHIT." perfectly enunciated, it was clear as a bell. So there, it just took about 5 years and now there is no going back. But at least she wasn't the first one.

On another topic we went to San Francisco for Mothers day and visited the California Academy of Sciences. They were having a special snake exhibit and fiona had been looking forward to going there. We had Ethiopian food for dinner and fiona fell asleep on after 2 minutes in the car on the way home. A perfect mother's day!

Last Shot...for a while

2011-05-03T13:02:00.001-07:00

Fiona went with Devon yesterday to her 5 year old check up with our family doctor. She got her last vaccination prior to being a school kid. A lot of pokes in her 5 years....but it's good to know that she's safe from all those "hot bugs." Devon got a tetanus booster at the same time...he said she was the tougher of the two of them.

Remember to get your boosters too.
Love,
Louise

The Stats:
39 lbs (45th percentile)
41.5 inches (30th percentile)
Means she's a tough little nugget.

Sharing Easter

2011-04-24T10:49:00.001-07:00

Ahhh the joy.

5th Birthday Eggstravaganza

2011-04-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

Fiona and her cupcakes in her party dress as the song was sung.

So if you are reading this and have yet to plan a kid birthday fest at the park on a weekend morning...don't try to stay out and party like a *rockstar* the night before...it makes the morning a bit bumpy.

Fiona woke up at 5:30 0r 6:00. It was hard to tell exactly what time it really was as neither of us could face the clock. It was still dark...she asked "is it true...am I five!?!" and thus our day had begun.

The boxes of parkbound supplies were ready and waiting so it was fairly easy given the state of things here to get to the park and set up by 10...here are devon and fiona preparty swinging.

In all there were about 14 kids, I never really got a headcount and suppose if I backtrack and look at the goody-bag debris I would be able to figure it out with math but that is a bit past me now. I imagine there are some very tired and over-sugared kids about.

We decorated lots of eggs as planned and ate cupcakes with abandon there were no majour injuries and it didn't rain. YAY!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes.
Love always,
One victorious and tired mum. Louise

Fiona and Lua at the end.

Parade and Post

2011-04-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Fiona was lucky enough to get to ride a horse in a parade in Pacific Grove Last weekend. It was the same horse that she rides sometimes in Carmel Valley with friends. Anyway, she of course was over the moon with the horse part of things. The entry in the parade was about sustainability and the horse has the "Green Biofuel" Bumper Sticker to play the part...here we are after the parade..
...and here is fiona in another sustainable driving situation; Four dining chairs as seats and a stool for steering:
Here's to taking care of the earth.
Love Louise

A day at the beach

2011-03-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

After torrential rains....really.. that have left santa cruz and the central coast in a bit of a soggy mess, the clouds parted for the afternoon and we took advantage of it and went to the beach. Kids, dogs and sticks, sun, sand, beers, and a bit of respite from the weather to get us through.

Happy Spring!
Love
Louise

A Dog's Life

2011-03-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

Rio is fitting in well in our crazy life though it does sometimes look like he would rather be swimming. He outweighs Fiona but she still has the upper hand as you can see.

Clay Bulls

2011-03-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

Fiona was inspired by some claymation this morning and made this small family of clay bulls. In her words: "The peach coloured one is the mum. The dad is red, The baby is green. They all have yellow hair (Still pronounced lello)."

Fiona is just back from Pacific grove where she was safe from this week's Tsunami. Our boat is OK as we recently moved her to a new slip...the old slip is toast though.

Devon and I had a few days in Utah for a nursing class and some play...

Be well, Love Louise

Twinkle Twinkle Little Fiddle

2011-02-19T13:25:00.000-08:00

Cupid's Cookies

2011-02-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

Fiona participated fully in making valentines cookies this year and even chose the loveliest ones to go to our neighbour Joyce. The best part about cookies is sharing them around.

An Update

2011-02-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

Just a quick pic of fiona before school today... Shortly afterwards she jumped on her trail-a-bike and followed Devon down the hill to school. Just before she passed out of sight I got a kiss blown in my general direction...what a sweetie!

Playing

2011-01-31T09:32:00.000-08:00

I think that playing is a really important part of being a parent...While Devon and I were away playing in the snow, Fiona was up to the serious work of being a kid. She got to go horseriding, made a mess of the grandparent's living room, ate cartoon themed cereal, came home tired.

Hope that you are enjoying yourself too.
Love
Louise

A mother reeling

2011-01-25T12:10:00.000-08:00

Just having trouble with how fast things change....

Fiddle Faddle

2011-01-23T20:55:00.000-08:00

Her first performance! Fiona has started taking fiddle lessons, and today while biking home from her fiddle teacher's house we stopped to watch the surf along West Cliff Drive and she asked if she could play... so out came the fiddle and she played 'twinkle twinkle little star' for the people standing around, including two women who were very impressed.

Laundry

2011-01-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Our new year has started with a week of much needed sunshine and so we find ourselves on the first laundry day of the new year with Fiona taking charge. She has been helping with her laundry for about a year but she's getting better at it and even helped a visiting friend use the washing machine recently. Life is good.
Love
Louise

Zipping up the year...

2010-12-31T08:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all our friends. It has been an interesting one filled with love, adventure, happiness ,and some sad bits. An admission at the end of the year...bedtime became quite a bit easier his past week as fiona started sleeping in a tent set up in her room. This tent to be exact. We look forward to 2011 and all the fun times ahead.

Love
Louise

fiona loves you (typed by Fiona herself)

The Visit

2010-12-11T13:43:00.001-08:00

Here is Fiona once again shirking the knee, but nonetheless stoked at an opportunity to vouch for her recent behaviour. The thing she has asked for this year is a crib for her baby horse, made of wood (still needing assembly at this time). Hopefully santa will provide... hopefully there will not be a run on coal. Hopefully five will be easier than four.

Beach Bums

2010-12-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

We are back from our travels. We spent a good chunk of November visiting family in Australia. Fiona visited with her 5 uncles, wonderful aunties, three cousins, Nanna and Grand-dad, as well as her Great Grandmother in a whirlwind three city extravaganza. We Loved staying with family and fiona has once again proved to be a great traveler. Jet lag once in Australia took her about a week to shift through and our first night back in our own beds had only one wake up at 11PM for a snack for her.

Thanks to everyone who took care of us in Sydney Brisbane and SA. Can't wait to return the favour.
Love
Louise

Uncle Jonathon in a Bookshop

At Nicks new studio with a Fiona Original

What you do to make a tired Kid eat

Flowers in Sydney

Feeding a Kangaroo

Helping Nanna Jane

WHat do you do on your vacation?

Brisbane crowd.

Kapunda Scene with uncle Chris

Spring Harvest

With Grand Dad Ken

Great Grandmother Beryl

At Uncle Nick's exhibit with Auntie Nikki: Fiona took this one

Halloween Song

2010-11-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

Here is Fiona singing her newest song from preschool...in spanish of course.
Enjoy!
Louise

Sweet things

2010-10-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

Sweet things that Fiona did for me while I've been sick this week:

Brought me water to drink... so what if it was in a toy from the bath, it was still water... Hydration Hydration

Took my temperature

Covered me with a blanket.

Cut out a picture of a pony for me to hold because that helps.

Took my temperature again.

Compared my temperature to hers and declared that I have "a hot bug."

Suggested to me that I need sleep and love. "lots of love"

I think that she'll make a wonderful animal rescuer one day.

Pumpkins

2010-10-28T18:52:00.001-07:00

Down jacket and sandals, santa cruz chic!

Fiona as pumpkin

We visited the pumpkin patch today. A storm is brewing tonight, Lucky to be warm and comfy inside. We picked out a modest pumpkin and will post a pic of the finished product after it is carved.
Thanks fro coming back to check the blog after so long.
Love always,
Louise

Back again... more to follow

2010-10-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

After having complete computer breakdown followed by weeks of apathy and a hectic schedule we are back on line. I unplugged everything in a tiff, dragged our decrepit old computer down to the fix-it-guy, brought it home and plugged it back in and VOILA! we're back online.
I have so much to share including pictures of Mexico and Rio and Fiona. So Thanks for tuning back in!

Love
Louise

Rio

2010-09-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

Two pics of Rio and the family because you cant get Fiona and him to look at the camera at the same time

Hi All,
Well the chaos of our summer subsided for a few days after Violetta went home to mexico and so, feeling like the house was a bit empty, we decided to get a puppy while reroofing and getting ready to paint the house.

As you can see we are all OK but our camera is still lost (maybe on the boat) and our computer is still broken(powersource?), hence the lack in recent posts, but we are happy nonetheless.

Rio is a buy, 8 weeks old yellow lab, and so we are working on the housebreaking and chewing/biting things at the moment. Fiona is happy to have a puppy around of course. I've never dealt with a male dog before, but true to form he spent the morning humping his pillow. He cries in the night a bit but we're hoping that settles after he adjusts to a new place.

Fiona is starting her final year of preschool and is one of the big kids there now...time flies. They have a new teacher there who speaks spanish. Fiona, having spent the summer speaking spanglish, feels confident with the new curriculum. She talks a lot about wanting to go to "Big Girl School" next year when she is five. Where did my little baby go?

Our autumn looks busy already and as we mourn the passing of summer we are looking forward to a trip to Mexico and a visit to Australia.

For now though you can find us puppy training and finishing our big house projects which also includes dealing with a new influx of rodents. I try to keep it in perspective and think about people through time who have designed their houses/kitchens/etc to try to outsmart mice...we still have some learning to do and indeed my latest plan is a motion sensor lazer mousetrap that vapourizes the mouse in an instant leaving a small easily wiped up pile of ash. I might need the venture capatilists involved and have yet to work out the energy karma.

Thanks for being devoted enough to check in on the blog after such a long hiatus.
Love Louise

2010-08-03T20:09:00.001-07:00

Louise took the girls for a walk in the forest, both dressed as faeries of course!

Mountains Without Kayaks or Snowboards!

2010-07-26T13:50:00.001-07:00

Super Sequoia (note handful of garbage)

So with a little persuading Devon agreed to going to the Sierras with no kayak or snowboard (ask him about the skateboard when his elbow and back feel better).

We took off out of the santa cruz fog for the weekend as we had forgotten what the sun felt like and headed to a place that one could kayak but instead camped sedately and lounged by Dinkey Creek in the Sierra National Forest, about 4 hours drive east of us.

It was beautiful and relaxing and most of all sunny. Fiona enjoyed camping including cooking on a little stove, sleeping in the back of the truck(we decided against the tent out of lazyness), and most of all playing in cool mountain streams and climbing granite.

We enjoyed the time away from real life. We all slept well. We saw amazing things like giant Sequoias more than 2000 years old and people-including children-who litter deliberately in our forests and rivers. We remembered old skills like openning wine bottles with a knife and unbogging a truck from fine sand in a remote location. It's great to pull out our skills again after so long around the house.

Driving back and forth was marred on the way there by our search for a fuel canister for our backpacking stove in Fresno where people are not so inclined, and on the way back with fionas' busy bladder. Lots of stops. But what can you do?

Beside the road in the valley

Sleeping in the truck

Fiona eating dinner al fresco

Above: Joy de Creek. and below: on granite.

The Sharing Report

2010-07-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

We are about three weeks into the sharing experiment, and still no blood has been shed. There are good days and bad days as Fiona and Violetta try their best to share things bilingually. This morning there was a tiff over the who had which napkin at the breakfast table and who had the horse costume. All in all, its good.The girls play well together and the parents are getting used to a few more tantrums than they would prefer. Here is some photographic evidence of the good behaviour:

Both helping to blow out candles of devon's cupcakes, decorated of course by both

Both making cookies
and both pushing the stroller

A Friend to Stay

2010-07-04T15:32:00.001-07:00

We have houseguests again! A friend Ana (from Columbia/Mexico: its compicated) and her almost four year old daughter Violetta have moved in for a month or two. We have been working on preparing Fiona for the obvious sharing situations that arise with two fours trying to negotiate the use of limited hobby horse resources. No bloodshed yet. Violetta is attending preschool with Fiona while she is here and we are doing our best to avoid too much chaos on the other days.

They are learning spanish and english and tolerance from eachother. It seems that giggles cross language and culture well.

Not in the porch

2010-06-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

We have been caring for a friend's three baby chicks. They have pooped a bit in our front porch as chickens sometimes do. Fiona, who has a bad relationship with poo states that the chickens are naughty. I, in embracing bodily functions as normal for all animals say, it's not naughty to poo..Fiona digresses, "well it is naughty to poo in the porch!"

Our Favourite Room

2010-06-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

The deck devon built is wonderful... warm inthe sunshine, soft and smooth on the feet, Fiona eats three meals a day out there and has just now settled in for her first nap there. She said before she went to sleep, "if I don't have a sleep how will I be able to watch something.?"

RIP Pio

2010-06-03T18:08:00.000-07:00

Adding to Fiona's concept of life and death, Pio Passed away yesterday. Here is the picture she made for Vicki to remember him by.

2010-06-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

Fiona has been taking her swimming lessons again this month, here is fiona playing after class with her small class in a kayak.

I think summer is upon us,
Yay.

Withered Old Fairy

2010-05-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Here are the words in case you want to sing along:

Snakes and Hammers

2010-05-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Fiona working on the deck in her PJs (and yes there are a lot of bad parenting signs here).

Hi All, Sorry for the long delay between posts. We have been busy with life again, swimming, school , work, housework, playing, building, taking apart, and enjoying a strange wet and windy spring.

We were lucky enough to go snake hunting with our old friend Jeff up in Pescadero. The last time was in 2007. Here are some pics of that, and the long awaited deck between our two back doors, Luna would have loved it. As you can see its a family project.

Love
Louise

Mudpies!

Louise and Fiona and a harmless ringneck snake.

Answering fiona's question...is is a boy or a girl?

Checking a trap together

Our own piece of paradise

May Flowers

2010-05-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

Daisy chains in the front yard, and then tic-tac-toe on the driveway. Fiona is rather obsessed with tic-tac-toe and is working on strategy, and on being a good winner, and a good loser. We're still getting used to missing Luna, but we're keeping busy as you can see.
Love
Louise

Saying Goodbye

2010-04-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

I was definitely operating outside the rulebook today. I spent the day with Fiona on my lap while I tended to luna in her final hours. I had to answer all those questions like, is it OK to let your child see death, is it ok to let your child see you cry, and I think that after that and more in the way of heavy lessons it was ok.
Louise

Living the Dream

2010-04-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

After many months of Fiona living as a dog, she has spent the last few as a horse instead. Here she is working on her wagon skills. Also, In case you were not aware, there is more than one version of Black Beauty and what would be classified as "G" in 1971 would not be so in 2010.
Neigh!
Louise

Chickens Little

2010-04-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

The sky is falling today. We woke up to those April showers that are supposed to help us out with May flowers...anyhow, I let the chickens out to pick about the yard. It looks like they wonder how the other half live.

You are my sunshine...by fairy.

2010-04-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Fiona calls out to inform the fairy that her mum sang this one as a lullaby for her.

So This Fairy Showed Up...

2010-04-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Fairy

Her arrival

The Scene

Cupcakes

Teaching kids how to hold their fingers to catch bubbles.

...And then practicing those skills.

Enthralled us all.

We had fiona's party with friends today in our garden. The mysterious guest arrived as anticipated and was well recieved. She was such a lovely fairy. All the kids were enthralled with her as well as the parents. It made it quite easy to have a dozen littlies here. No tantrums anywhere! Cupcakes were a hit as always, and now we are looking forward to a week of perhaps fewer festivities, but no less magic. Thank you all for your birthday wishes for Fiona.
Love
Louise

The Cake

2010-04-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

I got some cake decorating bits recently, this is the practice run for the cupcakes on Sunday. Super Fun!

Fairly Four

2010-04-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Fiona woke up today to a lovely spring morning. It's hard to believe it's been four years, but time does march on. Blueberries for breakfast, presents from friends and family opened, Fiona has retired to her new house in the garden which is almost finished....what house ever is? We still need to mount a few cabinets and hang the drapes...but its ready for playing for sure. Indeed, Devon and I are pretty sure we won't see much of our girl this summer given her new abode.

In keeping with Fiona's Birthday being so close to Earth Day the playhouse we endeavoured to build it only with things that we already had laying about and things that were recycled and reclaimed. It looks a little rustic, but its lovely and cheerful. A few old bits and pieces from the kitchen and goodwill make for a nicely laid table... and we finally have a place for all those plastic knives and forks.

Thank you for watching our little girl grow up these past years and for cheering us along the way.
More birthday extravaganza weekend updates to come...
Love
Louise

A few pics below, captions by Fiona:

Making mufins

Having a glass of wine, just pretend it's really water.

Fiona inside and FOUR!

Salad for Dinner

Fiona 4!

Snow Day

2010-04-12T21:14:00.001-07:00

Snow means hard (but fun) work for mums.

We had our long awaited snow day in the Sierras this weekend. It was wonderful in all ways. Our good friend Eric set up a super cabin for us called Loon Lake Chalet and we had another family join us: Sue Jon and Fiona's friend Zoey.

Fiona had initially said that she wouldn't throw a snowball at her mummy because she wanted to keep me clean but that was soon abandoned. She loved the snow, never once asked to be carried, only helped up occasionally, threw herself into it happily, never complained of the cold.

We built a snow cave and spent most of our time exploring the immediate area and perfect sledding hill right out the cabin door.

Lots of sledding, fresh powder, lots of eating snow, lots of snowballs thrown, lovely friends, few tantrums, good sleep, yummy food, cold beer, superfantastic to say the least.

Devon and Fiona in a real snow cave

Fiona with the morning's fresh snow

A real icicle.

Louise going downhill without her snowboard!
Fiona and Zoey
Driving with Eric through the snow.
Nighttime snowball fight/walk

Construction

2010-04-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Our playhouse is under construction, as is our real house's front porch at the moment. Fiona and I are honing our skills with the tools on this job. Sometimes a chick has to take things into her own hands to get the real work done.

The Bunny Cometh

2010-04-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Fiona Dictated this one:

On a second night we made Easter eggs.
We waited for a different day and it was not easter yet.
And then we had another sleep and it was EASTER!
There were a lot of chocolate easter eggs in plants inside and outside.
The easter bunny came and hid them.
There was a giant bunny in my playhouse. The bunny is made of chocolate. I will not eat it.

Too Quiet

2010-04-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that too quiet isn't always bad. Fiona had been having quiet time in her room after a busy morning and afternoon visiting with the neighbours, making paper egg decorations for the bunny, reading, singing, being willful etc. It had been a bit quiet for about 30 minutes, so I dared to look at what was happening in the back of the house...Fiona has put herself to bed and is snoring currently. If I could find the camera I would document it to look back on with joy some other day but for now she is covered with her soft blue blanket snoring away, blinds open, bright light int he room, sweet as can be.

on another note: The latest parenting tack we are taking is in pointing out when she is being a "bossyboots." She denies ever being such a thing...hopefully a little disdain for bossing will help with our home life.
Love Louise

What We've Been Up To...

2010-03-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

Spring has taken over our hearts and minds here...no time for computers and inside stuff. We got to go for a sail last Friday, Just Devon and I, which was relaxing. We are also building a cubby house for Fiona in the back yard as a birthday present. Our rule is that we can't buy any new materials, It's made on pallets and I bought some shelves and things from the thrift store for a few dollars. Hardware samvaged from the tool bench int he garage, means that the hinges won't match but its all good. Its fun to be creative and work on design and building together. My hammering skills leave a lot to be desired, but I muddle through and my thumb will feel better soon I'm sure. Here are some pics:
Love
Louise

Sailing day

Cubbyhouse under the cherry plum tree
Devon installing the front wall

Fiona working on framing the door. (Note the outfit)

Daylight Savings

2010-03-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

I have spent way too much time this week convincing Fiona that it doesn't need to be dark for bedtime to happen...about 7-7:30. We've been having a lot of what we call "call backs" lately anyway: Need a rub, massage, drink of water, to pee, to poo, door not closed right, the dog is in or might come in, sweaty, hungry, have a sore throat, booger, gravel in the bed, the list goes on.

Here's hoping you sink in for a sleep tonight without a call back.
Love
Louise

The Hill We Died On

2010-03-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

I found my thrill
do do do do do do do do...
On Blueberry Hill
do do do do do do do do...
And we both got killed
do do do do do do do do...
On Blueberry Hill.

We, actually, we made it back alive, but we have to report that train ride back was not nearly as trouble free as the ride up. I think 6 days of new excitement and play had taken its toll on Fiona, and maybe the rest of us too, making us all a bit punchy and overtired. But whatever the cause, after getting settled into her top bunk, and after climbing up and down several times to do another pee, poo, and because she was thirsty, she decided that she was hungry. And not just any hungry, but hungry only for the delicious home grown blueberries that Liv had packed for her. And while they are scrumptious, Devon decided that they were not an appropriate snack for 9 at night, and that if she was truly hungry she would accept an alternative snack. And thus the battle lines were drawn.

To make a long bloody story short, Devon ended up spending a significant portion of the night on the top bunk, while Louise consoled Fiona on the bottom. For her part, Fiona eventually accepted a few bits of apple before passing out, and around 3am Devon snuck down and put her back into the top bunk, where she snored while the parents huddled, shell shocked, below.

But now we are back in Sunny Santa Cruz (forecast this week: Sunny 70/50 everyday), and while residual tiredness continues (Fiona napped on the shuttle bus, in the car, and in her bed at home a total of over 3 hours yesterday!), I'm sure we will all be settled back in shortly with only good memories of our Oregon travels.

D

Homeward Bound

2010-03-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

Walking in feather coats

Our last day in Oregon today. We woke up to a bit of blue sky, wonderful rhubarb muffins, and relaxed kiddos. Off to the farmers market in the rain on our bikes lots of things to see and do on the way; We are soooo tough, hopefuly all this riding in the cold rain will get me on my bike in more inclement weather in Santa Cruz

Devon and Brian did a bit of work to boot.

Tomorrow afternoon we will be back home or near there. We'll have to start planning our next adventure.
Love
Louise

Checking Lyle's creek

At the farmers market

Liv's Tub

Fiona and Lyle

Lyle at play

Portland/Vancouver

2010-03-12T09:14:00.000-08:00

A small nap in the car

Salmon Spotting

Dina and Fiona on Safari

Being a bear

One for Nanna Jane

We had a wonderful time in Portland staying with our friend Dina and her lovely dog Georgia. Visited the Oregon Zoo, ate sushi...AND ethiopian food, went to Powells books Which was a fantastic book store that had almost every book in print (I think).

We were expecting inclement weather so we had lots of rain gear and layers with us but the first two days were mixed sun and cloud for our wanderings around Dina's neighbourhod in Vancouver Washington. Fiona was a great traveler with our solo train ride from Albany to Portland and then we took a taxi across the Columbia River, Fiona was nap free for the whole weekend which meat that there was not always sweet and loving behaviour but there were no tantrums that would have had us ejected from either state.

Our last day up north was quite rainy but fiona agreed to wear her rain coat with no trouble which was nice. As a child born in drought she has had little call for outerwear in her life so this was fretful for me, "please wear this...you'll be soaked" "you need a coat on" "you must wear boots."

Part of our plan on return from Portland to Corvallis was to go to the snow today, as with the winter olympics our plans for winter would need to have helicopters and trucks bring in snow from afar, so instead we will settle for a swim at the local pool and save our snow day for later in the month in the Sierras.

We are staung with our friends Brian and Liv and Lyle for another day or so and then will roll on back to California.

Life is Good.
Love
Louise

Dispatch from Corvallis

2010-03-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

Hi All, We arrived safely in Corvallis, OR, after a WONDERFUL train ride. It is the perfect way to travel with a kid. We took the bus from Monterey to Salinas where Fiona pointed out the vegetables growing along the way and then waited at the station in Salinas for the train.

Our train arrived and we were met by George, the conductor, who had arranged our dinner reservation for 7:30 and said he would turn down our beds while we were dining. Fiona was great on the train and received compliments on her good behavior from all the workers on the train.

Our room was a family room which had lots of options for sleeping we went for a double bed below and a "top bunk" that fiona had been looking forward to. After dinner Fiona was still pretty excited about the experience of being on the train but eventually fell asleep and I started my latest knitting project.

The rocking of the train was gentle and it was pretty quiet when compared with cars and planes. What a beautiful way to sleep. Devon and I weren't far behind Fiona in collapsing into sleep.

In the morning Fiona and I woke up excited to see the snow and volcano's at dawn through our windows. Breakfast was at 6:30, french toast with the sunrise, good coffee, and a wonderful time just being together as a family without the usual morning chores and places to be.

The train was great as Tim Pearse commented in the last post in giving lots of room to walk about, no seatbelts to wory about, constant scenery changes outside, just fantastic! (I'm trying to think of other places we can go on the train, if only there was one to Australia!)

We met some new friends in the sleeping room next door to our room, a little boy Fiona's age and his parents en route to Seattle from the Bay Area. He and Fiona enjoyed playing together and building forts on the top bunk.

Next meal was a morning snack of fresh fruit and yougurt in the Parlour car, lovely company, and some good conversation until Lunchtime...By the end of lunch we were a short distance from Albany and Brian was there to meet us with Fiona's friend Lyle.

So here we are enjoying the beautiful blue skies of Oregon, and already had a wonderful Birthday dinner for Liv with their family and our other Corvallis friends Chad and Claire. Fiona and I are off to Portland tomorrow to Visit Dina and hopefully go to the Zoo. Devon has to do a bit of work this week, two talks at a meeting on steelhead trout. We'll update you as soon as technology allows from our adventure in Oregon.

Love
Louise, Devon and Fiona.

Coast Starlight

2010-03-06T12:52:00.000-08:00

Today Fiona woke up and announced loudly, "It's Train Day!!!!" She has been waiting patiently as we have counted down the weeks and then the days. We are taking the train up to Oregon to Visit some good Friends, Brian Liv and Lyle in Corvallis and Dina in Portland. We're expecting rain most days of our vacation but we'll have a wonderful time stomping in puddles.

Tonight we will be sleeping on the train and in the morning we will wake up in Northern California, or Southern Oregon. We're hoping to see snowy mountains and train bridges in the pine trees.

We have heard that other people go to the beach for spring break....how odd.

Anyway, we'll try to post from the road/tracks and we'll be back in Santa Cruz in about 10 days. As we leave we are all in good health, no snotty noses or colds. This is fantastic!

All aboard!
Louise

Making February Count

2010-02-28T15:40:00.000-08:00

After blogging for some time it gets to be a bit of a monkey on one's back. I love keeping up with posting our fun days and a few not so fun days online, and Devon and I use the blog as a "baby book" of sorts. But as we come to the end of a short month I realize that my numbers are down so you get this one: a post about posting, so that I can leave February without disgrace.
Lots of Love
Louise

Ear Potatoes and Tic Tac Toe

2010-02-27T21:37:00.000-08:00

Well after passing coughs and colds back and forth in our family since November, we have had a week or so of no coughing in the night but Fiona has learned to wield her sick day powers. She was sent home for the first time the other day for complaining of a sore ear, this after I had spend 2 hours at the doctor getting her "sore ear" cleaned out and given a pass medically speaking.

At the doctor's office with the ear cleaning out supplies.

We have been enjoying a bit of spring surf as a family. My advice in putting a three-year-old into a wet suit is to have them wear socks...helps to slide.

Fiona at Cowells Special

And fiona is a wicked tic tac toe player. She likes to know who is to win each game prior but is learning the art of losing graciously and winning nicely. I do throw most of the games but she gets such delight out of drawing her victory line! I'll add in more losses as she progresses.

Spring is trying to happen here in santa cruz and I hope the seasons are enjoyable where you are too.
Love
Louise

P.S. Speaking of Wicked... a literary milestone passed in that we read for many nights Vicki's old copy of The Wizard of Oz, chapter by chapter. We saved our place each night with a chicken feather. Now I'm reading Wicked and fiona wants to "read a chapter" with me still. Not really good kid material in there, but a good read for those who otherwise need to know all Dorothy/Glenda/Witch references starting at 7:30 every morning.

Stacking Up

2010-02-17T19:38:00.001-08:00

We had a lovely day today Fiona started it out by organizing the toilet paper in a convenient location.Then we then went to Wilder Ranch to visit our favourite draft horses and feed them lovely green grass, a nature walk, an attempted nap, a bit of gardening and just when we thought that we were in the homestretch Devon came home with a Boogie Board before dinner and so we all went to the beach for a surf. Fiona had a lovely time...brave with her swimming skills, even had a wipeout that sent devon running to retrieve her from the wash. She said that the wipeout was her favourite part of the whole thing. Home dinner and now in bed. WHEW!

Climbing the walls

2010-02-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

Fiona, as you can see is better. We were out shopping for a birthday present for cousin Charlotte. There was only one small and quiet tantrum the whole time, and there was outstanding behaviour at the post office afterwards.WHEW! Reward: Climbing the wall on the parking garage.

Bugs Will Die

2010-02-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

This is fiona's take on germ theory at this point:

Snowboarding Parents

2010-01-31T15:43:00.000-08:00

Mountain Snow

Relaxing in the snow

Louise Enjoying the Steep Stuff

Fiona eating a piece of her snowman in Pacific Grove (a very rare specimen!)

Devon and I ran away this weekend to the snow to enjoy a bit of snowboarding and sleeping in. Fiona was rougning it in Pacific Grove with her Grammy and Grampy, whick I'm sure she much preferred to being dragged around the Kirkwood through her naps and in the cold.
The snow was lovely (though not Utah lovely) and it was fun to play like we used to, we're not even too sore upon returning home.
We have no idea when we will get another snow day but this was enough to last us for a while.
Love
Louise

Below: Devon on my favourite run

Green eggs are just the start....

2010-01-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

Too bad for y'all in the southern hemisphere, but our baby chickens started to lay today. The green egg, appearing just today, we believe comes from "butterfly." So that means that winter is on it's way for you and summer is coming to us. When the pears come in to season there ask me for this caramelized pear crisp recipe it's yummy. Fiona loved it.
Just in case you are keeping track in the fiona side of things, she's trying as hard as she can to give up on naps which makes for some rough times at home but we're doing our best to deal with that...wine helps.
Love
Louise

Here Comes the Sun!

2010-01-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

After too many days of rain and wind, we took the electric bike down to the beach during a patch of beautiful sunshine. There were lots of people out and even the seabirds looked relieved. Coming up the hill was a breeze with the new front wheel, Fiona says she loves the magic button "because my mum goes fast."

Stormy

2010-01-19T22:41:00.000-08:00

So, like, we didn't surf, sail, or bike ride today, like it was soooo stormy. We did go to check out the scene at Steamers Lane though.

Newfangled Bike with Magic Button

2010-01-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

I invested in a new toy this week. An electric front wheel for my old beater bike.
The Hilltopper is designed to reuse your regular bike with a quick and easy conversion. I did it in a few minutes. And now the hill with the trailer is a breeze!
Y'all are welcome to give it a try next time you're in town. Or even better, get yourself one and make those quick and easy trips even easier. Check it out on the flat ground too!
Love
Louise

Alarm

2010-01-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

Last night Fiona got up to pee at the same time as me about 2 AM...She asked if she could come to sleep in my bed and I answered that "my alarm was going to go off" and so it was better if she was in her bed instead, Her chin started to wobble, eyes filled with tears, and she asked me which ARM was going to fall off???...she ended up in our bed for a while anyway.

Fungus Fair Faeries

2010-01-09T18:50:00.000-08:00

Fiona and I attended the Fungus Federation's Fungus Fair at the Louden Nelson center today and thus sacrificed today's nap. The naps are hit and miss at the moment anyway,oe day three hours, then skip the next two days then another day 1-2 hours, then repeat. We enjoyed the fungi though, spent more time in the kids craft room than in the main display room but it was still good.

Face painting, clay mushrooms, candycap cookies, and the thrill of seeing poisonous deadly muscaria, and "witches butter" were enough for us. Ever stylish, fiona opted for her new "princess dress" and floated regally around the place even in the playground afterwards.

But afer skipping nap, (she fell asleep briefly in the trainer on the way home) the whole family was overtired and cranky. Devon and I had gone out to a late movie last night so we were due some extra sleep too. By twilight we were pushing the bedtime idea and fiona was snoring despite the band practice, slap bass going on at 6:30.

Bedtime snack

So the new year is upon us, we are givig up naps, keeping busy, and still blogging in our 5th year (technically) of fiona online.
Love
Louise

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

2009-12-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

We hope that you all have had a peaceful and wonderful holiday. We are just through the joyous chaos of Christmas and looking into staying up to welcome in the New Year tomorrow night. Fiona's fourth Christmas was so fun for us all. Her wonder at the mystery of Santa was great and made all the little preparations worthwhile. Lots of special Stories, Christmas Cookies, Presents from St Nick himself, followed by visits from our dear friends Brian Liv and Lyle from Oregon.

Here are a few pictures to illustrate:

Our Bouche de Noel

Fiona with the seal that Santa promised her in the parade.
A carrot discarded on the gutter by a reindeer.

Sitting in the pile Christmas morning with the paper crown from the cracker still on.

Fiona with a music box from her Grand Dad Ken

A Sunday dinner of historic proportions with Brian and Liv and Lyle (in action!)

We will be at home for january and february, perhaps a trip on the train to Oregon in March . With any luck 2010 will be as wonderful as 2009 and perhaps the world can find a bit more peace and harmony to boot.

Love and Hugs,
Louise

PS, thank's to Brian for pointing out that our post about the Grand Canyon was broken...I fixed it. Apparently the computer was revolting.

San Francisco Birthday

2009-12-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

At the California Academy

We visited San Francisco and stayed overnight this past weekend. It was a rainy weekend but the city provided plenty of inside and mud free walking. We stayed in the Haight at the Red Victorian Hotel, and fulfilled my birthday wish to have Ethiopian food for dinner. Fiona thought that it was pretty cool that they don't use any utensils there, just fingers:On Saturday we visited The California Academy of Sciences and peeled off our layers to revel in the warmth of their rainforest bubble. Fiona had a wonderful time. Then on Sunday we woke up and had a lovely breakfast and then went for a walk from "The Haight" to "the Castro" Louise and Fiona on Buena Vista Hill

They happened to be screening 'The Wizard of OZ' at the Castro Theatre, which happens to be Fiona's favorite story at the moment. The audience was about half girls under 10 wearing ruby slippers and half gay couples enjoying Judy Garland at her finest-- or perhaps ogling the Tin Man! Fiona loves singing "somewhere over the rainbow" and liked the movie very much, but didn't like the wicked witch very much because "she was bad." She "loved Dorothy because she was so beautiful...and Auntie Em and Uncle Henry"

Fiona sitting on devon's lap watching the movie and munching on popcorn.

Freise inside the Castro theatre

Poster from our hotel room.

Unfortunately we were too late for the extreme buddhism, but we feel pretty relaxed all in all and ready for the rest of December.
We hope that you are all well and happy too.
Love
Louise

Fishing and Santa

2009-12-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

We have been busy getting over our last big cough. I have gone back to work and Fiona and Devon are seemingly unfazed though I think that fiona has an ear infection that is getting better on it's own. Devon as you can see has been getting in a bit of official fishing at work...this trip was to catch Humbolt squid, The sunset isn't too bad either.

We went on Saturday morning to the Santa Cruz holiday parade. It is a lovely event. one of my favourite entries in the parade is the Santa Cruz Libraries Book truck drill team...of course Santa himself was at the end of the parade and the carriage he was riding in stopped right in front of us so we took the opportunity to see him immediatly rather than at the mall later this month. Fiona was REALLY delighted to see him and said "Santa...Santa..Santa...Santa"(sort of at a loss for words) when we said hello...and then she collected herself and very nicely asked him if she could "please have a baby seal for Christmas." He responded that he doesn't bring live animals and Fiona clarified that she wanted the seal to be a "pretend one" He said he could probably do that and fiona BEAMED.

Approaching Santa

So we are all ready for Christmas that we will celebrate on the Solstice this year...Santa will make an early stop to fit in with my work schedule which I really appreciate. In the meantime we are looking forward to staying up in San Francisco to celebrate my birthday next week (My 7th annual 29th birthday). We'll bring Fiona and do all the fun city things, eat Ethiopian food, visit museums, maybe even see a kid movie. Of course we'll post a full report then.
Love
Louise

Autumn Fever

2009-12-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Fiona and I were both sick, fever, cough, tired. We napped all day, snuggled in bed, Devon took the day off to take care of us. I should have taken a picture of Fiona sleeping in our bed, but I wasn't feeling up to finding the camera. The blessing in all that was that at a time when fiona is usually a little comet flying around our lives dropping debris in a stream behind her she was peaceful and sleeping for a good part of the day. I had plenty of time to watch her sleep and worry over her and marvel at how sweet and good she is. She was especially cuddly and placid. We are so lucky to have her and so lucky also that she is better... and today is a comet flying about again.
I hope that you are all well
Love
Louise

Weekend in Pacific Grove

2009-11-21T10:54:00.001-08:00

Devon and John are spending the day working on some plumbing. Fiona has the box that the water heater came in and has turned it into a house. I'm spending some time figuring out how to post to the blog from my ipod... Life is good.

The Post.... finally

2009-11-20T14:52:00.000-08:00

Well, Its been a while since the last post but rest assured that we have been getting back in to the swing of things post Grand Canyon....Devon is back at work and I have finished my transition from routine hospital to Critical Care. Fiona has hung up her swimming goggles for the winter and is enjoying her routine anyway. (I have no idea why this is bolded...F$^@ing computer)

It truly was an amazing trip. Having seen a lot of beautiful places in the US and the world. Seeing our earth’s history laid out in a grand display of rock and water was nothing less than spiritual.

I joined Devon on his Day nine of the trip that we had been planning even before we thought about having a Fiona. After a last minute cancellation a friend of mine Elissa put her life on hold too and came with me so we drove together to the canyon after saying bye to Fiona, Jane, and her husband Ben. The drive took us down the central valley of California and across the Mojave which was lovely to see after so long away from the desert. We had a wonderful stay at the rim of the canyon, bathing and lounging and readying ourselves for a long hike down hill to meet the rafts.

We started in the morning and it was literally freezing. Having come in at dusk the evening before the canyon was a beautiful surprise to us and we had a stranger take our picture at the top as we set off down the Bright Angel Trail. We had a good spring in our step still at that point, at the end of the day we had lost a bit of that spring but we were both happy to be outside and beginning our adventure.

Most of my supplies were at the bottom of the canon with Devon but Elissa had a big pack with her. Were I to give advice to someone else doing this trip, I’d say bring half o what you thought you’d need….but more on that later.

The trip down was through all the rock layers that the rest of the trip had been slipping past over the previous 9 days. It was a sort of fast forward through hundreds of millions of years of time.

When we finally reached the Colorado, we met Devon and Sean who was hiking out and we crossed the river over a foot/hoof bridge and met our group. It was HOT at the bottom as compared with our morning start with frost, hats and gloves..

The rafts were lovely all parked on the boat beach and after finding that phantom ranch was out of ice cream decided not to venture up there…

The first rapid of the day was Horn, which is a good sized one. Devon handled the raft beautifully and a good though wet time was had by all.

The next day was an amazing whitewater day! It was the biggest whitewater day With Crystal Hermit granite (not necessarily in that order) and the Gems. It was amazing to think about Powell and his team forging through those rapids with wooden boats, For us riding in 18 foot rubber rafts they were roller-coasters with splashes and “yahoooooos” at the bottom.

I suppose at this point I should mention that I did miss Fiona but I was not sad to be away. I knew that she was well cared for and I was so enjoying being back to the old lifestyle of adventure in beautiful places. We took pictures of her fairy with Devon on the raft, she had sent the fairy to take care of Devon and the fairy did well through some big water runs.

Each night we were tired and the sun set early, dinners were cooked dished done and camp made every night and different than in the past where we stayed up to the wee hours we flopped into bed at dark. This left time for a lot of stargazing in the middle of the night. We think that our usual bed time on the river was not later than 8PM. And we woke up ready to jump back onto the river the next morning. Devon and I slept on the raft most nights. No rain, beautiful weather, the sound of the river washing under us all night was soothing. (except a couple of places we camped where Devon complained that the raft was surging too much and reminded him of sleeping on Califia on the open seas.)

By October 13^th My fourth or fifth day on the river I went with a group to hike up and over from Tapeats Creak to Deer Creek. It was beautiful and after a long hike up there was a waterfall shooting out of the side of a cliff face making a river called Thunder River.

It looked as though it was the Hanging Garden Of Babylon. Lush ferns, mint, flowers all clinging to a ribbon of cook clean water in the middle of a desert. Fantastic. The water at the top and then at the bottom of the hike made it possible. Otherwise I might have turned into a raisin. Devon and John hiked up to meet us

above deer creek. As we came down through Deer creek we saw some of the mot beautiful sculpted rocks anyone could have imagined. Not for those scared of heights, or toddlers…

We camped looking across the Colorado a the deer creek waterfall falling a hundred feet into the gorge below. The view out of our tent in the morning was quite memorable.

That day we cruised through upset rapid, hiked up “ Matcap” and got to try out our climbing moves.

Camped at at a bend in the river called Ledges. We slept on the raft which was good, I was a bit worried that otherwise I might have rolled into the river in the night. By this time I was starting to miss Fiona a bit more but still was comfortable being away. I think that Devon and I both needed some time away to be like our old selves.

I think that after Ledges camp we went on the a magical place called Havasu which will forever in my mind equal the most beautiful turquoise colour, “havasu blue”.

I went for only a small explore there, I focused on napping on the raft and reading my book….the little swim I took up the drainage at Devon’s suggestion was worth leaving a nap in the shade.

That day ended with us at Tuckup camp which had a super climb, scramble up the canyon behind it. We got to use rope and finesse our climbing skills from earlier hikes.

Wee played Bocci that night and all went to sleep a little apprehensive about the biggest rapid of the trip waiting for us the next day….Lava.

Lava was over before we knew it. Indeed the scouting had taken much longer than the running of it by far. Devon as usual did a fantastic job of guiding us down the good line. I was happy to be at the bottom of it after the night of worry previously.

The last couple of days on the river after Lava were lazy, not much to worry about with that behind us. I focused on collecting more rocks to bring home. We held some tournament style Bocci, and tried in vain to finish off the adult beverages we had brought and rationed until then.

Being on the river took us completely away from our computers, cars, jobs, news, responsibilities, chores etc. …all the parts of our real lives.

As we neared the end of the run, we were at once sad to see it come to and end and excited to get back to see Fiona again. It was just the right amount of time away.

I would go again in a heartbeat.

Couldn’t have done it without Nanna Jane taking off of her regularly scheduled life to be here with Fiona. And Of course Grammy too.

Since we returned We have settled back into fall, back to work, back to our lives but we're imagining our next adventure already we're just not sure where when or what.

Love

Louise

Back from The Grand

2009-10-27T08:39:00.001-07:00

Wow. More to follow.