Homeward Bound

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snowboarding Parents

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....

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!

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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