winter comes and we take a trip

Julia was impressed with the first snow fall. She quickly discovered the joy of eating snow.

Since snow was falling, I made caramels. We didn't have a candy thermometer, so I was relying on mom's expertise and the Joy of Cooking candy section. They turned out rather well!

After they cooled, I cut and wrapped them. Some were sprinkled with coarse salt and some with walnuts. 

wrapping took forever!

Olaf wanted to make rolled cookies, so we did that too. A full day of premature Christmas celebrating.

Julia's rocking chair is getting some holes in the wicker, so I sewed a little cushion to save it and Julia's backside. 

Olaf made his biggest lego ship yet. 

In a frenzy of last-minute planning, I decided to take the train to Seattle over Veteran's day weekend to visit a few friends and family. Julia did very well on the 12 hour train ride. I was worried about how we'd handle potty time, and ended up bringing part of the potty chair along. She used it several times on the train, but figured out quickly that she was in disposable diapers and that was the end of the potty. I was fairly nervous that this would mean she would forever refuse the potty, but upon returning home, she went right back to it! We spent a night and part of a day with my friend Erin, then met up with my sister Grace for a quick visit, then met up with Grandma Gini for a night, had a quick visit with my sister Caroline, then went over to Grandpa Dave's for our last night before taking the train back down to Klamath Falls. 

Some reason you have cigars hidden in your cupboard Caroline? 

I thought Caroline's Christmas apron made a lovely little dress for Julia. 

Auntie Gracie made kale!

Julia was rather pleased with it.

She seemed to remember the grandparents. She headed right over to the stash of toys and grandma Gini's

do we still look alike?

Grandma Gini made spritz

Auntie Caroline seemed to enjoy the coloring as much if not more than Julia. She told me about the unexpected  meeting of Grace's emo "boyfriend" the night before! I was shocked, as Grace had completely neglected to mention any such relationship in our 1 1/2 hours together.  Today Grace retorted with this via facebook:

"Contrary to what Caroline may have said, Michael is not emo. Not at all, she concludes this based on the fact that he has black hair. And was purely coincidentally wearing a black pants at the time."

oh, I do love my sisters!

At this point, I fell off the picture taking wagon and failed to get any at Grandpa Dave's or on the train home. Grandpa Dave had a little rocking chair for Julia, handed on from his cousin! Julia thought it was lovely and I felt my typical conundrum of stuff: 

The rocker was lovely and in better shape than the one in Klamath Falls, but I would have to carry it on the train and then carry it back up somewhere after Christmas. 

Take it to Alaska? 

Would I then leave it there when we move? 

Can I do that with a rocker handed down from family? 

Will the rocker even fit into a rubbermaid tote to mail? 

If I don't take it with us, will she outgrow it before she can use it?

Will I appear ungrateful by leaving it behind at Grandpa Dave's? (Which I did, for now.)

These questions and many more bother me constantly. What to take and what to leave. Such as the stroller? I use it daily and can't imagine what I'd do without it, but Julia's getting too tall for it, and will we have a deep snow winter rendering it useless in Alaska? If I leave it or sell it, will I go stir crazy trapped inside all winter? I could bring the baby backpack, but Julia's so heavy now that it gives me huge knots in my shoulders. I could buy a sled. Will Julia like taking walks in a sled? Maybe I should sell the stroller and try to buy one with more headroom? Maybe I could get one shipped to Alaska? But how would I know it would fit her well without seeing it first?

On and on the questions go. 

The train back was less fun since the novelty was worn off, but we managed fine. Julia was pretty thrilled to be back in her comfort zone, resumed using the potty and I resumed doing class work.

Utah and a wedding!

My good friend and roommate from college, Erin got married last weekend in Salt Lake City. Julia and I made the trek to witness the great event, and Julia was the flower girl, even though at 17 months, she is too young to process the directions "walk down the aisle, scatter rose petals and smile!" We were confident that even if she failed to do these things, at least she would look adorable in her dress. The drive was 10 hours, but we camped halfway in Winnemucca, Nevada, turning the drive into two 5 hour days. This was a really good idea, as a 5 hour drive includes two naps and many stops for playgrounds along the way. 

We stopped several times for a break alongside the road

Cooking dinner campfire style in Nevada. yet another occasion when a hook-on high chair was the best idea ever!

Naps

Self portraits

Cuteness

Sprinting away into the alpine meadows

Kate and Tyler were among the lots of old college friends present,
including all 8 of the girls I lived with senior year at St Olaf

She looks happy but momentarily, she will try to fling herself over a stone wall and nearly succeed. 

Rehearsing, which Julia would do none of. 

instead she wanted to get her hands on the cat

There was lots of hanging out with friends

It was REALLY great to see them all! It hasn't happened that we've all been together since college!

Incredible views over the city and the great salt lake

The bride, brunching

Kay and Maren, also brunching

Waiting for photographs to begin

The bride!! sooo pretty!!!

The flower girl, who enjoyed dumping the petals out and sprinting towards the pond of ducks

and enjoyed re-arranging the programs

She did not enjoy the photos so much, but a few good ones were probably gotten!

I don't have photos of the wedding itself because I was very busy wrangling the baby! I held her in my arms and we walked down the aisle. She did scatter petals very well, but paused and glared when she realized that people were watching her! I actually missed a great deal of the wedding as Julia was determined to run amok, so we spent the wedding wandering the back area, checking out the presents and the water stand and the rocks. I plan to get a copy of the wedding video to see what I missed. From a distance, it looked lovely!!! At the reception, Julia danced! She wanted nothing to do with dancing at Kay's wedding last month. I suddenly missed Dave so badly that I had to go and cry for a little bit. Julia was very pleased with all the stairs scattered around the reception site. She went up and down and around and around. Then she took a nap in the stroller and I got to really enjoy myself. It was a really wonderful event, and we were exhausted by the end, but I stayed awake long enough to sit in the jaccuzzi! We had lots of dinners and lunches and brunches in the 4 days we were there, and Julia did not break anything in the house we stayed in!

As we were leaving we stopped to check out the great salt lake

We dipped our toes into it. 

The drive was empty, but beautiful in that stark western way

This is the edge of the road, and the drop is about 400 feet down. No guard rail!

and there were herds of cows on the road

a calf tied to a 4 wheeler

as we drove up to the cattle in the road, one of the cowboys roped a calf. He got off his horse to hog tie it, and the horse wandered up to the hood of my car to sniff it. The momma cow circled my car and her baby getting hog tied very anxiously. I was rather afraid of getting charged. The cowboys tossed the calf onto a 4 wheeler and drove off down the road. my path cleared and I nosed along the herd. on the other side, I passed the 4 wheeler and calf and cowboy who was driving pretty much at max 4 wheeler speed, and in my review mirror watched as the calf kicked loose, fell off, and was run over/dragged  to some extent by the 4 wheeler that jerked, nearly flipped and nearly went over the incredibly steep cliff just off the road. It was an intense 5 seconds before I saw that the cowboy and calf were not going to fall over the edge. I didn't stop to help, mostly because there was no good spot to pull over and I couldn't really leave Julia in the car. There were other cowboys working the herd, so I knew he wasn't alone. I felt bad for the calf though!!!! That was the most drama we had on the trip back. Julia had caught a cold and slept quite a bit, and I listened to podcasts and drove and drove and drove. My car trip tricks for entertaining her consist of a bag of candy, such as dum dums, twizzlers, and gummy worms, cookies, water, books, drawing pad and colored pencils and small toys that she only sees on car trips. She's to an age where she likes listening to Raffi and other kids music, so I've started playing that for her. She also likes pointing out airplanes and cows. when she gets really fussy, I stop in the next town, tank up on gas and ask about a playground. Pretty much every small town has at least a school playground, and the small town ones are pretty easy to find. It is harder in some ways to travel with her at this age, and easier in some ways. I think we are done with major travel until we head north to Alaska.

More camping and some crafts to

My sister Anna has been here all week, her final stop before a year in China. We've been celebrating this by camping! This time we drove west to the southern tip of Oregon and stayed at Harris Beach. It was beautiful and dramatic and lovely, but it was also cold and damp, and since we are not plan-aheaders, we could only camp for one night and then we would have had to move to another site. Driving west, we passed through a tad of northern California and we were excited about the redwood forests, so instead of a second night on the ocean we opted to move inland to the redwoods. It was a good move! We got a beautiful campsite surrounded by huge trees and a 3 minute walk brought us to the most beautiful wonderful small river. It was clear as glass, rather shallow and refreshingly cold. Just beyond that was classic redwood forest full of giant trees with millions of nooks and crannies to be explored. We found the hole to china, the hole to canada, the hobbit house and the bridge to tarabinthea, to name a few. Julia loved both camp sites, running with abandon into the waves of the ocean, rolling in the sand, learning the word "blackberry" in reference to the fruit, not the technology, rolling in the dirt, and insisting that her marshmallows be served on a stick. Her language capacity has suddenly taken a step forward. She is much more interested in learning and repeating words. bak-bweh, (blackberry) Neh-neh, (Anna) beh-plene, (airplane) dah-brey (library) and tee-tee (pee) are a few of the latest. My family has always camped for vacation and during travel, because we are not monetarily rich, and because we are fond of nature. I became aware of the term "glam-ping" to refer to those who camp with the most luxurious things they can find, and there are some funny things that we do that fits in that category completely, such as bringing down comforters to cozy around the sleeping bags, bringing fancy root beer and boxes of wine to sip with our dinner, making wonderful food like slow roasted chicken in bbq sauce and homemade sourdough bread and smores with almond chocolate bars. We have never camped with a camper, or with a mosquito tent over the picnic table, or with a jet-ski or any number of what you might consider traditional luxury camping items, but I love the way we camp with our old plastic dishes and the wash tub that has "barbie clothes" scrawled across it in my handwriting. (Though there are certain memories of certain trips best forgotten, like the foot-of-water-in-the-tent-night) Oddly enough, Dave and I have not camped together yet. It will be interesting to see how our styles mesh when we finally do get around to taking a camping trip together.

Auntie Anna taught Julia that if she drags her toes, she will get swung up high!

lovely ocean

but cold! only Olaf was brave enough to get more than his toes wet.

happily filthy

more lovely ocean

She's pleased to have gotten her hands on Olaf's hat. 

she was not so pleased to get washed of sand in the cold shower. 

she would be much more pleased about car trips if only she could drive

dad the gnome, at home in the redwoods

that be Olaf, dwarfed by the tree

a hobbit house

mom has stories about dad falling out of trees in their pre-courtship

I can nurse on a rocky beach, no problem!

and she can nap on a rocky beach, no problem!

not so pleased to be awake though. 

we tried out pigtails. super cute but she looks much older!

I made this! (by made I mean that I found the driftwood and got Dad to drill me a hole for the candle. pretty nifty, eh?)

I made these too! in a much more legitimate sense of the word. 

little leather-soled, fleece lined booties for the winter!