Christmas in Utah

We just got back from a short trip to Utah, which we (mostly) spent with the S family. Sam had a lot of fun playing with his Aunt L and his Uncle C. We also got to see N and SJ's family (as well as the Grandpaxes) while we were there, which was fun. I didn't think to take a lot of pictures while I was there, so I didn't get pictures of the parties, visits, or dinner meals (the latter being when most of the S family was together). Here are some of the pictures that I did take, though:

Sam and L waiting to open the living room door on Christmas morning

 J's parents gave us Christmas money, which will help fund our upcoming trip to NYC! Sam is excited to go and see the Statue of Liberty.

Playing with the Batman lego set which L gave to Sam

Sam loved playing with his new light saber (which is blue, because Obi Wan Kanobe's light saber is blue). Once Sam unwrapped his present, my brother C pulled out his old light sabers. They dueled for hours on Christmas, and my sister L occasionally joined in the battles. It was nice of C to play with Sam for so long.

The light saber was, by far, the favorite Christmas toy of this year. Sam played with his light saber for hours and hours on Christmas day (and subsequent days, too).

The day after Christmas we went to the Natural History museum with my sisters E and L.

A visit to 135

With the Grandpaxes!

Grandpax took us around 135 and told us about several of the art pieces that are in the house. He also did a Maori war dance for Sam, which now is probably one of my favorite memories of Grandpa. Luckily, J captured the war dance on video.

Before the white elephant party with the extended S family, we killed a little time by showing Sam the BYU campus. We visited some of the current exhibitions at the BYU MOA, which included this "Silver Clouds" (1966) installation by Andy Warhol.

L and Sam played in the snow at Grandma J's house.

J, Sam and I visited the library where my sister V works, even though she wasn't working that day. My friend Joanna lives nearby, so we planned to visit in the Children's Section for a bit. It was fun to see her.

It also felt like a real vacation because I actually took time to watch some movies. My sisters L and E came with us and my friend Rachsticle to see "Wreck-It Ralph." And another afternoon my sister C and I watched "Adam's Rib" (with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy) with my Grandma J. It was fun for the three of us to laugh together while watching that comedy.

Goals from the Past

Today I opened up a copy of the letter of intent that I wrote for graduate school. I wrote this letter almost seven years ago, right after J and I got married. There are two specific goals that I mention in this letter which have fallen to the wayside over recent years:

"After receiving my Master’s Degree, I intend to further pursue this same study of Brazilian and European art at a doctorate level."

"One of my professional goals is to mount and run a gallery with my husband, an artist."

I don't think J and I have talked about our gallery idea for five or six years. In fact, I practically had forgotten about it. And although I still would like to get a PhD, I'm quite happy with the teaching opportunities (and the learning and growth that comes with those opportunities) right now. Perhaps both of these goals will still be realized in the future, or perhaps not. It was interesting for me to read this letter though, and consider how my professional and family goals have changed over the past several years.

Sam's Thoughts on lnteracting with People

 J and I have noticed certain aspects of Sam's personality over the past several years, particularly that he feels most comfortable when he is with just a few people that he knows really well. When he's at home with us, he's very chatty, happy and even silly, but he tends to get quieter when he is placed in big group situations. J, who is an introvert, often tells Sam, "You are your father's son!"

Anyhow, this morning it was interesting to hear Sam's own thoughts about the way that he interacts with people. We haven't really prompted him to think much about his personality or the way that he interacts with people, but Sam started up this conversation earlier today:

Sam: "I'm the person who talks the least at school."

Me: "Well, that's just fine. That's okay." [Pause] "Why do you think that you talk the least at school?"

Sam: "I can't talk a lot at school because there are too many people there. I can't talk to all of them at the same time!"

Sam is quite spot-on in his observations. He doesn't like talking when he is in large groups of people. He gets overwhelmed. Even yesterday, during Thanksgiving dinner, he didn't want to talk to our friends when everyone was together in the dining area. But then when he went into the living room, where our friend L was sitting with her baby girl, Sam opened up and wanted to tell L all about the different characters in Star Wars.

I love my introverted boy. And I love my introverted husband. (It doesn't matter to me whether I have extroverts or introverts in my family; I am an ambivert, myself.) I think it's good that we have a small and close-knit family; our small size fits well with the personalities and emotional needs of its members.

Sam's Ninja Moves

Sam has become quite interested in ninjas lately. In fact, about a month ago, he ended up bonking his head on the leg of our piano while practicing ninja spin moves on the floor. We ended up going to the ER and getting a staple put in his head. He's absolutely fine, and the gash has since healed. But even that accident hasn't deterred him from continuing to practice ninja moves (although he now steers clear of the piano).

I don't mind if he practices ninja moves with the open air, especially since he doesn't seem inclined to fighting actual people. For right now, he seems more interested in the gymnastic/acrobatic abilities of ninjas. I'm not interested in promoting fighting, though. Hopefully we'll keep ninja moves on this kind of a cute level in our house:

"Midnight in Paris" and the "Golden Age"

J just got back from a business trip last night, so he didn't have to work today. And, due to the Veteran's Day holiday, I also didn't have to teach. Although I have worked a little bit today, J and I were also able to have a small date in the middle of the afternoon, which was nice. We went out to eat for lunch and watched Midnight in Paris at home.

I've wanted to see this movie for some time, because I knew that it revolved around some artists and historical figures from the early part of the 20th century. I actually think that this was a really appropriate movie for a historian to see, since historians are often nostalgic for the past in one way or another. I was particularly struck by these two quotes from different parts of the movie:

Paul (the "pedantic" gentleman): "Nostalgia is denial - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is golden age thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - it's a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present."

Gil and Adriana with Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Gauguin

Gil: "That's what the present is. It's a little unsatisfying because life is unsatisfying." (Gil says this in the same conversation with Adriana, when she mentions, "I'm from the '20s, and I'm telling you the golden age is la Belle Epoque.")

Perhaps there isn't a way to create a "Golden Age" in the present, because that defeats the idea of a Golden Age (and the nostalgia that comes with it) altogether. But these quotes made me think about if there is a way to find satisfaction in the present, even in the "unsatisfying" elements of the present. I like the thought of being nostalgic for something that you already have.

First 5K Run

Earlier this month I ran in my first 5K. I'm not really a runner, but I've always liked the idea of being a runner. I've been increasing my distance during my treadmill runs at the gym, in hopes that I could do a race this year - even if it was a short race.

Since I got the idea of doing a race, I wanted to make sure that I chose a race which was meaningful for me. I found a race in the area which was a fundraiser for colon cancer, which seemed appropriate (since my mom passed away from colon cancer almost three years ago). J and Sam came to see me run. Sam wanted to wear a little heart-shaped clip with a flashing light, so that I would be able to spot him as I ran past. It was cute.

The course was lined with a couple of cheesy things related to colons, including a colon-themed obstacle course which you could do. Or, instead, you could opt to take a "colon bypass" route. (I did the obstacle course, which involved climbing over bales of hay and jumping through tires.) And at the end of the race, there was a huge inflatable colon that runners were supposed to go underneath (see photo above). I never imagined I would see (or run underneath) a "triumphal arch" shaped like a colon!

Although I don't think my mom would have participated in this kind of a race herself (she wasn't a runner, nor was she always a fan of standardized medicine), I still feel like it was a fitting tribute. As I was running, I reflected on how the race was a good way for me to honor my mom, while also giving me the chance to define myself as an individual. I hope that I can continue this new habit of running to stay fit and healthy.

A Letter to the Autobots

 
Sam just asked me, "Mom, do you think the Transformers are real?" Before I could really reply, he said, "I'm going to write them a letter to ask them if they are real."

I said, "Where are you going to send it?"

"To Autobot Headquarters," Sam answered.

He then turned around and "wrote" a letter on an imaginary piece of paper, while quietly muttering to himself:

Dear Transformers,

Are you really real? I really hope so. 

From, 
Sam

We have "mailed" off the letter (in our imaginary mailbox) and are waiting for a reply.

P.S. Sam chose the picture for this post. He wanted a picture of a figurine that looked similar to his own Optimus Prime toy.

Sam's Favorite Songs

As of late, there are two songs that Sam continually requests to have playing while we drive together in the car. I suppose it's my fault for introducing him to these songs in the first place. About a month ago, I found an old CD mix that had a bunch of miscellaneous songs from my family's computer - including Danny Kaye songs (originally downloaded by my sister C) and Weird Al songs (originally downloaded by my brother C). I can't even remember how I ended up with this mix.

Anyhow, as I was going through the CD, Sam listened to the songs with me...and subsequently became obsessed. We talk about how "The Black Fox" is like a superhero at least once a day. We also continually recap the info about "Star Wars" mentioned in Weird Al's "The Saga Begins." Sam always calls the Weird Al song, "A Long Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Away."

Favorite Books From My Childhood

Last week I read Sam a short story from "Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle." It was fun for me to introduce Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to my son; I really loved reading the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books as a kid. In keeping up with my recent posts on movies and television shows from my childhood, I wanted to write down some of my favorite books. I really liked fantasy and mysteries back then, along with a smattering of non-fiction books. Now that I think about it, guess I still have those preferences today.

• The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series by Betty MacDonald
• The Ramona series by Beverly Cleary
•  The Magic series by Edward Eager (Half Magic was my absolute favorite book from the series)
• The Oz series by L. Frank Baum
• The Incredible Treasury of Amazing Knowledge (and all of the other "Amazing Knowledge" books in this series by the Creative Child Press)
• The Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene
• The Betsy-Tacy and Tib series by Maud Hart Lovelace
• The Adventures of Calico Cotton by Helen Lawrence Backman. (For a long time, I used to tell people that this was my favorite book.)
• The Narnia series by C. S. Lewis
• Edward Gorey books for children (These books would sometimes scare me a little bit, but I couldn't tear myself away from them. I would usually run to the "G" section of the library first, to see if there was a book on the shelf by Gorey that I hadn't read.)

What about you? What were your favorite books from growing up?

Fall Planting: Daffodils and Tulips

Well, I don't feel like my wildflower garden worked out so well this year, although we had a few nice blooms. J and I had a hard time differentiating between the weeds and the wildflowers, for one thing. The wildflowers also grew in rather inconsistent patches, which was difficult. Since this garden bed runs along the side of our house, I wanted something that would be a little bit more consistent and widespread.

I still hope that wildflowers grow in our side garden next year, but I want to try and bulk up the large space with some perennials. We bought a total of 180 daffodil and tulip bulbs from COSTCO this week, and also bought six allium bulbs. Our soil is a little bit sandy in this spot, so we tried to add compost to the soil before planting all of the bulbs this weekend. I'm nervous that we might not have added enough compost, but hopefully the bulbs will do alright. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next spring.

Darwin Hybrid Tulip mix
Blooms mid-spring
Height 20"
 

 Trumpet daffodil mix
Blooms mid-spring
Height 18"

Allium ("His Excellency")
Blooms late spring
Height 50"

Back to School Chaos!

School started again yesterday. I fully expected to have a very calm transition into the school year, similar to what I had last year, when I was able to clean the house thoroughly and get everything in order. This year, though, the exact opposite happened. The day before school started, some construction workers knocked on my door at 8:00 am. I wasn't expecting them until another day, so I had to quickly jump out of bed and get dressed to meet them - no shower for me.

We're getting baseboards put in every room of our house. It's very exciting to think that all of the unseemly gaps between our floor and walls will finally be covered up. But this project (which I wanted to have done at the beginning of the month) has thrown our lives into disarray. Last night, instead of doing last-minute preparations for school, I spent the evening emptying out our closets and pulling all of the furniture to the middle of each room in the house. While I did that, J scrambled to put up some drywall patches in the basement, so there would be a place for the baseboards to go.

The day before school was filled with other bits of chaos as well. J bought a used car (which is happy and sad for me at the same time - I liked being a one-car family). The VW Golf was supposed to be ready about a week ago, but the dealership had some set-backs. The car was finished on Tuesday, at the same time that I was dealing with carpenters, taking Sam to a doctor's appointment, taking Sam to swimming lessons, going grocery shopping, and trying to pull everything together for school. We got the car picked up though, and everything worked out. It actually will be nice to have a car, because J can help to take Sam to preschool when I need to leave for work.

I hope that everything settles down soon. The baseboards were installed yesterday, and today a painter will begin to match the new boards with the color of our already-existing trim. Sam and I will try and stay out of the house for the next day or two, so we don't have to smell fumes all day long. I can't wait to put things back into the closets.

Oh, and did I mention that another adjunct professor suddenly quit her job the day before classes began? We have been scrambling to find a professor to fill the class that begins today. I teach another section of the same class, so I imagine that I will be meeting with the new adjunct and filling him/her in on the course outline.

Phew! And now, onward into the school year! Welcome to my 150 students! Welcome to my four classes! Welcome to my responsibilities as the supervisor for museum interns! This will be fun, even if it is a little hectic. I just hope that I don't feel as internally-jumbled as my office appears in that photo above.

UPDATE: The chaos continued throughout the rest of the week! Friday was pretty awful at school: the projector broke in my classroom and threw all of my lessons off. I had multiple issues with the temporary projector that was finally brought to my classroom, and I ended up having to teach half of two different class periods without images to show the students. It was a very stressful day, but luckily it all ended. The upstairs baseboards are finished too, so now we can maneuver around the house much better. I'm sure that things will get better from hereon out.

End of Summer Recap

I have been loathe to have the summer end. School starts in just a little over a day, though, so I know that I need to gear up and move on. The problem is that the weather is still incredibly nice. We have been without rain for virtually a month and a half, and the temperature still reaches the 70s and 80s each day.

This has been a very good summer. It's been filled with sunshine, fun activities, family, friends, vacations, good books, blogging, as well as personal insight and growth. I feel so lucky that my family and I have gotten to do so many wonderful things.

Turkey with my dearest of dear friends. This is in the Blue Mosque in Istanbul (photo removed)

 

I painted white trim for several weekends. (This wasn't fun, but it did take up a lot of my time this summer.) 

Superhero costumes and superhero pretending happened almost every day

 A visit to the Discovery Point Zoo (Visit #1)

 A visit to the new Great Wheel of Seattle

Visits to Riverbend (including on the Fourth of July)

Visits to the King Tut exhibition!

We went on lots of hikes

We visited a lot of NW beaches

 

The Enchanted Forest with Anna! (Visit #1, photo removed)

 

A relaxing week in a beautiful beach house in Oxnard

California Adventure with B cousins!

Disneyland!

The tram leading up to the Getty Museum!

The Enchanted Forest for Lydia's birthday! (Visit #2)

A visit to the San Juans with the S family!
(My brother A wasn't able to join in the fun, since he just started medical school about a week before.)

Riding the ferry to Orcas Island

 

An early-morning view from our cabin on Orcas Island

 Zip-lining on the San Juan Island

 We got to host our friends in Fictionist for one night, who came up here on tour

A visit to Discovery Point Zoo on Labor Day, which included a camel ride (Visit #2)

 

Two camping excursions (Orcas Island and the North Cascades)

Boulder River Falls

Last weekend our friend Meka joined us on a hike to a twin waterfall off of the Boulder River trail. I found this hike on a website which lists hikes in Washington State for young children. This hike was relatively short (only about 1 mile or 1.25 miles one-way), with hardly any change in elevation. It's an easy hike for young kids, although someday I'd like to continue down the rest of the trail (which is 4 miles one-way). There are a lot of trees that have bare branches which are covered in moss, too, which adds an interesting dimension to this area. The river is also full of huge boulders (hence the name), which is fun.

Although this was a really fun hike, it was a longer drive to the trailhead than I anticipated. I read online that this hike was "near Arlington" (which is true, comparatively speaking), but the trailhead is about 30-40 minutes from Arlington, at the end of a long dirt road. We ended up driving in the car for about 1.5 to 2 hours each way. Next time, I would probably plan to do this hike if I was already near the North Cascades.

Thanks for joining us, Meka!

Lately the weather has been really nice around here. I'm hoping that we can go on a few more hikes before the cold and rainy season kicks in.

Television Shows from my Childhood

 To follow up with my post on the movies that I watched as a kid, I wanted to jot down some of the television shows that I watched when I was younger. In my family, television watching was usually limited to the PBS station, although occasionally my Grandma J would record television shows for us on VHS tapes. These are the television shows I remember watching the most:

• Little House on the Prairie. I loved this show, although I was a little distracted by Melissa Gilbert's large front teeth when she was a little girl (she played "Laura"). I have a very vivid memory of standing by the back door of our house in Cincinnati. My mom and I had just come back from grocery shopping, and I said, "Mom! It's 4:00! Can I watch Little House on the Prairie?!?" My mom gave me permission, and I remember bolting through the house to get to the television in the dining room area.
•  Perry Mason. I loved this show as a kid, even though the ending was always predictable - usually with someone in the courtroom audience impulsively standing up and shouting that they were the murderer.
• The Andy Griffith Show
• The Lawrence Welk Show. We would watch this every Saturday night at 7:00 pm. When we were young, V and I used to make our little brother A dress up in a suitcoat and dance with us. Then we would pretend to be the dancing duo, Cissy and Bobby. I also liked watching Arthur (the tap dancer) and Jo Ann (the honky-tonk pianist).
• Lassie. This is one of the shows that my grandma would record onto a VHS tape for us. She actually made this tapes for my brother, A, but I would watch them with him.

• Welcome to Pooh Corner. My grandma used to tape this Winnie the Pooh show for us as well. The song for the opening credits is still very familiar to me. We watched this show a lot, especially because my brother A loved it so much. In fact, V sewed a stuffed Tigger animal for A one year, because A loved Tigger (and liked to pretend he was a bouncy Tigger!).
• The Wonder Years. Ah, Fred Savage. I remember that one episode on TV ended with Winnie and Fred breaking up, and then the next week our local television station reverted to showing rerun of previous episodes. I watched the show for weeks faithfully, to see if a new episode would come on, but it never did. Did Fred and Winnie get back together?
• Boy Meets World. Ah, Ben Savage. I didn't love this show as much as The Wonder Years, but I just liked to watch it and think about how Ben Savage was not quite as cool (or as good of an actor) as his older brother, Fred.
• Family Matters: Steve Urkel never ceased to amuse me. I have a vague recollection of my mom laughing hard at something that Steve Urkel said/did, but I might be conflating that memory with a more recent memory of her laughing really, really hard at something Dwight said/did in The Office.
• Beverly Hills: 90210. Confession: I most definitely was not allowed to watch this show. This was one of the shows that I would watch if my mom wasn't home (or out of the room). It seems so silly now, but I was very curious about such hip teenagers when I was experiencing the awkwardness of middle school. I also thought Jason Priestly ("Brandon") and Luke Perry ("Dylan") were very handsome. If I was "sneaking" a show like this one (or The Jerry Springer Show or Ricki Lake or Saved by the Bell) or I always had to quickly change the channel if someone walked into the room.

Did anyone else watch these shows? What were the television shows that you were allowed to watch, and what were the shows that you were forbidden to watch?

Diablo Lake: Thunder Knob Trail

 
Last weekend we went camping in the North Cascades. J's co-worker recommended that we visit Diablo Lake, and I'm so glad that we went on this recommendation. Diablo Lake (and a lot of the water in this area) has some of the prettiest, bright-bluest water that I have ever seen. One of the signs near Diablo Lake explained that the nearby glaciers deposit "rock powder" in the lakes, which accounts for the vibrant color.

We hiked to an overlook of Diablo Lake by taking the Thunder Knob Trail. This was a beautiful hike, but it pushed Sam to his limits on that particular day. The trail was about 1.8 miles long one-way (and we hiked to get to the trailhead, so we probably went about 2 miles one-way). Even though the elevation gain was only 635 feet, it was still a long distance for his little legs. We had to walk pretty slowly, but he was able to hike to the top by himself. And, luckily, there were a lot of benches along the trail. Anyhow, despite Sam's whining and constant requests for "bweaks," we finally made it to the top.

Colonial Peak is visible from this trail. Unfortunately the hiker who took this picture for us didn't quite capture the peak in the shot.

Sam was thrilled when we came upon the lake. He stopped in his tracks and shouted, "OHMYGOSH! IT'S THE LAKE! I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT!" J and I praised him for being able to do the hike all by himself, and you could tell that he was really pleased with his accomplishment. And then, as we sat and looked at the pretty water, he said in a sweet voice, "Sorry I stopped so many times." J and I both assured him that it was just fine. We were just glad that he kept going.

This is a shot on our way back down, near the end of the hike (not too far from the trail head). I wanted to capture the diversity of this trail. There are a lot of mossy areas in the middle part of the hike, and then some dry and exposed areas (with completely different vegetation) near the summit. And then, in this picture, you can see that there is an area that is completely covered with rocks. It looks like an old riverbed. I wonder if the Diablo Dam caused this river to dry up?

We camped at the Colonial Creek Campground, which is right on the water of Diablo Lake. In fact, the Thunder Knob trail head is just across the street from the campground. It costs $12 per night to stay here, and the sites are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. We were lucky enough to get one of the sites near the water.

This was the view from our campsite that evening.

We'd love to come back and explore more of this area another time. J is curious about the Ross Lake Resort, and we both think it would be fun to take the ferry between Diablo Lake and Ross Lake. We did have time to go on the Happy Creek Nature Trail before heading home - it's a fun 1/3 mile boardwalk loop which goes through some old forest growth. But I noticed a lot more trails in the area (even a trail to the Happy Creek Falls), which also look fun.