Snowshoeing and a Resolution

As J and I ate dinner during our anniversary, we recapped the ways that we have celebrated our anniversary over the past nine years:

• 1st (2006): Stayed in cottage at RB, ate Greek food in Bellevue
• 2nd (2007): Went shopping at outlets in Park City (I was pregnant with Sam)
• 3rd (2008): Spend this one apart; it was right after my mom was diagnosed
• 4th (2009): Stayed at home and J gave me four poems and gifts for each year of our marriage; this anniversary was right after my mom passed away
• 5th (2010): Went to Victoria and stayed at the Fairmont Empress hotel
• 6th (2011): Signed papers to purchase our new home! (We didn't go out that night, since we had just spent all of our savings that morning, but we stayed home and celebrated with Sam.)
• 7th (2012): Went to a fancy French restaurant, a performance by the symphony, and stayed at the Fairmont Olympic hotel (see post HERE).
• 8th (2013): We went to an Italian restaurant with Sam at Crossroads Mall. I was pregnant with Lucy. (J has to keep reminding me what we did this year; my food wasn't that great and it wasn't as memorable as other years. Plus, I was just getting over my stint of morning sickness in my pregnancy.)
• 9th (2014): We went snowshoeing as a family! And J and I had takeout food from the Bombay House in Bellevue, which makes delicious vegetarian and vegan Indian food.

Snowshoeing was a lot of fun. We had several mishaps in finding the right parking lot and place that we intended to go at Stevens Pass (only to find out that the Nordic Trail area was too icy and steep for Sam's little legs), so we ended up going to the Smith Brook road. We accessed the trail/road by turning westbound on the Highway 2 from the Nordic Trail Center parking lot, and then going just a mile or so up the highway. The parking was on the right side of the road. It was fairly level and not too steep for Sam.

 

Sam loved dressing up in all of his winter gear. He also loved using the little poles as he trekked through the snow.

We bundled Lucy up nice and warm - she fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn for about half the time that we were out

 

We had this little frozen waterfall be our ending point. Sam was getting a little bit tired, and we wanted to make sure that we stopped before he got too complainy. Since this was Sam's first time snowshoeing, I wanted to make sure that it was a positive experience.

I'm looking forward to this new year. I'm not trying to do too many resolutions, but I do have one resolution that I think will be practical and (hopefully) easy to keep. Since Lucy has been born, I have noticed that it is a little bit more difficult to have one-on-one time with Sam. Recently, when Sam and I have played together or read together, I often have been trying to care for Lucy or do some type of household task at the same time. My resolution this year is to have one hour of focused "Mom and Sam time" each day, when I can concentrate purely on Sam and do whatever he wants to do.

This time will need to happen when Lucy is napping or with J, but I think it will be good. Just in the past few days that we have started this new special time together, I have noticed that Sam has wanted to show me things or confide in me in ways that he hasn't before. The other day, when we got to go to a movie together, Sam mentioned out-of-the-blue that every night he checks to make sure there isn't a vampire under his bed. I had no idea that Sam had this fear, but we talked about it and I think he ended up feeling like he was conquering that fear through our conversation.

Here's to a new year!