Putting my new Sienna to the test

Between the snow and some minor but annoying illnesses running through the children, we've been doing a lot of relaxing around the house lately (read=passing several days without leaving the house, or even getting out of pajamas, for that matter). Today we decided we'd pack the kids into the van and take it for a drive to check out the nearest ski resort. Funny, but on the one hand this was not as big of an undertaking as it sounds...Eldora Mountain is only 21 miles from our front door. But on the other hand, with three children under the age of five, there is no such thing as a quick, spontaneous jaunt so it took us about five hours from decision time (7am) to get out the door (12 noon).

When we started out from Boulder the weather was 40 degrees and sunny, but as we wound our way up into the mountains the snow started to fall and the wind started to blow. The Sienna handled it all admirably, although I think I did give Jason and Andrew heart attacks when the car lost traction briefly and I had to guide it out of a fishtail. And then, just before the entrance of the resort, we got onto a road that follows along what was clearly the shore of a frozen lake. And the wind was blowing snow across the lake and in front of the car...at times we were in total whiteout and it was pretty scary (Jason took a picture of my death grip on the steering wheel). The only thing scarier was coming back down through the same stretch, because then we were on the side of the road closest to the lake, and all I could think about was that I might at any moment take my entire nuclear family plus my brother in law over the edge to a watery freezing grave. Needless to say, we made it.

In between the lakeshore drives, we did drive around the packed parking lot at Eldora but it was just too blustery and cold to contemplate getting the kids out of the car. One the way home we stopped off at a charming restaurant called the Black Forest - a very old-school German chalet complete with a cuckoo clock, mounted trophy heads of deer and elk, and a German-accented proprietor. Andrew and I both had the special - Elk goulash (I kid you not, and it was delicious) - while Jason had saurbraten, Logan had beef stew and Zach had chicken tenders.

December pictures and "Mommy's Winter Car"

We've had a great but very busy Christmas - several neighborhood gatherings to attend, lots of shopping, baking & candymaking, holiday cards, present wrapping, decorating, cooking Christmas Eve dinner...and of course lots of shoveling snow and chipping ice as well. Click here for a gallery of photos from the last few weeks.

Unfortunately, it appears we did not get any photos from Christmas morning, believe it or not! And none of our decorated Christmas tree (it's still up for another few days so I will snap one and post it before we take it down). Part of the reason we didn't get photos Christmas morning is because we were up well before dawn. And it wasn't actually the kids' fault - Jason popped awake at 5:45, went down to make coffee, light the tree, and then came up and bounced around until we all got up to go downstairs. He got video of them waking Uncle Andrew up by running in and jumping on his bed, but it's a bit too long to post. Anyway, suffice it to say we all had a very merry Christmas. And I should mention it was a white Christmas as well - we got about 7 inches here at the house, all falling in big fat powdery flakes all Christmas Day. The town average of 5.9 inches was a record breaker for Boulder.

Lastly for this post, I am happy to say that yesterday Jason and I traded in our Honda Odyssey (the one that caused me so much anxiety in the snow a few weeks ago) for a Toyota Sienna AWD. Yes, it's another minivan, but it's pretty sweet, with every bell and whistle you can imagine. And it is rock-solid on snow and ice. We even tested it on our hill before we bought it. Zach can't seem to get the idea that this is a permanent change, and has dubbed the Sienna "Mommy's Winter Car."

Cute baby giggles

We captured Max's second known giggle on tape the other day...here's a video of it. The next post will re-cap our Christmas happenings...

Winter (un)Preparedness

Well, yesterday morning came with more snow and, not for lack of trying, I still did not have winter tires on my car. It was coming down hard enough that Mindy couldn't make it in again (she's working on getting winter tires for her car as well) and Jason was still in Minneapolis, due back home at about 5 in the evening. Even though I'd managed to get a 4:30 appointment to get tires, I decided to pack everyone up so that, after dropping Logan off at school, I could take Zach and Max to the tire store and hope they'd take me as a walk-in.

The drive to school went fairly uneventfully although the snow was really coming down. As I pulled into the jam-packed parking lot at Discount Tire, Max began to scream so I nursed him in the car, then wrapped myself up in my Moby Wrap carrier, got Max in it, bundled Zach and myself into jackets, hats and gloves, unloaded us all from the car, grabbed my purse and a backpack full of snacks, books and other toddler entertainment, and trudged over to the store entrance. The line as we entered was not a good sign, but we waited - and then I was told it would be a minimum 3-hour wait for tires. No way Zach could sit still that long, and there was Logan to think about. So I trudged us all back to the van and decided to head home.

Well, by this time snow had accumulated on the road up to our house and I couldn't get up the hill. Although I could have managed carrying Zach and Max up the hill, the parking on 4th street (the cross street closest to our house) was all deep in snow, with more coming down. I realized I would not be able to get Logan from school if the van got stuck, nor would I be able to keep my tire appointment, and I confess I started to freak out a bit. A call to Jason for advice quickly dissolved into tears, and then I drove to a plowed parking lot to make a few calls around to local friends. I needed a safe place to park and hang out while I figured out a plan and/or waited until I could get those tires. I got all answering machines, so I decided I'd have to get Logan from school early, walk the three kids up to the house and risk getting the van stuck. Luckily, just as I was pulling into the school lot, our friends the O'Connors called me back. They were at the Subaru dealership trading in Stephanie's 2WD SUV for an all-wheel-drive Tribeca, but dropped everything to rescue us with Ryan's Land Rover.

They reached us in about 20 minutes (I cam very proud of Zach for his patience during all of the sitting and waiting we did today), I got Logan out of school, and then they followed me back to 4th and Hawthorn. They shuttled us all up the hill to the house, and although I was content to leave the van on 4th and let it get stuck, Ryan insisted on trying to get it up to the driveway and, after about 10 minutes of trying, managed to do so.

I hugged my friends, gave my kids a nice hot lunch, called to cancel the tire appointment and started researching cars with all-wheel-drive and room for five. Today's adventure crystallized for us that, if we're going to live in this climate, at this location, and Jason's going to be traveling as frequently as he does, I need a car that can reliably get me and the kids out and back safely in snowy weather.

Walking (and driving, and slipping, and sliding) in a winter wonderland

Well folks, winter is here, and we've discovered that although the city plows our block because it's a steep hill, and they plow the main roads through town, they do not plow the eight blocks of increasingly sloped streets in between. The end result is that, in some conditions, my 2-WD minivan can make it down the hill to get out of the neighborhood, but not back up home! Actually, we've been impressed at the Traction Control System the car has, which helps to prevent wheel spin, but it's still no match for the packed snow/slush/ice that accumulates on the hill just a block down from our house. Jason's car has 4-WD, but we can't fit all three kids in it.

Yesterday morning Jason left on a business trip to Minneapolis, taking his car with him. And there's lots of snow on the ground. Our new part-time nanny, Mindy, had to park five blocks away and walk up because she couldn't drive up. So I had to keep Logan home from school because I wasn't sure I'd be able to get home. Later in the day I took Max out to his 2-month check up (which went very well), thinking I'd stop and get winter tires on my car on the way home. I'd talked to several people who said that would solve the problem and be a lot safer for us driving any way (and a lot cheaper than buying a new car with AWD). Well, apparently I wasn't the only person in Boulder who realized they needed winter tires - I visited three shops and all were absolutely overflowing with customers. So the soonest I will be getting my tires will be Friday. I just have to hope that the snow predicted for then won't be too bad until after I get the tires.

Incidentally, I did make it home yesterday, but not without some nail-biting moments. This morning I will make the attempt to get Logan to school, and I guess I'll be doing some xmas shopping with Zach and Max until the day warms up if the hill's too slippery.

Hanukkah Donuts and Christmas Trees

We love to do it all! We've been celebrating Hanukkah this week - lighting our menorahs, baking and decorating cookies, playing with dreidels...and on Thursday evening we had friends over for dinner. This was the first dinner party we've hosted in our new home (aside from Thanksgiving, but mom did the cooking for that!) and Jason decided he was going to be the chef. He really outdid himself, too - not only did he roast a chicken and make latkes from scratch, but he also made donuts - yes, DONUTS - from scratch and they turned out completely delicious. Fluffy, light and tasty and they looked gorgeous as well. Here are a few shots of him cutting them out, frying them and icing them. Yummy!!! (Also notice him wearing my apron. I guess Santa better give him back his manhood - and maybe a white chef's apron - for Christmas!)

Unfortunately we did not take any pictures of the dinner or of our friends, because we were all so busy trying to eat and wrangle our own three boys as well as the other three children (two two-year olds and another infant) who came with their parents. But a great time was had by all.

Other exciting adventures...Jason took Logan ice skating at a local rink last weekend. They had fun, although it didn't last long. The rink offers lessons for kids Logan's age so we're considering entering him in January but we'll have to wait until then and gauge his interest a little better.

This morning Jason had planned to take Logan out to cut down a Christmas tree - the local forest service, in an effort to combat the pine bark beetle infestation in our mountain forests, set up a program giving away free trees to anyone who would come cut them down (within a designated area, of course). But it snowed overnight and was snowing all day today, and when they got to the site the rangers turned them back because of the road conditions. So, taking advantage of a miraculous window in which none of our children were napping, eating or throwing a tantrum, we loaded the family up in the car for a snowy cross-town outing to a small local eatery and then to the hardware store to buy a tree. Instead of the free tree we'd planned on, we ended up spending a small fortune on a 10-foot tall farmed Frasier fir ("but Jason, it's beautiful and our ceilings in the living room are tall so we need a big tree!"). Right now it's drying off in our garage...when we put it up and decorate it tomorrow we'll post some pictures.

Peace is the World Smiling Over the River and Through the Woods

Over the past few weeks Logan's been singing a number of winter/world peace-themed songs that we never taught him, and we finally noiticed the entry on the school calendar for a "Winter Solstice Concert" and realized that his class must be practicing for the event. So we packed up the family tonght and headed over to Unity Church of Boulder for the concert. It was very sweet and Logan seemed to really enjoy the limelight. The video here is about 6 minutes and we love all of it, but you can get the idea after a minute or so. It's so much fun to think that Zach (who sat through the whole concert more or less patiently) will be in this next year.

Getting into small-town holiday spirit!

Happy December 1st! This is our first holiday season living in Boulder and we are really getting into it this year. The weather is cold, although there's only a little bit of snow left here and there from the snowfall at Thanksgiving. We have our lights up and the neighborhood is starting to sparkle at night, we are decorating, and planning get-togethers with friends. Today I took Logan and Zach to a little holiday bazaar organized by a friend of mine, and Logan sat on Santa's lap. I was thrilled to hear Santa take the time to ask Logan what he wanted for Christmas and ask him if he'd been a good boy this year - last Christmas I had been really disappointed by an experience in a mall in LA, where the emphasis was on getting a picture to sell, kids were herded through like cattle and Santa was decidedly uninterested in children! (incidentally today Zach didn't want anything to do with St. Nick, but wanted a candy cane. After trying to convince Zach to sit with Santa to get the candy, Logan sweetly and spontaneously offered to split his with Zach.)

This evening we had a very special experience - we attended the "Lights of December" Parade in downtown Boulder. Now being from LA, I think of parades as something you have to camp out two days ahead of time for in order to get a good viewing spot. The last parade I actually attended in person was probably at Disneyland, and those are also always very crowded. But this parade was such a delightful little slice of hometown hominess- we arrived about 5 minutes before the start, parked two block away in the nearest parking garage (which was free that night) and were surprised to find we were almost the first people at our chosen location, although over the course of the parade the streets did fill up just comfortably. It was freezing (literally) outside so we were glad we'd bundled up - the kids were each wearing four layers and I had Max in the Moby wrap snuggled up against me.

The parade lasted about an hour, with marching bands from the two high schools, floats in the form of decorated trailers pulled by pickup trucks, boy scout and girls scout troops, people walking their dogs, and lots of fire trucks from our local company and our mountain companies. School children and firefighters handed out candy to the kids along the parade route. And of course the finale was a float carrying Santa (full robes, real beard and all) and Mrs. Claus. Logan had been telling me earlier in the day that he thought the Santa at the bazaar was probably someone dressed up, and tonight he turned to me and said "The Santa at the parade was the REAL Santa." I think I agree with him! It's tough to put in words why the parade was so special, but Jason and I both got teary eyed when it was over, seeing how much fun everyone was having and how homey and unpretentious the whole event felt.

So like I said it's been cold, and we've been learning about all of the cold weather gear available for kids these days. Who knew they made woolen hats and socks for infants (thank goodness we had one for Max tonight!) and that you could buy them made out of "SmartWool," which is soft, non-scratchy and washable. We also have a couple of carseat buntings, which are like little fleecy sacks that have holes for the carseat straps to fit through. Here's a picture of Max in one, looking adorably confused at being completely immobilized.

Besides the weather, which we're always talking about, another thing we're working on in our lives is a fascination Logan has with "collecting." This interest started in the last month or two of my pregnancy, and at first he wanted to keep every rock, pine cone and stick we came across outside. It would go something like - he'd pick up a pine cone, and suddenly get upset, asking me how he was going to remember that particular item. I figured it was a sublimated reaction to the uncertainty surrounding Max's arrival, so we let him build up a collection that filled a paper grocery bag. When we got to that point, I suggested we make a few fall/winter decorations out of some of his collection and "put the rest back in nature" and that seemed to quiet the obsession. But now he's moved on to clipping comics, specifically Garfield, Sherman's Lagoon and Mutts. After watching clipped comics pile up in drifts around the house, I gave him a three-ring binder and some paper on which to paste the clips. To us, a three-ring binder is a mundane, everyday item, but to Logan it was a whole new world. I gave him a set of tabbed dividers and a pocket divider and showed him how to organize his clips...he must have spent two hours pasting, arranging, playing with the rings, and learning how to use the tabs to "jump" around the book without having to turn pages one by one.

Happy Holidays, and Summer Re-Cap

(Note to our readers: Remember you can click on any picture to enlarge it.)

Hard to believe we've been here in Boulder for nine months now! It's been a busy summer and fall for us (as evidenced by our lack of blogging), but we've made it through Max's first seven weeks and it looks like we're finally settling into a routine around here. So documenting our adventures for posterity has moved back up on the priority list.

So where to begin? It looks like we tailed off with our posts in May - 6 months ago!!! Jason traveled a LOT this summer - seems he was out of town a few days almost every week. So I had my hands full chasing after Logan and Zach even as my belly was growing bigger and bigger. But as you can see from this photo, Jason did get to occasionally enjoy the perqs of working from home.

Around the house, we had our cedar shake roof replaced with asphalt composite shingles, which are much more practical and actually don't look as boring as we thought they would.

We took advantage of weekends as much as possible to explore the country around us, taking the boys to places like the Longmont Sunflower Farm where they could pet and feed animals and play to their hearts' content.

In June we headed to Alaska for a visit with Jason's folks...we spent the first half of our trip with Jason's mom but then unfortunately by the time we got back to Anchorage to visit Jason's dad the kids got sick and we ended up holed up in the hotel room for several days. Back at home we celebrated Zach's second birthday with some tasty chocolate cake!

In July my parents and my brother Scott and his family came out and we all celebrated my mom's birthday together. Summer was hot but we had fun with a very small patio vegetable garden that produced the most flavorful tomatoes we'd ever tasted, crisp cucumbers and delicious basil. Not bad for our first year.



We also had a play structure installed in the back yard for the kids. This and the garden were lifesavers for me as I got bigger and bigger and it was tough to take the two boys to parks and run around after them.









August brought us a visit from our friends the O'Briens - Liv and Logan were very happy to be together again and continued to plan their wedding. Logan has informed us that, when he grows up, he's going to fly to Los Angeles just long enough to get Liv, bring her back home here, marry her and live in our basement with their 12 children. I guess I would love for him to live with us forever...I guess...but 12 children?!?

The highlight for September, other than Logan starting another year at Jarrow Montessori School (now I understand why my mom always loved back-to-school time), was a drive up to the Scottish/Irish Highlands Festival in Estes Park, the largest such festival west of the Mississippi. Logan and Zach were both enthralled with the live cannons, but even more so with the trebuchet, which is something like a catapult. The one at the festival was 1/4 scale but threw a bowling ball about 300 yards...now we have a wee model one at home that can throw the little apples from our trees quite handily.

As September came to a close we welcomed a new niece, Genevieve Ella McAdara, into the family, and then all of our attention turned to the pending arrival of our new baby, due October 5. Convinced that he would arrive early, I fretted about how we would manage the logistics of caring for the boys during the actual birth. We had many generous offers of assistance from the friends we've made since we moved here, but luckily Jason's brother Andrew came out to visit at the very end of September, and stayed until Udayangani, our former nanny from LA, could come out to relieve him of duty. Maxwell Frederick Berkowitz arrived on his due date, October 5th, and quickly charmed me, Jason, Logan and Udayangani, although Zach decided to reserve his judgment (he is coming around, but not 100% on board yet).

Following Udayangani's visit, Grandma Diana came out to meet Max and spend some time with us. Here's a picture of her and Logan picking apples from our trees to make applesauce - she's great at finding fun and out-of-the-ordinary activities for the boys. The rest of October was a bit of a blur (a sleepless blur!), but we did have our first snow around the 21st (just 1/10th of an inch and it didn't stick) and the boys got to get out for trick-or-treating.




This past month we enjoyed watching Max grow and become a part of the family. My parents came out to meet him and celebrate Thanksgiving with us, and got a taste of our crazy weather...one day it was 78 degrees out, the next day it cooled down into the 40s and the next day we got 6-8 inches of snow (today it's almost gone now, and the temp was 66). Dad helped me hang Christmas lights and garlands, and we started getting out our decorations - yeah it's a little early but it's our first holiday season here and the snow makes us feel really in the spirit.

So I guess that catches us up! From here on out we're going to keep up the blog, probably on a weekly basis. We hope you'll leave comments, or drop us a line - we would love to hear from you!

Jason makes the front page of the paper - again

Once again, the Boulder Daily Camera has seen fit to publish my picture on the front page - this time with Logan as well. This time, we were mentioned by name in the caption. Check out the article by clicking HERE

Jason made the front page of the paper!

Ok, so you can only barely see me in the background - I'm the guy way in the back with my hand on my forehead, but I'll take it. This was the above the fold picture on the front page of the local paper. Here's a link to the story (which is not about me):

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/jul/30/tour-stays-popular-in-boulder-two-wheels-still/

Sorry we haven't been blogging, things are crazy - we promise to try to start up again.

Love to all!

Jason

Daddy update

Jason reporting. I've been working like a dog, so Jeanne's been doing the heavy lifting on posting to the blog - now it's my turn.

I took a business trip (drive) to Colorado Springs this past week to visit an air force and army base to meet with their job outplacement people to talk about how our clients can recruit transitioning military personnel. On that trip, I must have picked up a bug, because I've been having major stomach issues - probably not helped by the stress of how busy I've been at work. Earlier in the week I had promised Logan I would take him to the Denver Science Museum on Saturday - just the two of us for "Logan and Daddy day". Despite feeling pretty bad, I didn't want to break Logan's heart by telling him we couldn't go, so I sucked it up and we drove the 45 minutes into Denver to visit the museum.

I knew within 60 seconds of walking in that we would have a good day. Logan has been obsessed with the robotic Mars rovers since seeing them on Little Einsteins a few months ago. Well, right inside the door to the museum they had life sized models of the two Mars rovers on loan from JPL and Logan was MESMERIZED.

We ended up spending about 3 hours at the Museum, which is just an amazing place full of hands-on exhibits and demonstrations for the kids. There was a cool fan table where kids could explore how different scarves and parachutes would fly up in the air current.

Logan was particularly fascinated by a display of vacuum. In a demonstration of why we have to wear space suits in space and on Mars, a volunteer put a marshmallow cookie into a vacuum tube and pumped out all the air, causing the marshmallow to basically explode.

By the end of the day, Logan was pooped and crashed for a nap in the car on the way home.

I've been working pretty much around the clock, so the challenge of amusing the kids has fallen on Jeanne and she's been doing a great job - helping Logan press flowers and teaching Zach about the beauty of Sushi.

Also, Zach is getting big enough to start pulling his weight around here - Jeanne has shown him how to help her unload the dishwasher and he is a great little helper. Now we just need to teach him the difference between clean and dirty dishes so he doesn't "help" by unloading the dirty dishes!

That's about it - love to all.

Jason