Famly adventures and fun discoveries

I guess I thought I would be drained and depressed after leaving our family and friends behind in LA for a second time, but it turns out that Jason and I seem to have gotten a recharge out of the trip. The last few days have been some of the best yet as we get more and more used to our new life here.

Thursday was spent setting up a new toy I bought for myself - my tumbling composter! It's the Cadillac of composters, because (theoretically) there's no need to fork turn it, ever, and you can add kitchen scraps continuously, with very little need for dry/brown components, and eventually it starts spitting finished compost out of the spout, with no need to close it off and wait for a month. Logan and Zach had a fine time today gathering dried leaves to help start the process, and tomorrow we'll add our first bucket of kitchen scraps. It will be an interesting experiment to see if it works or if I end up with a disgusting tub of rotting garbage. Only time will tell! But I do find that Jason's coffee grounds seem to do a good job of suppressing odors so far.

A key stress-reliever came on Thursday evening, when I finally found the right housekeeper to help me out every other week. When we first got here I was reluctant to call anyone for a while, frankly being afraid to find out how much it would cost. I finally got up the courage to call a woman who had been recommended by a friend, but the day I was supposed to meet her my friend let me know she'd had to fire her. Then I called a local service, and while the owner was super put-together and professional, the estimate was shockingly expensive. I mean shockingly. But the newest woman, Azul, comes highly recommended, also has a very professional manner and charges a lot less. So as of this Thursday I may finally begin feeling like I can keep my head above water again.

On Friday night Jason and I got out for the evening to attend a "gala" fundraiser for Logan's school. We met a few other parents, ate a lot of great appetizers and won several silent auction items, including a basket of children's' gardening tools with enough of everything, including wheel barrows, for both boys.

Jason and I were excited Saturday morning to pack the kids in the bike trailer and ride down to the Boulder County Farmers Market, which is a seasonal market that runs from April through October. The ride down was great, but we neglected to bring a containment device for Zach, who is not content to be carried in arms when there are adventures to be had. The kids were also both still a little sleep-deprived and cranky, and there aren't many veggies to be had yet - mostly plant starts and potted flowers, and lots of great stuff that we had no way to take home, so we left feeling pretty defeated. But the day turned around in the afternoon. Jason took a solo trip to the hardware store for some supplies for a project, and at my request bought me a dandelion digger (we are overrun). The family spent the remainder of the afternoon pulling weeds together, playing with the gardening tools, organizing the garage, and ending with a picnic dinner on our back lawn. While we were eating, I realized that one of our shrubs is a lilac, and then we realized that five of the tall, bare, reedy looking things I was thinking about ripping out are in fact lilacs that are just now beginning to bloom. They smell so delicious and I am just thrilled! What a fun discovery!

Sunday was even better...we took the kids on a hike in Chautauqua Park. Words can't do the day justice but maybe these pictures will help. The trail started through a meadow and eventually entered a shady forest and up the side of a steep hill. Logan was an absolute trooper, climbing all the way up, usually leading the way. Zach hung in there for a long time but eventually wanted to be carried, and this time we were prepared with our backpack carrier. He wasn't thrilled, but Daddy's special gorp (with M&Ms) kept him pacified. We stopped under some huge rocks for lunch, explored a cave, and eventually made our way back down, Logan literally jumping down every step. He made it to within about 200 yards of the car before his legs finally wore out, and I was happy to carry him the rest of the way. In the afternoon I got out on my own for a few hours - granted, it was a shopping run to Costco, but to me it was a little slice of heaven.

Today was great too. Zach and I stayed at Logan's class for the morning, helping the kids get started with a gardening project. After school Logan and I had our first whine-free grocery trip since we've been here, and in the afternoon the boys played together very nicely while I got some laundry and a few little projects done. When Jason finished with work we all ended up in the back yard together, composting and pulling weeds again. These may not sound like a whole lot of fun, but when we're all doing it together and everyone's content to be together they can be sublime activities.

Weather should cool off a bit over the next few days - we're even expecting possible thundershowers. Maybe a little more natural rain before we get our sprinkler system turned on for the spring season.

love to all! Jeanne

Los Angeles: a great place to visit but we wouldn't want to live there ;-)

Well, we're back from our visit to LA and we've had a few days to process and recuperate...despite the flippant headline, it was a wonderful but rather bittersweet visit, especially the second half, and was more difficult for us (well, me) than we expected. Our picture taking was woefully inadequate, but there are a few to show:

Friday April 20th: We got the kids up early and got to the airport, through security and onto our plane with zero time to spare. A relatively painless flight to LAX, then it took three hours to get to my parents' house - double our estimate due to traffic, rain, and airport inefficiency. But we had a nice afternoon with Mimi and PopPop and the kids, though keyed up from travel, behaved as well as could be expected.

Saturday April 21st: The big outing of the day was a trip to Underwood Family Farm. This farm has tons of animals to see and feed, play structures, rides, and pick-your-own veggies. I was amazed at how much produce was already ready, when here in Colorado the farmers markets are just opening with the first trickle of cool-season crops.

Sunday April 22nd: For some reason I can't remember what we did this day, but I know we went to a local park with my mom and dad at some point during this trip so it must have been today. Then I think (?) we had a nice dinner to celebrate my dad's 76th birthday (!) I know we did these things, but I'm just not 100% sure of the timing.
















Monday April 23nd: A nice morning around the house, then in the afternoon we packed up the kids, said goodbye to Mimi and PopPop and headed down to our old stomping grounds near Park la Brea. Soon after we checked in to our hotel, our dear friend and former nanny Udayangani came over to see us (who are we kidding, the kids!) and to go out for dinner with us. It was an emotional reunion and the kids were thrilled to see her. On her insistence, she stayed with them in the hotel for a few hours while we headed over to the O'Briens' house for a few hours of catching up. It was great to see them, but seeing them and sitting in their home like we'd never left brought on a rush of nostalgia and homesickness and I spent the first 10 minutes crying. It's not that I want to move back to LA - seeing the traffic and congestion reinforced our love of our new town - but I do wish I could somehow transport our neighbors and friends and community and some of the better aspects of our life from there to where we are now. Anyway, we spent a nice evening with Matt and Jill, and then came home to let Udayangani head home.

Tuesday April 24th: Jason had to work at his LA office today, so we took the kids to IHOP for breakfast first. Then Udayangani accompanied me to visit Melissa Disharoon and her kids, Tegan, Harper and Finn (again, me getting weepy on and off during my visit). At naptime we all headed over to the O'Briens' house, where I put Zach down for his nap and then Logan and Liv had a very sweet and happy reunion. They seemed to pick up right where they left off, and I got to say hi to Julie Stark and Sharon Bamber and Tamiko and Aimee Ishida, some of our old neighbors. We also peeked into our old apartment, which has been furnished for a corporate rental (three chefs who will be working at a new restaurant opening in town) and is not yet occupied. In the afternoon Marieke and Willem came by to play, and then Jason came home, and we saw some of the other neighborhood kids, and Christie came by, and Matt and Jill prepared a fabulous, delicious dinner in honor of Liv's 5th birthday. Watching the kids all play together in the yard as they used to for seemingly endless summers tugged at my heartstrings. I wonder how long it will be, if ever, before our kids have friends that close again here in Boulder. Is that a closeness you only get from knowing the kids and their parents since before you had memories? I don't know the answer and it scares me sometimes. To make matters worse, I have zero pictures from this day. I guess we were too busy living it and soaking it in to think about the camera.

Wednesday April 25th: Jason headed to work again this morning and the boys and I relaxed in the hotel room for a few hours. Then Mimi came down for a last visit, and to keep an eye on the kids while I got the car loaded up and checked out of the hotel. We got some lunch then stopped in to visit Logan's best friend from preschool, Penelope Goldin, and her parents Amy and Greg. Once again, the sweetness of how excited they were to see each other, and Logan's disappointment when the visit was over, was heartrending. But by the time we said goodbye to Mimi again, picked up Jason from his office and headed to the airport, Logan's spirits were lifting again and he was telling us her was excited to get home to Boulder. The kids did great on the plane - Jason and they sat together in a row and I got to sit by myself, a rare treat - and were real troopers even though we didn't make it home until late that night. A day or two of sleeping in and extra rest and they were back on track as their usual cheery selves. I am feeling better as well...still missing my friends but glad to be home, as this place really feels like home now.

Since getting back we've had some fun adventures, but those will have to wait until tomorrow, as it's 10:30 and I am really tired after a fun but exhausting weekend. Come back tomorrow night for more great pictures. Love to all!

One post before we sign off for the week - Our piano arrived!

I think one story that got lost in the 3-week gap was the saga of our attempt to shop for a piano. Jason and I have been discussing getting one because both of us have always wanted to learn to play, and we also hope it will be a good influence on the kids to have one in the house - with any luck, we'll convince one or more of them to take lessons eventually. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we decided that "this Saturday, we're going to take the family and shop for a piano." Well, the designated Saturday arrived and presented us with an ice storm - everything was coated in a thin layer of ice,including the roadways. But we persisted, loading the kids in the car and risking life and limb to drive out to the nearest piano store, in Niwot. This particular store rents out used pianos so we thought it might be a good place to start. Turns out trying to take the kids on a piano-shopping trip ranks just above furniture shopping on the list of really bad ideas. Both kids were nightmares, wanting to touch everything (of course) and making an embarrassing range of whining and crying noises to voice their boredom and dissatisfaction with the activity. So, humiliated, we eventually left the store with very little additional knowledge other than that we didn't like any of the available rentals.

After this we decided we'd have to divide and conquer, so Jason was appointed the piano-procurement czar. Along with some great advice and input from my mom, Jason did some great research and the end result is that we have a beautiful, shiny black Bohemia upright piano sitting in our family room. The boys are very interested and it will be covered with fingerprints soon enough, but we're excited.

Probably won't post for a few days here...

Just a warning to our faithful readers that we're headed out of town for a few days and it's unlikely that we'll do any blogging while we're away. But we'll take pictures and post a summary of our trip when we return. See you next week!

A big leap in culinary maturity for Logan today!

Like many children in the under-four set, Logan has gained a reputation as a bit of a picky eater (I read somewhere reputable that, in fact, 80% of parents report that their children are unusually picky eaters, which goes to show you that selective dietary preferences are really the norm). Anyway, yesterday out of the blue Logan mentioned that he was thinking about trying meatballs with tomato sauce on them. A few weeks ago he made the leap from sauceless. toppingless pizza crust to eating the rest of the pizza, so I guess he figured if he liked red sauce on that, how bad could it be on meatballs. So I promised him that tonight I would make him spaghetti with meatballs. I made a big deal about it, taking him shopping for the supplies, letting him "help" me make the meatballs, setting the table very nicely and giving him a grownup plate instead of plastic. Well, by the time dinner was ready, he wanted his meatballs and spaghetti in one bowl, with LOTS of sauce. I was skeptical, but kept it to myself and he proved me wrong. He gobbled it down and declared it his new favorite meal.

Not to be outdone, Zach also had pasta with sauce on it. He didn't eat the meatballs, but baby steps. He's a bit of a vegetarian, that one. Except that he'll eat bacon whenever he can get it.

Happy Birthday to my Dad today, too. We can't wait to visit him and Mimi in LA over the weekend.

We're finally beginning to understand the rest of the country's fascination with the Weather Channel

When you live in Southern California, there's rarely a compelling reason to make frequent checks of the weather forecast. Most of the time the weather is what the paper says it's going to be, and most of the time that's dry, sunny or partly cloudy, mildly chilly in the winter and warm the rest of the year. Being a native, I could never understand how weather forecasts could warrant their own cable channel and numerous Web sites. Now that we live here in Boulder I have a whole new appreciation for Americans' obsession with weather forecasting.

Ironically, the forecasts here are rarely accurate. But they do lead to some excitement. In the middle of last week United Airlines and Frontier started canceling flights out of and into Denver, due to predictions that a big storm was going to dump in Denver on Thursday night, and bury the foothills (us) in 12-18 inches of snow! What we did get was some disgruntled airline travelers, a light rainy misting, and the sum total of about 100 weak little snowflakes. Then temps in the mid 70s over the weekend.

Of course, it's not just local weather that affects us. Jason was due to leave on a trip to New York yesterday. We were on the way to drop him off at the airport at 9:30am when he got an alert on his phone that his flight was delayed 5 hours due to weather in NYC. We decided to turn back to home, he spent 2 hours at home and then went to the airport, and after two more delays and finally cancellation of the flight, he was home at 6:30 or so to put the kids to bed. Since we're headed to LA at the end of the week, he scuttled the trip and will do his meetings by phone. We're hoping for warm, dry and sunny,by the way.

PS some more cute pictures I meant to post with the previous entry...

To Matt and Jill: Have we mentioned that Logan's got plans vis a vis your daughter? He's already drafting up invitations (dictating - writing courtesy of PopPop) and planning her name change...








Zach has begun that charming phase of toddlerhood that includes tantrums. Here, he's lying on the floor in protest of some offense I've committed. I can't remember what but I wanted to capture for future blackmail purposes.












Zach also loves climbing into any empty drawer or cabinet he can find. They're getting rare, but here's a picture of him in the last empty cabinet in the kitchen.

Has it been three weeks??? Yikes!!!

Well we're back after a 3-week hiatus...we've had a busy few weeks and there's no way we're going to be able to remember everything so I'll try to do a quick re-cap. Apologies to my mom and dad, because their visit is going to get condensed much more than it deserves. But that's life, I guess!
So first of all, as Jason so slyly mentioned in our last post, we are officially ready to announce that we have baby Berk #3 on its way, due to arrive sometime in late September/early October. We're about 15 weeks in at this point and so far all tests have pointed to smooth sailing. No word on boy/girl yet - that won't be for another 6 weeks or so but we'll post it here as soon as we know. For now, a baby picture...takes a little imagination, but this is a 3-D picture of the baby's face and upper torso. It's oriented vertically, and the baby's face is the upper middle blob. looking slightly down and to the right. If you really squint, you can make out the nose and the shadows of the eyes and mouth. Anyway, I went to a baby shower recently where a mom-to-be was proudly showing off her 3D in-utero photo, and quite frankly I thought the baby looked horribly deformed. So no offense if you just don't see it or think it looks awful! The doctors assure me that everything looks normal. :-)

Now to take us back in time to our wonderful visit from my parents, which followed on the heels of our wonderful visit from Jason's dad Herb. The arrived on a beautiful, warm and sunny but windy Wednesday afternoon and got to tour our house and grounds, and of course spend quality time with the boys.

Then they got a taste of the incredibly bizarre range of weather conditions we have here in Boulder; we all woke up Thursday morning to a yard blanketed with snow and big, fat flakes falling from the sky. But we took advantage of it, bundling the kids up to take them out. Logan got to make his first snowpeople, and Zach took a ride on the sled. Mimi, PopPop and Logan also had a snowball fight. BTW, sorry about the layout troubles here...

The snow stopped falling that afternoon and disappeared over the next day or two. By the time they left on Monday, it was as warm and sunny as the day they'd arrived. In the meantime, we took them around to visit Logan's school, see some of the parks we love to go to, and they also watched the kids for us while Jason and I got a rare morning to ourselves to go out furniture shopping. We went back to the store at which we'd bought our bedroom furniture and made our saleswoman ecstatic by buying dining room and living room furniture. Now, in just 10-12 more weeks, we'll finally have furniture in our two front rooms!

As I mentioned, we toured several parks with mom and dad, some pictures of which follow. I should mention that both of these locations are very close to our home - the first, Birmingham Park, is about a 15-minute drive into the mountains, the other, Boulder Creek, is a 10-minute bike ride from our house. Logan has discovered that his favorite thing the in whole wide world is to throw sticks, rocks and pinecones into running water. What child wouldn't be fascinated by that? Zach loves it too, of course, but he has that 21 month-old combination of enthusiasm and lack of good sense that makes me inclined to leave him home when we go to these parks.

I should also thank my mom and dad for helping us out so much around the house. They put on their handy hats and gave us some great advice about the house in addition to physically helping us make progress on settling in. There was so much else that happened during their visit but There just isn't time to get it all down now, not to mention the two weeks since they left. Jason's traveled a bit, we've had some beautiful family adventures and there have been rough patches too. But overall we are incredibly happy here and hope some day you'll all get a chance to see Boulder in person.