Striped Dog

Grace asked Aimee, "Maybe I can get a striped dog?"  Aimee told her no and that we didn't have any money for a striped dog.  "Maybe we can buy some more money," Grace suggested.  "And then I can have a striped dog!"

Splashing

It's wet wet wet wet wet wet.  On the way home from preschool Grace was very excited with all the rain on the roads and squealed in delight anytime we hit a big puddle and splashed water high in the air.  The good news for her is that it looks like we'll have lots of puddle splashing opportunities this weekend and beyond.  Wet wet wet wet wet.

Halloween Blues

Grace appears to have caught on to the whole Halloween candy scam.  Everyday she announces that we're going trick-or-treating tonight.  And then we explain that Halloween won't come until next year. 

Who is the... Pieman?

Aimee has jury duty this week. Grace and I drove Aimee to downtown
Seattle this morning since it was pouring - waiting for a bus in a
downpour is miserable. On the way to the courthouse, Grace said "The
Pieman is bad." We don't know who this mysterious pieman is, or what
he has done. Or, come to think of it, if "Pieman" even approximates
the spelling of the concept in Grace's head.

Smoky in Here

After I roasted a chicken and smoke filled the house, Eric came in and
said, "It's smoky in here." Grace looked up and answered, "It's not
smoky in my ear."

Pumpkin

Here is Grace's pumpkin. She was very excited while we carved the pumpkin and is very proud of this rather worried pumpkin. She didn't want to touch the guts of the pumpkin.

The Recharging Generation

With Eric, Aimee and I living in he same house we have 3 laptops, 3
cellphones, and one Playstation Portable System - all of which require
recharging. I was noticing today as I vacuumed that all our power
outlets seem to have been converted to batter recharging centers. We
are now the recharging generation.

Dead Squirrel

We ran across a dead squirrel today. Grace was impressed - 3 years are impressed with death, not knowing precisely what it means. She wanted to know why it was dead. I speculated that a car ran over it. But that didn't explain how the body ended up on the sidewalk. Grace had her own explanation: "Maybe a mad squirrel pushed him."

Is it always wrong to generalize?

GrrrLillas and Grandma

While Aimee went to an appointment, Grace and I took an hour or so and
went to the zoo. She kept talking about the GrrrLillas, which I
thought was hilarious. Later in the evening, we told Grace that
tomorrow we're going to Grandma's house for my birthday celebration.
Grace announced, "I'm not going to talk to Grandma. I'm going to be
shy to her."

Ferry Pictures

I like how Grace thinks. She wanted to draw a picture of the Ferry
Boat. Then draw the people in the ferry boat... and on the ferry
boat... and then we needed to draw the people falling of the ferry
boat and splashing in the water.

37

Nelson turns 37 years old today. Nelson trivia: 37 years ago he was named after White Sox ballplayer Nelson Fox. He was born in Paris. Another woman came into the hospital to have her baby at the same time. She was dropped off, had the baby (her umpteenth one) and then her husband picked her up in a combine tractor no less to give them a ride home. If it weren't for baseball distracting his Father, he might have been named John Deere Appell or Farmhall Appell.

Canada Dry

Aimee is drinking Canada Dry Ginger Ale today. She is sick. Grace and I had been sick this last week; now it's Aimee's turn. Grace has spent much of today pretending that I am a horse and insisting that she tether to the living room end table - and then I have to sit there and go "neeeeeeeiiiiigh!" over and over and over. She is obsessed with leashes and tying people and stuffed animals to chair legs.

Goodbye Elmo Balloon

Grace came racing in the back door panicked - "Daddy, I need Elmo back, I need Elmo back."  At which point I realized she had taken her Elmo birthday balloon from the family birthday part into the back yard - and let it go.  So she has had her first lesson in letting balloons go - only it hasn't sunk in.  She kept asking, "Is Eric looking for Elmo?" whenever Eric stepped outside.

Fruits of the Garden update

The canning went very well and until Aimee realized we forgot to add the Lemon juice.  The lemon juice's acidity is essential to long term storage of the tomatoes, so now we have a lot of canned tomatoes that we need to use soon.  The sure look pretty.

Fruits of the Garden

We didn't pick any tomatoes for a week - and look at our bounty! We used a laundry basket to pick the juicy little red devils before we canned them over devilishly high heat.

Spider Glacier

Aimee and Nelson standing before Spider Glacier in the pass over Holden Village. Unfortunately, Spider Glacier has melted so much that the trail was unpassable over the pass. This picture was taken an hour or so before that discovery - otherwise we wouldn't be so darned happy. So Jami, Micah, Aimee and I turned around and hiked back out 10 miles and down 4,000 feet, arriving back at the truck at 10pm at night and then driving to Field's Pt. Landing to catch the boat to Holden.

Scone Chicken

Grace called me a "scone chicken" this morning - which is what a person is "after when you take a bath."  Mommy, however, is not a scone chicken - although there seems to be some hope that she could eventually attain that status.

Dinosaurs and Falling Suns

At Holden Village, Grace and I (Nelson) were watching deer graze in the center of the village.  Grace told me, "Daddy, the deer are afraid of the dinosaurs."  Later, at sunset, Grace said, "Daddy, the sun is going down to the mountains?"  "It is?" I said.  "It's going to break all the houses.  It's going to break all the castles."

President Past

Aimee is now a Past President at Gift of Grace. Her two years of service are up - now it's off to Grad School. No rest for the weary.