10-years in the making

 I was thinking about setting up a new blog and viola! Already did that after our Europe travels - life just got in the way and I haven't blogged for 10 years!

As we start this next chapter, I am so grateful for our family & friends; for the employment opportunities we had and for all the random stuff we've done together. If one of us thinks it, the other encourages it - and suddenly, we're off on a new adventure. I can't wait to see where the next 10-years take us. 

Sharing a few highlights from the past 10-years which don't cover the ton of great family & friend get-togethers, holidays, birthdays, plays, little trips, cat photos and of course, hiking. Not in order within each year, but some favorite memories: 

• 2016
• Whistler trip
• Silverwood, ID
• Glacier National Park 
• Hiawatha trail
• 520 bike ride (grand opening of the new floating bridge)
• Group Camping at Sun Lakes ('it's after 10')
• First public acknowledgement of 'retirement planning'
• 4th of July at Ocean Shores
• 2017
• Vancouver, BC trip 
• Japan trip (avoid August!)
• Philmont Scout Ranch with Venturing Crew - 12 days backpacking 
• 2018
• Costa Rica trip
• Spring barrel tasting w/friends
• San Francisco trip - Not a Flame Thrower
• Anchorage trip
• 4th of July at Ocean Shores

• 2019
• 20th anniversary cruise - the Baltics 
• So CA trip - just me, Michelle & our kids. Disney, Universal Studios, San Diego Zoo, Sea World
• Megan graduated WHS
• 2020
• Sold the trailer (~Feb 2020) - Bad timing there! We would have used it a TON in the next 2 years, had we only known
• COVID Shutdown (Mar 2020)
• Broken ankle & fallout from surgery (during COVID)
• 2021
• Evanescence and Halestorm concert
• Hiked Spray Park Loop at Mt. Rainier
• Cabo & LaPaz, Mexico trip - warning, streets flood when it rains
• Whidbey - week rental while kid's bathroom was being remodeled
• Chelan - girls' getaway with Michelle
• 2022
• Sophia & Sherry trip to New York
• Salmon fishing in Sitka
• Summited Mt. Edgecumbe: 3,201 ft
• First ever Opera, 'Marriage of Figaro' 
• Kona, HI trip
• 2023
• Sophia graduated WHS
• Sophia started at Oregon State University - Go Beavs!
• Dan & Sherry summited Kilimanjaro & did a 5-day safari 
• First ever hike to see the Larches - Maple Pass Loop
• 2024
• Scuba - dry suit certification
• 25th anniversary trip to Maui (brought 2 kittens home to their new adopted families too - great experience!)
• Whistler summer trip (Scandinave Spa is amazing)
• Miata 💓
• The Offspring - trip to Anaheim, CA
• Port Townsend - Girls' getaway with Michelle (Guys went on a motorcycle trip)
• Kauai, HI trip and hiking Waimea Canyon's Awa-'awapuhi Trail
• 2025
• MBA completed - Jan 2025 (started Oct 2024)! Woot!
• Retirement parties 😺
• Green Day & Sublime at Bottlerock Music Festival
• Ozzy's last concert, "Back to the Beginning" in Birmingham, UK & a short visit to Ireland

And here we are - starting the next chapter of our lives! 

Last Hurrah of Summer - 2015

We've been on the go this year - will think about posting a few make-up blogs with our prior trips - most were covered via my Facebook page. Parenthesis show # nights - trips are with trailer unless otherwise noted:

• Feb (4) - Skiing at Whistler & hanging out with the DeSalvo family
• Apr (4) - Spring break at Ft. Steven's and exploring Astoria
• May (3) - Memorial Day at Conconully with the Allyn & Ward families
• June (3) - Austin with Lisa & boys for Nathan & Stephanie's wedding (not with the trailer)
• July (3) - Last minute 4th trip to Ocean Shores with the Allyn & Perman families
• July (2) - Annual visit to Chelan (not with the trailer) with the Soderstrom & Hombach families and our friend, Drew
• July (3) - Cape Kiwanda with the Allyn family
• Aug (8)- Maryhill -> St. Helen's -> Rainier 

25 nights in the trailer - we pulled out of the driveway, proud at how well we have the art of packing up down. (that's called foreshadowing...). About 100 miles later, Dan asked, 'Did you by chance grab the BBQ?' and maybe another 25 miles, I realize I forgot our pillows.

We resisted the temptation to get a new portable BBQ but did indulge in new pillows - much needed!

First stop: Maryhill State Park
The sites are huge - beware of nasty thorns in the lawn - they punctured both my & Megan's bike tires. There is a beach at one end of the park though Megan and I discovered on our last day that a rocky access point was just across the road from us. Made for a leisurely wake up our last morning, complete with coffee and just the two of us breathing in the gorgeous views. We were able to use our propane fire pit here, despite the burn ban - s'mores for all!

Campground sites are large- beware of thorns!

View of the Columbia River from our site.

Smoke settled in our first full day and largely remained for the duration, often obscuring the views (even the sun). It did tend to clear a bit in the evenings. 

Down the road a bit is Horse Thief State Park. With advance registration, you can take a walking tour and visit some of the oldest pictographs in the NW; still worth a visit to see the examples of petroglyphs that are available for all to visit. As a bonus, the park has kayaks for rent - $5/half day and the ranger I booked with took us out on the lake in search of more pictographs and wildlife. We saw squirrels that live in the rocky areas, out of the reach of predators; signs of otters; herons and even a baby catfish that tried to hitch a ride in Dan's kayak.

"She who watches' - pictograph at Horse Thief State Park

One of many petroglyphs at Horse Thief State Park

Kayaking - Horse Thief State Park

For a side-trip, we visited The Dalles - sadly, the town was quite closed up the Sunday we were there. It was actually pretty disconcerting - every shop front was closed or available for lease. Given there wasn't much in town, we wandered over to the Dalles Dam for a tour - and found it much more informational than last year's visit to Grand Coulee.

Generator room - color changes in the generators give depth perception (!)

Pool near fish ladder - there's a contractor down there who has to identify AND count AND record length of every fish that passes through! Not a job I would wish to have.

And, because we weren't busy enough, we spent two nights at the Goldendale Observatory. The first visit there was a Corvette Club visiting - probably about 70 people! Made it very difficult to participate. Sadly, the second night, much of what we could see was obscured by clouds and smoke. However, we did get a very cool view of the moon and the Double Double (two sets of double stars near each other - so we were seeing 4 total) -- you'll have to forgive me for not taking notes - was too much information shared that night to retain it all.

Evening shot of the observatory building - well worth a visit (or 2).

Second stop: Mount. St. Helens
This stop should have been cut short by a day - the hikes from the campground weren't easy to find -  and given it's late August, no one wanted to hike in the sandy, dusty conditions. (2 of 3 bike tires had additionally proven to be non-repairable). Stayed at Seaquest State park - sites are very small, compared to Maryhill. BUT - we did have power & water hookups.

We spent 1-day exploring the visitor's attractions and learning all about volcanoes. The videos of the eruption are impressive.

No Scherer vacation seems complete without a drive to the ocean - and since we weren't planning to do any hikes at St. Helen's, we set off for lunch (never found it) and Cape Disappointment - lovely drive. Fun little lighthouse visit ... but I didn't have proper sandals (no heel strap) so couldn't go up with the family. Instead, I stared out at the ocean and found what I believe were porpoise playing in the surf! No binoculars to confirm - but there were 4, with fins (not sea lions). From where I was watching, they would most closely match the Vacquita found in this article - but am not sure they would be this far North.

Cape Disappointment - North Head Lighthouse

View from North Head Lighthouse, looking toward the cape

Third stop: Mt. Rainier
Third and final stop! Mt. Rainier - leisurely breakfast and pack up ... oh - it's Megan's birthday! Can't believe we have a 14-year old... and she's spend a large % of her birthdays traveling with the family. Such a good sport!

It was 86-degrees when we pulled in to the Ohanapecosh Campground. I had deliberately selected an end spot - hoping we could easily get in and out (and it worked!). We had an amazing spot right next to the river. On the drive out - the mountain was out, the day was warm - what a simply amazing area to spend the next few days!

Scoping the jump...

Looking at Ohanapecosh river from our campsite.

Megan's birthday bath - first ever rock jump into a river (never mind a glacial river) ... brave kid!

Happy 14th to our gorgeous girl!

Seriously obsessed with the hammock.

Sophia discovered a new love for hammocks ... could barely get her out of it. She built a cozy nest and would have made it through the night had it not been for the rain. At 2:30 AM. Good mom I am, I pulled her in - but felt a little guilty as it was just barely drizzling. About 20- minutes later, that doubt was put to rest as a huge downpour hit us, continuing through the early hours of the morning.




Toured the park (by car) - and sought out a few things we wanted to explore further. Had intended lunch at Paradise, but the dining room closes at 2 and doesn't reopen until 5:30. So we hung out on the mountain, hoping for her to lift her veil ... and ended with dinner at Paradise instead of lunch. Wasn't anything spectacular, sadly - but the setting is so amazing and couldn't beat the company!

Throughout the day we saw a grouse (it all but jumped in our path), a marmot sunning itself on a rock and a bear!

She didn't want to be photographed - this was the best she would give us (short of our drive in, which was clear but we didn't stop for photos). #MtRainier

Playing tourist at the entrance

On the bridge over the Nisqually River.

Steps to Paradise

This little guy was practically rolling in the huckleberries on the downhill side of Paradise

This marmot seemed to love the attention from the visitors. He would leave his perch but run back to it whenever he saw more people on the trail. 

Upstairs view of the lamps at Paradise Lodge. Can't wait to go back!

Gorgeous views at every turn.

With rains setting in, our tour on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad was canceled... and, returning to camp to find a seasonal pond at the front of our campsite, we decided to pack up a day early. Good thing too - power was out all day at home - just like camping, but with a generator and our own warm beds! =) Happy camping!

Kid's Baking Club #3

Baking Club #3 was held Saturday, November 3

Apple Pie!

I learned a lot from our first two baking club sessions - and, knowing we were making apple pie, gave some thought to the setup and orchestration of having 5 kids in my kitchen.

Fundamental Changes:

• Setup a demo pie - very quickly walked through all steps: making pie crust, apple process, assembly and popped it in the oven so we would have a pie to sample before time to go home.
• Pre-set working spot for the kids - everyone peeled, cored and sliced theiir own apples
• Pre-prepped a double batch of Never Fail pie crust
• Employed the wax paper trick for pie crusts! Roll out your crust between sheets of wax paper - it's a no mess approach and super easy
• Seasonings were pre-measured for each pie

At the end of 3 hours, we had successfully completed 5 full-sized pies - 1 of which was baked and enjoyed by the group.

Megan spent part of the morning pre-prepping applies for the demo pie and making snacks for her guests. I have to admit, she's getting the hang of entertaining - very thoughtful hostess is emerging before my very eyes.


Process:

• Kids started peeling apples for their individual pies
• One at a time, they came into the kitchen and rolled out their bottom pie crust, placed it in the tin, to be refrigerated
• Megan "floated" - offering help to everyone. To her chagrin, no one would listen to her! (ha, ha!)
• As each participant finished peeling their apples, they put the peels in the garbage and got a lesson on how to core and chop.
• When all apples were chopped, each person added seasonings to the bowl and stirred
• One at a time, repeated process to roll out pie dough and put the top on, and practice crimping the edges

Amazingly, the process worked beautifully and largely, kids all wrapped up their work in succession and calmly. The floor was remarkably free of apple debris and the kids were HUNGRY!

Pies safely tucked in the fridge, snacks were served .... followed by a slice of the still warm demo pie (with blackberries!). I didn't hear any complaints!

Only problem is the disposable pie tins are not at all reliable, and several people (parents included) got an unexpected dousing of applie pie juice!

Apple Pie Recipes:

Never Fail Pie Crust (First time using the shortening based recipe; added a little cinnamon, as always)

Apple Pie (from my BHG cookbook):

• 2.5-3 lb of apples (today, we used Fuji)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 TBSP flour
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp All Spice
• Directions:

§  Peel, core and slice apples (we do smaller chunks; they cook faster)

§  Mix apple with dry ingredients

§  Pour into prepared pie pan

§  Add top crust – trim excess and seal

§  Bake at 350-degrees, about 1-hour (cover edges with tin foil for first 25-minutes to help keep from burning) 

Kid's Baking Club #2

Baking club #2 was held Saturday, 10/6/2012

Last session, the kids were insistent on baking German Chocolate Cake at the next meeting.

I thought it might be too complicated, but decided to give it a try, including a Black Forest cake for variety!

Megan was in charge this time of researching and finding the recipes. She took on the challenge - but didn't copy the URLs. And, as we were doing final ingredient shopping, realized two things:

1. She had copy/pasted the steps for the German Chocolate topping to a Black Forest recipe
2. We had not ran the recipes through the cost calculator

I bucked up and $47 later, we purchased everything a German Chocolate Cake and Black Forest Cake.

I spent some time finding a German Chocolate cake that sounded good ... but if you look at the recipe, you will see I failed to take the numerous steps into consideration.

When the kids arrived, we did a quick pre-brief - much to Megan's horror .... (I apparently sound like her math teacher).

This time, we broke into groups of two - but Sophia and I were to be "floaters" helping .... only Sophia quickly got bored because the initial steps were difficult to include her and I had to bounce back and forth, helping the two cakes.



Black Forest Cake - cupcake & 1/2 mini-cake versions



Megan and Mikalea tackled the Black Forest Cake.... one small cake and 12 cupcakes. Only error was they used heavy cream instead of buttermilk - but the cake still rose and held it's shape. The cupcakes were a little crumbly - but... kids managed to ice them, add cherries, whipped cream topping (which had to be remade 2x since the cherry juice curdled it the first time) and DEVOUR them (one shot has them all face-first into their cake)!

Landon and Kimia tackled the German Chocoate cake ... but it required a lot of help...  I had them first make the pecan/coconut frosting ... which requies cooking + toasting the coconut and pecans. We were smart to make that part first; just overlooked that we should also have made the chocolate icing at the same time (both have to cool to room temp).

German Chocolate Cake - cupcakes + mini-cake

We got the cake going ... but the process for separating eggs involved hands (not my first choice, but that's how the kids see it on TV and was how they wanted to do it). Before I realized what was up, both kids had hands full-on in the egg yolks, mixing them up! Gooey hands ... egg yolk dripping on the table... napkins + hand washing later, I talked them through how to add scrambled egg yolks to the batter, one yolk at a time... =)

Jump forward - we now have the cake ready, buttermilk added and "ah!" have to get egg whites to stiff peaks ... quick wash of dishes + beaters and we're off again... then to teach them how to "fold" the two together vs. stirring or beating ---

Clock was counting down and the German Chocolate cake was still baking. Kids were bored, as with one cake done, one set of kids were playing and the other set of kids were more interested in socializing than in finishing a labor-intensive project. The trampoline saved my sanity again! Meanwhile, I made the chocolate icing... which also needed to cool...a step I had neglected to notice in the preview. Fridge was my only hope of having it all assembled in time to go home with the kids. 

Despite best efforts, the German chocolate cake fell in the middle. Kinda worked well though - the coconut/pecan filling went in the "dip" of each cupcake and I was drizzling with mostly room-temperature chocolate icing just as the first parents arrived.

Each kid went home with 2 German Chocolate cupcakes and 1/2 a mini-cake. So happy to see those calories walk out the door.

Feedback from the kids -

• Most didn't care for the Black Forest cake - the mixture of the powdered sugar frosting with whipped cream, cherries and chocolate cake was too much all at once (note -they happily mostly devoured their two cupcakes, however)
• Didn't have time to taste test the German Chocolate Cake .... I did though, and YUM!

I learned a lot though - need simpler recipes that the kids can assemble and finished while it's baking. They lost interest when there were too many steps involved at this point. They want to taste at every step - which was fun to pass around slivers of unsweetened and bittersweet baking chocolate!

At the end of the day, I hope they are having fun and learning a little respect for process + ingredients when it comes to food.

Next month: Pie!

This month's recipes:

• German Chocolate Cake - www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/09/german-chocolat-1
• (note: we did not make the syrup for the layers):

• Black Forest Cake - (apologies, Megan found it & didn't record the URL):
• Cake

• 1-2/3 cups flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1-1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups buttermilk
• Frosting for layers
• 1/2 cup "kirschwasser" (cherry water)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3-1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tsp strong brewed coffee
• 2 (14-oz) cans pitted Bing cherries (drained)...reserve the juice for the "kirschwasser"
• Frosting for outside
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp kirschwasser (I think this is optional... I think it broke the whipped cream)
• For decoration (we didn't use)
• 1 (1-oz) semisweet chocolate
• Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350-degrees
• Line the bottoms of 2 - 8" round pans with parchment paper circles
• Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and tsp salt - set aside
• Cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, until combined. Pour into 2 round 8" pans.
• Bake at 350-degrees for 35-40 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Cool completely. Remove paper from the cakes. Cut each layer in half, horizontally, making 4 layers total
• Sprinkle layers with 1/2 cup kirschwasser (we didn't do this step)
• In a medium bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar, pinch of salt, and coffee; beat until smooth. If the consistency is too thich, add a couple tsp of kirschwasser or milk.
• Spread first layer of cake with 1/3 of the filling, top with 1/3 of the cherries. Repeat with remaining layers
• In a separate bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Beat in 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp kirschwasser. Frost top and sides of cake
• Sprinkle with chocolate curls, made by using a potatoe peeler on semisweet baking chocolate (we skipped this step)

Kid's Baking Club #1 - Cookies!

Session 1 of baking club was Saturday, 9/1

So much fun - and a little chaos too. I learned a lot today and will get better next time!

Session 1 focused on cookies! With 5 kids, plus me, we broke up into groups of 2 and each tackled a different recipe.

We kicked off talking about kitchen safety, budget considerations (we have $10 / mo to work with and already overspent!) and kitchen cleanliness.

Each group happily tackled their recipes - though I had to keep popping over to answer questions, meaning I was distracted from the batch of chocolate chip cookies that Sophia and I were making ... and, watched in horror as the butter melted when I dumped in the still warm walnuts ... quickly put it in the fridge to hopefully re-congeal in time to bake before session ended.... and after 30 minutes, as I was about to dump it into a pan for bar cookies because it was still goopy, realized we never added the flour! Problem solved... it rapidly formed up into delicious cookies!

Downtime needs to be planned ... as well as tastings... the kids could NOT wait to taste their goodies. I make them painstakingly wait until one batch of each recipe was done, and then they got to devour one cookie from each. Such happy noises coming from the living room along with the disappointed groans that they couldn't eat them all!! Post cookie indulge, they spent ample time on the trampoline while I finished baking the cookies and distributing on take-home plates. 

I did have them come through and clean up their mess ... so this time, had a clean kitchen by 5pm.  

 

Session 1 Recipes:

• Chocolate Surprise (est. cost $3.59) - http://tinyurl.com/9769yqv
• Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (est. cost $9.25) - http://tinyurl.com/9n5xvd8
• Princess Cookies (est. cost $2.82) - http://tinyurl.com/9a2chzl

I probably learned as much (possibly more) than the kids.

 

Best!

Sherry

Kid's Baking Club - Setup Phase

In August, Megan expressed interest in forming a baking club. Wanting to support her budding passion for baking, I agreed to support her endeaver to regularly host a group of kids in our kitchen.

We just had our 2nd session - so will quickly add a few posts to catch up:

1. Pre-Planning

• We talked through the size of our kitchen and agreed that she could invite 3 friends (+ her sister, that's 5 kids we're dealing with each session - all but Sophia are in 6th grade)
• Budget - we talked about the cost of ingredients and thought through solutions to help pay for the club - they were:
• $ contribution - each participant pays a fixed amount each session
• Ingredient contribution - each participant would bring a key ingredient each session
• Recipe contribution - each participant would rotate bringing all ingredients
• We landed on $ contribution ... each participant brings $2.50
• Timing - we negotiated down from weekly to monthly (whew!) and from "all day" to 2-5pm

2. Pre-Invite

• Knowing how kids get excited and parents not always so much, I issued a "heads up" email to the parents of the kids about 2-days in advance of the invite. Wanted to give the families time to prep their child for the response most appropriate for their family. I additionally gave parents the option to review and vote on the budget contribution ideas

3. Invite

• Megan called each child and personally invited - outling the details of the club and the date of the first session

4. Recipe Planning

• For the first session, I did most of the recipe planning... those posts to come
• Ideally - will pre-plan the recipes and look at the cost of each. To facilitate, I put together a very simple Excel spreadsheet and worked with Megan to build out the equations and calculate the cost of most major ingredients - for example:
• Sugar - $3.99 for 4 lb
• Ingredients list indicated 1tsp as the serving size and 454 estimated servings in 4 lb
• We calculated $0.01 (rounded up) as the cost per tsp
• We then looked up the # tsp in common measurements and built a table of costs to get to the cost per cup
• The next tab of the spreadsheet has the recipe outlined and the cost per item, based on the measurement required

This was all very "boring" to Megan, but I think useful in helping her understand that just because we're making it at home doesn't mean it's "free."

Long Overdue Update

Wow! Can't believe how quickly time goes by some days. It's been a very long, interesting 9 months. Don't worry, no new babies on the horizon here! =)

Life between posts looked something like this:

• Discovered Wine.Woot. (maybe that was before May, 2010)
• Dan visited Mt. Baker!
• Lost a job.
• First WBNA game - Go Storm!
• Back-to-School for the girls (K/4th)
• Got a job.
• Family reunion (Dan).
• FUN car.
• Drank some wine.
• Kid-free date nights.
• Got butt kicked at bootcamp (repeatedly).
• Made lots and lots of bread.
• Had fun with friends.
• New Years Eve tree lighting.

Missed more than I included - but there you are. Snapshot of what's kept me away from blogging for the past 9-months. That and Facebook makes it feel redundant - alas, will try, try again.

Mother's Day Poem, by Megan

Sherry

Fun, sweet, honest, caring
Mother of Sophia and
Megan

Lover of chocolate, sleep, coffee
Who finds happiness in love,
kisses, silliness

Who needs coffee, computer,
playtime

Who gives help, stories, prayers
Who fears getting hurt, spiders,
snakes

Who would like to go to the spa,
spend more time playing,
have a party

Who likes to wear earrings, dresses,
necklaces

Resident of Woodinville
Washington
Mom

With love,
Megan
May 9, 2010

Hurray for rain! After ~30 beautiful, warm, sun-shiny days, the rain is back. My parched plants are happy and somehow, it just is nice to have a little drizzle. And despite the signs pointing toward "no" I am hoping to harvest at least one tomato from one of the 12 plants (11 still surviving) that I eagerly bought in May.

School is out and our entry-way is littered with the remnants of a very busy 2nd grade year for Megan. She's exhausted but is looking forward to a bit of a break. Sophia on the other hand keeps asking why she can't go to elementary school. Funny kids.

On the wine front, I toured a pretty cool wine shop in Redmond, World of Wines. One of their good customers filled in and gave me quite the tour and education on favorite wines. I do plan to stop back in for some of their tastings - they have quite an exhaustive schedule.

I was looking for a local source of my new favorite, Thurston Wolfe PGV - but haven't found it in stock anywhere in the area. I did try two wines recommended by World of Wines, a Pinot Grigio (don't recall the label, but was nothing spectacular in my opinion) and a very good Tempranillo.

• ~$13 - Vilosell 2006 Segre Red Wine - Tempranillo blend from the region in Spain where Tempranillo originated. Yummy, spicy and very nice. The flavor really opens up if you warm it a little in your hand. Do be careful of the sediment in the last glass. It hides in the beautiful dark color of the wine. The wine bottle is cool too - the label is in Braille on the back!

The next few weeks are busy - will have to try and update the blog more frequently.

Father's Day will find us at the Washington Brewer's Festival at St. Edward's State Park - assuming the rain lets up. We traditionally spend one weekend day there - just hanging out with the kids, good friends and good beer.

The last weekend in June, we're heading up to Mount Baker Vineyards for another of their tasting dinners. Always a good time - though I always seem to spend more than we had budgeted. It's so hard when they offer such a good case discount and you can't find their wines at retail.

Then comes the 4th of July party - lots of planning, ideas and fun! Looking forward to it! Maybe a wine tasting or two; maybe a water rocket (or 13) project for the kids.

Ciao for now!

Mother's Day

Busy day! First thing this morning, Megan and I took off and ran in the Kirkland Mother's Day 5k. I didn't think it would be too difficult, but that was partially because I had misread the online map and thought it was along the Kirkland waterfront. When I realized it was at Juanita Park, I had the foresight to buy Gu for Megan... but promptly forgot it at home. (photo left: the half-marathoners queuing up to start)

We carb'd up on bagels and hot chocolate for Megan (coffee for me) enroute ... so I was hopeful that she would be fine. She wasn't. After the 2nd (and last) hill, she bonked, hard. Fortunately we were 2 miles in so the worst was over and it was a matter of encouraging her on to finish strong. The promise of a doughnut of her choice provided the second (and third) energy bursts required and she and I crossed the finish line at 39:37 - I think we made it through a little faster than our first, flat run two weeks ago. I know now, never to forget the Gu again. (Photo right: Megan, getting ready to roll)

Megan's ranking in the race - not bad, especially given the division is 01-19 years! (first name, city information edited out; full results available here)

Happily finished with the run, we made our stop at QFC for the long anticipated doughnut and then towards home to start getting ready for brunch.

Brunch schedule was agressive - got home at 10; had brunch (mostly) ready to go at 1:30 ... and had to shower and dress in there. Our folks got here around 1:00 and we feasted on all kinds of yummy, homemade stuff. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the afternoon - fun to have long lingering meals and conversation.

Menu:

• Omelettes (mushrooms, ham, leeks, red & green onions, garlic, shredded cheddar)Strawberries & Whipped Cream
• Ham & Mini-Rolls with Stone Ground Mustard
• Cranberry Black Walnut Coffee Cake (disguised as muffins with blueberries instead)
• Cheddar Apple Bundles
• Maple Smoked Bacon
• Coffee & Iced Tea

Dan played short-order cook, making omelettes to order - which is a fun way to handle the group, but meant we were mostly finished before he had a chance to sit down and join us. Afterwards, our moms and Dan cleared the table and ran the first (ahem, 3rd?) batch of dishes.

Here's the food, where are the people?

After everyone left, I literally crashed - long nap has never felt so good! I feel fortunate to be surrounded by such a loving family. Surrounded by loving girls, their Mother's Day artwork, roses and chocolates, I'm in heaven.

Ciao!

10-years wedded bliss

Posted 5/6 - back dated to event

Blink and suddenly you go from "newly weds" to 10-years and 2 kids!
I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Two other couples we are close friends with also celebrate their 10th anniversaries this year - Holly and Michael the same weekend as ours and Derek and Michelle later in the summer.

Thanks to Derek and Michelle's great idea, we got together and went to the Spring Barrel Tasting event in Yakima. While Yakima itself didn't impress me (did you know there's nothing to do there in the evenings? Not that we found anyway), we had a blast and I came home feeling like the inside of an old oak barrel.

I owe a more detailed entry of what we liked, what we didn't - we were surprised to find that many of the small boutique wineries with wines in the $25-$35 range weren't necessarily the most enjoyable. One of group's favorites stops was the massive Terra Blanca - with wines that were in the $10 range, a wide variety and an awesome destination.

Wineries we visited (in order):

• The Tasting Room (NHV, Wildrige, Harlequin)
• Donitelia
• Upland Estates
• Tapteil
• Hightower Cellars
• Terra Blanca
• Airfield Estates
• Thurston Wolfe Winery
• Agate Field Winery
• Two Mountain Winery
• Wineglass Cellars
• Sagelands

I owe a much longer post and need to upload pictures. Suffice it to say, we tasted too much, ate too much and bought too much. But, good times, good friends, good wine. Great weekend.

First 5k

Posted 5/6 - late, as usual, back dated to event date.

Saturday, 4/18 - Megan and I ran in the Northshore YMCA 5k as a part of their Healthy Kids Day event. We arrived about 10 minutes early and I had the tiniest feeling of "I don't belong here" as I looked at a medium sized group of what appeared to be serious runners. In my moment of self-doubt, I thought to myself, how many people casually say, 'hey, let's go run a 5k today!" After all, Megan's never expressed an interest in running before and I certainly don't love it. As more and more people arrived, I realized I was being silly - the thing I'm learning to love about running is that it's an activity open to everyone - all body shapes, sizes, kids, grown ups. Feeling confident again, we finished stretching and got ready for the race.

We were a few minutes (10?) late starting and I didn't look at my watch - but we were done by 9:50 - so certainly couldn't have been more than 40-45 minutes on the course. We jogged virtually the whole way and I found it's actually good for me to jog with Megan - it forces me to keep a slow, steady pace. I tend to want to run in bursts (like she does).

Favorite memories of the event:

• "My little legs are tired," said Megan about 3/4 of the way through


• Watching her respond with a new burst of energy whenever there were volunteers cheering us on


• Watching her confidence level raise through the day as she started telling people that she ran the 5k


• Watching grown-ups reactions when Megan told them she'd ran a 5k


• Megan asking if we can do it again the next day.

I think her favorite part was the Jamba Juice at the end - she was about to bonk and the fruit smoothy totally re-energized her.

Mother's Day 5k in Kirkland is next. By the end of the day, I had myself comitted to the Cougar Mountain 5 mile run too - May 16.

New Scherer - "Meow"

Posted May 6 - back dated to event date

Sadly, we lost a cat in February (Schitzy). As the weeks went on, we realized that with only fish and a feral rescue, who won't let you pet her, that our family was in need of a new pet. The hunt was on - lots of research into hairless felines (I think they are cute). Definitely focused on a cat, not a dog in hopes that Moochy (the feral) would settle in and accept the new pal.

Searching online one night, I came across the cutest face and I knew! The next day, I begged Dan to stop by the shelter - and after about 10 minutes, I made him bring the kids in. Needless to say, we adopted "Fabio" from the Homeward Pet Adoption Center in Woodinville and have since renamed him "Patches."

He's a great cat - loves having our yard and surrounding woods to explore. The girls simply adore him and he's settled in, taking ownership of our house. The only one not happy about the arrangement is Moochy - she is not impressed. Well, maybe he'll get through to her yet - meanwhile, we're a dual cat-zone household.

White Christmas

We're supposed to host Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas Day open house. Right now, I'm wondering why we don't have Christmas in July. Most of my online orders are stuck at the distribution centers and we're not sure folks can make it to our house (hey, even the mail didn't arrive yesterday!).

It's been snowing all week with record lows (the lowest at our house was 9-degress fahrenheit (-12C)). We're quite happy that we're not trying to stay warm in a motorhome right now. The lowest we encountered while traveling in Europe was -14C. Not a fun night on metered electricity!

Blick from our back deck 12/21

As we look forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, my wish this year is for the roads to clear enough for folks to get here; for the snow to hold off so they aren't stuck here; for the packages to arrive - or at least be available for Dan to retrieve from distribution centers. But most of all, for each of you to have a very warm, Merry holiday with your family and friends.

I'm back!

For me, blogging isn't the same without pictures. Besides, you and I know the grandparents are only reading the blog to see pics of the grandkids.

Long story short, after upgrading to Vista, my flash card reader no longer worked. My attempts to fix it fell flat. Sony said that the laptop I'm using isn't rated for Windows Vista "Business" and that I would need to contact Microsoft for support. I didn't bother - Microsoft would just tell me it's an OEM issue and to contact Sony. I gave up.

Dan recently started bugging me. "Are you sure the issue wasn't fixed with SP2?" he'd ask. I finally relented and checked again - no luck. He ran a manual update cycle and Voila! A search of the Sony site generated, by Windows Updates found the missing drivers and installed them (though Vista still thinks they were not installed properly) and my flash card reader works again.

I'll make a few "historical" posts and back date accordingly. After all a ton has happened in the past 2.5 months.

But first, a weather update. This week brought winter cold (bitterly so) and snow! Yeah! We're really happy that we aren't trying to keep warm in a motorhome right now - though the condensation on our bathroom windows did freeze on the inside a couple mornings this week.

Saturday morning - the kids were thrilled to have slush to play in from the overnight weather pattern. Megan kept asking if she could build a snow angle ... but I managed to convince her the snow was too wet. Instead, she "snowplowed" the back deck.

Saturday morning slush fest

Saturday afternoon - the snow started at 12:00 and started sticking at 6:00 pm. Sunday morning, all of Megan's hard work "snowplowing" the deck was undone, replaced by fresh, powdery snow. About 3-4 inches worth. She was bummed that she couldn't make snowballs out of it.

Sunday morning wake up call

Monday-Wednesday the weather just turned COLD. Dan was awesome, putting up with my refusal to drive on our side streets, and played chaffeur, ferring me back and forth to work.

Forecasters promised 4-8 inches Wednesday (today), resulting in schools closing before the first flake fell (Northshore, Bellevue and Redmond to name a few of the districts). Needless to say, nothing happened all day in these regions.

At 5pm, I was on a conference call at home and heard this funny "ticking" noise. 20 minutes later, realized the skylights COVERED in snow! We got about 2.5 inches in 2 hours! It stopped around 7; but forecasters are promising another 2-4" overnight.

Wednesday night blick of our driveway, about 20-minutes after it started snowing.

Am hoping this stuff goes away for Christmas and New Years ...

Ciao!

Excited flower girls

Mark is getting married soon and his fiance, Yet has chosen to include our girls as flower girls.

I thought it'd be nice to have a dinner where the flower girls could spend time with Yet. Yet was super - she brought these gorgeous tiaras for the girls and spent time reading books before dinner. A fun evening and a chance to see the girls try on their dresses.

The Big Move

November 1 arrived with us ready to move from the rental house in Bothell to our real house in Woodinville (note - I didn't say "organized"). Lucky for us, my mom and sister arrived early to take the kids out for the day.

Dan and I hurredly finished packing the kitchen and miscellaneous stuff you can't live without. Gave everything a final clean sweep, the whole time bantering back and forth, wondering if our move crew would show up. By 11am, we gave up and Dan went out to pick up laborers from Home Depot - they saved the day.

From there, the move went fairly well. It didn't start raining until after we arrived at the Woodinville house.

A hurried unload process and we jumped in cars to return the rental truck and take Megan to Renton for Jaden's birthday party. Of course, we couldn't find the gift we had bought, so had to stop and pick one up on the way. We were about 2 hours late and a bit wilted by the time we arrived... but the girls had fun.

Funniest event of the weekend - we weren't even home 24-hours before the first fire was going in the firepit. Ahhh. It's good to be home.

Fire pit going, less than 24-hours after being home. Don't know why Blogger loaded the pic sideways... am too tired to continue troubleshooting.

Boo!

Halloween was a blur of activity - rush home from work in Bellevue (relatively new commute), gather up the kids, quick dinner out and trick or treating with Derek & Michelle's kids. Knowing full well that we move Nov. 1.



Memorable moments:

• Sophia, running down from every door, yelling, "They gave me candy, mommy!
• Sophia, on her own, asking a woman who happened to be handing out full size candy bars if she could have one for her mom. Then comes running down the driveway, yelling, "I got one for you, mommy!"
• Michelle's dad, scaring the kids - who were not following directions to let an adult open the door. Ivan rang the doorbell, all 3 bigger kids went bombing for it ... they were back at the top of the stairs before Ivan got the word "Boo!" out.

A jaguar and mermaid took over our kids for the day. Megan (left) standing next to Sophia's pumpkin; Sophia (right) next to Megan's pumpkin. The girls got to choose and design their pumpkins.

Hangin' Out

Today was a day of changing plans and it was fun to just go with the flow. We met up with good friends, Mark and Jody and their girls for the day. Enjoyed playtime at the park, BBQ and the view of the Olympics from their deck. Megan and Aspen hit it off immediately and were all but best buds.

Headed out to check out their boat and just soaked in the gorgeous weather and good company. Thanks guys for a memorable day!

Dan, enjoying the view.



Ashley bravely took Megan and Aspen out for a tour in the kayak.


Mark taking Sophia out on her first kayak experience (with Gunner, who was along for the outing)

Farm Tour

The weather has stayed nice and what better way to enjoy a sunny autumn day than to participate in the local area farm tours? This weekend was the 10th Annual Harvest Celebration Farm Tour - a free event to help support local farms.

Megan led us turn-by-turn through the corn maze at South 47 Farm in Redmond, reading the questions at eat turn and selecting the answer. We found all 8 punch stations and scored mini-pumpkins. You'd think the kids had new puppies or something. They alternate between worrying about those pumpkins and being curious as to what they taste like.

Not lost yet!

Next stop was Dog Mountain Farm up in the Tolt Highlands. A simply gorgeous setting with "modern day homesteaders." After enjoying a horse-drawn cart ride (the girls simply talked the ear off the poor woman who was driving the pair of dapple grays), we gobbled yummy rice krispy treats that were topped with Belgian chocolate ganache. We were lucky to meet the farm dog, who was more interested in our rice krispy treats (but was very well behaved) than in us. The girls also got to see 200 pounds of feed put out in the chicken run and the ensuing scramble by the geese, ducks and chickens to get to it!

She'll be comin' 'round the mountain...

Our final stop of the day was the River Valley Cheese farm, where we learned how to milk goats, played with the baby goats and tasted cheese (cow's milk and goat's milk). The cheese was excellent - they offer tons of variety and the staff were super to work with.

A smelly proposition.

After a brief stop at the Preston playground for some much needed R&R (farm hopping is hard work, after all), we headed out to grandma and grandpa's house for a yummy dinner and pear crisp. Welcome fall!


"You are the sun(flower) of my life..."