O C-A-N-A-D-A (it really is a separate country and worth seeing!)

I like Canada. I admit it. I misjudged it. It is not just an extension of the United States. They do speak English there, but they also speak Chinese food and gelatto. We were able to go to Vancouver for a few days on a business trip (thank you Uncle Moss Adams). Richard worked, and Anna and I played. Traveling to Canada is like passing through a tunnell and finding a whole other world on the other side. Anna will demonstrate.... "what is that I see....Maple leafs, hockey pucks, and canadian bacon? Oh My!"

"Can someone point me in the general direction of Michael Buble?"

"As long as I get a good session of competative curling in...everything will be okay"

"What! It costs how much to go to a Celine Dion concert!!!!?"

Here, Anna is loving the Vancouver Acquarium . We saw the Beluga Whale show and the dolphin show. I have been listening to Raffi a lot recently, and I still love his song "Baby Beluga." I found out that it was the Beluga whales at this particular acquarium that inspired that song.

you can't see it very well, but these are flying dolphins. I had Anna on my shoulders and she was wiggling so much in excitement.

We went to Stanley Park, where I could get lost at my leisure. We walked all the way around the park along the sea wall.

When I was getting a snack for Anna, these fellows decided to join us (they probably smartly noticed that Anna throws half of what I give her overboard). I have never seen raccoons up close and personal, and the natives thought I was pretty funny for photographing what they consider a very common pest. It would probably be the equivalent of photographing cockroaches.

we saw totem poles...

At Van Dusen gardens I got honestly lost in a maze. And I really tried to solve it-- but I kept going right back to the entrance. The tree in the center is a monkey puzzle tree. Thank you NAte for pointing out how cool they are!

I should call this my Anna cam-- a birds eye view of what a content baby looks like on a walk strapped to her mama.

In the garden there were some great sculptures. This was supposed to represent the interconnectedness of mankind (I just think someone was trying to get rid of all their old clothes).

...I do need some new clothes for Anna...hmmm.

Van Dusen gardens was so gorgeous. I imagine that the Garden of Eden might have looked very much like this.

Going through the rose garden portion of it, I got some great ideas for names for our future children.

Pimpinellifolia. We could call her Pimple for short....

Alba Rose....and we could call him Al...

And good old Rugosa...to keep the alliteration alive!

All in all, we had a most excellent time! On the way back into the country, the car ahead of us got dog sniffed for drugs. It was so exciting. I half wanted them to sniff our car! A dog sniff is not considered a search for purposes of search and seizure laws. Just thought you should know!

Go Canada!

Reason to move to Seattle #6,492 (or at least #3)

One of the things I love best about the Northwest are all the fresh berries! You can pick them here yourself. There are farms all over the place where you just grab a crate or a bucket, pick all you want, and then just pay per pound. It is one of the most wonderful experiences because you almost forget what century you live in. As long as there have been rasberries, there have been people picking them, and it is still done the same way. the first time I went, I picked almost 10 lbs of berries.

It makes the most wonderful jam ever, which is great because Richard can eat his weight in PBJ's. We went as a family and were assigned our very own row of rasberry bushes.

going picking with Anna requires two adults-- one to do the picking and the other to do the entertaining of the Anna.

Anna had us trained well. WE picked and she ate...and ate, and ate, and ate.....

..and she ate, and she ate, and she ate.

Anna's appetite was so great that she started hatching a plan to increase our rasberry takeage. She told us to take from other people's berry baskets, but then we saw this sign...

so we told Anna that we would just have to be content with the berries we picked. Luckily, blackberry season was right on the heels of rasberry season. And blackberries grow like weeds here. I have been going out a couple of times a day, and I pick a whole McDonald's basketful each time. They are outside our apartment, by the movie theatre, on the walking paths, by the library. The best kind of weed.

I know I must look funny when I go picking. There are great thorns all throughout the blackberry bushes and my clothes get caught quite a lot. I find myself having to wrangle out of the snags in plain view of all the cars passing by. I also find myself talking to the blackberries-- telling them that I am just helping them to fulfill the measure of their creation. I probably look like a homeless person trying to get a free meal (which is only compounded by the fact that I use an old bucket that came with a McDonalds happy meal), but I don't care-- its FREE blackberries, and what could be better!

Nothing better than a visit from friends!

WE had some dear friends come and visit us a week ago. If it weren't for the distance from pretty much all of our loved ones and friends, I think I could live here forever. As it is, I try not to think about all the people I miss back in Utah. So it was a rare treat to stay up late again talking and laughing with our friends. I could almost forget that we lived thousands of miles away. We love you Simonsens!!! This was the first time that Anna had really met Boston and Lincoln since she was born. As parents, we have been planning her marriage to one of these boys since her conception (we want cool in-laws too you know). So Anna was a bit trepidatious on their first date-- and it was a trip to the temple no less....talk about pressure!
however, Anna got over her shyness, and soon Boston and she were hitting it off. They decided to go for a ride in the country on their two steeds...

then they decided to go out to a movie together...

But the trip was not just about Anna and Boston's romance. IT was about spending time with people who have seriously contributed to our happiness in life. I truly know that God sent us this family to be our friends. Wherever we live in heaven, I want the Simonsens to be on the same block!

It wouldn't be the true Seattle experience without a couple of days of cool temperature and rain in the middle of August. In the middle of months of great sunny weather, our dear friends got the three days of rain. It let up just enough for us to take them to see some of Seattle's best sights.

We finished our trip with a picnic in the park (because everything tastes better when eaten outside). We had shrimp burgers, corn on the cob, fruit salad, and brownies made with canned black beans (they really tasted good even though I was hesitant in the beginning)

the view was fabulous. I love these lakes.

There was nothing super eventful with this trip. But that was the best part. What I remember most was just staying up late while our kids slept and talking. We played games, we discussed our beliefs in God, and we shared stories. And of course, we ate a lot of good food. Just like old times.

Random thoughts-- extreme edition

So Anna ate some dog poop yesterday. She puts lots of things in her mouth-- dirt, rocks, toilet paper, socks...but this is something that a mom never wants to see her child holding. So I grabbed the fresh, soft poop away from her and promptly started shouting "Wipe! I need a wipe stat!!"
Luckily, I was at a playgroup and some moms pitched in with wipes and hand sanitizer. Later that afternoon at Anna's one year check up I asked her doctor about that. And our pediatrician said that dog poop definitely won't harm her. I remember one of my friends who witnessed the event said that there was a small white dog running around at the same time. I would like to think that maybe that dog was a little lap dog who only ate organic dog food and was never allowed near dumpsters. I mean, if Anna is going to try dog poop, it might as well be the high end kind.


I hate recycling. I love recycling. I hate recycling. Yeah, I feel good about doing something for the environment, but sometimes I long for those days of ignorance when I blissfully tossed everything into the same trash receptacle. Now I feel guilty when I toss a can or a box or anything else that I know CAN be recycled into our regular trash bin. My recycling efforts are somewhat sporadic-- dependant mainly on how high the recycling bin is already filled and how long I can postpone taking it out to the big recycling dumpster outside.

I need to develop a taste in music. This is what I told Richard today as he left for work: "Today, I am going to develop my taste in music!" which promptly led to a joke about not eating too much of it.
Growing up I just listened to the music wafting out of my brother's bedrooms from down the hall. I think I have bought two cds in my life-- a Simon and Garfunkle cd and a Nickel Creek cd, and actually, that might be it. I know I like some jazz, but not all of it, some pop, but only certain artists. I know I don't like rap, but sometimes they mix really cool chorus' in there with the rap which makes me want to listen to it. And now I listen to Raffi cds in the car. "They are for Anna" I say, but it is me who is singing along!
When someone asks me what kind of music I like, I want to be able to have a definitive answer, and right now, I don't. It might be my new project. To open up Pandora, and start recording what songs I like, along with the artist. Kind of like a research study.

I just read a book entitled "The particular sadness of Lemon cake." It is about a girl who can taste people feelings and emotions in the food that they make. So she can tell when her mom is sad or depressed, or when a lunch lady is having a bad day, or when a baker is angry or rushed. Not the usual super power to have. It made me think about what someone might taste in the food I make. Would they taste contentment or boredom, happiness or anxiety, fulfillment or wanting. I think that for the most part, they would taste that I am happy with my life, even if I do feel occasionally lost sometimes.

My mental health day with Anna

Do you ever have one of those days when you just want to get away, disappear, and get lost in something bigger than you? Well, I had one of those days when I needed reminding that there is something bigger and grander than poopy diapers, menu plans, and never ending clean-ups. Sometimes I just don't feel that important, and when I feel like that, it is best to go somewhere where I can get some perspective. I decided on Discovery Park, on the Puget Sound. It wasn't quite the zen experience I wanted because I was hauling a child, a diaper bag, and a sack lunch. And once I got there, I promptly got lost, and it took me almost two miles of hiking before I got to my destination. And you know what helped me? It wasn't the Sound, it wasn't the lighthouse...it was watching Anna discover the ocean!

sometimes she crawled toward the ocean....

and sometimes the ocean crawled back and chased her.
i think maybe Anna needed a mental health day too! She looks like all the cares in her baby world were just lifted.
she proved that you can touch, taste, and smell a Sound-- especially the taste part.
no wonder she makes me smile!
hi mom! I promise this is mud and not poo on my hand...Baby's honor!
After enjoying the coast, I stopped and got a milkshake on the way home. Because sometimes moms need to get refueled too!

Our little one turned a little 1!

"I'm one, I'm one, I'm one, I'm one, I'm one!!!!!!"
yelled Anna with the fierceness of a Norwegian viking.
Anna's birthday was all about Anna's favorite things-- like family photos. Anna just loves being made to hold still. I am in the invisible one standing behind Richard. His sister Christy is next to him, and their mom is on the far right.

Anna loves playing on the playground and being hunted by the dangerous species Rosamongus.
Ahh, the Rosamungus has caught her in his mesmerizing gaze. She has no choice but to do his bidding and stay locked in her play castle forever....
but Anna was clever, and cleverly duped the body guard by beating her in a staring contest through the bars of her cell and winning her freedom.
having conquered her enemy, and making him her slave, her first order of business was to ride throughout her kingdom, proclaiming that all should have cake on her birthday (and we did)
...but first was the ceremonial "first dinner" which involved all of Anna's favorite foods-- bananas, graham crackers, blueberries, kiwis, mango, watermelon, cheese, and avocado.
huh, you think you're so tough! I eat avocados like you for breakfast!
Anna wanted to go swimming so she took a little time out to help her meal digest a little.
And then a little sand digging, some beach time, a little water....builds up the appetite for a little birthday cake.

mmmmm.
we warmed Anna up the day before with a little cupcake practice.
she did really great. Richard was a veteran of many birthday cakes, so he proclaimed himself her coach. Good job Anna!

Aaah, but the real test of strength came when she was faced with double chocolate fudge birthday cake. She handled it like a champ....

...until she stuck a whole scoop of ice cream in her mouth and got brain freeze
so we thought she deserved to open presents in her diaper. A fitting way to end her birthday!