Eli will be a busy guy this month. He is spending 9 days in northern California visiting his maternal grandparents, Jerry and Rikki, while his dad was in Japan earlier this month. He will be bringing both of his parents to Colorado next week for 10 days so his dad can go fly-fishing with grandpa Jay. So part one will be pictures from California and part two will be pictures from Colorado… duh!

He went to San Francisco one morning to see his granddad’s office and have lunch in the city.  I am sure he was the big hit of the day and the center of attention. Another morning they went to a toy/teacher’s supply store and the toys selection is similar to Terra Toys in Austin. They were there a lot longer than expected because it was like Disneyland to him. They had a train table set up at his height. He made car, train, and airplane noises and lots of OOOOOOH’s. Of course, there’s a whole store full of cool toys and he LOVED the shopping cart and push broom his size. Just like Terra Toys the toys are good quality, but big $$$ too. Best part of the week was that Eli gave his grandma Rikki a hug at the toy store and again after he got up from his nap. These were hugs that he initiated. I know it made her feel SO good.

Wallace reports that he knows all of his body parts and can make all kind of animal noises (Eli, not Wallace). Julia reports that Eli now has the skill to string more than one “sign” together and is making baby sign language sentences.

Jay and I are really looking forward to having the kids here with Eli. I have collected the child gates from the storage unit, hopefully they will work and keep him from tumbling down our wood stairs. We are anxious to see how he gets along with Amber and Lacey. Jay has several fishing trips planned for Wallace and some hiking and or float trips with Jen later in the week, after Eli gets comfortable being leflt home with Grandma. Part 2 will come later in the month, yeah!

This was the third wedding of a nephew in August for the Kenningtons.  There was a Kennington nephew wedding the first weekend of August, a Printz wedding the second weekend of August and our Kennington cousin’s wedding this weekend. My sister, Mary Beth is related to all of the weddings, mother of the groom for this weekend, aunt for the first and second. This was a wonderful weekend, so relaxing since I had no responsibilities except to be of service, and it felt like I was truly on vacation.

I was able to fly into Dulles airport and get picked up by Mary Beth. We spent the night at their house in Va and helped her husband, Richard, and son, Dave, pack up the car with all of the goodies for the drive to Virginia Beach the next day. On our drive down to the beach, we accidentally met up with our brother, Joe, his wife, Jane, and their family at a  Chick filet restaurant for a quick lunch. We stopped by the venue for the rehearsal dinner on our way to the Marriott hotel. Most of us had never been to Virginia Beach and really enjoyed seeing the ocean and the beach. Our brother Paul, his wife, Maggie, and daughter, Meredith, were already in Va Beach, staying with friends. We met for dinner at a very nice, casual seafood restaurant. It was quite festive and yummy. We returned to the hotel in a heavy rain, and had a 25th birthday cake for our niece, Jessie. Hurricane Dan was on his way and no one was sure how it would affect the wedding plans at this point, but plans for setting up the rehearsal dinner and picking up incoming guests continued. Several of us went up to Beth’s room to prepare the wedding guest welcome bags after a long day. We all slept well that night!

Friday, many of the family enjoyed the beach and or pool, walked down the boardwalk, etc. I went with Mary Beth, Richard and John, the groom, to pick up alcohol at Sam’s and to set up for the rehearsal dinner. When we got to the party venue, we set up tables, ironed tablecloths, decorated the tables with sand, shells, candles, etc, and set up the photo montage which was to play that night.

After getting back to the hotel, there wasn’t so much to do but relax and get ready for the rehearsal/party. Our sister, Mary Kay, my roommate, arrived on Friday afternoon, picked up at the airport by Joe and Jane, and our family contingent was complete. I got dropped off at the dinner venue to be there while the caterers set up, to meet the security guard, and greet early guests, while the Kennington family attended the rehearsal. One of the groomsman’s car got hit in the rear while waiting to turn into the church for the rehearsal. Fortunately, no one was hurt, although the car was totaled. That was a little excitement for the evening. But the rehearsal dinner was fabulous, the barbque was great, the photo montage was excellently prepared by the groom’s brother, Dave, and much enjoyed by everyone. A totally successful evening.

Saturday morning held a golf game for the guys. The hurricane stayed out to sea and didn’t threaten the wedding, besides some slight bands of rain, which did not fall on the golfers. The rest of the family enjoyed walks on the boardwalk, sitting out on the beach, and relaxing. Mary Beth and I rented beach chairs and an umbrella and sat in the shade and read until time to get ready for the wedding. See photo to prove I was outside on the beach! We then passed the beach chairs on to other family members who did not need as much prep time and didn’t need to get to the wedding early.

The wedding was wonderful, everyone looked beautiful, especially the family members. I loved Mary Beth’s dress, it was so beautiful and she just glowed. Everyone was so photogenic. This is the video montage of the wedding from Knox Studios by Laura’s dad.

The after wedding socialization took place in the lobby of the hotel. At sometime during the later evening, John’s cousins went out onto the beach and stamped a design in the sand in the dark. It could not be seen from our rooms which faced the Atlantic and the beach at night. But I got up early on Sunday, sat out on the patio of our room, read my book while I waited for the sun to rise. I took a series of photos, which included the beach zamboni grooming the sand and eventually obliterating the design. Anyone who was not an early riser would have missed the beautiful message of love from John’s talented cousins (Meredith, Jessie, Jenny, John D, Victoria. and brother Dave). I am pleased to post the photos here for the first time for everyone to enjoy.

We had an uneventful drive back to Fairfax after loading up Richard’s and John’s cars with gifts, clothes, and leftover wedding miscellaneous and hugging family members good-bye. After a relaxing evening remembering the lovely weekend, Mary Beth took me back to the airport for my flights home on Monday morning. It was a wonderful weekend, enjoying my family, being of service, yet with no responsibility. I thank Mary Beth and Richard for being wonderful hosts, Mary Kay for being a great roommate, and Jay for giving me the time to spend with my family guilt free.

I received a lovely email from my sister-in-law, Maggie, about her family’s Memorial Day traditions and stories of her family’s military service. I learned so much and I felt it was worth publishing here. After all, Maggie’s family is our family too, in a related sort of way. Maggie agreed to let me share her story. Thank you, Maggie. Enjoy!

Dear Barb,

So glad you enjoyed the day. Memorial Day was always a big deal in my house growing up. Both my parents had served in WWII.

My dad was active duty prior to the war and was, in fact, stationed in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. He was getting ready to be discharged; his enlistment was up but instead spent the next 4 years fighting battles in the South Pacific. He had three ships sunk while he was serving, one of which when he was the commander. He received the Bronze Star as a result of his actions that day. His first Commanding Officer after Pearl had been stationed in the Phillipines.  The CO’s wife remained there and was eventually taken prisoner of war for the duration of the war. The war profoundly affected my dad.

Every year he took us to the Memorial Day program where he was always asked to sing the opening Star Spangled Banner. Then we would march in the parade carrying flowers mom had cut from our garden. (usually purple irises). Dad would meet us at the cemetery and show me the graves of his friends where we would put the flowers. It was always very emotional. After he died I was always a little sad on that day hoping some little girl was putting flowers on his grave.

Mom joined the WAC after Pearl Harbor and was in the first group of women in the country to become officers in the WAC. Her stories were much different but she reached the rank of Major and by the end of the war was serving at the Pentagon. Later after my brother, Bill, was born, she was selected by the Governor of the State of Connecticut to serve, as the first woman in the state on the Governor’s Board and as part of his Honor Guard. At the parade on Memorial Day the American Legion Auxiliary always marched. As a little girl I asked my mom why she did not join. She just smiled and told me she did not qualify. When she died she was honored by the Orange, CT  American Legion Post as a member of the American Legion. Bill told me that was why she did not “qualify” for the Legion Auxiliary. She couldn’t march with my dad as part of the Legion because in the 50’s, the women were not invited to march with the men. I think not marching with the Auxiliary was her own quiet protest.

Then Bill joined the Marines during Viet Nam. He served as a Marine Recon officer. They were the guys they dropped out of a helicopter in the jungle and came back 3 weeks later to pick up whoever was left. He experienced a lot of pretty awful things. His life was also profoundly impacted by his experiences. Every year he takes his family to the Veteran’s Day Parade and the Memorial Day Celebrations in Denver. He attends annual reunions with his unit and has made a video of his photographs to the music of the 1960s. Someday if you visit I will show it to you. Watching it is an experience. The guys in the pictures look sooo young.

So, I guess you see why it was so important to Becky to be able serve. When my mom lived with us, Becky would sit and listen to her stories.

At one point during WWII, my grandparents were told my father’s ship had sunk and he had died. They had a Gold Star in their window. A few weeks went by and the dust settled. As soon as my father had the chance, he called them and told them a handful of men had survived and had been rescued. My grandparents changed the colored star in their window back to blue. They said it was the happiest day of their lives.

Enough rambling, glad you enjoyed the day. It means a lot.

Maggie

Any wonder that Maggie married a Navy officer, my brother, Paul?

Note to Matt: I just started reading Cryptonomicon after many years of encouragement from you. Interesting that it is partly set in WWII in the Pacific Ocean theater. Coincidence…. ? there is no such things as coincidence.

There were a lot of us around the breakfast, lunch or dinner table when I was growing up. I have 8 siblings. Oatmeal was not always a favored breakfast food, I remember one time when the leftover oatmeal we wouldn’t finish, ended up in a cake. But one hot breakfast cereal that I remember liking a lot, can’t speak for the others, was what my mom called Powerhouse Pudding (PHP). Basically, it was cream of wheat with added eggs, vanilla, and sugar. I don’t remember if it was made with milk or water. But it was a favorite of mine, and I made it for my kids when they were growing up.

Then allergies became an issue with our expanding family. First milk products, so the PHP was made with water, not milk. Then eggs, so the eggs dropped out of the recipe, but the vanilla and sugar still made it tasty. But as I sent the kids off to school with stripped down PHP, I sometimes felt bad for their teachers, all those carbs and no protein.

When Molly introduced me to delicious vegan Fronch toast, which was hard to tell from the usual, I started thinking about what else I could use the chickpea flour for. Sunday morning, I woke up with a yen for PHP. And just the Friday before, I had purchased Hempnut Milk at Whole Foods. I usually use Rice Dream as a milk substitute, but was intrigued because the hemp milk was higher in essential fatty acids and other nutrients. So, I modified my old  PHP recipe to see if I could approximate the breakfast from my youth.

I used 2.5 cups of hemp milk, added 1/2 cup of water  (for the altitude), 1/3 cup of cream of wheat, 2 tablespoons of chickpea flour (mixed together smoothly.) Added the cereal mix to the hot milk, stirred continuously over medium heat, added vanilla when it thickened. After I felt it was cooked adequately, I added sugar. I didn’t take a picture of the PHP in the bowl, with a banana cut up on top, like the food blogs, but I did enjoy it. The chickpea flour gave a creamy yellowish color to the cereal and extra protein, the hemp milk gave the cooked cereal a creamy texture, and the vanilla was just plain yummy. I probably negated positive healthful aspects of the cereal by adding sugar, but that’s the way I eat it. Overall, I found it to be a positive experiment. Maybe next time I’ll try it with just water, rather than hemp milk or rice dream and see if the texture is different.

Molly’s experience with vegan recipes has enriched my life. French toast and power house pudding, oh my…what next? maybe tapioca pudding.

On Sunday, February 1st, I looked out my atrium window and saw a buck nibbling the grass. Not unusual around here. I caught a movement and saw two other bucks to the right of the atrium and then a fourth one came ambling up from the left side of yard. They noticed me taking pictures and started walking down the hill in a line. I tried to get a picture of them “on the move”, but there were no good angles and they’d gotten too far away for my little camera. We usually see families traveling across the property and road, mom, dad, and at least 2 youngsters, and frequently there are two or more families in a group. Is that a herd? But it is unusual to see so many bucks obviously traveling together without the rest of the family.

PS We don’t allow hunting on our property, sorry guys!

As many of you know, I was gone for almost two week on my recent vacation and found a wonderful home for Amber and Lacey while I was gone. My friend, Sue, and her husband, Jerry, offered to keep the dogs at their house for the duration. Sue is my friend on several levels, she is a bowler on my Monday league, she is a quilter and member of our contemporary quilt group, she helped Jay get the job at Wells Fargo and was his co-worker, loves animals and she is Jewish. This past Sunday afternoon, her husband, Jerry, was thrown from their mule and died almost instantly. Sue was riding their horse and was with him not far from their home at the time. The mule took off running, stopped suddenly and Jerry was thrown over the mule’s head and landed on his neck. He was wearing a helmet, which was not adequate protection for the way he was thrown and landed. All of the appropriate measures were taken, CPR was done, EMTs and Life flight arrived, but to no avail.

The community which surrounds Sue and Jerry (family, neighbors, quilters, bowlers, & hunters) are lessened by Jerry’s passing. Jerry had a terrific smile and a warm personality and gave great hugs. He loved the outdoors, hunting and camping. They bought the mule and horse in order to “pack” up into mountains, taking trails to follow deer and elk and to enjoy the mountains in a way not accessible to those traveling by car or atv. Sue said Jerry enjoyed playing ball with Amber and Lacey and enjoyed having the labs with them while I was gone. I am pleased to think that they gave him an opportunity to play in a different way than his usual routine and brought him some joy.

This accident is just one more reminder that none of us knows what our future holds and to treasure each day with our loved ones. But as Sue has said, “Jerry was doing what he loved when he died” and isn’t that what we would all wish for ourselves? There will be a celebration of Jerry’s life in the near future, no funeral or sadness was his wish, and we will all be there remembering our friend, Jerry. May his memory be a blessing for future generations. L’dor v’dor.

Jen Here! We have some news we want to share with everyone. Wallace and I are moving from cloudy Portland to sunny Austin in June! We’ve hoped to move to Austin for quite some time and our dreams are now coming true. It’s not just the sun and BBQ we’re looking forward to, we’re really excited to be near family again.

The reason we’re moving is because Wallace got a promotion in February and is now part of a new group, styled after a graduate program laboratory, that does advanced simulations and programming on future tool designs for the Japanese factory. Since the other handful of people in his group are all in Austin, it doesn’t make sense for us to be sitting in the rain by ourselves. I will be leaving Columbia Sportswear and will be taking some time to figure out my next move. We don’t have an official move date yet, but it will likely be toward the end of June. The move should be pretty smooth because we didn’t buy a house here in Portland and our rental lease ends June 30th.

Wallace’s best friend Josh is a real estate agent in Austin and will be helping us with our search. Tokyo Electron will fly us to Austin in May to do some house hunting. The relocation package also includes a month’s stay in corporate housing, but after the last decade or so in apartments, hotel rooms, college apartments, and dorms, we are hoping to get into a house right away. Of course, after years of watching home improvement shows I can’t wait to paint walls (no more white walls!).

I’ll update when we have more details, but we hope y’all come visit us in Austin!

P.S. If you need to order any Columbia gear, get your orders/requests in early so I can get them filled by June.

I stand corrected. Julia and Amanda are guarding the gate at Lake Whitney Motocross Park. This is motorcycle racing, not bicycle and it is a national race, the AMA Parts Unlimited Spring Classic. I have attached the link to their webpage above, in case you are interested. Amanda has been working this event for several years and this is Julia’s first time. This weekend was the time for the vendors and workers to arrive, and the racers and all of their RVs are coming in now. Amanda said they were expecting over a thousand racers. It was well over that number, but I don’t remember the exact figure. Jewls will not be there for the whole week, since she has class and it isn’t spring break at UNT yet, but Amanda is there for the duration. If I get any cool stories or pictures to report, you can rest assured that I will.

We had snow last night. A big storm was projected, but we only got about 3 inches. But it was enough to cover all of the dog tracks from playing in the back yard and leave a smooth unbroken surface. We saw some animal tracks on the deck and the snow in the yard and being city kids, we don’t know what they are. I’m posing the question to you, my loyal friends, outdoor persons and hunters (at least some of you.) Do you know what animal made these tracks? The first person to correctly identify the tracks, (corroborated by someone else… either from other responses to the question or a local wildlife expert, will get a prize. It will be something from our local community. And if you want a full size copy of the pictures, just let me know and I’ll be glad to email them to you. Thank you for helping inquiring minds who want to know.

On our way up our driveway a few weeks ago, we met some local wildlife at play. They were locking horns and wrestling with each other. When we stopped to admire their skill, they looked up at us for a few moments, then went back to play. I was at an awkward angle, but was able to get some shots. We left them to their play and went on up to the house. Note the snow on the ground, this was left from the October 21st snowfall. We feel privileged to be able to come across such beauty in nature on our own driveway.