Kiss this girl

Here's a short video collection of Martha's summer antics. Don't you just want to kiss this girl?

Christmas presents video

Click here for another family video, this time including scenes of opening presents. Woo-hoo!

Warning: I did my best to make this short (4 minutes) and sweet, but watching somebody else open Christmas presents is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Hey, maybe that'll be the subject of my next movie!

Christmas 2005 Slide Show

Click here for a slide show of our Christmas with family.

(If that doesn't work, try the low-bandwidth version).

Christmas Video

Click here for a short video of the kids playing after Christmas.

Father and Daughter

Here we are in our Christmas clothes. 

Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree this weekend, with the kids happily helping with the decorations. Which of the two ornaments in this photo is prettiest? 

Frozen ducks

Ellis Pond is frozen over, as Nathan and I discovered when we walked there this afternoon. We didn't tempt fate, but I bet the ice is thick enough for Nathan to walk across. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Nathan enjoyed a slice of turkey at the Apple Tree country club we visited in Yakima for Thanksgiving. 

Starbucks family

Sunday was rainy and miserable outside, so what else to do but make a run to Starbucks? 

Autumn Bugs

Nathan was happy to find this creature among the leaves during our hike through Mercer Slough. 

Autumn hike

Nathan wanted to bike, Martha wanted to hike, so we compromised: Daddy carried the bikes while the two kids walked through autumn leaves and pouted about how neither was happy. 

Which witch is which?

Martha tries out her mother's Halloween costume. 

Trick or Treat!

Haunted Hike

Leah, Nathan, and I went to Mercer Slough tonight for a guided tour of the wetlands and forest near Lake Washington. We joined a small group of other 5- to 8-year olds for a hike in the dark. They made us turn off our flashlights, though once our eyes adjusted we could see pretty well. The guides were a fun bunch, who dressed up in various costumes to explain about night-time creatures like bats, coyotes, moths, and spiders. My favorite: owl droppings. Did you know that after an owl swallows a mouse he later spits up the fur? It falls to the ground in a tiny ball that you can find on the forest floor if you look.

We also saw a tadpole man, and we asked him about the fate of our own tadpole at home. We bought two of them earlier this year, one of which dutifully turned into a frog a month or so later. But the other one is still a tadpole ten months later! What gives? The expert naturalists at the center say they’ve never heard of such a thing and can only speculate that our so-called tadpole isn’t.

Campfires

Nathan enjoyed roasting marshmallows bythe campfire. 

Rustic cabins

Nathan slept in the top bunk. Daddy slept in the bottom bunk.

The cabins were spacious, but primitive. There was electricity, but no doorway. You could hear, see, (and feel!) the rain outside.

We shared the cabin with six other fathers and sons. 

Camping Trip

Nathan and his father spent the weekend at Camp Orkila, along with 315 other Mercer Island fathers and sons.

The weather was great, so we were able to do everything you do at a camp: beach combing, hiking, row boating (like this photo), cookouts by the fire.

The highlight for Nathan? The crafts projects: he made a bow and arrow from a stick, and some pottery. Click here for a short video. 

Leah is taking Japanese again this year, with several of her friends. She's one of the "advanced" students because she knows how to say basic phrases like "Arigatou Gozaimasu". I'm not super-happy with the curriculum, which his so basic and slow-going that it's hard to imagine the kids really learning much. Her teacher (Ito-Sensei, in the background) exposes them to more than they'd get at home, I suppose, but I wish she would push harder, especially with serious homework.

Nathan rides the bus to school by himself on Friday. Leah had her Japanese class early, so she didn't go with him. They often take the bus home together, though.

Father and Son Coffee

Nathan and Daddy got up early this morning to visit Espresso Vivace together, and look what we discovered:


Nathan has the Lithuanian finger!

Nathan and Martha play near the fishery in Issaquah during href="http://www.SalmonDays.org">Salmon Days

Richard put out a gasoline fire with a fire extinguisher in a test run sponsored by the Mercer Island Fire Department.

Martha needs a nap every afternoon, whether she admits it or not. Today she fell asleep right on her chair while playing computer games with Nathan.

Back to school

Leah sets up her desk just-so before her third grade class starts in the morning. That's her teacher, Mrs. Vandegrift, in the background. Meanwhile, Nathan is proud of his status as one of the only boys in his kindergarten class who has not yet had a time-out. We hope someday his hair will be as well-behaved as he is.

Martha follows her mommy to school.

Look at these clowns!

Richard's back, so we all went to the Circus on Sunday afternoon.

I visited the Romanian Parliament, the second-largest building in the world (after the Pentagon). The guy on my left is an outspoken member of Parliament, who met with us and showed us around.

Cars share the road with horses, which are clearly still used by many farmers. We also saw cows, chickens, goats and sheep grazing at the side of the road.

This is the Sinaia Monastery, which is still in use by monks from the Romanian Orthodox Church. It was a short walk from our first night's hotel. Romanian is a romance language, descended from Latin, so most of the words are familiar if you know Spanish or French. Hello is "Salud". They also say "Merci" and "Da" (yes) "Nu" (no).

There's my boss, Fil Alleva, standing in front of the Peles Castle. It's an amazing 19th Century palace built for the first King of Romania, who was actually a German appointed to the position when the Romanians decided it would be a nice way to make peace with Bizmark.

My first night in Romania was spent in the resort town of Sinaia. Several people from our local Microsoft subsidiary brought us there to see the Romanian countryside. It's quite pleasant, but reminds me of the rural poverty in other East European countries I've visited like Hungary or Lithuania.