December News!

While you're at it, get Leah's December News too!

November News!

It's here! Click to read the November News!

Mercer Mess

Mercer Island has been without power since a Thursday night storm left us with downed trees and powerlines.

This collection of trees fell like dominos, landing just inches from a neighbor's front window.

Our own backyard was not spared. A tree crashed through our fence in the middle of the night, leaving a mess but fortunately no damage to our house.

You're probably wondering: "where's the video?" Please be patient. Our DSL works, but only on a backup battery supply that we're trying hard to conserve. Hopefully the electricity will be back by early in the week and we can have a normal Christmas. Until then it's heavy sweaters, hats, and mittens -- and early bedtimes (daylight is from 8am to 4pm this time of year).
 

Storm damage

A tree fell in our backyard. No power today.

Nathan won round 2

At an all-day chess tournament.

Belt test

Snow Day for Mercer Island

Icy roads, snow, and brrrrr cold are good reasons to cancel school, but doesn't stop the kids from playing outside.

Watch the 1-min video here:

Mercer Island Snow Day 

Thanksgiving in Portland

If you want to know what we did this weekend in Portland, watch the 9-min video:

First we ate our Thanksgiving meal at Jake's, a famous restaurant here.  The kids ate turkey, we ate fish.  We watched the Portland Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in the rain, though a nearby hotel was kind enough to offer us front-row seats. Then we did Christmas shopping, followed by an amphibious tour of the city on the disappointing Portland Duck.  We also enjoyed daily dips in our hotel pool: watch how Martha is now close to swimming without her floatation jacket!

Conclusion: we love Portland, but wish it would stop raining.

 

 

Our visit with Tony

We had dinner at a nice Lebanese restaurant with my cousin and his girlfriend. 

Chinese Garden in Portland

It's our first day in Portland, a rainy, rainy day, but the Chinese Garden is only a few blocks from our hotel so we braved the weather to see a beautiful place in the middle of the city. Click here for a short video:

Chinese Garden  

Passport application

We applied for passports for the kids.

Hail!

Hot Air Ballooning

 Here's a 7-minute video clip of the highlights of our ride in a hot air balloon over Albuquerque, New Mexico in October 2006.

 

Video: Hot Air Over New Mexico

New mexico

We're in a hot air balloon !

October News

Leah's latest newspaper, "October News" is now available.

Highlights:

• A Special Person's Birthday
• Family Meeting News
• Mrs. Stipes' Report: Leah's teacher
• Mr. McGowan's Report: Nathan's teacher
• Future Becomes Present: Leah's new book project
• What People Think: short interviews with normal people.

psst: please don't read until October 14th.

Nathan in Jail

Nathan and his friends visited the Mercer Island jail today, where Officer Bob explained what it's like to be a policeman, and what happens when they put you overnight in the Big House.


Is this all?

Where's the TV? 

Date smoothie

Brother and sister together with daddy.

Nathan's new yellow belt stripe

Nathan proudly shows off his new yellow belt stripe. Part of the belt test included this question:

What is the meaning of your yellow belt?

My yellow belt represents growth and explor-nation, gaining more knowledge and learning dynamic techniques, Ma'am!

 

Charlie Brown

While cleaning out the garage today, I found some old negatives from the 1970s. Here's what they look like after some scanning and touch-up.
It's Charlie Brown! Our faithful dog from childhood. 

Portrait by an artist as a young boy

Nathan loves his weekly
extracurricular art class and we are continually amazed at the things they make him do.

This is his first oil painting. Though normally he's not particularly articulate, he can describe in detail the process for how he created it. Start with the big things, then the small things. Shadows. Perspective. Clean your brush afterwards. 

Butterfly Escape

The caterpiller we found in New Hampshire turned into a cocoon in Maine, and within a week after returning home to Mercer Island it hatched into a new monarch butterfly.

 

If you have a faster Windows computer with high bandwidth, you can also watch the hi-res version here.

circus

Here we are at the Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth.

Ellensburg Rodeo: Nathan Rides the Mechanical Bull

 Click here for a video of our experiences at the rodeo.

Ellensburg Rodeo

Maine visit (sneak preview)

Here's a sneak video of our trip to Maine:



[this is the one automatically generated by my video editing software, so it's a bit eclectic]

restaurant

On the beach

With Stowe in Stowe

The grandparents gave us the night off, so it's just the two of us. We went to her namesake city, the village of Stowe, Vermont. This is the town (pop. 4300) where she spent nearly every weekend of her childhood.

After lunch at the Austrian Tea Room of the Trapp Family Lodge (remember Sound of Music?) we rented bikes for a 5-mile ride down the Recreation Path. After checking into the Green Mountain Inn, we had dinner at the Blue Moon Cafe. She had the lamb (a little dry) and I had the ribeye with mashed beets (excellent). The cabot butter was incredible.

It's a little weird being in a place where everything is named Stowe. Stowe Jewelry, Stowe Kitchen, Stowe Chiropractic, Stowe Auto. All we need is a Stowe and Richard Hotel and we'd feel completely at home. 

Flight to Boston

What a treat! The whole family was upgraded to First Class for our long flight from Seattle.
Leah's first question: How come the seats aren't leather?
We were able to see Grandma briefly just outside the security area at the Detroit airport. 

Moonlight cruise in seattle

Watching the Blue Angels

Seafair is a Mercer Island tradition held over Lake Washington each summer. This year we were treated to view it at a friend's house directly overlooking the water.

 

Walking on stilts

Well, not really stilts; more like cups. But whatever you call them, it's been great fun for the kids.

Click on the photo, or here for the 1-min video. 

Read all about it

Leah's August News is here. Can you believe she's going to be nine on Tuesday?

Summer Concert in the Park

Mercer Island sponsors public concerts each Thursday and Sunday evening at the Mercerdale park downtown, so we went there last night to watch.

Leah hung out with her friends, Nathan ran with his, while Martha just ran around near the stage.

Boating on Lake Washington

Our friends Mark and Elaine own a 9-person speed boat. They took us for a spin last night on Lake Washington, leaving from the south end of the island. We had dinner in Kirland, on the other side of the lake, and then came back again at sunset.