Christmas Day 2006 (Zetterstrom)

Our final Christmas celebration was at my Uncle Scott's house. He and Linda serve a traditional Thanksgiving meal (turkey and fixings). As Rachel Ray would say, "yum-o". My folks, Grandee and Uncle Mark, his daughters Sierra and Stephanie, Lisa and her kids, and Seth and Rob are all there to make merry. It made for quite a crowded house.

Christmas Day 2006 (Burkes)

Christmas started bright and early when the boys woke up at dawn, no ill affects apparent from their late evening. The gift opening extravaganza continued; this is our fourth of the season. Eli says that he enjoys having it spread out over several days.

Once Ashley and I woke up we all gathered around to open presents. It was followed by a delicious (and by now, traditional) breakfast of french toast and peeled citrus fruits. Then we were off to Virginia to meet up with the Zetterstrom crowd.

Christmas Eve 2006

We spent Christmas Eve in West Virginia with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids got to open a couple of gifts; just enough to keep them occupied before dinner.



Afterwards we went to Barbara's brother's house in Hagerstown Maryland for the annual Spicher Christmas Eve party. It doesn't start until early evening, which makes things interesting for children who normally go to bed at 8pm. But the kids got all juiced and candied up and kept it going until after 11 pm, and then zonked out as soon as we got in the car.

This year we had a new treat: pickled watermelon rind, wrapped in bacon, and baked. It sounds strange, but is really really good. The rind is translucent and almost flavorless, and keeps the bacon moist. It just about melts in your mouth with bacony goodness.

Craft Room Finished

Avery and Zach's new room above the garage is finally done after two months of construction. The boys love all the new nooks and crannies the space provides. They use one of the storage areas as a secret room and have moved a bunch of toys into it. I am using the space for their art projects (drawing, coloring, cutting, gluing, etc) and I was able to move all the crafts out of the butler's pantry. Not only do we have more space for kitchen stuff; we have also put a serious dent in the downstairs clutter.

Christmas Holidays 2006

With an interesting blend of Christian and Jewish traditions, and an extended family spread out around the country, December is full of presents and parties. We kicked off the season today on the Burke side, with Martin, Barbara, and Caitlin and Nora visiting from out of town. After gifts and a meal, we drove up to Ellicott City to celebrate Hanukkah at the Schobels (aka: more gifts and another meal!).

Holiday Card Photos

On Sunday we went to our community holiday party at the Ahrens Institute, about a mile up the road from our house. We took the bus there and while we waited Avery and Zachary posed in front of the Visitor's Center fountain. Eli is still getting used to the new camera, but his snapshots turned out well.



At the party they had a large HO scale train set on display, a ride-on train that went on a path around the grounds, and plenty of food to snack on while the kids sat for story time. Avery did very well, so I may try taking them to story time at the library again soon.

Row Row Row... What?

Zachary made up a new song today. Ok, well, "made up" is a bit of a stretch. He has adapted the words to suit his ... tastes. It is hilarious to listen to, and I can't bring myself to try and correct him.

Row row row your boat Happy Halloween
Merrily merrily merrily merrily Happy Halloween

Early Mornings With the Kids

We've been having early wake ups for a couple of weeks now. Usually it is Zachary getting up around 5:30am. He comes into our bedroom, makes me lift him into bed, and sometimes falls back to sleep with us while pulling my hair. And sometimes it is Avery who wakes up at 5:30 and then he just wants to play. When that happens I have to immediately get up when he wakes up, which stinks.

Zachary has two canines coming in and that is probably contributing to his early mornings. Avery has bad dreams on occasion, he blames the dreams for waking him up early. At least they take naps at the same time during the day, so if I don't get enough sleep I can grab a short snooze.

Visiting Nani and Nene

With a long weekend comes a lot of traveling. Today we visited Nani and Nene and once again all the cousins were there. As the kids get older, less is broken, but more messes are made with toys, blankets, beds, etc and in more rooms.

Picture time for the cousins is always interesting. Zachary is the youngest, so he is frequently the hardest to control for a group photo. Sometimes having an adult sit with the kids helps keep them all on the couch. And sometimes it just turns into a scene from Wild Kingdom.

Like Feeding Candy to Horses

While we were at the Spicher's house for candy making I took the kids outside to see the horses. Barbara's niece Carrie gave the kids peppermints to feed to the horses... yes, peppermints! One of the horses was really slobbery too, but we made sure we washed our hands afterward. ;)

Making Hard Candy

The day after Thanksgiving we went to Hagerstown to make candy with the Spichers. Barbara's family makes hard candy every year and this year we were invited help out. It is an tricky process, and for them, serious business, but with a lot of people helping it goes quickly and can be loads of fun.

While the candy is cooking, large granite slabs are cooled outside on the porch (if the weather does not cooperate, ice is used). Next, the slabs are covered in shortening to help keep the candy from sticking and to make it easier to fold in flavoring and food coloring. Finally the candy is poured out.

After a few minutes the candy is almost cool enough to handle without being burned. It gets chopped into large chunks and tossed into piles of powdered sugar. As it cools, helpers are treated to scorched fingers as they cut it into bite-sized pieces with kitchen scissors. The powdered sugar helps keep it from sticking to the counters, or to other pieces, as it cools down to room temperature.

All told we made 14 good batches and 4 bad batches. It turned out that one of the thermometers was off by 60 degrees and the sugar syrup never hit "cracking" temperature (310). The bad batches stayed too sticky and could almost pull filings out if you tried to eat them.

Thanksgiving 2006

Thanksgiving this year was in West Virginia. We celebrated with Martin, Barbara, and Ashley. Along with the traditional turkey-day fare we had sauerkraut with meat; a tasty addition to the meal.

The day began early and dinner was at 1pm. Afterwards we all went for leisurely walk and then I got a little catnap. At 6pm we had pie... (and more turkey at 10pm) and we finished the evening with Thursday night TV.

To cap off a very pleasant day, Eli and I slept in the guest house while Avery and Zachary slept in the main house. We didn't know until the next morning that they were up a couple of times in the night for various reasons. But I think Martin and Barbara were prepared for it; they were giving us a much appreciated break.

Construction of the Craft Room

As built, our house had a large empty space above the garage. The builder used engineered trusses to hold up the roof. They are inexpensive and strong, but come at a cost: space.

One of our neighbors had the brilliant idea that the engineered trusses could be replaced with conventional roof framing, freeing up the space for a walk-in closet or bonus room connected to one of the upstairs bedrooms. It sounded like such a great idea that several of us decided to have the same modifications done, sharing the cost of revised architectural drawings and building permits.

A couple of days ago our contractor Billy started the demolition process. He removed the ceiling in the garage, built new roof framing, cut out the engineered trusses, and finished by constructing a 2nd story floor.



This morning Billy broke through the wall between the bedroom and the future "craft room"; there is now a six foot hole in the wall. To expand the usable bedroom space he also tore down the two original closets that bracketed the room's window. The space already looks and feels so much bigger.



The footprint of the craft room is also large, but because of the roof line we'll only get to use eight or ten feet in the center of the room. The lowest part of the room will be closed off to make storage spaces, and in front of those will be built-in shelves and drawers for storage. At the front end of the room, opposite the door, is a large circular window that was decorative but will now provide a nice bit of light during the day.

Childhood Milestones

Zachary (21 months) has started to talk back to his brother. When putting them to bed a couple of nights ago, Avery was taking something from Zachary and he says "Avery, be nice." Then, yesterday Avery was singing and Zachary says "Be quiet, Avery." It is hard not to laugh when you hear a baby say that and his face is so serious.

Avery, finally, after several long months of potty training, pooped on the potty. It wasn't his first time, but I'm hoping this will be a big breakthrough for him. I can officially say that potty training is difficult. As we are potty training Avery, Zach likes going on the potty too. The only problem with him is he pees every 30 minutes, so he just asks to go after he has a soiled diaper change.

For those of you who are potty training, or will soon, you may find that you need to offer incentives. For Avery the only thing that worked well was taking away TV and then giving him 15 minutes for every pee and 30 minutes for every poop. He gets an M&M treat too and extra if he tells me he has to go and doesn't make a mess in his pull up all day long. It's a complicated system, but we manage. Also, being naked all day long seems to help too. Good luck fellow potty trainers!

Balloons

Harris Teeter is the best grocery store. Not because of its prices or produce, but because they give the kids helium balloons after the shopping is done (bonus, if you are encumbered with children, they offer to take your groceries out to your car).

Anyhow, when the balloons have just a little life in them, when they just barely hover over the floor, I cut the strings off. The kids love playing with them in this state. They just spent 20 minutes throwing them up, letting them drift slowly back to their hands, and hitting them back up in the air. There was a minor fight over whose color belonged to whom, but other than that it was great entertainment.

Halloween

On Halloween our neighborhood had its second annual Shooterween. Eli handed out Mudslides and beer to hard working parents. We had one couple stop back for a second visit because they enjoyed the Mudslides so much.

Eli played handsome Doctor Burke, assisted by Sara's Spongebath Betty. Avery dressed as a frog and Zach wore Avery's purple dragon costume from last year.

Tom and Zahra's Wedding

At the end of October we had ANOTHER wedding. This time it was Eli's cousin Tom getting married in Raleigh, North Carolina. We left early Friday morning and stopped in Dumfries to pick up another of Eli's cousins, Joe. It was nice to have someone besides me to help Eli with the driving!

Arriving NC, we stopped by Caitlin and Cullen's house in Cary. Caitlin fed us a tasty and healthy lunch, and then we hung out and played with the kids for the rest of the afternoon.

That evening we went to the rehearsal dinner. Mid-way through the meal we heard that Martin and Barbara's flight had been canceled. Since our house is near the airport Eli called and suggested they spend the night at our place. Unfortunately, they could not get in because Sara's parents locked the inside garage door (silver lining: we would have been locked out as well, but were able to make other arrangements).
(NOTE-- because her parents had babysat on Thu night and stayed after we left on Friday)

Overall the weekend went very smoothly. The kids slept well and even slept in through daylight savings. The wedding was beautiful and finished off the weekend with a huge family brunch at Aunt Alison's on Sunday morning.

The Science and Life Museum

On Saturday we had a lovely tour of the Science and Life museum with Aunt Cait. The boys enjoyed the museum, and liked the outdoor park and wildlife exhibits even more.


Avery and Zachary by the bears' habitat at the Science and Life museum in Durham, North Carolina on Oct. 28.


Aunt Caitlin with Avery witnessing the creation of tornadoes.


Zachary and Sara looking through the space capsule at the museum.

Avery's 3rd Birthday party #2

This is Avery's second 3rd birthday party. We had a ton of friends over. This time we bought Costco pizza and prepared it here. It turned out rather nice and we didn't have to spend a lot of time on food prep or kitchen chores. We had a Halloween theme, which I like and I think I'll get more extravagant over time, buying more Halloween things each year. Instead of a cake we had Halloween cupcakes; fairly easy and inexpensive.

The kids all dressed up, but among the adults only and Eli and I took the plunge. I guess it's a bit much to expect grownups to get enthusiastic when Halloween is still three weeks away.

Avery's 3rd Birthday Party #1

This is Avery's first 3rd birthday celebration. We only invited the family because when all of the kids together it tends to get quite chaotic. For once the group was well behaved... except for when Avery and Madison stripped naked in the playroom, while Zach fell asleep on a cushion in the same room. We have pictures to embarrass them when they are teenagers! ;)



All the cousins from left to right: Zachary, Avery, Madison, Gabrielle, Genevieve, and Samuel. They are all wearing Portofino t-shirts, gifts from Nani and Nene from Italy.

Butterflies at the Museum of Science

Before leaving Boston to come back home we decided to take the kids to the Museum of Science. The kids had fun running around, and playing on some of the interactive exhibits, but the highlight was definitely the Butterfly Garden. There were so many colors, shapes, and sizes. It's too bad they only live for about a week.

Alison and Dave's wedding

Another wedding! We left Virginia early on Friday and arrived in Boston at 3pm. Boston is a crazy city; the traffic patterns and streets were quite difficult to traverse. Thankfully we had the navigation system in the minivan or we would probably still be looking for our hotel! ;-)

Before the rehearsal dinner we had time for a quick visit with our friend Karen from Hiram Blake Camp. She fed us afternoon tea and then we took the kids to a playground and a local ice cream parlor.

Afterward, we picked up Seth and Rob to drive to the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately, Steve and Penny's flight was delayed and they arrived in Boston very late, missing the dinner. They were also supposed to pick up Lisa at the airport in Providence, an hour's drive away. She was unable to get her own rental car and wound up sitting at the airport for hours until Steve could pick her up. Needless to say, none of them got much sleep and they were all very grumpy the next day.

Finding and getting to the wedding ceremony presented another problem. It was held outdoors at the Arboretum, a large nature preserve, and there were multiple entrances from different streets. We made it in time, but Brian and Maggie weren't so lucky and missed the ceremony. But the wedding was beautiful and the kids slept through the ceremony (bonus!).

The reception was at the boat club, which had a beautiful view of the river. We got in trouble later for having the kids by the water on the dock... too much liability, I guess. The food was great, but not enough dancing, which is my favorite part of weddings.

After the reception, Brian, Maggie, Seth and Rob all hung out at our hotel. We went to Legal Seafood for dinner and swam at our hotel pool afterwards (except for me because I forgot my swimsuit :( ).

On Sunday we went to the Science museum, which was awesome. The kids were great and loved touching and playing with everything. They spent 10 minutes at this giant fire fly that lights up, pushing the button. We saw the live butterfly garden, where the butterflies practically land on you, Gabrielle spent an hour in there just watching them! We met up with Seth and Rob and saw the Human Body Worlds II exhibit. Then, drove back home, about an eight hour drive.

Zachary charming a little girl at the reception.

Madison wrestling with Avery at Alison and Dave's wedding in Boston.

Drive to Anchorage

Our last day in Alaska ended with this sunset on our drive north from Seward to Anchorage. The scene is looking through the Turnagain Arm on the coastal highway.

Aliyak Glacier

At this spot we are about 1 mile from the Aliyak glacier. You can't really tell, because there is nothing to provide a sense of scale, but the glacier is about a mile and a half wide and more than 900 feet tall. There was a continuous booming and popping noise that was quite eerie to hear. In the 20 minutes we watched it, three gigantic pieces broke off, a process known as calving. One was so big that the waves rocked the boat from 1/2 a mile away.

Kenai Fjords Tour

Our flight back to the lower 48 was a red-eye leaving at 10pm, but we left Soldotna early in the morning to drive to Seward and take a Kenai Fjords ocean cruise out of Resurrection Bay. The day was absolutely gorgeous; no clouds or wind, perfectly sunny and about 60 degrees. The tour lasted six hours and included a lunch of delicious fried halibut.

As we left Seward harbor for the Aliyak glacier, the first animal we saw was a sea otter dozing in the water. Then we encountered several porpoises and watched them swim through the boat's bow wave. They were very playful and so sleek and graceful. Later we saw sea lions, star fish, jellyfish (oddly enough, called a _smack_ or _senate_ of jellyfish), two bald eagles, lots of puffins, and finally, just as the trip was ending, a couple of killer whales.

Joss and Ed's Wedding

Josselyn and Ed had a beautiful ceremony on the banks of the Kenai river. The electric blue/green water made for a stunning backdrop. About an hour into the reception the skies opened up, rain started to fall, but the party didn't even slow down.

We ate in the rain, danced in the rain, and of course drank in the rain. It was chilly, but booze do warm you up though, oh and so does dancing, oh and the bonfire they had. It was a long fun reception. I think it started around 3 and finally broke up around 10:30 when it became fully dark outside.


These are the people that stayed after the pouring rain. I've never been to a wedding where there wasn't a contingency if it rained.



Eli and Cullen, shopping from the sales rack at REI stores in two different states, ended up with the exact same jacket.

Horse Back Riding

After the exertion of our hike, we decided to take a family tail ride, and had a lovely time riding through Alaska's countryside on horseback. I was a bit nervous as this was only my second time on a horse (and the first time was 12 years earlier).



Over the course of about two hours we rode through a forest, along a grass covered airplane runway, up a steep hillside, and then reversed direction and went back. Right near the end the skies opened up and we rode in the pouring rain. It got slippery and muddy, but the horses didn't care and it was pretty exciting.

Russian River Falls Hiking Trip

Josselyn (the bride) was our guide for this hike along the Russian River. I think she is pointing to the nearest restroom (i.e. behind a tree). :)


These are spawned Red (Sockeye) salmon. You can tell by their deep red bodies and green heads.


Since Avery and Zachary didn't come on the trip we had to take pictures of the token baby on the trip, little Lila. I asked Julie if I could ride on her back too, but no such luck. I had to trek the 4-5 miles on my own two feet.

Fishing on the Kasilof

In the summertime, Ed O'Conner is a fishing guide on the rivers of the Kenai Peninsula. For the wedding, Joss and Ed arranged for a bunch of their friends (also guides) to take wedding guests out salmon fishing. I think somewhere between 30 and 40 people went, in groups of four.

On our boat, Eli had the first catch of the day; a Pink salmon. We were fishing for Silvers (Coho), and the limit was two per person per day. The pinks had a different limit, but according to our guide the meat is very mushy and mostly just suitable for canning, so we let it go. You can tell this is a female because it does not have the silly looking hump just behind the head that gives them the nickname humpies.



The next fish into the boat was this Silver I caught at about 10am. We had been sitting on the river for about three hours in misty rain and 50 degree temps. Everyone as freezing cold and I was thinking of calling it a day when I caught this beauty. My mood soared and I went on to catch several more (sadly, the rest were undesirable pinks, but still fun to pull in).



At the end of the day Eli and I each had one Silver. The other couple in our boat didn't manage to catch any. Some boats caught the limit; one or two didn't catch any Silvers at all. The scenery and experience were both amazing, and taking home and eating a fish I caught was awesome! But the next time I go fishing, I will make sure the weather is warmer! ;-)