C'mon Kids

Happy Birthday Elsa

2011-03-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe Elsa was born 5 years ago today. Well, she was almost born on the 19th, since she arrived at 12:03 am. It was a partly sunny day today in Seattle. Elsa opened presents this morning and had her favorite for breakfast: buckwheat pancakes and coffee. Actually the coffee was for mom and dad. In the afternoon she had three of her friends over for a tea party complete with cupcakes and Hello Kitty bingo.

Halloween 2010: It Was a Very Good Year

2010-10-31T23:16:00.000-07:00

Once again, dad was left to hollow out the pumpkins. One of these years they will actually put their hands into the orange orb and pull out the gook. This was not the year. Note the artistic bent on the middle large one. Ian wanted a Boo! on his pumpkin and I couldn't let him down. Hope next year he doesn't want real pumpkin art.

Civilian clothes.

Costumes on, Wondertwins powers: activate. Ian was ghost and scared the hell out of one little kid. Elsa was a fairy princess with wings and magic wand. Both of them collected more candy than two kids of their size and weight will ever need.

Candy bliss aftermath.

Back to Ohio

2010-08-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

George and I made a trip up to Cleveland while we were in Cortland. We went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame which (surprisingly) we had never been to. Thought I wouldn't be into all of the costumes but they were kind of the best part. They even had an itty bitty part dedicated to New Order and Joy Division. Nothing about the Fall though.

Me and Bruce.

Back To West Virginia

2010-08-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

We were in West Virginia, Rowlesburg to be precise. It was Georgette's mom's 75th birthday party. We all had a great time. Ian & Elsa had a blast with all of their cousins. Joe & Sam brought some killer IPA that they brewed and the music was provided by Sir Thomas. My only complaint was that the humidity was 105%.

Olivia, Elsa, Kate & Ian

Charlie, Ian & Elsa

Elsa & Olivia

Perry & Ian

Ian & Olivia

A couple marathon Monopoly games took place. Ian is kind of ruthless in this game, winning one them.

Mary Was Here

2010-08-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Mary was here. We didn't kill her with a hike to Lake Serene this year. We took it easy on her, took her out for pizza and went to Snowqualmie Falls.

You will have to ask Mary about the story behind this one.

16 Candles Remake

2010-08-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Ian is trying out for a part in the 16 Candles Remake.

Elsa and Uncle Thomas

2010-08-13T21:47:00.001-07:00

Time for the quarterly update of the Semroc blog. Does anyone read this thing besides me?

The Cake

2010-04-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

Just like the cake says, Ian is 8.

Ian's Birthday Outing

2010-04-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

I took Ian and a couple of his friends to a Mariners game for Ian's birthday. To say they had a good time would be an understatement, especially after inhaling their cotton candy. The M's lost, but we didn't mind too much.

Low Tide At Carkeek Park

2010-04-24T21:51:00.001-07:00

It was low tide at Carkeek last weekend, which gave us a chance to go exploring on the beach. Ian's favorite spot is Whispering Rock where there are lots of sea stars, crabs and other strange creatures lurking.

I Don't know what this is, we didn't touch it.

Ian and Elsa in front of Whispering Rock. The rock is totally covered at high tide.

Toby Is Now an Undisclosed Age

2010-04-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

...and it doesn't end in 7.

Stuff We Did In March and April

2010-04-24T21:34:00.001-07:00

We Took a train down to Portland for a long weekend. The train ride was cool, but the kids were ready for it to be over about 30 minutes into it.

We made a stop at Voodoo Doughnuts, a Portland institution. I even indulged.

We did a hike up to Rattlesnake Ledge with Aunt Bambi and Uncle Doug. Elsa was the only hiker wearing a pink tutu.

Elsa Had A Princess Party for Her Birthday

2010-04-24T21:25:00.001-07:00

Our house was full of little princesses for Elsa's fourth birthday party. Ian hung out and was cool with being the only prince at the party.

Ian Is a Cub Scout

2009-12-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

Trick-or-Treat

2009-11-01T10:04:00.001-08:00

Trick-or-treat was last night in Seattle. After counting Ian says that he got 114 pieces of candy. Elsa promptly sorted her candy into two piles, stuff she likes and stuff she doesn't like. Ian is quite so discerning, he's just psyched he's got a pile of candy.

This photo is totally staged. Ian refused to get his hands messy cleaning out the pumpkins.

Elsa with her two piles. Guess which one is the keep pile.

Craters of the Moon

2009-10-31T15:21:00.001-07:00

What a strange place. Craters of the Moon a few thousand years ago must have been a crazy place with volcanoes erupting everywhere. It's a totally foreign landscape. Some of the lava tubes are open and you can climb down into them. Ian and I did a little bit of spelunking while George and Elsa stayed topside.

Cinder Cone

Lava Bombs

Grand Tetons

2009-10-31T15:18:00.001-07:00

On our way out of Yellowstone we drove through the Grand Tetons. We spent most of the day at Lake Jenny, dipping our feet in the water and doing a hike around the lake.

This is at Lake Jenny. It was pretty much a perfect day

Yellowstone

2009-10-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

I hadn't been to Yellowstone since I was 14, and George and the kids had never been. Most of these pictures are of Ian because he was so psyched to be there. He's really into volcanoes so visiting this super volcano was a blast (sorry) for him. Smoke coming out of the ground everywhere, water blasting out of holes, and bubbling cauldrons of mud were perfect for a 7 year old boy. Everybody else had fun too.

Old Faithful getting ready to go.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Steamboat is the park's largest geyser, but it hasn't gone off in about 5 years. We waited around for about 15 minutes to see if we'd get lucky. We didn't.

Castle Geyser, one of Ian's favorites.

An old Yellowstone tour bus.

Tatonka!

Back East

2009-10-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

We traveled back east to Ohio and Washington, DC for our annual pilgrimage to see family, reconnect and catch up. The weather was perfect the entire trip as you can tell from the sunny photos.
While we were in Ohio we made a trip to Pymatuning Lake and Linesville, the infamous place where ducks and geese walk on the backs of carp. It's kind of disgusting, but loads of fun throwing bread to the fish.

We also went to minor league baseball game. The home team is the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. To Ian's delight the Scrappers won.

Home run baby!

From Ohio we drove to Washington, DC to see Georgette's parents and Aunt Bambi and Uncle Doug. I dragged the kids to see a couple monuments while George lunched with some friends (Hi Kelli & Erika) We also went to Erika's wedding of which I took no photos. Bummer.

It was a hot, humid day (typical DC summer) so we headed over to Einstein statue in near the State Department. It's one of my favorites and it's never crowded.

We visited cousin Anna to see the new baby.

We also got to see Aunt Bambi & Uncle Doug.

Ian making himself at home.

Talapus Lake

2009-10-31T14:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, this blog has been neglected for too long. Going back to July when my mom was out to visit, here are a few shots of a hike we did to Talapus Lake in the Cascades.

Lake Serene Video

2009-06-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

Bridal Veil Falls to Lake Serene

2009-06-13T23:56:00.001-07:00

What started out as a nice leisurely 4 mile round trip hike to Bridal Veil falls turned into a grueling 8 mile round trip up to the amazing Lake Serene. If you hadn't noticed, we have been on this water fall hiking kick. Today the weather looked good and with Mary, our visiting niece in tow we headed up to mountains. The hike up to Bridal Veil Falls was pretty easy and the falls was probably my favorite falls so far. You could literally touch the water that was cascading down the rocks, and the mist from the falls drenched you in a matter of minutes.
For some reason, this wasn't enough for us. The book and the trail sign said it was only a 2 mile hike up to Lake Serene, the alpine lake that feeds Bridal Veil Falls. What it didn't say was that every single foot of those two miles was up hill. I'm not talking gradual incline either, it was steep! I'm probably the one to blame for making everyone continue on, but in the end I think everyone agrees that it was worth it. A froze alpine lake surrounded by jagged peaks and melting glacier. The lake was still mostly frozen over, but I overheard someone saying that in summer they come up and jump off the rocks into the icy cold waters. There was none of that going on today, we just sat on a huge round rock that is called picnic rock, and gazed with amazement at the majesty. Hands down the best hike I've ever done. It was 8 miles round trip with about a 2000 ft elevation gain. Mary cursed me the entire way up for making her go, Ian was a trooper and Elsa was on my Back for most of the way. George kept saying that she thought she was in the Alps. The Cascades are an amazing range of mountains, of which we have seen maybe 1%.

Bridal Veil Falls, we got pretty wet, but it was kind of humid on the hike so it felt good.

Mary holding up the fallen tree to save Ian and let hikers pass...and she didn't even have her Superwoman costume on.

Lake Serene, still frozen over.

Mariners Game

2009-06-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

Georgette's Niece Mary is visiting. In the interest of showing her we're not total bores, we headed downtown on the #5 bus to see the Seattle Mariners take on the Minnesota Twins. The entire day was a success, not only for us but for the Mariners as well. They won 2-1. Believe it or not we stayed for the entire game. Ian was totally into it, Elsa just humored us.

Georgette took this one. I wasn't as infatuated with Ichiro, though he scored and had an RBI.

Thanks to Mary, Ian discovered Cotton Candy on this day. Just what his teeth need.

Boulder Falls

2009-06-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

We are currently on a water fall kick. We have this book called Best Hike With Kids: Western Washington & the Cascades which as a top ten for water fall hikes. George has on a strict regiment to get to as many of the top ten this summer as we can. Boulder Falls was number one on the list and for good reason. It was a pretty easy hike with a big payoff. A giant waterfall that you could get super close to. Evidence below:

Wallace Falls

2009-05-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a day hike in the Steven's Pass area. It was a great day for a hike, sunny and 70. The 5.75 mile round-trip hike up to Wallace Falls was pretty amazing. My legs are feeling it after having Elsa on my back the entire way up to the upper falls. She did great, and did the entire hike down on her own two feet. For Ian it was just like a walk in the park, because I asked him when we got back if he was tired or sore. Of course he felt nothing. I don't recover so quickly anymore.

Point No Point

2009-05-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston and then drove north along Hansville Road to Point No Point. Point No Point is a small sandy point in the Puget Sound where you can stretch out on the beach, build a sand castle and check out the historic lighthouse. It wasn't super warm, but for the Northwest 70 degrees is hot so we pretended it was warmer than it actually was and had a pretty good time.

Planes in the Desert

2009-02-23T22:23:00.001-08:00

The Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucscon is ranked as the number three air museum in the country, but it who knows what goes into ranking things like this. If you based it on the number of planes Pima is easily number one. They had planes all over the place. You couldn't throw a rock without hitting one. By the way Ian loved this place!

A lot the planes were outside, but there were hangars that had many restored aircraft as well.

The black bird, mach 2.5 baby!

The super guppy. It looks like a plane with a cyst. Used for transporting big things obviously (like parts of Saturn V)

Elsa trying her hand at flying.

Ecopod

2009-02-23T22:08:00.001-08:00

I vaguely remembered the experiment that took place in 1991 where 8 people lived isolated from the world inside Biosphere 2 for two years, trying to see what was required to sustain people if we ever were to colonize another planet. From a technical and engineering standpoint, Biosphere 2 is amazing, and from a scientific standpoint, it makes you realize how difficult it will be to sustain life another plant. Well worth the visit and highly recommended!

The basement to Biosphere 2, I had no idea that the desert had a basement.

Saguaro National Park and Camelback Mountain

2009-02-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

We did a couple hikes, one in Phoenix and one in Tucson. Camelback Mountain in Phoenix started out promising, but it got pretty steep and dangerous so we had to turn back. Ian was ready to scale some rocks, but Elsa needed a couple years before attempting it.

While we were down in Tucson, we visited the Saguaro National Park. We did a couple short hikes on relatively flat terrain. We didn't see any mountain lions, but the kids and George were on constant look-out.

We All Live for the Sun

2009-02-23T21:40:00.000-08:00

Seattle schools had their winter break last week, so it was the perfect time to head south for some much needed sun. Georgette's cousin Jose and his wife Celi are living in Phoenix with their two kids Melaina and Jose who are Ian and Elsa's ages respectively. The kids made fast friends and were soon playing games, marching around self made obstacle courses and swimming in the pool. We had a great time and owe Jose and Celi big time for putting us up and putting up with us.

Elsa getting ready to dive in.

Georgette was at the pool every chance she could get, with kids in tow of course.

The hot tub, even the desert gets cold some times.

Waiting for the Days to Become Longer

2009-02-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

When the days are short, you end up doing some nutty things, just ask Ian and Elsa...

For school, Ian had to create a float representing his heritage. There are Lebanese, Scottish, German and Ukrainian flags along with a little something from each of those countries. See if you spot them.

Christmas in Seattle

2009-02-08T14:49:00.000-08:00

Alley Ride

2009-02-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

This is Ian sledding down the alley behind our house. He catches air at the very end, it's pretty sweet!

December = Snow

2009-02-08T14:23:00.000-08:00

This past December we saw more snow in Seattle than we've ever seen while living here. Ian had an entire week of school canceled and was outside playing in it from dawn to dusk. It was fun while it lasted. By the second week of it, snow fatigue did begin to set in and the novelty of it began to wear off.

Ian with our neighbor Claire in our back yard starting a snowman.

November 2008

2009-02-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

This blog has been neglected lately. Better this blog being neglected than the kids, right? These are from back in November. For some reason the kids went through this phase were they would hang out in these plastic bins. I can only explain it as a lack of light and too much rain.

Carkeek Park down at the beach.

When we were at Carkeek a train went by carrying airplane fuselages.

Halloween (Superman and Bee)

2008-11-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

Ian and Elsa went trick-or-treating with bunch of their friends from the neighborhood. Elsa is usually the shy one, but once she figured out that people were giving out candy she had no problem going up to houses, ringing the doorbell and getting her candy. Ian was leading the pack, making sure that we kept up a good pace so that we could get as much loot as possible!

Franklin Falls Hike

2008-11-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we did this hike in the Cascades. Franklin Falls is an easy hike, perfect for the kids, not too long or too steep and there's a big waterfall at the end!

Labor Day: Cannon Beach, Oregon, Day 2

2008-09-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we awoke to cloudy skies, but the promise was that it would burn off. After a quick breakfast in town, we headed to Ecola State Park which was just north of Cannon Beach. There were a couple cool look-out points and a beach that sported some surfers. It was just a beach break with 1-2 foot waves, but I guess this is as good as it gets in Oregon. A good beginner beach for surfing.

Down at the beach at Ecola, you can see a few surfers behind Ian.

We saw an Elk! An entire herd really. As we were driving down to the beach there were 6-8 elk on either side of the road chowing down!

Low tide at Haystack rock uncovers a lot of stuff hanging out underwater. The rocks were covered with starfish, muscles, anemone and barnacles.

A few shots just to show how wide the beach was. Tons of space to just spread out.

Labor Day: Cannon Beach, Oregon, Day 1

2008-09-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

For the Labor day weekend we headed south to the Oregon coast. The weather outlook for the weekend was tenuous at best. We arrived on Friday to steady rain and I was beginning to wonder if a weekend at the beach was such a good idea. We awoke Saturday to partly cloudy skies which eventually cleared to mostly sunny. The gods must have been smiling on us because the weather defied forecasting to be partly sunny without nary a drop of rain.

We met Ethan and Grace at a Pizza place on Friday night. Ethan went to Ian's pre-school so it was like a reunion. So Ian had some buddies to pal around with on the beach.

We made a fire on the beach and roasted marshmallows and made smores. An open fire on the beach at dusk is definitely one of the good things in life.

The water was frigid, but Ian did not mind, he was one of the two or three people in the water. Hardcore!

Haystack rock in the background. Formed by lava flows, millions of years ago.

Everything's bigger in America, even the seaweed!

This pile of sand was a sand castle. Even more fun than building one, is smashing it to bits.

Summer Vacation: Cortland, Ohio

2008-09-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

It was up to Ohio next to visit Grandma and Great Grandma and Grandpa. We had unseasonably great weather that felt like Seattle. Reaching the mid-70's with low humidity and then cooling off at night to where you needed a blanket. Ian and Elsa found a new activity in Grandma's back yard, creek walking. Ian dragged either me or Grandma out every afternoon to take romp down the creek. It reminded me of the countless hours I spent in the same creek as kid catching crayfish and salamanders. At one point Ian had overturned a rock and was proudly displaying a salamander that had crawled up his arm.
There was lightening bug catching every evening and we even built a fire pit out back to roast marshmallows and make s'mores.
Ian was amazed at the size of Aunt Joanne's zucchinis next door. It was also nice to have Great Grandma and Grandpa so close. Now that they live in Cortland, it's easy to walk down to their place and just drop in. I think we stopped by every day we were there.

Summer Vacation: Rowelsburg, WV

2008-09-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

The next stop was Rowelsburg, for the Nassif family reunion. As you can see, Ian and Elsa were co-opted into marching in the parade. Their favorite part of Rowlesburg was the trains that constantly run through the town. Elsa constantly running around and pointing choo-choo. I also made Ian hike up Cannon Hill with me one morning. He did really well, not complaining too much on the 5 mile round trip.

Summer Vacation: Asheville, NC

2008-09-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

George and the kids were back east for three weeks visiting family. Their first stop was Asheville to see Lauretta and Dave. Ian and Elsa got to hang out with cousins Charlie, Mary, Daniel and Madlyn.

Grandma Was Here (back in June)

2008-09-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

As you can see I've been neglecting this blog. My mom was here earlier this summer. We Went to Snoqualmie Falls (where Twin Peaks was filmed) and took a ride on the train at North Bend.

Rattlesnake Mountain

2008-06-08T19:23:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day Weekend, we stayed around town, but did make it up to the mountains to hike Rattlesnake Mountain in the Cascades. This was probably the first 'real' hike we've done with both kids. It seems like since we've moved to Seattle we've done a lot less hiking than when we lived in San Diego. Weather being a major factor, but having Elsa kind of put our hikes on hold as well. In any event, we're back on the trail now. Rattlesnake mountain is about a 30 minute drive from Seattle, and it's a relatively easy hike, two mile in and two miles out. Ian was a champ and did the entire thing with hardly a complaint. Considering that the two miles in are all up hill, he did extremely well. Elsa was in the backpack with me on the way up, but walked most of the way down on her own.

Goin' Native. This was the rock outcrop at the top.

View from the bottom. That's where we went.

At the bottom of Rattlesnake mountain, is Rattlesnake Lake. It's man-made and mostly empty when we were there, as you can see here behind Georgette. We were in the middle of the lake. It was so low because they are still waiting for the spring thaw.

Ian on top of stumps and rocks.

That's a big one, eh?

With the dogs, not ours.

Yes, it was fun! We had a time!

Aunt Bambi and Uncle Doug Were Here

2008-06-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

Aunt Bambi and Uncle Doug made a stop in Seattle on their annual trip to the west coast. Ian monopolized their time with games. He finally had somebody to play Uno, Sorry, Crazy Eight and Memory with him. We took Bambi and Doug over to the Ballard Locks, because Doug hadn't been yet. Only smolts were going through the fish ladder out to sea. Afterwards, we headed over to Snoose Junction in Ballard for Pizza. Believe it or not Ian had his first slice of pepperoni pizza this day. Up to now it was cheese only, now he's into pepperoni as well.

What a Weekend!

2008-05-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

It was just about a perfect weekend here in Seattle. Saturday it was a record 88 and Sunday was a more comfortable 78. We headed over to the University of Washington boat center and rented a row boat and rowed over into the Arboretum. We weren't the only ones with the great idea, there were lots of ducks and turtle sunning themselves. Ian and Elsa were into it, sitting up front and just taking it all in.

Ian's Birthday

2008-05-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

Ian is now 6 years old. I can't believe George and I have been parents that long, and were still alive! Ian had a blast at his birthday party with his friends. He had his party at this place called Pump It Up. It was a giant room/warehouse with blow up bouncy slides, obstacle courses, and basket ball court. Hey, I even had fun bouncing around the basketball court.

The whole gang.

Volcano Cake! I didn't explode, but it tasted pretty good.

On his birthday day we had a little party with a little cake at our house.

He also had a celebration at his school. I stopped by to see Ian walk around the sun six times to represent his 6 years.

Hey, It was my Birthday

2008-05-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

38 years of age, older but still not old (yeah right).

Diggin in the Mud

2008-05-09T22:06:00.001-07:00

Down to the Beach

2008-05-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

Back in April we had a really nice summer like day. We took advantage and headed to Discovery Park for a hike down to the beach. On the way back up from the beach it was warm enough for Ian to take his shirt off. The next day we were back to rain and 50 degrees. Ahhh the unpredictability of spring!

Egg Colour

2008-03-22T14:54:00.001-07:00

We colored easter eggs this morning. Only one accident, Elsa now has a tie-dyed dress that is purple themed. Ian is totally psyched for the Easter Bunny to come and hide the eggs tonight.

Ian is a Rock Star...or something

2008-03-22T14:41:00.001-07:00

Elsa's Number 2 Birthday

2008-03-22T14:14:00.001-07:00

Elsa turned two this week. She got a kitchen set, some books, and puzzles. She loves puzzles and is pretty good at them, epecially considering her age. She's finally starting to talk a little, mine, mamma, dadda and E-E are here go-to words right now. She totally dug having Happy Birthday sung to her, swaying and dancing to it.

These last three are from her PEPs group birthday party at the Phinney Center. PEPs is the group of families that had babies around the same time. It's kind of like a play group/support group for families with new babies.

Sledding

2008-01-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

It's been another big year for snow in the mountains. Here's a video of some sledding action. Man they don't make sleds like they use to....slow.

Brother and Sister

2008-01-30T21:49:00.001-08:00

Here are some random pics from Ian and Elsa that were taken around the holidays.

At Green Lake on a rare winter sunny afternoon.

Another one by Green Lake. Beauty Ian!

This one is from the Children's museum at the Seattle Center.

The train installation at the Seattle Center.

Ian in my shirt and Elsa in Ian's. Not sure why they are wearing them, but it made sense at the time.

Christmas Morning

2008-01-30T21:31:00.001-08:00

Posting x-mas photos better late than never. These are all from the morning. This was the first year that Ian fully understood the idea of Santa Clause. He wrote his list, checked it twice to make sure it had a lava lamp on it and sent it off to the North Pole. A five year old that wants a lava lamp, you ask? He's totally into volcanoes, and well duh, a lava lamp is the next best thing if you can't have a volcano in your room. Elsa was happy to let Ian open all of her gifts, we'll see if that's the case next year, but for the time being it made them both happy. And we weren't all alone this year for the holidays, my mom came out to visit. It was great having her here, and I know she had a great time seeing the kids on Christmas morning!

This was the one he really wanted, and Santa came through!

Elsa hard at work with her new house.

Nothing better than eating right out of the space shuttle. Thanks Aunt Bambi and Uncle Doug!

Oohh....socks!

Me being arty with the camera, but I like the feel of this.

Elsa in her new dress, and erm, PJ's.

Thanks Lauretta...did you know I can't stand Rachel Ray? Pass the EVO!

Elsa making her own style.

The Turkey!

2007-12-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

Not one, not two, but three turkeys were cooked in the Beale house this Thanksgiving. No kids in this post only the kitchen.

Late Thanksgiving

2007-12-22T21:18:00.001-08:00

It wasn't really a late Thanksgiving, it's just a late Thanksgiving post. We went to Asheville, NC to visit Georgette's sister Lauretta and her family. In fact the entire Nassif clan decided to make the trip down to the North Carolina mountains. Flying in from Cincinnati, the hills looked like they had scarlet fever, with all of the leaves bright red. We had heard great things about Asheville, so we were exited to check out Dave and Lauretta's new home town.

The town is really cool, there are 3 or 4 breweries, a walkable downtown with eclectic shops, restaurants and bars, and even 3 or 4 record stores! Add in the mountains with the hiking, the rivers with the fishing, kayaking, etc. and you've got a pretty great place to live. It was also great to get to see all of Georgette's family, as always seems to be the case, the time flew by.
Joe set us up with a tour of the French Broad brewery on Friday. Excellent beer, most of it was done in a German style with not a single IPA to be found. Usually this would be a bummer for me, but their beers were so good that I forgot about IPA for the entire visit!

The Biltmore Estate is here as well. It was the Vanderbilt country home, a bit much, if you ask me but it was fun to gawk. What a great day too. When we arrived in Asheville the weather was perfect, sunny and 70 degrees the first 3 days!

Back at Dave and Lauretta's. The cousins hanging out together on the couch...mesmerized by the boob tube.

Mary and Margaret hating me for taking this picture.

Ian, Liv, and Perry hanging out in the basement, playing pool.

ShaaaanDoooooo!

Koffe Klatche is over, bring on the turkey

George and Bea, taking a break from bossing everyone around in the kitchen.

Elsa's favourite Uncle.

Heather taking a break from the stuffing.

Joe taking a break from the Turkeys.

Monica, Ali, George and Elsa.

Tom and Dave setting up the internets.

Bees on Halloween

2007-11-04T14:55:00.001-08:00

Both Ian and Elsa were bees this year. Ian did about two blocks of houses and totally made out on candy accumulation. By the end of the night Ian was setting his bucket of candy down at the sidewalk and going to the doors. He said his candy was too heavy to carry. No worries, his sister his helping him eat it.

Fall Walk

2007-11-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

These are from last weekend, from a walk in our neighborhood. There's a cool little park a block away called Sunset Place that has good views of the Olympic Mountains. It also has a few leaves to play in as you can see.

The Bygone days of Summer

2007-10-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

Summer passed by way too fast and fall came much too early this year. Here are a couple photo's from when the sun was shining, the days were warm and dry and the tomatoes were plentiful.

The Trip back to the Mainland

2007-08-26T22:48:00.001-07:00

We came back taking a different route. We took the ferry from Port Townsend to Keystone on Whidbey Island and then drove over Deception Pass back to Seattle.

Elsa on the Ferry

Ian at the beach below the bridge at Deception Pass

Elwha River

2007-08-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

After being up at Hurricane Ridge, we went to the Elwha River. The dam you see in some of the photos is scheduled to be removed in the next few years to restore the original habitat. It was built in the 1920's and looks like could be location used in an X-Files episode...kinda spooky.

Hurricane Ridge

2007-08-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we ferried over to the Olympic Peninsula and drove to Hurricane Ridge. The weather was a bit sketchy, but nothing too bad. Hurricane Ridge was a bit cold, about 20 degrees cooler than down at Port Washington, where we stayed. Hurricane Ridge is about a mile high and affords grand views of the snow capped Olympic mountains. We saw a ton of deer. They certainly weren't afraid of people, while hike around we came upon one and it just kept eating while we stood about 3 feet from it.

On the ferry from Edmunds to Kingston. We only waited in line about an hour for the boat...ahhh tourist season.

Ian really wanted to see snow, so he was quite happy when we came upon this small patch. he wanted to go and play in it, but the signs said 'no'.

Dungeness

2007-08-12T22:59:00.001-07:00

Dungeness crab is a purely west coast phenomenon, they get their name from Dungenesss, WA, and are quite tasty. While Georgette's parents were out this summer, George and Bea sent Big Joe to the Pike Place Market while they went to Nordstom's. He came back with two giant Dungeness crabs and two dozen oysters. George and her mom came back with shopping bags of clothes.

As you can see from the pictures, Ian was loving the seafood. He and Jidi Joe seem to speak the same language, which I've yet to figure out, but they seem to connect. I think it's that they like to boss people around, so the two of them are quite content to boss each other around in the kitchen and in the garden.

Sugery...cut here.

This one is my favorite. Check out that pincher!

George and Elsa were hanging out for the entire thing too.

Our Summer, So Far

2007-07-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

Summer arrives late in Seattle, by the end of June we're jonesin' for some sunshine and warm weather. It finally arrived and not a moment too soon. We've had lots of visitors out for the first half, including my mom, Georgette's parents and cousins Sadye and Cara from California. Everybody's welcome, so come on out, summer is the time to live in Seattle, almost no rain, comfortable warm days and cool nights.

My mom was out first. She watched the kids while George and I flew down to L.A. for Georgette's cousin Brenden's wedding. Elsa wasn't sure about grandma at first (like the first week) but she eventually warmed up to her, as you can see. These are from our trip to the Boeing Air Museum. Ian is going through an airplane/rocket phase and was really into it.

Cousins Cara and Sadye stopped by on their way to B.C. They gave Ian a cool pop-up dinosaur book and posed for a few photos.

Mutti and and Ian being interrupted while reading the daily news. The wine is Mutti's

On the boat in Lake Washington. We took a cruise that went through Lake Union and over to Lake Washington. We got to gawk at Bill Gates's house (woo-hoo) and the Sleepless in Seattle house boat (double woo-hoo). We also went through the Montlake cut and under two draw bridges and the 520 floating bridge.

Me in front of Gas Works Park with the thing one and thing two.

Not Keeping Up

2007-07-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

We've been slacking off taking photo's of late, but luckily our friends and family have not. Here are a few photo's swiped from Joe and Heather's visit and Ian's friend Simon's birthday.

The first set are from Joe and Heather's visit. Thanks for the excellent pics Joe! I need to get a camera like your, if only I could afford one.

Hey, how did he get in this one?

These last few are from Simon's birthday party. Props to Hunchie.net!

You Say Potato...

2007-06-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

Ian's annual school play was this past weekend. He was in the Happy Feet, Act 2. They were dressed in top hats, black vests and glittery bow ties. Ian was both excited and nervous. He woke up Saturday morning wanting to know when the play started. When he got to the school, he was a little nervous, but he pulled it together. Because you know, the show must go on.

Low Tide

2007-06-03T22:45:00.001-07:00

The tide in Seattle doesn't roll back a great deal most of the year, except for late May/early June and late November/early December. So now is the time to get out there and check out the tide pools. Ian and I drove up to Carkeek park this afternoon to see what we could see. Ian was totally into seeing crabs. We saw a tone of dead ones and some molts. The Seattle aquarium had people out on the beach to answer questions and show us some stuff we would have totally missed. One woman from the aquarium had Ian smelling crab molts to see if they were molts or dead crabs. Ian knew the difference after the first dead crab (pheew)! We even saw some star fish, with no help at all.

Walking the Walk

2007-06-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

Elsa is up on her feet, check it out! There's even a cameo by Ian.
(Ignore Toby being a dork)

Once Around the Lake

2007-06-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

We went for a ride around Green Lake on Saturday morning. Ian was on his bike and Elsa was in the Stroller. George left us in the dust, getting her exercise on. Here are a couple shots from the walk/ride.

Ian a Cinq Ans

2007-05-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

Ian turned five and we had a party. He invited all of his friends to the Little Gym. They played a bunch of games like hide and seek and parachute, ran around, ate cake, and opened presents. The cake was killer, dark chocolate with a marshmallow middle, mmmmm.

Derby!

2007-04-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

Ian and his buddy Simon went to the Green Lake Fishing Derby this morning. It's an annual event where they stock a section of the lake with rainbow trout and let the kids go at it. For the $5 registration Ian got a fishing rod, a bag of goodies including a cookbook (you gotta eat what you catch) and a t-shirt...oh yeah and the two fish that he caught. It's a great event and Ian had a blast. We cooked up the fish tonight with one of the recipes in the cookbook, delicious!

Keeping the Doctor Away

2007-04-21T20:33:00.000-07:00

This is one of the two apple trees in our back yard. The other one is a wee bit smaller but is also covered in blossoms. If we even get half the apples that I think were going to get, I will start an apple sauce factory.

Immaculate Reception

2007-04-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

This is at the Pittsburgh airport. The rendition of Franco Harris catching the ball just before it hit the ground and running it in for TD against the Oakland Raiders in the 1972 playoffs. Classic Kitch!

Return Home to a Real Spring

2007-04-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

We got back to Seattle from our trip to full on Spring. And I'm talking spring the way it should be. Tulips everywhere, leaves on trees and sunny, but brisk weather. Here are a few shots of the kids enjoying the back yard.

Spring Trip Back to Winter (Part II)

2007-04-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

After visiting my mom in Ohio, it was off to Morgantown, WV. We stayed with Georgette's sister Monica. Monica's husband Greg loves having family visit and can't get enough of his in-laws so we always try to stay extra long. While we were there George and her brothers and sisters threw a gala 75th birthday party for their dad at the Hotel Morgan. It was fun seeing everyone, it's rare that all 5 of the Nassif kids are able to get together. By the way the weather did not improve a bit while we were in Morgantown. Ian had the time, hanging out with all of his cousins. He shadowed Perry and had to do and have whatever Perry was doing or having. Perry seemed to humor him.

Joe getting ready for his MC gig at his dad's birthday celebration.

Ian, Elaina, and Kate with their strollers, practicing to be street people.

Mary with George and Elsa

Perry and Daniel doing what they do...video games.

One too many Shirley Temples

Birthday boy with George and Elsa

Beate with George and Elsa

One more sugar high before we go. Kate, Ian and Perry

Ali, with George and Elsa

George and her bro

Uncle Joe, I do not like you!

This is big Joe the morning after his birthday party.

George, giving her dad the ultimate birthday gift, a massage.

Spring Trip Back to Winter (Part I)

2007-04-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

We were back east for spring break, but spring was certainly not in the air. We landed in a foot of snow in Pittsburgh and traveled to Cortland, OH in blizzard conditions. The snow stuck around for a few days and then melted under pouring rain, ahhh spring time in Ohio. The weather was the only downer, we got to see Bambi and Doug, Grandma and Grandpa Root, Aunt Tracey and Aunt Joanne.

More than enough snow for a snowman.

It's a sad looking spring time snowman.

Elsa saying, take me back to Seattle, there are too many people I don't know here.

Ian and Grandma building a fire to warm us all up!

The big dinner.

Ian, having a blast with Uncle Doug's Milkweeds.

Elsa's First Birthday

2007-04-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

Elsa had here first birthday back in March. It was a warm sunny day as you can see from the pictures, really warm for March! She had a carrot cake made by her mom. She's a health food nut. If you give her junk food she turns it away, preferring spinach, beans and asparagus. The cake was good.

She liked eating the dirt better than eating the cake.

Here's her new ride.

Grandma sent her a cool frog to pull around.

Woo-hoo!

Long Weekend in San Diego

2007-02-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

Ian in front of Mama's Lebanese Bakery. The palm trees and Manakeesh Plus Rule!

We headed down to SoCal for an extended weekend to feel the warmth of the sun again. This is our third winter in Seattle, and February is the perfect time to head down south for an early dose of warm, sunny weather. Ian has totally forgotten that he lived there for 2.5 years of his life. We got together with his old playgroup on Sunday morning, of which may as well have been strangers to him. Too bad, because he a blast playing with them again. He also liked the palm trees and wearing his sandles everywhere. Elsa was into hanging out with Sean, Pat and Steve's son (who we stayed with), although Sean wasn't so sure about Elsa.

Elsa digs the Leb food.

Pat with Sean at Mama's

Me, about to take a bite of the Manakeesh Plus

Ian on the iron bicycle in front of the Live Wire, just around the corner from Mama's. Good food and a cool bar on the same block, an anomaly in San Diego.

On the desert walk in Balboa Park. Ian was totally into all the different kinds of cactus.

Watch out, that's a cactus.

Big fountain in Balboa Park.

Venus Flytraps in the Conservatory. Don't put your finger in there.

Another founain in Balboa Park. Come on dad, quit making me stand in front of these things.

Claire, George and Elsa.

Ian, Claire, George, Nick and Elsa. Ian renamed Baylor, for some reason he thought his name should be Vancouver. Claire says their next dog will be named Vancouver!

Ian hanging out with Sean.

Sean saying bye to Elsa.

Up to the Mountains

2007-02-03T18:42:00.000-08:00

We drove up to the mountains last weekend for a bit of sled riding. The Cascades are just a short trip east on the 90. Snoqualmie pass has a bunch of skiing, sledding, and snow shoing. Parking was brutal, along a road with six foot banks of snow on either side. We found a spot and did a small hike up a trail and sledded back down.

Aikido

2007-01-17T21:11:00.000-08:00

Ian has been taking Aikido classes every Monday and he's getting pretty good. Check this move out where he slams his sensei to the ground!

Snow, Snow, Snow

2007-01-17T20:54:00.000-08:00

The day David was supposed to go home we woke up to this. Not a lot of snow by east coast and mid west standards, but for Seattle this is more than enought to cancel schools and bring the city to grinding halt. It was fun sledding down the alley behind our house and building a snowman, french style. The snow was well on it's way to melting by the time we left for the airport.

DJ in the Emerald City

2007-01-17T20:06:00.000-08:00

David Jr. came out to visit over his long holiday weekend. Apparently Virginians not only celebrate MLK day, but have the preceding Friday off as well for Lee-Jackson Day. The South is definitely a different place. Anyway, DJ had long weekend in Seattle. We dragged him all over the place, Sonics game, Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Ballard Locks, Woodland Park Zoo, YMCA, my office, aikido, and sledding (2 times). He had fun, but I think he would have had just as much fun watching basketball & football on tv, sleeping (he can sleep through anything) and talking on his cell. He was a champ, dealing with really cold weather (20's) and snow the entire time he was here. Hey, at least it was sunny! Here's the proof he was actually here.

Talkin' on the Cell

With Cousin Elsa and Aunt Georgette

At the Locks with Cousin Ian

At Pike Place Market (it was really cold, those are his teeth chattering.)

High atop the Space Needle

Back on the ground

Drinkin' a fru-fru drink at the original Starbucks.

Watch out for that flying fish!

Sled Ride

2007-01-14T20:42:00.000-08:00

It's been frigid here in Seattle the last 4-5 days. We've had snow on the ground just as long, which is not normal. Usually it snows at night and is gone by noon the following day. Not the case these days. We headed over to Woodland Park to do some sledding this morning. Ian met his buddy Simon and we dragged our visiting nephew David Jr along. David did a couple runs, but his thin southern Virgina blood had him huddling for warmth in the sun. Ian loved it, especially when we hit the jump and caught air!

Monkeys Somewhere in the House

2006-12-18T21:25:00.000-08:00

Here's another video. Please leave a comment if you can't get the video to play. We've been having some trouble getting them to work consistently.

Blue Tongue

2006-11-24T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ian and Elsa in the kitchen. Nothing too exciting, but it is a moving picture.

King of the Crabs

2006-11-12T22:05:00.000-08:00

Alaskan King Crab is in season. It'll be snatched up in a matter of weeks, so get it while/if you can. This stuff is soo tasty, it's like eating candy. Ian was totally into cracking the legs and pulling out the meat. Elsa thought the whole thing was mildly entertaining.

Seen Your Video

2006-11-12T10:58:00.000-08:00

Let's go get some Candy

2006-11-03T21:31:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from Halloween. Ian was totally into being Curious George. He was also totally into going up to houses and ringing the doorbell as many times as he could before someone came out with candy. Elsa made it out to a couple houses and then zonked. We had great fall weather for trick or treating...clear, cool night.

The aftermath, Ian with the goods.

Scarrrrry

2006-10-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

There was a whole lot of pumpkin carving going on here tonight! Ian wanted diamond eyes for his pumpkin, so you know which one is his. George roasted the seeds in the oven, so we've got two jack-o-lanterns and lots of seeds to snack on.

Connectivity!

2006-10-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

It had been a while since we were back on the other coast to see family. We flew into D.C. National on a direct flight from Seattle on Alaska Airlines. Flying with one kid is doable, flying with two kids is brutal! Actually Ian and Elsa did great, but it's a long flight and a kid can get bored.
Elsa was baptized at Our Lady of Lebanon in Washington. She didn't like getting wet, but otherwise she was pretty cool about it. Beate & Joe had a nice reception back at their place following the service. Man, I filled up on killer Leb food...Hummus, Grape Leaves, Baba Ganoush, Tabbouleh, Olives!

After DC we headed to Ohio in a rented mini van. On our way out of the Watergate(at Landmark) Bea & Joe's neighbor Joseph gave us a huge bag of bread he had made that morning. That bread was killer, perfect for a long road trip! Joseph had also made the tabbouleh for the previous day's party. The mini van had a dvd player in it so Ian could watch a few movies on the 6 hour trip. I think we stopped at every rest stop on the Pennsylvania turnpike, so it ended up being a 7 hour trip.

In Cortland, my mom had a great breakfast on the day we left. We got to catch up with Grandma and Grandpa Root, Aunt Theresa, Aunt Sue, and Aunt Joanne.

We also made a quick trip up to North Olmstead to see Aunt Edna and Cousin Barb.

Last stop was Morgantown, WV to see Greg, Monica, Ali, Olivia, and Lanie. We also went to see the Mountaineers play Syracuse and continue their unbeaten season.

Harvest Time

2006-09-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

The garden is just about done for the season. Ian picked all of the carrots today. We still have a few tomatos and peppers. The grapes have been amazing this year, with our vine providing way more than we can eat. Grape juice anyone?

Victoria!

2006-09-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

Labor Day Weekend 2006
Boat to Victoria, BC

We were in Canada over Labor day. It was a fun weekend, except for the boat ride. It's smooth sailing in the Puget Sound, but once you hit the Straight of Juan de Fuca all bets are off. That's when you get the westerly winds of the Pacific, creating the potential to rock the boat. It was realatively calm both ways, which makes me wonder what a little weather would do to the boat ride.

We made it off the boat, finally.

George in front of the Parliment building

George in front of the Fairmont Empress Hotel

There were a lot of totems, most of them were new carved for the city.

Beacon Hill Park

Beacon Hill Park: The tallest totem in the world.

Beacon Hill Park: at the beach

Beach at Beacon Hill Park

Ian in front of our Hotel

Ian watching a group ready to go hunt for whales. That boat has two motors!

That totem pole isn't so tall.

Back on the Clipper heading to Seattle. This was shot as we were leaving Victoria.

Nutty Longview

2006-08-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

We stayed in Longview on our trip to Mt. St. Helens. I just wanted to post these photos of this bridge some guy constructed so that squirrels can get across the road.

We saw no squirrels using the bridge.

Mountain Saint Helens

2006-08-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

...or what's left of it.

We made a road trip down to Mt. St. Helens last weekend. The landscape reminded us a lot of Southern California, very few trees, and great vistas because of the lack of trees. The volcano erupted 26 years ago, but the trees have not even begun to regrow in a lot of places.

Here you can see the smoke coming out of the lava dome that is growing in the middle of the crator.

This is looking north from the volcano, you can see that there still aren't very many trees.

A lot of the trees were snapped like toothpicks with only the stumps remaining.

And the Capitol of Washington is.....?

2006-08-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

Olympia!
We stopped by to check out the state capitol on our way back to Seattle on Sunday. We needed to stretch our legs, and what better place to do it, than here.

Reach for the sky!

2006-08-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

Big Trees (some of the biggest)

And the world's 2nd largest cedar tree. The largest is also in the park.

Ruby Beach

2006-08-10T21:51:00.000-07:00

Olympic Peninsula, Day 2: Saturday Afternoon
We went from the sunny and hot Hoh rain forest, down to Ruby Beach, which was cloudy, cold, forboding and full of driftwood. This is, to me, the quintessential Pacific NW beach.

Hoh Rain Forest

2006-08-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Olympic Peninsula, Day 2: Saturday Morning

The Hoh River and surrounding area, known as the Hoh Rain Forest gets an average of 150 inches of rain per year. That's over 12 feet of rain! And it didn't rain the entire time we were there, what luck. Actually it rains very little over the summer months, most of the rain falls over the winter.
Moss grows everywhere, and trees grow like weeds.

Ian throwing rocks into the Hoh River. Throwing rocks into bodies of water was a recurring theme for Ian this weekend. He threw rocks into the Pacific Ocean, Quinault River and the Hoh!

Two fallen giants. Ian liked to speculate about what kind of sound each tree might have made when it fell.