memorial day road trip

for the long weekend we headed south to eugene, oregon, for noah's cousin kate's first birthday party. the party was a potluck at a park on a river, which was exactly the right way to redeem spending all day in a car. kate hosted with pigtailed pizazz. she is fantastic at opening presents and pretty good at eating cupcakes. (though, like noah, she focused on the frosting.)

it was fun to see the cousins interact again (meaning noah trying to poke kate's eyes out) and to sweat a bit in the inland heat. (i'm serious! i loved it! it really felt like summer!) we camped out in john and jess's backyard, in our fantastic new tent. noah slept like a champ and we all enjoyed the cozyness of being outside. we also ate lots of delicious tofu, which seems to be noah's new favorite food.

noah commandeered kate's new "all terrain" wagon for the purpose of walking around the yard. he loves to walk behind wheeled things now, like the wagon, his mack truck and the stroller. unfortunately his steering skills haven't caught up to his pushing skills, and aaron and i must constantly reposition his vehicles to avoid crashes. but don't try to help him walk, or he'll bat away your arm like he's plagued by a fly.

on our drive out of town we noticed a biofuel station--the first i've ever seen. it made me really wish that we had a diesel car. jess o. says that the convenience store part of the gas station is filled with organic snacks. pretty cool!

on our drive home we enjoyed an extended lunch break in portland with jay and jen. they overwhelmed us with hospitality, including, but not limited to: fresh brewed coffee immediately upon arrival; a giant pasta/avocado/chickpea/tomato/etc. salad; a crystallized and crunchy upside down pear cake; a giant bottle of home-brewed beer; a fresh-baked loaf of olive bread; a to-go bag of homemade nutty biscotti; a lovely walk in the park; great jokes; a garage tour... et cetera. the rest of the long drive home wasn't so bad after that.

more pictures here.

free ride (a movie)

Click to Play

noah gives his friend jessa a ride on caedmon's push cart

"the other side"

last weekend aaron, noah and i went to "the other side"--i.e. east of the cascade mountains. it only takes a few hours to cross the cascades, but it's a different world over there. it's sunny! it's hot! it's drier, more deserty, but well irrigated and fertile. it's apple country, and great hiking, and a mini germany.

we spent the afternoon on the gibbs family farm in leavenworth with danielle, woody and napiqua. the farm is nestled into a beautiful green canyon, and it's quiet and spacious and lovely. the three gibbs boys and their families all live on the property, and each year they also have an apprentice farmer (which is how danielle came to the farm in the first place). now danielle is managing the farm, and she definitely has her hands full doing that and being a mom to five-month old napiqua. we ate yummy burgers (from a cow they raised) and salad mix (that danielle grew) with them inside their yurt, and talked about farming, logging (woody is a logger and they have a family sawmill), babies, high school reunions and building houses. we had a lovely time.

that evening we drove to field's point landing on lake chelan, and stayed at the holden village bed and breakfast. we had a cute little room with a travel crib all set up for noah. maybe my favorite thing about holden is that they have all these beautiful handmade quilts that lutheran ladies make and donate to the village. of course there was a quilt on our bed, but there was also a baby-sized one in noah's crib!

we wanted to stay at the bed and breakfast to help us get a feel for what it would mean to volunteer at holden. for those of you we haven't talked to lately, we're thinking maybe of spending a year at holden village, a lutheran retreat center at an old mine site in the mountains up lake chelan. we're still in the application process, and praying and thinking, but right now it looks like a good and exciting option. we'll keep you posted!

we met lovely workers at the bed and breakfast, and they were all very excited about us spending some time at the village. i felt encouraged by them--particularly by the two middle-aged women running the b and b. they both expressed that they've had full lives and now want to devote the rest of their lives to serving the lord, in whatever way he shows them. i want to share that kind of devotion, and particularly that openness to being led. i still feel like i need the safety of control, of choosing my own path. but ultimately i think my life would be more full if i did a little less choosing and a little more praying, listening, being open, being led...though it's always hard to know exactly how.

also, i want to make a quilt for noah!

and aaron wants to make a porch swing for our porch.

on the way home, we stopped at the smallwood "petting farm" and orchard, where we fed some animals and did some lounging in the sun. also, now i want a radio flyer for noah!

and of course you can't go to leavenworth and not eat "wurst."

go here to see more pictures from our weekend.

biker boy (a movie)

Click to Play

noah gets a bird's eye view of the town from his new bike seat.

port townsend

last saturday we went to port townsend to visit some friends and pick up one last part for aaron's boat. we biked on the ferry with noah in his new bike seat, which he totally loved. we had pizza on the beach from waterfront pizza, which aaron claims is the best pizza on earth. noah certainly enjoyed it (see above). we hung out with aaron's old boat school roomate caleb, his wife kirsten and their daughter anise. we also saw caleb's old girlfriend sharon and her daughter tuva. and all the while my friend sarah was there too, as a doula for her sister jenny, who was in labor with her son! it was a pretty busy day. (you can see more pictures here.)

procession of the species (a movie)

Click to Play

the procession of the species is a great annual parade where people create creature-like costumes, make music and parade around town. we keep saying we'll make a creature, but every year we forget. my favorites are the giant peace doves. you can see a few more pictures of the procession here.

adventures with pete

our friend peter visited us for almost a week, and we're really glad he did. aaron enjoyed sampling lots of northwest brews with pete, i enjoyed crafting and talking and being quiet with pete, and noah enjoyed having another person pay attention to him. we had lots of adventures including a hike, a boatyard mega-yacht party, an island bike ride, a battlestar galactica marathon, masaman curry eating and lots more. you can see many more pictures here.

the mysterious lummi island sailboat

cracking up on the fragrance lake overlook

pete's awesome freezer paper stencil shirt

first birthday, third time

and the festivities continued on sunday with a family party for noah at grandma and grandpa b.'s house in ladner. here's noah sitting like a prince in the rocker, wearing his new bird shirt.

we arrived to these lovely decorations (although they may have been a bit recycled from colin's surprise graduation party friday night...)

aaron was particularly excited about the sailing theme on this great cake made by grandma b.

noah probably didn't care too much about the theme, but he certainly loved the cake. we told him to enjoy it because it would be his last piece of cake for a long time. by the end of the weekend we were all suffering from "the berenstien bears and too much birthday," according to aaron.

he's thinking how he can get some more cake...

first birthday, second time

and on saturday, april 28, we celebrated again--this time with an afternoon party at the co-op connections building, attended by most of noah's baby friends (and their parents).

aaron made these invitations, a silhouette stamp made from a picture of noah on the porch.

and here are some of the many freezer paper stenciled shirts we made as gifts for noah and his friends. (and for me and aaron too. you can see my fox on green and aaron's brown bear on blue.)

we served some of noah's favorite snacks. he is particularly addicted to pirate's booty right now. like mother, like son.

we also made mini-muffin carrot cakes with cream-cheese frosting. i should say, aaron made them, and they were super yummy.

the co-op connections building is a small glass-enclosed building on the south side of the co-op parking lot in town. it's available free for members to use, which is a really wonderful perk. we spread blankets in one corner for babies to lounge on, and set up chairs by the windows. aaron hung all the animal shirts on clotheslines around the room, and as people left they chose an animal for their child.

noah and his friends took turns driving the mack truck.

maryka the marine biologist.

jeff made this awesome sunflower-stalk rainmaker for noah. it's filled with a mix of adzuki beans and arborio rice, and it makes a beautiful, slow pattering when it's flipped.

here's jessa looking grumpy. (i'm pretty sure she had a nice time, though.)

and pig-tailed kate on the move.

i think this look means, "i thought this was supposed to be my birthday party! why are all these babies playing with my stuff? and all i'm left with is a spoon?!"

maryka came over for soup after the party, and promptly undressed so she could make her own animal shirt.

birthday the first

and here begins the series of birthday mania. on wednesday, april 25th we celebrated noah's first birthday with pizza and cupcakes. grandma and grandpa b. came down and were shocked to see noah down some greek pizza, olives and all.
noah was pretty excited about his very first cupcake. he was most excited about the frosting.

and yet still willing to share. what a sweet boy.

and he was also excited about his first birthday present, the touchy-feely book diggers from grandma and grandpa b.

arrival of the hobo-sapiens

a few days after danielle and napiqua's visit, another friend from the oregon extension showed up on our doorstep. rachel, my cabinmate from the OE, and her husband andrew are biking up the west coast and then back east to virginia, where they live. they stayed with us for a wonderful five days before heading north to vancouver.

we joked that rachel became noah's second mom while she was here. here she and noah are reading a bedtime story.

we took a mini bike trip down to the harbor (every bike trip seems "mini" now, compared to what andrew and rachel are doing). here's the FV desire, a boat that fishes out of petersburg, alaska. we bought some salmon from these folks, who we know a bit from petersburg and who do all their own processing too, which is cool. aaron also loves that the whole family is involved (parents and three kids)--the boys even wave signs advertising their fish on a busy street corner downtown, and they don't look embarrassed!

here we are at the park at squalicum harbor. i thought noah would be psyched about sliding, but apparently not!

but he did seem psyched to ride his own bike! no more of this chillin'-out-in-the-trailer business for him.

um, here's me getting ready to chow down on some steak.

and aaron chowing down on a mega taco.


rachel helped a TON with the birthday t-shirt project (more on that later). here she is in process (also in all my clothes).

in the spirit of t-shirt making, i made this shirt for rachel. it says, "the revolution will not be motorized," and on the bottom corner there's an outline of a bicycle.

sailing! aaron's friend logan took him, rachel and andrew for a lovely sunday sail on his boat. they had a great time relaxing and getting a few sailing pointers!



we went for a walk up sehome hill to the observation tower. i love the grumpy look on noah's face.

and then, sadly, we said goodbye.


noah thought about going along for the ride, but decided to stay here with us.

and the hobo-sapiens are on the move again!