2009 Holiday Letter

This year we traveled to Australia to visit my relatives. We rented a small motor home and made a loop from Sydney out to Warren to see my aunt and uncle and then over to Port Macquarie to see my grandparents. It was a very easy way to travel with the children. My sister Coralie and her family were visiting Port Macquarie at the same time, on vacation from their mission in Kabul, Afghanistan. It was lovely to spend time with them.

We continue to enjoy camping in our popup trailer. This year we spent many fun weekends in the Sierras, some with my ILs, and a full week in central Oregon with my parents. We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary with a camping trip to Eagle Lake, California.

DS is 9 and is in the fourth grade honors program at school this year. He continues with his piano and weekly swimming lessons. In June he played in his first piano recital. This November DS received a school award for his academic grades and a prize for Art. He is fascinated by space and aircraft, and spends many hours building with Lego and drawing.

DD1 is 7 and is in second grade. She is working hard at swimming lessons and has nearly caught up to her brother; they are now in the same class! This is DD1’s fifth year studying ballet. She did her primary level Royal Academy of Dance exam in May, and danced in a wonderful “Snow White” routine in the June recital. DD1 began piano lessons in June and Brownie Scouts this fall. She has fallen in love with horses and has asked Santa to bring her one for Christmas.

DD2 is 4 and enjoys preschool. She is still taking Spanish at school, and continues with art and swimming lessons. She is a very strong swimmer for her age and swims in a class of 6 year olds. This is DD2’s third year of ballet. We all enjoyed her “Rockabye Baby” dance in the June recital. She is not as passionate about dance as her sister, but has a great time, especially since her best friend from school is also in her ballet class. DD2 still loves giant pandas, and has decided that she wants to be a “panda vet” when she grows up.

DH added a glider rating to his private pilot certificate this year, and in January bought into a partnership in a Beechcraft A36 Bonanza. He has flown us away for some fun trips this year; up to see my parents in Washington, to Bryce Canyon National Park, and to various spots in California. DH is planning to fly us all to Indio, California for Christmas with both sets of grandparents. He still enjoys playing guitar.

I still help breastfeeding mothers as a volunteer La Leche League Leader. I am also studying Web Development and helping in the classroom at school. I have devoted much of my time this fall to training and socializing our new Chesapeake Bay Retriever pup, Muddy.

Summer Ramblings

Another fun-filled summer!

The older two kids spent several weeks in June and July attending the KidsU summer camp at UNR. There were tons of choices of camps, and lots of kids they knew there. Good fun.

We camped with my ILs at Brown's Owens River campground for the 4th of July weekend. My FIL is on the Mammoth town council, so DS and DD1 rode with him on a float in the Mammoth parade and threw candy out to the crowd. We had a fun birthday party for my MIL at the campground and watched the fireworks.

The following weekend we flew the Bonanza over to Bryce Canyon for the weekend. None of the kids had been there, and DH and I were last there 15 years ago. We did some hiking, took lots of pictures, saw a great ranger talk on trees, and basically just enjoyed exploring the park. Bryce Canyon is two days' drive from here, but totally do-able for a weekend with the plane.

Our next voyage was our biennial visit to Australia. We tried something new this time, and rented a motorhome. This was our most relaxing Oz trip with the kids! They are already used to that mode of travel, and we didn't have to deal with checking in and out of hotels or a disrupted schedule. We'll be doing it again in the future.

It would be very easy to take the kids to Australia every two years only to visit the same people and places every time. My rellies are fairly far-flung, so we don't have time to see everyone in two weeks. We try to visit different areas each trip.

This year we made a 10-day loop starting and ending in Sydney, with the following highlights:

• The Blue Mountains (which we visited on a day trip last time)
• The outstanding Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum in Bathurst. This is the most amazing fossil collection I've ever seen, including Australia's only complete T-Rex skeleton.
• Wellington Caves
• Taronga Western Plains Zoo and Old Dubbo Gaol in Dubbo
• The Gilgandra Coo-ee Heritage Center and Rural Museum
• A visit to my Aunt and Uncle in Warren
• The Diprotodon skeleton at the Coonabarabran Visitor Centre
• Warrumbungle National Park and Siding Spring Observatory
• Apsley Falls in Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Site
• A few days in Port Macquarie catching up with my grandparents and my sister's family

We flew the Bonanza over to the Bay Area and spent a long weekend in San Francisco. The King Tut exhibition was phenomenal!

Like last year, we spent the last week of August camping at La Pine State Park in central Oregon. The kids have decided that it's an annual visit now that we've been two years running. My parents, niece and nephew came down from Washington. It was a great week of camping. Newberry National Volcanic Monument and Crater Lake National Park were awesome.

We were supposed to stay through the weekend to meet up with some people from PUX, but ended up having to leave on Thursday for an important appointment on Friday. More on that later...

1/18/98 - 6/1/09

I couldn't bring myself to blog this as a bullet-point in yesterday's "catchup" entry. Our dear Molly-monster is gone.

DH spoke about having a dog named Molly from the time we first met. Molly joined us around his birthday during the first year we were married. She was an "accident" puppy, one of the second(!) litter from an Airedale mother and the black Labrador male next door. At first she looked very much like a Lab, except for the loop in her tail. The Airedale looks crept in more as she grew. Her temperament definitely tended more towards her Airedale side!

DH and I were both working full-time (plus) when Molly became part of our family. She accompanied me to work as a pup, spending most of the day in her crate, but going out for regular breaks and a long walk/playtime over lunch.

We took "Puppy Manners" classes in the evenings her first year. There were five Bernese Mountain Dog littermates in our first series of classes. Those pups were giant teddybears, doing anything their owners asked. Molly, on the other hand, was a wild child. On the last day of class we played "pass the puppy." Each human took a turn running every puppy through their paces. The only other human who could get Molly to do anything had an Australian Shepherd. She climbed all over the Berner owners! We didn't feel quite so incompetent after that. (Looking back, this would have been a lesson to keep in mind when we became parents. It's not that those other people are better at parenting, but that they are working with a naturally more compliant temperament...)

We took Molly car-camping a few times her first spring, and then on a backpacking trip when she was six months old. She had a blast! Every patch of snow we passed was an excuse to roll and scrabble around. "Molly-the-snow-dog" was one of her many monikers.

Molly was a bundle of energy. When we still lived in WA we took her to the Marymoor Dog Area at least once a week. (There was even an espresso- and dog-treat-mobile in the parking lot!) She ran and ran and ran, keeping up with the whippets and greyhounds. We came to call the dog park "Mollymoor."

Molly was a star with the kids. High-energy, but gentle. Fun-loving. Patient. Her jaw was so soft that she couldn't keep a ball in her mouth while she ran. The nearest she ever came to biting was putting her open mouth on my forearm when I was pulling a thorn from her foot. (You can't blame her; I'm sure it hurt!)

Our poor puppy-friend succumbed to pelvic cancer. She went downhill very quickly. We were totally unprepared, especially so soon after Marilyn's death. DD2 told us that she couldn't play in the back yard anymore without Molly. Camping without her is weird. We expect to hear the jingle of her tags every time we open the back door. Three weeks later, her ghosts are still everywhere.

We will get another dog, but not quite yet. Kennedy has been given a stern talking-to about giving us some time before he goes (and about just not waking up one morning, rather than having some great health crisis that forces us to make the hard decision!).

Mid-year Update

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this blog!

The ski weekend was great fun. The kids were fine at home with my ILs, and made it everywhere they were supposed to be while we were gone. We enjoyed the skiing and the companionship of good friends. My worries about not having skied for years were all for naught; apparently I'm in good enough shape to pick it up again without any problems.


We had so much fun skiing that we put all three kids in ski school; twice at Mammoth and once at Alpine Meadows. They had a blast, so we're looking forward to next season!

DD1 did her Primary level RAD exam in May. She had a great time, and was a little sad that she doesn't get to do another exam for two years. Both girls had their ballet recitals a couple of weeks ago. They were wonderful.

DS played in his first piano recital the day after the ballet recitals. It was a great experience; an intimate recital hall at the Steinway Gallery, friends there to hear him play, and cake afterwards. He was told to dress up, so he wore the suit we bought for his James Bond Halloween constume!

We flew up to Jefferson County, Washington to stay with my parents over Memorial Day weekend. This was our first family trip in the plane. We had a fun weekend and beautiful flights both ways. The cousins had a great time together. We stopped in Bend, OR on our way home to get lunch and visit the High Desert Museum. Central OR is a favorite area of ours, and we see the High Desert Museum on a fairly regular basis.

So far this year we've spent 9 nights in our popup camper. We usually stay at a KOA for Mother's Day weekend when they do their free night of camping fundraiser for camps for kids with cancer. This year we went to the Stockton Delta. We won a free weekend in a raffle, so ended up there two weekends in a row. We've also been to Eagle Lake a couple of times. It's rapidly becoming our favorite camping spot.

I haven't read many books lately. It's spring, so I'm caught in the grips of PCT journals (on postholer and TrailJournals). There are a couple of great reads I should mention: The Long Walk and Cactus Eaters.

Alone at last!

DH and I are on our way to Jackson Hole for a long weekend sans kids.
A friend has a house there, and several people are going for a week-
long ski trip. We're not quite ready to leave the kids for that long.
My ILs are holding down the fort. Writing down the kids' schedule for
four days made me realize why I'm always so tired! Between school
dropoff this morning and bedtime Monday there are swimming lessons,
swim club practice, piano lesson and ballet (not to mention homework
and daily music practice)!
I'm a little nervous about the actual skiing. I have new boots and new
ski clothes, but I haven't skiied since before DD1. And then only one
time since before DS. My last real ski season was 98-99. Ten years
ago! Ack!
I'm now two weeks into the semester in my Web Development class. It's
online, but we had a lab in the first week to get us up to speed with
the software. There's a kid who takes swimming lessons at the same
time as DS and DD2 who goes to their school, and his father is in my
class. Small world. Anyway, I'm really enjoying the "work." Moderately
lame class webpage at http:/www.tmcc.nevada.edu/~mccarro5/.

New Year, New Adventure

As of yesterday, DH owns a one-third share of a Bonanza. He's looking forward to flying more (although he's been soaring a lot lately, and is almost ready for his checkride), and the rest of us are looking forward to the travel opportunities that will be open to us. He has some work to do to get up to speed in the Bonanza first.

DH has been preparing to buy into the partnership for a while now. He had a mechanic look things over, checked the title and logs, had some lawyers help with the partnership agreement, all that good stuff.

Over Thanksgiving weekend we borrowed the keys to the hangar, and went and made airplane noises. Our new partners are two very interesting retired couples. We're looking forward to getting to know them better.

2008 In Review

Based on our 2008 Christmas letter:

This summer we visited DH’s relatives in Norway, spending time at both the family farm and the mountain cabin. We bracketed our time there with two visits to the UK; the first to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the second to London. Most of the wonderful historic sites we visited were featured in the Harry Potter movies. Our kids’ familiarity with these movies kept them interested in seeing what could otherwise have been just a lot of boring old buildings.

We continue to enjoy time in our popup camper. Other than a weeklong trip in August to central Oregon, this year we stayed closer to home; mostly weekend stays in the Sierras. In June we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with a trip to June Lake, California, where we camped with my brother and his family. The kids are missing the camper now that it’s been put away for the winter.

DS is 8. He made his First Communion in April. DS is in third grade this year, and is attending school after home schooling for the past two years. The new environment seems to agree with him; he has earned an A in “citizenship” on his report cards! He is in the basketball and swim clubs at school as well as continuing with weekly swimming lessons. In March he began piano lessons. He is becoming quite the James Bond fan, and even dressed up as 007 for Halloween.

DD1 is 6 and is in first grade. She is attending the same science-focus charter school as DS and is enthusiastic about all the new things she is learning. DD1 is in the jump rope and swim clubs at school. She was the only first-grader accepted into the swim club; her hard work at swimming lessons is paying off! This is her fourth year studying ballet. She did her pre-primary level Royal Academy of Dance exam in May, and led her class’ performance in their June recital.

DD2 is 3. She started preschool in August. DD2 is taking Spanish lessons at school, and often slips Spanish words into conversation. In June we had the pleasure of attending her first ballet recital. DD2 still loves giant pandas, and has adopted “Panda” as her nickname. She enjoys art, swimming and playing with her baby dolls.

DH has continued guitar lessons this year. He is having fun working towards adding a glider rating to his private pilot certificate. I still help breastfeeding mothers as a volunteer La Leche League Leader. I will be returning to school part time starting in January. We both enjoyed catching up with old friends at our 15th Stanford reunion this October, and enjoyed another relaxing Christmas vacation in Jamaica.

All our love and best wishes for a wonderful 2009!

Homeward Bound

Our week in Jamaica was wonderful, albeit way too short. We flew to Dallas yesterday. The flight was delayed four hours. I would have very much preferred to have spent that time relaxing at the beach rather than waiting at the airport with three children! I hope this morning's flight home to Reno is on time...

Merry Christmas, Mon!

The kids composed a song last year: "We're going to Jamaica today!"

On our way to Jamaica

We spent Christmas week 2007 at Beaches Sandy Bay with my ILs, and signed up for this Christmas before we came home. Tonight we're spending the night in Dallas, having at least learned that the red-eye is NOT the way to travel with children. The DFW Grand Hyatt is very comfortable, and I think we'll all sleep well after a superb dinner. Hopefully we'll have time for a dip in the rooftop pool before our flight tomorrow. I'm looking forward to a warm week on the beach. No gale-force winds, icy roads, or snow to shovel!

Rest in Peace, Kitty Girl

Yesterday we said goodbye to a good friend. Marilyn (and her brother Kennedy) moved in with me in July 1995. We had 13 1/2 great years with her. Her health took a rapid turn for the worse lately, we think due to a brain tumor and/or strokes. There was nothing to be done, so we enjoyed our last few weeks together, and tried to prepare the children as best we could. It was still hard for them, but it was time for her to go; she had stopped purring.

15th Reunion

This weekend was DH's and my 15th Stanford reunion. The festivities ran Thursday through Sunday, but we just went for Saturday. We left Reno after dinner on Friday, arriving at the hotel around midnight. The snow that was falling all day on Friday cleared just in time for us to leave.

After a quick continental breakfast (we were too late for the one at the reunion) we headed to campus. The kids enjoyed the face-painting and temporary tattoos at the "kids tailgater," but were a bit suspicious of the clowns! We showed them around, and spent most of the day at our "class tailgater" -- a big tent with a bar and food where we could hang out and connect with classmates. The food was good, and we saw most of the people we wanted to see. The kids went to "camp" in the afternoon while we went to the football game. Stanford even won, by one point at the very end of the 4th quarter! A fun day, all in all.

For dinner we hit Su Hong, our favorite chinese restaurant from our Stanford days. At the time my parents lived quite close to campus, and Su Hong was also their favorite. DH and I were married on campus, and the next morning had a family-only present opening brunch with food from Su Hong. Good memories. Unfortunately the stars were not aligned this time. DD2 had an upset tummy, and by the time I got out of the bathroom with her the others had finished eating and the (very tired) kids were misbehaving. There's nothing like eating cold food by yourself in a crowded restaurant! It was still yummy, though...

On our way out of the bay area on Sunday morning we ate at the Country Way in Fremont. This is a few blocks from where one of my sisters lived for many years. We found it one time when we were visiting them, and have made it a tradition when we go to the bay area. I think I'm going to have to insist that we go to the Su Hong Sunday brunch sometimes though; we always used to enjoy that!

The drive home was noisy but uneventful. My ILs were unexpectedly staying with us on Sunday night, so our poor kids didn't get to bed early.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for all three kids, and all three were starting at a new school. I think everyone had a good time, but despite my efforts to have them in bed early over the past week, they're all showing signs of extreme tiredness. (The yelling and hitting one another signs, unfortunately!) I don't think it helped that they were all up super early this morning.

DD2 had a great first day of preschool. She's had at least one older sibling at school there since she was born, so is completely comfortable with the environment and knows everyone. I think we were interrupting her play when we said goodbye! It was very exciting to have a lunchbox packed for school.

DD1 was very excited to finally be in first grade! Last night she admitted to being a bit nervous, but seemed relieved when I pointed out that it was everyone's first day there, including the teacher. Today was a half day, ending before lunch. By the time we picked her up she had friends that required hugging before she could leave. Always a good sign. (Oh, and they did math and talked about the rules, too...)

DS was the one we were concerned about. He has been home schooled since Thanksgiving of 2006 after a disastrous beginning to first grade. Not only has he not been in a classroom environment for almost two years, he has some extremely bad memories of his last new school. (To say that it was the wrong place for him is quite the understatement!) This morning seems to have gone well. He's quiet about things, but did mention that it was one of his best first days of school ever. He has a friend. They did some fun "getting to know one another" activities.

Coral finished at 11:25 am today, so we took the older two out for lunch before picking up DD2 at 1 pm. What did I do with the first morning I've ever had all my kids in school? I went out for coffee with DH. First things first.

Back to England (July 8 - July 9)

After flying in from Oslo, we caught the Gatwick Express into London. Blurry picture from a moving train of the Battersea power station, featured on the cover of Pink Floyd's "Animals."

The last few days of our trip were rather more structured than we're used to, as I had arranged tours with London Taxi Tours. (Check out our picture on their testimonials page!) This was a bit of a gamble with three young children, but worked out extremely well. With just the five of us in a taxi, the tours were tailored to our interests and easily adjusted for the children. I highly recommend the company!

On Wednesday we did a full-day tour to Bath and Stonehenge. I visited Stonehenge and the Romans Baths when my school choir toured in England 20 years ago. DH had never seen either. We were able to see parts of Bath that were inaccessible by motor-coach, too. It rained most of the day, but we didn't let that stop us.

Norway (July 3 - July 8)

On Thursday, July 3rd, we drove from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Edinburgh to catch a plane to Oslo. We had no time to stop for any length of time on the way up, but the road was good and we enjoyed the scenery. Although we were booked on a Norwegian flight our crew and aircraft were from Hola! Airlines. There was a lone representative from Norwegian who translated all the announcements (made in Spanish and English) into Norwegian.

We spent two nights at the farm, where my MIL visited her mother's parents as a child, and which now belongs to her brother. This was the first time I had met his partner; she is really sweet and a great cook.

We spent the 4th of July in Oslo proper, visiting the Natural History museum and spending time with DH's grandfather (Bestefar, "best father"). Unfortunately we missed his grandmother (Bestemor, "best mother") by just a couple of weeks, as she passed away while we were on our anniversary camping trip. We called my MIL on speaker phone for her birthday. It was quite funny hearing what the kids chose to tell Grandma about our trip.

On Saturday, July 5th, we drove from the farm to the mountain cabin ("hytte" in Norwegian). This is a required part of a visit to Norway for us. It was built in ~1912 by my MIL's paternal grandfather, with some additions built on later. (During our time at Stanford, DH came home from a trip to Norway somewhat startled because the cabin now had electricity.)

Last time we were in Norway, we took the kids to the "badeland" ("swimming land" or water park) at the airport Clarion hotel, just a few minutes drive from the farm. They were looking forward to going there again. Unfortunately, the Clarion badeland closed permanently just a few days before we arrived this year! We made it up to the kids by stopping at the Tropicana Badeland at Per's resort in Gol on our way to the cabin. Great fun, although I was surprised to see so many overweight Norwegians.

(DH and I have taken to referring to the Tropicana Badeland as "Per's well." There exists family legend that Per once interrupted my FIL bathing in the well at the cabin. The well was shared by several cabins, and was everyone's source of drinking water. Needless to say, Per was less than pleased to find some american there with his bar of soap! These days we have running water and a shower in the cabin, so no-one need resort to such extreme measures.)

The children especially enjoy the upstairs bedroom at the cabin. As you can see from the picture, the doorway is only slightly taller than three year-old DD2. The stairway is kid-sized, too; it's more like a ladder for adults. There are lots of interesting toys stored up there!

We had a relaxing time at the cabin despite some cold, rainy weather. Kite flying, hiking, fishing (no fish, as the river was too high), and plenty of games of Yahtzee. DH's uncle cooked us a wonderful meal of trout he caught while up at the cabin the weekend before. It was lucky that he had frozen some, or we wouldn't have had any fish! On Sunday we had roast ham; Bestemor had planned this meal for us before she died, and was very insistent that we have it.

On our return to Oslo we wandered through Frognerparken and Vigelandparken, visited Bestefar, and had a nice dinner at Holmenkollen. (Bestefar was once a ski-jumper, testing out the jump before competitions.)

On Tuesday evening we flew to London Gatwick. Norway is wonderfully child-friendly. The kids had a great time at the concourse playground while we were waiting for our flight.

To England and Around Newcastle (June 27 - July 3)

On Friday, June 27th we drove from Reno to San Francisco. We saw a small patch of blue sky as we crossed Donner Pass, but otherwise it was smoky the entire way. Pretty amazing.

Our flight to London was as good as can reasonably be expected. DD2 slept most of the way, but DS and DD1 slept for only 3 hours. They are quite enamored with on demand in-flight entertainment...

We spent one night in London, and then caught a train north to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. From there we visited Alnwick Castle (used for the outside of Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter movies) and Hadrian's Wall.

Newcastle has a nice Discovery Museum, which is very kid-friendly, and a great mix of hands-on science and local history. DD2 especially enjoyed "washing" her hands at the giant tap in the water and sanitation display.


I had tried to keep our plans simple, since traveling with three young children can be somewhat unpredictable, but we also managed to squeeze in a visit to Durham Cathedral. This building is amazing in it's own right, but was also used in HP. Our tour guide at Alnwick was quite amused by the computer editing done in the movies; "they put Durham Cathedral's towers there, the Quidditch pitch there, and over there was Scotland." Apparently one of the narrow cobblestone streets in Durham was used for Diagon Alley, but we didn't have enough information to get the exact location.

DH enjoyed the local brew.

On Thursday we drove to Edinburgh to catch a plane to Oslo.

June? What June?

I get the impression that many people have a quiet, relaxing summer break. In our family, on the other hand, it seems that we take a deep breath at the beginning of June and run flat out until school starts again in the fall.

DD1 finished Kindergarten at the beginning of the month. On May 30th the school held a "Kindergarten Celebration," where the classes sang songs, played their recorders and generally celebrated the end of Kindergarten. Poor DD1 missed it; she came down with a tummy bug earlier that day. I didn't bother mentioning to her that we wouldn't be going, but at 6:15pm, when the children were supposed to be dropped off at their classrooms, she stumbled downstairs very sad. "I worked SO hard on my songs, and now I don't even get to go..." We took her out to breakfast (at the Truckee Squeeze In) on Sunday for a family celebration.

Both girls had their spring ballet recitals on the Saturday of Father's Day weekend. The school is big enough that there are two performances, one at 2pm and the other at 7pm, and of course we had a daughter in each show. This was DD2's first time on stage, and she truly rose to the challenge. I imagine the Pioneer Center could be quite intimidating for a 3 year old. DD1 was a star, leading most of her class' dance.

DH and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on the 21st. As has become tradition, we went camping. We met up with my brother and his family at Oh Ridge campground at June Lake, CA. They live in San Diego and were camping in Yosemite prior to meeting us. It was a zoo with the 7 kids and 2 dogs running around, but we all had a good time.

Last week was pretty gross in Reno. Smoke from the Northern CA fires funneled through Donner Pass, and we spent most of the week under a level 2 smog alert. That means we were supposed to stay inside with air conditioning as much as possible and avoid physical exertion outside. DD1 didn't get to play outside at summer camp, and poor DS' swim camp turned into an indoor day camp. I was bummed not getting to go on my nice walks outside.