Ice cream eater

First real hike

It was a perfect Memorial Day weekend: gardening, family (saw Lori, Abigail, and Pat at Folklife!), friends, and...a climactic hike in St. Edwards State Park!

It was probably about a mile down through the woods to Lake Washington. The trail was steep in some places, but Tristen had his trusty broom handle -- er, walking stick. Ruby opted for a real walking stick, but she called it "doggie" the whole time. Funny kids.

We couldn't believe that Tristen and Ruby both made it all the way down and all the way back up -- after a picnic and some teeth-chattering time in the lake, no less. There was virtually no whining, and they even ran the last several hundred yards. The kids were fascinated by slugs (most were brown, but we saw one banana slug!), dog poop (I wish I didn't have to report this -- but Tristen was so obsessed, it would practically be dishonest to leave it out), and plants. We showed them the "ouchy plant," stinging nettle -- there was quite a lot of it along the trail -- and hours later they were able to point it out among the salmonberry without even being prompted.

But the real star was Erin, carrying baby Luca the whole time -- well, and baby Luca, who pretty much just slept and ate like a good baby should. :)

We also had a gorgeous afternoon and evening up in Bellingham with Vicki, Ross, Jember, Jonas, and neighbor Elizabeth. Hey Vicki, send pix!

Raised beds!

At the new house, we're taking a more sane approach to our gardening projects: no backhoes, work crews, regrading, clean slates, or attempts to plant it all out all at once. Rather, we're working on a few square feet at a time. Last weekend, we tamed a corner of the border gardens in the backyard. Sometime soon, we'll do another little patch.


And in the front yard, we're putting in raised bed gardens. We purchased kits instead of making our own this time. We'll probably just leave the grass around them for this season and gradually transform the whole front yard to beds, mounds, and chipped walkways.

Oldies but goodies

Over the last month, we've been able to reconnect with two parts of our extended family from Helena and our good friend Phil, from Madison.

Early in the month, Frank, Beth, and Maddie stopped by during their spring breakation and quest for an industrial-strength sewing machine. Pasta dinner, visit to the aquarium, kite-flying, and fancy drinks with Chinese food made for some nice catching up. As usual, they inspired us with remodel stories. And check out Beth's latest quilted wall art: she's doing landscapes now!


This last weekend, the Jenkins dropped in. Brian is canvassing for Greenpeace in Seattle, and Margaret, Carol, and huge German shepherd Cooper brought the camper van over for a visit. One night wasn't enough!


We've also been able to hang out with Phil, in town for a week-long neurology conference. Last night, Gena babysat for us while we went out for dinner and darts (Phil officially won) and confirmed that Bowmore is, in fact, an Islay Scotch whiskey.

What is Islay all about? We didn't know either, though we knew that it was different from "highland" -- the other kind of Scotch. Turns out, Islay (pronounced "ai lay") is the fifth largest Scottish island (the Isle of Islay!). Bowmore is the capital. According to Wikipedia, there are eight distilleries on the island. Distilleries on the north side of the island produce Scotch with a very peaty flavor. The southern distilleries are "lighter." Bowmore is on the south side, which surprises me, because I consider it fairly peaty. Now I must try "Ardbeg, Lagavulin, and Laphroaig!"


Yay for old friends!

Easter

Tristen and I visited Grandma and Grandpa for Easter. We usually visit in February or March, but this year we decided to horn in on the huge egg hunt Mom throws for the grandkids every year. Tristen had never hunted for eggs and didn't even know who the Easter bunny was when we got there. But he sure gets it all now!

Some highlights:

• Cousins! Tristen and Elaina were fast friends, as usual. They raced their baby strollers around, had tea parties, dropped matchbox cars down Grandma's homemade ramp (an old piece of house siding), played with playdough, and snuggled up for movie time.
• Will and Ashten: go-fish sharks. Great kids!
• Dena was in fab-u form for someone recovering from salmonella poisoning.
• Bowling! I got to sip an especially yummy, extra-dirty, extra-olivey martini while watching Bo, Dena, JB, and Jennifer round out the bowling season. Third place for the season!
• Bath time at Grandma's.
• Mom and I tried to get Tristen to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, but he would only stand nearby and stare. Mom took the lap spot in the end.
• Lunch at Olga's with Mom and Carol (Simcox!). Has Carol aged in the last two decades?
• Fun catching up with childhood friend Jeff (Simcox!), also in town for Easter.
• Nice chats with Mom while Tristen napped.
• Evenings on the couch with wine, knitting, movies. Very relaxing!
• An afternoon visit with Mr. and Mrs. Renken. Mrs. Renken had made us cinnamon roll coffee cake -- and she had a special Easter surprise for Tristen. So great to see those guys doing so well!
• Roger -- my partner in crime.
• I had a nice chat with Mrs. Cox, too, after a sunny run on my high school route down Union School Road.
• Pizza with all the Alton Marshalls, Iowa Marshalls, and Sharon and Steve, too. Loud, chaotic, fun.
• The elusive Eleanor quit winning things long enough to join us this time. She had a cold, but persevered. Thank you, Eleanor!
• Easter morning: what would the Midwest be without bacon gravy?
• Afternoon walk with Keith. Memories are written in the cursive of tree branches...
• Easter evening at Bo and Dena's -- thanks for letting me fall asleep on the couch in the middle of it all!

And the egg dying, Easter bunny, and egg hunt? Check out the pix below.

Eleanor's op-ed

Hi everyone! Niece Eleanor had an op-ed posted in her school newspaper. It's a very insightful piece called, "Dude, where's my life?" My favorite line: "We don’t have time to walk our own dogs, but we’re happy to walk abandoned shelter puppies." Check it out.

Spring Break 2009

March and early April were busy months at the Marshall-Krumm house -- months full of family, friends, and fun!

For starters, we were lucky enough to score Abigail for Spring Break. She obtained her Wilderness First Responder certification -- after 10 days of intense training. It was so great to have "Aagavil," as Tristen calls her, around. She was fun and full of energy and so handy with the tot. Tristen and Abigail made amazing, vegan, no-recipe cookies twice; cooked oatmeal together; read stories; and just generally became fast friends. We'll look forward to seeing Abigail again when we visit the edible forest garden she's spearheading at Evergreen.

We also enjoyed having Mathew around for a few days -- he was up from California to pick up a new prop for one of his boats. He and Chris even got out for a day to kayak on Lake Washington in the baidarkas. Mathew is a kayak instructor, and we actually met him when we were building our boats.

We rounded out the Spring Break with a visit from Sister Sharon, in town on business. All in all, a nice way to bid winter farewell (we hope) -- and a great prelude to other fun April activities I'll document soon.