Sailing

While my sister is in town from Petersburg, AK, we thought it would be fun to get all of us kids together and go out sailing with our dad, something none of us has done since Mom and Dad sold their sailboat several years ago.  We all had so much fun recounting the memories from our sailing trips together and sailboat races on Lake Washington.  We went on a charted sailboat called "Neptune's Car", a 70' racing sailboat chartered through www.sailingseattle.com, a company owned by a the parents of someone I work with.  It was a gorgeous evening for a sail, with moments of dead calm as well as big winds that had us keeled over so far I was struggling to stay on the deck!  We all had a wonderful time.

Paul, me, Dad, Dean, and Mary in the front, waiting for our departure from the dock.

Such a beautiful city!  I love Seattle!

A moment of calm.  The boat in the distance is the second chartered boat that went out with us, named "Obsession".

Buzz, Dean and Paul

Our captain, Brent

Me and Dean, and this was where I was struggling to keep from sliding off the deck!

From left, Rodney, Mindy and Evelyn (Mary's friends visiting from Petersburg, AK), Paul, Jill (nice reflective tape!!), Dean, Buzz, me, and Mary in the front.

Happy Birthday, Eddie!

Today is Eddie's birthday, and to celebrate, we went out to a nice dinner in downtown Seattle at the Purple Cafe & Wine Bar, then we went to hear the Seattle Symphony play the music composed by Nobuo Uematsu for the Final Fantasy video games.  The performance was wonderful, and especially fun for Riley, who knew all the music and caught all the funny things that appeared on the screen above the stage, where they were displaying scenes from all the versions of the game.  A very fun evening in the big city for us!!

Happy Independence Day!!

Our neighborhood had a kids' bike parade today to celebrate the 4th.  Everyone gathered right outside our house, then paraded through the whole neighborhood.  Riley's bike was decked out with streamers, pinwheels, and, believe it or not, napkins!  Yes, napkins decorated like flags were what we had on hand to decorate, and they worked perfectly as we used them to wrap around the frame of his bike, and we taped some to the bag on the back of his bike.  His bike was more decked out than all the others, and he told a neighbor that he felt "overdressed" for the occasion!  

We had a wonderful Independence Day, first with the parade, some fab BBQ courtesy of Eddie, then a beautiful fireworks display over Vashon Island which we watched from a private perch on a bluff over the water, under a gazebo surrounded by tall trees, with a deer resting for the night in the field nearby.  

This Independence Day I focused on the gratitude I have for our freedom as unschoolers.  I feel grateful to live in a country where we are free to make so many personal choices, and to live in a state that makes it easy to do what we believe is best for our child by keeping him out of the institutionalized system called "school", and live a life where he can be free to dream, to learn in his own time, and to Be Who He Is.  Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Ugliest. Cake. Ever.

I made a small carrot cake for Ed for Father's Day this weekend.  I set the cake out to cool before Ed and I were heading out for a walk.  I said I wanted to wait a few minutes for the cake to cool then turn it out onto a rack before we left for our walk.  Ed was anxious to get going, so while I turned my back, he went ahead and dumped it out, but because it was so hot, only half came out with the rest sticking to the pan.  So I ended up having to scoop the rest out and try to piece it back together, which was pretty much impossible.  So when it came time to frost it (LOVE that cream cheese frosting!), of course it was all in pieces and didn't frost too well.  Good thing it didn't taste as bad as it looked - it still tasted wonderful!

Love and joy to all the Fathers out there - thanks for all that you do for your families!

Riley's:

Bleu thinks she's hiding.

Ed mentioned that Bleu looks like the Harry Potter of cats with her lightening bolt mark on her forehead.  So far, we haven't seen her perform any magic, unless you can call shedding and sleeping magic.

Riley's:

While eating dinner tonight, we saw this cute little wild rabbit in our side yard.  It was desperately trying to get through our fence into our back yard, probably thinking there was something to eat back there.  There isn't.  It eventually managed to get into the backyard somehow, and Riley went out and followed it around the yard for a while (it let Riley get very close to it), then Riley opened the gate to the back part of the yard where there's LOTS for it to eat, and gently shooed it through the gate.

Jody's:

Riley and I have been collecting state quarters for years, and yesterday we FINALLY found the last one, which was Arizona.  I found it in some change someone gave me to pay for postage at work.  I had a hunch it was the last quarter we needed, but wasn't sure, so I replaced it with another quarter from my own purse and brought it home.  Sure enough, it was the last one we needed!  It was fun to collect all these quarters and see the images each state chose to represent their territory.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm ... need I say more???

Road Trip!

Today I took a road trip by myself up to beautiful Anacortes, WA to see my dear friend and old college roomie, Sara.  We had a great time visiting!  First she cut my hair at her salon, then we went to the Farmer's Market and bought some fabulous artisan bread and specialty cheeses, had a fabulous lunch at the Adrift restaurant, then went back to her house and looked at photos from her trip to Nepal while sitting (and dozing) in the sun on her back deck.  And of course, we had some wonderful conversation!

I had forgotten how beautiful Skagit County is - it's been a while since I've been up there.  In this picture you can see Mt. Baker, which is in the northern part of our state, and in the next photo you can barely make out Mt. Rainier (just above the white roof), which is about in the middle part of our state, down closer to where we live.  The farmland up here is so pretty!

Visitors

We got some surprise visitors to our back yard early this morning.  They were busy digging for grubs!

Low Tide

We knew that there was an incredibly low tide today around 12:30 PM, so we went to the beach in our neighborhood to check it out.  This was our first visit to the beach by our new house, and what a cool beach it is!  There are all kinds of huge cement structures and some really cool rock and driftwood formations.  Riley took some great photos - here are a few.

A Canada Goose - he must have made a wrong turn and ended up in the US!

A seagull skull!

Later that afternoon, Riley pulled out his BB gun and did some target shooting.

Love his Daniel Boone hat!  He wears it whenever he shoots his BB gun or rides his bike.

Rocketman

This is what greets me most afternoons when I come home from work as I go upstairs to change my clothes.  I love how Rocket does his little roll over.

Ed's Photos, Jody's comments:

Bleu, the Lioness, absolutely LOVES to be outside. It took me half an hour to comb the dirt and bark out of her hair. This is one of the reasons why she is an indoor cat! But we just can't deny her the simple pleasure of being outside with us on a beautiful spring day.




Our beautiful boy.




Riley and I finally got around to planting our sunflower plants. Amazing how fast they grow. We hope to have lots of big, beautiful sunflower to feed the birds, and Pig the Hamster, of course!

Jody's:

Riley has been riding his bike so much lately.  After dinner I caught him riding around the back patio, while he was keeping his eye on Bleu (she's hiding behind the handlebars of the other bike).

A Beautiful Sunday

Today we had a picnic dinner of bagels with cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers & onions, and oranges and peaches and cookies ... all while at the beach enjoying this gorgeous view, watching the boats cruise through the channel.  What an awesome day!

Our sunflower seeds have sprouted!  They're growing SO fast!

"Mask"

What is it with this boy and masking tape?  Recently, every night when I come home from work I see his face covered in some sort of masking tape design.

Happy Easter!

I just realized that this is my 365th day of posts! A full year of pictures! Wow, it went by quickly. I didn't post a picture every day, and my posts dropped off significantly after I went back to work last June, but as I look back today on the year of pictures, I realize how much fun I had participating with this project (AND how much has changed in our lives in just a year's time!). I think I'll keep going with this blog. But I'm allowing myself to not feel pressure to post so many photos. I'll update when I can, when I feel I have photos worthy of sharing. Thanks to everyone who checks my blog regularly, and not so regularly.

Peace and Love, Jody

Jody's & Riley's:

A boy + a flame + wooden toothpicks = fun with fire!

Check out this great video Riley took of Pig in his roller ball:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mEfrtEzl0c

Riley's:

Riley caught Bleu cuddling with the Easter Bunny!