Spring Break 2019 (Going South to AZ) Video

I apparently never put this up here. I like having a place to easily find these snippets of the past. Here is last year's spring break trip to the Grand Canyon and Tucson. (What a different sort of spring break than this year, amid the great coronavirus pandemic of 2020!)

Eliza's Dance Recital Spring 2019

Eliza took a ballet and a tap class at the dance studio last year. She enjoyed both, and I loved watching her learn in both classes. I especially liked seeing her tap skills. I think someday I'd like to take a tap class--it looked so fun! She got to be in two dance routines in the recital. And best news to her? Two costumes! I think she liked the ballet costume better, but the tap dance better. So we just need a hybrid and she'll be happiest. The stage, with all its accompanying makeup and applause, suits some people better than others. When I was a child I enjoyed the hubbub but got terrible nerves. I think Eliza liked it a lot and didn't seem to be too fazed by any of the tummy butterflies I struggled with. Whether she continues to want to perform or not, I hope she always dances. I've seen music and dancing in her very bones since she was a baby and I hope she finds joy in movement and music through her life.

Christmas Video from 2017

Found in the deep recesses of my files. I think I was thinking to send this out as part of our holiday greeting in 2017 but never got around to it. Originally it was just under a minute and mostly generic clips of kids hands playing with nativities. Sweet but not too special or personal. Then I started watching all the clips of the kids talking and I realized there were too many gems to ignore. And the remnants of their accents?! Too cute. I'm feeling nostalgic and wanting all the memories, so here is five minutes of time from a couple years ago. I think it will just get more precious to me the further away from that time we go. I almost cut out all of the parts with my voice asking questions. I decided to keep them after all, realizing that probably most of what my kids will someday have is this. My image shows up rarely in these kinds of things but they'll have my voice--sometimes strained, sometimes laughing. 

Northern California Video

Feeling Small Among the Giant Redwoods

Waiting for baby, summer 2018. We headed north to Eureka and the Avenue of the Giants. Wow, were those trees a sight. It was just the best smelling, most gorgeous light filtering, ancient, grounding, centering forest. I felt so calm just standing in their presence. Eddy found a banana slug. It had a name, although now two years on I don't remember it. Perhaps the children still do. I'll have to ask them in the morning.

We found Glass Beach, but could only look down from above. There was another sandy, sea smoothed glassy inlet a ways down the coast that we played in. We took only pictures (and picked up a few glass shards on the walk back to the parking lot). The tide had brought in the most amazing collection of seaweed. The textures and colors were otherworldly. I knew the names of some of them from the Monterey Aquarium but there were many others we couldn't identify and had to make up names as if we were the discoverers.

Almost back home but still up for one last little adventure we popped into the Peanuts/Charles Schultz museum. It was ten minutes before closing so they let us in for free and we dashed in. We saw his writing and drawing desk and office set up, played with cartoon props and had a fun time reminiscing.

It was the perfect close-but-not-too-close to home trip to pass the time before baby.

Family Pictures 2019 (Standford)

I keep trying to exchange favors with a friend for family pictures before Christmas but so far it hasn't worked out. Cue the handy dandy tripod and off we go for an adventure in self timers. We hit up Standford one Saturday evening for their pretty arcades and gardens. We were in and out in 45 minutes and had a shot or two for the Christmas card we wanted to send. That deserved a stop at Yogurtland on the way home for sure.