Just another day in Paradise.

Just another day in Paradise.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Return to Whistler

 Views from the Peak2Peak Gondola.  Amazing.
 










 




                                                       The kids and their ski instructor Bruce.


                                                                      The kids parents.
















                                                          View from glass-bottomed Gondola





 






We came, we saw, we skiied.  After checking out what our friendly neighbors to the North had to offer in the summer, we knew it was only a matter of time before we would be back and we got an offer we couldn't refuse - free lodging and good friends (McArthur's) to spend time with.  We swapped real school for ski school and I would do it again in a second. I learned that I prefer skiing to snowboarding, and we were spoiled with perfect weather conditions and tons of runs to choose from.  The best part was probably skiing with the kids.  We rode to the top of Whistler mountain, skiied down a bit, took a lift back to the top, crossed over to Blackcomb mountain on the 1.88 mile Peak2Peak Gondola and skiied down to the base with Avery and Miles.  Here's a little (shaky) glimpse of our adventure:

Monday, January 14, 2013

9!

 
 
 

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Um, How do you spell that?

There always seems to be a funny story about what people name their kids, either in the news or passed around among friends.  Some of the most famous (Lemongello and Orangegello) have been written off as urban legend, but I don't know if that's because even once a true story starts getting sent as a mass email it's truthfulness becomes suspect or what.  (I am actually quite positive that someone has named their children these names, I just don't know about the accuracy of surrounding details).  Recently in the news someone named their baby Hashtag - a girl.  When you have family members and friends who are teachers or doctors you often get to hear of some good ones.  Some of my favorites include:

-Velvet and Velvida (sp?)(twins)
-Pajama (pa-juh-may)
- Courvoisier
- Amazion
-La-A (la-dash-a) (this name has been seen and confirmed by two people I know and trust - in  different hospitals!)
- Million Dollar Baby (if someone can legally become Metta World Peace or Trout Fishing in America then why the heck not?)

Since it is football season, which always brings some delightful names into the spotlight, I thought this spoof was pretty funny:



And for the record, using suspect judgement when naming children is not unique to any one race or nationality.  Except for in Iceland, where we learned recently that you can only select your childs name from a state approved list, even if it is a nice name with a nice meaning.  In fact here is a spoof on the excellent baby-namers from the state of Utah for good measure:



What are some of your favorite names you've heard?

Friday, January 4, 2013

2013!

Alright (sound of knuckles cracking) here we go.  New year, new resolve.  The last few years the first post of January has been a recap of the last year and an explanation of my planned resolution/philosophy for improvement. I think I will save the recap for a seperate entry, but I will take a minute to revisit my 2012 resolution to see how I did:

whatever it is that you find to do, you do it with all your might.

I found that this mantra is empowering.  I am often telling my kids things like - since you have to be at [school, music lessons, sports practice, the dinner table], you might as well enjoy it and make it the best experience possible, and it is kind of an extension of that.  If I am going to be at the gym working out, why not push a little harder while I am there?  I'm going to expose my crazy a little bit here, but when I am instructed to do something that requires immense exertion and perserverence, I sometimes pretend that I am being tortured by an evil warlord who are going to do something bad to my kids if I don't complete the task.  And when I am practicing yoga, I pretend that I am in the Olympics and being judged on my form.  You can laugh, but I recently earned a silver medal for my chaturanga. (Actually I'm pretty certain the competition of any sort goes completely against yogic philosophy but whatever, I always forget to check that part of my nature at the door).  I employ similar methods of imbuing self-confidence elsewhere - when cleaning house, why not be a professional house keeper with attention to detail (if only I could do my job once a week!), in real estate, I treat every transaction from the perpective that it is my own money involved in the ultimate purchase.  Whatever it is that you find to do, why not do it with all of your might?

So that leads us to 2013 and a new resolution.  (I can tell you that it is not nutrition related, as we kicked off the new year with cornmeal waffles (a la Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland) topped with spicy sausage, topped with fried chicken (Bon Apetit February 2012), topped with a fried egg, slathered in melted butter, maple sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon.  It wasn't really neccessary to eat again until January 2nd)  The underlying theme for this year has to do with being the best parent I can be and cherishing the fleeting moments with the kids that I chose to have.  But the overarching goal is to take more pictures and video of the kids.  I was inspired sometime last year by the film Two Brothers, part of the 5000 Days Project.  There may be nothing better than looking back at home movies or photos.  Of your kids, of yourself, of friends.  I keep every Christmas card I get because I know that one day I will love to have those to look back and remember people that were in my life at all stages.  So recording memories in general is important to me. Hence the time spent blogging and journaling and cataloging digital images.  It's the closest thing that I can fathom to time travel.  However, to make things more meaningful, more intentional and more valuable to me as a parent, we are doing our own version of the 5000 Days Project (if you haven't seen this already, I highly encourage it, it is free to watch online).  We started with a video interview of the kids on the night before the first day of school - a tradition we will continue...although next year dad will know that you can't hold a camera vertical when taking video (Ben - you can't hold a camera sideways when videotaping).  We ask basic questions - what is your name, age, favorite things in a variety of categories...and deeper into the interview the questions are supposed to be more probing - what makes you scared, if you could be the boss of the world what would you change, etc.  I think it is a little bit of a disadvantage to be a parent interviewing your own child but maybe we can remedy that in the future. 

So in addition to the first day of school interview I thought it would be fun for the kids to tape their new years resolutions on an annual basis.  I will try to post them eventually but Avery's resolution involves pretending "vegetables taste like candy, and that candy tastes like...beer", Miles' 'solution' is for our family to "have the best Christmas ever" (yes, on Jan 1) and Cruz's resolution for 2013 is to "oppan Gangnam style".  Seriously.  And why not. 

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

O Christmas Tree (2012)





 
 



 
 

 
 

Our fourth (and possibly last) annual Christmas tree burn, January 1st 2013.