little black journal

It’s been too long since we’ve seen those darling little girlies, so we headed down to Portland yesterday morning for a couple of days of  catching up with my brother’s family.  It was a quick trip, but so good for my soul – Elise and Morgan continue to be lights of my life, and I’m so, so thankful for our quality time with Mitch and Kathryn.

It was a sunshiny afternoon when we arrived and we were eager to get in a quick run to the playground before naptime.  Morgan is suddenly very quick on her feet – gone are the days of her scooting around on her chubby little arms and legs (sigh).  And Elise is nearly impossible to keep up with – that little lady’s abundance of energy astounds me.

We played hard, and then rested hard.  Uncle Shane tucked Elise in for her nap, and Morgan snuggled up with me in the living room.  Best feeling ever.

Kathryn booked a sitter for the evening and so the grown-ups went out for a night on the town.  We feasted on Indian food while chatting about family and travel and current events – I feel so lucky that the four of us enjoy each other’s company so much.  It’s a good, good thing when the family and friends are one and the same.

I love waking up to the sound of the girls chatting on Sunday mornings, getting out of bed and poking my head into the kitchen, where I’m greeted with smiles and sweetness and plans for a day of fun and play.

I promised Elise a special treat from the neighborhood coffee shop, so we bundled up and headed over to Posies for bagels and orange juice.

Elise was intent on stopping at the park on the way home, and so we spent awhile playing on the swings (huge hit), testing out the teeter-totter (not a huge hit), and climbing/crawling/sliding on the jungle gym.  Shane takes the cake as best swing-pusher ever – Elise squealed in delight as he propelled her from behind, from in front, and from…below.  Silly Uncle Shane.

We went back to the house and tea-partied and read and played music – Elise sang her own rendition of Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and strummed her guitar.  Mitch has high hopes for this one.

Morgan’s not quite ready for sing-a-longs yet, but what she lacks in verbal skills she makes up for in facial expressions.  Her winning grin is a guaranteed heart-melter.

Praise God for family and babies and Indian food and sunshine.  Life is grand.

Due to all the traveling we’ve done this year, Shane and I decided to forego our usual Thanksgiving trip to Minnesota and instead spend the holiday closer to home, in Portland with my brother’s family.  We arrived on Thursday morning, and from the moment we set foot inside Mitch and Kathryn’s cozy home, the blessings of family were lavished upon us.  Morgan looked up at me with her big brown eyes and I scooped her up in my arms; Elise giggled her three year-old giggle and we quickly started making our play plans.  Mitch put the turkey in the oven and Kathryn and I got caught up with each other’s latest goings-on.  Goodness, these people are special to me – and their home has become a place full of so much comfort and joy for Shane and I.

Since we won’t see the girls at Christmas, and since Elise saw the gifts we’d brought and couldn’t contain her excitement, we opened presents that afternoon.  The blocks we bought for Morgan were a huge hit with both kids – Elise is an expert tower-builder, and Morgan is the queen of destruction (you can guess what happened about three seconds after I snapped this photo).

Post-presents, we put the finishing touches on the big Thanksgiving feast.  Elise has taken after her parents and loves to cook – she was eager to help with meal preparations and whipped up an extra-special soup for Uncle Shane with a few miscellaneous cupboard finds: oregano, raisins, and dried chili peppers in warm water.  Shane is smiling on the outside, but inside, he’s thinking, “How do I get out of having to eat this?!”

Morgan also loves being a part of the cooking action – she excels at: trying to climb in the dishwasher, finding anything that fell off the cutting board, and opening cupboard doors and drawers.  But seriously, how you not want this face in your kitchen?

We ate until our stomachs couldn’t hold a single bite more, and after the dishes were washed and the kids were tucked into bed, I stretched out on the sofa and thanked my lucky stars for apple pie and baby girls.

We all went out together on Friday morning to do a little shopping, and then spent the rest of the afternoon cozied up indoors.  Living room tea parties, rounds of Candyland, and snuggle time with little Morgan.  Lovely.

We spent this morning at Cathedral Park before hitting the long dusty trail back to Seattle.  After spending the previous 48 hours lounging and eating, it felt good to get out for a walk.  Elise skipped among the leaves and Morgan enjoyed the view from her stroller.

As I reflect this weekend on things that I am thankful for, family both near and far, is at the top of my list.

While Shane and I were in Amsterdam, we got an email from Kathryn with a video attached – our sweet little niece had officially started crawling… I smiled to see Morgan scooting across the screen of my iPhone, and then was immediately struck with panic – how could she be crawling already? What else was I missing? How many more months of true ‘baby-ness’ does she have left? And so right then and there, in the middle of the Van Gogh museum, we made plans to get down to Portland on our first weekend back from vacation.

I looked forward to this visit all week, and as soon as we set foot inside Mitch and Kathryn’s house yesterday afternoon, and Morgan looked up at me with her wide-eyed, two-toothed grin, all was right with the world again. Dang, I’ve missed that little girl. She is cuddly and good-natured and will make you crazy (in a good way) with her sweet little voice cooing ‘hi’ and ‘uh-oh…’ (the only two discernible words in her vocabulary as of yet). I gave her a pre-bedtime bottle last night and then never wanted to let her go as she nuzzled into my chest and fell asleep while I burped her. Seriously, this little one doesn’t mess around when it comes to melting your heart.

Elise is the second reason we couldn’t wait to get down to Portland. She is definitely a three year-old – funny and charming and inquisitive, but also dramatic and moody and a little bit too much like her Auntie Kelly when she’s hungry or tired. One minute, she will try to convince you that life as she knows it is over because she really, really needs cranberry juice and the fridge only contains apple juice. But the next minute, she will curl up in your lap and let you read her a story and remind you that behind the drama, there is still an incredibly sweet, lovey little girl inside.  And the sound of her laughter as she splashes in puddles or gets frisbee-throwing lessons from Uncle Shane is priceless.

Thanks, little ladies, for a truly lovely weekend…

When Jack sent out an invite a couple of months ago for the Oregon Wine Country Half-Marathon, I knew that several of our friends would be up for the run; I knew that even more of our friends would be up for the wine (I’ll give you one guess as to which category Shane fell into and which category I fell into). Runners were registered, an awesome house on the Willamette River was booked, and we were off! We arrived at the house on Friday night to join the Rust clan, who had set up camp there earlier in the week. And from the moment I set foot on the wide open wooden deck, I knew we were in for an epic weekend. When I said that the house was on the river, I wasn’t kidding – our party pad was literally floating on the waters of the quiet Willamette, with a big deck (complete with a firepit) and a shed stocked with numerous floatation devices. Even though it was well past sundown, I was already thinking about where exactly I’d spread our my towel the next day for an afternoon of sun-soaking.  And I knew that the firepit held some definite s’more-making potential.

We were up early on Saturday to grab breakfast in Lake Oswego and then head to Portland, to hit the famous Saturday Farmers Market that fills the Park Blocks.   Agenda: check out the food stands, lay on the grass, and grab a weekend supply of fresh fruit.

The nectarines were ripe and juicy – like summer wrapped up in a pretty, round, red-orange package.  And the raspberries…O.M.G.

The market’s entertainment offerings weren’t bad either – the Rust boys were entranced by a man playing the didgeridoo – if only I had a video of the way little G was stomping along to the music…

After the farmers market (and a quick stop at Barista – so, so good), we headed back to the house and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, sunning, and making sure our runners were hydrating and carbo-loading with cold beer and home-made pizza.  The daredevils decided to use the second story porch as a launch pad into the river – Jack takes the prize for ‘best kung-fu dive’.

And Nancy easily won ‘smallest splash’.

As we all gathered on the deck to watch the sun go down, I was struck by how much I have to be thankful for – good friends, good food, and such a good, good life in the Pacific Northwest…

And good God, 10 hours later, I was up to see the runners off and watch the sun come up!  5:30 is way earlier than I’d ever choose to wake up on a Sunday morning, but this sky almost made it worth it.

A couple hours after our seven half-marathoners hit the road, the cheering squad set out for the finish line, ready with signs and grins and plenty of ‘wooooo-woooooo’s!”.  The runners had registered together for the race under the team name, ‘tuna kambia’, which means ‘we are running’ in Swahili.

And indeed, they were running.  Ten minutes before we expected to greet any of our friends at the finish line, Jason appeared on the horizon.  This man has a gift – he’ll swear he’s never been a long-distance runner, and yet he ran 13.2 miles in 1 hour and 35 minutes.  Insane!

Chris finished just a few minutes behind Jason, and then Shane trotted by, a tired-but-proud smile on his face.

Jack, Megan, Brian, and Nicole weren’t far behind.  Everyone ran a really stellar race, and there were high-fives and sweaty hugs all around.  It’s not entirely surprising that while most of the runners rejoined the rest of us with a water bottle in hand, Jack appeared out of nowhere carrying a glass of Rose.  He’s been telling Shane for years that studies have shown that the best way to re-hydrate after a run is with a pint of beer, and so I don’t doubt he’ll soon be be singing the praises of wine’s post-exercise restorative properties.

So proud of them all!

After a few visits to the wine-tasting booths that had set up shop near the finish line, we decided to head back toward the house.  But first, one short-but-essential pit-stop:

We had been wanting to checkout Winderlea Winery for awhile – we tried to visit this place when we visited Oregon wine country with Jack and La Verne last summer and were bummed to find that it was closed for a private event.  But this time, we made sure we were the first ones in the door – we gathered around the big table and began to watch the Pinot flow.

The wines were tasty, the setting was gorgeous, and everyone was just so…merry.

Although I could have spent all day sipping and sunning on the winery’s patio, the runners were tired and hungry (and in need of showers…), and so we headed back to the house for an afternoon of swimming, lounging, eating, drinking, swimming, lounging, eating, drinking, and so on.  That day will go down as one of my favorite days of this summer.

And just when the day felt like it couldn’t have gotten any better, Jack busted out this:

Yes, that’s a 3-liter bottle of wine.  When Jack uncorked it, I thought, ‘There’s no way we’ll finish that thing.’  I was wrong.  The rest of the night was spent stuffing ourselves on homemade chili verde, followed by roasted marshmallows for dessert.  We were one tired, fat, happy group by the time bedtime rolled around.

On Monday morning it was time to bid a sad farewell to our riverside home.  We ate a killer home-cooked breakfast together (seriously, our friends don’t mess around when it comes to eating), I soaked in the view from the deck one last time, Shane enjoyed a few more minutes of quality time with little Zebo.

And then we said our good-byes, not wanting to believe that the weekend was really over.  Life on the water was so good while it lasted…

Today I’m battling the missing-my-family blues, as I returned yesterday from a quick-but-so-good trip to Portland. My grandma and my mom’s cousin were visiting from Florida, and I was able to slip away from work on Thursday afternoon so that I could spend the evening with them before their Friday flight home. As we ate dinner together that night, with four generations of family members present at the table, I was indescribably thankful for the stories that were told, the laughs that were shared, and the love that filled that cozy kitchen.

Saturday was spent dawdling around Portland with the kids. We enjoyed a stroll down Alberta street and then popped into Helser’s for lunch. We waited longer than we expected for our food, but both girls were pleasantly patient – Elise was happy to color, and Morgan was happy to chew on Mitch’s keys (hey, whatever works…). And I embraced the opportunity to be in a restaurant and photograph something other than food (although my fluffy peach-laden German pancake was awfully pretty…).

After lunch and nap time and a number of persistent requests from Elise, my mom and I walked her over to the neighborhood park late in the afternoon. Temperatures were pushing 85 degrees, which is a bit of a heatwave for us Northwesterners, and so conditions were ideal for splashing around in the little water park. Mom and I sat on a bench and watched as Elise frolicked through the fountains, filling up her little plastic cups with water and then dumping them on the ground over and over and over (kids have the oddest forms of self-entertainment). Then we pushed her on the swings, teeter-tottered for awhile, and eventually let that little bundle of 3 year-old energy wear us out, before heading back to the house for dinner.

Friday evening and Saturday morning were full of mellow family-time at home. There’s so much joy to be found just in sitting on the couch and reading a book to Elise, or laying on the floor with Morgan while she giggles and chews on whatever toy she has at hand. She is quite possibly the sweetest baby in the entire history of babies. She smiles and cuddles without limit – one look from her and you will feel like the sun has changed its course to shine directly on you. I find myself surprised by how much I have come to adore these girls; I knew that being an auntie is a special thing, but I don’t think I realized my heart’s capacity for loving these little people that I only see every couple of months and that are just coming to know me.

And with one last round of hugs, it was time for me to hit the long, dusty trail back to Seattle. These dang good-byes just keep getting harder and harder…

We’ve been enjoying some quality time with family lately, with a visit from my mom and dad last weekend, and a quick trip down to Portland this weekend to see my brother, his wife, and the girls.  Although these trips always end up feeling much more brief than I’d like, I’m thankful for these short-but-sweet chances to reconnect with one another.

My parents were here on a typical rainy June weekend, and so my hopes of enjoying Seattle’s great outdoors didn’t quite pan out.  But we passed mornings hunkered down in cafes to enjoy a latte, followed by afternoons spent lounging at home to watch the Giants, and evenings gathered around the dining room table for a home-cooked meal and a game of cards.  And so my bitterness over the rain subsided as I realized how nice it was to spend a simple, cozy weekend at home with my mom and dad.

Our trip to Portland was equally mellow, but substantially sunnier, and so we did our relaxing in the backyard.  Lots of good eating, lots playing with Elise and Morgan, and a quick trip downtown to do a little shopping at Powell’s and West Elm, for good measure.  Shane continues to be Elise’s favorite, and I suspect he is trying to sneak his way into Morgan’s good graces as well…

I really don’t mind being runner-up, though.  I can’t hold a grudge against a gril with a smile like this one.

Finding ourselves with a little time to kill in the Pearl District before the stores opened, I subjected the family to a little photo shoot.  It is amazingly difficult to get two adults and two small children to look at a camera all at the same time.  But…success!

And this is the point where I lament the end of a beautiful weekend.  Sigh.

We spent this weekend in Portland, hangin’ with the family and getting caught up on any growing/changing that the girls have done over the past six weeks.  My parents were also in town Friday night, so we had a chance to share a meal with them and dote on Elise as an entire family, as she just turned three last week and has come to understand the joy of opening birthday presents.  She is indeed three years old – after a quick but relatively un-enthused ‘wow!’, any boxes of clothes were tossed aside, and it was the little percussion set from Mitch and Kathryn that stole the show as the most attention-worthy gift.  She banged on that drum for several minutes, then passed out her collection of other instruments, with yours truly on the tambourine, my mom on the harmonica, and my dad on the ocarina.  I can tell you that we do not have a future as the next Partridge Family, but we sure do know how to laugh together – I nearly fell off my chair as we all made our terrible racket and Elise danced in the middle of the kitchen as if we were actually playing something with any discernible beat.

Saturday was a quiet day around the house, with a couple of small outings to enjoy ice cream and park time with the birthday girl.  Elise is as playful and energetic as ever.  She loves showing us how high she can jump, playing school, wearing her awesome pink cowboy boots, and sitting on her Uncle Shane’s lap (yes, I begrudgingly admit that he is still the favorite).  Her laugh is absolutely infectious.

Morgan, on the other hand, is still tiny and precious and content just to be held and cuddled and rocked.  Although I can’t wait to see what kind of a little girl she will become, I also never want her to grow out of this always-too-short baby phase.  Shane and I offered to watch the kids and put them to bed last night, so that Mitch and Kathryn could enjoy an over-due evening out on the town.  As I rocked Morgan to sleep, I was overwhelmed by the realization of how much I already love this little girl, at only three months old.

A quick stop at Barista in the Pearl District this morning for the latte to top all lattes, and then our Portland weekend of family fun was over. The house right next door to Mitch and Kathryn’s is currently for sale – if Seattle weren’t feeling so very much like home these days, I’d be asking Shane if we could make an offer  and allow unlimited Auntie and Uncle access to the girlies…

We returned this afternoon from a super-quick trip to Portland, to spend some time with family and pick up a couple of things at West Elm for our new dining room.  Our time there was short, but it was so good to catch up with my brother and sister-in-law, and dote on the darling nieces.  Morgan is 6 weeks old, and much changed since we saw her at Christmas.  She’s looking around a lot now, loves to be held and cuddled, and looks like a perfect little angel when she sleeps.  I spent much of last night and this morning with her tucked into my arms – I am decidedly in love with this little girl.

Elise is also changing with each passing month, becoming more independent and coming into her own as a grown-up little girl (where did my baby niece go???  sigh…).  Favorites include cartoons, cream cheese (I discovered at breakfast this morning that the bagel is only there as a surface for the cream cheese to be scraped off of), and living room blanket forts.  It took her longer than usual to warm up to us this time around, but Uncle Shane was able to wriggle his way into her good graces this morning, with a ride down the playground slide.

It’s so hard to say good-bye to these little girls each time we leave, knowing that they will be growing and changing so much between visits. But then again, it’s ok – I have visions of taking Elise shopping someday, instilling in her my appreciation for a good deal and comfortable pair of heels, working on art projects with Morgan, smearing paint on canvases together while we chat about school or family or her favorite books and TV shows, and having the girls up to Seattle for a sleepover with their Auntie.  So I can look forward to that, deal with the changes, and revel in the amazing little people that they are quickly becoming.

It was indeed a very Merry Christmas, spent cozied up with my family at my brother’s home in Portland.  I spent as much time as possible hanging with my darling little nieces – I was happy to bounce between holding sleeping, peaceful baby Morgan in my arms and playing with chatty, precocious Elise on the living room floor.  There were several moments throughout the weekend when I stopped and thanked God for my growing family.

On Christmas Eve, Shane, Mitch, and I took Elise to Peacock Lane to see the Christmas lights – Elise oohed and aahed at each and every house, exclaiming over the brightly lit reindeer and snowmen.  There is nothing like a child’s unabated Christmas joy.

Christmas morning was full of cinnamon rolls and presents and one particularly thrilled little girl who tore wrapping paper to shreds and exclaimed over each new toy.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying a good dose of Christmas Day laziness – occupying ourselves with cooing at the baby and stuffing ourselves with a home-cooked holiday feast.

Elise has quickly taken to the role of big sister.  This was an attempt at seeing just how much adorable-ness I could pack into one photo.  Answer:  A LOT…

We went out for breakfast on Sunday morning, and then, far too soon, our Christmas weekend was over.  But the joy and warmth that comes with being surrounded by family was so, so good while it lasted…

We realized recently that we were due for a getaway with our good friends Jack and La Verne – we did Walla Walla together a couple of years ago, met up in Portugal during our European vacation last year, and, in keeping with our common interest in delicious food and good wine, picked Portland as our 2010 destination.  We checked into our cozy little backyard cottage rental near Mount Tabor on Friday night and kicked off our epic weekend with drinks and nibbles at The Whiskey Soda Lounge.  We had hoped to score a table at Pok Pok, but given the 2-hour wait, this place was a perfect alternative, owned by the same owners of Pok Pok and offering much of the same food.  Good food, good drinks, good ambiance, good conversation – the night was good.

Saturday began with coffee at Barista – reputed to be one of Portland’s finest coffee shops.  I went with the standard latte (although it was much better than ‘standard’), but Jack pulled out the big guns and ordered a cup of their specialty vacuum pot coffee.  Watching the barista brew this cup of coffee was like taking part in a chemistry experiment – I couldn’t begin to explain the entire process, but I can tell you that these people take their coffee seriously.

Post-caffeine fix, we headed over to the Portland Farmers Market to pick up the fixin’s for an afternoon picnic.  This market is a-mazing.  Row after row of brightly colored berries, mouth-watering baked goods, artisan cheeses, yum, yum, yum…

We walked away with a bag full of goodies and pointed the car south – destination: wine country!  The region just south of Portland is home to some of the Northwest’s most beautiful vineyards, and we spent the afternoon sipping some fantastic Pinot Noirs amidst the rolling hills of vines.

We headed back into the city late afternoon and spent some time just lounging on the grass at a nice little part in Northwest Portland, people-watching, sun-soaking, and building up our hunger for our much-anticipated dinner at Tanuki.  This tiny little restaurant, tucked away among all the other storefronts on NW 21st, doesn’t look like anything special from the outside.  In fact, even after a round of drinks and happy hour appetizers, I was not overly impressed.  Then we ordered our dinner (actually, we didn’t really even ‘order’ dinner – we just told our server what we wanted to spend as a group and asked her to bring us a compilation of things that would fit that bill).  And then the food started coming.  And coming.  And coming.  She must have brought us 12 to 15 different plates, from Unagi to quail eggs to Chinese sausage, to a whole slew of things that I didn’t recognize, but readily ate.  We finally had to ask our server to just stop bringing us food – otherwise, we were in danger of not fitting out the door.  That was a meal.

We ended the evening with drinks with Mitch at Crowbar on Mississippi – wonderfully chill, after such a full day.  I fell into bed that night with a perfection-induced smile on my face.

Jack and La V headed back to Seattle early this morning, and Shane and I stuck around for awhile to spend some time with my brother and his family.  Elise is turning into such a beautiful little girl, full of new questions and new expressions.  She still adores her Uncle Shane – while running around at the playground, she bonked her head and began to cry.  She ran right past everyone’s offers to comfort her and right into Shane’s lap, gazing up at him with that irresistible little smile through her tears.  Precious.

And far too soon, it was time to hop back in the car and head back to Seattle.  Au revoir, weekend…