What a year we have had. The time has just flown by. It's hard to think that we have already started our third year of living in the Pacific Northwest, and our second year of living in our house. (We have never lived in the same house for more than 2 years...so we could be in record-breaking territory next November!)
I took a few minutes this afternoon to reflect on all of the big events this year.
In 2007:
- We welcomed our little man, Nicolas, to the world. In the first of what is sure to be many name-related bloopers, the King County vital records department promptly misspelled his name on his birth certificate.
- For the first time in three years, we went over 365 consecutive days without hiring a moving van :-)
- Nora learned how to dance, ice skate (thanks Dydy!), and use the potty by herself. Armed with her floaty swimsuit, she has become a fearless swimmer.
- We said goodbye to the old Volvo and finally got a car big enough for all of us.
- We made a lot of trips to the airport: Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Papa, Uncle Eric, Auntie Nessa, Uncle Dan, Auntie Pea, Tata Morgane, Tracy, Dar, Jay, Jessica, Baby Joseph, Patrick, Lindsay, Aunt Peggy, Uncle Pat, Andi, Brian, Ethan, Logan, and Cousin Renee came out to visit us (some more than once!)
- We put a lot of miles on the car: trips to the Olympic Peninsula, the North Cascades Highway, Portland and the Oregon coast, Ellensburg, Milwaukee, Cedar Falls, and Daddy's excursions to Denver, Orlando, New York, Washington DC, Munich, Paris, and even Vilnius, Lithuania.
- We painted the house (thanks Papa!), carpeted the guest bedroom, and renovated the guest bathroom (thanks Grandpa!)
- April learned how to catch shrimp and salmon in Puget Sound.
- We discovered lots of cool foodie places in and around Seattle: winery tours in Woodinville, dim sum at China Gate in the I.D., phở at Than Brothers in Redmond, croissants at La Boulangerie in Wallingford, Cuban pulled pork sandwiches at Paseo in Fremont, smoothies by the Juice Goddess, sausages and meat from DD Meats in Lake Forest Park, fruit from the Yakima Fruit Market, bulgogi at Blue Ginger in Bellevue, pad thai at Noodle Land in Redmond...
It has been a great year for our family, with lots of big adventures planned for next year. Thank you to all of you who have helped make it so special.
Happy New Year everyone!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Bathroom Makeover
The guest bathroom renovation was Grandpa's big project over the past several weeks. The old guest bathroom did not have a shower, which meant that the guests had to hike across the garage every morning to use the shower in the other part of the house.The renovation was finally completed last night. Throughout the project, I learned a lot of things about construction and developed a real appreciation for how complex these kinds of undertakings are.
This project was a complete tear-down of the existing bathroom: demolition, moving a doorway, plumbing, drywall, tile floor, paint, and re-installation of the new fixtures.
Here are a few of the many lessons we learned:
- Always get a second opinion. When there is more than $1,000 difference between two plumbers' bids on a relatively simple job, somebody is probably trying to screw you.
- Lowe's puts Home Depot to shame. In our experience, one trip to Lowe's is equivalent to at least two trips to Home Depot...borrowing from Andi and Brian's measure of construction efficiency. I think by this point Dwayne knows half of the staff at the Lowe's in Monroe by name. He also knows that the Starbucks next door is open at 5:45 AM.
- Power tools are fun, but power tools with lasers are really fun. I'm actually looking forward to re-doing the fence next summer now that I have a saw equipped with a laser beam.
- Someone else has probably had the same problem before. When we finally got the shower installed, we weren't getting any hot water. After a few minutes digging around on the internet, I read about someone with a similar problem. It turns out that the "scald guard" in the shower faucet was factory preset to only allow a minimum amount of hot water. 5 minutes of adjustment later and we finally had a fully-functional shower!
Chasing Eagles
We took a small road trip into Skagit County today, stopping for lunch in La Conner and then off to Rockport to see the bald eagles. This is the best time of year to see them, and we were not disappointed. All told, we saw about ten bald eagles stationed around the river, waiting for salmon to return home to lay their eggs.
The eagle viewing area was staffed with volunteers with high-powered birdwatching scopes. It was amazing to see so many of the eagles in one place. The weather was typical 40-degree clouds and gloom except for the mountains in the distance, which were illuminated by a break in the cloud cover for a few minutes. It made for a spectacular view.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Gingerbread house
Last night Nora and Daddy put a gingerbread house together. Nora's favorite part seemed to be eating all of the leftover candy. She must have managed to get her hands on more than we thought considering the length of time it took us to scrape her off of the ceiling last night before bed.The gingerbread house is now on display on a high shelf, just to make sure we don't have any more little hands eating the decorations.
First time on rollerskates
Today Nora got to go rollerskating for the first time with Mommy, Auntie Pea, and John (Auntie Pea's boyfriend). She says it's harder than ice skating, but even with all of the slips she can skate better now than her Daddy ever could!Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Nora's new favorite game
Nora and Auntie Pea's new game is to "make" food on her tummy and then gobble it up. Today it was pizza!
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