We had some of our Pittsburgh friends visit us this fall, a delightful surprise!
Eric and Abby were among the friends we reconnected with during our trip to Boston this spring, so it was lovely to continue that rekindling with a second visit. (Funny to not see each other for a decade, and then twice in one year! How very much our families have changed…)
Eric’s request was to see as much of the outdoors as possible, so we spent one day trekking up to Deception Pass State Park. The kids had a lot of fun climbing on all the boulders, but we also saw an incredible selection of wildlife. This was the first time I ever saw porpoises in Puget Sound — most likely a group of them. William recognized them by the dorsal fins (I initially assumed they were harbor seals — there were seals in the bay as well).
Day 2 of the visit was spent traveling out to Snoqualmie Falls. It was a great hike down to the bottom of the waterfall — until we found that the bottom of the trail was closed off for the winter. Bummer! At least we got to see the top of the falls. And the hike is always rather lovely.
This time of year is also our annual plunge into Academic Conference Season. We were a bit lucky this season — only three conferences, and they all finished up before Brian’s birthday! I made him a British style gingerbread cake (unlike the American kind, it has no molasses, and more citrus flavor). The cookbook said it could be baked in a 9″ round pan, but it overflowed in the oven. So much for that.
A friend suggested that it’s a metaphor for Brian’s life: overflowing with sweetness. Aww.
Other small adventures: we took the kids skating on Veteran’s Day (something of a tradition, since the local rink often has free skating that day).
It’s also Fall Theater Season for Jeff at the high school (doing lights for a British farce called “One Man Two Guvnors”) and the elementary school (Katie was in the chorus of a production of “The Lion King Jr.”).
The carpooling levels have been extremely high as a result, and I’m soooooo happy it’s over. Waiting for your high school student to come home from cast parties multiple nights in a row is no fun. (Not that I get grumpy when I’m sleep deprived or anything …)
Jeff is very happy to have found his tribe with the Thespian Society. Silly goings-on all around.
The theater kids have a habit of going to WinCo after performances and buying large quantities of random things from the bulk food section. In the past, Jeff came home with pounds of peach gummy rings, but this year he came home with 10 lbs. of flour.
“Great!” said Brian. “Jeff and I can bake bread, and he can take it to the next performance to share with the rest of the cast and crew!”
This went over enthusiastically well, as you can imagine. The teenagers devoured every speck of that bread.
WELL — cue Jeff coming home from the next performance with twenty two pounds of flour.
[cue scene from Anne of Green Gables when Marilla sees Matthew haul in 22 lbs. of brown sugar and rolls her eyes forever]
Brian and Jeff hatched a scheme to bake the largest loaves of bread possible in our standard-sized oven. I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of the result, but each loaf was about three feet long and 1 1/2 feet wide. Like the Baguettes That Time Forgot.
That was yesterday; today we’re still making/baking bread. Our flour tubs in the pantry are still full to the brim. Geez.
Katie loved being in “The Lion King.” Initially, she was slated to be the back half of a hippo in the animal chorus (which she wasn’t too pleased about because she thought the other kids were laughing at her). At the last minute she got switched to being a rhino, so happiness was restored.
I’m just happy it’s over and I don’t have to chaperone any more rehearsals. Those suckers were brutal. They wanted the kids to be absolutely silent offstage, which is an exhausting task. I shushed so often that I began to hyperventilate.
Theater season is over! Onwards to music performance season!
(And in case you’re wondering why Eleanor wasn’t in the crazy theater mix — she wanted to. But there were hardly any parts in the high school play . . . and then 65 kids signed up to do tech crew when they only needed 25. So she couldn’t even do that.
Later she signed up to simply pass out programs as an usher, but it turns out that 70 kids signed up for that, too. She ended up being freaking grateful to pass out programs ONE time for ONE performance. (They had to make a spreadsheet to ensure that as many kids got to have usher duties as possible. Usher duties!!!)
Apparently the 9th graders are over enthusiastic like this about everything. As Eleanor puts it “I kind hate the freshman class right now.”
Casa Camisas 