Canadian Keanes

Carrot Cake Bakerman

2012-02-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

Julia is always encouraging Everest to work in the kitchen. His culinary knowledge and skill set is going to rival Nayt's any day now. A few days ago the long-delayed carrot cake was made. Everest in an apron, whisk in hand. He mixed it all himself. Here is the process:

Ginger encrusted cream cheese icing.

This is the proper reaction.

Creative juices are constantly flowing in these children, so putting them to work is a good idea. Here's what Everest recently designed: a tattoo for Arrow. There are too many sharpies in this world to account for.

Baking a cake is way more fun than finding a dead mouse, which Everest did last week. Somewhere near a family low point, the neighborhood cat finally did his job and offed the offending rodent that's been enjoying late night snacks for months. This was the turning point for our spirits, but the cat left the evidence for the toddler to discover. Julia in the bath, Everest comes waltzing in holding the dead mouse by its rigor mortis tail. "Mom, what's this toy?"

We later discovered a second murdered mouse in our newly renovated basement. And then we heard more scritch-scratching days later. The war is far from over...

Snowy Owls

2012-02-12T02:28:00.000-08:00

They sit right next to the trail.

Holy lemming population drop! The snowy owls are here! Out at Boundary Bay these majestic birds have taken up a temporary home by the beach. The story goes that whenever the food is scarce in their regular wintering grounds, a bunch of snowies venture south to the Pacific Northwest coast. We saw at least 16 different snowy owls today, but our numbers might be off. That's how amazing this was: we were looking for snowy mutha-flippin owls and we lost count! They are pretty spectacular. A sizable crowd has been at this spot since Christmas to see these rare birds, and we got to see who won today's contest of "biggest lens on the beach."

Ahoy!

(We didn't take these two owl shots, but they were taken this week by larger lenses.)

Arrow felt the mighty Pacific winds today.

Cuddles and Metal

2012-01-23T23:32:00.000-08:00

Everest is really sweet with Arrow. When the baby cries, E-man goes running or yells the obvious, "The baby's crying!" He loves holding the little guy (often to Arrow's defenseless chagrin). Many a scrunched face has accompanied the loving older brother's cold hands.

And then he turns around and says, "Mom, sometimes you have to rock hard. Like this!" Everest has been requesting "rock and roll" lately. But he specifically wants to hear hard and heavy metal music. *shels or Slipknot. Something he can throw himself around to. It's the drumming that he loves. Above, Everest is cooking soup, nude, while screaming into his make-shift microphone. He was rocking out to System of a Down. In fact, that's who he's dancing to in this video. Wonderful therapy for the young, mighty Thor. I apologize for the sideways movie portion, but the kinetics of Everest's dance will still register just fine.

Grands Pay A Visit

2012-01-20T22:23:00.000-08:00

Melissa and Charlie's new home sweepstakes carried them North from Portland and Bend up through the Olympic Peninsula. They sold the house we moved into back in 1995, and with that big change comes the newest grandson Arrow, who absorbed their auras for the past week.

Day one set the tone. Happy new family with sleeping baby and frowny toddler. Everest was a most difficult fellow during this week. All the people in the house along with a drastically new situation with Arrow was a bit much for the poor guy. Still, even though he is feeling the ill effects of big change, he is a ham.

Nothing says Canadian winter like a lumberjack in sleeves methodically slaying a neighborhood tree. The airline in the sky really sells the level of Awesome this guy was operating at, as women all over Mt. Pleasant were no doubt fanning their flushed skin. This man was chainsawing branches and trunk with one arm.

Despite his growing biceps Devin requires all the practice he can get with holding babies. It's harder than it looks, folks.

Charlie has had plenty of practice and didn't take long to shake off the rust. Everest loves touching the baby, and usually asks us if he can. Although, "No" is not a popular response. Poking Arrow's face while he's asleep is popular. E. doesn't appreciate the beauty of a "sleeping baby." Boring!

A crucial part of Charlie's presence was to build Everest an electric train track. We had been accumulating parts and pieces since the big train show. Everest helped glue, but the big kid would sneak off to complete the project. Once Everest got his hands on the brand new "grey electric engine" which he'd coveted for months, it was great. Keeping it on the tracks was another matter. E would rather just play with it around the house (of course). Model railroad discipline is not yet a forte.

Charlie and Melissa took Everest to Science World. Or did he take them? I'm sure his guided tour of the robotic dinosaur exhibit was top notch. There was a time he couldn't go anywhere near this Carnotaurus.

Later the gang ran into another "Everest", a boy we ran into at the Aquarium two years ago. Another Everest apparently lives in Whistler. Science World is finally not under construction anymore, and it's so big inside that I don't even know where this photo was shot.

A view from Queen Elizabeth Park, before the snow began to fall.

Arrow is already 11 pounds, as of today. And he sleeps really well at night (by adult standards). We're so used to being tired that all the diaper changing and unexpected feedings and happenings aren't so daunting.

It's our lad Everest that is the challenge. Keeping him busy and showered with affection is really the number one job. He's learning how to be a big brother (check his "good student" look here).

On the final morning of the Arizona Keane's stay, we ate at Locus. Arrow's first real fine dining experience.

Homemade Playdough

2012-01-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

We used this recipe. Simple stuff, but hours of fun. The next morning Everest went right back to playing with the playdough. We colored our doughs with beet powder, spirulina, matcha, turmeric, and cocoa/cinnamon. Occasionally we assisted the color absorption with clear vanilla extract. Oh, and real chefs cook naked.

Week Two

2012-01-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

Sleeping on the red velvet

Blurry, but priceless.

Everest loves being the baby, or being with the baby in the bassinet. He's climbed in here several times with Arrow - probably about as many times as Arrow has even been in there.

Primates.

Everest tries his hand at nursing. One of his several dinosaur tattoos can be seen. We can already imagine being envious of his killer sleeves when he's older.

Arrow and Everest are in the bassinet again.

A trip to Science World is more awesome than ever these days thanks to all the new exhibits. It's practically three times as big as it used to be. Here's a beaver dam, Everest's temporary home while Julia and Arrow rest at home.

The first four days

2012-01-01T23:53:00.000-08:00

The Arrival of Arrow

2011-12-31T01:46:00.000-08:00

Meet Arrow Wilder Keane.

All the patience came to a head just before midnight on December 28th. Julia was scheduled for a hospital check up that day, and the very idea drove Julia's body to ramp up for a rock and roll birth at home later in the night. Our midwives were great but Julia was immensely powerful, taking less than three hours to get Arrow out into the world. Our friends Asia and Renee were also present. This was more like a concert than an average birth, with the headliner barely hanging on for the ride. Everyone had great seats.

The day before we took the belly swimming. (See Everest posing in the shallows?) Perhaps this encouraged Arrow to come out much like the water slides primed Everest. We tried to jostle Arrow out with outings (like at the festive Bloedel Observatory, above, whose tropical rainforest dome stays open at night during the holidays).

The last day of this belly. We wore some power animal shirts to bring on the next phase.

The new family's first sleep.

Da boyz.

..the next day....

A proud mother.

Everest was the only one who ever got into the birth pool. In this photo he's doing insanity laps, running in chaotic circles. Ease up, kid; it's a rental. On birth night, he worked through his shyness by hiding in the water and popping up when he wanted.

Everest was very cautious in the first couple hours, especially since Arrow screamed for that first hour. But he doesn't have any serious issues with the new guy. He's very sensitive about it, but overall he is very caring and thinks his brother is very cute.

Yaya spent the night and absorbed as many cuddles as the new man could give. Arrow can be pretty grouchy at times, but he was really well tempered today.

December Pressure

2011-12-24T00:03:00.000-08:00

As December descended, all things came to a head in our lives. Julia finished her manager job at the farmer's market. She finished school with an essay and a final exam. (Simultaneously our already minimal childcare was not happening! The horror.) This all while pregnant - and no, as of this posting there is still no baby #2. My job on Transformers Rescue Bots upped the intensity to the point where I forgot how to be a dad and husband. Consecutive nights of 1am, midnight, 2am, etc can really destroy one's sense of humanity. I love the FX work I'm doing but this was ridiculous. And it went on for three weeks in a row where I was barely home enough to decompress. Finally I get to rest for the next few weeks. Well, at least until a newborn shows up!

Everest will feed the chickens so long as he can "Make the delivery."

Julia works on her final English essay while Everest scolds naughty engines.

Everest loves pretending to be asleep at key transitional moments.

Ya Ya delivers the goods and bakes the goods on Christmas Eve. She and Julia made a ton of Christmas treats and Everest fought off a cold to open some gifts.

Charlie Brown (Mouth) Christmas

2011-12-18T01:25:00.001-08:00

Today Everest met a Santa and a gingerbread man. Chocolate mouth is funny.

Hilarious Things People Say When You're Pregnant

2011-12-17T18:08:00.000-08:00

Well it's that time again. The very end of a pregnancy....feeling pretty large, pretty sensitive, and pretty tired of talking to strangers about how huge I am. So, let's laugh about it!! Here is a sampling of some of the things I've heard lately:

On the same day from separate people:

"Are you having twins?" & "You're carrying SO small---your baby must be TINY!"

Another gem: "I mean, you really could have your baby right now---you could have a preemie!"

A sentence I would like to strike from the English language:

"Have you had your baby yet?" (you hear this from about 7 months until you give birth. If you've never been pregnant you can compare it to being asked if you've had that totally unpredictable facial reconstruction surgery yet for 3 months)

From the "twins" lady: "Not twins? Oh, then you're just like me. I get GIGANTIC when I'm pregnant!"

Yes....gigantic. That is precisely the word I use in my morning affirmations...I am a beautiful gigantic flower, I am a gigantic whale floating in the sea, I am a massive cow lolling in a peaceful meadow. Ahhh, serenity.

Something I've heard said to numerous women:

"When are you due?" (before the woman herself has said anything about being pregnant)
To which the woman replies:

"I had my baby 3 months ago". Yep. Just don't go there.

So, needless to say, part of the excitement of having a baby stems from the realization that you actually finally get to discuss something with people other than being pregnant!!! Yahoo!

Last Days as a Solo Man

2011-12-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are closing out the last days of life as a one-kid family. It's been really great the last few months as Everest's personality has bloomed, the not-so-easy to live with aspects are changing and the great parts are really taking over. I find myself really staying focused on making this last chapter of his term as the child in charge a good one....we've been doing a lot of playing, baking, and just hanging out cuddling and chatting. That is, for the brief seconds that Everest is capable of holding still.

From 2 and a half years old to 3 and a half years old has been a dramatic change for this young person, lest you roll your eyes at parents making a big deal over a few months (ok, the "months" age thing is annoying after 2, I'll give you that...just round up).
Where there was the "smash-and-grab" toy getting maneuver there is now a verbal request....where once a wild-haired heathen would latch onto your leg with his teeth if frustrated by a "no", there is now a deflated sigh and an "OKaaayyyeee fine, mom". Really, he is becoming a whole lot more civilized. Subdued? Umm--no. This is Everest we're talking about. Also referred to as Never-rest, nut-bar, animal, wiggle-pants.

On becoming a bigger family: It's exciting, and it's also scary. It's like adding a new ingredient to a recipe that you've never tried before. WHO KNOWS what will happen? We sure as heck don't. Have we earned our "easy" baby (Or "good" baby as some like to say---huh?) or will Nayt yet again keep the shoe stores in business with his miles of midnight baby walking around the sleeping 'hood? Will Everest love the baby or devote the next year to its destruction? Will I maintain my shaky grip on the "normal" world or be swallowed completely into the abyss of urban child rearing? It's like a choose your own adventure. I guess it's more fun to sell it like a dramatic thriller. WHO will survive? What will become of this family? Only time will tell. Who is in that belly for instance? We'll look back one day on this moment in time and be completely incapable of actually remembering what it was like before there were four. That is the gift and heartbreak of the human experience. And the constant head-smashing lesson of parenting.

Let go, silly!

The soon-to-be baby on the outside is flipping around like a fish on a hook right now, as if mocking me for even briefly entertaining the mellow baby idea. Ok, ok. Another wise guy. Bring it on, little dude. Bring it on.

Cosmos Prodigy

2011-11-28T23:10:00.000-08:00

Everest sports my team's uniform. With injuries piling up this Winter season, his services may be required a bit ahead of schedule.

The bathroom in the basement suite has been completely re-tiled and mud/dry-walled. This is what it looked like when there was no tile. And the old tile can be seen in this old photo.

Trains Show 2011

2011-11-13T14:28:00.001-08:00

Mom's out of town. Let's go to the electric model railroad festival! (and watch movies, sports and eat hamburgers) But seriously, the folks at this festival all came out of their nerdly basements to showcase some pretty awe-inspiring model railroads. It was a long haul on transit, but we spent over three hours there. Everest was more quiet than off-the-walls loud, but his excitement was palpable. Here is a music video of the experience.

And yeah, we got his model railroad career started...

Autumn, where weather happens

2011-11-07T07:15:00.001-08:00

October and November are usually the most complete months around here, seasonally speaking. They confirm life is happening with twists and turns of the wind and clouds. The sun actually appears for long, unexpected stretches. It's still a mild climate, but you wouldn't know it right now. It's getting cold around here, but the perpetual rain has yet to hit the coast, so it feels like everything is going to be ok. I'm sure December and January will teach us the terrible lesson of Pacific coastal forest climate expectations.

Before then, we still have days warm enough to do things like this. Please, Everest, why are you so compelled to use port-o-potties when the grass is everywhere? This would have been more embarrassing if other humans had been around this part of Queen Elizabeth Park.

About two months ago, we hatched some more chicks. They lived in a box under a heat lamp, and then in a kid's swimming pool. They went outside at 5 or 6 weeks old, as that's when they're big enough to handle the cold. Between puffball stage and then, they started to smell. And with ten surviving chicks they peep really loudly. Such is life on the farm. We hatched 3 lavender orpingtons, 2 blue orpingtons, and 6 black copper marans (one of which perished inside an overturned food jar). The marans are known for their chocolate brown eggs. We had moved them to our shed, but now we have an apple co-op delivery to put in there (and no one wants to smell chicken poop when they come to collect their box of cox's orange pippen) so our birds are outside in a mini-coop. At eight weeks, they are about a month away from being full size. The raccoons checked them out on their second night in our backyard. Gave us a chance to test our throwing arms. One unlucky coon felt the wrath of a soccer ball. Everest questioned our actions mightily.

Everest isn't working on our basement suite, opting instead to shine his fire engine. A couple preliminary photos of our (now empty) basement suite are seen here:

Our neighbor Nate and his merry gang have taken all the ceilings out (and have eliminated all leaky pipes and other problem drip areas). They are now insulated and drywalled.

The carpets are all all torn out of every room. The bathroom has been re-tiled and pretty much re-done completely. Mold was a huge problem down here, and we think we've staved it off for a good while with new grout, foam and craftiness.

Halloween happened, too. Everest was going to be a "black rat with red eyes and a mouse (in the mouth)" for a couple weeks, until he changed his mind at the last minute. Thanks to a $10craigslist mission, he became a tyrannosaurus rex. Here is his first reaction:

Oh, and through all this, Julia is growing another baby. December 17 is our due date. There. Nnow no one can ask for the million and third time. One of the most common comments Julia gets when people see her now, still with over a month to go is, "You're ready to pop, like, any day now, eh???" Nope, we have to wait a while. We are planning another home birth, by the way. And even though Julia's heavy and tired a lot, she still has energy to plant asparagus:

and make pasta in our new pasta maker!

These photos were at an outing up in Deep Cove, a place where Julia and I seem to make wedding plans that will some day happen. (Some Day!) It's also a place where the best doughnuts in our universe exist. Seriously, they are authentic. Very un-vegan. Eating one by yourself is a risk not recommended, but worth taking.
Everest was eating clams or sand, or something, as well as a donut.

Everest and Gabriella play in the empty tub while the men drink bloody marys and watch football last weekend. It's a natural place to just decide to play while televised sports are happening.

Sweet Trolley Dreams

2011-10-01T07:43:00.000-07:00

One magical afternoon, Everest and I took the historic railway (a trolley by any other name) over to Granville Island. His friend Gabriella had a birthday there. This video is probably something only Everest's parents will love, but may its sweetness wash over you, too.

Sleep Derailer

2011-09-22T12:04:00.001-07:00

Everest had his first sleep over (at Ya Ya's) and it was a smashing, sleep-through-the-night success with pancakes awaiting on the other side. He was finally ready. Good for him. All grow'd up. The next day we retrieved him, and after a big fight to leave, we hoofed it to Emile's birthday at a ride-on steam engine yard. Everest didn't even want to leave. We had to convince him trains, cake, pizza and friends was more fun than whatever he was keen on. Finally on the road, Everest fell asleep. We were late. My soccer game was soon. Disaster clouded the skies. Until a gentle wheezing of a train whistle sounded. Everest, not twenty minutes into his forbidden nap, rubbed his eyes to peer into a dream come true. Cake and trains?

Just yesterday Asia took Everest home in her car. After he had fallen asleep she parked, and her car alarm blared for a good clip. No response from Everest. He is a powerful sleeper. He will sleep through anything, but now we know one train whistle is all it takes to rouse him. He is in love with trains.

The Okanagan Beckons

2011-09-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

Three day weekend means it's roadtrip time. Everest enjoyed rampaging inside our tent which was pitched in his Great Grandma's backyard in Vernon. His hair did, too.

The IPE in Armstrong is an Okanagan staple. There was "no way" we'd get Jocelyn, Julia's grandma, to go. So all the kids went - and that includes Ya Ya. Speaking of kids, here's a goat getting milked by a robot. All kinds of agricultural gadgetry and buffoonery was on display. We were most interested in the animals.

The First thing one must do upon entering the IPE is to get a D. Dutchman ice cream cone. Few places on earth are willing to serve tiger tiger ice cream (a swirl of orange and licorice - a surprisingly supple combo), and it's Julia's all time favorite.

BJ and Eric were in high spirits during the beautiful and crowded day. Free A&W lollypops!

Everest went on a couple rides. This one he was on all by himself, and he was so thrilled that he looked a little embarrassed that he was that happy. Riding a purple and silver rocket train is where E. is in his element.

You might say that driving five hours to the interior of BC to Julia's homeland was a reason to get away. However, despite our adventures to the IPE, to Cathy and Ian's relaxing and remote residence, as well as visiting other family in Vernon, this was also a business trip. And our business was Fruit, to be exact. Peaches, nectarines, tomatoes and more were in prime season, and there's no better place to get them than in the Okanagan.

Specifically, we went to the Vernon farmer's market to get the freestone peaches - the best for canning. Then, we went a couple hours out of our way on a beautiful stretch of road to hit Spences Bridge where we've picked fruit a number of times. This is where we got tomatoes and a bunch of other things. The car was effectively full after this.

Since coming home, Julia has been canning like crazy (and somehow staying sane). Our shelves are now filling up with homemade jams, preserves, fruits, sauces, but perhaps none are more coveted than the catsup. The homemade variety Julia makes is just too good to describe. All the hard work will ensure a great tasting winter in Canada. Between this, the food Julia is consistently donated at the Farmers Market she manages, as well as bagel Tuesday at Atomic Cartoons where I work on a Transformers cartoon, we'll never go hungry.

Meanwhile, Everest prepares for big brotherhood. At long last he's shown interest in babies (he used to look straight through Emile's new little sister Talia at whatever toy was behind her).

Our Trip To The Zoo

2011-08-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

Back on August 27th we went to the Greater Vancouver Zoo. Perhaps the best hour came later in the day when we rented a family bicycle with tandem pedals. Much more relaxing for the incorrigible toddler and pregnant momma. It was a lovely day. Here is a montage:

The under-appreciated vulturine guinea fowl. Resplendent dinosaur descendant.

Male bronze turkey who gobbled a ton but could have just done nothing and still asserted its dominance. Look at that face.

Nile monitor lizard watching heat waves bounce off the nearby glass.

The rare and elusive Addax, whose sparse populations in the Sahara are facing extinction due to unregulated hunting.

Perhaps the zebra knew, but this face was the prelude to a pants-less low point at the zoo, which required us to take an intermission at a different location. We would later return.

Everest's favorite animal. A scimitar-horned oryx. Also very endangered. They are smaller than I thought! The zoo in Aldergrove is kind of old. Not "updated" like a lot of modern zoos, and so, one can just go right up to the fencing and touch these animals, should one choose. My camera is inside the fence here.

Our future zoo. While in Aldergrove, Julia found fertilized eggs that contain black copper maran, blue orpington and lavender orpingtion chickens. All three are highly prized breeds. Boutique birds, if you will, but very pretty and steady layers. The marans lay the coveted chocolate brown eggs!

August Sportings and Foodings

2011-08-20T00:23:00.000-07:00

The indomitable Charlie Keane made his way up to Lake Stevens, WA with Melissa in supportive tow to compete in a half-Iron Man race. It's the longest sort of race he's ever done, and the second half-iron. To review, that's 1.2 mile swim / 56 mile bike / 13.1 mile run. The first time he didn't finish, but this time he finished third. It's the first time he's ever placed at one of the triathlon type events! Congratulations, CK. And just a couple weeks before turning 60!

We traveled to Vancouver after this to visit. After a salmon dinner we all went to a Vancouver Canadians baseball game for free. The quaint stadium is just a quick walk from our house. Even though it ended up being an 11-inning stunner, we were paying more attention to the antics of a certain 3-year old.

Thank god there was a designated kids area. We could take this action down there. By the time the game ended in extra innings we were already home, counting our free A&W teen burger coupons like Scrooge McDuck.

The next night Julia went to a butchering class to learn "the whole hog." She had also recently been to an Italian cuisine class the week before where she made some exquisite dishes such as Goat Cheese & Arugula Ravioli in a Walnut Sage Sauce, Grilled Lamb Sirloin with Ricotta Herb Gnocchi and Chanterelle Sauce, and a Lemon Panacotta for dessert.:

Powell River

2011-07-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

Sandy beaches. Bustling tide pools. Eagles and orcas a regular site. Where is this?

Ahoy. Five hours and two ferry rides away from Vancouver lies Powell River up the Sunshine Coast. Quaint, nature-centric, beautiful, home to many a giant octopus, raven and wolf eel - this was a good idea. My soccer captain Brent has a big family, and they're for the most part all from this part of BC. He invited us up to stay at the house he grew up in for a few days to go fishing, crabbing, and relax. I accepted the offer in .03 seconds.

Brent speaks about his work in rehabilitating people who went to Canadian Indian residential schools. His community-oriented prowress certainly is what makes him such a devoted manager of our soccer team, as well.

Brent's step-Dad Lee is a part of this land and is the very definition of "provider" for his family, as he hunts and fishes as a way of life. Here, we're pulling up the first of several dungeness crab traps. We ate these that night along with fresh prawns, herring eggs and smoked salmon.

Never again will we see Julia smiling this big in Canucks gear. The boating day was too good to be true.

Everest ticked off a lot of boxes on the "have rode that vehicle" list that weekend.

Brent mentioned Sea Gull Island as being a seal and snake haven, so I requested we go take a look. We motored right up to this rock with about fifty harbor seals. In the end, one timid mother was inches from the water, leaving her brand new baby, oblivious to danger, to be photographed at close range.

We circled to the south side of the island and witnessed perhaps the most amazing thing we've ever seen in Nature with our own eyes - a mother seal giving birth to a pup. It remained in the amniotic sac for some time while the mother, umbilical cord hanging out, tried desperately to keep herself between the baby and our boat. Moments later, ravens entered the scene to check out the blood on the rocks. The iconic moment of all came in the form of a bald eagle landing at the scene and taking off with the placenta. What!!!? We didn't catch any salmon that day, but luck came our way in an unexpected way.

The vehicle checklist continued to grow. I never thought I'd see E. on one of these.

That night (still the first day!) we went to Sea Fair, a small yearly carnival at Powell River. Everest's first try at the rides and hullaballoo of summer fairs. He rode six rides, some alone, and once the tickets ran out - melt down. Still, watching him being somewhat unsure and then slowly happier on the Go-Gator was a heart-breaking experience for us parents.

This was the ride he coveted most.

And yes, he dared go on the ferris wheel as his final ride. Awesome!

Brent's family lives on the Sliammon Reservation, which is so very peaceful. His family was so welcoming it felt like home. The ravens out there speak so vividly (and often). Pretty special weekend. I even got to stay out drinking with all the Res youth. Whenever Brent wasn't around to protect me, I was grilled by a certain philosophizing self-professed "crazy mother *%$*". He was a mixture of charming and ascerbic; standard hazing for the only white guy. It was the full experience! I felt very privileged and happy to be there.

Julia went swimming in her clothes in our last hour before the ferry took us away, as a personal cleansing. Everest immediately demanded she jump in again, but we could hear the boat coming around the corner of the inlet. I reckon we'll be going back though.

Everest Turns 3

2011-07-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

The week leading up to E being 3 (the official droid name for this event is E2-3), we were in Wolf Creek, OR participating in a fabulous camping and spiritually uplifting event called Free Cascadia Witch Camp. Julia and Everest were there two years ago, and we all went this year. It's not easy to explain, but it is 6 or 7 days in the woods with three meals a day, a personal path one attends daily, nightly rituals, and a wild, free environment. Even when Julia and I were simultaneously sick with "the bug" (we couldn't move) Everest was taken care of by the entire camp for a whole day. Everyone was wonderful there, and my experience had me go from city shut-in full of trepidation to a resounding openness where I couldn't imagine missing the experience next year. I even received attunement to become a reiki healer. For our family it was the happiest, most engaging week I think we've ever had. Camp also brought out my inner puppeteer -notably, at the talent show under the full moon; this is something which I know is of my deepest passions and innate expertise. I intend to bring it into my life full throttle in the near future.

We didn't know we'd be in Portland on Everest's birthday, but having come back from the woods in Southern Oregon the night before we had to stay. A 7 hour drive to Vancouver does not a fun birthday make. Everest was nude the whole day of course. Everest's favorite part was "chocolate cake and ice cream. And the spoon." Official quote. He also got a toothbrush with his cake. Becca and Stephe got him a balloon shaped like a fish, and it held helium for several weeks. Thank you to everyone who sent Everest gifts or dropped something off at our door. He now has more trains and trucks than he knows what to do with.

Here are the highlights from the birthday times:

Looking Back at Canada Day

2011-07-02T23:38:00.000-07:00

Everest and I spent all day together on Canada's birthday, which involved going to Science World, riding False Creek ferries, Granville Island where there was lots of stages with free music, going to Science World a second time, and navigating huge crowds with too much stuff. The final ferry ride away from the madness was peaceful.

Interview with a giant head.

Ditching the Skuut bike, sockless.

Canadians everywhere; the ocean does soothe.

Beeeeeeez

2011-06-30T23:54:00.001-07:00

While I drool over all the atrociously expensive but enticing bird watching vacations around the world (where one may see a carmine bee eater ride an arabian bustard - Don't eat our bees!), we have animals of our own that are just as intriguing - and cheaper! A couple weekends ago was Car Free Day, an annual event that closes several major roads in select neighborhoods in Vancouver. We're lucky to live right near Main Street, and for the second year in a row we took our silver crested polish hen FizzGig out for a walk in the wagon.

She ended up on our shoulders at a certain point. FizzGig is pretty gorgeous, plumage wise, and it is priceless to watch people's expressions change as we stroll down the middle of the road with "some kind of owl". We would literally go ten meters before being swarmed again by a crowd of curious people. Fizz will just sit there and not try to fly away; she is easily our calmest chicken.

No surprise though that Everest was more excited about the Church's Chicken. He offered the man-bird his toys, clothes and anything else available. He called him "Chicken man".

A couple days later we opened our hive for the first time. Couldn't find the queen, but propolis, larvae and pollen were all present, so the hive is healthy. When the hive is hit hard with sun, it explodes with energy. Beeeeeeez! Pretty amazing that we have a box full of thousands of these lovely creatures.

A long video for some, but for others, the no-look sky walk is a big happy moment.

One day at Granville Island. Everest loves the arty ball track mechanisms.

Ella and Julia enjoy a free boat ride around False Creek. Cold chillin'.

Julia and I went on a date for the first time all year, it seems. It ended with a concert performed by the Western Saharan band Group Doueh. They were fantastic. The guitar and keyboard players are virtuos. It was an absolutely refreshing performance, highlighted by the fact that the band was entirely without pretension. They were just sharing music and not putting on a "show" like Western bands typically do. But they were incredible, mesmerizing. It's a hard sound to describe, but the story of their discovery by one of the heads of the Divine Frequencies label is worth reading. This guy recorded some divine racket off the radio in Morocco and traveled through Morocco for a month to find who it was, asking all manner of musicians and locals to no avail. He returned a second time and traveled through Western Sahara for another month to the last town before the Mauritania border, where in a last ditch effort played the tape for the thousandth time for a man who smiled really big and said, "This is me!" Look for me in my swank Group Doueh tee shirt henceforth.

Enjoy a track:

Congratulations Nathan and Sarah!

2011-06-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

Our friend Sarah has lived in our house for nearly three years, almost as long as Everest has been breathing air, and so it has been quite an honor to witness her transformation from one MacVersion to her current manifestation. Julia has known Sarah since the 5th grade, but after a long gap of losing touch, she resurfaced, needing a break to live in Vancouver with her then boyfriend. I had known Nathan for a couple years up to that point thanks to my friends in Seattle. After taking her fruit picking in haunted orchards, dressing her up as a tiger, and turning her into an urban chicken accomplice, Julia and I have had a hand in seeing Sarah change through to this point, the most significant instance being when she and Nathan met. If Julia and I hadn't known one another, neither would Sarah and Nathan. Not that we are the cupids here, but I've never been witness to such a drastic life-affirming transformation by way of circumstance that I was directly involved in. And their wedding last week was just beautiful; orchestrated by two young creatives absolutely designed for each other's company for many years to come. The day opened up with sun in Stanley Park, a red headed woodpecker arrived as the knots and bells were tied, and the sun set over the harbor casting a magical light on the scene in the Tea House. Some time soon these two are going to move to Portland together, and while we all feel wonderful about moving toward where our homes truly are in this life, it will be sad to see this magical squatter family split. We'll miss you, Sarah Jane.

Sarah proudly wore her mom's wedding dress. She also constructed her bouquet out of found objects, weaving wire, buttons, feathers, fake flowers, jewelry, etc. It was pretty fantastic.

The wedding officiant was our friend and neighbor Kate Sutherland. She published a book very recently about strategies to achieve a deeper inner knowing, and she also makes a wonderfully stabilizing wedding guru. The theme of this wedding was peacock and dove. You can probably guess who is who.

We were at different tables since Julia was a bridesmaid and Nayt was a lowly Best Hack. That didn't stop us! It's easy to take couples photos with no children around! Everest was with Grandpa Brian - a good choice.

Here Aaron and Julia enjoy photos from Julia's past. Sarah's mom dusted off the old photo boxes and produced potentially embarrassing images back when the girls lived in Vernon.

Spring Takes FOREVER Here

2011-06-16T23:25:00.000-07:00

Now that the Stanley Cup finals (and fires) are over we can actually get on with our lives! It was impossible not to be aware of everything that was going on. Vancouver immerses itself with all things Canucks. As the finals dawned school yards were infested with Sedin and Kesler jerseys. Cars everywhere were fitted with window flags waving in the wind. Bus drivers, contractors, auto insurance folk, grocery clerks - everyone was wearing gear everywhere you looked. We never got any merch, but I did locate this hat that I think might become ironically popular.

We got a beehive installed in our yard four days ago, and while Julia was poking around on the first sunny day, she got stung above her right eye, which swelled relentlessly. Julia is the market manager for the newest farmer's market in town. The market has been open for three weeks, but since it's on Wednesdays (all Stanley Cup game nights) she hasn't seen a full turnout yet. At least three vendors canceled their scheduled appearances due to Game 7 this past time, and she looked like Rocky after a fight. She donned the eye patch.

Along with our beehive, new shed roof and sunny days, we've put a lot of work into finally tamping out any white trash features to our yard. It's all coming together. Above you can see me wheeling a barrow full of sod leftovers from someone else's yard. Everest, who had pushed our push mower to the park, insisted on sitting on a patch of grass on the way home - uphill. For six or seven blocks, that's a work out.

Last weekend was also our neighborhood's annual block party, where we close off the street and have many a food and a fun. This year brought the fire truck and the fire fighters (Take a number, ladies). Everest's face, upon fire truck's arrival, was priceless. Once inside the fire truck, he was so calm and had a very internal experience. We whipped up the highlight food item of the affair: a mega platter of Mexican-inspired edibles including a mango salsa, pomegranate guacamole, and shredded faux-mole chicken.

We took a horse drawn tour in Stanley Park (for free!). It's bigger than Central Park! If you visit us, we will take you. Julia's allergies reminded us we'll never own horses. At one point we passed the statue of Lord Stanley with arms outstretched - holding a Stanley Cup mock up. This was, of course, before the heartbreaking Game 7 defeat. I wonder what he's holding now. Perhaps a design for another new Canuck logo?

And since we were there, the Aquarium is just up the slope. I tried to photograph the sargeant major (foreground left), but Blondie and some turtle dominate the shot.

Everest woke at the inexplicable hour of 6:35am, so I took him to Pacific Spirit Park (near UBC) for some bird call recognition and an early morning bike ride through the forest.

This was today. You can't tell, but one-eyed Julia looks like a mutant under that hat.

Deilephila elpenor which was fairly recently introduced to British Columbia, probably from Japan or Europe. Apparently it has established breeding populations in southern British Columbia.

Official News: It's Number Two

2011-06-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

We are nearly 12 weeks in. Due date roughly one week before Christmas.

Maryland Roof Brew

2011-06-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

A project we've wanted to tackle for years is re-roofing the large shed in our yard. Built in the 1920's this structure is old and a bit of an eyesore. The rain has shown it now love, as it has massive holes in the roof, including one a person can easily jump through. It's too bad all the lifeforms living on the roof can't stay, but we actually want to use the shed.

Enter Maryland. That is, enter Nate: the other American Nate who owns chickens and brews beer on our street. (Nayt is "Arizona", if you follow) Nate of Maryland happens to be a contractor, and a good one at that, so we employed him to school our roof (and Nayt, who is novice when it comes to these things). In five somewhat relaxed days of work the two Nates tore the old roof off and got a new one up. I finally feel like I can properly use a hammer and use it to make a roof on anything. Nate's got serious skills and we love him.

Down on the ground there is much rejoicing. Our yard is going to finally come together and stop being so white trashy. Everest loves his model neighborhood, too. It's the perfect playset that we found on the side of the road. At first he used hotwheels and even a Lightening McQueen on these roads, but as soon as the dump truck entered the scene, the appeal of destruction was too much to ignore. I'm sure if Everest were as large as he is in comparison to this street block he would relish in tearing everything up as well. It's a fun counterpoint: as E. decimates a neighborhood in miniature down below us, we repair one roof.

And the finished roof glistens in the sun:
At last it is done. Just five or six days of work, and pretty relaxed ones at that. We even had some homebrew on the roof once or twice. Nate actually made ginger beer for Julia's ongoing nausea. What a guy! Now that the roof is done, I am repaying him with labor on a patio somewhere else in the neighborhood.

Llamas Lead the way to La Vida Loca

2011-05-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

Julia wanted to learn about how to graft, grow and care for fruit trees. She has been volunteering at a farm out in Aldergrove in exchange for rootstock in future seasons (as well as a working knowledge of how to work with fruit trees). On the property are several barn owl rehabilitation houses (pictured at left). The woman at the farm also has a flock of llamas, including a most illustrious male who prances majestically on the other side of a small river (away from the females). Julia also helped out at the annual Van Dusen Plant Sale here in Vancouver. Her volunteer work unexpectedly granted her a tourism passport.

Every year, people who work in the Vancouver tourism industry (museums, tour guides, aquariums, etc) have the option of using these handy passport things for a month where you can go to any of the many designated tourism sites for free. The idea is that if you encourage tourism workers to experience Vancouver as a tourist, they have a better idea what might interest actual tourists when they interact. Each visit is awarded with a stamp in the passport, and if enough unique stamps are collected you get (at the very least) a free pass to every place in the passport for a year! Wow! Let's go guys! Every day in May we do something new right? Sounds like a no-brainer, except: Everest is often sad or grumpy and Julia has morning sickness! Conundrum!

Ok, Everest isn't grumpy every day. He cheers up as soon as we get out of the house. When we went to the UBC botanical garden Everest was a most gracious guide for little Ella, who we take care of three times a week, as the video attests. Everest used to push her around a lot, protective of his space and things, but now he is much more willing to take care of Ella and make sure she's ok.

We have also been to the Space Museum, the Maritime Museum, Museum of Vancouver (where Ella is jamming to bhangra music on headphones), Science World, the Aquarium, and a bunch of other places we would never have gone to. One of the forbidden wonders of Vancouver is the 450 foot high Capillano Suspension Bridge, which is $30 for one person. We got to go on a free Grey Line tour on a bus up there, which also took us to a fish hatchery, the Cleveland Dam and up the gondola to the top of Grouse Mountain! All for free. Suddenly I love Vancouver! The Grouse skyride is also mighty expensive just for going up and down. That tour was one of the best days ever.

Outside the Space Center and Museum of Vancouver there is a giant metal crab sculpture/fountain. And tulips. Spring takes a long time to get here in Vancouver. We just had our first warm day this week.

We took Emile and Everest to Maplewood Farms in North Vancouver the other day, where you can hang out with pygmy goats and many other farm animals. I love my Vancouver Tourism Passport! Ok, it's Julia's. Technically. She is often feeling crappy, so if she's not entirely convinced herself to stay in bed all day I can drag her around the city to visit fun places.

See how much fun?
At the Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden, Emile and Everest were a silly lot, running around in circles giggling their heads off. It did not deter the painted turtles or koi from their steady sunning postures.
In retrospect, it's amazing they were both sitting still at any point.

Chick-Fil-A

2011-05-02T00:27:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago we raised chicks in our kitchen, their home a capsized dining room table wrapped with chicken wire. The coop took a long time to build, and the situation in the kitchen, with all the shredded bedding, the smell, and shrapnel and detritus from the oversized pullets, was dire. Never again, we thought.

Until now. But this time we upped the ante: we have an incubator. It's kind of fancy. Julia constantly checked on the incubator as the weeks passed. This past Tuesday, there were a bunch of chicken eggs and duck eggs in there. Six chicks (five of them Polish, with the weird hair) successfully hatched. Everest and others witnessed several of them come out of their eggs. The muscovy ducklings hatch in about a week and a half, and boy are they going to be cute.

Here are the chicks mid-hatch. Some of the eggs did not fully develop. The bigger, slighly tanner ones are the duck eggs. Once the chicks were out they started scrambling about, bowling the unhatched eggs around.

They are now in the brooder. Everest likes to take them out and ride them on cars or let them slide down the couch cushions. One time he put one on an open window sill. There's been lots of parenting over this.

Fortunately for E-man, he baked chocolate chip cookies for the first time. This was monumental, and he was awake until 11pm, causing a ruckus.
Back to the drawing board.

Road Trip 2011: The Month of March

2011-04-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the road trip wrap up. We drove from Vancouver, BC all the way to Phoenix, AZ, and a lot of places in between. Props to Subaru and their reliability. We drove over 4500 miles through (only) four states over the course of three and a half weeks.

Everest could have fit in the back with our food, blankets and cooler, but his body shape and unpredictability was better suited for our holding apparatus located in the back seat. E.'s grace and performance in the car is perhaps the unsung highlight of our tour, for while he had his moments of screaming, unmeetable requests and insistence on Bert and Ernie entertaining him well after my voice started to get haggard, he was usually in a great mood and put up with thousands of miles of landscape racing past his view.

We always snicker when we cross the border. When the border guard only asks you a couple basic questions before letting you pass into America, it feels like getting away with something. America instantly greeted us with words about the apocalypse. Linden, Washington and other nearby towns are filled with pro-life and fundamentalist propaganda, mostly on billboards, sides of buildings or parked trailers along the road. "The End is Near: Visit www.somethinggod.org" We also saw The Cemetery of the Innocent. While its intentions may have merit, there is still an undeniably laughable quality to this much effort put into something like this. A little morbid showmanship always gets our camera going.

We stayed in Seattle with Ariel and Bob. Ariel is Julia's half-sister. The house they live in is a testament to passionate packratting, as Bob's dad seems to have an entire neighborhood's worth of yardsales throughout the place. We even snagged some crutches for Julia to use while her broken foot healed. How'd the foot break? She kicked a wall while playing hallway hockey with some kids. All but one of her toes made it through the wall. Ouch.

In Portland, Oregon Becca showed Everest how to operate her electric piano. Despite the hundreds of sounds and FX, Everest was keen on the helicopter function and creating vast rotary soundscapes. His intent and passion really shone even in the dark with passed out parents nearby, the blue LED light illuminating the tiny face of a mad genius desperate for ambient poignancy.

Steve is in law school, but we timed our visit so he'd be free. A fine moment came when Becca's first shot at home made gumbo came to fruition. Being from Louisiana ensured a perfect rue to start it all off.

We pressed on Southward, through the sheep filled-lands of Oregon until we reached Northern California. My male pride was decimated when I couldn't replace our windshield wipers without help from an Autozone employee. Everest had his first Blizzard from Dairy Queen. Things were going so well that we kept driving past Eureka, into the night, and camped in our car in the redwoods. We slept in the Subaru three different times on this trip, and truth be told, the seats folded down enough for us to make quite the cozy nest.

From there we headed down to Oakland, a city often described as San Fran's poor sibling, but we were ready to accept it with open arms. What was it really like there? Malcolm lived downtown near Lake Merritt, where Everest and I ended up going several times. When that kid wears a backpack, the cuteness is off the charts. Plus, all the work we've done reading the audio bird call book paid off when he started hearing birds he'd never seen before and identified them by sound. Scrub Jay! Anna's Hummingbird! The bird factor was one of the most exciting facets of the trip, as each new and warmer climate we entered yielded different species.
Everyone seems to be in school. Like Malcolm. Still, she lent us her bed and space. Seneca also lives in Oakland in a communal apartment that has a large garden, and one night we all managed to share a dinner. These are some of our favorite people, so we were very happy. Then we got a parking ticket for $58 and the fun kind of ended. Seneca later that day would get an $83 ticket. We were supposed to meet Jim at the airport so he could ride with us the rest of the way to Arizona, but he missed his flight! Timing ruined! Oakland started to suck it, a common theme when we would later return...

The path between the Bay Area and Phoenix is a bit of a blur. I sped through LA between midnight and 2am, making sure to play some Tool to assist my motivation. We slept in a rest stop on the other side. Not the redwoods, but it was a break. The next morning Julia didn't suspect the sweet, elderly Mexican woman she met at the rest stop of being a Jehova's Witness. She usually has good radar for that. Julia confesses, "Oh, she was good." And no trip across the desert is complete without having a Pee Wee's Big Adventure moment.

At the end of our lengthy spot of driving we had to get Jim who had just landed in Phoenix. He stayed with us at Devin's house, a place my brother has been fixing up for a little over a year since buying it.

I never thought I'd say this, but after spending time in Devin's nice Phoenix neighborhood with warm temperatures, picking oranges off his neighbor's tree, walking a couple blocks to the corner store, seeing a wealth of wildlife and learning about more lenient zoning and animal husbandry laws, I could actually live in Phoenix (again). When I left for Canada, I kind of vowed never to return. Considering how much family and friends are there, though... we started to wonder...

Mowing with Tecate. After mowing down his food and liquor supply, we made sure to keep Devin's fridge and cupboards stocked.

No shocker here. Thunderkid likes drums. It was a sweet moment to hear Devin and Jim talking shop about drumheads and such while mini Hercules was pounding away. Sometimes Everest put some finesse into it. A new flavor for him!

Devin's backyard is a great place to be. Here, Morgan and Devin compare technologies.

Charlie and Everest compare planks.

The initial impetus to go to Arizona at this time, after my job on Bob's Burgers ended, was to go to Chris and Lindsey's wedding in Florence, AZ. A true middle of nowhere town, I think it's best known for its courthouse and prison, but if you look a little further there's a giant red barn suitable for a hoedown or a wedding.

Any good wedding starts with tailgating. Everest was wearing his best Indian prince outfit. Before we even left the parking lot he crouched down as far as he could, doing the splits, so his pants crotch would rip as much as possible. He spent the wedding with a massive wind vent.

Julia's first taste of Jerod's manhair. Irresistable.

Turkeys gobbled while the couple said their vows. Everest ran around in the grass near some tractors. It was the perfect temperature out.

Lindsey's hair was a personal favorite. And her necklace, too. Oh, and her ring. Ok, it was all well done. So were these cards (bookmarks, I reckon) that were banded with straw at each guest's table spot:It was really cool to realize that I had been present for all but one of these shots, all taken by Chris on various trips and hikes. We have traveled a lot together.

Heidi's shoes also caught my eye.
Jesse ensures that the disappearance of white was keeping pace with that of the red.

Bonfires work like a charm, and there is no fitter way to end a party. This was a good idea.

- - - - - - - - - -

Back in Phoenix, Everest continued to oversaturate Farrah's cute receptors. Visiting Shomit from Brooklyn, she expressed an unprecedented amount of adoration for the boy. She works with kids, too, so to hear her say this guy is the coolest kid she's ever met is perfect for my thriving ego. You can see her almost incapable of containing herself here.

As soon as Everest got to Phoenix, he followed Devin everywhere. It's what kept him going all those miles of driving. "Get to Devin's!" He even waved off a nursing session so we could keep getting closer to his uncle's house. He ensued talking Devin's ear off at any moment Devin was present. Devin was a bit overwhelmed at first and exhaled noticeably when things started shattering and breaking in Everest's destructive path, but he soon got a knack for the flow of living with a toddler. Everest also followed Devin to work, as far as he could. Any time Devin would pedal or drive off down the street, pantsless E would be wobble-sprinting along the sidewalk until he was out of site. I had to go collect him down the block about twenty times.

It was warm enough to be naked outside with no problem.

I spotted an Abert's Towhee in Devin's yard several times, unaware of what it was at the time. Turns out this is a rare bird, endemic to the Sonoran Desert. Usually only found in riparian canyons,its population has increased in a few urban communities like ASU and Devin's neighborhood. Birders go nuts trying to spot one and Devo's got them trick-or-treating at his doorstep.The Phoenix Zoo; we can't not go! This time Everest could actually stand up and look at things. These prairie dogs were the laziest animals I have ever seen. Absolutely certain that predators are out of the picture, they had gotten so fat I was a little worried about them. "You call yourself a prairie dog?" More like prairie log.

Masked Lapwing . . . Collared Peccary . . . Wild Turkey

The stingray pool was a place we could have stayed all day if Everest weren't so unimpressed. Even though he could have been petting rays for hours, he kept trying to leave, much to the chagrin of our deep-seeded desire to sit still. This is the only ray he was willing to touch:FYI: They weren't really "sting" rays. They are known as cow-nosed rays. Slimy, but harmless.

Then we stumbled upon the carousel, which I don't recall ever being in the zoo. It must be somewhat recent. Everest was obsessed. We barely got onto an animal he would accept. Rhino. He was so insistent on going on it a second time there was no way we were going to avoid it. Thus, the "spinning shark" came about. Melissa took him on that one:

Our last day was spent partly with Great Grandma Sherley at the Mesa Museum for Youth. Here Everest offers Sherley some cake he just baked. His obsession with cake and chocolate is pretty amazing. Never realized how fixated kids can get on that stuff. I love the Escher puzzle on the floor back there.

After spending so much time in Arizona it was really hard to leave (I wanted to stay forever), but we had a date in San Diego to see Charlie and Melissa run a triathlon. We'd never seen them race before, so we drove out west to stay in our awesome, immaculate, gratefully accepted hotel room!
However, no one can do that drive and not stop at the Imperial Sand Dunes near Yuma, AZ. Too incredible for words, they are impressive. We went where there were no sand buggies or ATVs. Dang those things are noisy. It'll always be an amazing sight: plants growing out of what appears to be nothing but sand. And there's always a bigger dune to climb. I swear the hole in my armpit was caused by endless gusts of sand, not wardrobe neglect.

It is quite windy there.

Sunday morning Charlie and Melissa were up at the crack of dawn in order to, intentionally, get into the ocean and swim 1.5 km , ride 40 km on their bikes, and follow it up with a 10 km run. The ocean in San Diego is cold! On our way to the event, we were tailgated by some creep in a four by four. Julia gestured a few times before leaning out the passenger window to yell at this person to back off. "We have a kid in our car, back off!" This person gestured back (you know how), but after enough of these angry looks from Julia, he took his aggression down a notch and backed way off, only to pull over. This image above is Julia's raging satisfaction. No one disses this family without a fight...
On to the race. Some images...
Final mile!
The First Aid tent. Charlie had bested his previous best time by a half hour, and without his knee brace. He encouraged me to photograph the full experience.
No free snacks in the goodie bag. Scam!

Melissa's final mile.

Home stretch. She encouraged the lady behind her to finish strong, and she ended up beating her! Advice backfired!
No snackies? Let's eat fish.
. . . at the Coronado Boat House. Swank. The lobster bisk was even good enough for Everest. His installation art involving a firetruck and mashed potatoes will be the stuff of legends to come.

After San Diego, we had our first unplanned moments of our road trip. After Los Angeles, the California countryside opens up into gloriousness. We stopped for avocados at a highway-side fruit stand and ended up with the most exhilarating citrus experience of our lives. Julia got three tangelos that had skin as tight as a drum, and a popping tang that was rescued by a divine sweetness. Like a pair of applebottom booty shorts, we wondered how this sensation wasn't bursting at the seems before the rind is peeled back.

Julia picked out a town randomly on the map to go to. It was Pismo Beach. Not exactly a compelling title, but therein lies its charm. In the summer it looks like this, but on a March afternoon the town were pretty much empty, and we decided to stay in a cheap motel whose door opened up to the beach. It felt like true freedom. No plans. No problems.

We had Mexican dinner as a family; Everest was an incorrigible madman. We wandered the town, partied in our room... The next morning we went to the water and played in the waves. Avocets and godwits were out snailing in the rising tide. Tiny dogs took dumps in the sand. Attentive, overweight owners finished the job. We ate some world famous clam chowder at the Splash Cafe. Sat in the front window. There was a black forest latte. Taffy machines were in full effect.

It was a perfect moment in time, and yet we felt compelled to continue north. To wine country! On the way we saw signs for Montana del Oro State Park and when we got there the scent of eucalyptus forests filled our noses. Dunes intermingled with shrubberies. Tall cliffs bordered a beach with crashing waves and rich tide pools. Oystercatchers plucked mollusks as the surf wailed into the rocks.
The beach was a conglomeration of billions of unique, tiny stones, each colorful and smoothed by the sea. At one point Everest found a sandy ridge to slide down on his bare bottom. He did it a few times, landing in a heap of jewelry-ready stones.

Later we walked through a eucalyptus grove and on our way to a clearing I stepped on a hornet nest and got stung a few times on the arm, dropping Everest (them's some powerful stings, whatever they were), gathered the child and fled. Julia drove the rest of the day. Fortunately we sampled some wine at one vineyard. We drove into the night to Oakland and the fun ended. We lost our cell phone, so we had no way to contact our friends except to call with a calling card from 7-11. At 11pm after a long day of driving it was the last thing we wanted. But it worked out.

The next day we went to the lake again. Everest fell into a puddle and he ended up nude with boots. On our way back to Malcolm's, we were accosted by some local thugs for leaving our child exposed. They seemed like they may have been trying to inform us that lots of terrible people were around, but after a flurry of expletives, insults and threats we had no choice but to conclude these were just shit people. No amount of compassionate reasoning could shake the feeling of having so much verbal violence done to us. It was scary and instead of spending another night, we left immediately. We slept at a rest stop in Yreka, CA instead:

We went through Ashland, Sunny Valley and Eugene - all in Oregon - before landing in Portland again. And after feeling a bit rejuvenated and taken care of (Steve bought us some Voodoo Doughnuts) we headed home, completely broke. Job well done.

The End

Campbell River

2011-02-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

Long ago we went to Campbell River for an indoor soccer tournament. We stayed in a cabin just a stone's throw from the ocean with some of my teammates. It was great. Especially the hot tub. Our team played quite well through the first couple games, but we would lose a tough 5-4 decision on the gym floor to put us on the early ferry home. Everest was weary of the other new people we shared space with at first, but naturally he got comfortable enough to share some brews and run in the nude.

Nayt looks for sea lions while Everest challenges Winter to a duel.

Kevin and Tilo try to keep up.

Saint Nick's Canadian Adventure

2011-01-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Santa saves Canada for last on Christmas Eve. It's pretty close to the North Pole. With the higher latitudes, it's darker longer, allowing him to squeeze into every chimney and igloo. With over six billion humans in the world now, the end of this grueling red-eye for the man in red must leave him more and more exhausted. It's nice to know that the quaint land of the beaver can be a final respite before his return home...

When December started, we had already begun planning the Christmas week for our family get-together. Nayt and Julia's birthdays were mere inconveniences along the way, distracting us from our ultimate holiday domination. Still Julia made pizza pastries for Nayt. Susan brought flowers. Underwear was customized and given, with love.

Without going into much detail, the whole family came to Vancouver for a good week of food, rain and irritating each other. We came out of it with some skiing, skating, giftings, and a lot of smiling. Here is a lovely montage of some images.

Everest and Kaya sharing a snuzzle.

Dylan loved the trains this much.

CK and Nayt. Got a little feisty and are better for it.The nog doth floweth. Homemade = win.

We got the whole family out for a bit of skating downtown. Great Grandma Sherley rode in our makeshift rickshaw.

Everest took to skating instantly and was churning his legs as hard as he could. We all took turns escorting him.

Dylan also enjoyed his mini skates. Both Jimmy and Julia can skate circles around the rest of us.

The iPod became a reality for Everest. Dylan showed him the ropes. They watched The Grinch a few times (the Seuss version).

The Christmas turkey was a behemoth. And one of our breakers failed, so lighting was not at a premium for this grandest of moments. But it doesn't matter since Susan rocks the santa hat.

On top of Seymour Mountain, Devin, Melissa and Jimmy hit the slopes.

The rest of us tobagganed. Or, in Charlie's case, walked around. The toddlers took snow in the face several times. Everest tanked. Dylan cheered up and wanted more.

Morgan is missing from this photo of course, and we were thinking of him (and talking to him) a lot while he was serving in Iraq. Here's our lovely Xmas card, for anyone who didn't see it.

Animals

2010-12-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

There's much more to tell, but let this post be focused on our recent trials with the animal kingdom. About a month ago, Julia went and got some ducks, and after they were captured and held hostage (for one second) by raccoons, they were no more. We've acquired two new chickens, as well. We'll profile them soon (though they are still nameless). Our flock is now up to six (but don't tell the City of Vancouver that!). However, they've all ceased laying eggs! Slacker hens. As of yesterday we have two guest chickens, too (while some friends of ours move), who are laying, so hopefully they can set the example.

We've all been sick recently, including Kaya the dog, who went to the vet after swallowing a stick shard. All good now. The rain has been heavy here, no more so than last night: Perfect time to drive to Surrey and get a rabbit hutch off Craigslist! With three rabbits! Yup, we have them. So if you're visiting us soon, beware death by cuteness.

French CBC Video

2010-11-23T11:27:00.001-08:00

A couple months ago French CBC came and did a piece on the Two Block Diet, and we didn't find the video evidence . . . until now. Follow this link, and go to about 14:22 in the broadcast to find the piece with Julia and Everest and other familiar characters. The majority of the piece takes place in our neighbors' yard (not ours), and they live three houses down from us. This video really makes it look like we live in a foreign country, no? Who are these mysterious French speakers? The best part is possibly the still shot of a large pile of compost on national television.

First snow for E.

2010-11-20T21:39:00.001-08:00

Morning congregation.

Snowplow

Kaya

Snowballs to throw at naughty chickens.

We had ducks - then we didn't - then a twist

2010-11-20T00:38:00.000-08:00

We've had a tumultuous couple of weeks. A flat tire, a potential miscarriage, Everest throwing and hitting and being upset all the time, buying two young ducklings only to have them massacred by raccoons a few nights later - this was a test. Everything seems to happen for a reason, as we say, though. Today was a blissful conclusion to this transitional period, with Everest and Julia headed to Granville Island to acquire the most premium of cheeses, prosciutto, and pate. Nayt completed yet another episode of Bob's Burgers. Fresh juice was made. As was lamb stew (pictured). The first snowfall of the year lay on the ground and picked up again this night (current conditions shown). And the most positive news of all goes something like this:

Dipping Ladels into Frost

2010-11-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

Bye bye, warm weather. We will miss you. The sun still comes out often enough, though, to make these autumn days quite lovely. Upon a recent visit to the cemetery, Everest insisted upon activating every water spigot we came across (and there were many) while several mangy coyotes roamed the grounds.

A much needed visit to the forest and beach wasn't complete without Everest throwing rocks into flowing water. It's pretty amazing how well children retain information. E-man can tell you what a fern is, as well as moss, juncos, barnacles, and he seems to know the difference between the calls of a crow and a raven. Actually, the sound recognition is what is really amazing. We seem to lose the sensibility for it, and Everest has proven that with practice we can identify every bird call we hear.

This sort of thing needs no introduction. Rather than using a "play kitchen," Julia gets Everest involved in the making of food, and he takes much pride in his work. See how careful he is? Those little fingers are making massive flavor choices.

My friend Nate and I (yes, two Nates; both American, married to Canadians; both own chickens; both live on the same street, etc.) have been brewing beer every two weeks for the past couple of months. I haven't bought beer in over a month, but can drink one whenever I please. In fact, I drink way less now that I constantly have it. The pumpkin beer we recently made has been a big hit with anyone we've fed it to, so we made another batch. We just bottled our stout (pictured left in the carboy), so if you're planning on visiting soon, beware our brewmastery.

In this image, Everest was very against having Emile's feet touch his own in the wagon, so he decided to sit sideways to avoid any irritating contact. Emile appears stunned.

Julia has begun doing regular childcare for four different kids. The two new regulars are Baby Ella and the Frenchman known as Antoine. He and Everest are twins when it comes to energy and interests (and height, and looks, and, well, everything). Here they enjoy a morning walk as they discuss the finer points of airplanes and camions. Antoine talks about Julia every day when he doesn't see her. Hearing a little toddler speak French is pretty cute.

Meanwhile, chunky baby Ella loves Julia. She still has trepidation when it comes to Everest. She lets him feed him here, but there is a fleet look of concern over the portion size. Ella is most likely the cutest baby on the planet right now.

We recently went to an animal auction in the Fraser Valley. It happens every week, but we'd never gone. We wanted some extra birds for the winter, and our neighbors wanted to sell their rabbits (and we took them along). We met up with Ya Ya and had the five dollar breakfast made in a small kitchen attached to the large barn and stables where they hold this blitz of beasts. The authenticity is high at this event, as a real auctioneer (skilled with the classic rhythms of barter) bargains with the sitting audience en masse while wearing his cowboy hat. The commodification of animals was intense, but overall we had such a good time. When it was our turn to, finally, bid on the chickens we had our eyes on, we felt that riveting surge of excitement that only city slickers can feel while in the rural outskirts.

As soon as we placed our two new $9 barred rock hens into the Subaru, one of them instantly started wheezing horribly. Julia and I shared a look of naïveté and horror. The auction isn't exactly the model of health when it comes to screening animals. There is no screening. Mostly industrial and large scale farmers are there to get cheap animals. You never know what you're gonna get. After a ton of research, it was determined that old Wheezy most likely had a respiratory infection, and in plotting the potential cures and costs of doing so, coupled with how long she had perhaps been suffering, it was only reasonable for us to put her out of her misery. Very sad, but the right thing to do here. The other bird is quarantined at the moment, living in her own chicken hotel away from our flock. She seems malnourished, but healthy otherwise. Let's hope she's not infected. She sure is pretty. Then she can play with our other hens, like in this here video (oops.)

Everest is now the official DJ of Little Red Hen House. He's discovered the speed/RPM switch, and this keeps him entertained (and us gradually insane) for a long time! He seems to consistently choose the new Erykah Badu album out of the stack of records. Probably because it's purple. Or because it has the moon on it.

Speaking of moons, there's a full one at our house every day...

Harvest and the Balance of Sanity

2010-10-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

We're probably like most parents when we say, "We're not normal," as our lives seem to eschew any regular structure or predictability. We knew that we would get a harvest from all our edible plants, but we didn't expect most of our tomatoes to be green or to have two chickens die without reason, or to be living with a dog, but we do now.

Yes we live with Kaya, the dog, and Rin, the farm faerie of a human. We had gutted our basement living room so it could become a pottery studio, but when Rin's valiant efforts in Powell River to be self sustainable hit a multitude of snags and frustrating circumstances, we had to say yes to her living here. Living with a dog was a serious apprehension, as at least one of us is allergic to most animal hair, but Kaya has turned out to be a delightful surprise. She is very sweet, good with kids, and is primed to obey (working on that). She puts up with almost anything Everest can throw at her (not a pun). She lets him know when boundaries are crossed, and now Everest sometimes comes running, sobbing "bite you". Kaya doesn't really bite him; she just nips.

The best part about Rin staying in our home is that she is part of the family. She cooks, maintains the house, watches Everest now and then. It's like it's supposed to be. It takes a village to raise a child. It couldn't have come at a better time, as we have begun to really feel the burn of not having much support with raising a child. Getting time away is seldom, but so important, especially with so many projects to do.

Julia has catered a few events recently, to gushing reviews of course. One event involved the BC Witch Camp organizers (food restrictions? Julia can handle it) and another featured a bondage book launch. For the latter event, Julia plotted for two weeks, barely finishing in time, but all the stops were pulled out to create a mega spread of edibles. Coconut-butternut squash filled pasta shells topped with roasted prawns, anyone? The three-layer, red velvet cake was a highlight indeed. Such a moist cake (apparently Julia's first ever! How did that happen?)
The two of us managed to get out to a concert - The Scissor Sisters - which was showmanship at its finest. The show was outside in Stanley Park, and it rained throughout. We sang, danced and got soaked, and when the show ended in a fiery blast of iridescent confetti, we blissfully ran through the rain holding hands.

Another recent release took place on Salt Spring Island, where we went to a Non Violent Communication Community Camp (that's NVC CC). Set in a beautiful, green nook of one of the largest Gulf Islands, we immersed in a four day camp that sought to promote empathy and clearer communication techniques. We camped right by the ocean, and our tent got soaked the first two nights. This set us up for conflict ("Why didn't you plan for a better tent?" "Why don't you appreciate everything else I planned?") and was the perfect palette for working with the ideas being presented in our classes. There was extensive childcare, three meals a day, and lots of people with children.

Everest has recently become obsessed with tattooing himself with sharpies. Only true rock stars do this and immediately pass out (and hold their crotch). His second tat featured a fish.

We are now members at the Museum of Anthropology, where beings such as this can be summoned to seek counsel with. The video features Everest asking to drive a traditionally carved bear creature.

Even though temperatures are dropping, Everest has been more and more adamant about not wearing pants. It can be quite a struggle to get him to wear them, and thankfully this has led to him being pretty much completely potty trained. He likely hated diapers (associating them with pants) and now at a little over 2 years old, he has not had an "accident" in about three weeks. Mighty impressive. He gets it!
Of course, when he does wear pants, he's prone to "toddler's crack", as underwear is usually left out of the picture. Less clothes to wash, that's all I know.

Happy Autumn.

Pressing Matters

2010-10-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Could the Two-Block Diet work for you?

There seems to be consequences for being part of an article published on the front page of major newspaper The Vancouver Sun. Things like fame and notoriety! It kind of blows things out of proportion, saying we here on 24th Avenue are a band of "revolutionaries" and that we have become "completely self sustaining" (not even close!), but once again our little farming community in the city is in the press. After this article was published, many other publishing houses, blogs, and writers contacted Julia wanting to know more or do their own stories about the Two-Block Diet. TBD. Many of them from other countries!

This image is from that article in the vancouver sun, and other sites linked to it, like this one, this one here, and this one. These are our neighbors Dawn and Kate. To be honest, we haven't really been doing a lot of community-organized gardening this year. Once we got chickens in the coop and our own garden pretty much built, Julia wanted to take a break from being the lead organizer. Our neighbor Gene is holding bi-weekly workshops at her house (she also has hens), such as Canning Baked Beans and Canning Fresh Fruits.

French CBC came to our house on Friday (and Gene's house) to do a piece on the TBD. Everest ended up shirt cocking on national television (we hope) and taking a big deuce just off camera. You know you are in Canada when your wife has been overdubbed in French on the news.

Blonde Autumn Breezes

2010-09-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this weeks ago, but it got lost. More updates to follow very shortly.

As Summer begins to faint into the chivalrous arms of Autumn, a certain levity has joined our family. Not that we weren't doing well before, but with all the re-organizing and purging going on in our house (steaming carpets, re-painting rooms, clutter bombing the alleys and craigslist), we can see light at the end of this tunnel. Meanwhile, Everest continues to get cuter and ever so smart. He says "bye bye, Dada. Go to work," instead of crying at the door. He accepts my disappearance and is so happy upon my return. He helps clean up as long as there isn't a truck to play with, and he just loves working on projects with us. He is such a wonderful person.

Niagara Falls and the Return Home

2010-08-30T01:46:00.000-07:00

Niagara Falls! At long last we beheld its glory. And wow, it's cool, but double wow, the tourism schtick is oppressive. Like some other national parks, Niagara falls is set up a bit like a carnival: so many ways to spend! Fortunately, we got plenty of thrills from the massive gusts of mist and a good view from a lookout tower (that you can enjoy for a dollar). It was definitely worth going to see. I think if we took the boat that takes you right next to the foot of the falls, Everest would have been so upset. "The big waterfall!" he kept saying. Everest was very impressed, and we got cheap hugs every time the mist hit us. We'll take'em!

It took us two days, pretty much, to get home. Once we got back to Seattle, we had quite the hilarious goose chase (which is only funny now). After being delayed, we landed at SeaTac after all public transit closed down. To get to Xris's house that night, a cab would have cost around $60. After exploring other DIY alternatives we sucked it up and took a taxi. In doing so, we forgot our phone on a bench. It was the last possible moment we could have lost something, and once we got to our destination around 2:30am, we realized our error. I drove back to SeaTac (we now had our car) to look for it, called from payphones, but came up empty handed and got to bed by 4:30am!

The next morning, Julia goes to a gas station to call the cab company and file a report. On a whim, she calls her phone one more time and a man answers. Willing to help, his crucial statements about where he is and who he is are comically killed by static. Frustrated to the point of laughing, Julia asks the one person at the gas station to borrow his phone. But he can't let her use it. Because he's deaf. And has a deaf person's phone. Later we use the internet to chat to a local friend and get him to call this man. Eventually we work it out that the phone is back at the airport, at a nearby Hilton hotel.

After these shenanigans, it felt right to have one last meal on our vacation. We were so happy! Everest sure enjoyed his Cupcake Royale moment. Julia's passport expired the day we returned to Canada, so by the seat of our pants we were happy to be back home! Phew.

Keanes: The Happy Hitchcock Film

2010-08-30T00:57:00.000-07:00

I just wonder if an outsider sees all these Keanes in one place and thinks of something like The Birds or has that Oompa Loompa feeling. There sure are a lot of us, and we all showed up for Kelsey and Evan's wedding. Having us all stay in the same hotel provided for some boisterousness I have not enjoyed in almost fifteen years (the last time I was with a good number of my Dad's side of the family). All my cousins are grown up, everyone has a wealth of new stories I couldn't possibly hear the end of. Being in small town America in western New York was very nice, and the wedding was pretty shnazzy and made everyone feel welcome.
What says East Coast more than Friendly's? HuH? I mean, come on. Fribbles! I remember enjoying those tasty beverages after long soccer tournaments out in Connecticut. So I had one, and it was pretty much the same as Strawberry Quick. We all got cold treats, and even met a survivor of the Normandy beach invasion. Everest screamed for ice cream. This was along our drive out to the Rochester area, across the state.
We stayed in a Hampton Inn in Fishkill. Even though seeing eggs gestating in a nondescript tub is an image impossible to remove from the mind, continental breakfast sure beats the ritzy elitism of the hotel near Rochester. They had a restaurant called "Horizons." Can you smell the pretentiousness? Golfing is nice, but having a golf course next to the hotel reminds you that "frugal" is not the name of the game. Even before entering, you know you're in for a luxurious but eye-rolling experience, because Clear Channel's most vanilla smear of lounge jazz greets you from the outdoor speakers. The bellhops probably want to set fire to the building often due to this obnoxious feature, so I am glad we all survived!
After getting settled at the hotel and observing all the minibar contents that we would be tempted to eat for the next few days, we took a hike. Mosquitoes bit, and we bit apples fresh from a tree. Blackberries and mullein were also picked. Everest, of course, was most mesmerized by this nature-disseminating machine. And he's color coordinated!

That night everyone descended on the bar, and wow, it was so amazing to see everyone there. For me, it was such a trip because I somehow knew all these people. It had been so long, but we are lucky to have such a cohesive and awesome family that it's easy to blend right back in. I was having drinks with cousins who were toddlers the last time I saw them. Everest was also partying, and passed out early. Most of the Keanes went deeper into the night.
The next morning I was surprised to see we had room service ordered for us. Oh, wait - that was Julia at 2am, tipsy and festive, filling out the card. Everest would have enjoyed the meal more, until he found out it cost over $50! Room service fail. We knew it would be ridiculous, but it was fun, having never had it before. The blueberry pancakes were more than decent! Because it was nearly an hour late, though, we ended up lobbying for no charge - and it worked! Free room service! Cheer up, E-man!

The Wedding Day...
This is Grandma Pat with Morgan. We all met down in the lobby to be shuttled to the ceremony.

Here's Devin doing his best Oceans 13 impersonation.

The centerpiece for the wedding was tres elegant. This was at a picturesque vineyard. Nice choice!
Instead of sitting still and soaking up the majesty of a wedding, Everest had to give himself an exorcism in the back, behind the camera guys. This is what kids do. They roll around and laugh during momentous occasions.
After enough of that ruckus, I took the little bean outside. He was much happier.
Band photo.

Once the ceremony was over, the devil horns were thrown. Cousins Meg, Jess and Nayt.
This photo is as joyful as it gets. I don't know what uncle Tim is doing here, but his angle of attack through frame had all the Keane women roaring.
Here's a photo featuring four generations of Keanes.
The whole family. Wow!

Let the reception begin!
Charles and Melissa. They still like each other, kids.
Bob is striking a pose I fear describing. Karen, meanwhile, is eating from his plate like it ain't no thang. I can't vouch that they were all hers, but at this moment there were about eight glasses of red wine in front of her. It was an amazing collection.
Once again, Everest passes out early and sleeps through thunderous sound and big, collective happiness. His dreams were likely filled with Miley Cyrus songs and ice cream headaches.
Removing the garter. It sure looks dramatic with the floor spotlight.
And, to conclude, let it be known that Charlie danced. Like photographing the elusive yapok in the Andes, this photo isn't all that great, but it tells a story few can believe.

Congratulations, Kelsey and Evan. Here's to good times ahead.

Happy Travels, James J. Ladue

2010-08-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

Things calmed down a lot once we took a train up to Fishkill, NY a couple hours north of the City. This is where we stayed for Pop's memorial service, which was both in Wappinger's Falls and at the Chelsea Yacht Club along the Hudson River. The service in the cemetery was very traditional, and it was nice of the rain to hold off. In fact, the weather was perfect for a normally balmy August. Almost nice enough to wear Navy blues (which are too itchy to be comfortable in any climate).

The yacht club hosted a more boisterous affair, complete with two of Pop's bands: The Big Band Sound and The Clarinuts, both of which he played in for over twenty years. It was amazing to see some familiar faces still in the bands. Jimmy had organized this event and set up a series of historical and anecdotal displays featuring facets of Pop's life. Outside there were, of course, boats, as this was where Pop's sailboat used to rest, and where my brothers and I all began sailing journeys with our grandparents. I fondly remember exiting the mouth of the Hudson right past Liberty Island. Knowing how long lines are and how unfortunate the view from inside that statue ends up being, I am so happy that the closest I've ever come to The Statue of Liberty was from Pop's boat. Many happy swims and attempts at fishing came with each journey.

Even the playground at the yacht club had a structure shaped like a boat, and Dylan and Everest took advantage (although they preferred to run up and down the docks). Julia ended up pushing the boys around in a wheelbarrow for more than an hour, which put them to sleep...eventually. The fireflies came out and crickets chirped - these things I have not had around me in so long. I didn't really want to leave. Julia and Everest had never seen a firefly before.

A few people told stories up at the podium, which was my favorite part of the whole event. It's kind of a shame we don't do this for our friends before they pass on. Pop would really have liked to have been at his party. He has a lot of fans. Although, there's no reason to think he wasn't there. Hope you enjoyed everything, Pop!

New York City: Part 2

2010-08-21T20:14:00.001-07:00

"Cold Chillin'." When the heat is on, it's what you do. Thanks to Jay and his attractive jib, Everest is now aware of the term "cold chillin'", which he can be prompted to say just about anywhere. Take this butt crack piano concerto he interrupts to express his relaxation:

Everest, Laurie and I met up with Morgan and (yet another) Sarah to walk the High Line, an old elevated rail line that has been converted into a garden and boardwalk. It's pretty, and when asked to take a survey, Morgan jumped at the chance (and got his free button). We descended to the streets and went to a playground (apparently) frequented by a lot of celebrity parents but no sightings were had. Around the corner was Magnolia Cupcakes, where the treats were praised highly. We were fortunate not to wait in a line that regularly extends around the corner, but I must say Cupcake Royale in Seattle has this place beat. Everest investigated his coconut macaroon and eventually discarded it unceremoniously on a West Village curb. Such standards with this boy.

We stopped for a drink at a Belgian Beer house, and Everest was amazingly content to sit still. Cold chillin' as it were. He repeatedly yelled a few choice words, the most appropriate being, "BEER!" How can you shush that? Like any good movie, our day ended in Washington Square Park where Everest dunked himself into the fountain and ran amok. It was the perfect temperature at this time of day, and many NYU students who look "so NYC" came out to sit and soak up the universe. Our friend Lily came to meet us here, and sadly this was our only encounter (miss you Lily).
........

What would a trip to the City be without going to the Natural History Museum? Not as cool, that's what. And for the first twenty minutes or so, Everest was absolutely ensconced. I will never forget "Asian Mammals" after his boisterous and raucous reaction, asking "Wass Dat?" at every taxidermied window, getting an answer and then sprinting to the next one, crowing all the way.

Then the meltdown happened, and we lost the joy. We thought entering the rooms with all the dinosaur bones would be cool, but it turns out this toddler doesn't recognize skeletons as being cool. Neither moschops nor eryops nor dimetrodon can captivate a breastfeeding child with just their skimpy bones, nay. Everest became a maniac, unable to follow any of our requests, so we left and headed for Central Park across the street. It was muggy out, but this was a relaxing choice filled with turtles, paddleboats and a famous bridge loved for its romantic appearance.

Laurie found us in the park and we headed East into busy Manhattan streets, ducking into the air conditioned sanctuary that is Dylan's Candy Bar. This is an epic candy store with three floors of sweets. It's kind of funny to run into security guards in a store with such frivolous products, but there they were in full force. Our mission was to have a "Manhattan in Manhattan" but once we realized we could get a peanut butter blast ice cream sundae upstairs at the actual bar, we lost track of all time and logic.
Morgan is always the first one to say "yes" to something most people say "um" to. This is one of his best qualities, and it allowed for us to experience what it was like to stick a rice krispy treat into an actual chocolate fountain. For a dollar. That's the fountain behind Julia, with liquid sheets of chocolate flowing from the spout.
Everest refused his portion of our giant ice cream sundae by sleeping through the candy store excursion entirely. I think this was probably a good choice considering how crazy New York makes toddlers.

After a few other stops we retreated back to Brooklyn. Sometimes the heat of the subway gets to you. And some rules posted down there are so absurd! The platforms are pretty narrow, sure, but I think with the right technique a couple could dance down there.

Our final day took us to the Bronx Zoo, which was the only destination I used the word "must" for. It's an awesome park and zoo, one I remember fondly from some of my youngest memories. The new Congo Gorilla forest is awesome and worth the "extra fee" to get in. Everest pronounces it "golilla". Here is the obligatory video of an okapi and her baby:

If you know me, you know I can't not mention okapis. Are they not the sveltest of creatures? Everest had another meltdown amongst the gorillas; it was so crowded (pay what you will day). So many thought beams, sounds and kinetics criss-crossing through his little head. Sleeping was the only antidote. We saw the World of Birds, always a favorite and this time a place for Everest to test his running skills, and we passed by those poor Père David's Deer, whose population only exists because of a global zoo conservation effort. Will they survive despite all being cousins from one herd? They apparently only exist in zoos now...

And that was that. Off to upstate New York...

New York City: Part 1

2010-08-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

New York City in the Summertime is like being trapped in a steaming hotel laundry. One begins to relish the "cool" exhaust vents in an underground subway. Beads of sweat gather like fans at a free concert. The cicadas compete with the perpetual blaring of horns and the roaming "yellers" shouting at seemingly invisible problems. Clothes are endlessly damp. One dreams of getting cool, but someone like Everest is very timid of gushing water, making the idea nearly unobtainable. When he walked past this fountain at Grand Army Plaza, he cowered under the spray blown by a fleeting breeze.

Nearby was the Prospect Park farmer's market, where we began our recovery from flying with fresh ingredients. These would later be turned into ratatouille, a fresh pasta dish, and various culinary delights. Jay and Laurie hosted our little unit for around six days. They cooked and toured us around Brooklyn and Manhattan, complete with historical anecdotes and personal experiences. They also bought Everest cheesy rabbit crackers and chocolate milk, most of which we adults consumed. But despite this vulturing, E-man gained an inaugural taste for chocolate on this trip. This was done at Cocoa Bar, where one can order an iced hot chocolate (that is so good), or other creative, gourmet treats. Everest received his first chocolate piece and the world changed forever (see photo). Now foods we will feed him won't taste like chocolate, and we will appear as the enemy who prevents his rightful cocoa allowance.
Brooklyn is a wealth of sounds, smells, and sights. One moment it's all Brownstone apartments, the next it's garbage and flea markets. There's quirky art placed in perfectly natural places and an endless armada of delicious restaurants and specialty delicacies. It's got a lot more of that hometown flavor than Manhattan since there is a tangible presence of families and community. We spent the first day exploring Prospect Park and the surrounding neighborhood. Julia and I were determined to get authentic New York bagels, but each time we tried we seemed to choose something else, like paninis. Some of our dreams were destined to buckle under the limitless options.
Everest took a special liking to our beloved hosts....here he is with Jay, who is wonderful with children in my humble opinion. A master of the kitchen and well-timed anecdotes, he really made us feel welcome. We were talking about how we couldn't decide whether or not we wanted to eat (A) a gigantic slice of pizza one has no purpose in finishing, (B) a hot dog wrapped in bacon or (C) a sandwich as big as your face. Jay suggested, "Why choose?" and took us on a journey through Manhattan aimed at getting all three of these. It felt like a video game mission given all the subways, streets and avenues, parks, other restaurants and people along the way. The first stop was Artichoke, where the pizza slices are about as big as the restaurant (there's nowhere to eat inside; all must exit and eat on the street). Vancouver's pizza was so easily put to shame, like a kitten in a cockfight. This was the real deal.
Immediately following this we stepped into a bakery: the kind where women wearing competing patterns and audacious eyewear come in and order fifty cheesecakes for a gold-plated bar mitzvah, and you're like, "Wha?" We ate the most creamy cream thing I have ever tasted (with strawberries). Nothing short of perfect. This place was too much for Everest, who wanted everything on site. This became the theme for the entire trip, as Everest became an insufferable maniac, afflicted with the over-stimulation that only New York can deliver.

Next we met up with Morgan, who was fresh off abdominal surgery, along with our cousins Mike and Liz, and her husband, Max. We had a pleasant encounter in a playground while Everest avoided water spouts, and then it was off to Crif Dogs, home of the (among other devilish meals) bacon-wrapped hot dog. The suggestive signpost outside is only the beginning, as the menu turns out to be pretty extensive, complete with gourmet sodas and B action movies on TV. Julia and I got just what we came for. The cousins outside stood with hands in pockets, wondering what the big deal was.

Manhattan is an exhausting place, and a local will never recommend you go more than three places in one day. Everest dictated that the "sandwich as big as one's face" would have to wait another day. Fortunately we met up with Laurie and navigated toward the Brooklyn Bridge, a marvel of 1880's architecture whose construction took the lives of half its builders. Thanks to them, we were able to walk along one of the most romantic stretches of the city.
After a long day in Manhattan, nothing calms the nerves like this bridge. Everest was determined to walk himself across, oncoming bike traffic be damned. The day concluded with a picnic with our most excellent friends Sarah P and Maya, an event which was a lot calmer than the free concert I took Everest to the night before. There was a little boy who wanted to play with Everest so badly. He would throw his inflated ball at E. but the only response was running in the opposite direction with a troubled face. The child's persistence was notable, as he would reappear throughout the evening with a face full of hope and a ball full of fury.

Vacation: Level 1 - 1

2010-08-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

The traveling has begun. Considering the many cogs necessary to arrive in Brooklyn at Laurie and Jay's apartment, this has been rather smooth so far. We left on time in our car. The border was a cinch (they suspected nothing). Xris and Lindsay received us as new homeowner hosts, and the next day before flying we hung around Seattle. That evening we barbecued sausages and our siamese twin zucchini.

Then we flew over night to JFK, and it's been a hot, muggy New York day so far. We are recovering (napping in Prospect Park, as well as jumping into a water fountain or two). The word of the day is Naps. We hope to return to our former glory (pictured below) upon awakening.

August Garden Look-See

2010-08-03T14:29:00.001-07:00

Here's a few images of our garden(s) today. It has not rained in Vancouver for more than a month!

Nasturtiums keep it colorful.

Twins!

A very large pepper. These are doing well.
Extreme angle to promote interest.
These will be red soon.

Captain Victoria

2010-08-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

We went to Victoria last weekend for Flaming Man, the comical yet accurate title for our friend Captain's 40th birthday party. Every trip to Victoria begins with a ferry ride (and before that, sitting in a car waiting for that ferry ride). We enjoyed the traditional soft serve ice cream treat.

I don't think I've ever been to a birthday like this before. With the number and variety of people who attended, it gave the impression that Captain is a lovable creature who has inspired many. It must be true! Julia met him at last year's witch camp and this was our first visit to his neck of the woods.
Of course, Captain was the hospitable host with the most by barbecuing the afternoon we arrived. Next to a mattress.
But his food duties ended there, for Julia had slated herself as master kitchen witch for the party. Every day in Victoria was the sort that people have in most parts around the world: lots of time in the kitchen and having conversations in the kitchen. Julia and I began cataloging all the ingredients and spices we brought with us. The Subaru was packed with our entire kitchen! You should have seen it (since we didn't photograph this) but all the food, bowls, pans, etc in these pictures came from our house.

Julia and Molly slaved into the night making pastry and pizza dough, and that was still two nights before the party. Julia spent a lot of time writing notes (we did write every ingredient down), plotting her course from Point A to Point Delicious Meal for Over a Hundred. It's amazing to watch her work her magic.
We enjoyed Captain's actual date of birth with lunch at his parents' house, which had an indoor pool. A relic from the early 1980s, this atrium pool had all kinds of tiki ornaments, ceramic macaws hanging from posts, a cassette deck, and an outdoor, liminal space between pool and house that was covered in astro turf. Platters of salmon, chicken, corn on the cob as well as cake (with extra frosting if needed) seemed endless. Even before the food, it was clear The Snowdens enjoyed hosting, as trays of empty glasses colored with kitsch lemons and limes awaited the guests in the sunlight, likely hours before we arrived.

Captain's father is a retired Chief Constable for the Victoria Police Force. He was a man of many hats. This picture doesn't even show all of them!

Later that day Seneca arrived on a clipper ship from Seattle (she had been traveling from Berkeley, CA) and we were very happy to see her. Captain lives just a few blocks from the downtown harbor and the parliament building. We quickly turned our joys into work, as much had to be done. Somehow Julia had all this under control. A good group of lovely, intentional people were all around to help. As a collective we made (from scratch) salad rolls, mini quiches, vegan pizzas, hummus, raw chocolate tortes, huckleberry/blueberry/peach pies, and so much more. A typical order from Julia to one of the minions would be something like, "Here, grind these star anise seeds, season the quiche mixture with them, pour that into this pot, cook that, and GO." It was a revival to have so many willing kitcheneers say "Yes" to everything.

The night of the party came at last and we still barely got everything done on time. Julia dressed in her best fabulous dress and heels and oversaw her kitchen like the dark lord, sipping wine, pleased with the results of her hard work. The party began with an intentional circle, and then there were a series of performances, as well as a dessert tray on wheels made out of a nude Nayt and Seneca, decorative plants and food. (I am still waiting for a photo of this) This was the highlight of the evening for us, as the dessert humans held their respective pies gratuitously and were painted with tribal lines made out of chocolate sauce and raspberry sauce (from scratch of course).
Julia conceived all the food like it was a Jesus miracle. No Nestle chocolate sauce here. This was raw cocoa beans, shelled, crushed, melted down, etc. Raspberries were mashed (not opened in a jar). It's still overwhelming to realize how much food we made (and wore). And magically, at the end of the night, every party goer helped clean the community hall the party took place in, and the kitchen, in about 35-45 minutes. It was a full community effort from all involved. So beautiful.One of several spreads of food throughout the evening...

TWO!

2010-07-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

Everest is finally two (though it's seemed that way for months). We spent the weekend in Aldergrove, partly with him, partly without him. We took a nature hike or two with Ya Ya, visited some farms and picked berries, took in a lot of sun, and went fishin'. Hoo-whee!
It all starts with the Backhoe, however. Behind Ya Ya's house, noisy things are happening, much to the peeping delight of small people.

The joy was unstoppable out on a forest walk. Nothing can bring you down when you're wearing a tiger shirt. We picked huckleberries, which is a surprisingly long process when your goal is to make food out of them. They're small!The huckleberry plant is so picturesque, a perfect looking organism if ever there was one. Not that old jamface here is noticing. Get those sticky mits out of our loot!

The next morning we were back in the forest. This was the official birthday hike. Everest demanded to be carried the whole way, much to Dad's chagrin. This happy moment brought to us by food.

After we drove out to Grandma's again, we dropped the child off so he could be two with someone else. The young parents had Mexican food and enough margaritas to make an afternoon of fishing feel even more Canadian.

Rainbow trout!

Julia caught six or seven fish. She was on a rampage! At one point she caught five fish in five straight attempts. For an extra Canadian edge, we made sure to have a can of beer out pondside. After a series of failures, our bucket of fish started to fill up.

Nothing says Canada like knocking a wriggling fish out with the end of a hockey stick. My shirt got fairly bloodied by day's end. And now I've learned how to clean a fish properly. There's 9 trout ready for barbecuing in our freezer. Happy birthday, Everest.

Kindred Homies

2010-06-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

We went looking on Craigslist for a hiking backpack that carries a little person, many moons ago. The one we found was given to us by the kind family fronted by our now friends Mary and Steve, who live a few blocks away from us. The parenting styles in our houses are very similar, and they also grow food on their property and keep chickens. We went over for dinner last night, which included a vegan strawberry rhubarb choco pie (compliments of Julia), blueberry wine, stories told by young and old, costumes, and a River Dance session that ended with just about every musical instrument in the house being used. Boisterous hootenanny it was.

Chicken Fame and Fortune

2010-06-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

We are in news. Again. The bylaw that legalized chickens in Vancouver passed a few weeks ago, so we were asked for an interview. And how could you not publish this photo? Nayt is quoted quite a bit in the second half of the article.

Garden Overhaul

2010-06-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

Now that we have more time together, Julia and I have really taken on our garden, making it look purdy. After the mulch layering of cardboard, manure, hay and compost, the garden begins to look like this. And, as always, Everest wants to help. He is learning so much about where food comes from. Poor Emile, on the left, is afraid of our chickens!

Arizona Grands Visit

2010-06-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Melissa and Charlie came to our quaint Canadian farm for a week right after the brothers left. (They saw each other in the airport, as they ended up flying on the same aircraft)

Everest was gifted a Skuut Bike (after debating whether or not to get him a tricycle), a clever piece of simple engineering that he is almost tall enough to ride. He still prefers the wagon as his main chariot, and as of this week we have two wagons. In fact, the day the grandparents left, a neighbor gave us a tricycle anyway. Combined with Everest's little skateboard, the lad has quite the garage now.
The week was cloudy and defined by a sapping of energy. Even the triathlete grandparents were tired for inexplicable reasons. Somehow Julia made some amazing dinners and Nayt began his cruel commitment to waking up at 4:30am every day to watch the World Cup. We did, however, manage to get to Lynn Canyon again and take a hike by the river. Everest ate his first wild berries. Salmon berries are not his favorite; he offered his up to Momma.

Back in his usual spot, Everest again spent an hour throwing rocks and making big faces when adults threw larger rocks. Big splashes are "in" with this kid.

Nayt's last game of the season ended in a typical 5-1 beat down. At least the field was three blocks from our house, making the walk of shame brief. (that's him in yellow, center)

I think Everest actually has begun to pose for photos, because I took this one 4 times to get the light right. Note the Phx Suns tee shirt (another Arizona import).

He hugs goodbye now, too. Everest learned everyone's names before they left. Even Melissa, who was so concerned about her name being too complex for him to say. But he still says her name today. Everest remembers his family.

Voltron

2010-06-10T22:56:00.000-07:00

You know who Voltron is? He looks like this. Though the pilot of each giant, mechanical robot lion might be fundamentally different, it doesn't stop them all from forming a dramatically larger and more powerful robot. This is what it's like to be a Keane sibling, or so we feel. Morgan lives in San Diego, Devin is in Phoenix; they came a ways. Nayt was finishing animation on Neighbors From Hell when they arrived, and once he was done at long last, the good times came a rollin'. Giant robot style. They were immediately introduced to some of the wonderful aspects of Canada, such as murderously high liquor prices and legal sex work, which Morgan had to photograph.

Speaking of giant robots. Have you heard that Everest is absolutely enthralled by the film The Iron Giant? He often will request, "Big robot" and depending on our fatigue levels we say yes or no. We've attempted to show him other films or anything else, but he does not care about anything else. It has to be The Iron Giant. He will sit through the entire film and watch in awe. Watching his face during every moment is highly entertaining and heart breaking. He swoons and gasps with everything the robot does. It certainly helps that this film is one of my all time favorites. It really is a masterpiece of animation and story telling, so he chose well.

Having Devin and Morgan here was even more fun than anticipated. We went to a burlesque show where we danced and drank to our hearts content. As parents, this was a monumental night, as both of us were actually out without the child! We went to Lynn Canyon and before our hike we drank a bunch of beer and hung the cans on a dead Christmas tree that Morgan discovered while sniping in the underbrush. Everest eventually woke up and found himself at the river's edge. For two hours he was entertained with just tossing rocks into the water. Most of us jumped into the water, as well, which was frigid to say the least.

We went to see Tortoise play an awesome show, which was great for me since my ideal evening would be having my brothers and wife go to an instrumental rock show. The brothers were all supposed to play in a soccer game together, but thanks to my animator fatigue I screwed up the date entirely. I still can't forgive myself!

Even though we had all a great time, everyone seemed to only photograph Everest. Here's how he did during the visit.Cobain lives on...

Everest and Friends

2010-05-27T10:49:00.001-07:00

Raven and Everest doing their thing. Raven is 4-5 months older, and they look almost exactly the same. We met her parents the day she was born to do a belly cast of Julia.

We take care of Emile twice a week, and these days he and Everest are the best of friends. Here's a typical Thursday morning venture:

The Kingdom is Secure

2010-05-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

Now you see us, now you don't. The fence, our moat, the toddler and chicken containment field; it is complete. Strictly terrestrial creatures cannot get in or out without answering skill testing questions. And we are so happy. Not 24 hours after the fence was done, a giant pile of manure (ten yards) arrived in our yard via dump truck! It's for our garden makeover. If you had seen the effort the dump truck driver put into shimmying into our yard, dumping fully extended between trees and wires, you would have been impressed. It still took several hours to shovel and wheel barrow the excess off the sidewalk. We've layered the crap everywhere our garden is to be expanded to, and then we layered cardboard all over that. More layering to come in preparation for all the seedlings to go in the ground.
It looks weird, but it's all part of the plan.

Spring is Here. Let's Build a Wall!

2010-05-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

This here is a common site: Everest getting outside and running free, often letting the chickens out. Freedom to a T.Just one problem:
No fence to keep these animals in our yard! Everest is, admittedly, getting better with cars and the road, but he still has a pronounced mischievous streak, and he will sprint into the road against our wishes (one time spooking a Smart Car pilot as he stood in her path). He has been returned to us by an elderly couple after he walked a block with his push-popper. He'll just leave the yard, and he doesn't seem to worry that we're not following, so we are constantly corralling him:
While he loves a good wheel barrow ride (who doesn't?) the amount of effort required to keep Everest happy and not dead or lost is so high for us that we had to do something drastic. Like build a fence around the property. There used to be one, but a lot of it has been blown over by wind over the years. The remaining bits are rotten and ugly. So we have commissioned our friend Trevor, an ace carpenter, to take this on.
Trev and Rebecca have a girl close to Everest's age. Raven. She came over today, and along with Emile and his mom Marina, we had a mojito party. One more day and our fence will be complete, thanks to the supreme skills of one man. Thanks to Canadian tax refunds, we can pay him! And we can enjoy our yard as the purples begin to blossom.
We'll put up a picture of the completed fence and our lovely garden labyrinth once it is all finished (which should be tomorrow)! Then Prince Everest will be the master of his own kingdom, unable to escape. This is going to relieve so much stress in our lives, y'all have no idea.

Yo yo, why we so not here?

2010-05-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

We're so lazy, it's awesome. Look at these kids chillin' in the wagon. Not a care in the world. Everest refuses to update his blog. He prefers talking about back hoes or slurping yogurt or howling like a wolf. You can blame him for our inactivity. His fault. Or you can blame our computer.

Our iMac hard drive died. So we lost all our photos. This blog now is the primary compendium of the first year and a half of of Everest's life. This also explains why we haven't updated things in a couple months. Our computer is back now, and we have an iPhone to help with instantaneous stories. Nayt works horribly long hours on Neighbors From Hell, which is going to be a really popular show on TBS (June 7th it begins; just a month away!). Be sure to watch, so Nayt can feel justified as Everest forgets who his father is. (kidding) It's a really well designed and funny show, but working 60 hours a week for regular pay is really grating on the soul. At least it's fun to work on. Not that this is a valid excuse for keeping the rest of the world out of the loop of our lives, no. Everest is still to blame. His insistance on eating beans, beans and more beans when there's a perfectly good stirfry available is just odious. He hasn't even caught any of the mice that are roaming freely in our ducts. Or fixed our electricity. And he always walks around naked. Blog, you toddler!

DJ Smash

2010-03-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

Everest has discovered a love for vinyl. Its thick, warm, crackly sound just isn't comparable to any other audio medium, and it's clear that his fresh ears have a sense for---
Actually, all he wants to do is take the record out of the sleeve, put it on the player, rip the needle across the grooves and immediately go to the next record. On off, on off. Ad nauseum.

At first I didn't let him touch the record player, but since I have, he is absolutely obsessed, pointing and asking to play with it. "Must handle fragile things," he says. Imagine the cringing when he tears an LP off the turntable while the needle is still down! It's hard not to scream, "Nooooo!" and make him feel bad. That's why we went to Red Cat Records and asked if they had any LPs that they weren't going to sell. Decoys. They did, and gave us three for free!

So now instead of Everest roughly handling Nayt's rare, limited double LP of Richard Skelton's epic album of grief and solitude Landings, or the absolutely rare krautrock masterpiece Yeti by German legends Amon Duul II,

Everest can play with the new age classic Blue Rider by some dude named Cris Williamson. Thank you Red Cat!

At least Everest has also found a love for wearing big people shoes. That's an activity that doesn't include massive headaches. Unless you're the downstairs neighbor, like Sarah is. When Bam Bam wears high heels, it's time to leave the house.
Some day, my boy, you will be free to DJ as you please, but you need to learn turntable manners.

Early Spring

2010-03-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

Since the weather has been so good for the last month, Everest is comfortably nude a lot. Our chickens are laying more eggs in the warm weather, too. Julia pulled a gigantic leek out of our front garden.

Everest is also stoked on dumping food on floors. He's been into this for a long time, but he seems to be advancing his craft, expanding his installation art across broader areas, even the size of rooms. Soon we expect something on the scale of Stay Puft Marshmallow Man carnage in New York City.

Go Canada Go

2010-02-28T23:56:00.001-08:00

It means so much more to Canadians that Team Canada won the gold medal hockey game than it does to anyone else in the world. The entire city has been riding the team from the start, and I frankly have never seen anything like it. I wish people reacted to our soccer team like this. When Canada won in overtime today, the honking began. It could be heard anywhere, because every other car had flags out the window and was honking into oblivion.
Everest and I had to investigate the scene, and even on upper Main Street where we live, which is not exactly the hub of activity as far as hockey or sports goes, people were livid. We saw kids singing songs with their parents, "Yay yay yay. Canada won the hockey game!" A punjabi man driving a Camry was fighting off his wife from leaning over honking the horn exuberantly. I saw a 65-year old woman lean out of a minivan window and awkwardly yell, "Go team, go!" People were blocking traffic to wave flags.
Canadians got the dream Olympic scenario. More gold medals than any country in history, Hockey team wins gold, sunny days pretty much every day, and the entire population dressed in red and white. It's like the polite version of 1984. I am happy my first year of residency included this. Everest was pretty cautious of all the hockey fans trying to give him a high five. He did clap, though, while "We Are The Champions" boomed out of a nearby bar. Fun stuff. Wish I didn't get fired last week so I could go out drinking with the Canucks.Even at the toddler park, dads and kids were dressed in red, playing hockey!

Aquarian Breakfast

2010-02-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

Having a membership at the Vancouver Aquarium rules. Daycare probably costs about half of a membership, and taking Everest to this giant space with belugas and rainforest fish is just a wonderful option. Plus, Nayt gets to point out the cichlids and humuhumunukanukaapua'a to Everest as much as he wants. He gets to nerd out as the boy learns how sea turtles move.

Here are some fabulous photos from our Thursday visit.

Olympic Atmosphere

2010-02-25T22:45:00.000-08:00

I bet some of you are watching the olympics here in Vancouver, getting a glimpse at our home in a completely fantastic way. I must admit, the Olympic energy has certainly gotten me smitten. I never thought I'd be saying Go Canada Go, but the excitement over Canada's success (especially the hockey team; lord what pressure) is pretty amazing. We're into it! And yeah, that's the actual torch! This woman carried it through a totem pole village known as Duncan, BC on the Island.
Everest probably assumes things are like this all the time? The curling venue is down the street and people everywhere are draped in maple leaf flags, but he's still cramming yogurt into his mouth like it's any other day. "You wanna know how I got these scars?..."
The town itself is just thick with Olympic fans and high spirits. It's really nice, actually, but we will be happy to see the overall masses drop in numbers. The downtown experience is pretty overwhelming. The streets are closed to cars and there are huge corporate monuments that are actually pretty cool. Free concerts every night, lots of lights, languages passing you by. And all kinds of merchandise. You think the Super Bowl sells a lot of stuff? It seems like 75% of the people, even in our neighborhood, are wearing Canada gear. All new. Where does this money go? People are making a fortune on this, it's insane.

Robson Square at 10:30pm. Sarah and Nayt serendipitously saw a light show.

We have participated in our own olympic sports, like toddler ball balance and toddler wagon pull. We also have slowly been decimating the clutter in our house, taking on a few bigger home improvement projects. The bathroom floor which used to be linoleum painted over with white paint (a completely horrendous combination! It looks so bad) has been ripped up and replaced with a cleaner vinyl choice. Thank you Pawel for your handy perseverance! We couldn't do these things without you, it seems. Olympic family help!

Happy Family, baby smiling in back seat

2010-02-05T00:56:00.001-08:00

Nocturnal Eyes. Pearls. Chubs.

I snagged her. Mine!

Toddler dinner horror.

Disgustingly happy and functional.

Well-fed

And now some color Everests. The joy of eating.

We Finally Are Using That Double Stroller that's Been Collecting Dust

2010-02-05T00:43:00.000-08:00

We have opened our doors to a vagabonding midget named Emile. His parents are Marina and Raffi. Maybe you've heard of them. But twice a week, they are working, and we are playing. Bonus child! So far, the two have gotten along well. Last week was full of fruit. This week we went to three different parks and had a bath. Day Camp with the two E-Boys will last throughout February.And we hit up the Vancouver Aquarium every other day, though that will likely die down now that a gajillion tourists are coming to town. Everest is now officially afraid of giant Arapaima fish and hyacinth macaws that squak too loud. Both creatures are Amazonian, so no jungle river trips for E-man just yet.