Hagg's Tree Farm

Yay, we have our tree!

 We followed the signs up to Hagg's Tree Farm, it was kind of hard to miss as the little elves were at every intersection pointing out the way. First we stopped at the petting zoo area with goats and then had to go out back to see the donkeys.  There were also 2 friendly doggies that Hazel was a little unsure of.  She liked seeing them better when we were holding them, than when she was on the ground with them.  We picked out a pre-cut tree this time.  I do like cutting down our own tree, but this year it was easier to just pick one from their lot.  It was a little cold and muddy to have Hazel wandering around the tree farm.  Owen expertly tied it to the roof with his boyscout knots and we headed home.

Hazel is now addicted to watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ever since she saw the lighted reindeer in our neighbor's yard!

Outtakes

Today we did our annual Christmas card photo. I take pride in the fact that I have taken every photo for our Christmas cards, but this year I almost wanted a professional to do it for me.



While Hazy was napping we set up the shoot in our side yard. We got the tripod out, we marked where the legs needed to be with chalk, we marked the edges on the grass so we would know where the edge of the frame was, we even bought a remote control so we wouldn't have to do the dash back and forth from the camera like I have done in previous years.



To get Hazy to smile we hung her glowworm doll under the camera and that worked, for maybe 2 shots.



But who would have guessed that what really made her happy was the remote control???? She was fascinated with it. We let her hang onto it to take some photos, but none of them turned out that great because she would stare down at the remote, and not look at the camera. We did get it back, eventually.



We took about 75 photos total, but at least we got a few that were acceptable. Some were absolutely horrible. Some are too embarassing to ever be seen by anyone. I do think it's interesting to see what kind of faces you can come up with when you're trying to wrangle a toddler for a photograph.



I don't want to spoil the people who might be getting the photo in the mail, so none of these are the final picture we chose.

Zoolights

Oh, the magic of Zoolights on a freezing autumn night! I think it's my favorite holiday tradition. And now that I have a baby, it's even more special.

Tonight was the members only preview night for the Zoolights and it was about 30 degrees at the zoo! Don't worry, Hazel was bundled up! She had on 2 shirts, 2 pants, 2 jackets, a hat and a scarf, oh and a blanket for when she was in the stroller. It's been a long time since I've seen her so mesmerized! The only time she made a sound was when we were on the train and she imitated us when we were calling it "choo choo". She was just wide-eyed and happy. We are definitely going to Zoolights more than once this year, especially since there was a camera snafu (Someone Owen forgot the battery for the camera at home and we only had our camera phones to take pictures with).

Random Sunday Stuff

I was so tired that I ended up falling asleep around 8:30 last night and did not get around to blogging! Eeps! So, today there'll be two blogs :)

Owen and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie with some of my friends. It was actually a day for the books, because it is rare when the 4 of us and our significant others are in the same room together. I really enjoyed the movie. I remembered more of the book than I thought I would, since I read it over 3 years ago.




My favorite part of the movie was at the beginning when they were transporting Harry to the Weasley's house. It reminded me of a scene in the movie Garden State when Sam tells Andrew that "Sidecars are for Bitches" so that must mean that Harry is Hagrid's bitch, awesome!

We found a brand new fro-yo shop that opened near our house! I've been saying for months now that we needed one out here and now we have one! It's called Yogurt Munch. We shared a small sized fro yo. I was in charge of picking everything out, and I went with the Peanut butter-chocolate swirl, and the vanilla-pumpkin pie swirl yogurts. For toppings I added fresh fruit, m&ms, these strange gummy things that had liquid centers and chocolate sauce. Yeah, tasted a little weird. Owen didn't seem to notice, probably because it's exactly what he would have picked out. I think next time I would not do as many toppings like that together.

After reviewing the website, we found a few interesting flavors and toppings:


(click to embiggen)

Happy Birthday Owen!

Hope you had a fun day, even if you were not feeling well! Love you :)

Fran Healy Double Feature!

For Owen's birthday this year, I bought him tickets to see Fran Healy and Brandon Flowers at the Roseland Theater. I follow Fran on Twitter and he tweeted that he would be at Music Millennium at 3pm today! I told Owen we were going. So, we packed up Hazel and drove over to the East Side (gasp, hehe inside joke).



We got there right at 3 and there wasn't any place that great to stand. We found a semi-decent place to stand, where Hazy wouldn't bother anyone if she wanted to walk around (or play on the stairs). He played a few songs from his new record (Sing Me To Sleep, As It Comes, Rocking Chair), and 2 Travis songs (Driftwood and Selfish Jean). Then he came downstairs to sign autographs.



I managed to be 3rd in the line, wahoo. I was glad, because Hazel would not have wanted to stay much longer. We didn't want her running around the store and she was getting a little annoyed that we were holding her for so long.



Here he is signing my "Invisible Band" the album cover



Then he graciously took a picture with me and Hazy :)



I made him this pair of fingerless mitts as a present.  I remember last August I would have brought him a present if I had been thinking, so this time I planned ahead and made them while we were on in Tahoe.  I really hope that he likes them and uses them!

---
Fast forward to tonight, Owen and I drove downtown, got coffee and maxed to the Roseland, in time to get in a very long line!  Luckily we weren't standing in the misty rain for too long.  Then we got inside and stood for 40mins waiting for Fran.  He started his set at 9pm.



He played a good mix of songs.  I was really disappointed that the inconsiderate people at the bar were talking, rather loud.  Loud enough that Fran asked them 2 times for them to shut up.  Annoying!  Oh well, he did a great job and I enjoyed listening him, even if I was the only one singing along.



His Setlist:
Sing
Sing me to sleep
Anything
Fly in the Ointment
As it comes
Dear diary
Blue flashing light

At 10pm Brandon came out on stage.



I have to be honest, I don't really know Brandon Flowers.  I am not a huge fan of The Killers and didn't know his name until I found out Fran was touring with him.  The only song I've heard is Crossfire, because it's the one on his website.  I know pretty much everyone there was there to see him, but we were there for Fran.  Despite not knowing his music I had a fun time, I just wished I had listened to his album first so I could get to know the songs better.

After 3 hours of standing, it was nice to take a walk back to the car! As it turned out, I'm really glad we went to the afternoon appearance, because then we didn't have to wait around for them to come out to sign autographs. I was just too tired to stay.

Family Vacation

(In-N-Out, Redding,CA)

2 weeks ago we went on a family road trip to Tahoe and Yosemite! This was Hazels first long car trip so we decided it was time to face her carseat forward. She wasn't as amazed as I thought she would be, but she was definitely not as fussy as she was on our Seattle trip. My favorite times was when she would nap though :)

The first night we stayed in Redding, CA. That was a rough night, because Hazy was not used to the pack n play crib and she was just not liking the hotel I guess. We ended up taking turns driving her around and eventually she passed out of exhaustion, and so did we!

The next morning we started our drive to Tahoe. We went through Lassen Volcanic Monument, but I missed most of the drive through it because I had horrible sinus pressure and just reclined my seat to try and sleep. The rest of the drive was very scenic, we watched the sun set on Lake Tahoe as we ate pizza for dinner. It was dark by the time we got to our hotel. Hazel had another rough night.


(South Lake Tahoe)

We stayed in Tahoe for one week at the Marriott Timber Lodge. It was a nice hotel, had a heated pool and 4 hot tubs, which we used each night! During the days we would drive around to scenic places and take pictures of the beautiful fall foliage. My favorite place that we saw was Emerald Bay. We saw the sun set one night there and it was totally my colors - pinks, blues and purples, fading in to dark blues.

One day we went to Mono Lake and spent some time at the visitor center and we even walked on this nice boardwalk down to the lake's edge to see the "tufas" (salt formations).



(Lily Lake, South Lake Tahoe)

I brought my spinning wheel along and used almost every night for an hour, I even finished 2 skeins of yarn! I used my wheel more than I worked on all the knitting I brought. I had a chance to visit the one yarn store in town (Wool Tree) and spent an hour chatting with the people in the shop and knitting a bit.


(Tunnel View, Yosemite NP)

On our way home we stayed one night in Yosemite's Curry Village. Our "room" was a tiny cabin that had 1 double and 2 twin beds, inuslated canvas walls and a heater. Can't say it was the best night ever, since the 3 of us squeezed onto a double bed, and Hazy got the prime sleeping space (the middle, with both of us hanging on the edge of either side). The whole place is covered in "Be Bear Aware" signs and making sure all food and toiletry items are stowed in the bear boxes. We didn't see any bears, but they neglected to warn us about mice! We had a mouse that chewed through a bag of chips, a granola bar and couple other things.

I have been wanting to go to Yosemite for years now to re-visit the place my family went camping every year when I was little. Unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy for the two days we were there. This was the first time I had not seen Half Dome! That's ok, we had fun hiking in the Tuolomne Meadows and checking out the Visitor Center and Village Store. On the drive out we took the road up to the Hetch Hetchy Dam. The weather there was not too bad and we could see all across the lake. I bet this place was so pretty before they dammed it up. It was supposed to be like the Yosemite Valley.

We stayed in Redding on the way home again, and by then Hazel was used to the pack n play so the night was easier on us. The next day we drove home in a huge rainstorm. We stopped in Ashland for lunch and for a walking break, that happened to include a Starbucks and Yarn Shop :) A few nice things came home with me! Our final stop was in Salem for dinner with Owen's brothers and then finally we made it home!

Past Pumpkin Pickin'

See, we have been going here for 7 years! Check out all these similar pictures:)

I like getting a picture in front of the farm house (except in 07, but I don't know why)


and Owen likes the wheel barrow (except 2005, but it's a long story)

Pumpkin Pickin'

It took me about 2 weeks to accept that fall had arrived. I was just not ready to give up summer, especially since it didn't feel like we had gotten a fair summer. After some Pumpkin Spice Lattes and the leaves changing color, I think I'm ready for it to be fall. Of course, it wouldn't be fall without a trip to the pumpkin patch! We have been going to Lakeview Farms for 7 years. We love it because they have a train that takes you out to the patch and a boat that takes you back to the farmhouse. And now that we have a toddler, we love that they have pony rides and hay mazes!! It will still be a few years before we can appreciate the corn maze though.

Happy Birthday to me!

I had the most wonderful Birthday weekend!

It started on Thursday. My mom came up after work and babysat Hazel for the evening, so Owen and I could go to dinner! We went to the Melting Pot, my most favorite restaurant. When they seated us at our table, the gave me a birthday card and there were roses from Owen already on the table. We had a lovely California salad, Wisonconsin cheese trio fondue and a flaming dark turtle dessert fondue. With dessert they brought out a little plate that had my name written in chocolate, I thought that was a nice touch. I indulged and got a cocktail, it was so yummy, it didn't taste like alcohol (the kind of drink I like), it was a "Love Martini" (Love at first sip! Malibu rum, peach schnapps, cranberry juice and fresh strawberries). After all that we still had a little time before we had to be home, so we went to Voodoo. I ordered my first voodoo doll and it had a unicorn on it! How did they know???? It was delicious for the eyes and tummy!

On Friday the 24th (my real bday) I woke up and had to get over to the chiropracter. Owen and I were in a small car accident that left the front of the car slightly damaged and my back in a little bit of pain from the impact. So after being adjusted I went to my Friday knitting group to knit and chat! Hazel and Owen showed up after an hour or so and we had lunch, then they went back home and I knitted some more! After Hazel's afternoon nap the three of us went out to dinner to La Hacienda (my favorite Mexican restaurant). We next went to the mall to buy Hazel new shoes and we went to build a bear. Hazel picked out the pink bear and I picked out the outfit. It's name is "rainbow bear", yeah, original I know :) They had a balloon guy out front and he made me a turtle :) Hazel spent some time playing in the play area while we watched from the side.

On Saturday I was up early for Oregon Flock and Fiber! That will be a separate post, with pix later (when I get more time to write), but Owen and Hazel showed up in the afternoon and we had a yummy sheep cake (not sheet cake) that Owen and I made so that I could celebrate with my knitting friends!

On Sunday was OFFF again and I had dinner at Red Robin with my friends from college! It was fun seeing them, but it went so fast, so I don't feel like we got to talk too much :( Hazel loved it because my mom was there doting on her. Outside she showed me the flower she would pick for me if I'd let her.

I am pretty tired from that long weekend and all the celebrating! I will post more pix soon :)

Seattle Trip

Last weekend we went on a small road trip up to Seattle! Hazel did really well in the car! On Saturday we left in the afternoon from Owen's grandma's house in Camas, and had a 1 hour stop at Shipwreck Beads. Then stopped for dinner in Tacoma - we got Olive Garden to go and went to a nearby park/duck pond to eat, but it got windy and cold as soon as the sun went down. We made it to our hotel by 8pm and had time for a swim in the pool, before putting all of us to bed early!

Sunday we went to the Chittenden Locks - Hazel had a blast! She loved walking around, waving to the boats and checking out the fish ladder. She was so cute walking with her backpack leash, and she tolerated it really well! Hazel got a bit of a nap while we drove around in the car. She did wake up when we got to the U Village to get Trophy Cupcakes. So she got to play in the playground there and in the turtle fountain! After that we drove to the MOHAI museum and walked on Arboretum Waterfront Trail - it has bridges over the water and onto the marsh islands of Lake Washington, it was really cool and a moderately easy trail to follow (There was a little bit of mud on the trail and some of the wooden walkways were slick from the water splashing up). We had dinner at the Red Robin in Bellevue. We got back to the hotel and swam a bit, then headed to bed.

Monday was another jam packed day! First we had to check out of the hotel. Then we drove to downtown Seattle and parked at Pike Place Market. I got my pic taken with Rachel the Pig, Hazel went to the First Starbucks and we walked to the downtown westlake mall to go to Daiso (a Japanese store) then headed back to the car. Hazel bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the market! One of the things that we made sure to do was take Hazel on her first WA Ferry ride! We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, which also has a bridge back to the mainland and we drove down to Tacoma, over the Narrows Bridge (galloping gertie). We stopped in DuPont for Starbucks and our last stop was in Kelso to have a snack and let Hazel run around on the playground for a bit. She fell asleep from there and we drove over the Longview Bridge and took Hwy 30 home.

Stuff I learned:
This was a quick weekend, packed with so many things! The next time we go it'll be for a week! Every yarn shop I came across was closed on Sundays or Monday for the holiday - LAME! I did not allow enough time in Shipwreck Beads to take it all in. Hazel does well in the car for long periods when she's sleeping, but if she's awake, we do have to take time to stop so she can run around and play. This was good practice for our road trip down to Tahoe in a few months!

An Evening with Fran Healy

Friday was my lucky day - I really should have bought a lotto ticket!

So, Owen and I went out on a date, sans Hazel! Thanks mom :) Well, dinner was with mom and Hazel, but the rest of the night we were out on our own! We went to a concert and then to Voodoo Donuts! It was my kind of evening!

First, we had dinner at Tastebud Farm . It was ok, but kind of expensive for pizza, so probably will not go back there. I much prefer Mississippi Pizza or Hotlips. Anyway, we chose this place because it was across from the Aladdin Theater. I had never been there before either, and I was nervous about getting there early enough to get good seats, since the concert was general admission. I kind of worried for nothing, because we got there 10 mins before the doors opened and were the 3rd in line. I was amazed, we got front row seats! I have never gotten front row to any concert. Luckily I had my knitting, because there was an hour waiting for the concert to start. So I got quite a few rows done on my sweater:) The lady next to me was amazed that I had thought to bring something to do, and then she ignored me the rest of the time, I probably scared her.

Ok, so I'm sitting there knitting away and in walks Fran 20 mins before the show started, and he walked right in front of me to get to the backstage area. Wow, that was pretty cool. I wanted to jump up and squeeee, of course I didn't, I played it cool (which will surprise some of you, I know).

I think some back story is in order.

Owen and I have known each other for over 12 years. I've been listening to Fran and his band Travis for about as long. I've seen them 3 times before (all in 2000) - 2x they opened for another band (Oasis) and saw them twice on that tour, the 3rd time they played at the Roseland in Portland (this is one of my favorite concerts of all time). They've been to Portland one other time more recently, but we couldn't go to the concert for some reason. So, their music reminds me a lot of when Owen and I were first dating and living together, because we listened to them all the time. Their album "The Invisible Band" came out when we bought our first car and that stayed in the cd player for MONTHS! That music got me through a lot of stuff, including a 1 hour commute to a job I hated, for 4 months. This time Fran was touring by himself to promote a solo album that is coming out in October. I feel so lucky that he came to Portland, because the tour was only 6 shows.

Back to the story.

Promptly at 8 he comes out and we go wild (well as wild as 100 or so people can get). He decided to ditch the mic and amp and just played acoustic. Oh my, that was a treat! So, instead of being behind a mic, he was right in front of us and it was like a private concert - so so so so cool. Really hard to describe too, because these songs mean a lot to me and this night they seemed so honest and real, just a totally different experience. Oh and he went Storytellers on us and told us stories behind all of the songs he played! My favorite was about the song "Side" and he wrote it originally as a rap song (LOL), but that got nixed and the lyric "a circle only has one side" is from one of his physics teachers - he said his mind was blown away by this fact, and I have to admit when I heard this song the first time my mind was blown too). The song "Rocking Chair" got the tears flowing, because it was written from the point of view of a woman with Alzheimers from a TV interview he watched, all I could think of was my grandmother. He played so many songs - 15 that I can remember, but maybe one or two more, including a few from the new album. Oh I can't wait to hear it! For the encore he admitted that he did not have a set list, and asked if we had requests. Poor guy was bombarded with so many. I am pretty sure I was the only one yelling out "Driftwood", and he played it. That was really special, it has to be my favorite song of all time, and apparently it almost wasn't a song. He said that he was washing dishes and watching Cheers on TV and mulling over a dialog between Norm and Clif about being driftwood. Then he had the melody and went to record it, but instead of recording, he just got footsteps of him leaving the room. He reviewed the tape and at the very end there was him singing a bit of it and voila, Driftwood was not lost forever.

After the show, he didn't leave, he just hopped off the stage to sign autographs. Of course, I was NOT prepared AT ALL :( I didn't think to bring a camera or anything to sign, or even a token gift - stupid stupid stupid! I got a couple of grainy shots with the iphone, yup. Oh well, it was just hard to think of something to say that didn't sound dumb. I mean, at home, you can think of so many things to say to someone whose work you admire, and then you become dumbstruck when you actually meet them in person. I mentioned the commute thing and that he should go to Voodoo Doughnuts afterwards, and that was it. If I could have hogged more of his time, I would have also said that his music means a lot to me (more than he could ever know), that even with an accent he speaks so clearly, that I am also a vegetarian and that I really liked how soft his shirt was.

When he sang "Indefinitely" it was about time not really existing and life is just moments and wanting to live in a moment forever. Well, I really wanted this night to go on forever, I could listen to him sing for about that long.

Well, we had to leave and I didn't want to go home right away, so we went to Voodoo (since I had mentioned it, and that's all I could think about eating) and got a couple of donuts to have for breakfast and one to share on the ride home while we listened to the other song I had wanted to hear "We are Monkeys" A little Travis song that makes me laugh.

Hazel's First Birthday

It's been almost a month since her first birthday (oops), how time flies!

Hazel's real birthday (June 21st) was celebrated along with Father's Day, in Seaside. We drove over to Canon Beach Sunday afternoon. Had lunch at a pizza parlour. I went to the bead store while Owen and Hazel went to the playground. Then we all went and got ice cream cones (Hazel snuck a few licks off of our cones). We stayed the night at the Rivertide Suites. In the morning, we packed up to leave, and went to walk around Seaside. Hazel rode the carousel, then we went to the beach where she walked in the sand and touched the freezing cold ocean! We drove home during her afternoon nap and quickly changed clothes and drove to the Spaghetti Factory in Portland. We had dinner with my mom and Owen's parents. Between salad and the main course, Hazel took a walk around the restaurant and flirted with all of the tables. When it came time to sing happy birthday, everyone in the restaurant sang to her. This made me tear up a bit, because I'm sappy like that. She enjoyed her own vanilla ice cream.


The following weekend we had her birthday party with her friends. Lots of little kids came to play in the water fountain, eat cake and help her open presents! After a full day of fun you can imagine she was exhausted!!

Tulip Festival and Natural Dyeing

All of these photos were taken today at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. Yeah, it was overcast and yeah, it rained, but ya know what? It wasn't crowded! Which is how it usually is if the weather is nice. And our family doesn't do crowds terribly well, so having it basically to ourselves was nice.

Hazel had lots of fun having her picture taken. She especially loved being in the large wooden shoe. She could reach down and pick up the sawdust shavings on the ground and try to put them in her mouth (ugh). It was a little cold for her, so we warmed up in their gift shop. So many cutesy things, but none went home with me. I did buy a couple bunches of cut tulips and a pot of "rip van winkle" narcissus. On the round about way home, we stopped at my mom's so that Hazel could crawl around and I left her a bunch of the tulips I bought. She is flying home tonight from Hawaii and I think she will be delighted that we thought of her. Of course she may be a little annoyed that we stopped by when she wasn't home, but oh well...

Oh, I should talk about yesterday too! I had originally planned to go out to Woodland Woolworks to try out the double treadle Lendrum that I am lusting after, but got a notice on Facebook that Pico Accuardi Dyeworks was having an event this weekend in their workshop. I thought that the natural dyeing lesson sounded cool, so I nixed the WW plan and invited Tami to go with me to PAD instead. We dyed up some mini skeins of sock yarn and a mini skein of Columbia wool from Imperial Stock Ranch. Who would have thought that yellow onion skins would dye wool green, or that a baking soda spritz would turn a burgundy to purple??? I also am intrigued by indigo, when you dip your fiber in, it turns green, but once the chemcial in the indigo hits the oxygen in the air, it turns blue. I had no idea that natural dyeing could be so much fun!

Here's some pictures of what I dyed up:


This one had an unfortunate "spaghetti incident" so I only have pics of it reskeined.
There is cochineal, logwood, logwood spritzed with baking soda, and indigo.




madder/black walnut mix, cochineal, black walnut, and indigo, then the whole thing went into the indigo pot (by accident of course, but I like how it turned out.






Indigo, walnut, madder, yellow onion skin, and again the whole skein went into the indigo pot.

Happy New Year - Happy New Decade

I was going to write something profound about the past 10 years, but I struggled making this collage and now I forgot what I was going to write. So, here is the last 10 years summed up by 10 photos.  Maybe later I can write something better :)
2000 - Owen and I got engaged
2001 - We graduated college
2002 - We got married
2003 - We bought our first home
2004 to 2008 - Our life BH (Before Hazel)
2009 - We had our baby Hazel

Christmas in a nutshell