Eight years later...

Jeremy and I celebrated our eighth anniversary in February. As is our yearly tradition, we went all out and went to lunch. (Some people take awesome trips for their anniversaries; we go out to lunch. Every year. In times like these, you know...)

We went to Beverly's restaurant, which is a delectable 5-star restaurant at the Coeur d'Alene Resort with a great view of the lake. The food is always fantastic, and our anniversary was no exception. Jeremy had some kind of halibut (the man loves him some halibut) and I had the trout cupcake. Trout? Cupcake? Yes. It was amazing. A fillet of red trout shaped like a cupcake then filled with scallops and lobster and drizzled with an outrageously rich beurre nante sauce. And if that doesn't sound good enough, the cupcake was nestled in a bed of spinach and extremely buttery mashed potatoes. Oh, how I loved that cupcake.


I also love Jeremy and am glad, especially in times like these, that we are together. And although I joke about our yearly lunch date, I really do treasure those lunches. I remember every single one: where we were, what we ate, what we talked about. If life is comprised primarily of moments, then I have at least eight special moments with my very best friend. Thanks, Jeremy.

Also, how could I not love any meal that ends with a huge cloud of cotton candy in which a little scoop of homemade ice cream is nestled? My only complaint was the little "Happy Anniversary" chocolate: it was both hokey and disgusting. Other than that, Beverly's was too good to us...


Until next year...

My Funny Valentines

I've realized recently that kids make holidays much more fun. Clara is old enough to really get into the holiday hoopla, and since it takes so little to thrill her we end up getting lots of credit for very little work!

We began the day with pink pancakes. They started out as heart-shaped pancakes, then Jeremy told me they looked more like amorphous blobs than hearts, so we switched to circles (well, he just took matters into his own hands and started cooking circles, which was just as well).

For lunch we had heart-shaped sandwiches and heart-shaped jello jigglers (you may have seen the pudding-jello jiggler recipe in the February Friend magazine, if you get it). I duly noted that half the battle in any great holiday celebration is just walking around cutting food out of appropriately shaped cookie cutters. Genius.

For dinner, we went all out and had steak. Yes, Rachel and Jeremy bought and ate actual beef. Miracles do happen. We broiled it, and we spent most of the time in fear that our oven was going to catch on fire. Jeremy even busted out the fire extinguisher, read the instructions, then told me that if the oven did indeed catch fire that he would be sure to keep the kids safe but that I was otherwise more or less on my own. He is pretty clutch in a crisis. In the end, though, nothing caught on fire and the steak was decent. Maybe we'll make it a tradition and eat red meat every Valentine's Day.

Clarasaurolophus

Clara, as I may have mentioned before, truly loves dinosaurs. Her favorite show is PBS's Dinosaur Train, and she is always getting new dinosaur books from the library and from Goodwill. She retains an incredible amount of information about the dinosaurs we read about, and she can identify more than a dozen by sight. She is fond of talking about dinonychus's "terrible claw" (and likes to pantomine how a dinonychus can tear the flesh of other dinosaurs), and she is often torn about whether T. Rex or allosaurus is the "fiercest dinosaur to ever roam the earth." Sometimes while perusing one of her dinosaur books, she'll point out a particularly bloody carnivorous scene and say, "Look Mom--that is so fierce!"

The other day, Jeremy and I were reading to her before bed. She really wanted to figure out how to best tell apart the sauropods--what best differentiates an apatosaurus from a brachiosaurus or a diplodocus or an argentinosaurus. We decided that the brachiosaurus was the most distinctive, and we pointed out that she has a little plastic piggy bank shaped like a brachiosaurus. This shifted the conversation towards piggy banks and other money matters, and she reminded us of how, six months or so ago, Jonathan broke her nice froggy bank and that she was in need of a new one.

"You're probably right," I said. "It would be good for you to save some money, so when you're bigger you can go to college or go on a mission."

"Or go to the store," she responded.

"What would you get at the store with your money?" I asked. She had no real response for this (money makes no sense to her), so Jeremy told her that if she saved money for college then she could go to college and become a paleontologist. Well, this struck her as just about the greatest idea of all time.

"Mom," she said, "When I'm bigger like you and go to college, can I wear your clothes?"

"Sure," I said.

"OK. When I'm bigger like you, I'll put on your underwear, then your shirt, then your pants. Then I'll wear a jacket--your jacket. I'll drive your car to college with my piggy bank, and I'll be a paleontologist."

She's got it all figured out.

Finally!

After last year's epic winter snowfall, I will admit that we were hoping for a bit of a reprieve from having to shovel 10 feet of snow. Nevertheless, this winter, so far, has been a crushing disappointment--particularly for the kids. Clara has yearned for snow, and although Jonathan is not incredibly fond of being cold (and has a particular dislike for cold wind), even he was thrilled by the sight of falling "no" out the window this morning. They watched the snow fall for a full 10 minutes, with Clara asking, "Can we go and play yet? Can we go and play yet?" Finally the snow let up, and Jeremy popped out of his office to see if anyone was interested in a little snow play.

Happy taste of winter!

Costume drama

Clara loves to dress up, and Jonathan loves to wear the lion costume at the children's museum, so we thought we'd try our chicken costume on for size. As you can see in this little triptych, sometimes being a chicken is for the birds.

Dance, Poppet!

We signed Clara up for an eight week dance class through the city recreation department. Good times! She got to pick out some tap and ballet shoes to bring home for the duration of the class, which thrilled her deeply. She loves to wear her black leotard around the house as much as possible so she can practice her moves. I'm most excited for the recital in March. Who knows what will happen?

The first class went well for Clara, although it was tricky for her to do all of the steps. She tried hard, though, and had fun, and she can't wait to go back to "Dancing School" next week.

This video shows how Clara reacted to the news that she'd be taking dance lessons, which Jeremy told her about 30 minutes before her class started (I was not home from teaching yet). Sorry about the bad camera angle at the beginning; he was trying not to distract her with the camera. I'll try to get some better dancing action videos for next week.

A new post for a new year

I'm finally back on my computer after what has admittedly been a nice, long break. We enjoyed nearly two weeks in Utah over the Christmas break, splitting the time between my family and Jeremy's. It was fun to see all but two of our six collective siblings and their families. As always, though, it was a busy couple of weeks and we were happy to be home by the time all was said and done. Now our Christmas stuff is all packed away, the house is (relatively) clean, and I'm busily working to get my syllabi in order for the upcoming semester.

I've been thinking quite a bit about goals and new beginnings. My only official resolution of 2009 was to have feet as soft as my mother's (seriously), and I was a total failure. (My foot-softening efforts have perked up a bit in 2010, since I got a pumice stone in my stocking. From myself. But it still works like a champ.)

For 2010, I want to read more (I'm thinking two books a month, which is not nearly what I'd like to read but is probably realistic given the other strains on my time), go to the Temple every month, play the piano more (not including the better part of three hours at church I'm either sitting at an organ or a piano), do another triathlon, and do more to develop my spiritual strength. So there you go. I have a few other things in the works, but I figure I can make goals whenever I want to (even if Jeremy thinks it's barbaric to start a new goal on any day that's not either a Monday or the first day of a new month).

While you chew on all of this, please enjoy a few pictures of our Christmas fun--or, really, just a sample of our fun over the last month or so, since the odds of my going back and posting past events are quite slim. The pictures are in no particular order, but I think that adds to the excitement and uncertainty of the new year. Happy 2010!

What we're listening to

Need a little lift to your Christmas listening? Try NPR's Jingle Jams. I'll credit this find to Jeremy.

Best Film of 2009

Hands down, Little Dorrit. I was absolutely riveted for nearly eight hours. Highly worth watching. Highly.

Biggest Accomplishments of 2009

..Jonathan.. Our little Bug gets to have two biggest accomplishments: finally learned to walk (at nearly 15 months) and finally learning to say Mama (after probably two full months of saying "Dada"). Here's a moving picture of him walking. Such a sweet baby!



..Clara.. This is the face of a girl who no longer wears nappies! (I thought just a picture of Clara would be better than an "action shot," if you know what I mean.)



..Rachel.. If I do a repeat performance of this accomplishment, my only goal is to not come in last in my age division. I aim high.



..Jeremy.. I really debated about this one. At first I thought I could list all the progress he's made on his dissertation, or the publications he's had accepted. Then I realized that nothing says "biggest accomplishment" like jumping over a 6'5" man. Even though Jeremy screams like a girl and nearly kills himself (as you'll see in the video), it's still impressive. Six foot five. Wow. (Additional information, as (truthfully) provided by Jeremy: 1)the sun was in his eyes; 2)he had already lept gracefully over me twice, which is fatiguing even though I'm only 5'4"; 3)he'd eaten a worrisome amount of roasted pig.) I recognize that it doesn't look that impressive in the video, but in the moment it was truly a sight to behold.

Best Book of 2009

Looking back over my Goodreads list, I noticed that I read several books that I quite liked this year. But if I had to choose one book that I read in the last 12 months and truly enjoyed, I'd have to go with Life of Pi. There's a chance I actually read this just before the New Year, but even so it meets all of the qualifications of good reading to me: great writing, a gripping story, sympathetic characters, and--perhaps most importantly--it stayed with me. Even after a full year (if not more) I still find myself thinking about Life of Pi. Great read.

At the same time, I vaguely remember having shed actual tears while reading this year. What book was that? Does anyone remember?

Lights!

Last evening we braved some very chilly weather (18 degrees--but it isn't getting any warmer in the next week, if you know what I'm saying) to see the Christmas lights downtown. Perhaps you are not aware that the Coeur d'Alene Resort features The Largest Floating Resort Holiday Light Show in America, but it is indeed true.


We are fortunate that one of Jonathan's only words is "lights," which meant that he was an active and blissful participant in the evening's conversation ("What do you see, Jonathan?" "Ites!" "What's that, Jonathan?" "Ites!"). Clara was disappointed to not be able to "go through" the castle of lights, but she was pretty excited about the lit Nativity, the lit sea monster, the lit Noah's Ark, and the lit world. And she was particularly thrilled to meet Rudolph and Frosty on the boardwalk (The World's Longest Floating Boardwalk, as it happens), both of whom gave her a hug and a candy cane.



It was a fun, if cold night. We were practically running towards the end, both to expidite the holiday cheer and to increase our distance from the random person in a Santa suit lurking at one of the docks. Odd.

Stay tuned for our holiday cruise to the North Pole, upon which we will hopefully embark when temperatures are out of the teens. Brrrr...