Merry Christmas

We hope you are all enjoying your Christmas with family and friends.

Jokesters

Evidently our neighbors don't think our house is decorated enough for Christmas, so they took it upon themselves tonight to augment our yard with light-up plastic lawn ornaments.

Game on, Clawsons.  We'll see who has the last laugh now.

Field Trip

On Thursday, Kari's class got to take a field trip over to the Union to see the Christmas tree and gingerbread house.  Because of liability, field trips at their school are few and far between, so this was quite a special occasion.  I took the day off to help chaperone the event.  We took a City Bus over, and according to the majority of the field trip attendees, this was the best part of the day!  The college students who normally ride the Gold Loop, I'm sure, were not so sure about our overwhelming presence.  I know I saw at least one student double-check he was on the right bus as soon as he caught sight of the 20 pre-schoolers bouncing off the seats.

 

Tis the season...

With the weather being unusually warm and hardly any snow having fallen on the ground in central Indiana (as I type it continues to rain and is in the upper 40's), it's not been quite as easy to tell Christmas is around the corner. (Snow pic)

This was our only snow on Nov. 29

So we've done what we can - when we can - to get the kiddos in the Spirit. It started with a quick trek around town to look at Christmas lights. No one was able to out-do Uncle Herby's spread, though. Our good friend Ryan Harber has a Clark Griswald-esque display at his West Lafayette abode.

We then ventured off to pick out a Christmas tree from a nearby farm. After Kari found several that were beautiful, we reminded her that if she wanted to attend a nice college it might be more prudent to stick to the $30 ones :)

Once home, Kari and Bryce helped Mommy set up decorations, lights and stockings. With the house all set, I took the kids to Purdue this past Saturday morning to see Santa and some elves. The Union has an annual meet Santa and eat pancakes type of day, so we stood in line and then downed a few hotcakes.

This should tell you how big the gingerbread house really was! I think Bryce ate the doorbell...

Both kids stared at Santa but didn't want to sit on his lap. Instead, they ventured in and out of large gingerbread houses and stood next to the 40-foot tall Christmas tree.

Happy Holidays everybody!

This weekend the kids will get to spend time in Indy with Gran and Beep Beep, while Kevin has his office Holiday party. Christmas day will be spent in West Lafayette, then a few days of work before bringing in the new year in Chicago with family.

We hope you're all having a wonderful Holiday season!

Christmas in the Union

Ahhh! The annual gingerbread house is well under construction!

First Haircut

The time finally arrived when Holly was comfortable letting Bryce have his hair professionally trimmed. After she gave an initial whack to the neck with scissors many months ago, this time Holly took Bryce and Kari to get their haircut at her hairdresser - Colleen.

 

 Before- negotiating the length

While it might sound embarrassing for a father to say his son got his hairs chopped at a salon, we're not dealing with your standard locks of love... If you follow this blog, you'll know that little booger has extremely tight curls and not a "do" that can be carved up with a Flobee.

Mind you Bryce needs a decent helping of conditioner during his baths and also requires some "product" that Holly throws into his mop. So it seemed only fitting that his initial chop came at a salon, not a barbershop.

During... (Kari sitting under the dryer)

He sat calmly and stared at another man having his hair done, while occasionally being entertained by his loving sister. Kari had already had her hair cut before Bryce, so he had a sense of calm leading into his moment in the spotlight.

All in all, things went great and he was able to keep his curls!!

 

After- A job well done by both parties!

Halloween 2011

The month of October and first week of November have been nothing short of chaotic.  Kevin traveled every week in October and I jump started November with the pharmacy career fair last week  I had lots of support, help and good notes from previous years, but it was still a huge task to undertake.  Somewhere in the midst of all of this, Halloween happened. 

We started early enough and Kari was able to make little bat treats for her classmates and Bryce's for the holiday.

The Clawson's hosted the neighborhood Halloween party.  We feasted on pizza and treats and then took the obligatory neighborhood costume picture.  As you can imagine, it's pretty difficult to get 15+ kiddos sitting/standing still even for just a few seconds.

It was absolutely precious watching Bryce going up to houses and saying his best "trick or treat" to get a piece of candy.

Belts and Boards

Kari had a particularly fun week recently. At the end of the week she was promoted from white belt to a yellow belt in Karate. This Karate class actually travels to her pre-school where kids who want to participate can.

She has taken a tremendous liking to this class and proved it with this past week's accomplishment. Roll the video please...

Upon successful breaking of the board, Kari was then awarded her new belt. The teacher is especially proud of Kari's listening and leadership skills, both of which had to come from her father :)

Sunday lunch

Fire Safety Week

Miss Vicki could be one of the most creative, resourceful people ever.

Enter bread, jelly, Oreos, pretzels, and Swedish Fish and you've got an edible fire truck.

Traveling West

All of us were traveling last week; some further than others.  As part of my Christmas gift last year from Mom and Dad, I received an all-expenses paid trip to California to visit Mark, which also included childcare.  As an added bonus, Mark and I were also able to stay at Yosemite National Park, a hop, skip and a jump beyond the fertile San Joaquin Valley just four hours away.

I arrived Friday morning with plenty of time for the two of us to explore downtown Menlo Park and visit a couple of Mark and Meredith's favorite stores.  The afternoon included a bike ride over to one of my all-time favorite campuses, Stanford, to work out.  That evening, M & M surprised me with tickets to the San Fransisco Symphony to see 91 year old Ravi Shankar, likely one of his last performances in the US.  It was an amazing evening and I felt really lucky to see a person perform who helped shape The Beatles and their own musical development.  (Shankar, interestingly, is Norah Jones' father.)

Saturday morning, after a lovely California-style breakfast (M & M love, love, love breakfast), we headed out in our rental car to Yosemite.  It was wonderful to not be on a schedule and take our time getting there.  We stopped along the way to look at the almond groves; I picked a handful for Kari to take to her classroom's science table.  But by the time we started entering the mountains, this city girl just wasn't prepared, nor confident enough, to drive the winding cliffside 2-lane roads.  Fortunately, Mark gladly took over and drove the rest of the time we were in the park.  It was just too much for me.

Happy to hand over the reins to Mark.

Yosemite is just shy of 800,000 acres.  Reflecting back, being in the park made me realize, one, how b-i-g the world really is and, two, how s-m-a-l-l I felt being in this massive reserve.  Our first full day we hiked up the Mist trail to see Vernal Falls and further onto the even more impressive Nevada Falls.  While we were hiking, the Chicago Marathon was in full swing.  Even though I wasn't running, I was doing my own sort of vertical marathon.  I knew the altitude would get to me in a hurry.  We rested and had an easy trail-type lunch at Vernal before hiking UP another 1500 feet or so.  I was glad I pushed myself to do so.  Nevada Falls was nothing short of spectacular.  Once we reached the top it suddenly opened up and there were massive spans of flat granite rock.  I felt like I was on top of the world.  It was peaceful.  I saw one woman meditating on a rock jutting out over the falls.

  

 

 

I have no idea what I'm in for.

 

 Giving Mark the bird.

 Not sure I'll make it to Vernal Falls.

 Vermal Falls.  Totally worth it.

 Lunch at Vernal.  Liberty Cap in background.

 

 We made it!  Nevada Falls.

The hike down the John Muir Trail was nothing short of bliss. Blissful walking down.  Blissful breathing at a normal rate.  Blissful being out of the hot, beating sun.  At the end of the day, Mark calculated that we had hiked eight miles round trip.  I could barely stay awake to eat my dinner that night in the cafeteria.  I think I was in bed and asleep by 9:00.

The next day we had a decision to make: hike Yosemite Falls or drive to Glacier Point.  We settled on the hour-long (!) drive for the breath-taking panoramic views of the Valley Floor, The Ahwahnee Hotel, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, Vernal and Nevada Falls, Liberty Cap and Clouds' Rest.

 

L to R: Half Dome, Liberty Cap, Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls.

 

We hiked that!?!!!!

 

From Glacier Point we took an easy hike to Illiouette Falls via the Panorama Trail, which ultimately leads back to the John Muir Trail we had hiked the day before.  Different from the day before, we started at the top and walked down.  Which meant that the walk back (this was an out-and-back) would be up.  We were up high enough to be at the snow line!  The main thing I noticed on this hike, but also throughout most of the time in the park was that it seemed that almost every square inch of the park had forest fire scarring.  Some of the fire damage was more recent than in other areas; but the hard part to wrap my mind around is that it's considered healthy, when in a controlled manner.

Snowball fight!

It was chilly, beyond 5,000 feet chilly, and eventually started to rain.  We pressed on and I'm glad we did to see the Illiouette.  We had another trail lunch overlooking the falls.  I took my time on this trail picking up many different species of acorns, pine cones and leaves for Kari. 

So much of the time I thought of Kari and saw much of the park through the eyes of a four year old.  I was drawn to stop, touch, investigate, smell and feel almost every living and non-living thing along the trails.  Mark was patient and served as my partner in crime filling up his back pack, too, with treasures from the park trails.  (I'm guessing that it's either against the law or at the very least frowned upon to remove plant life from the park.)

Our last day in the park we decided to take it easy and head over to the beautiful Ahwahnee Hotel for breakfast.  Divine!  And then even more divine was relaxing, reading the paper and a book in front of one of the giant fireplaces.  These fireplaces were big enough to stand in!  A little old man would wheel a luggage cart around stacked with huge chunks of firewood and stoke the fires.  I thought to myself, "Wow, he's got one of the best jobs in the world!"

The trip had to come to an end.  We headed back to the Bay and listened to Born to Run by Christopher McDougall on an audiobook.  We reunited with Meredith and ate at one of their favorite restaurants before heading out early Wednesday morning for the long flight back to Chicago.

Now, how about that for a Chevy Aveo commercial?

It was a week.  It was a week that I'm still having a hard time finding the right words to describe its awesomeness.  I'm glad I got to share it with Mark-o and explore the park and more.  Here's hoping we can do it again soon!