All of the thanks and fun

You know what? We had the best Thanksgiving break ever. It was exactly what was needed.

Our friends in Portland arrived in record time for lunch, where we proceeded to stuff ourselves silly with food. We ate and ate and ate and ate. As we fell on to the couch to recover, all four kids disappeared upstairs to play, and it was like no time had passed since they last saw each other. As they played, the wine and beer began flowing, along with reminiscing about the years when we lived next door in Sydney. This was pretty much the pattern for the next few days: coffee, coffee, coffee, wine, coffee, coffee, wine, wine, wine, wine. And food. Lots of food.

I think my liver has only just recovered.

We kept an eye on the weather forecast because Saturday was predicted to bring snow. I didn't want to get my hopes up because if I learned anything last winter in Seattle, it was that snow gets predicted much more than it actually happens. Also, it was still November! The first snowfall last year didn't happen until days before Christmas. As if it was going to snow, right?

And we then woke up on Saturday morning. Ahem... and, yay!

It was only a small amount of snow, and oddly none of it actually stuck to the roads, but it was enough to make four kids super excited and willing to head to our local baseball fields for a play. This adult may or may not have been excited too - for the first time, I had proper snow boots to break in and keep my feet warm and dry. Another reason I was happy was because the clouds gave way to sunshine and blue skies, which never happened last winter when it snowed - back then, the rain came and melted it fairly quickly (this time, the snowy white patches stayed for a good four or five days).

In fact, the skies cleared up so beautifully that we thought it would be the perfect afternoon to take our visitors to the Space Needle. We'd already been up twice in the past, but both times were heavy grey days without mountain views. This day was so cold anyway, not many other people would have the same idea, right?

Right?

We got there at 2pm, and stood in line for a freezing half hour as icy winds - the truly miserable kind - whipped around us. When we finally got to the ticket window, we were informed the next time slot available was 4pm, and we nearly cried, until we remembered we could go and warm up in the nearby EMP Museum (we get a discount there which makes it worth going in, even for just ninety minutes). So that's what we did, and everything worked out perfectly.

We made it up the Space Needle with not much time to spare before sunset, but in those temperatures, it's not like I wanted to be outside for more than five or ten minutes anyway. As the sun was going down, we were treated to a birds eye view of two dudes climbing around, installing the Christmas-coloured lights on the outside of the tower. They had a crowd watching, I had vertigo, and knew for sure that was a job there is no amount of money in the world that would convince me to do.

Happily, the entire horizon - both east and west - was full of mountains and pink skies, so I finally got my wish for clear views form the Space Needle. And white snow-dustings atop the buildings downtown - still a novelty. We got some cheesy photos of the four kids sitting with Santa in his space sleigh, and called it a day. The Portland gang had to leave the next day, and I spent another three days eating stuffing... I want more weekends like this, please. There's nothing better for the soul than quality time with close friends you've known for a decade and gone through the dramas of baby stuff together with, right? Living away from Australia, the opportunity for spending time with old friends isn't something we get to do often, if at all, so I'm grateful we only live a three-hour drive from these guys.

February snow

Our first snow day in Seattle was a good six weeks ago, but we finally had another dumping of snow last weekend. It had the good sense to start around dinner time on Saturday evening, and continued through the night, so the girls knew before bed that they'd be waking up to a morning of sledding, snowball fights, and snowmen. Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement here. We Australians are easily impressed by snow.

Sadly, drizzles of rain kicked in on Sunday afternoon, gradually getting heavier - pretty much washing away all but the biggest piles of snow overnight. Monday morning was back to the usual status quo, but I was happy with the amount of snow play we were able to have. I did learn, though, that I should pull my finger out and get some adequate snow gear for myself. Jeans and rain boots do not cut it. Procrastination is my middle name, if you haven't figured that out yet...

At this point, my DSLR's battery died. Lucky for me I had my phone as well. I have been Instagramming for days now, but I'll spare you the monotony. The following two are my favourite iPhone pics.

I hope that from wherever you are sitting to read this, you are warmer than us!

The boy who cried snow

Over the last month, there have been three separate occasions where the weather app on my phone predicted snow. Each time, we all got our hopes up, only to be disappointed the next day when the snow never eventuated, or the little snow icon changed to a boring old cloud or rain icon. Boo.

The last time that little snow icon popped up, we tried not to get too excited. It was probably just another false alarm, right? Still, when I woke up in the early hours of the morning for a loo visit, I couldn't help but peek through my bedroom window's blinds... and when I saw a soft white glow covering the trees and road below, I had to wake up J to show him. We couldn't tell if the snow was still falling or not, so we tiptoed into the girls' room for a better look out their window, where the street lamp would answer our question.

It was still falling, and we stood watching for a minute, hushed whispers as we discussed how we'd spend the day (I was pretty sure that school would be cancelled). As we whispered, our voices must have woken the Faery because she stirred, saw us looking out of her window, and then sprang out of bed to see the snow.

It was still early, so in attempt to keep Miss Pie from waking, we offered a space in our bed to the Faery. She eagerly accepted, but spent the next hour tossing and turning - too excited about her first proper snow day to let sleep pull her back in.

After a while, I accepted that I, too, was a little too revved up to fall asleep again, so I switched my phone on and found two recorded messages from the school district. The first one had been left at 6am, and notified that school would be starting two hours later than usual. I almost deleted the next message without listening, thinking it would be the same, but then saw it had been left at 7.20am, so I listened. Due to 'worsening weather', school was cancelled. It was supposed to have been the last day of school before the Christmas break, and the Faery was a little bummed not to give her card and gift to her teacher, but the lure of snow play outweighed any bad feelings there (and her teacher emailed all the parents with the loveliest thoughts and sentiments for the students to read about their hard work so far).

For part of their Christmas presents, J and I had bought some snow/cold weather boots and mittens/gloves for the girls. We decided that they may as well receive them early, so as they ate their breakfast, I hurriedly wrapped the gifts in our closet, and then presented them.

Then, thermal underwear on and new snow accessories in check, we headed outside. I only had rain boots for myself, which I discovered do not keep feet warm enough, but it was worth it. We had snow ball fights, I took photos, the girls built a snowman with J, I took more photos, then we shovelled snow from our sloped driveway and found a bag of chunky salt to spread, worried about slush freezing to ice later. Then we piled on more layers of coats and walked to our local park and embarked on more snowball fights and snowman-building... along with dozens of other kids. It turns out that baseball fields are an excellent source of endless snowball-rolling, and snow-forts.

Eventually we decided to head home again, and passing the last cul-de-sac before our street, found a number of the Faery's classmates on their sleds, so home was delayed a little longer while the Faery and Miss Pie joined in and took turns on various sleds. As we walked home, the Faery chatted about how the weather app had wrongly forecast snow a few times, so she hadn't really believed that it would snow on this day: Mum, it's like the boy who cried wolf, but instead, it was the boy who cried snow!

By midday, the swirls of snow had given way to soft rain. By the end of the day, much of the snow had melted, and by the following day, the only evidence of snow were the occasional piles left where the biggest shovel-fuls and snowmen had been scattered around town. Just grey skies and drizzle, business as usual. We were all a little sad, but it was a fabulous start to our Christmas break and I'm crossing my fingers that we get more snow, locally, this winter.

Snow tripping

We're not really spontaneous. Sometimes, but not often.

Last Sunday, despite the looming black clouds, we decided to take a chance and drive to a recently discovered gem of a park. The sun was shining, but for how long?

As we headed north in the car, we noticed that some of the mountains were freshly capped with snow... finally. They'd been looking decidedly bare this winter, and the snow explained the sudden drop in temperatures those last few days.

While the girls played at the park, J and I kept glancing towards the mountains. We'd heard that the nearest snow fields weren't too much of a drive - maybe forty minutes. Should we?

Yes. Let's do it.

It was a cold day anyway, so our clothing was warm enough for a quick play in the snow. Unlike our last day trip to the snow (at Mt Hood in Oregon when staying with friends in Portland), I wasn't wearing Birkenstocks (in my defence, it was summer and we didn't know we'd be visiting the snow), so I considered this a win.

We just needed food, so made a quick stop at a nearby bakery for fresh bagels to go. Next stop - the Angeles Crest Highway, through the Angeles National Forest.

Not long after beginning our ascent, we glanced at the petrol gauge. Crap.

The tank was maybe an eighth full. We'd passed a petrol station a while back and suspected there wouldn't be any more stations for quite some time.

Never mind. We drove a little more, then stopped at a lookout point.

A quick run around, some snow balls thrown from the fast-melting snow patches, rosy cheeks, and a laugh at the similar antics of other families who'd stopped there as well - snowmen on car bonnets, anyone?

The sun disappeared, the clouds got darker, and small soft white circles began to fall. Snow or sleet - who the hell knew? This kind of climate is beyond my expertise.

Back in the car, chewy-licious bagels were passed around as we warmed up, then we turned the car around and began our descent. The downward drive meant we barely made a dent in our remaining petrol. Sighs of relief as we realised we weren't going to be stranded on a freezing mountain side.

Not a bad little outing, for what began as a trip to a park.

Hard to believe that only two weeks earlier, we'd gotten sunburnt in Malibu - California is wild, huh?

Apple bytes, square donuts and snow

We have a beautiful Mac Notebook. It's fairly new - acquired last year to replace our old laptop, which had died a slow death. This newer version is a thing of beauty, and her name is Sabrina, but that's a long story.

Last week, the power adaptor stopped working. I plugged the cord into Sabrina, but no little lights came on to indicate that battery-charging was taking place.

This may or may not be related to the fact that moments earlier, I'd found Miss Pie with the small end of the adaptor in her mouth. She'd been suspiciously quiet - for about half a minute - on the other side of the the kitchen counter, from where I'd been making breakfast, unaware that she'd managed to reach up, pull the cord out of Sabrina, and started slurping on it.

After being told about this, and some investigation, J came to the conclusion that the fault may actually be something to do with the battery itself, and not the adaptor. My software engineer husband was in denial.

We'd also had a minor issue with Sabrina's screen - it was coming away from the frame in one corner - and we hadn't got around to getting that sorted out. She was still under warranty, so this was the kick up the bum we needed to take her in to the local Apple Store.

On Saturday morning, J rang up and made an appointment at the Apple store. The only time slot available was 4.30pm.

I'd been running errands - alone (bliss!) - all day and had no intention of going in (again) with him, but when 4pm hit, the girls were going stir-crazy from being at home all day. It seemed a good idea for us all to go in together.

As soon as we arrived at the mall, I regretted it. Late Saturday afternoon at the mall, on a cold, stormy day? I'd never seen the place so packed. Duh. What was I thinking?

We pushed our way through the half-gallon-slurping throngs and finally made it to the Apple Store. The technician's verdict was that it was indeed the adaptor at fault. We may or may not have mentioned the slurping toddler factor. A new adaptor was promptly issued, but Sabrina had to be left at the store for a few days so her screen could be repaired.

All under warranty, though, so we were happy.

Mission accomplished, we did not want to spend a minute longer in the crowds so made our way back to the car. It took another fifteen minutes of mayhem to exit the car park.

When we did, the sky was doing crazy things. Did I mention this was the same afternoon that snow fell in Burbank? As in, snow fell within this City of Angels?

Have I mentioned that we live just three miles from Burbank?

We noticed that some of the closer mountains appeared to have had a dumping of icing sugar on top - something we hadn't seen before, as these particular mountains aren't as high as the usual ones near L.A. that get snow each year.

The sky in that direction looked bruised and swollen, yet the sun setting in the west was casting all sorts of peachy beams over a clearer sky. There were individual clouds, piled on top of one another. We noticed one large, pillowy cloud with a hole in the centre - clearly resembling a square donut. There were simultaneous cravings and stomach-grumbles in the car as J, myself and the Faery began visualising more donuts, Homer Simpson style.

Half-way home, sitting at a red light, a couple of cars drove past... with snow on top. WTF? We couldn't believe what we'd just seen, but managed to catch up with one of the cars at the next set of lights, ogle, and confirm that, yep, it was snow all right.

By the time we parked the car at home, we were pretty happy. We'd just seen snow (it takes very little snow to make this Aussie family excited), and it felt like there were possibilities of more to come. Stranger things have happened, right?

And we had a new, functioning adaptor for Sabrina.

On the way out of the car, J grabbed the water bottle from between our seats, before we began our synchronised efforts at freeing the girls from their car seats.

We walked in our front door, J set Miss Pie onto the floor... and water dripped from his bag. The water bottle's lid mustn't have been on tight enough.

Buggering bollocks.

Sabrina's new adaptor was in his bag. It. Was. Soaked.

Back to square one, then.

Maybe that was the universe having a laugh at us? Telling us that next time, we should just hand over money for a new adaptor, instead of wheedling one from the warranty when we know better...