Pass the potatoes and show me the community train

Michael Marshall, dangerous game shark. Beware.

Unfortunately Bug and BooFace opted to not come for Thanksgiving but we had a houseful anyway. Mom-Nancy was already in town so she came with Aunt B and Leah and brood -- Shiori and finance Michael with kids Lucas and Christina -- stayed the weekend.

Josh, Christina, Shiori

 

 

 

 

 

Our couch potatoes, severely allergic to exercise, held hands during the I Like Pie run Thanksgiving day, in solidarity. Everybody else ran, at least some of it. Lucas ran a 10k -- not because he wanted to but because he missed the sign for the 5k.

Trekking the Metolius

To work off some of our Thanksgiving meal we went for a short hike along the Metolius River, however, the two miles or so probably didn't offset  our consumption level.

Jack Finds His Lantern

Leslie, trying to find her way in the corn maze

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, it's that time again. Halloween approaches and we must traverse the corn maze (this year it was a Star Wars theme, how appropriate for our family), then we must pick out a pumpkin to carve.

It's a moral imperative. It must be done.

One pumpkin is never enough. I did two.

I'm not sure what we're going to do when all the kids are gone. Guess we'll just have to fess up that we do it for US, not them.

Or not just them anyway.

Josh, Jess and B display their handiwork

Smarty Pants

Leslie: The action figure

I guess turning 50 has been so much fun I need to stretch it out all year. To the right you'll find my own personal action figure> note her cute but professional hairstyle, her bundle of newspapers and errant ball of yarn.
Leslie, The Action Figure, was a gift from my best gal Mary. She said she figured any woman who makes it to 50 deserves her own action figure. And this one is a tribute to me.
She -- begins and ends every day with "Why?"
       -- comes with accessories of a Kindle and library card
       -- requires coffee every morning to operate
       -- needs to be stored by the beach
       -- "Smarty Pants" included in box

Unfortunately, my action figure is far from perfect. I've already found a spelling mistake on her box (she's clever and "chick"), but that's okay. To be shown up by an 11-inch piece of plastic is a bit too much for any middle-aged woman.

-- lph

Cider mash

Lucas and Leah go  a-pickin'

Back to Methow this fall for cider making. This tradition has become something we all look forward to all year and the year was no exception. Some things were the same, some new.

Tradition is good.

Same as last year: 

Great weather
Same beautiful Methow
Picked one day, pressed one day
All grandparents, siblings, and cousins there

The girls, Jessica, Christina and Shiori, take a spin on Stubby

New this year: 

Crop late, used neighbor's apples
New apple types, better cider!!
More family! Leah's finance Michael and his children. Lucas and Christina, came for the first time.

jessica shows the love

Now we have a freezer full of cider and a heart full of good memories.

Kiss a prince...wait, that's a toad?

Tadpole, in the beginning

We made a quick trip to Corvallis in late September, at the end of the Birthday Hell Week. We wanted to see Kristin settled into her new place with Dustin, in her new town (after four years in Portland!!)

They have a great place, a good-sized Victorian they share with a roommate. Kristin was just getting ready to start class at the time. This is her 'gap year' in between finishing her bachelor's and getting into a master's program. She's still taking classes but not full time. She got a job at a local cafe/coffee place and another writing for the OSU newspaper, the Daily Barometer. Dustin is in his third year at vet school and swamped with school work.

They have quite a menagerie at the house, including this toad -- which, as it turned out, was the very same tadpole Dustin captured when he and Kristin visited last summer. I was amazed he was able to raise a wild tadpole into a full-grown frog...maybe he should work with animals?!

Tadpole no more

 

 

 

Hakuna Matata

leslie, hard at work on the surprise

It's always great when you can bring things full circle. My friend Marybeth is the one who always goes to extreme lengths to do wonderful things for people, including all her girlfriends. This year I was determined to turn the tables. I made her a quilt, custom-designed for her with special meaning and finessed a way to get a gaggle of her friends together to stitch it together -- so she would think of all of us every time she saw it.

Then we planned a surprise getaway, to spend time with her and also to give her the quilt. And behold, it worked -- she was surprised, she loved the quilt and it was a great weekend.

When we were all younger these gatherings were few and far between, too much work and kids and other obligations. I'm not sure if we have less of them now or we are finally comfortable with making ourselves a priority. 

It's a good thing.

Wet, wet circles

Jess takes the plunge

Beautiful Detroit Lake

What's turning into our 'annual' gang camping trip was at Detroit Lake this year. It was flawless- warm but not hot, not too dusty or too wet, water warm but not uncomfortable. All the same players were there, with a few change-ups: Ealy family, Hicks family, Hole-Currys and our Girl Debbie Beck, plus Cousin Tara. Once again Leah brought her boat and we made the most of it, burning a lot of fuel going in circles very fast.

Miranda and Josh

Brian  at 'Salamander Cove'

Uncle Brian shows baby Micah and mom Kelsie what fun wet dirt can be

The Gang

Jess, Miranda and Shiori

Trade you two logs for a sheep?

Nice treat to cap off the end of July -- B's cousin Michael came to visit with significant other Andrea-Angela. They tried a bit of climbing at Smith Rock, whupped our butts at Settlers of Quatan and brought plenty of laughs. We tossed some tubes in the van the next day and had a ball drifting down a very quiet bit of the Deschutes River.
Then they took off for an biking adventure around the Northwest and we went back to work.
Wahhh.

But victory was mine when my plum jam won a first place ribbon at the Deschutes County Fair. Of course, I only had two other competitors but you gotta take your kudos where you can.

It's sea STAR, not star fish

J & J enjoy the sea and sand -- despite themselves

Yeah us!

Two trips to the beach this summer, although both short. But, as Greg Luth would say, still better than a kick in the ass.

Needed to go to Lincoln City for a work conference so we decided to tack on two days and make a mini-vacation of it. We stayed in Salishan for the conference, so the kids had plenty to do while we attended meetings and went to business social events.

Then we explored the area a bit. Went tidepooling -- great minus tide -- and visiting Hatfield Marine Center, which was very interesting. Then we explored, although not for long enough, the Yacquina Head area. Definitely want to go back there.

In Lincoln City we decided to splurge on a glass blowing experience. J & J made, with the artist's help, a colorful glass float, and B and I created a glass sea star. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. I'd recommend it to anyone!

Our last day we bought some seafood to take home and parked ourselves on the beach for a few hours, to splash and run, and sit and soak up the atmosphere.

Got home late, but it was worth the ride.

B & L create art, with a little help

Car Talk

Leslie and Miranda in Jacksonville

Late June saw us taking a quick trip to Gold Hill, to drop off a car and visit with B's cousins. It is very beautiful country there, just north of Ashland, so different from our area. It was nearly a kidless trip, no Jess or Josh, no Kenny or Kelsey but Miranda was home and we love hanging with Melodie and Ken (and I love seeing their chickens.

Melodie with one a chick from this year's flock

There wasn't a lot of time but we managed to go for a bike ride along the river, take a short hike along another river trail, learn Settlers of Quatan and check out Jacksonville, a town on the National Historic Register.
Oh, and Brian and Ken talked cars.
A lot.
A whole lot.

Brian and Ken, down on the farm

Dodging bottle rockets

This Independence Day holiday we found ourselves sans kids and decided to make a whirlwind trip to Pacific City. At the last minute Travis decided to come along.

For the first time in I don't know how long I made a seaweed mosaic like I did when I was a child. Here's the formula: collect the most interesting pieces of seaweed, with the most variety and color you can find, and put it in a jar filled with seawater. Place the jar where sunlight can swirl through its contents, illuminating your creation like a stained glass window.

For the first time (since I've been coming to PC) we went for a little jaunt in Brian's dad's boat (one of them). We were only in the river, but it was  lovely day and the river and estuary were beautiful beyond words.

Hallelujah and pass the lug nuts

Not that often anymore Sarah comes over to see us, and usually it's mixed in with a holiday or other large family get-together -- so it was a treat to have her to ourselves for two days this month.

She brought her car over, so B could help her with a brake job. It was during the week so we had to work during the day but we had evenings together and she had time during the day to hang out with Travis.

Both Travis and Sarah show aptitude for mechanics, no doubt some genetic thing inherited from their fathers, but I don't think they enjoy it much. It's just a means to an end. 

Regardless, it was a fine few days. B was  in hog heaven, working on cars with some of his kids. Even after long days at work he was revved up to spend several more hours in the garage, talking bearings and pads and getting greasy.

It's the little things, isn't it?

Fetch me some cheese and whine

Kodiak: "What do you mean picnics aren't for dogs?"

No kids, good weather, off work = chores around the house.

We did slip away for a couple hours one evening, packed a delicious picnic, a couple of chairs and headed off. We hiked to a quiet riverside spot near Cline Falls and noshed and talked, with the rushing water providing a relaxing backdrop.
Then we pulled out the traveling Scrabble game and matched wits while tossing a stick into the river for Kodiak...over and over and over again.
Maybe summer is nearly here.

Holidays are for relaxing?

Brian, Josh, Aunt B, Mom-Nancy and Jess try for a ringer

Wow, Memorial Weekend was a busy one in the Troutehole household. Saturday we spent pretty much the entire day celebrating Jessie's 15th. We went clothes/jewelry shopping and took her to get her ears pierced (2nd time around). She was really excited about that. Then dinner out at the place of her choosing, a wonderful pizza/flatbread place next to the Deschutes River.

After taking a breath we spent a chunk of Sunday with B's mom and aunt; they came up to see us and celebrate Jess's big day. We had planned for a nice picnic but the weather was...iffy. So instead of packing an entire meal to a park that might get rained out we split the difference: we spent a couple of hours at a local park, playing horseshoes and volleyball - both very badly. Well, me very badly on both, everybody pretty bad on volleyball. Horseshoes was  a mixed bag, depending on experience and dumb luck.
Then we headed back to the house to barbecue some burgers and chow down, in the safe confines of the house (which we didn't need because it didn't rain after all).
THEN, I stayed home and dug into a sewing project while Brian headed to Bend to take the kids to the Decemberist's concert. It was their very first music concert of anything resembling current, popular music. B was very excited to expose them to that (remembering how much he, and me, loved going to concerts as teens), and they were excited to go. Reportedly, it was a huge success, lots of fun but cold.
Monday we drove to Crooked River Ranch for B's scout troop's flag ceremony, which took a chunk of the morning. Needless to say, the afternoon was devoted to recovery.

Bonnie Files: The Last Chapter

Bonnie 1994-2011.

We had just finished another round of testing, new medications, phone conversations with the vet. We had the tough conversations, the ones where we discussed how far to go, how deep to take the measures to prolong Bonnie's life.

She was having another crisis, another bad day when we wondered if this was it. But it had happened before and she had rallied so we called the vet in the morning and went to work.

And that's when she died, stretched out on a blanket in the dog run, on a sunny day with a slight breeze, all alone.

And that is what bothered us the most. Not that her last year was hit and miss as far as her health, not that we didn't do everything we could to make her happy and feeling good. But that we weren't there for her in her last moments. Not that putting her down was a thing we wanted to do but at least she wouldn't have been alone and we could have comforted her and she us.


But hindsight is never very useful and we had to move on. Brian placed her on a clean bed and put that inside a Methow apple box -- so fitting, we thought. He took her to the vet and she was cremated; her ashes came back in a tiny polished wooden box that will be buried with Grandma and Grandpa Hole in Methow Valley.

It must be age, or maturity, or numbness but death doesn't hit me the way it used to. It seems like part of the plan, not a happy event but something that has to happen for all the rest to see fruition. Even the bodies of the dead don't unnerve me like they used to when I was younger.

Looking at Bonnie nestled in her apple box was not sad but it was not dispassionate either. It just was. She looked exactly like Bonnie, but she didn't. It was like looking at  Bonnie suit, whose owner had just unzipped the cover and stepped away.

To me that's the most comforting thing about death, seeing the body -- it's so obvious that your loved one is no longer there. You know they have left and they are at peace.

The Bonnie Files

We've hit that phase. Bonnie is slowly moving downhill. It was inevitable of course. She's pushing 16 and has had health problems for most of her life. It's snowballed this year, with vet visits, tests and scans and bottles of pills.
She perseveres, however. Bonnie motors around our house and yard like the Energizer Bunny most days. So far she's refusing to be overwhelmed by all her obstacles.
Gotta admire that kind of stubbornness.

Shall we dance?

                                                                        

Jessie, Prom #1

Big deal for our teens this April. Their school's prom (they call it "formal" instead) was notable. Josh went for the second time (and this time danced instead of napping) and Jess went for the first time -- she had a date, but attended with a group. The dance coincided with one of the days Bonnie had a medical crisis but we made it work. Brian loaned Josh a tie, I altered Jessie's dress and did her hair. And they sailed out the door, looking so grownup. 

Josh, Prom #2

Spring into the possibilities

Jessie at knitting group

Spring break was also Jessie's big trip to Washington, D.C. Five whirlwind days and she said she had a blast. We dropped her off to fly out of Portland after our Lacey/Seattle trip.

Then we spent two days in Portland and showed Josh some colleges. They weren't necessarily ones he was interested in, just a variety of types. He'd never spent time on a college campus before and we figured, as a sophomore he should start thinking about the possibilities. He seemed to really enjoy it and it was fun to have time together, just the three of us. 

Brian and Josh, art building at Reed College

We're off to the Emerald City

View from Space Needle

Spring break saw us making a weekend trip to to Lacey, to visit with B's family. We went to see niece Shiori in a play (or in the crew of a play) and hung out with cousin Tara, Leah and her boyfriend Michael. It was great. Then we took Jess, Josh and Mom-Nancy to Seattle, to do the tourist things with the kids. 

Nancy and Brian waiting for "Star Wars" exhibit- note light saber

We did a very long day at Seattle Center, trying to cram in as much as possible. As it turned out, it was opening day of a "Star Wars" exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. 

It seemed to be fate for our oh-so-nerdy family.

Also a totally cool butterfly exhibit at science center.

 We, of course, also went to the Science Fiction museum but it was being remodeled. There was one open exhibit, dedicated to "Battlestar Galactica"-- which was also totally cool, 'cause, frak...we loved that show. 

Jessie making music at Experience Music Project

We got there in the morning and were still there late. We roamed the neighboring Capitol Hill district, looking for a place to have dinner at 8 p.m. Finally we stumbled into a just-opened Asian tapas-style place and they fed us an amazing dinner. Great end to a very full day. 

Brian, Jess, Josh, and Leslie at Seattle Center

Can't be good news all the time

Okay, I'm aware that family blogs are meant to be glorified Christmas newsletters, full of good news and happy, smiling people. 

Call me a rebel, I'm going to break the rules.

We got the news that Sarah's dad, Greg, had died just two weeks ago. It was a sudden heart attack and we were shocked, but not surprised. His health had been poor for a while and he refused to see a doctor. 

Greg Luth, 1958-2011

He had no wife or other children, so Sarah was it. Greg's only close relatives are a brother who lived to far away to help and a sister who was having health problems and couldn't make arrangements. So Sarah and I did it together, with generous help from Greg's friends in Seaside. 

It turned out to be a wonderful event, full of old friends who truly loved Greg and all his favorite things: the ocean, the river, a robin's egg blue day with mist on the mountains and a gentle breeze. 

Greg was a simple man, with simple joys and simple gestures. As a child Greg once had a school assignment to write his life goals.  He wrote:

1. I want a dog2. I want to marry a pretty girl. 3. I want to have a baby.4. I want to live in Seaside in a big house on the cliff.5. I want to go to Hawaii.

He often said he had done everything he wanted to do in life. 

The memorial on Little Beach in Gearhart. From left: Sarah, her Aunt Toni and cousin Kara. 

Sarah is heartbroken, angry and feeling lost but she seems a bit better everyday. For me, it has been harder than I thought. It was so long ago that we were married sometimes it seemed like it happened in a different lifetime. But we were married and we had a child and shared a life. And now his is gone and he will never see his daughter walk down the aisle or play with his grandkids. 

And that is a real shame. Greg was a good man, with a big heart and a silly smile. 

And he will be missed. 

I can't even count the number of photos of Greg (far left) holding a fish. Here he is with  his sister Toni and brother Bud.

"Beyond the low marsh-meadows and the beach,Seen through the hoary trunks of windy pines,The long blue level of the ocean shines.The distant surf, with hoarse, complaining speechOut from its sandy barrier seems to reach;And while the sun behind the woods declines,The moaning sea with sighing boughs combines,And waves and pines make answer, each to each.O melancholy soul, whom far and near,In life, faith, hope, the same sad undertonePursues from thought to thought! thou needs must hearAn old refrain, too much, too long thine own:'Tis thy mortality infects thine ear;The mournful strain was in thyself alone."

Keeping it on the downlow

So, yes, 50th birthdays are kind of a big deal but on the other hand -- do they have to be?
Since I'd already had an absurdly big shindig on my 40th (courtesy my main gal, Mary) I knew wasn't yearning for that but it seemed like I should do something significant.
So we ended up taking a short trip to a place we'd normally not go, for the Special Factor.
Vegas.
It was fun in the long run, just Brian and I for three days, cruising the Strip, gawking at the sights and trying to relax.
We toured a neon sign 'boneyard' kept by preservationists and history buffs (highly recommended), saw an over-the-top (what ISN'T over the top in Vegas?) version of "Phantom of the Opera, watched gamblers, street performers and drunks do their thing, and generally got all Vegas-y. Except we didn't gamble, go to a strip club or get wasted.
But other than that, we did Vegas.

Brian at Neon Museum's boneyard

I came, I saw, I conquered