Christmas Newsletter

To our friends and family,

Well, it’s Christmas Eve and I’m finally sitting down to write our Christmas newsletter. I can’t believe another year has come and gone, I definitely don’t feel that much older. It’s been a good year in the Carlsen household and the girls have continued to amaze us with how cute they can be.

As for family trips, we ventured to the Smoky Mountains over Memorial Day. We saw some beautiful waterfalls and wildlife, and of course mountains, which are rare in our part of the country. In June, I took off for California with the girls for my sister’s high school graduation. Grandma got a lot of time with the girls as I went off and played. In July we went to Boston and took two days traveling there and back. On the way, we stopped off at Niagara Falls and took a tour on the Maid of the Mist right under the falls where we got really wet. In Boston, we experienced the ER with Elizabeth’s broken arm but also got to venture downtown and walk the Freedom Trail. We were in Little Italy a few days after Italy won the World Cup and we felt the excitement. On the way back from Boston, we stopped in Palmyra and saw the pageant. In November, we took a trip out to Denver to visit Eric’s sister, Lisa, and his other sister Lynne flew out to meet (and spoil) the girls. We also visited some friends in Denver and hopefully sometime in the future we’ll live closer so we can visit them and family more than we do now.

As for the girls, Rachel has hit all the milestones that come in the first year of life—teething, sitting, crawling, walking, feeding herself, and throwing tantrums. She is a very adventurous baby, or toddler I guess now, as she loves to be tossed in the air and climb all the chairs. I think she’s starting to get attached to Eric because she gets very excited when he comes home and it sounds like she says dada.

Elizabeth loves being an older sister. Not only is she a good sister most of the time to Rachel, but she’s also a great mother to all her baby dolls. She has definitely picked up more vocabulary this year and it’s fun to actually be able to talk to her now because she has a lot to say. Elizabeth loves her movies so we go to the library and pick some movies and books out for her to enjoy during the week. Her favorite used to be the Wiggles and we even saw them in concert in November but now she’s way into Dora.

I’ve kept busy during the year with the girls. I realize now how easy I had it with just one. Two isn’t so bad until they both need something at the same time, but they’re cute little girls and I love them. I’ve read lots of books this year and tried to keep in shape either running or riding a bike. I finally ran a 5K and won 3rd place for my division. I’m still the Cub Scout leader at church with some very energetic 8 and 9 year old boys. They’re fun and we had a blast at cub camp in June. I worked on my garden again this spring and summer but still have a lot to learn. I’ve also worked on cross-stitch and scrap-booking projects this year, trying to make myself look craftier than I really am.

Eric had another good year at work at Spectral Systems. He wrote and presented a paper in Boston which is the reason we went there this summer. Eric’s the Scoutmaster for the troop at church and has gotten into camping and backpacking gear in a major way. Too bad we don’t have many mountains out this direction but when he finds them, he’ll be the best outfitted ultra-light backpacker. He did make a couple of solo trips to a few local backpacking spots. He also went to scout camp a few days with the boys and had fun. Eric’s also kept up with bicycling and even found a way to bike to and from work. The direct route is a short ride but he had to be a little creative to find a route that bypasses the dangerous traffic and roads. He did a 50-mile bike ride this summer and hopes to do more this next year.

We hope this Christmas season finds you all well. May this New Year be even better than the one before.

Merry Christmas,
Eric, Alicia, Elizabeth, and Rachel Carlsen

It's a Miracle, She Can Walk!

Rachel has finally started walking. For comparison my wife wanted me to show a video of Elizabeth walking first:



Now here's Rachel's foray into bipedalism.

Elizabeth vs. the Backpack

We went for a hike the other day and I (Eric) carried Rachel in our new kid carrier backpack. Elizabeth decided she wanted to try it on too.

November Update

Well, I promised an earlier post but sorry, I've been busy. We indulged Elizabeth a few weeks ago by going to a Wiggles concert. If you haven't heard of the Wiggles, they're a musical group of four guys from Australia--Greg, Anthony, Jeff, and Murray--Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword, and Wags the dog. They're actually the highest grossing entertainment group from Australia. To be honest, I was kind of excited to go to the concert since they're pretty good for a kids singing and being silly group, a million times less annoying than Barney. I was really disappointed when they announced that Greg, the lead singer, was home sick in Australia and they replaced him with someone else for the tour. The nerve of them! Elizabeth still liked it even though we had to change seats a lot to keep her happy.

The Wiggles coming on stage in their Big Red Car. The fill-in Wiggle is Sam, the yellow shirt wearer.

I was in Denver from the 10-19th of this month. Eric was supposed to have some training out there and I was just going to tag along but his course was canceled and my ticket was nonrefundable, so I went out and Eric joined me for a few days. It was a nice stay with Eric's sister, Lisa, who lives in Parker, CO. His other sister, Lynne, also flew out from Salt Lake for a couple of days to see the kids. Forget about Eric and me, the aunts and cousins just wanted to play with the kids which was fine with me.
















Elizabeth and Rachel with cousins Carissa and Michael Condie.

We looked at some model homes and went to the aquarium downtown. I don't know why, but Rachel got scared whenever I put her up to the fish tanks on her own. I enjoyed the aquarium, and looking at beautiful houses.
















Feeding the stingrays at the Aquarium. Be careful that you're not like the Crocodile Hunter and get stung through the heart!

We also spent some time separately with two couples that we knew from BYU who are now dentists and starting to roll in the big bucks :) Hanging out with them brought back memories of the days before kids and the fun that we had in school, apart from studying. Ah, BYU. Brent and I got into some mean Boggle games but of course he killed me. I give up on Weboggle and trying to beat him, it's too addictive and I just can't win.

I must say we fell in love with Denver with its bright sun and western feeling. Maybe someday we'll move out there if Eric can find a job and we can afford a home since cost of living is a little higher, okay more than a little, than here in Dayton.

I won't even start about the plane rides to and from Dayton, they were horrible and I'm never flying Northwest again! I survived though and we were home in time to celebrate Rachel's birthday on Monday. I can't believe she's already a year old! She took her first steps out at Aunt Lisa's house but hasn't ventured out on her own with full-fledged walking. She loved the cake and presents although Elizabeth did get a little jealous about the presents and had to wrap one of her own. I think she'll really like her birthday and Christmas this year so aunts and uncles that read this (and grandma and grandma) bring on the presents :)





















Birthday girl Rachel

Our turkey day was low key but very nice. My second year making a turkey was a success, at least I think it was. We invited over our friends the Andersons and their girls to entertain ours. We're sad they have left Dayton for Oklahoma then Idaho and then across the world to Japan. Got to love the Air Force! Eric and Ed played video games after dinner, and of course watched some football while us girls relaxed (I cooked and the men cleaned up).
















Krista (in the carseat), Kimberley, MaryAnn, Ed, and Keira Anderson. We'll miss you guys!

The next day I slept in in honor of Black Friday and Eric was the one who actually braved the stores at 7am for a present for me. What a loving husband!

The weather here has been so nice and beautiful that yesterday we went on a little walk out at Glen Helen. My new toy is a Kelty baby backpack carrier and Eric actually used it to carry Rachel on our walk. I should have gotten one when Elizabeth was born so we could have gone on more hikes but I've remedied that situation and if Elizabeth's little legs will carry her out in nature like they do around our neighborhood, we'll go hiking this spring/summer.

"I go potty!"

No, I am not struggling with adult onset incontinence (I'm not THAT old). That was what Elizabeth said in nursery today, hence the quotation marks. We've been trying to potty train her this week and it has been a very long week (ask my wife about it). But today in nursery I guess she said all of the sudden that she had to go potty. Then she shot out the door and ran down the hall to the bathroom and went number 1 and 2 (a nursery leader followed her). For the rest of today she has gone potty of her own free will without us forcing her or asking. Hopefully it lasts.

Halloween Preview

Last Friday we had our ward trunk or treat and Elizabeth had the best time going from car to car saying "Trick or Treat." Now she always asks to get something out of the pumpkin where her candy is kept. She can't wait to go Trick-or-treating for real next Tuesday and I thought I'd send out pictures of Elizabeth and Rachel in their costumes early so you can see how cute they're going to be. I'm dressed as the "jock" I used to be in high school.





























I also thought I'd add a picture of Rachel playing the piano. I was trying to play yesterday and she started pounding on the piano so I picked her up and sat her in my lap. I tried to continue playing but she kept on pulling my hands off, basically telling me she wanted to play on her own, without mommy playing. I think we have another independent Elizabeth on our hands. I wonder where they get it from--it couldn't be their mother.

Houdini on a trike

A few days ago we went to the mall to get some dinner at the foodcourt. On the way out we stopped a Dick's Sporting Goods, which is a very large store. Well, I took my eye off Elizabeth for a moment and she was off. She hadn't had a nap that day, so she was very hyper. Alicia and I scoured the store, splitting up and looking all over for her. This was officially our first experience of losing our child. Finally we found her at the front of the store riding a tricycle down the aisle. As we searched for where she got the trike we realized that it was all the way on the other side of the store. That girl is fast!

Eric, come downstairs!

Are those the words that Alicia shouts at me when it's time for dinner? Nope, that's what Elizabeth was saying to me this afternoon. Yesterday it was, "Alicia, where are you?" It is so cute to watch a two year old who can barely talk refer to her mommy and daddy by their first names.

We don't encourage this, of course, she just notices when we talk to each other and use our first names. I guess this is why parents always refer to each other as "Mother" and "Father." But I'm sorry, I just can't bring myself to do that. Maybe I'm desperately trying to hold on to a piece of my youth, but I can just see myself instantly gaining 50 years to my age as I say, "Mother, could you pass me my reading glasses?" If the consequence is my daughter using our first names rather than saying mommy and daddy then so be it. Get off my back, I could be out there buying sports cars to deal with my temporal disadvantagement condition. Hey, now that I think of it...

Picnic With the Ponies

Today we were able to go on a picnic with the ponies. We didn't really eat with the ponies but Elizabeth got to ride one and we did have a picnic afterwards. One of the moms in my MOMS club group owns two ponies and she was kind enough to share them with us. Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

This is a picture of Elizabeth riding Lily the pony. Doesn't Elizabeth look like a professional equestrian? She also got to brush the pony's hair and feed her pony cookies and carrots.



Rachel also liked being around the ponies. She loves all animals really. When she gets near one, she starts squealing and talking her little baby talk. Maybe animals and babies share the same language.



I thought I'd put in a picture of our beautiful fall foliage. The leaves turned their different shades of yellow, orange, and red literally overnight. That's another thing we like about Ohio--the true four seasons. You don't quite get that in California; it's either rainy and cooler for two maybe three months during El Nino or summer. The weather here's been really weird lately. Yesterday was 80 and then we got a huge thunderstorm and today it was 55. This weekend it's supposed to get back up into the 70s; gotta love the midwest!

Sleep Disturbances

A couple of weeks ago Elizabeth woke up in the middle of the night screaming her head off and sweating buckets. Talk about a scary experience. I ran into her room to see what was wrong but after comforting her for a little bit she went back to sleep. It was an odd experience. I think she had a fever that night so I thought it was just part of being sick. The problem is she's been doing it every night since then.

It's always the same, it happens between 11:00 p.m. and midnight. She screams loudly and starts crying. Her pillow is always wet and she's soaked with sweat. To be honest, it's pretty routine now and I don't really get worked up anymore. "Alicia, our daughter is screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night, do you think she'll stop if we ignore her?" Anyway, one of us usually goes in and tells her to go back to sleep and gives her the blanket. It's getting very frustrating.

Finally last night I couldn't take it anymore. I was wondering what was going on. Is it a behavioral problem? Does she like the attention she's getting? Should we ignore her? Is there something to be done? After only a couple of minutes searching the Internet (how cool is that, by the way?) I found out about Night Terrors. Sounds spooky, doesn't it?

It seems like she has all of the symptoms. It was very reassuring to know that it's fairly common and that it didn't require discipline. It's a fascinating problem (except in the middle of the night when you're tired..."I'll give you something to be afraid of little kid"...joking, only joking). Turns out that the child is usually still asleep, even when crying and even when her eyes are open. It happens in the deep sleep stages of the night, usually earlier in the night. A few reassuring words and a favorite comfort item usually help, and the child doesn't remember it afterwords. Although I've read that they possibly remember the feeling of fear afterwords and that sometimes it's accompanied by hallucinations of snakes and spiders (yuk!). It can come in spurts of weeks at a time but it tends to go away for a while too, thank goodness. It's medically similar to sleep walking.

Which leads me to one of my sleep problems (kind of the opposite of sleep walking, actually): sleep paralysis. This is one freaky experience. Usually it happens to me in the morning, when I'm about to wake up. What happens is that I wake up, but I can't move anything at all. My mind is fully conscious, it's not a dream or anything like it, but I can't move a thing. When I really panic I try to scream at the top of my lungs. One time Alicia was already awake and I asked her afterwords if she heard anything and she said I let out a little groan. I can't move my arms, fingers, or legs. I can't even open my eyes! It is scary! But, usually within about 30 seconds I wake up. Again, it was good to find out that I'm not such a freak after all (save your comments), it's a pretty common occurrence. In fact, most people will experience it at least once in life. I guess every night the body goes in a state of paralysis when you dream, so that you don't act out your dreams (move your legs when you are dreaming of running, for instance). I guess sometimes my body just takes a while to go out of paralysis.

Sweet dreams!

John Bryan Backpacking Trip

With all this acquiring of new camping gear I had to try it out sometime. So I decided to take a short trip to a local state park, John Bryan. This park is about 20 minutes from our house, which is really nice. I envy my brother and father in law in California because they get to go to the mountains but the nice thing about living out here is that it's not a megatropolis and we can drive 10 minutes and literally be in the "countryside."

Anyway, I parked at the top of the river at an adjacent nature reserve, Clifton Gorge. From there I hiked about 3-4 miles down to the John Bryan campsite. Alicia and the kids came down a few minutes after I got camp set up and hung out for a little while. We also ran into some friends from the ward and they invited us over for smores. Elizabeth loved playing with their girls and going down the huge slide and playing in the teepees.

I don't have a scale, so I can't say how much my pack weighed, but it was light. I loved it. I made it to the site in about an hour, and the same back on the following morning. I thought I was going a lot faster than that, but I'm not sure about the distance.

Below you'll see my campsite. I have a Granite Gear White Lightnin' tarp. I like it, but I've noticed some of the thread coming loose on the ridgeline. I'll try sealing it and see if that helps. It's not catenary cut, and it's a bit heavy for a tarp, but I got it relatively cheap and it is durable and easy to use for a newbie like me.

 

There was a Boy Scout Troop camped right by me and this morning the Scoutmaster came over and asked if he could bring the boys over to show them my "minimalist" campsite. It was pretty cool. I also talked with another guy that was impressed with the tent, he said, "that's got to be the smallest, lightest tent here."

For bugs I have a 4 ounce mosquito net that I hung up inside the tarp. I never had any problems with bugs, but it got into the 50's over the course of the night. I am using my poncho as the ground cloth.

My guilty pleasure is a long InsulMat Max Thermo sleeping pad. It's heavier than a foam pad, but lighter than most self inflating pads. It packs up smaller than most self inflating pads too, and it is so much more comfortable that there is no comparison. It is 2.5 inches thick, with insulation for cooler weather. I love it.

Finally, I recently got a cheap sleeping bag, the Slumberjack Super Guide Long. It is rated to 30 degrees, weighs 2 pounds 6 ounces, and packs down pretty small. It uses Thermolite Extreme insulation, which is supposed to be the best as far as synthetics go (warmth to weight ratio). But I've read some bad reviews saying it doesn't get down to the supposed rating. We'll see. One tactic most ultralight hikers use is to wear all of their clothing to bed, since they already have it. That way they can get a lighter bag. It worked well for me last night, but it wasn't that cold last night either.

 

The above picture shows me making breakfast. I never knew what to do for food, but this week I figured it out. Freezerbag Cooking. This is great stuff, very simple. Basically, you gather some dry components in a freezer bag before leaving. Most of the recipes use a base of rice, couscous, or ramen. Then you just boil water in the field and pour the water in the freezer bag. Finally, you insulate the bag with a fleece cap or something else and let it sit for 10-20 minutes. Then you eat with a long handled spoon. Cleanup is merely rolling up the used bag and putting it with your trash. Couldn't be simpler. Last night I had instant rice and canned chicken, with some basil and chicken boullioun. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.

 
 

Here are some of the flowers I saw. I don't know what they were, but they were pretty.



A beaver (I think) that I scared into the water as I came clodhopping by.



Private property right off the trail and state park in the middle of nowhere. Wonder how he managed to keep that with the recent eminent domain battles.



Me with my pack on. The top of my head got cut off, but that's better anyway...you don't have to be shocked by the baldness. The pack is a GoLite Jam Large in Fire Red. Most people hate the color, I think it's kind of cool. It only holds up to 30 pounds, and holds about 3000 cubic inches. It is frameless, but it has a pad on the back. It doesn't have a lid (to save weight), but it does have a belt, a zipper pocket, and a sternum strap in the back. It's made of Cordura with gridstop Dyneema (some fiber that's stronger than steel). Obviously, it only works with light loads, but it weighs just 22 ounces! Think of it, just over a pound. My other pack weighs almost six pounds. By using this pack alone I've knocked almost 5 pounds off my base weight. Also, since it is so minimalist you can get it for really cheap. Small versions are selling for $50. There's no way you'd get a traditional pack for that much.

It worked well for me, as you can see it's not all the way full. I got a little sore around my left shoulder when I started again this morning but it faded quickly and was only a minor irritation. The shoulder straps don't have much padding, which is why I suspect I had the minor pain, but it worked fine. I think I can put my sleeping socks there if I really need some more padding. It is so freeing to be carrying a pack that weighs less than my daughter...my 10 month old daughter!



Shrooms anyone?



Lot's of cool rock walls at John Bryan. They have designated rock climbing areas (this is not one of them).



Neat spiderweb.



Here's the gorge.

My 5K race

Well, I finally did it, I signed up and ran a 5K, the Beavercreek Popcorn Festival 5K to be exact. I can't believe it's been so long since I've run one since it's my favorite race and training is easy. I saw, I ran, I conquered or whatever. Here are the official stats. Out of 304 runners, I came in 37th, 5th overall female, 3rd female in my age group (20-29) but I got a silver medal because first place female in my age group got an overall award. My time was 23:39, not as great as my college 5Ks but give me a break, I've had two kids.

Here are some pictures, I purposely omitted the ones Eric took of me actually running.

My cheering and training squad pumping me up at the starting line. It was a beautiful day for running, sunny and in the mid 60s.









My beautiful medal, Elizabeth is so proud of mommy for winning something.

An oldie but a goodie

Here is a five month old video of Elizabeth. Some of her cuteness definitely comes through in this one.

The Dangers of Bicycle Commuting

I've been commuting to work about 2-3 times a week (although some weeks not as much). The other day I had my first experience with rude drivers. In the morning I take some normally high traffic streets, mostly because the traffic isn't too bad early in the morning. At one point I make a left turn onto a street that becomes an overpass and has on and off ramps onto a major freeway. When I make that left turn there are three lanes going in my direction. The rightmost lane is a right turn only lane that goes to the freeway, the two other lanes go on the overpass. I was the first "vehicle" waiting at the red light. When the arrow turns green I try to spin up pretty fast so that I don't impede the traffic behind me too much. Anyway, I turned into the right side of the middle lane (exactly where I should have been). I was going along briefly when a white sports car passed me on the right. Right as he was beside me he swerved into my lane and yelled something out his rolled down window. I didn't quite make out what he said, but I think there are two possibilities. Possibility one:

"I think you are the coolest person ever. If I had half your physique, a quarter of your brains, and a tiny smidgeon of your charisma I would be the most contented person alive. Just so that you know, I am in no way, shape, or form making fun of you through sarcasm. If there is even a hint of sarcasm in this statement then may God strike me dead with a bolt of lightning, after giving me the most painful disease known to man for six months, and put a poxy on my house. I idolize you. I love your flourescent orange shirt and everything about you. If you would just grace me by acknowledging my presence then I could die with a feeling of having fulfilled my mission in life."

The other option is:

"@#$#@#$#@ YOU!!!!"

Personally I'm leaning towards the first one. At any rate, it's a real jerk who does that. First of all, it shows complete lack of understanding for the law. Bicycles have a legal right to the road and I was following all the rules of safe bicycling. Secondly, it's pretty dangerous. He nearly hit me, but also yelling something like that unexpectedly would make a person of lesser nervers swerve and maybe crash. Of course, it could just be that my reflexes are so slow that I didn't react until I realized that it wouldn't be wise to swerve. But I don't hold any hostility towards the guy, resentment only hurts me. That is, because you should never fire a gun when you are not in control of your emotions.

P.S. In case that last comment raises some red flags with the FBI's automatic terrorist threat text parser I thought I should let it be known that it was entirely a joke. There is absolutely no reason to use a gun when a spike strip will get the job done.

Alcohol Stove

In working with the Boy Scouts I've become more interested in camping and backpacking gear. The only problem is that we have no mountains out here and our boys aren't too interested in backpacking. Minor detail. At any rate, in order to reduce pack weight there are many tactics people take. One I'd like to mention is using homemade alcohol stoves.

These stoves run on either ethanol, methanol, or a combination. They are widely available in most stores for various other purposes (fuel line de-icer, paint remover, etc.). Most of the stoves are made of common household items, such as soda cans. So far I've made a few of these stoves. First of all, I made this simple stove using fiberglass insulation instead of the perlite. That stove didn't work too well, it was difficult to light. Then I tried the stove that is probably the most popular, the Pepsi-G stove (not using the Pepsi or alcohol cans, of course :-). I found that one defeated the purpose of being cheap, with all the supporting tools I had to buy. I might as well have bought a real backpacking stove. Then I found a pretty cool little item, the SuperCat stove (pdf instructions here). This stove is beautifully simple. You just drill some holes in a small 3 ounce can of potted meat or cat food. You pour the alcohol inside, light it, and wait a few seconds. Then put the pot right on top of the stove, it doubles as it's own pot stand. Here are some picutures:




I cooked up enough angel hair pasta for myself for a meal today using that stove and about 1 ounce of fuel. There are, of course, downsides to these stoves. First of all, usually they can't simmer. Secondly, they don't perform that well in cold weather. Third, they usually take longer to boil than canister stoves (althought the one I made above boils water pretty quickly). Lastly, the weight savings isn't significant for any trip over a few days (or there isn't one at all). This is because alcohol isn't as efficient a fuel as some of the commerical alternatives (isobutane, for instance...I think). But I like it because it's cheap (the can of potted meat was 29 cents), you can easily gauge how much fuel to bring, and the fuel container isn't as big and bulky. Someday I'll probably buy a real stove, but for now, this will do. I should mention that it mostly is great for boiling water. If you have dehydrated food that pretty much all you need to do, mix your food with hot water.

Chasing Bubbles

We needed to have some sort of video of Elizabeth while she was in her cast. It seems like she gets camera shy and stops doing the cutest things she does when we start recording, but you'll enjoy this anyway (posted by Eric).

P.S. I just noticed something about embedded YouTube videos. If you click on the big arrow in the middle of the video it will play in the current web page. If you click anywhere else in the video it will open up a new window. So CLICK ON THE ARROW AND STAY AT MY PAGE or I shall be forced to make my posts even more boring as time progresses.

The cutest little girls in the world

I just wanted to update everyone who diligently looks at our blog about the cute things our little girls do. Let's start with Elizabeth. Last week I took Rachel in for her nine-month checkup where she was in the 90th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight. You thought I was going to talk about Elizabeth, right? Well I am. The nurse gave us bubbles to play with while we waited for the doctor so I blew them and Elizabeth chased them around the room and squealed very loud. When it came time for the nurse to give Rachel her vaccination shots, she off course didn't like them and cried very loudly for awhile. Elizabeth got so upset that Rachel was crying and hurting that she almost started to cry herself. Now Elizabeth says, sometimes out of the blue, "Doctors, Rachel got shot; all better now." It's just the cutest thing isn't it? I guess our doctors visit was so traumatic for her she keeps reminding us of it. Elizabeth is still really attached to her blanket and whenever she's hurt or thinks she's hurt, she asks for it. She'll also say, "I love my blankie" with big emphasis on love. Elizabeth also loves The Wiggles and she'll dance and "play her guitar" like Murray. She's growing up so fast and soaking up everything including phrases from us like "Goodness" or "Oh, man." We better watch what we say around her :)

Elizabeth can also open all the doors in the house and she likes to go out the front door and come in the back door. I'm still nervous that she'll go out the front door and run down the street like she used to. I still say she's going to be a track star because she can take off and run down the street and I have to sprint to catch up to her. I guess this won't be a problem in winter. At least I know she has strong legs, I'll give you another example. Two weeks ago before dinner on a Sunday evening, Elizabeth decided she wanted to go to church since she had so much fun in nursery. She put her doll in the doll stroller and took Eric out for a walk to go to church. We didn't think she would actually go all the way to church, just around the block until she got tired, but Eric walked with her all the way to church which is about a mile. I went and picked them up but Elizabeth didn't seem all that tired as she was playing on the grass and having fun when I got there but she slept very well that night.

As for Rachel, she's found the enjoyment of swings and slides. Today I took the girls outside and played on the swingset and the two of them had a ball. Rachel is also our little doggy around the table as she'll pick up all our scraps, hopefully everything she puts in her mouth is edible. She's still crawling around like mad and I hope she learns to walk soon because her knees are so dirty by the end of the day--either I don't clean enough or she's into places she shouldn't be!

Here's Elizabeth pushing Rachel on the swing at home and Elizabeth "driving" at the playground.

Epiphany

I just had to write a quick entry about an epiphany I just had--I've become domesticated! Let me set the scene where this realization came about. I have a load of laundry in the washer and dryer, I have basil drying in my dehydrator, I have just finished washing dishes, I'm making baby food in my food processor with carrots from my garden, and while I'm doing all this I'm thinking about buying a canning set to start canning my own fruit. All this from someone not too long ago who was wrapped up in numbers and taxes and beating all the boys at soccer! And the really bad thing is I'm enjoying it! Call the psychologist right away!!

Hope this makes those who have known me the longest laugh and say, "I told you so."

Books & More

I have another round of books to talk about so here we go.

Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie

Eric and I read this book together as we drove to Boston. We liked the book until the ending when we felt it fell flat. It's set in ancient Egypt with all the superstition and multiple Gods figuring in the storyline. It was interesting to read the family dynamics that played a large part in the book as the old widower father takes a young bride, the sons and their wives get jealous, and a newly widowed daughter tries to fit back into the family picture. I would recommend other Agatha Christie ones if you like mystery and intrigue.

The Vine of Desire by Chitra Divakaruni

This book is the sequel to one I reviewed earlier, Sister of My Heart. The story wasn't as good as the first, most sequels aren't in my experience, but I still had to read it in a couple days and find out how things end up. The Vine of Desire shows more how the two "sisters" Sudha and Anju adjust to life together in America with Sudha's daughter and Anju's husband who has a longstanding crush on Sudha. No matter what happens between them, Sudha and Anju are sisters at heart and love each other.

Reflections of a Scientist by Henry Eyring

A friend of mine loaned this book to me saying that it was a short, good read providing insight into Henry B. Eyring's father's beliefs. It is possible for a scientist to believe in God as Eyring shows: "Exact scientists are deeply impressed by the precision with which natural laws apply. Any explanation that ignores a Planner leaves this precision unexplained and is therefore unacceptable." These exact scientists are nuclear physicists and chemists like himself. Eyring's wit is great and I love how he expresses over and over again how he searches for truth as shown in the last paragraph of the book.
"So, I am certain that the gospel, as taught in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is true. It's a better explanation of what I observe in science than any other I know about. There are still lots of things I don't know, but that doesn't bother me. I'm a happy muddler. The gospel simply asks me to find out what's true as best I can and in the meantime to live a good life. That strikes me as the best formula for living there could be."

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

This was another book I just could not put down. The authors brought together their experiences as nannies in New York City and weaved them into the character, Nan, and her young charge, Grayer, son of Mr. and Mrs. X. I know it's a fictional book but I still couldn't believe how little one human being can care for another. Mrs. X treated Nan like a servant at her beck and call instead of someone raising her most important asset, her son. They are ultra-rich and spend thousands of dollars on kitchen appliances that are never used, name brand clothing worn maybe once, but can't find a minute of their day to spend with their son and pay the nanny far less than one pair of Prada shoes. And Mr. X is not in the family picture at all, he just works 80 hours a week and has an affair with a woman in the Chicago office. Needless to say, I have no intention on being a nanny in New York and am glad I can offer my children what they need more than the world's best private school--a mom and dad who love them and are there 24/7 (unless we decide to go on a date).

The little Munchkins

Elizabeth and Rachel keep on growing. Elizabeth got her cast off a week and a half ago and it's so nice not having to bathe her with a bag on her arm. She doesn't miss the cast one bit and neither do I. Elizabeth still loves baby dolls and had one more added to her collection from Aunt Lisa. She loves nursing them and putting them to bed and doing all the things I do with her and Rachel. At bedtime, the four books we have to read without variation are The Spooky Old Tree, C is for Clown, In a People House, and The Ear Book. We went camping on Friday night and Elizabeth kept on saying, camping! and scouts! with an excited voice. We're definitely raising outdoor children because Rachel loved crawling all around the grass and Elizabeth loved the fire and being outside.

Rachel is just crawling all over the place now and standing up on all the furniture. She can even climb the stairs, under my supervision of course. Today she crawled up on the dishwasher door and didn't care that it was all wet. Rachel has started pulling all the books off the bookcase, all the toys from the toy bin, and the plugs from the wall when I vacuum or have anything else plugged in. She also loves shoes and will chew on Elizabeth's sandals like a dog. She definitely has to be where the action is and if I put her down after dinner and we're still at the table, she'll crawl around under our feet.

The bigger Munchkins

Eric and I have tried to keep busy ourselves. Besides taking care of the little ones, I've been busy reading as you can tell from above, cross-stitching (I'm almost done with my Christmas present mom), and trying to keep my garden alive. I'm just not having the luck with wildlife eating all my vegetables. I've seen deer hooves and I think they've eaten some tomatoes. The rabbits and squirrels are probably eating my lettuce and the japanese beetles are having a field day with my strawberry and bean leaves. Ah well, it's just a hobby anyway, the supermarkets still have all the food I need. Speaking of supermarkets, I've just found the joy of coupon clipping. We finally got the local paper (yes dad, we have the print version of news now, at least four days a week) with all the ads and coupons on Sunday so I am always on the lookout for great deals. I probably buy more than I would otherwise but I'm getting such good deals :)

Eric can probably give you more details on his activities but he's been really active with his scoutmaster calling lately and of course I keep him busy around the house.

Charity Bike Ride

This year I rode 50 miles in the Youngs Ice Cream Charity Bike Tour again. It is a yearly charity ride whose proceeds go towards four local charities. My work will match contributions for anyone participating in the ride.

It was a fun ride. It started around 8:00 and there were rest stops with refreshments about every 12 miles. They also had a two day option of 75 miles each way, which takes you to Ohio Wesleyan University for a party and to stay overnight. I didn't participate in that ride because the next day is on Sunday.



We're in the middle of a heat wave but luckily that day had a ton of mist and fog in the morning. I mean so much mist that I couldn't read my watch and my bike was covered in droplets. That kept things cool until around 11:00 and I finished around noon so I didn't have to endure much heat.

I am glad that I made a few modifications to my hybrid bike. I bought some trekking, or butterfly, handlebars from Bike Nashbar. These things are a lifesaver. I had become uncomfortable with the straight handlebars found on mountain or hybrid bikes because of the lack of hand positions. I have weak wrists (both have been broken) and they get very sore and tired being in the same position the whole time. These handlebars give me some variety in hand positions. I also can lean forward when I need to be a little bit more aerodynamic. It was fun installing the bars, wrapping the tape, and putting the brakes, shifters, and grips on again, I feel like a fledgling bike mechanic. A long time ago I also added some metal cage pedals and Power Grips. Now that I have a little experience I just can't imagine riding without some way of attaching my feet to the pedals, it's just so much safer and comfortable. I like the Power Grips because I can use my regular shoes and they are easy to get in and out of.



I was also happy that there was lunch and delicious ice cream at the end. The big surprise was that I won a door prize, a medium Cannondale Down Vest. Of course it doesn't fit me, but I'm trying to sell it so I can buy some camping gear (anyone interested?).

Below you'll see a few more photos of my bike. It is a Giant hybrid bike. I wish I had enough money for a road bike, or a touring bike, but I got this one before I knew I would get into bicycle as much as I have. I recently bought some panniers for the bike. This is helpful because I can ride back and forth from work now and carry everything I need with me. In effect, I've made this bike into a touring bike. Of course, it lacks a few things. The chainstays aren't long enough and my heel ends up hitting my panniers, it's made of aluminum and isn't the most durable, and I don't have a front rack and panniers for true touring, but it is sufficient for my needs now. I do like the colors of the bike: black, silver, and grey. It is very easy to find components to match. It seems, to my taste, that a lot of bikes being sold nowdays are very ugly.





Just one more thing. As I've mentioned, I really like the idea of bicycle touring. Think of it as backpacking on a bike. I've also become more excited about backpacking recently and it's great because, for the most part, I would need the same gear for both activities. The thing that I am really excited about is this movement in the backpacking world to go "ultralight." There are new items and new ways of thinking about backpacking that can dramatically reduce your pack weight. The same goes for bike touring. That being the case, I may not need a front rack and panniers. I will talk more about this in the future probably.

Eric's Adventures

I've been busy this summer, but I thought I'd post an update from summer camp and our Boston trip.

Scout camp went pretty well. I went out on Monday morning through Tuesday morning, and then again from Wednesday night to Saturday morning. When I was almost there on Monday morning I had to move to the side of a dirt road to make room for an oncoming car. Well, around Chillicothe Ohio I guess it's always wet. The side of my car fell into some quicksand. I kid you not, the side of the road was at the same level as the main road, but as soon as my van tires went over that area they sunk almost all the way to the axle! I was pretty scared (of doing serious damage, that is). We tried to dig out the mud and leaves and we tried putting some rocks behind the tires, nothing worked. Then we finally agreed to let the scouts push from behind. I didn't want to do this initially because 1) I thought it wouldn't make a difference having a few 12-14 year olds push a huge minivan, and 2) I worried that the van might slide back and hurt some of them. I was shocked when they were able to get the van out.

The rest of Scout camp was okay. We went to a camp that had an "open and flexible program." That means that the boys work on whatever badge they want whenever they want. If the group of scouts is highly motivated then it's a great program, but I would not do it again with our scouts. Some of them were on track to get no merit badges. Luckily the Young Men's President came down with me on Wednesday and whipped them into shape (he's ex army, if you know what I mean). But it was difficult for us, we had to babysit the whole time and follow them to where they were supposed to be. I think that next year I would like to go someplace with a fixed program and a bit closer (this place was 1.5 to 1.75 hours away, the local camp is about 15 minutes away). I didn't get to do much fun stuff.

Now, on to Boston. Alicia said most of it. There were some cool parts about it, but mostly I was unimpressed with Boston. I liked the history, but that's good for a few days while on vacation. I would not want to live there. I didn't like how old everything was. It was terribly inefficient. Terrible roads, buildings that were too small that weren't very functional, cramped subway, too many people, etc., not to mention the unchecked liberalism. I think we tried to do a bit too much, I didn't really enjoy much of it.

I was also worried about presenting my paper at the conference. It went well though, I made my poster pretty simple and easy to understand. I think it attracted more viewers. I will say that it reminded me about how shy I am. I'm just a reserved person, it takes a while for me to feel comfortable around people. I didn't network very much, although there were one or two notable exceptions once I met some people by presenting my paper. It's amazing how small the community is. One guy came up to see my poster and asked for a brief discussion. I noticed that his name tag said Ronald Crochiere. I immediately recognized him as someone who literally wrote the book on Multirate Digital Signal Processing. I use his book all of the time. I'm glad I got published, but I'm not sure I'll do it again. It would be fine if the company would let me do it on business time, but they don't. It's not worth all of the effort and time away from the family. I would rather ride my bike, go camping, play with my kids, watch TV, have a tooth pulled, or stare at the wall. It was a painful process. Maybe if I feel like I can do it more quickly and painlessly I would do it again, but only then.

Next week I'm doing a 50 mile charity bike ride, which should be fun. If anyone wants to donate let me know (although we plan on covering the cost ourselves, along with the fact that our company matches the donations), at least 10% of your money will make it to charities by the time I'm done with that. By the way, did you hear the news about Floyd Landis winning the Tour de France? It was an unbelievable comeback. At any rate, next week I'll post pictures of my bike and an update on the ride.

Boston Trip

If our summer wasn't already packed full of fun, we thought we'd add a little more with a trip out to Boston. It was really a work trip for Eric and a pleasure trip for me, but I hope Eric had fun too. We drove over 1,800 miles in the course of six days but split up the trip with some sight seeing.

Our first stop was Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist tour and got up close and personal with the falls. We have cool blue ponchos to remember it by.

In Boston we had the excitement of seeing the emergency room as Elizabeth decided to try out "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed" and fell off, bumping her arm instead of her head. Her humerus is broken right at the elbow and it's in a cast but should only take about four weeks to heal.


Other than the ER, we went along the freedom trail and saw things like Boston Commons, Old North Church, Paul Revere's house (pictured left), and the USS Constitution. We also went to the Children's Museum where Elizabeth played with dolls while Rachel crawled in the infants area. The cast is only a slight nuisance as you can tell below.





We walked a lot of history but got a taste for the modern too. It was interesting going through "Little Italy" days after they won the world cup. We braved the subways and didn't fare too bad although it was a little tricky with our double wide stroller.

As for the work part that brought us on the trip, Eric had submitted a paper to the IEEE SAM conference. I don't know what all those letters stand for but IEEE is the electrical engineering association. His paper was published and he got to do a poster presentation to anyone who wanted to listen. From what he told me, it went well and he got his company's name and his own out there which is always good.

On our way back from Boston, we stopped off in Palmyra. We saw the Smith farm, Sacred Grove (pictured left), Grandin printing office, and the Hill Cumorah Pageant. The pageant was really cool as it depicted different stories from the Book of Mormon. There is still plenty for us to see in Palmyra if we ever decide to go back.

By the end of our whirlwind trip, we were ready to come home. We saw lots, got through a broken arm, teething child, and a sick child but I would say it was more good than bad. I've only highlighted our trip as all that we did would fill pages; if you're interested in more, just ask.

The crazy month of June

Sorry to all who have been diligently checking our blog and seeing a dearth of entries for June. I felt like I was gone the whole month or otherwise engaged but here's what I've been up to. From June 7 to the 17 I took Rachel and Elizabeth out to California to see my family and attend Melissa's high school graduation. Poor Eric, he was left to the bachelor life for 10 days. Pizza everyday for him :) He was actually really busy with work and didn't have much time for play whereas I on the other hand did.

My play included going kayaking at the beach with my dad, going on a run with him in the hills behind Simi Valley, going to Magic Mountain with my sister Theresa and her friend, and going to the Newport Beach temple with Theresa. It was nice having grandma around who was more than willing to watch my girls for me. I think Elizabeth liked all the attention between grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles. She got to meet two of her cousins as Eric's brother, Greg, brought his family out on a Sunday afternoon. It was a full house on that Sunday because my cousin Sandra brought her family out to see us too so all the boys ran around having fun.


We also hung around the pool and the playground at the neighborhood club which was nice on those especially hot California days. The pinnacle event of course was seeing Melissa at graduation. The bagpipers piped, Melissa walked across the stage and got her diploma or at least the cover that would eventually hold her diploma, and the principal said that she had graduated. I have forgotten a lot about how teenagers are but this trip definitely brought me back into their world, or at least gave me a taste of it again since I'm "so old."


It was good to be with my whole family again but of course it was nice to come home to Ohio. I only got one day of rest before I packed the girls up and headed out to Cub Scout Day Camp. Elizabeth went to a babysitter's house while I took Rachel and 8 very energetic boys out to Camp Birch for some wild, wild, west fun (with other leaders of course). I went to camp Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and got to shoot an arrow (I'm a horrible shot). The boys went swimming, boating, fishing, did BB guns, mining for gold, branding, and much more. I think they had fun and wore themselves along with me out. By the end of the week I was pooped but it was nice to get out in the fresh air and beautiful greenery of Ohio. We even got to enjoy rain most of Friday morning which was interesting.

Now I'm back into my normal routine, at least until next Monday when we leave for our last planned excursion of the summer to Boston with some stops along the way. Even though it's been fun traveling and doing everything I've been able to do, I am looking forward to a little R&R of hanging around the house after our next trip.

I have to write a little about what my girls have been up to. Yesterday, Elizabeth figured out how to climb into Rachel's exersaucer and had fun bouncing around in it, eating Cheerios like a baby. She also put her baby doll under her shirt and was feeding her like I feed Rachel; her motherly instincts are already kicking in. Rachel is rolling all over the place and I keep thinking she's going to crawl anyday now. She gets up on her hands and knees, contemplates moving forward, and then goes back down and rolls to get whatever toy she sees.

Our little sailor girls

For a festive before Fourth of July Sunday I (Alicia) decided to put the girls in red, white, and blue sailor dresses. Don't they look so cute? I've also just started putting Elizabeth in pigtails. With a lot of water and gel they miraculously stay in and make her look more like a little girl than just a toddler. I can't believe how grown up she's getting.

Books and My Garden

I just finished another round of books so here is my take on them.

Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson

This book is an excellent one to read for anyone who has, knows, or even thinks about boys. Dr. Dobson is the head of an organization called Focus on the Family which by its title provides information about how important the traditional family is. The book has lots of insights of how traditional families and roles of mother and father influence a growing boy. While reading the book I thought Dr. Dobson took parts straight out of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. He's not LDS but the insights into the family are so close and he gives lots of facts to back them up. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone to read, I know I gleaned a lot of information from it even though as of right now I only have girls.

Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

As you can tell by the author's name, this is a novel based in India. This is kind of a chick book but I'd compare it to Jane Austen, a little more modernized and of course based in India instead of England. I got hooked on this book and couldn't put it down because I wanted to see how the characters Sudha and Anju fared in the book. The girls are cousins but raised like sisters, born on the same day and very much attached to each other as sisters should be. I guess it struck a cord in me since I have a very good relationship with my own sisters, even though we're many miles apart. The story talks a lot about traditional Indian culture with matchmaking and the role of women in their society and I enjoyed learning about that. If you want more about the book, just look for it on Amazon but I recommend it for those women looking for a good, quick read (at least it ended up being a quick read even though it's over 300 pages).

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Call me totally ignorant but I had no idea they chased after John Wilkes Booth for one day, let alone twelve. I guess I didn't really know the story behind the assassination of Lincoln but this book tells the story very well. Obviously they catch the murderer but only after he ran from Ford's theatre in front of 1,000 people, camped out in the woods, and hid in many barns. Did you also know that the assassination was one of three attempted that night? The group Wilkes put together planned to kill the vice president, Johnson and the secretary of state, Seward too. They attacked Seward but the guy that was supposed to kill Johnson chickened out. I listened to this book on CD so at times it was hard to follow but I'm sure reading it would be a lot better but I would recommend this one to anyone who likes a bit of history in a well-written manner.

Someone Not Really Her Mother by Harriet Scott Chessman

This was a book from my book club and a quick read. I didn't quite get into it as much as some of the others I've reviewed. The book's premise is a grandmother/mother who has alzheimers I think and keeps confusing the present with the past of WWII and her experiences of being sent from France to England while her family dies in the concentration camps. It jumped around a little too much for me and had a part or two that didn't seem to fit. No real resolution came at the end for me so I only give it an okay recommendation.

Enough about books, on to my Garden

I'm learning more about gardening everyday. Did you know crushed egg shells will keep snails and slugs away from lettuce and strawberries, or anything for that matter? I also let my tomato plants rot over winter and now I have little tomato plants growing up from the seeds left by the rotted tomatoes. I love the square foot garden boxes I have as I've eaten some spinach and lettuce from it already. My strawberries are up in abundance and it's fun to go out and pick a bunch for dinner every night. Hopefully it survives my 10-day trip to Simi Valley, I'll put Eric in charge of watering. Here's a picture. The front row is strawberries, the middle row is zucchini and cucumbers, and the last row is my boxes and tomatoes.

The Great Smoky Mountains

For those of you on the West coast, here are the mountains we have on the east, the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Appalachians. The highest point is only 6,600 feet, a pittance compared to most of the places in California, but it is so lush and green. It was definitely worth the drive to go see the park. Here's what us crazy parents did with two small children.

We left town Friday morning and the trip down took about 6 1/2 hours with the girls surviving for the most part. I don't know how our parents did long road trips without a DVD player to keep two-year-olds entertained. We picked out our campsite in Cades Cove, set up and then got some ice cream. For dinner we had our traditional foil dinners and then we drove the Cades Cove loop which is known for its wildlife. We saw deer and horses and beautiful scenery with an open vally.

Saturday morning was a little slow because Rachel had a tough night and we slept in. We found two secrets to camping--air mattress and ear plugs. I don't rough-it all the way, sorry dad. Eric made Mountain Man breakfast and it was yummy. One good thing about camping is that Eric did most of the cooking since he's had so much practice cooking with the Scouts. After lunch we went for a drive and then a 1.2 mile walk to Grotto Falls, the first picture above. It was cool because you could walk behind it and after a 1.2 mile walk carrying kids, the falls were a natural air conditioner. We drove back through the city of Gatlinburg, a tourist attraction right on the outside of the Smokies. I felt sorry for the people who were among the masses walking the hotel and shop infested streets instead of the beautiful nature area just a stones throw away. I'd rather vacation in our campsite than Gatlinburg anyday. In the afternoon we found a good swimming hole and then got some more ice cream at camp. We went on an evening walk together around the campsite and just relaxed.

Sunday we found a church in a neighboring town called Maryville. Thank goodness for internet and good directions (these were found at home, not in the primitive Smokies). After church we went on a little drive and then took much needed naps. After our rest, we went on a little "walk" or maybe it was more of a hike for a Sunday to Laurel Falls, the second picture. The path was paved so we could take the stroller up and everyone made comments on our girls and wished they could hitch a ride with them. The falls were beautiful and very cool, again a natural air conditioner. I could have stayed there forever. Obviously I didn't since I'm writing this so we dabbled in our feet and walked down back to camp for dutch oven pizza and smores. Food is so important when you're camping and it tastes so good with the fresh air as an added ingredient!

Monday morning we started taking down camp and I went for a bike ride on a rented single gear bicycle on the 11-mile Cades Cove loop. I beat a couple of cars through the loop because they kept stopping to look for wildlife while I just wanted to ride and get back to camp. When you have deer running through your campground, you don't need a car to go find them. We finished taking down camp and then went for another swim which felt so good. Then we started what turned out to be a very long road trip home. We ran into a car accident right outside the park that shut a road down so we turned around and tried another way. That way was busy with holiday traffic which was soooo slow. Then between Lexington and Cincinnati another car accident shut down the freeway for probably an hour, I wasn't looking at the clock by this time. So we learned our lesson about holiday weekend travel. Take Tuesday off instead of Friday and maybe we can beat the traffic and get Monday night to ourselves in the campground since everyone leaves on Monday to get back to work.

Well, there's the events of our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. Did I mention that Eric and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary while we were there? I can't believe it's been that long! I think we're starting a tradition of camping to celebrate, which is fine with me.

Circus Monkey

Last week we went to the circus. I thought Elizabeth would love it. She was fairly interested during the performance, I expected more out of her, but she enjoyed it. However, it's been obvious in the past week that she really enjoyed it. Every morning she wakes up and the first word out of her mouth is "circus!" She talks about all the animals we saw, elephants, zebras, horses, and tigers. I originally told her there would be a lion and that the lion tamer would put his head in its mouth (they don't have lions anymore). I tried to convey the idea by putting my hand in my mouth. For a while afterwords she would mention all of the animals and then put her hand in her mouth, it was funny. Of course, the PETA protestors would say I was a terrible person for supporting animal slavery and cruelty.

She is definitely growing up. Tonight we were going to go for a walk and all of the sudden she points outside and says, "monkey...trees." The thing is that we don't have any books that talk about monkeys in trees. Just before we were talking about her favorite book, "Spooky Old Tree," and the circus, and I think she just was thinking about animals and trees and put the two together. She's starting to get an imagination and putting her own ideas together. It probably didn't help that on the way to the park I pointed to a tree and said, "do you see the monkey?" Hahaha...that was a good one.

I think Rachel has officially hit the cute stage. Whenever she's in a half-way decent mood she will give me a big smile just because I smile at her. Her whole face changes when she smiles, it's so cute.

I went to a beginning backpacking course put on by our local park district. Our park district is awesome, they are more than just parks. Most of their parks are huge, they have their own police force, and we frequently camp at their parks for free. Their campsites are only available for small, conservation oriented groups like scouts, but they are pretty nice. That means we're all alone, which I really like. They also have lot's of trails. I'm trying to convince the boys to hike in to one of the sites to try our hand at backpacking, but they aren't too incredibly keen on the idea. I want to get some more interesting things going on. I talked to a guy at work whose troop goes climbing, canoeing, caving, etc. I will try to do some of those things, but our scouts aren't the most excited about some of the ideas. Plus, our boys are all 12-13, which limits us a bit. For instance, you can't go in non-commercial caves when you're under 14 according to the scout rules. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

In other news, I finally finished my paper for the conference in Boston. It's been accepted, I just had to put the finishing touches on it. The bad news is that it's a conference and I have to prepare a poster (or multiple posters, to be precise). I have a 4 foot by 8 foot area. It kind of stinks since it should be a graphically appealing presentation, I feel like Bones, "#$%@*# Jim, I'm an engineer, not a graphic designer!" Hopefully my friend Hansen will give me some pointers.

Smile!

I told you Rachel smiles and now I have proof. I guess she has to be by herself playing.

Easter Dresses

All little girls need cute Easter and Christmas dresses I've decided. I just had to put my girls in matching dresses and they were just the cutest. Sorry there aren't more pictures, our camera ran out of batteries and we had to go to church. We had to change the girls right after church so we couldn't get anymore pictures then.