Snowshoeing With the Inlaws :)

I have many things I should be blogging about, Christmas, waxing poetic about the end of the decade, etc, but instead I'm going to blog about the fun snowshoeing trip we just went on with Tom's parents! (Much easier, and I already have the photos processed. Judge away.)

Tom was determined to get his folks down to Mt. Rainier National Park as part of their visit this Christmas, so even though the weather report was marginal at best, we loaded up the Suby with all of our winter gear, and headed south. We arrived at Paradise, strapped on our snowshoes and headed toward the mountain. Rainier was mostly visible, which we would take as a win.


We snowshoed for about an hour, took some photos, got scared by the NASTY looking gray/black clouds moving in and retreated back to the parking lot.


It was fun to get out and get some exercise, since I feel like all we've done since my winter break began was eat, drink, sit around and watch football, and eat again. Now, this is not a bad way to spend one's vacation, but it's not fabulous for the waistline. So exercise is good. Exercise with a view of Mt. Rainier and some wonderful family is even better. Paradise comes through again!!

Knitted Cable Baby Hat

To continue in the vein of knitted baby products, I just finished the 10 cable hat from Hey Julie http://heyjulie.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/cabled-baby-hats/ for family friends who just gave birth to their first baby boy! The cable pattern is easy to follow, and the hat is only 36 rows, so it's also super fast. It's a great pattern for stash busting, and I will be making several to have on hand for all the babies that are being born in our circle of friends this year. SUPER CUTE! Let me know what you think!

Be Very Very Quiet...We're Hunting Christmas Trees!

So about two weeks ago, we headed out to the mountains with Brendan, Ellie and Sierra to continue our tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree. The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest runs a program every year that allows people to purchase a permit from the ranger station, and go out onto National Forest land and cut down your tree, which can be up to 12 feet tall. Last year, Tom and I went alone, and it took FOREVER to find our tree. This year, there was much more snow, it was MUCH colder, but we found our tree faster, so it was a win.


Now, Tom gets more into this than I do, but it was still fun wandering around in the forest. Tom was all decked out in his "Alphin Logging" hat, his Demming Log Show suspenders and his Carhart pants, just to prove he was manly enough for this activity :) After about an hour of looking, Brendan had found his tree and cut it down, and we had located ours. Tom dug out some snow around the tree and went to work with the tiny saw that Brendan had brought. After the requisite "timber", (about 20 minutes later), we dragged our tree down and put it on the car. Now, a tree in the forest looks much smaller when it is compared to other trees in the forest. When we brought the tree home, we found it barely fits in our living room, being every inch of 12 feet tall. It's wonderful!

All photos by Brendan Fields : ap.brendanfields.com

Grad School!

So yesterday, amid all sorts of travel and airline drama, I received my acceptance letter to Seattle University! I am a real grad student now! Yippie! Classes start next month, so wish me luck!

We Met Tom Douglas!

Ok, so those of you out there who DON'T live in Seattle and don't know who Tom Douglas is may be a bit confused about this. I will enlighten you. Tom Douglas is a local chef who owns several of the tastiest restaurants in Seattle. http://tomdouglas.com/ We love them. Especially Serious Pie which makes gourmet pizzas. NOM! Anyways, we met him while he was doing a book sale/signing at Costco yesterday! He was super nice and we talked to him for about five minutes about his different restaurants and the crab cake cookbook that I was buying for myself :) We ended up buying several other cookbooks for presents. It is always cool to meet someone who is famous on a smaller scale, as they tend to be really interesting while still being approachable. Fun!

Chirstmas Adventures II - Triple Chocolate Mint Cookies

In honor of the Christmas season, I decided to try a new twist a gold standard cookie recipe in this house. The Williams Sonoma Essentials Of Baking has a great recipe for triple chocolate chip cookies which involve white, dark and milk chocolate chips. Well, while shopping the other day, I noticed MINT chips on the shelf! I love all things mint, and thought they would be a great addition to the cookie recipe. They smelled great in the oven, and were super yummy. I think they have slightly more oil than the standard chips, and therefore made the cookies thin out more on the pan, but they were still a WONDERFUL addition. The cookies turned out pretty well. As in they didn't last 48 hours. YUM!!

Paradise

Two weekends ago, Tom and I were going stir crazy with all the gray weather and lack of exercise that this time of year tends to bring. Bolstered by an optimistic weather report for the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park, we make the 2ish hour trek south for some snowshoeing.

When we arrived, it was unfortunately VERY cloudy, as in no visibility, as in, what mountain? ::sigh:: So instead of heading up onto the glacier for the beautiful blue skies we anticipated, we did the Nisqualie Vista Loop trail, which is about two miles and is marked with nice, easy to follow poles.
It was nice to get out and get moving, but unfortunately the waterproofing on my shell has worn off, and by the end of the two miles, I was soaked clear to the skin. Did I mention that we were hiking in a cloud? So we went back to the lodge to thaw out and have some lunch.

After lunch, it was still depressingly cloudy, so we decided to do another short trail about two miles down the road, just to get some more exercise before we headed home. This was the Narada Falls trail that actually goes all the way to Paradise, which we want to hike in full sometime. That day though, we only hiked for another couple of miles, took some pictures and headed back after we saw the "waterfall". Then we noticed something quite peculiar in the sky. There was BLUE! In the sky! In the direction of Rainier!!

We hopped back into the car and hurried back up to Paradise. We rounded the bend, and BAM there was Rainier in all her glory. It quite literally took my breath away. I will never cease to be amazed by the gradure and beauty of the mountain. There are simply just not enough superlitives. We're so blessed to live so close to such wonder. Paradise indeed. We will be back!


More photos at http://ap.brendanfields.com/viewer.aspx?site=12

Christmas Adventures Vol. 1 - Chistmas Ships!

This is the first installment of our Christmas adventures thus far. Tonight, Tom and I went and had dinner with a coworker of mine and then we all walked down to the water to see the Christmas Ships! This apparently is a Seattle tradition that has been going on for decades, where the Argosy ships (dinner boat ferries mostly), get all decked out in their holiday best and sail to different waterfront parks around the area. Other boats are welcome to follow them around as long as they're all lit up too. A choir usually sings carols which are broadcast over loudspeakers from the boat to the crowds gathered on shore. At our stop, we were treated to beautiful songs sung by the Seattle Boys Choir. We had never seen the infamous Christmas Ships before, and it was quite a treat! We'll definitely be making this part of our holiday traditions in the future!

You can find out when the Christmas Ships will be in a park near you at their website: http://www.argosycruises.com/themecruises/xmasSchedule.cfm

Apple Butter....erm Sauce

So, continuing our attempt to learn more about food, and to try cooking and preserving local food through the winter, Tom and I attempted to make apple butter. We had all these grand designs of canning cute little 1/2 pint jars of apple butter that we would design precious labels for that we would give away for Christmas presents. Our friends and family would love them and think we were so amazing for coming up with such a unique gift idea.


Yea. That didn't happen. It turns out that apple butter is an enormous pain to make. It takes forever, it makes a HUGE mess, because the longer it boils, the more viscous it becomes, so when the boiling bubbles burst, it sends apple goo approximately the temperature of fresh lava flying across the kitchen. In the end, we decided to just freeze what we had made, which was somewhere between apple sauce and apple butter and not give this one away. It still tastes delicious, so if you're interested in yummy apple...um...product, let us know!

Baby Girl!

So two weeks ago, our good friends Brendan and Ellie welcomed their new baby girl into the world. It was wonderful to be able to share that experience with them. Sheryl, Tom and I were anxiously waiting in the hospital waiting room, literally dancing with anticipation , (ok Tom didn't dance). We also brought Indian food for Brendan, and later Ellie, as they hadn't had much to eat since Ellie went into labor. Finally, we got the call that the baby had arrived, "it" was a girl, and we'd be able to cuddle her shortly.


After we were allowed in, the new baby (as she didn't have a name yet), needed to be checked out to count fingers and toes, and get a bath for the first time! Brendan did the honors.


The paparazzi was definitely out in force, especially after Sheryl's husband showed up with yet another camera. At least she will be a well documented baby! Thank you, Brendan and Ellie for sharing the birth of your beautiful daughter with us! We can't wait to take her hiking :)

Sorry for the delay...

But things have been a bit busy around here. Hopefully I'll have some great entries next week about apple butter, Halloween, Fake Thanksgiving and the birth of Sierra Darby Fields! Stay tuned!!

Car Fail

So...I had a bit of car fail the other day getting off the exit ramp. I braked and the car didn't stop, gotta love hydroplaning. Luckily everyone is generally OK, though my back has seen better days. I went to the Drs today, but he said that the muscles were just strained, so some muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds coupled with hot tubbing and chill out time should serve me well. So expect to see some posts in the future about our car shopping experiences!

Flower Baby Hat

So I knitted this one up quickly for my French teacher, who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl about three months ago. It's bad luck in France to give a shower before the baby is born, so those of us who took her French class last year go together a few days ago to have a "mini shower" for her. I decided to knit this hat.

The pattern is from Knitted Baby Hats which I have loved in the past, (remember the pumpkins?), but this had left a little something to be desired. I think the final result is cute, but some of the different parts are a bit cumbersome to work with. For example, the pattern calls for you to make all the petals separately, then attach them separately. This was complicated, and made for LOTS of ends to weave in at the end, (my least favorite part of knitting). The next time, I would still knit each petal separately, but I would put them on double pointed needles and knit a round or two to join the piece, THEN attach and tack down the petals. Another possibility is to knit the petal circle directly onto the main portion of the hat before it's closed off, this making the transition seamless. As of now, I can still see some pink peaking through between the petals and the stem, which bothers me.

While the hat is cute, and Tom insists that only I will ever see the imperfections, I still don't like having an imperfect product (perfectionist, I know). Oh well, I think she'll still love it! What do you think?

Grad School

So on my vacation last week, I started working on my applications for Grad School. I'm applying for a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction and getting my Professional Certificate. I'm excited to be headed back to the classroom, and am looking forward to learning how to be a better teacher. I'm NOT looking forward to the time commitment (I know, grow up), or the time it will take away from my time with Tom. He's thinking about taking a mountaineering class though, and I'm sure we'll just figure out new ways to make time for each other. We both agree, however, that this is the best time for me to pursue my Masters, as we're thinking about kids in the next few years, and pregnancy+infants+grad school sounds like a quick trip to crazy town. I'm a little nervous, but still ready to take this next step to help further my career.

I'm applying to both Seattle Pacific University and Seattle University. The deadlines are both November 20th, but I only have a few more things to take care of, so the goal is to get them both submitted by the end of the week. Wish me luck!!

San Juan Island

A few weeks ago, (as in before it started raining), we headed up the San Juan Island with some good friends of ours for the weekend. E is super pregnant at this point, so we weren't exactly doing insane hikes, but we had a beautiful campground and checked out some of the interesting historical sites up there.

San Juan Island has two National Historic Sites, American Camp and English Camp (http://www.nps.gov/sajh/index.htm). They were both established in 1859 as a result of the death of a pig. Because of confusion over the wording of the Treaty of Oregon, there was some dispute as to whether the Americans or the British were the rightful owners of the San Juan Island. As such, there were both American farmers and British members of the Hudson's Bay Company living and working on the island. The problems came about when an American farmer shot and killed a HBC pig. The British threatened to have him arrested and have all the American farmers evicted from the island as trespassers. The Americans sought and gained the protection of American armed forces, which prompted the British to send their own military force to the island. Both sides ended up establishing camps on the island, though no battles were ever fought, and both garrisons left the island some 20 years later.

On our trip up to the island, we visited both the American camp and the English camp. The Americans were situated on high grassy hills overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca to the south of the island, and the British were in a well protected "harbor" tucked into the north of the island. It definitely seemed like the British had the better end of the deal, but both sites were beautiful to visit on a late summer weekend.

American Camp

English Camp

A Gift of a Song

So our wonderful friend Bert had originally wanted to sing a song for us at our wedding, but due to many circumstances, he was not able to. Last night, however, we were treated to a late wedding present of the song he wanted to sing. He sang "True Companion" by Marc Cohen, and it was incredibly beautiful and moving. Quite a rare treat. Thanks Bert.



Check him out on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLgsmqMtYHQ

PUPPY!!

Ok, so it's not our puppy, but I did seriously contemplate stuffing it in my purse on the way out! This is Walter, our friends Chuck and Lisa's new puppy. He's a corgi and officially the cutest freaking thing that I've seen in real life in quite some time. I now am a believer in puppy therapy, as I felt much happier having had puppy love all evening. Tom and I are planning on getting a puppy next summer, but playing with Walter made it very hard to wait!!

New Food Week

So as to not be a total lump on my week-long break, I've set a challenge for myself. I want to try and cook or bake something new at least 4 times this week. (I know we're going out a few nights) Today's quest was to try baking challah (don't pronounce the "c") bread. It was not a resounding victory, as part of it collapsed a bit, but it was tasty! I'm not sure if I didn't let it rise enough at some point (it needs to rise twice), or if it did something weird in the oven, but it definitely doesn't look like to quite should. Oh well, it was good and our house still smells like baking bread, so I'll count it as a win!

How to Choose?

Tom and I have been trying to choose some pictures to frame for our walls, and we're having a hard time! We've got beautiful pro picts from our wedding photographer such as these:

(previous photos taken by Don Mears Photography http://donmearsphotography.com/)

But we also want to include pictures from the other things we do, such as hiking, traveling, etc:

I've gone through the exercize of picking my favorite photos that I've taken this year, they can be found here: http://ap.brendanfields.com/viewer.aspx?site=12 click on "show all events" then scroll down until you find the folder "photos for prints".

(Don't) Get Lost!

So two weekends ago, Tom and I set off to go hiking. We had our lunches packed, extra warm clothes and rain coats, our "ten essentials". Apparently, the thing we didn't pack, was our brains.

We decided to hike to Lake Lillian, which is on the I-90 corridor just on the east side of Snoqualmie pass, to see the beautiful, colorful leaves. We drove to the parking lot signed for the trail, got out of the car, and started hiking down the established trail that lead from the parking lot. This was our mistake. We did not READ THE SIGN at the entrance to the parking lot which notes that the trail head was 100 yards up the road. DOH!

We instead hiked up the trail from the parking lot through the woods. It was a nice trail, if not a little under maintained, we thought. I started get more and more uneasy as the trail got harder and harder to follow. Soon we were following spray painted orange blazes which we later "determined" must be a new trail that someone is working on cutting. We finally stopped at scree field and decided that we were not in the right place. Luckily, wherever we were was pretty, so we sat down and had lunch and took some pictures. Tom tried to track down the pika that was meeping at us, but it ran away before he could get super close.



Things got slightly more interesting on the way down, as we got turned around several times trying to follow the "trail" that we had basically invented on the way up. After consulting the GPS and the less than stellar topo we had, we figured out where we needed to go, and soon joined up with the more established trail, (we think it's a hunter's trail...whoo hoo).


In the end, we didn't have a true epic, but we defiantly felt like idiots for not reading the sign showing the true location. Luckily we had a GPS, and map to help us out, but we defiantly learned our lesson not to take any trail for granted, and that even experienced hikers make mistakes. Fortunately for us, this mistake didn't cost us much more than a few hours in a pretty forest.

Birthday Part Deux

Ok, so I wanted to add some more pictures of the beautiful braclet from Mom and Charles.

I also realized that I neglected to mention the super sweet Brandi Carlisle CD from other friends. And add in a picture of the super beer :)

Here are a few more photos of the map...which is proving more difficult to photograph that I would have anticipated.