Cookies Galore

Well folks in case you haven't been to a grocery store near you in the past two weeks, or have and are immune to the call of sweetness (in human and confectionery form), I am here to tell you that it is Girl Scout cookie season. In our house with two girl scouts it means a cases and cases of cookies and a plethora of appointments with cookie booths. In the past two weeks the girls have set up a booth in front of our house twice, womaned five booths at locations ranging from AJ's to WalMart to Bookmans to Safeway, hit up an Italian car rally, and did a little bit of door to door work. The lesson learned? Selling cookies is hard work - all of this effort has led to about 300 cookie boxes sold between the two of them.

How many boxes they can sell at any one time seems to vary quite a bit. Izzy had one booth at a Safeway with 3 other girls from her troop where they sold over a 100 boxes in two hours and Evie had an evening booth at AJs with a friend where they only sold 20 boxes in two hours. The lackluster sales in that case was most likely attributable to the fact it was a Sunday night and during the Super Bowl. But hey, at least there was a rainbow!

My favorite so far was the impromptu booth they did at the Il Giro di Phoenix Scavenger Hunt and Car Rally. For this one the girl's french teacher helped them sell cookies while Patrick and I ran the rally (she also gave them their weekly lesson while we were rallying, a pretty sweet deal for us all around). 

Patrick and I were far from the victors in said rally, but man did we have fun! Best of all, the Julietta made it for the whole trip w/o stranding us anywhere!

Overall with cookie sales, the good news is that is seems like they are (mostly) having fun and I am getting plenty of time to work on my crochet. :) I suspect the cookie clip will ebb here over the next few weeks (cookie season ends March 3rd... now there's a fabulous b-day present for me) but should they continue down this path I promise to be there, crochet hook in hand and green GS t-shirt on ready to assist!

Bringing Back the Blog

 For the sake of probably no one but posterity I am going to revive our blog. Funny enough though this was inspired not by the copious amount of time I had on my hands due to the furlough, but rather the twin occurrences of a dad and his daughter (who was in her 50s) out for a beer last night reminding us that the time goes by so fast and a notice that another web-based tool I used was going away. Something about having a person remind me of how fast time passes and the idea of an online tool going away made me realize how much I would miss having the stories I write here to look back on.  Unfortunately, there will always be a story gap now, and that gap was in part why I couldn't bring myself to bring the blog back. I always had a feeling like I just had to be contiguous in order to write a new post. I hereby throw off the chains of contiguousness and summarize the last year and then some in a haiku:

"Swamp" to desert flown
Jaunts, junior high, B. Jaguar
Ever happy chaos

Swamp - 4th of July on the National Mall

Desert

40th Birthday Jaunt to NYC

Spring Break Jaunt to NC

Random Jaunt to Florida - Disney World and Universal Studios

Junior High - Evie the JV Jazz Band Trombone Player

Pre-B. Jaguar Kitty Interviews at a Cat Cafe

The Actual B(lack) Jaguar.

And just a little bit of happy chaos...

Whew, with that out of the way, let's talk about January 2019!

So, in case you haven't heard (ha!) the government was shut down for 35 days..... The initial two weeks of said shutdown were actually quite pleasant for me because I got to spend the whole time with Evie and Izzy.

We spent quite a bit of our time together exploring our new Phoenix home. We went to the Phoenix Children's Museum one day. It was funny, and just a little bit poignant, to realize that not only was Evie too old for it but also that Izzy was on the verge of being too old. (Evie did, however, greatly enjoy the exhibit where she could build a series of tunnels for a ball to travel through...)

Then the next day we came downtown again and went pretty much just across the street to the Arizona Science Center (I found a groupon for a membership that I am pretty excited about).  The girls did a battle of the brains where the more relaxed they were the more the ball moved to one side or the other... the had an epic battle of the relaxed and ended up in a tie due to the prolonged relaxation and a line of other kids wanting to try.

They also tried out the Cosmic Playground, which was pretty darn awesome.... climbing through scaffolding covered with lights and what looked like saranwrap designed to be like worm holes.

 And moon landing face-in-picture things (what is the name for those things anyway?)

And (not pictured here) a big ball pit that Isadora in particular thought was the bees knees.

At the end of the break I had the privilege of being the Mom in the Mom and Me weekend at Willow Springs Girl Scout Camp. We rode up with other daughter and mom combo from the troop and made some new friends, saw snow(!) and got to spend a whole day doing crafts.

Crafts like making penguins from socks and felt...

 

And not so crafts like "winter" games inside involving fake snowballs and toilet paper that could be used to turn each other into snowmen (or just throw at each other).

 

There was, of course, s'mores... fortunately toasted on a fireplace inside because it was super cold and snowing that night.

 But best of all was sledding and fresh snow!!

Once the break was over and the girls went back to school I found myself trying to fruitfully fill my days.... so I taught myself how to crochet.

Exercised a lot.... and did all sorts of other little piddly things that did not involve deep cleaning the house (much to the disappointment of Patrick :P) Above all the unemployed month of January taught me that I am by no means ready to retire. Whew... here is to hoping come two weeks from now I am still working because goodness knows I cannot entertain myself long term via crochet needles and treadmills.

Soccer, Chaparones, and Spookiness

Given that our current plan is to head back to Arizona at the end of the school year we decided to make a "DC Bucket List" of all the things we want to make sure we do before we leave. One of the big ones on my list (for reasons I cannot wholly explain) was attending a DC United Soccer Game.  The whole fam (albeit a bit reluctantly on the part of the smaller ones) indulged me last weekend and we went to a Sunday afternoon game versus the NY Red Bulls. 

It also just happened to be the last game ever for the team at RFK stadium.  Our team may have lost, but it was still a good game and a lot of fun (and with soccer there is always hope to the very end, provided that you are only a goal down like we were :)

Then this Friday I took the day off of work to help chaperone Evie's 5th grade field trip to Annapolis. It was a great (albeit short) trip to Maryland's capitol, complete with a walking tour and a boat ride. My favorite fact from the walking tour was that George Washington was 6 ft 2 in...

Evie told me afterward her favorite was the story of the Maryland flag, which has two coats of arms (or was it crests... Evie would remember :) on it for the family that founded the original colony.  The fun(ner?) part of the fact is that the flag just had one crest up until the civil war when the state was quite divided over staying or leaving the union.  After the war they decided to put both crests on as a symbol of unity... pretty cool.

Overall the kids were surprisingly well behaved (except for a few too chatty/borderline rude boys in my group) and it was pretty funny watching a whole gaggle of 5th graders whip and neh-neh (no idea how you spell that) on the boat at the end of the trip.

Then on Friday evening we participated in a trunk or treat at the Unitarian Universalist church that we've been going to the past few weeks. Patrick had the idea of make the trunk like the day of the dead (seeing how we have so much of that sort of thing around the house anyway, we were all a little sad not to be in Tucson for the All Souls Procession, and I wanted to make sugar skulls with the girls regardless).

So Thursday night the girls (mostly Evie) and I made the skulls and then Friday before school Evie, Izzy and I all decorated them. They turned out pretty well I think!

Luckily for us Vivian is just as stellar of an artist with faces as she is with cakes, so I was able to have a face to match the part. The girls were given the option, but wanted to stick with their costumes and Patrick had intended to join me in the calavera face, but we ran out of time. (He did, however, sport his bolo tie and boots...). 

As part of our altar/car we also set out a picnic to eat dinner and passed out candy and milagros.  It was a pretty small crowd, but a super nice bunch of parents and kids. And... perhaps most excitingly... our trunk won the most creative award! (I actually am excited by this, but you don't want to see the pictures of me smiling with my face painted, it is really scary :)

Then, to keep the spooky going, last night we made our second annual trip to Garrett Park's Spooky Woods.  The line was quite long until about 8:30, but definitely worth it. 

Genevieve had a ton of fun going through the spooky woods with her friends Maggie, Cielo and Fiona. Izzy had to be convinced by Patrick to go and then finally at the last minute made her way through too.  Probably the best parts were the toilet paper leaf blower/mummy thing and the creepy Santa...

Whew... nothing quite like the 4 (or 5!) days of Halloween! (and that isn't even the main event yet!)

Falls Days in MD!

I can't believe October is already half over! Although last weekend was really the first time it felt like fall (before it was still really hot and humid) we have been enjoying fall-esque activities for the past month already. One of the most significant activities has been Isadora's soccer. (Which as a side-note, I should add that Izzy currently prefers to be referred to as Vivian and is writing on all her school papers Vivian instead of Izzy.  I've been trying to remember to call her Vivian, but generally not succeeding.)  Patrick is helping out a a co-coach for the team, the Silver Dolphins.  The dolphins practice every Monday and have games on Saturdays. There are 11 girls on the team, most from Izzy's school, and they play two games of 4 on 4 soccer each Saturday.  (Thus making the need for two coaches very strong). For the first few games it was so hot that I think we put almost as much water over Izzy's head to cool her down as she drank :)  It has been fun to see her get better every game (except for this weekend where she was not feeling up to it and ended up spending most of the game sitting with me....) Here is a little clip of the soccer player in action:

At the end of September we went out to Opera in the Outfield at the National's ballpark. Despite some serious metro issues (like no trains between Grovsner and NIH so we had to get on a bus) we still made it there in time to get a spot on the outfield. Like last year the girls helped Mimi at the WETA booth and then we all enjoyed a picnic on the grass before Aida began. Both girls seemed to enjoy it, and this year depsite not being able to understand the Italian or quite read the subtitles Izzy stuck with it the whole time (going from Patrick, to me to Evie to read most of the subtitles to her so she could follow the story)

 Then the next weekend (last in September) Patrick was out visiting his Dad in Texas so I took the opportunity to go a little crazy (and Groupon happy) and bought tickets for the girls and I to go to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. This of course makes the second time we've been down to Williamsburg and not taken in any of the historical aspects of it... but hey maybe third time will be the charm.

 Despite not wanting to go on any of the roller coasters we (or should I say I ;) still had a lot of fun with all of the Halloween decoration and the (seemingly) tamer rides.

One such ride was called Leonardo's Carpet (I think) and it ended up being scary enough that really none of us (including me) wanted to go on any more rides... which was fine, because by the time we got to that one it was pushing 5 pm and the place turned into a very, very scary place after 5:30, with 1/2 a dozen haunted houses and (apparently) things jumping out at you from anywhere.

On Columbus Day (the non-holiday for anyone except federal employees) Patrick and I had a lovely day out in DC.  We checked out the Renwick Gallery, which had pieces ranging from a quilt made from 19 mm film to a life-size reclining evening gown made out of glass.  We also walked to Dupont, browsed at Kramerbooks and caught a glass of tea at Teasim... it was fun to think about the things in our old neighborhood that had totally changed and those that were exactly the same, 15 years later.

 On the way home we bought season tickets for the National Philharmonic (where the girls go for free) and then went to our first concert that Sunday.

Before the concert they had an "instrument petting zoo" where the girls tried out a trumpet, played the timpani and talked to a trombone player... and had a delicious piece of cake (just the thing kids need before sitting for a two hour concert, right?)

The other important weekend activity has been getting the house ready for Halloween, which I think may be one of best years yet!

Kootenai NF Nature and Nurture

In case you haven’t guessed it yet, the Kootenai National Forest and the towns therein are a pretty unique place. This uniqueness was on full display in our week(end) here last week. I worked a flex schedule last week so I could watch the kids on Friday while Patrick worked and just so I could have one more day of adventuring out here. We started Friday as most Lacroix Libby days start, at Aunt T’s coffee house. I took full advantage of the internet and posted a bunch of blogs, helped the girls with a little bit of summer homework, and ordered all of the school supplies for the girls (to be shipped to Kensington via Vivian). Once we’d taken care of these necessities I drove Evie and Izzy over to Ross Creek Cedars, a place many folks had told me we had to go while we were here.

Ross Creek did not disappoint.  It was a short little walk among the most amazing cedar and hemlock trees. The girls found an old cedar that was totally hollow and played in if for quite awhile:

We then played on a set of fallen twin cedars and  found a strange area where lots of people had made cairns in the streambed. The girls really wanted to contribute to this effort, so we stopped and we all spent some time building a cairn.  In retrospect, perhaps the most amazing thing about the cairns is that no one has come along and maliciously (or clumsily) knocked them down.

After climbing on and around many a cedar we headed back into town because it was the “big” night in Libby… apparently the biggest night of the year in town… 

Ignite the Nights, Friday night cruising and burning out along Mineral Ave, aka Main Street, aka “The Gut”.  We were in desperate need of clean laundry, so just before the festivities began I ran down to the laundry mat and started no less than 8 loads of laundry, drank a beer, moved everything to the dryer, drove back home to let the dogs out, got the laundry out of the dryer and then headed over to the brewery. Patrick, the girls and the whole crew of Libby folks we’ve been hanging out with were sitting outside listening to the squeal of tires and taking in the scene.

We hung out for a few hours and then walked the Gut and treated the girls with cotton candy as a reward for their tolerance of the noise and stench of the cars.  

The next morning we went back into town for the car show, which was still pretty awesome but also much more the sort of thing that we were used to. There were hundreds of predominately American old cars lining the road. We had promised the girls that we wouldn’t stay for too long because they had a talent show that they had been working on with the neighbor kids for pretty much the whole summer scheduled for that evening that they wanted to get ready for.

After almost three hours of prep and dress rehearsal The Eagle City talent show was ready to roll. The kids set up a ticket booth at the entrance to our neighbor’s house. Admission was $2 for adults and $1 for kids, with all proceeds benefiting the local animal shelter.  They had even put together programs for all  attendees.  We stalled the show for a bit because there were a few more of our neighbor’s friends who were coming out for the show (and bbq afterwards). When they arrived though Evie set about starting the show with her well rehearsed (and totally written out)  script as the MC.  

The first act was our neighbor’s son, who hit a baseball. For the second act Izzy came out with her kitty cat piano and played a song she’d been working on from her piano lessons. 

Izzy then stayed onstage for a dance routine with the neighbor’s daughter to Roar.  Other acts included more dancing and acrobatics. It all went over very well and was super cute.  After the big performance we had a great backyard picnic, complete with huckleberry cobbler and ice cream (both homemade and utterly delicious!)

On Sunday I woke up early to take Patrick down to Mac’s for his day-long Kootenai fishing adventure.  The kids and I hung out for most of the day doing crafts and reading books and then headed down to Libby around 3 pm to go pick up Patrick and see Cars 3, which was playing at the Dome theater in town.  When we went to the pullout in town, however, Patrick was no where to be seen, and the movie started in about 10 minutes, so we decided to put into place plan B (aka I go to the movie with the kids and Patrick walks over to the brewery when he gets off the river). The movie was super cute, and fun because the theater reminded me of the Loft back home.  Our tickets were discounted because Evie won a raffle from the summer reading program at the library. About ¾ of the way through the movie I received a text from Patrick saying he was still on the river… after the movie around 6 pm, he finally made it back to civilization.  He had two more fish to add to our freezer collection and what sounded like a wonderful day!

The weekend fun continued into the week, on Monday night Patrick and I had a date night to go see Macbeth via Montana Shakespeare in the Parks.  It was our second time seeing it in about 4 months and it was really cool to see a different interpretation of it!