Second Tree Blog » Julie

A Spontaneous Spa Day

Tim — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:10:53 +0000

I went back to work after the holidays and spent the first week working crazy hours, which then evolved into an upper respiratory infection by the end of the week. By the following Tuesday, I was working from home rather than annoying my co-workers with a persistent cough and, worse, the risk of infection. At the same time, Alana came down with a stomach bug that kept her out of school for a couple of days, the second of which was Tuesday. She felt well enough that day, but she needed to stay home to get past a 24-hour window of quarantine.

As luck would have it, a book that she’d ordered, Fancy Nancy: Ooh La La! It’s Beauty Day, arrived that morning. Gender stereotyping be damned, the Fancy Nancy series of books are pretty entertaining, and Alana has owned and/or checked out many of them. But, this was a new one to her, and she had anticipated it’s arrival ever since ordering it over the weekend. She dove right in, and, the next thing we knew, a good portion of Julie’s day disappeared into time spent at the home spa.

Before starting, Alana made up a list of services to be provided:

The ambiance was enhanced with iPad-piped music:

They started with a footbath (Alana was a recipient of some of the services as well as the provider, as the logistics allowed):

The facial mask was concocted from bananas and honey (and a couple of cucumber slices, of course!):

The facial mask itself (Fia became very interested in this treatment, as Julie was incapacitated while her face was slathered with yummy goodness):

The manicure, which Julie commented about two days later, “I’ve found it’s really unfortunate that my middle finger wound up being the blue one — out of my peripheral vision, I keep think I’m flipping myself the bird.”

And, the “total makeover,” which meant “makeup and a ponytail:”

Thus, Super Mom got her day of royal treatment.

New Year’s Eve in the ‘Hood

Tim — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:48:20 +0000

As is now officially a tradition (ugh!), we spent New Year’s Eve bouncing around a couple of houses on our street — the party started next door and then moved a few houses down for the latter half of the evening and to ring in the new year (neither Carson nor I lasted that long).

Alana, foolishly, neglected to ask for another pony (or six) while she was adorned with pigtails (the pigtails being a rarity that make her father even more malleable to her whims than he normally is). But, she did proudly show off her pierced ears, which were just past the point where she was able to start switching them out with choices from the array of styles she received for Christmas.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Benton and Carson got so involved with their respective handheld devices that they didn’t realize they’d actually been sitting next to each other for more than 3 seconds without requiring adult intervention. I was optimistic all year long that it would happen at least once in 2011, and they squeaked in under the wire.

And, not one of our kids, but I’m including the picture anyway, because this picture of “‘Taterhead” just makes me chuckle (I simply can’t look at this picture without thinking, “Yes, he IS!”):

He wasn’t just walking around wearing this on his head — it was a part of a game he was playing with several of the other kids:

Skiing: Carson’s Perspective

Tim — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:21:09 +0000

Using the same little camera that I used for the Christmas morning time lapse post, we now have a gadget that is good for helmet’s-eye view of all sorts of activities. Our first published attempt (video by Carson, video editing and music by me) is a tad long (5 minutes), but it gives a pretty good idea of the snowboarding skills of Carson and Benton, the skiing skills of Alana and Julie, and the early-early season conditions at our local slopes.

As always, if the video below doesn’t display, you can hop over and view it on YouTube:

A Time Lapse Christmas 2011

Tim — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:14:02 +0000

Santa brought a little camera that supports time-lapse photos in addition to helmet-mounted video. More on that as Carson gets rolling.

But, for now, an unedited 2.5-hour gift-opening experience this morning compressed into under 2 minutes. If the video below doesn’t show up, you can view it on YouTube here.

Merry Christmas!

Camping in Hocking Hills

Tim — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:51:37 +0000

Our camping frequency has dropped off dramatically since we’ve moved to Ohio, so we decided in the middle of the summer to simply pick a weekend and make it happen. The trip was in late September, and we opened up the activity to a range of friends. As it turned out, my sister flew up from Austin to attend, the Pages (with their three kids), one of my co-workers and his daughter, and another of Benton’s friends all came. It turned out to be the right-sized crowd, and it was an easy-going, compatible bunch. We headed down to Hocking Hills, which is widely regarded as one of the more scenic areas in Ohio (and where we camped over Thanksgiving two years ago).

The boys devised a 2-on-2 football game that seemed to run semi-continuously throughout the weekend:

Alana and Claire were inseparable:

Drew and Ella at Upper Falls near Old Man’s Cave:

Alana at Old Man’s Cave:

A walk in the woods — Julie, Amy, Ella, Drew:

Julie at the dam near our campsite:

We ate well, with corn chowder, tamale pie, and pineapple upside-down cake for dinner on Saturday night:

Randy was recovering from rotator cuff surgery, so he got his daily physical therapy from Amy:

And, on Saturday evening, we pulled out some Michigan-acquired sparklers and turned the kids loose:

Not a bad weekend getaway at all!

Cooperstown, NY — Part 1 of 2 — Dreams Park

Tim — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:05:15 +0000

Summer’s winding down, but we managed to squeeze in one more family trip before school starts. This one was a 9.5-hour drive (each way) to Cooperstown, New York, to see a friend play the first couple of games of a youth baseball tournament, to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, and to check out whatever other sites there were in the area (as it turns out, there are quite a few!). I’m going to add up the miles our minivan traveled from spring break through the end of the summer at some point, but the fact that the kids weren’t even remotely fazed by 19 hours in the car from a Thursday to a Monday says something about their conditioning!
Julie — born a half a generation too late to really catch her calling as a travel agent — wound up scoring us a spot at a campground near town. It wasn’t camping, exactly, as we stayed in a camper that was situated on-site, but it was fun and convenient!
The baseball: 104 teams from across the country. It kicked off with an opening ceremony followed by a skills competition on Saturday night, then 3 days of 2-games-a-day play for tournament seeding, followed by a single-elimination tournament. The Austin Bats went 4-2 in the seeding, so they wound up as the no. 36 seeded team. They then won their first two games in the tournament before losing to the no. 4 seed, which went on to ultimately lose to the no. 1 seed to just miss being in the championship game. Not a bad showing at all!

Saturday Evening at Dreams Park (HDR-Enhanced)

The Parking Lot of Dreams Park (the fields are down below in the background)

Just After the Opening Ceremonies: ~1,200 kids!

Jack — The Kid We Were There to See

Jack Gets a Hit

Jack Digs for First Base

Summer Trip Part 2 of ? — Rangeley, ME

Tim — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:08:18 +0000

Hmmm…nothing like writing Part 1 of our summer trip and then not following up with Part 2 until two weeks later! Since that first post, I’ve made trips to New Orleans and to Austin, which, when shoehorned in amongst work, has kept me pretty busy. Better late than never, though, right?

After leaving Julie’s aunt and uncle’s place in Angliers, Quebec, we drove 13.5 hours east to my parent’s cabin on Rangeley Lake in eastern Maine. Several weeks later, the single photo of our entire trip that continues to spring to my mind is this one of Carson jumping off the end of their dock:

Benton got to try out my dad’s scythe, which is a left-handed job (as Benton and my dad both are), and which they’d discussed previously, so Benton was curious to get his hands on it when we arrived:

He also got a lesson in sharpening the blade:

A view from the cabin driveway looking out through the trees to lake (multiple images combined and then enhanced for this effect):

Lounging on the deck — Alana and Carson engrossed in needlepoint while J reads to them (A.A. Milne, I believe, but I may be mistaken on that):

Benton and I kayaked 2 miles into town one afternoon:

On another morning, Julie and I canoed into town while Benton kayaked, and we had breakfast at Mooseley Bagels. The view from our table:

My parents then brought Carson and Alana to town, and Julie, Alana, and I paddled back, with Carson kayaking.

Carson’s paddling time was pretty brief before ran out of gas. We tied him to the back of the canoe and towed him the last 1.75 miles into an increasingly strong headwind. At the same time, Alana took occasional turns paddling…with Julie’s paddle (we’d forgotten to grab a 3rd paddle for her to use)…from the middle of the boat. THAT was the longest 2 miles I think I’ve ever paddled.

More pictures in a couple of subsequent posts!

It’s Time for Another Round of “Caption This Picture”

Tim — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:31:44 +0000

We have no real schedule for our periodic Caption This Picture posts, but here’s one that we couldn’t pass up:

What would an appropriate caption for this picture be?

2011 Spring Break Part 3: Niagara Falls

Tim — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:10:00 +0000

The last leg of our trip was to Niagara Falls — the Canada side. Julie, who manages to plan these sorts of things perfectly, landed us a room at the Embassy Suites with quite a view:

I couldn’t resist seeing if I could get decent pictures at night…

…and as the sun came up:

Not bad, although I decided to hop in the shower while waiting for the sun to come up…and missed the actual sunrise!

It was chilly, but we spent a little time on the upper observation deck for the falls:

Carson picked up a new pair of sunglasses and was perfectly happy to bundle up to stay warm — shown here as we waited for the shuttle to take us down to the falls:

And, always good to ham it up, Carson snagged my hat at the hotel and struck a pose:

On Friday morning, I was up earliest, and Julie then woke up. I was sitting in a chair reading a book, and Julie was lying in bed reading as well. Alana woke up, looked at me, looked at Julie, then reached over to the nightstand and grabbed her book:

Possibly my favorite picture of the whole week. The mist coming up from the falls coats all of the trees, light posts, balustrades, etc. with ice. While waiting for the shuttle bus, I had the kids step inside one of the trees — cute shot, if I do say so myself!

2011 Spring Break Part 2: Skiing in Ellicottville, New York

Tim — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:08:44 +0000

Thanks to a Christmas gift of weekly skiing passes at a couple of mounds near to Columbus, all three of our kids have become pretty competent skiers. Benton quickly got hooked on snowboarding and hasn’t looked back. Carson bounces back and forth between skiing and snowboarding, but looks like he’s leaning towards the latter.

We rolled the dice and booked a couple of nights at the Holiday Valley Ski Resort in upstate New York over spring break. It’s no Vale, but it’s got twice as many runs and they’re twice as long as the local slopes. We were officially off-season, and, when we arrived Tuesday afternoon and took a couple of runs, things looked a bit bleak — heavy slush. But, we got 6″ of snow Tuesday night, so Wednesday was good skiing…albeit largely ungroomed. By Thursday, the groomers had been hard at it, and the skiing was ideal, if a bit chilly.

Riding Up and Getting Ready

Julie and Alana on the Lift

Carson on the Lift

Alana Poses While Waiting for Carson to Get His Snowboard Strapped On

Carson and Alana Ready to Head Down Northwind

Benton and Carson Strap on Their Boards Before Heading Down Mardi Gras

Heading Down…

Because we were off-season, there were no crowds whatsoever, neither getting onto the lifts or coming down any of the runs.

Benton Coming Down an Ungroomed Independence

Carson and Benton Snowboard Down Independence

Alana and Carson on Northwind

Carson Snowboards Independence

Exhaustion at the End of the Day

On Wednesday, Carson, Benton, and I were skiing, and Carson announced that he’d had enough and was heading in. Benton and I decided we would make a few more runs. One run later…Benton was out. Of. Gas. He lay like this for several minutes after completing the run and would have been content to lie there indefinitely! To his credit, this was after a morning of skiing, lunch, then swimming in the indoor/outdoor pool (which included a 3-kid snowball fight and various dares of each other to sit in/lie on snow-covered patio furniture by the pool), and then afternoon skiing:

Hot Tubbin’

Trip number three to the hot tub (I was the adult escort for the first two, but Julie finally drew the short straw):