Seattle with the Family
We celebrated my brothers’ birthdays in Seattle a few weekends ago. I have two younger brothers, both punks. As the oldest, I happen to know they were more spoiled than me. They were born on the same day, 4 years apart. I got to come home from school when my baby brother was born. I was eight at the time. My mom’s best friend was managing my middle brother’s birthday party, while my mom birthed my baby brother in the next room. He was born at home on purpose. We all love that story and almost every year someone new asks about it.
We enjoy Seattle. The munchkin wanted to ride this pig at Pike street all day.
This is not her first lemon. She does know what they taste like. Every single time she makes this face. And everytime there are lemons around she wants one.
My youngest brother works in a giant cone called the Museum of Glass. He has a cool job in a cool place. I would very much recommend going there if you are in Tacoma or the surrounding area. We spent all day in and around it and had a great time.
These are pictures of the “hot shop“. You can watch the artists work during the day. The artist we watched doing his glasswork, Gabe Feenan, is a resident at the Glass Museum. I really wanted to see the “Kids Design Glass” days. We couldn’t take pictures of the Kids Design Glass hall of the museum but it was my very favorite part. You can see some of the sculptures online, but for the stories (which are typed word for word, mispellings and poor grammer included) written by the kids, you have to visit. Kids are hilarious. The Broken Heart Snake was a favorite of mine. There is a picture of it on the website, but the story is really what got me. The snake sucks love and if you see it you can’t love for something like seven years. It made me laugh out loud.
Looking up into the dome.
Some pieces on display that you can take pictures of. It is really incredible how they make the different sculptures.
This is one of Preston Singletary‘s designs. His work is amazing. It is sandblasted to achieve the two toned effect. The work that goes into a piece like this is intense.
You can see my punk brother here at his work station. He operates the cameras and puts up videos both in the hot shop and online.
He is about half way up the dome and has a little window to see the hot shop floor. He knows many of the artists personally and the guys of the hot shop floor were great to us. They all came over to say hello and meet his family.
This is right outside the museum.
The water forest.
It was warm enough that playing in the water was fun, but I wasn’t excited to get too wet. Not pictured, my brother and father trying to stick me to a water pole.
This is the bridge we crossed on our way to lunch:
Looking back across to the museum.
These reminded me of giant blue plastic bags.
In the little hallway above, there were walls of sculptures, and above…
…was this. It was gorgeous.
You can see Union Station on the right. Now part of U of W campus.
We walked over there for lunch.
Husband lovingly posed so that I could take a picture of the guy on the bike. I always feel awkward taking pictures of strangers, even if they kinda are asking for it.
After lunch and frappes we went back to look at the gift shop. If you are looking to spend tens of thousands of dollars, this is your kind of gift shop.
This was one of my favorites. I can’t explain why. I just really like it.
At first I was like, “O what a sweet picture of me and my middle brother”. Then I read the blocks. Like I said, PUNKS.
I don’t get it. The tent Munchkin was supposed to be sleeping in (under the quilt) is large enough for an adult person, and yet somehow she found a way to roll out of it . She slept on the floor most of the night. Silly girl.
The fam. Don’t ask me what I was doing with my glasses. I don’t know.
Filed under Home life, Travel | Comment (1)The Birds – Malheur
Snipes are for real. This is a Common Snipe. Snipe hunting is still more accurate as a joke though – these suckers are usually tough to find.
Momma Great Horned Owl
You can kind of see the fuzzy grey babies in this shot.
Ruddy Duck and mate. The bright blue of its beak is not photoshopped, just naturally weird.
I don’t know that I’ll ever see enough California Quail to stop liking them. They remind me of little gentlemen and I love how they group and run with their babies.
Do you see it? We scared it out of its hidey hole here and it flew across Diamond Crater to land…
…here. I’ll give you a hint, its another Great Horned Owl. They are often found here.
Now do you see it?
The American Coot. I loathe these. Any birder would understand. Stupid water chicken.
Beautiful Cinnamon Teal and mate.
Western Meadowlark. Novel to us now that I live in Western Oregon. In Idaho and Eastern Oregon they are everywhere. I miss hearing their song here.
Do you see what I see?
Now? That is a burrowing owl on the left end of the log.
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, AKA, Yellow-Headed Blackbird. Again they are everywhere there but nowhere here, so I’m smitten with them.
We did some great birding in Malheur but didn’t get as many good shots as we would have liked. I was so glad Hubby got to experience the same trip I’ve been on before. It is a treat to go with others who know so much about an area; it makes it much more interesting and much easier to bird.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Malheur – A Vacation to Nowhere
My final two years of college I went to Malheur twice. Once with my Ornithology class and once with my Ecology class. I completely enjoyed myself and ever since then wanted to take Husband along. Dwight Kimberly has been leading this trip for too many years to count and knows a ton about the area. He is retiring next year and we may have child #2 by then so we decided we had to make the this year (we didn’t want to lose that expertise). So off we went on the vacation to nowhere. And you know what? We drove and drove, we ate late, we walked a lot, we learned a lot, and we loved it. We are such dorks.
Welcome to Eastern Oregon.
The Painted Hills. They almost glow when the sun is out.
Looking out at the Painted Hills with the students with whom we traveled.
Munchkin enjoyed it, although not for the beauty of the hills – more because she could run amok.
On my first trip here I may have fallen in the John Day river, right at this location. There are some great hieroglyphics here if you know where to look. They are tricky to get a picture of though because you have to lean out around some rocks to see them.
Nobody decided to go for a swim this time.
It was cold and gray, the gray being unusual for that area at this time of the year. We have lots of pictures of the white van we followed more than 1,000 miles in one weekend. The munchkin was a champ even with so much driving.
Cant Ranch with Sheep Rock in the background.
Our fearless and knowledgeable leader, outstanding in his field.
It was fun to watch people move through the sage. You could see them so far away.
It was fascinating how the clouds poured over Steens Mountain.
The munchkin felt no fear of going into the “tunnel” (Malheur Cave) whether we came or not. I really expected her to have more fear.
Looking out.
This cave is still used by the Masons. It’s a little creepy because of the seating and the dark. It makes you think of ancient and spooky rituals. As far as I know the Masons aren’t creepy, but the cave kind of is.
At Diamond Crater, they spotted the hidden bird in this post.
The munchkin needed some help getting over the rocks.
There were Jack Rabbits and Cottontails galore. We managed to catch one scorpion, saw a paltry few lizards, and no snakes. Disappointing really.
But I did get cell service…
Filed under Birds, Travel | Comments (2)Mama Got Crafty
All of these projects were based off of other people’s tutorials (which are linked where appropriate) but then were frankensteined to suit my laziness, incompetency, and other “issues” (like not having any bias tape, not knowing what a french seam is or how to do it, etc…). I am a very beginner in the world of sewing, so any fault you see is not due to the tutorials, just me. All of these items were 100% repurposed.
Some new pants from old pants of mine. I have further designs on these pants, but haven’t gotten around to doing anything more with them.
New seatbelt covers – I strayed wildly from the tutorial. And I learned how to make my own bias tape – let’s pretend it was easy.
New dress made from one of G’pa J’s old Hickory logging shirts. I can’t help but wonder what he would think about that. I just barely followed the tutorial for this dress and the next. Apparently I can’t be bothered to actually measure twice and cut once. No, I am more of the stitch it in, seam rip it out, then again – oy again and one more time – again (each time trying it on an increasingly testy little munchkin). Done.
A new little Hawaiian dress.
Filed under Sewing | Comment (0)