Christmas in Raleigh

From snowy Syracuse we headed south to Raleigh which was also snowy at one point during our visit. Given that Michael was born at the same time as the great Baltimore blizzard of 2010 we are beginning to think he is the root cause of these wintry conditions.

Our first stop after arriving in Raleigh was to visit Great-Grandmommy who was delighted to have on her lap her two littlest babies, Chandler and Michael.
Of course there were some big girls there too! Hello, Dimney and Mary Susan!

Dinner at Honey and Poppy's condo the next night gave Michael a chance to show off the good manners we've been teaching him. Needless to say Michael loved his Honey's meat sauce, which she attributed to his Italian genes. He also loved the meatballs that were served on Christmas Day.
After church on Sunday we stopped by to visit our family friend Annette, who made us some delicious gluten-free oatmeal cookies. We were glad to catch Annette who is now down in Alabama visiting family and eagerly anticipating Auburn's turn in the BCS Championship Game.

Most days in Raleigh included a visit to the Rideout house where Michael and Chandler enjoyed some playtime together. Unlike Michael, Chandler is fully mobile, and we were hoping she'd give him a few lessons on moving around. Here she is showing him the ropes on her front door.

Moving on to Christmas Day, we find Honey enjoying some hugs from her two grandbabies.

Like all the boys in the family, Michael shed his outerwear during the meal: t-shirts only! That red sauce can be messy, as we saw above. The meatballs this year were delicious. All week long we were in suspense guessing how many meatballs Honey and Grandmom made. After all the guesses were in and carefully recorded by Dimney, Catherine was announced as the winner for guessing 72. Her prize: $7.20.

And what captures the true meaning of Christmas better than a picture of yours truly drinking wine and crunching some numbers on the new Hello Kitty calculator?
Another visit we made during our visit was to see Aunt Orred, my grandmom's sister. This was the first time she met Michael and they hit it off well. No smiles, but he was very cozy on her lap!
Lastly, one more picture of the baby cousins, this time holding court at the Mellow Mushroom. By the end of the night there were about 500 puffs on the floor beneath them.

Snowy Syracuse

We arrived in Syracuse the Saturday before last for our east coast holiday visit. Needless to say, Michael was very excited to see his Gramma and Papa...and also this oversized bear:

Michael is still not crawling yet, and I think we are partly to blame, since we bring him whatever he seems to want. As this video shows, he now extends his arm to whatever he wants or wherever he wants to go. One day we'll just get him a bell that he can ring when he needs something. If only he weren't so cute, we could resist his requests!

During our stay here in Syracuse Michael has also discovered a talent for pool. He took to the eight ball like a natural-born shark. Or else he had a question about the future and confused it for the Magic Eight Ball. ("Signs point to yes.") Of course, in Syracuse Michael wanted to support the home team, especially in their big game against Michigan State. It's looking like a good season for the Orange.

And of course it wouldn't be Christmas in Syracuse without some lake effect snow! As I said, we arrived on Saturday, and on Sunday night it began snowing for 95 (!) straight hours. By the end of the snow about forty inches had accumulated.

We were all remembering the Baltimore blizzard that came the day after Michael was born. Of course being a few days old, he was too small last year to play in the snow, so we made up for it this year, beginning with this full-body snow suit. Michael initially looked confused.

Fortunately, Emily had enough enthusiasm for everyone. (Yours truly is in the background looking slightly less enthusiastic.)

But I have to admit it was awfully cute watching Michael in the snow.
Here's a little video of the fun, too:

Here's a few more pictures from our visit so far. I thought he looked so cute in this outfit.

The railroad theme continued when Emily's dad found this conductor's hat... ...that Emily wore when she was little and wound her train set around the Christmas tree.And what Christmas visit would be complete without a picture with Old Saint Nick? We thought Michael would be scared because he's often skittish around men with beards, but he was intrigued with Santa Claus. He sat right on his lap and stared hard at him; only when we called his name did he look at the camera.

We leave this coming Saturday for North Carolina. I'm sure we'll have some more pictures along the way, so stay tuned!

Thanksgiving

Two posts in one day! It's amazing how a holiday lets you catch up on things. As we recover from a delicious Thanksgiving dinner last night, I've uploaded some pictures from yesterday and today. Emily, Michael and I spent Thanksgiving with our friends Annie and Rob who live on Mercer Island. My aunt Susu is a longtime friend of Annie's and as soon as she found out we were moving to Seattle, she put us in touch with Annie. What a blessing she and her husband Rob have been for us! It has been wonderful to visit them, and we were especially happy to spend the holiday with them. As you can see, Michael was feeling the love with Annie on Thanksgiving, and he loved the new hat she and Rob gave him!

Annie and Rob kindly let us spend the night with them so we would not have to rush back to Bainbridge Island. Michael was only too pleased to improvise his bath in the sink. The stainless steel put him in a splashy mood!

The next morning we got up and headed downtown for the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Seattle. Michael was taking everything in.

We couldn't tell if he liked it or not; he wore his worried face most of the time.

We thought his cousins would like this picture, because they love snow globes. The princess inside this lifesize snow globe was waving hello to everyone, or else waving for someone to please let her out. Either way, she was very enthusiastic. Again, Michael was unimpressed, as you can see.

The parade ended in front of Macy's, which happened to be right where we were standing. Naturally, Santa was the last float and when his sleigh stopped in front of the store, he climbed down to great applause and went inside...followed by a throng of children hyped up on candy canes.

We took a pass and made our way down to Pike Place Market where we ran some errands, before catching the ferry back to Bainbridge Island.

Weekend in Portland

This holiday weekend has finally given me a chance to catch up on some pictures from a recent weekend trip to Portland. Once again Uncle B hooked us up with a hotel room at a Marriott, which was located just north of the city. It was beside the Expo Center, where there happened to be an RV show that very weekend. As you might imagine, Emily was trying to convince me spend the whole day looking at RVs, but I told her I was eager to go shopping in downtown Portland. In the end we boarded the light rail train and began the thirty-minute ride into Portland. One of the last stops was Rose Garden Arena, home of the Portland Trailblazers, who are coached by former Enloe High School (and NCSU) baller Nate McMillan. I was on the lookout for Nate to see if he'd hook up a fellow alum (Class of '96! Go Eagles!) with some courtside seats. Alas, the Blazers were in Oklahoma City that weekend. Next time, Nate!

When it came to giving directions, downtown Portland was very forthcoming.
Here's the courthouse.

We visited Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. The former was spent just walking around the downtown getting a sense of the place. We also took a nice walk along the Willamette River (accent on the "a").

The following day, Saturday, we got downtown early and met up with a Jesuit friend we know from Weston. He is originally from Portland and now is the principal of a school there. We walked around the Saturday Market with him and later got some coffee together. It was great to catch up.

Our next stop was the famous Powell's Book Shop, which I think is the largest bookstore in the country. It was truly enormous and full of new and used books. I restricted myself to the sections on the Bible and ancient history, and that alone took over two hours. It would take weeks to go through the whole store.

At one point, Em and Michael went downstairs to get some lunch and Michael became friends with a young man sitting at a nearby table. As the guy left he handed Emily a CD for Michael, saying that he himself was a musician and he had a good feeling that Michael would be, too. Let's hope he's right. We still haven't listened to the CD yet; we're just hoping it's suitable for innocent ears. We also hope it's appropriate for Michael.

Apparently, Portland is famous for its coffee shops and its microbreweries. Since we had already been to a coffee shop, it only made sense to take our late lunch at a microbrewery. We decided on Deschutes Brewery, because we saw a few families inside and they had college football games on several TVs.

We were all quite hungry, including Michael, who wasted no time shovelling puffs into his mouth.
Even when he took a break, he kept his food in place to resume in short order. Emily thought that Michael's hair in this picture was uncannily similar to his dad's "style." He's a lucky boy if he's got my bedhead gene.

Soon Michael was looking for something to wash down his snack. He wanted an IPA but settled for some of mom's water.

Eventually, he bypassed the hands altogether and went all out for the puffs. I'm sure the tables were clean; it is a pub, after all.
The highlight for me was the extensive gluten-free menu offered by Deschutes. I had already ordered a glass of wine -- Wine in a pub?!? Tacky, I know, but what can I do? -- when I realized they made a gluten-free beer there at the brewery. So I knocked the wine back quickly and had then bring the gluten-free beer. It came with its own headband, which made me feel very special, and it was pretty good. It was much better than Red Bridge, though like that beer, there wasn't much of a finish; a lot of flavor up front but not a lot of linger. Still it was probably the best gluten-free beer I've ever had.
Equally delicious was the burger that I ordered and which came on a gluten-free bun. All of their burgers could be made gluten-free, which left me many options to choose from.
I cannot remember the last time I was able to sit in a pub, eat a burger and drink a beer. Needless to say, it was an awesome way to spend a rainy afternoon in Portland. We'll definitely get back to the city sometime soon and will no doubt make another stop at Deschutes!

Adventures with Honey and Poppy

Sadly, this morning Honey and Poppy took off from Seattle after a week of fun. As always, the visit flew by and we could hardly believe that their departure date was at hand. Overall, the weather was a mixed bag, as is common for October, so we've been told. We had a few days that were rainy, cold and raw (thank goodness Honey brought her brand new zebra-pattern rain boots), but at least two days that were beautiful fall days. Wednesday especially afforded us some wonderful views of Mount Rainier to the south and even Mount Baker to our north. Some of the highlights of the visits (or at least the occasions on which we took pictures) follow.

Of course, no trip would be complete without a trip to the pool for Michael to show off his new swimming skills.

Here's one of the floating mats they make available for babies. The little puddles that form on top of the mats are perfect for trying to get them to blow bubbles.

Later that day we went to Mercer Island where we had lunch with our friends Annie and Rob Sanford, whom Susu introduced us to. Their house looks out on Lake Washington and since it was the sunny Wednesday, it was a perfect afternoon for looking out over the lake.

Here is shot of Michael and Poppy enjoying some playtime on Thursday.

On sunny Friday we went to the Space Needle. Here are Honey, Poppy and Michael at the fountain in front. Alas, only one of these three was brave enough to ascend the Needle with yours truly.

It was Poppy of course. And once we were up top we had this terrific photo made. You may be wondering if this picture was taken at the Space Needle, how did the Needle itself wind up in the background. Let me just say that there was a little camera trickery involved that I'm not at liberty to discuss. Fortunately, the end result is a terrific and very realistic picture! Thanks, Space Needle!
Our last stop on Friday was to a pumpkin patch on Bainbridge Island. As a little background, given Michael's rather large noggin (body weight = 50th percentile; head circumference = 75th percentile!), Em and I often affectionately call Michael, "Pumpkin," "Punky," or "Mikey Mike and the Punky Bunch." So it was only appropriate to get some shots of him among the pumpkins. Luckily, he had just the outfit for the outing courtesy of Honey and Poppy.

He really liked the straw. Too much. He was so intrigued that it was impossible to get him to look up at the camera.
So naturally we picked him up before he was able to shove a handful of straw into his mouth. (As for me, same shirt as Wednesday? Most definitely. For the record, I've had this shirt since my senior year in high school, and I think it looks as good as it did in '96, or last Wednesday for that matter.)
Our last stop was to the pumpkin wagon where Michael felt right at home.

Last but not least, certain parties have requested that I mention some of the scores from the nightly games of bridge that pitted the boys against the girls. After some success on Monday night, Poppy and I ran out of luck on Tuesday. The night began auspiciously when on the opening hand I succeeded in a bold five-diamond bid for game. (Thank you, but please hold your applause until I finish the full report.) After that hand, it was all Honey and Emily, who strung together enough two-club and two-diamond bids to beat us the rest of the nights. At least, that's my version of our bridge tourney. Maybe Em will add her perspective below...

Note from Emily: No need to cheapen our victory with excess verbage. The simple fact is this: we beat our worthy opponents fair and square, and we look forward to doing so in December as well!

Vancouver Excursion

This week we are excited to have Honey and Poppy visiting us from NC. They arrived last Friday night and on Saturday we took off for a weekend trip to Vancouver. Here are Honey and Michael on the ferry to Seattle where we caught I-5 heading north.

Not sure where the next picture falls into the sequence of the trip. It may have been taken in the Marriott where Uncle B set us up. Thanks for the awesome rate, B! If only your Cowboys were as efficient as you at taking care of business! As you can see, Michael is getting excited for Halloween!
Here you can see that Michael is following in a long line of Davises of fall asleep midsentence and nap with a book lying on top of their chests. Nothing like a thank-you prayer to bring on the Z's!

Here we are on Granville Island in Vancouver. From Michael's aviator cap you might think that we flew to Vancouver in a bi-plane, but we really just drove there.

He likes the Lindbergh look.

It only rained a few times, but when it did, Michael wanted to help me hold up the umbrella. I just wish he had chosen a tougher-looking umbrella.

On the drive back to Seattle, some in the car insisted on stopping at the Seattle outlet mall north of the city. Fortunately, between stops at Carter's and the food court, Michael found time to get his adrenaline fix. This razorback was pretty intense.
This fire truck was fun, too!

The rest of Honey and Poppy's visit we are going to spend in Seattle, and we'll be sure to post (in a timely fashion) pictures from the week.