New Garden Success

This is the first year that I've grown parsnips, which if you know anything about parsnips, get harvested in the spring. So it was a year ago that I put those little translucent seeds into the dark ground and then had to wait and wait and wait to see if they had grown to a worthwhile size! At the beginning of the month, we dug them up, which of course is highly gratifying - a reason to dig in the dirt in early March, and to pull out real food from the garden in March. Unbelievable! We had a pretty good harvest, which of course leads me to want to plant more:)

Summer in March!

How often do we get to put on our bathing suits in March? Wear flip flops? Eat a melon seaside? Look for crabs? Shrimps? Snails? Dig in the Sand? Work in the garden? What a treat!

Of course, I'm now sitting by a fire again and temperatures are not supposed to be too high this week, but it is March, after all!

Recent Obsessions

With the move from inside to out, all of our focus shifts. And instead of the complete and total obsession with Diego, Makili has moved on to focusing on Diego's zipline. He had me to the point of broken nerves one day by asking more times than I could handle if I could build him a zip line. How about now? Are you ready now? It didn't matter if I told him I would in the summer or if I flat out told him NO, he just kept on me ALL DAY! So Raph at least bought me some time and mental health rehabilitation by building him the rope ladder up into the tree and a tree swing. Makili now spends all him time dragging everything he owns up into the tree.

Huge pile of lobster rope from dump: free
Ton of treasures from around the house and yard: free
Hours of uninterrupted play: priceless.

Before I move on...

Before I move onto other things, some more photo highlights from our trip. Noticeably absent from these pictures are my parents. I'm going to have to work on that!Ege trying to eat Raph.
The new boyfriend...
The jumper
Pretty nieces.


Motorcycle craziness.
The 2-year-olds loved feeding the chickens.

Casey LOVED ice skating!
Surprised Laurie.
Makili's first solo motorcycle ride. (I had nothing to do with it.)
I love this photograph.
Amanda hiked a mile up hill and then came back down carrying two children and a smile on her face.
Sunset Fire Pit. BLISS.
Nice lighting.
Paddle boats.
Exploring.

The cousins

My parents grandchildren in one place. First and only time to dates. Pretty cool.

the youngest: Hudson the early walker, happy-go-lucky, early riser, bruiser of a thing.
Remick: the never stop talking, cute as a button, full of personality from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, pistol
Kaylee: the inexhaustible, Lady and Tramp-loving, limber, always saying something, incessantly climbing sprite
Makili: the easily wonder-struck, sunny, often-whiny, gear-obsessed, artsy, love
Jenna: the ultra-competitive, quietly stubborn, arm around her younger cousins, champ
Casey: the chatty, excitable, sensitive, introspective, eyes-wide-open, darling
Austin, the perpetually positive, painfully sweet, exceedingly curious, open-minded sprout
And the oldest, Brittany: the soft-spoken, easy-going, family-loving, beauty
And the newest cousin: Ege, the garrulous, generous, kind-hearted, messy, Turk!

So many pictures, it's overwhelming

I have so many pictures from our trip it is actually overwhelming. Fun too, but overwhelming. These are two of our favorites from San Francisco. My mom, sick as a dog, played tour guide, her favorite role. We took Ege to the Golden Gate bridge, and down Lombard Street, and then of course to my favorite place, China Town. He couldn't get over that really truly every sign was in Chinese. I got my fill of cheap stuff that is super cool. Until next year that is:) And a bonus of having an exchange student is that they can take family pictures for you:)

(surprise) reunion

Whole family together for the first time in 3 years (with 3 new members since that time!) So lovely, despite sickness, jet lag, etc. So worth it!

About photography.

I find that as my children grow, it is harder to photograph them. When they were babes like this sweet friend, Vita, their genuine beings just show through. They just are without effort.
Remick still is on the cusp of this age, so earnest about every emotion. And sometimes he'll hold still long enough for a photograph, but still not into the soul like with babies.
And with Makili, there is the camera behavior:

And besides he's just always moving so fast and in so many directions it is impossible to in any way capture what is going on with, his obsession at the moment with learning math, or winning, or drawing in his diary, or "doing homework." How he loves Diego, and learning about animals, and ice skating, always ice skating, asking every morning if we are going to skate today. He can't hold still, even in bed for the moments he is awake before he nods off. He wiggles and squirms, and breaths in your face. But I take pictures sometimes anyway, and sometimes, the texture of his skin and pout of his lips and his disheveled hair make me weak even though I know I'm not capturing "him."
And sometimes in his camera silliness, I see what his real joy looks like in the background and some tiny part of my boy is captured, without any of the complexity of his being and our relationship.
And then there is poor Ege. I just take pictures of him doing laundry:)

My favorite thing about winter

My favorite thing about winter (if you can call it that this year) is the stark beauty of the world around us. Last year our sledding trips at the gold course stand out in the same way as the frozen pond with dramatic skies. It's like our Big Sky time of year.

teaching friends' kids to skate.
while some of our other kids lay on the ice together to talk in the background.
and around us the Big Skies watching our children, reminding us of our small part of the big world we live in.