A one day road trip, and a day of rest

Well, last weekend we had high hopes of watching the Huskies earn a ticket to the sweet 16. In the Seattle papers and local sports radio, we were hearing phrases like "buyers market" and "desperate scalpers" and "giving away tickets".... ROAD TRIP!!!

When we got to Portland, what we found was an endless sea of purple and countless "I need 2 tickets" signs. A couple of hours of scouring the grounds outside the Rose Garden revealed that there were few tickets, the pro's had them, and the consistent "get in" (aka worst seat in the house) was $200/ticket.

Fortunately for us, we have Huskies friends that live 5 minutes from the arena, and they also didn't have tickets, which meant we had good company and a prime spot for watching the game on tv. So we had a nice, long one day road trip to visit friends and watch some hoops. It was still a great day, and well worth the effort even though we didn't make it into the game.

Sadly, the dawgs lost a nail-biter, but it was still a special season, and it's great to see UW perched atop the PAC-10, with a bright future ahead.

Full of optimism a couple of hours prior to game time

B-Roy, greatest Husky of all time, now an NBA all-star for the Blazers

Sunday the kids were in some kind of strange sports themed mood, and we got some good pic's of Kenzie in baseball duds, and Jackson in his Seahawks gear. They are definitely ready for summer weather!!

Smokey feels left out... never makes the blog... so I finally took a couple of pics of the best dog I know.

Happy Birthday Grandad!!!

Creative minds at work

A quick progress report...

First some pics of the kids and mom building geometric shapes with "Goobi"s. Long story short, this was the token gift I bought for Jackson on my last work trip to San Francisco. They are these little magnet pegs and magnetic balls, and they are very fun to play with, even for grown ups. Predictably, my idea for an easy $10 I-was-thinking-of-you present, which was essentially a starter kit, quickly turned into a $40 internet order for a jumbo pack or whatever. Of course the pictures on the box show kids building things like the Taj Majal. Goobi wants to sucker us into buying the $100 Goob-zilla set. Well it ain't gonna happen. However, we are having plenty of fun building pint sized pyramids and other shapes with our wimpy jumbo set.




On Thursday, it was Steph's turn to host "Bunco", which means the kids and I are kicked out of the house. Thankfully our friends Zach and Julie were gracious enough to adopt us for the evening, and Jackson and Kenzie had great fun playing with Eli and Abby. The favorite activities of the night were an intense dance party and dressing up as super heroes.

Jackson and Eli showing off their best moves...

Kenzie (aka Captain America), Eli (aka Flash), and Jackson (aka The Dragon)

Goin' slow in Caye Caulker

"SAWEEEEEEEEEET!!!!" Aah, the sounds of Caye Caulker Belize!

Belize was everything we hoped it would be. Thanks to our friends Nate & Shelly, we found our chance to exit the rat race and landed on a little pocket of paradise on a secluded island off the coast of Belize.

It's pretty easy to sum up the trip: "Go Slow", the unofficial mantra of Caye Caulker. It is a saying, an attitude, a way of life, and it is infectious. Our pace slowed dramatically as we exited the water taxi from the mainland, and by nightfall of day 1, we were 100% in the slow lane.

The island of Caye Caulker is tiny, has no cars... all travel is by foot, bicycle or the occasional golf cart taxi. The highest point of the island is 8 feet. Many of the locals sing aloud while they walk or bike around. Waiters happily announce that they are hungover while they take your breakfast order, flashing a toothy grin. Another local rides around on his bike up and down the main drag yelling a shrill "Saweeeeeeeeeeet", in hopes of finding customers for his seaweed juice. I'm not sure if it's the economic headwinds, or the fact that nobody drinks seaweed juice, but he never seemed to have any customers... but at least he left us with a fond memory.

For us, this was a chance vacation, which we decided to do almost on a whim (due in no small part to how unbelievably cheap tourism is in Belize), and we are so glad we did. It was a chance to relax, read countless books, drink Belikin beers, nap whenever we felt like it, and just share a great experience with good friends. The "vacation problems" were endless: trying to find a sharp corner in our room to pop the lid off of a Belikin; letting my book dip halfway into the pool while I was daydreaming; having the trivia guy screw us over on a key question that he cancelled when he thought he heard someone shout out the answer; getting lost on my morning "walk" around the island, and running the whole way back in sandals.

With a huge variety of activities to choose from (diving, fishing, tube caving, zip lining, snorkeling, etc) we basically settled on 3 favorites: lay around by pool, walk up and down "main street", and eat lobster. Hey, go with what works, right?

So we've been back for a couple of weeks now, the tans are a distant memory, the sun is elusive again, but the memories are still fresh. We miss Caye Caulker already, but the relaxed state of mind still follows us! We hope to return one day, and would certainly recommend it to anyone looking to just decompress.

Below is a quick photo journal...

Coop

The gang en route from mainland to Caye Caulker via water taxi. This crew is ready for vacation!

Steph, Coop, Shelly, and Nate, after our nightly happy hour drink at "Uno Mas"

Classic local grub from Rose's restaurant: lobster, fruit, rice, and garlic "bread fruit"

Shelly and Steph on the swings at INI bar, the all reggae nightspot

Lobster curry dinner

Coop & Steph on post dinner beach stroll

All-islands basketball tournament. Hilarious to watch. The players had the attitudes of LeBron James, but the basketball skills were more Rick James.

The nightly wind-down game of "Big Fat Rat"

Just another day at The Lazy Lizard... where walking around on stilts is normal

aah, choices!

Nate & Coop representing the Polar Bear at Habaneros

Coop & Steph on the dock after returning from Ambergris Caye (aka La Isla Bonita)
Images of Caye Caulker....

fun at home

We've settled back into our groove now that we've been back from Belize for a couple of weeks (Belize post to follow soon...). It's good to be back to the comforts of home in a normal routine with the kids! I think February must be national figure-out-what-to-do-inside month. Let me add that while we have lots to show for our collective creative efforts, I do a little dance every year when the calendar flips over to March 1st. Even though the weather stays the same until after June-uary, mentally there's just something about getting the 2 cruddiest months out of the way.

The kids have been in right brain mode... lots of pretending, role playing, singing, etc. Last week they had a spontaneous Thomas the Tank Engine night, complete with costumes, music, everything. And I must say I built the best track yet... I was a big winner with Jackson that night.

Next came the legendary neighborhood "soup night", hosted at our house this month. This is our monthly gathering where one family makes several vats of soup and the rest of the neighborhood comes over and mooches. This is our 2nd winter of soup nights, so I guess we're all pretty much shovel-ready for the wheels to completely come off this economy. The only thing we'd have to do is make a quick run to the hat store for some fodoras for the men.

Kenzie and the gals playing in her room after warming up with soup

Jackson shows off his DJ machine...

Today I partied with the kids while Steph went to Seattle for a baby shower. We went to the toy store and picked up some art supplies and finally used the easel we got Mackenzie for her birthday... last July!!! They had a blast painting their first masterpieces and can't wait to get up from their break time to draw on the chalk board.

Kenzie poses in front of her masterpiece...

Jackson is all concentration and determined focus

Ready to show his work at a gallery!

We'll try to get back to more regular updates... it's been a bit crazy with the vacation and work travel! Next post will be the Belize one.

Coop