My family took the opportunity of a recent trip to Oregon to revisit the cold, gray beaches where we grew up. My niece spotted the rolling mass of waves from afar and asked: “Get in it? My feet?” and her parents were happy to comply, while the baby kept warm with my own parents. MyContinue reading “Waves, meteors and cougars”
Tag Archives: family
Samuel comes to Oregon
“Chloe,” I whispered “Guess who you’re going to see soon? Samuel!” We had just finished dinner, and I had it on good authority that Chloe’s favorite uncle was 20 minutes away. Chloe started jumping up and down. “See Samah soon! See Samah soon!” The rest of us live in Idaho, spread out over less thanContinue reading “Samuel comes to Oregon”
4th of July
We have a tradition that for the 4th of July, we all go up to my parents’ house next to Canada, swim in the river, jump off stuff, cook outside, shoot fireworks, and take lots of naps. All five of us kids. Sadly, however, it’s not going to happen this year, so I will contentContinue reading “4th of July”
Easter in the graveyard
My sister’s in-laws have this tradition of getting a bunch of people together and eating Easter breakfast as a picnic in the graveyard. The result is this sunny spread of bacon, sausage and sweet rolls against the backdrop of weathered gravestones, right around the time of year when you could actually first have a picnicContinue reading “Easter in the graveyard”
Glendale Raptors defeat Old Puget Sound Beach in spring season start (and other stories)
Glendale won 35-21 after a close game this past Saturday between two of the nation’s leading rugby teams. Despite winning the last season, the Colorado-based Raptors had suspected that they would have their work cut out for them in playing the Washington-based opposition on its own turf, and, indeed, they were tied at the beginningContinue reading “Glendale Raptors defeat Old Puget Sound Beach in spring season start (and other stories)”
On Homeschooling
The other night, as I lounged on a couch more posh than comfortable, imbibing a flight of Syrah at the local wine bar, a friend — everyone is a friend in this town — leaned across the very large coffee table and told me she was homeschooling her kids. “You were homeschooled, right?” She askedContinue reading “On Homeschooling”
Language, IQ and firstborns
For the past couple of decades, I’ve come in and out of contact with articles saying that firstborn children tend to have better verbal skills, on average, than their younger siblings. This, of course, gelled with my own experience as a preternaturally linguistic firstborn child — my mother recorded my early verbal expressions faithfully, reportingContinue reading “Language, IQ and firstborns”
Thanksgiving
We spent Thanksgiving with the Ewers family, as in days of yore.
At home
Stayed awake with one brother and Kelsey, who is up for Thanksgiving, until they got tired. Silly children. Haven’t laughed so much in a long time. Ok, maybe yesterday. Daniel (the silent 16-year-old): I usually fast and pray and then get advice before I even talk, but with her (he shakes his head, just thinkingContinue reading “At home”
Vocab
The kitchen serves as a meeting place, which means I often sit here and wait for something to happen, such as Gunn wandering in to complain how much I try his patience. The other day he really shot himself in the foot, though. We were talking about the unfortunate name “Tristan Virgin,” who is aContinue reading “Vocab”
Botkin Creative 