Do you know the street value of all this snow?

People around here refer to Mt. Rainier as simply "the mountain." Makes sense I guess since Rainier dominates the horizon around here. Mt. Baker is out there somewhere to the far north/northeast of us but we haven't been up close enough to see it. The Olympic Mountains out on the Peninsula are too far away and sometimes just seem like a constant ribbon. Mt. Rainier is truly a landmark.

I took the girls up to the mountain on Monday. It's only about a 60 minute drive to get into the main foothills. In past years, this would have been a nice drive through some quaint towns but now, Buckley and Enumclaw are probably more commuter oriented than "small" towns.

Ellie was intent on making a snow angel. Once we found a snow-park that wasn't completely full of cars, we got out and walked around a little. Ellie discovered very quickly that snow is COLD. And the cotton mittens she had on got wet after a few minutes of throwing snowballs as me. Campbell enthralled by the clouds of snow that billowed up when either Ellie or I tossed a snowball. But she found out quickly that walking in snow was harder than it looked. The temperature when I took this picture was 19 degrees. It's kind of funny to realize that she doesn't have any real recollection of our 3 years in Alaska in regards to the cold and snow.

The road we took up there cuts down into the National Park when it's open. Chinook Pass has some weird weather and there have been years where it didn't open until June or even July. Instead, we just tooled along until we got to the (closed) Park entrance and then came back. We drove up the other way (the south entrance) this past summer. That whole area is spectacularly beautiful no matter what time of year. This summer, we're going to get the girls up there to do some day hiking. They both like being outside so much that even if we only cover a few miles, it'll be fun just getting them out there.

I got two new lenses for my camera for Christmas. I took this picture with the zoom. We were at around 3,000 feet above sea level . Rainier is about 14,400 feet tall. It's hard to tell from this far away but there was a lot of wind on the mountain top and it was swirling something fierce. If Jennifer had been with me, I would have found out where this road goes but I thought it might not be prudent being by myself.

Here comes the rain again. And again. And again...

Nah, it's not that bad. We have a lot of things we can do indoors. And fortunately, the rain doesn't come down in buckets usually so we can sneak outside every now and then. The Point Defiance Zoo has a great aquarium that the girls like to walk around in and see the different kinds of fish. Lately, Ellie has been asking nearly every day to go. So we pack up some snacks, grab the juice boxes and away we go. I was in the kitchen cutting up an apple and Ellie asked me if we could feed it to the sharks in the big tank. That might have been fun but a little scary. One of the other cool things about the aquarium is the strong emphasis on local fish and water flora.

We discovered on Monday that the zoo has two Sumatran tigers. The area behind Ellie in the picture usually houses one but another habitat over my shoulder had another one. We didn't see any staff around to ask questions so next time we go, we'll try and find out more about them. Ellie still isn't real keen on looking at the elephants that are there. She had a scare at the Rainforest Cafe when we first moved here.

During busy hours, the zoo staff will be on the grounds showing some of the smaller animals. Ellie saw an armadillo this summer and thought it was a dinosaur. They have a great amphitheater where they do their Discovery shows and I think both girls will be ready for that next year. Jennifer and I were discussing an overnight trip to downtown Seattle. We want to hit the Pike Place Market and the Seattle Aquarium without having to spend 3 hours driving back and forth. Winter's as good a time as any to do it.


Campbell is about ready to walk the zoo on her own. She can't really get into any trouble but when she's in the stroller she has a better vantage point. I think she still enjoys being chauffeured around even though she normally hates being constrained. And I like it when Ellie walks it. We have an awesome front/back stroller but when Ellie is in front, it's HEAVY!

I'm debating about taking the girls for a day trip out to Mt. Rainier this week/weekend. There's plenty of snow out there now and I think they'd have a blast playing in it. We're only about an hour or so away from the base of the mountain. With the overcast skies, we don't get many chances to see the mountain during the winter so maybe getting in the car and seeing some snow close up would be fun. Or I could be asking for trouble. Ellie could start bugging me daily to go make some snow angels.

It's good to be home

But Texas was fun. We got back Thursday afternoon from a two week visit. We had near perfect weather. It was so nice to cook a steak and not have to worry about the meat getting damp when I opened the grill cover. A couple of days before we left, a cold front came through. Now, you have to remember, a lot Texans freak out if there's even a freeze warning. And there was a freeze warning. The funny thing is that the weathermen are now giving out time frames for how many hours they'll be under 32 degrees. On Tuesday night, it was 4 hours. 4 WHOLE HOURS OF FREEZING TEMPERATURES? OH THE HUMANITY!!! Te-he. I brought 2 pair of shorts and one pair of jeans with me. I never wore the jeans. I'll admit, there were a couple of evenings when it got chilly enough to warrant long sleeves. But it was nice to be outside in 70 degree temperatures.

Ellie and Campbell enjoyed running around Nana and Papa's house/yard. While we had warm weather, it was great to take them to the playground or let Ellie ride a bike on the driveway or to play tag/keep away/hide and go seek in the backyard. Christmas was fun too. Ellie gets the concept of opening presents but Campbell is pretty happy to just play in a pile of spent wrapping paper. In true kid fashion, some of the boxes got more attention than what came in them. We had a chance to see Lisa and Tim for a few days. Heck, Jennifer and I went to a movie with them and it was the first one we've seen in a theater in over 2 years. It felt so... grownup.