Autumn War - 2010

Autumn War was the perfect opportunity to try out or packing capabilities with the Gold Oldsmobile and to see how well Sophia camped. We hadn't gone camping with her at all yet and we were planning a road trip and camping trip to Yellowstone in two weeks.
I was anxious about how I needed to make SCA clothes for Sophia because it felt like one more thing in the grand number of things that needed to be planned for but like usual I pulled it off. And with an offer by our friend Dan to load all of our things in their giant orange van we had someone to share the cost of gas and we didn't need to take extra time packing the car. This was awesome but I was a little bummed that we were missing the opportunity to test out our new roof rack for the car.

Sophia proved herself to be a Warren. She sat happy in her infant car seat, packed into the van with two familes worth of stuff (4 adults and 4 children) and when we arrived happily lounged in the couch camping chair munching on her blanket.

Dan had brought he dragon wing with him and it ended up being our saving grace. Autumn war was scheduled to be down in Randall which is on the south side of Mt. Raineir, often windy, very open, and usually cold. This weekend, however it rose into the 100's if not just about there and we all lounged in the shade enjoying the occasional breeze.

We played game after game of Shut The Box

And Sophia again was carefree and loving the attention and the new sensations of the sun, grass, sights of midevil camping.

Walter did well with the heat but stayed back from fighting as our friend joel, who joined us for the afternoon suited up and still fought in the oppressive heat and sun. I just don't know how the fighters don't get heat stroke. Some must.

I love how Padon and Sophia love each other. How they look at each other and haven't developed enough of their own unique personalities to push off each other. It is so hard not to snap hundreds of these precious expressions.

I also couldn't get over how much Sophia looked like me as a baby in these pictures. Her little bald melon, blue eyes, and pale skin mirrored baby pictures of me as a baby. Even my mom confirmed when I showed her the pictures later.

Padon also was awesome with the heat and didn't complain. I was concerned that he and Sophia might get over heated however and with a quick diaper change (I love the midevil atmosphere of the SCA where people don't mind naked children being changed; no judging) we left Padon in only his diaper so he would be as cool as possible, the same with Sophia.

The funny thing about the picture below is that we had laid Walter's cloak out on the grass for Padon to lie on and hopefully take a nap. In the end Padon ended up on Chaos's (dog) blanket, and Chaos on Walter's cloak. Both of them preferred the other's bedding.

And food! Padon!

In the end it was a very eye opening trip. It was obvious that camping with the kids wasn't going to be a problem. We just needed to find if we could still pack everything we needed in and on the Olds. On the way back home traffic was horrendous on I-5 and so we stopped at Dan's parent's house and had dinner and gave the kids baths. It took us about 5 hours to get home and again the kids proved themselves to be great road trippers. The trip to Yellowstone is going to be awesome!

Would You Like Some Dinner? Don't Tell Me No; I Was Being Polite! Sit Down!

I remember my Mom doing this: "Would you like some dinner? Don’t tell me no, I was being polite! Sit Down!" And she did variations of this on many things. Finally I got old enough to articulate a response that wouldn't result in a smack in my face and it went along the lines of "why do you keep asking my opinion if there is no choice in the matter?” I think, stunned, she realized I had a valid point, and going forward tried really hard to not ask me to do things that she just wanted me to do. And until this point it seemed a Mom quirk and I didn't understand her initial logic.

Walter and I have finally had the "Ohhhhhhh..." moment. It's because in adult society and in adult culture when you talk with people you preface your statements in a question, maybe to imply they have a choice and therefore you are acting considerate and as if you care about their feelings. An awful explanation of what I’m trying to say, but think of the times that people have said to you "won't you take a seat?" So as we talk to our kids we say things like "do you wanna sit down for dinner?", when we really mean "Get in your chair!", or "Do you wanna take your vitamin, drink your water, put on your jacket, etc." And they hear "Do you wanna sit down for dinner?" and in Padon's case respond, "No, all done with the dinner." What do you say to that? I mean, you asked...

So Walter and I are having to relearn how to speak. "It's dinner time, please sit down in your chair., Here's your vitamin, take it now please., Here's your jacket, put it on please." It's surprising how hard it is to change to this manner of speech or how fast the "do you wanna..." slips out before you can catch yourself. Even saying things like "lets go brush your teeth" with a three year old is needing to be prefaced with It's time to brush your teeth, let's go brush your teeth.

I have had so many ah-ha! moments this year as Padon has grown older. It has definitely taught me never to judge anyone and that no matter how hard I try to imagine what it might be like walking in someone else’s shoes I will never really know until I put them on and buckle them down.

First Country Fair!

Because Walter has taken the F.E.M.A. C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Resource Team) training and been certified as a HAM Radio operator he was given the opportunity to volunteer at the Community Emergency Resource tent at the Stanwood-Camano Is. Fair. And because he was volunteering he got free tickets for himself and his family! Woohoo!

So on the day scheduled we bundled ourselves up against the rainy forecast and made our way to our family's first country fair.

Walter and I were excited to share the fair experience with Padon and while we got him pumped about it he really was kind of timid. We bought tickets for the rides and then were perplexed about which ride should be Padon's first ride. The carousel, you might say; the Ferris Wheel? No, like idiots Walter and I agreed that the "tea cup" ride might be fun. Well that swirling booth took one severe centrifugal force turn and Padon freaked out, bursting into tears. And as a parent strapped in, knowing the ride has a time limit, what do you do, but hold onto your three year old and try to comfort as well as you can as the ride sucks you in and spins, sucks you in and spins. Dumb!

There was no more riding the rides for a long time after that. We had ruined the idea of rides. Luckily the fair had a lot more to offer. Padon, Sophia and I dropped Walter off at the volunteer tent and Padon got a fireman's hat. Which was really great because it had started to rain big fat rain drops and the hat, especially on backwards, worked great to deflect the rain.

We moved onto find what free samples we could get and what cool thing we might get with our free ticket prize voucher. We saw the pigs, cows, chickens, and goats; got free chocolate milk; and our prize voucher awarded Padon either an inflatable toy or a brass bracelet. He chose the bracelet that sadly we lost before the day was over.

We stopped to try out cotton candy, the first time Padon had ever had it.

I kind of thought he would have been more wowed at how cotton candy disintegrates sweetly in your mouth but when I asked him if he thought it was good I got this pacifying face.

We stopped to play one of the games that a toddler can't loose. I paid a gal $2 so Padon could pull a duck out of the wading pool that said on the bottom what prize he won. He was very impressed to receive an inflatable blue dolphin which lasted about two hours before he bit a hole in its nose and it deflated and I threw it away. On our walk around we saw this guy "riding" this chicken. He really was funny. He played a very serious character although he would make funny comments and would move and walk the chicken like it was real, which just had Padon fascinated.

When Walter was done with his shift we swung by and picked him up to go around the fair again. Disappointed with Padon's lack of interested with the rides and still holding 17 tickets in our hand we prodded Padon again to whether there were any rides he would like to go on. And gratefully he picked out the fun house. Which in a nontraditional way only consisted of a plexiglass-mirror maze, a stair case, fun house mirrors and a spiral slide down the outside of the building. I was disappointed and Padon LOVED it! We went through 7 times in a row, which in itself is funny because it was raining and the slide was wet. By the time we were done the back of our pants were soaked from the rain, but Padon was unphased. And when I caught him on his 8th attempt to go through to say we were done because we were out of tickets he asked to go on the ride across the way. What?! We had finally hit the rides are fun button and were out of tickets. Oh well, next time.

Where was Sophia in all of this, you might ask. Happily being a 7 month old baby; watching the happenins, sucking on my hood strings, and drinking a bottle from time to time.

6th Annual Mariner's Stitch N' Pitch

Last year I had, had such a good time at the Stitch'n'Pitch night, even though I didn't really know anyone, that I swore I would go again the next year. The feeling of being surrounded by thousands upon thousands of knitters was so much fun. So when the tickets came out this year I was all over it! And when the day came I packed up my knitting and after work took the bus into the city ready for a great night.

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One of the best things about this year was Pacific Fabrics, which hosts the event with The Mariners, was giving out bobble head Mariner Moose Mascots (last year it was a knitting accessory bag that I use like crazy). I'm not into baseball, funny enough, but I knew that the bobble heads were covetted and even better this Moose was knitting the Mariners colored scarf that he was wearing around his neck and I had a very strong "I must have it!" feeling. So the minute I reached the 300 section of the stadium I went looking for what turned out to be a very elusive moose. I finally ran into a group of three elderly gals all hugging (I'm not kidding) and comparing their moose and I asked them where they got their bobble head moose? One of the gals turned to me and said, "well you have to have a Stitch'n'pitch ticket to get a Bobble Head Moose" in a (I was trying not to read into her) snobby way. To which I replied that I did have one. She then followed with "well you have to have gotten your ticket from a yarn shop to get the moose." Feeling my back straighten at the direction this conversation was going I said "I did get my ticket at a yarn shop." She said then with a slight hautiness "Well they are all the way on the other side of the stadium, but you have to have gotten your ticket at a yarn shop to get a moose." I said "Well, I DID, so I guess I'll go to the other side. Thank's for the help." and I left them irritated and wondering what it was about my teal t-shirt, with yellow tank on top, pig tails, stripped socks, Mary Janes, and giant bag obviously full of something that must be knitting seeing as I was wandering around the 300 section reserved for the Stitch'n'Pitch night, that made them think that I couldn't have possibly gotten my ticket at a yarn shop. Knitting snobs... I then made my way to the other end of the stadium to find...no moose. Finally after some more asking I discovered that the Bobble Head Moose Giver-Outers were hiding on the back side of one of the Stadium's main souviner shops. I supposed this may have kept the line down, or the mad rush away, and possible stampeed, but man! The longer I spent looking for the Moose the more anxious I got. I don't have a lot of money so keeping me from a free present puts me on edge and taking it away from me will make me cry. And knowing that the signs were saying that there were limited quantities was making me even more anxious, feeling like I was reliving the inability to get my hands on the free bag of swag at the Urban Craft Uprising festival a couple weeks previous because they gave them away to EVERYONE including the kids. When I did have my moose in hand I too had it cluched to my chest with a perma grin threatening to pounce on my lips at any second. It was a beautiful thing and now graces my desk at work.

Once I had my moose in hand I found my seat and it was almost in the same place as last year. I brought out my yarn to begin a sweater and fell into a lovely groove of knitting, and chatting with the gal next to me, while munching on my peanut butter sandwich and drinking my Dr. Pepper in between stitches.

Just liked last year The Mariner's sucked and we lost 5 to 0 when I left at the middle of the 8th at 10pm. I made my way to the bus to find that they had rerouted the bus and the bus driver I was talking to didn't know to where. I only needed to catch that bus to get me to the main bus to take me home so I decided to walk from 1st and Occidental to 4th and Union (20 blocks?). I was slightly nervous to what kind of people I might meet along the way and really would have liked to have taken a picture tour of the walk, because I ended up seeing lots of intresting artwork (like the fish below) and people along the way, but thinking that having a camera in hand, snapping, would bring attention to myself, I put my camera away.

The walk ended up being a really nice one. I had over looked, in my mind's eye, that 1st Avenue would take me through Pioneer Square and the bar scene and there were all kinds of people out my age just having a good time and walking along my route because they too had just gotten out of the game. So I just walked with the crowds and took in the great smells and sights. I reached my bus stop in about 20 minutes and with plenty of time to sit, and pull out my knitting project again. I got to my car in South Everett with no problem, and got home at 12:20am. The ambience wasn't quite like it was last year, but I think I will probably go again next year. I love the opportunity to sit with other people who have the same interests I do. It feels like the opportunity doesn't come up often so when it does I jump on it with a strangling hold.

Is it wrong of me to think this picture is just freak'n adorable? I had my camera on the videos setting and so missed the opportunity to snap the picture where she was smiling about the hat, in an "ooohhhhh, what is this that Padon just put on my head?" She then decided it wasn't the fashion statement she was going for and really cried about it.

I also almost got an adorable Anne Getty image of Sophia sleeping but in the time it took me to get my camera and then hush Padon, who has a walk down the hall way like a bowling ball on a pogo sticks, Sophia had turned her head in a different direction totally ruining the shot. But then, again, because Padon is the loudest quite person you ever met, Sophia woke up and I was greeted by this lovely "hello Mommy!" smile. Awwww....