Grandma Lyn and Anya were talking about Lyn’s mom, Susan. Anya: “She was your mother and my great grandmother. … That doesn’t mean she was perfect.”
Angela has learned of Bree’s secret “Flipper Girl” identity: this evening Angela witnessed Bree rolling over from front to back.
Bree chowed down on rice cereal this evening. Angela and Siri had tried to feed her cereal before, but she didn’t seem all that interested. Jan and Angela tried again tonight—and Bree couldn’t eat enough. Only about 1/2 the food on any given attempt would actually stay in her mouth, but still, it was great.
Jan took Anya, Liya, and Grandma up to Friday Harbor today. The girls did great on the trip. We arrived in Anacortes with time to spare, so after lunch at a Greek restaurant, we poked around a cozy bookstore on the main drag. When we arrived at the ferry line, we still had a bit of time, and took a quick walk along the shore. The girls enjoyed the ferry ride, particularly looking for houses on the wooded slopes of the small islands we passed. We checked into nice rooms at Friday Harbor House, including a corner room on the top floor overlooking the whole harbor.
We went on a letterboxing expedition, ending up at the nearby Friday Harbor Elementary School, where Grandma found the letterbox. We walked back to the hotel, and had a nice meal in the hotel restaurant. Anya and Liya passed on the butter noodles offered to kids, instead opting for the sundried tomato and brie ravioli. It’s probably the nicest dish they’ve ever voluntarily ordered off a menu.
Returning to our rooms, the girls had a great time splashing around in the room’s big jet bath. They didn’t want to sleep in the sofa bed that was meant for them, and ended up sleeping in Grandma’s room.
More fun on San Juan Island today. In the early morning, Grandma played with the girls and let Jan sleep in. After breakfast in the hotel, we drove across to Lime Kiln Point State Park on the island’s west side to hunt for another letterbox. We were once again victorious, and once we had our logbook stamped, walked a bit further down to the whale watching viewpoint. No whales today, but we did have a burst of sunny weather while we were there. Back in Friday Harbor, we had Chinese food for lunch, and then caught the ferry back to Anacortes and home.
Angela planned our Valentine’s Day date night this year: a nice set course dinner at The Georgian Room in the Fairmont Olympic downtown. The highlight was a complementary horse carriage ride around the block after dinner!
Sabriya likes to eat her own toes.
5:32pm Bree rolls over from back to front for the first time ever, on the floor of the family room. Angela sees it.
5:41pm Bree rolls to within reach of a game with little choking hazard pieces. Luckily, Angela sees that too.
Why Cats Are Afraid of Vacuum Cleaners
[A story Jan made up for the girls about a year ago when he was teaching them about myths.]
Once upon a time, there was a village in the jungle. A man lived in the village with his dog. One day, a herd of cats came into the village and began to terrorize the people, taking their food and scratching up their furniture. They bothered everyone but the main with the dog. As soon as the dog saw the cats, it ran after them, and chased them away. The next week, the cats came again, and once again the man’s dog chased away the cats. By the third week the cats ran away as soon as they saw the dog.
Seeing how the dog chased the cats, every villagers soon begged the man to lend them his dog. The man refused, but took pity on them. He told them not to worry, he had an idea.
The man went into the forest until he had found a bamboo tree. He cut down the bamboo tree, and cut out a section about a foot long. He cut a notch into the bamboo, then used some rope to tie the piece of bamboo to the back of his dog. All the villagers thought this was very strange.
The next week, the herd of marauding cats came back. The dog saw the cats, and began to run after them. As he ran, the wind blew through the piece of bamboo, producing a loud, long low whistle. The cats looked in the direction of the sound, then ran when they saw the dog approaching. The cats came back the next week, and once again the dog came running with his loud low whistle. By the third week, the cats began to run as soon as they heard the whistle.
Seeing this, the man walked back into the forest and cut down another bamboo tree. He made bamboo flutes for every family in the village. “When the cats return”, he said, “blow hard into the whistle.” The villagers did as he instructed. When the cats returned, they did not understand how the fearsome dog could be everywhere in the village at once. They soon gave up terrorizing the village. The village once again could live in peace. For many years, they celebrated the man and his faithful dog.
And to this day, cats always run when they hear a loud, low whistle.
Anya, Liya, and Kaila’s Playmobile Story So Far
The three princesses and their animals were about to go to their grandmother’s cabin. They were just starting to go, and moving their stuff, including their bed. Kaila’s princess happened to be the fairy princess. Anya’s princess was the gold princess. Liya’s pets were a bird, 2 cats, and a bear for the cats. Anya’s animals were three bunnies, two birds, and 3 unicorns, a lamb and a dog. Kaila’s pets were 3 pandas, one of the pandas was a baby, a goat dad, and a goat baby. Liya’s princess was a cook. She had grass for the cats to eat, flowers for the dog, and cups if they wanted to drink. Kaila’s princess had a magic umbrella and fan and wings. Liya had carrots. Anya had a magic treasure chest with flowers in it. Kaila’s animals had beds, but other pets didn’t. The yellow princess had gotten sick because she ate poisonous berries, but all the princesses are OK now. Liya’s princess is named Sarah. Kaila’s princess was named Violet and Anya’s princess was Snowflake. One of Anya’s birdies was named Tweet and the other was named Birdie. Her lamb was Lambie and the dog Doggie and the grownup unicorn was named Sparkle. Kaila’s daddy panda bear was named Catcher, the mommy was Pandie, and the baby was named Sparkle Toes, and the baby goat was named Goatie, and the daddy goat was named Hutch. After the princess ate the poisonous berry, she got sick and needed to stay in bed. And Liya’s birdie was named Isabelle, and the cat was Catty, and the other one was Heart Catty. Anya’s bunnies were named Bunny, Cutie, and Pretty.
First full day of our Whistler trip went great. The morning–breakfast, getting everyone dressed, dropping the girls off Whistler Kids ski school, greeting Bree’s babysitter for the day, getting rentals, etc.–was predictably chaotic. Liya was more than a little nervous about her first real day of ski school, but she was very brave and the drop-off went smoothly.
We had a good day of skiing on Whistler. Jan took a while to find his boarding groove again, but by the afternoon was mostly keeping up with Angela on skis. From the accounts of their teachers, Anya and Liya both had good days. It was Liya’s first real time skiing on snow, and her instructor Lindsay said Liya did so well that she should move up to the next class tomorrow.
After picking them up, we all went to the Pan Pacific’s outdoor pools–even Bree! It was her first time in a pool. She didn’t seem to much care for the time when Anya accidentally kicked water in her face, but she did brighten up in the hot tub.
Bill Baxter and his wife Liz graciously hosted us for a nice dinner at their home in Whistler Creekside. Anya and Liya hit it off with daughter Dani and son Dylan.
Everyone was exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel.
Second full day of Whistler had its ups and downs. Last night Sabriya wouldn’t sleep for more than about an hour and a half at a stretch–she’s hungry all the time–so Jan and Angela were both exhausted in the morning.
We spent our second day of skiing/boarding on Blackcomb, which has a better selection of runs we both like. We raced each other down a blue run called Wishbone. Jan’s a bit slower on his board, so Angela gave him a fifteen second headstart, and we both made it to the bottom at the same time.
Later, in the afternoon, we went all the way down to the village, and happened to see Anya’s class getting ready to go back up the gondola. We asked if we could pick her up from the school, then did a run with her from the top of the Whistler gondola. Jan had to break off and go back up to avoid a killer cattrack all the way down, but Angela said Anya is starting to do real parallel turns. To make sure he got down to pick up Liya by the appointed 3:30 pickup time, Jan boarded all the way from the top of the Big Red Express chair all the way down to the village (a good 4000 vertical feet) without stopping. Liya’s instructor said Liya did great again today; she’s been moved up to the next class again.
The big downer in the evening was that it was supposed to be our date night, and the dopey babysitting service didn’t try particularly hard to get in touch with us to tell us that the scheduled babysitter was sick. We did the best we could with takeout in the hotel room after the girls went to bed.
Third full day at Whistler. Jan and Angela skied Whistler’s back side Symphony Amphitheater for most of the day. We enjoyed the glade skiing and some moguls. We tried one very steep stretch of moguls on the Rhapsody Bowl in the late morning. At one point Angela fell and began to slide down the moguls. She fell… and fell… and fell. She fell for so long she passed a guy. To avoid being skied over, she helpfully called out “Falling on your left!” as she slid by.
We stopped for a lunch snack at a cute Tea Hut at the top of the Harmony Chair, then skiied some more before heading back to the main side. Angela headed down for a massage appointment while Jan caught up with Liya at her ski school class. Liya’s class had just come back from skiing from the midstation down to the village! Liya reproduced the feat with Jan. It’s amazing how much she’s progressed in just three days.
Anya had a good day too. Her instructor Tommy confided that he’d taken them on blue runs that were somewhat challenging for the students, and they were all somewhat ragged as a result.
We finished the day with a quick dinner at Mongolie Grill so we could catch the weekly Fire and Ice ski show at the base of Whistler.
Liya on 2 wheels! Lapping Anya in the bike department, Liya took off her training wheels and tried biking on her own for the first time today! Thank goodness for Siri’s help, coz Liya would have tumbled over otherwise. (Angela was putting Bree down for a nap).