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My mom is in town and Nicholette and I used it as an opportunity to get away. While Mom watched Lily and Frost, we headed to a B&B outside of Husum, WA. It’s up the White Salmon River valley across from Hood River, OR. We didn’t do too much and had a great time. Here are a smattering of the photos:

Here’s a really big tree. It’s a Ponderosa Pine and one of the biggest existing one of its kind. We have a thing for big trees and always check them out when we’re in the neighborhood. I’ll have to check my notes and see if this one is as large as the one we visited last year at LaPine, OR.

This it the top of the big tree. There are some other kind of big trees in the vicinity.

We managed to find some snow a bit farther up the road toward Mt. Adams.

This is Mt. Adams from the valley near Trout Lake.

Here’s our B&B. It’s nestled on at the top of some pasture land and practically abuts a vineyard. The accommodations were very nice and we spent a pleasant evening reading on the gazebo and watching the changing light on Mt. Hood in the distance.

Speaking of Mt. Hood, here it is. This is the view from the gazebo looking south down the valley.

We (mostly Nicholette) shopped in Hood River all afternoon on Sunday. We started with a great lunch at the 3 Rivers Grill and wrapped it up with some tasty sushi for dinner. Nicholette scouted out Knot Another Hat, the Hood River kitting shop. Sarah, the owner, was very nice and her shop is cute.

I really liked the carrot planters. Very funny.

We drove back via the Gorge scenic highway and passed all the popular Oregon waterfalls. This one is Horsetail Falls.

Aren’t we such a cute couple?.

And everyone knows this waterfall.

This is the Gorge looking eastward from Crown Point and the Vista House.

After that is was back to reality.

Here are some pics from Lily’s recent field trip. One of the things we love about the Gardner school is the thematic studies. For two months, Lily’s school studied Native Americans. What’s nice about this is that the whole school studies the same thing, they put on plays, host events (Lily’s class hosted a Native American Potlatch) and go on field trips all related to the theme. They had Native Americans come to their school and talk with them about their way of life. This way the kids do not have to be bothered with memorization of history - they can live it as much as possible and learn and remember naturally. The trip was to the Ridgefield Plankhouse.

The picture above is the outside of the plankhouse.

Above is the inside.Here is Lily leaning up against the plankhouse with schoolmates.

Here’s the kids having fun at lunchtime.

Here’s the Loowit class.More Loowits inside the plankhouse.

Yea! The website is up. The product list is not complete but we’re working on it. Check it out at www.stitchcraft.us

We are pleased to announce that we found a wonderful private school for Lily - The Gardner School. The Gardner School reflects our values and the education is unbeatable. Being parents to a gifted child like Lily required a lot of attention that we simply couldn’t give. In just one month, her teachers have tailored a curriculum just for her that will enable her to flourish academically and emotionally. I was so impressed at how they picked up on the learning issues we’ve faced as homeschoolers, and have answers to help us solve our problems.

For example, we believed Lily started reading from age three, but it probably was more like 18 months based on the fact that she is a sight reader. When she was that young, she would recite books to us, but I thought it was only pure memorization. Because she learned to read on her own, she never learned to read phonetically, and as a result, has been struggling with spelling. Now that we have this information (about her learning to read as a sight reader), we can work with her teachers and give her the tools she needs to learn to spell. In just this month we’ve come a very long way. Another issue they’ve helped us with is that Lily has a trait of perfection, which was actually stopping her from trying new things, and learning new things - in her mind, if she couldn’t do it perfectly the first time, she wouldn’t try it at all. So back to the spelling example - two years ago she was demanding to have her own dictionary and wouldn’t “sound anything out”. It was getting hard for me as a homeschooling parent and mom to another little one to be spelling everything for her almost every minute of the day (she was writing her own books and comic books). I’m now learning, from this wonderful school, that Lily couldn’t learn to spell on her own because kids that learn to spell on their own are initially phonetic readers. We needed to approach spelling differently with Lily and her school is pointing the way. Perfectionism is another trait common to gifted kids. We are learning that we have to approach life very differently with Lily in order for her to be able to face life’s challenges in the best way she can.

While we always knew there was something different about Lily, it’s nice to have the validation that we weren’t crazy as parents to a very sensitive, opinionated, challenging, bright child who would require more than we could give her as homeschoolers. So, how does Lily feel about all this?

She was not happy about going to school. It was not her decision, so she was pretty pissed off. She was worried that the school kids would “know” more than her. Her perfectionism was making her feel she wouldn’t “match up”. She needs to feel in control and I can understand her feelings. We really felt we needed to put her in a situation that would be more challenging and in a place where we could feel she was getting the best academic care and wouldn’t be thrown into some categorized “gifted” program. Her emotions about school and her anxieties are being addressed in a most caring way. The Gardner School really reflects our values, provides us with a good sense of community, and we are looking forward to the next 7 years with Gardner.

Is my absolutely fabulous artist, cousin-by-marriage. People wanted to know how I came up with the StitchCraft logo - I didn’t, she did. Here is a link to Judy’s website and artwork. Judy’s been working madly over the last two years getting back into her artwork after being a stay-at-home-mom. She’s won best in many art shows and has had her work in a few galleries now. Her artwork is in a bunch of people’s homes as a result. Take a look at her stuff. You’ll want it in your home too!

Here are some pics of the shop for your viewing pleasure.

We are on historical Main St. in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Here’s a view down the street. It’s a very cute area with bistros, cafes, spas, antique shops, and right next door, a homemade ice cream shop.

Here are the temporary signs with the logo in the windows.

Here’s a view from the inside looking out. I have 1, 045 s.f.

Now that I can talk about it…I’m opening a retail yarn and fabric boutique here in downtown Vancouver. I’m so excited. My first business. I turn 40 this year and owning my own business is on my list of things to do. All that’s left on the list is travel, official surfing lessons, scuba diving certification and bagging a 12,000 ft. or higher peak. Of course, growing old with my man is on the list too.

StitchCraft, LLC is Vancouver, Washington’s premier yarn and fabric boutique. Handmade is beautiful (c).

StitchCraft, LLC features yarn, fabric, patterns, books and notions with a fashion forward sense using high quality, natural fibers. If you love to sew, knit, crochet, embroider, embellish - this is a boutique for you. We also carry a nice stash of organic yarns, fabric and lace and hand dyed wool felt.

My idea for the shop came with my experience as a knitwear designer and instructor, but I’ve been sewing just as long as I’ve been crocheting and knitting (from about age 7). My business experience in corporate real estate was essential in creating my business plan. The organic side of the business comes from my chemistry degree along with years as an environmental, health and safety professional. This shop is really the essence of who I am all put together. I can’t wait to meet all the people that love to create and give them quality tools to work with.

I’ll post some pics of the shop in raw form soon. I’ll also have the website up sometime this week.

Here is Nicholette’s buleria with Brandon at Costello’s Travel Cafe in Portland, OR.

I found this on another woman’s blog today - a woman from Ravelry. Click on the button below and take the quiz yourself:

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What’s a sure antidote to the short days, rainy skies, and cold temperatures of December in Portland? A trip down to the Sunshine state! This past December, the family made the second annual Christmas trip down to visit Nana in lovely and swank Jupiter, Florida. The trip was long but went okay. Flying through Atlanta rather than Houston was an improvement.

We were there for sixteen days and the weather was outstanding for fourteen of them. The typical day was about 80 degrees and mostly sunny. Every day we went swimming in Nana’s pool at least once. Here’s a video of Frost jumping in.

This year we arrived almost a full week before Christmas so it was a long stretch for the kids before they got to tear into the presents and increase their inventory of available toy about two or three fold.

The club at Nana’s community offers several dinners for families around the holidays. We went to two of them and had a great time. The first featured a balloon artist and face painter and the second had a balloon artist (better than the first one) and some animals from an area wildlife rescue foundation.

The great weather meant that we got to spend some time at the beach. The water was plenty warm for playing in the surf. Last year, Lily was intimidated by the waves but this trip she was out in the little breakers playing quite a bit. She even rode the boogie board in a few times.

We visited the Bush Wildlife refuge and saw the animals. They have a great collection of rescued wildlife and some good interpretive shows. We also went to the Loggerhead turtle rescue center and saw some big sea turtles. Here’s a picture of Frost and I studying some turtle eggs.

One of the highlights of the trip for the kids was our trip to the Lion Country Safari. As the name implies, they had some lions — along with a bunch of other wildlife, most of it grazing animals. Do you know how big ostriches are? Really big. Realy, really big. Giraffes are pretty big too and I got to feed one. Yes, their tongues are very long and kind of raspy like a cat. They had some rides and other things in the stroll around part of the park.

Nicholette got to go to the gym and take a bunch of yoga and step classes. She also had some spa time to enjoy. I shipped my bike to Florida so I took a number of very enjoyable rides — all of which went along Jupiter Island, home of Tiger Woods among other big wigs.

While it was nice to head home to Vancouver, we were all sad to leave Florida. Oh, yeah, the landing in Portland? The worst I’ve ever had. It was bumpy and lumpy and scary.