The Master Plan (September 26, 2008)

ZACH: "You know what I want for my 5 birthday? A machine that I can get in and control the earth. So if I want a volcano in Annapolis I push the volcano button and a volcano erupts up and if I want a snowman I press the snow and ice button and I get snow and ice to build my snowman with. I want to control the water too with it so I can go underwater and go up again if I want to control the earth again and then I can go to every continent and control it there by that machine.

So can I have that for my birthday? PLEASE?"

ME: "I don't know if a machine like that exists?"

ZACH: "Then I can invent it. We can build it ourselves! Let's go get some materials at the hardware store, ok mama? Ok?"

National Building Museum Washington, DC

A visit with Grandpa and Grandma V at the National Building Museum...

This is the space where one of the many inaugural balls held in Washington, DC every four years takes place.





































Zach decided to try and build an arch. A great hands on lesson in compressive strength.












So if I scale this thing and hide up top maybe I can hang out until the inauguration and then make a grand entrance by...

Under the Stars

The light was leaving
in the west it was blue
The children's laughter sang
and skipping just like the stones they threw
the voices echoed across the waves
its getting late

It was just another night
with the sun set
and the moon rise not so far behind
to give us just enough light
to lay down underneath the stars
listen to papas translations
of the stories across the sky
we drew our own constellations

So Big (September 2008)

Day on the Bay (August 2008)

A lovely sail with Miss T



























I'd like to see a monohuller try this! ;)

Food Art

Jack Johnson & G Love Said It Best...

Well i woke up this morning,
rainbow filled the sky
Yes I woke up this morning,
rainbow filled the sky
That was god tellin' me,
Everything's gonna be alright

View from our bed in Hawaii...







End of the rainbow...!

Hawaii

Grandpa and Granny live in a land far, far away. We have to cross a continent and half an ocean to get there, so we only get there once every other year or so. When we go, we stay for a while and try to give Zach a chance to get to know his grandparents for that short time. Well, now that he is a "big boy" at the ripe old age of 4, he seemed to jump into the role of doted upon grandson with ease. He and his grandpa have quite a special bond, from playing chunchos...




To sharing a cold one together....



Grandpa even let's granny have a minute or two with Z. Usually in the evening to feed the animals on their 10 acre farm (40-some ducks, 20-some sheep, 2 horses, 1 mule, 1 cat, 1 dog)





































Sock Puppet Show






The guys sketching designs for the new dog house...





And working on said dog house...



Sword fighting with eucalyptus branches...





















































I hope they get the chance to spend more time together in the future...

The Volcano

Zach pondering Kilauea Iki Crater at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. From up here at the overlook you can see the active, steaming ash plume of Halemaumau crater in the distance.

The trail drops 400 feet in about 1.4 miles through a rainforest switchback. We were doubtful about Zach's ability to make the trail down and up, but he INSISTED on giving it a try.







The trail descends quickly into lush rainforest. It was beautiful and shady and luckily fairly dry and temperate that day.





Then at the bottom you are literally in a different climate zone just a mile and a half from where you started. Harsh, barren desert where only the most tenacious plants manage to break through the lava rock and give sparse life to this moon like landscape.



Zach was VERY proud of himself for making it to the bottom of the Kilauea Iki crater. We let him know that getting up is a whole different story. But he skipped his way up happily, never asking once to be carried. Doug and I did however ask him to carry us.



Eating some victory ice cream while watching the steam billow rapidly from the crater... there are signs everywhere warning that if the wind changes directions, get ready to run.

Hawaii - From The Land

The ducks are very sly about where they hide their eggs. But Granny knows all of the tricks!



















































































BREAKFAST IS SERVED!






















Pomegranates





After picking and eating a sweet mini pineapple from the garden, Zach helped Grandpa put it in the "nursery" along side the baby cocoa (chocolate) plants. Zach was obsessed with the idea that grandpa had chocolate trees!








By far Zach's favorite thing to do was collect coconuts. It was an activity he pursued with youthful enthusiasm and primal persistence.











After Zach collected several brown coconuts only to find they no longer had juice, we scored with this bunch.

Actually I had to shimmy part way under a rusty wire fence to reach them as they did not fall on my dad's property. The things we'll do for our kids!?

























Watching daddy use a machete was a sobering yet thrilling sight.







And of course getting to drink fresh coconut water was a true treat!