50/52

We've had some pretty cold weather recently for our part of the country, with the lowest temperature that I saw at our house reaching 1.5° F. Last weekend Corinne went on an overnight trip to Portland with friends, so it was just Anders and I at home when the power went out early Sunday morning. It was good motivation for me to get our wood stove cleaned and the indoor wood pile replenished. Anders, however, wasn't going anywhere until the house warmed up.

This was AFTER he had already gotten out of bed

Power outages are a pretty frequent occurrence around here, particularly with the heavy snow and icy roads during the winter months. The upside is that the PUD has lots of experience. Power was restored shortly before I had the fire going.

Anders quote of the week:

Anders: Do you know what my favorite state in the whole wide world is? New Jersey.
Incredulous parents: Really? Why?
Anders: Because I get to see my cousins.

Corinne is working on knitting her first pair of socks. She's near the end and decided to have Anders try them on to check sizing. Anders thought they were great "toe-less socks."

Both Corinne and I were on a business trip all week, something that occurs every couple months. The logistics are tricky for us since we're both gone with no easy way to take Anders along. This time, Anders made the rounds between friends and family in the Gorge. He thinks it is a great adventure, and it makes us feel better that he enjoys it so much.

We took the train to Seattle for our trip, something that we should try to do more often. While most of our time there was tightly scheduled, there were lunchtime opportunities to explore.

Exploring Salumi

Max was home on his own, and he gave us a lengthy lecture when we returned. Now he is just happy to see us.

One of the first tasks after returning from our trip was a Christmas tree. Living on a tree farm as we do, our tree is as fresh as you can get. We cut the tree this afternoon, and as I write this post Anders is testing each of the light strings and handing them to Corinne who carefully wraps them around each branch.

Looks like somebody is getting excited about Christmas

How can there be only two weeks left in 2013? That isn't possible.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders