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2014. Is that right? Really? Well, okay, I guess it is.

We typically don't do New Years' resolutions, but we did try to explain the concept to Anders. I don't think he quite understood what we were describing. However, he did identify one goal that he wanted to accomplish in 2014: Anders doesn't want to watch the 4th of July parade, he wants to be IN the 4th of July parade. Maybe we can get him a seat in the tractor train at the Trout Lake Fair Parade.

Trout Lake Fair Parade, August 2013

Anders quote from the week:

Did you know that Elvis Presley invented the good mood?

This one is actually a malapropism from a song about Elvis on one of his favorite albums, Weird Things Are Everywhere.

From an early age, Anders has just loved to laugh, and we take every opportunity to get him to do it.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original post

We STILL have no snow on the ground. I haven't had to spend any time clearing the driveway this year, which is pretty great. But it doesn't feel like winter without it. (Of course, if we were still living on the East Coast now I'm sure I would be singing a different tune.)

We have used the unseasonable weather to spend more time outside. Last week Anders biked to the mailbox while we walked alongside. He has pretty much outgrown his current bike, which we bought about a year and a half ago; we plan to replace it in the spring. He has gotten pretty comfortable on it these past 6 months, so we decided to take off one of his training wheels for portions of this ride. He did pretty well and mostly laughed when he started to fall. We'll see how things go when they both come off.

Lauren and Anders, Summer 2013

Anders quote from the week:

Santa must have a good sense of hearing because he lives in the arctic and he can hear what people say in the State of Washington.

We haven't had a professional family photo shoot recently, so this past week we did a home version. It's a real challenge to get Anders to look at the camera for more than a second, and we're not sure why it seems so difficult. Corinne has an intervalometer for her camera, so she just sets the interval to 1 second and lets it go for a while why we try to think of ways to keep him both smiling in a natural way - as opposed to the tortured face kids smile - and looking at the lens. Challenging.

We don't have anything like a photo studio at home, so it takes some creativity and MacGyver-like skills to compensate. Here is the setup that we used.

Homemade light reflectors

Of course, you can't see the multiple chainsaws, gas cans, and other equipment in the finished product.

One of the test photos

Here's to 52 (at least) posts in the coming year about our happenings here in Southwest Washington.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders