Four Part Harmony

While we’ve had some sadness to start off the year, I also wanted to post a few photos of the happy things that have happened for us in this new year so far.

First off this photo, which was actually from the last couple days of 2009. A forecasted rainstorm ended up turning to snow and dropped 6 inches or so of snow all over Portland right before rush hour. It caught everyone off guard, and the roads around Portland were in chaos. It was taking people 4 and 5 hours to drive across town. People were abandoning their cars on the interstate. A big delivery-type truck slid down a hill into our truck as Nicki was driving it home and she ended up having to walk to a friends place nearby. While all this was going on though, the kids and I were in the backyard having tons of fun. It was absolutely perfect snowball weather, and we put this huge snowman together in about 10 minutes.

A couple more nice pictures. We took a long hike down in Tryon Creek State Park to start the new year.

Here’s our latest fun inside activity. I’ve been running a microphone into my old amp and letting the kids go crazy with it. Sometimes I’ll plug the guitar in too, and we’ll sing some songs or just make noise. So far the most favorite activity is to run the microphone through the delay pedal for maximum echo and spacey weirdness.

Milo got his first haircut, and that was pretty fun and exciting for him. We have always taken Anna to the same place to get her haircut. It’s a nice place. Nothing super fancy, but always a pretty nice haircut for not too much money. Anna likes it because at the end of the haircut the woman brings out this box of spools of ribbon, all different colors, and ties bows in her hair. Naturally, Milo picked up on the fact that that was indeed the best part of the haircut, and he insisted that he get a bow also. I never did get to see him with the bow in, sadly, but was amazed when I got home how much older he suddenly looked. It didn’t really even seem like he had that much hair to cut, we were just planning on giving him a trim to even things out. Suddenly he looks like he’s 3 years old.

I finished Anna’s guitar a couple of weeks ago. That was big excitement for me (and Anna I think). I realized I’ve been working on it (on and off) for nearly 18 months. I think it came out looking and sounding pretty nice. I’ve had the strings on and off it a few times now, trying to dial in a good set up on it. It’s really going to be too big for her for a while, the neck profile isn’t actually all that much smaller than a standard guitar. She seems to like it though, maybe more so just for the fact that I made it for her and we’ve been talking abut it for so long. Here are a few pictures:

Hope all is well with all of you.