Eagle Creek and Rick's

I'd been sick.  And I wanted to go on a date with Eric. 

But my cold was so annoying I couldn't taste much. 

I didn't want to be that person coughing in public, the Covid 19 novel coronavirus is going around, and while I don't think I have it.  I don't want to be stared at because I was coughing on people.  I started coughing on Feb 29, and I really haven't stopped.  .  The coronavirus has a fever, and shortness of breath, which I don't have either of those. I have had to cough so hard I had to pee.  I do think I got some viral crud, but I'm doing the good things, drinking my Ningxia and taking my Catalyn, so I am not succumbing. This week was the first week I actually felt like doing things

Eagle Creek Park on a sunny day.

I saw the signs. 

Monday, Avon closed the schools.  Tuesday, I went to Costco. Wednesday, I went to visit Aunt Jan, pick up some stuff from her, and today, Thursday, Eric and I finally got our date lunch. 

He had been reading that along with the price of gas dropping, the price of lobster was going down. 

So I suggested we go somewhere where we could get lobster for cheaps.  

According to the interwebs, Rick's Cafe Boatyard had lobster for 'market price'. 

So off we went. 

It was a Beautiful Day. 

Filet mignon topped with crabcake and shrimp etoufee. 

After much debate about lobster, which wasn't on sale actually, I got beef. 

I love this dish. I get it every time I come here.  

So, since the lobster wasn't on sale after all. I got the old reliable, amazing filet and etoufee. 

My handsome date.  Me and my etoufee, and he got scallops and asparagus.  We started with salmon nachos, which were so weird, they were awesomely delicious. 

All good choices. Really

Don't forget to sometimes Date Your Spouse. 

It's nice to sit down and just talk to each other. 

We discussed the virus, what was happening, we could feel things were about to change. 

I'm glad we got to talk about it today, before we got the news. 

My honey and me! 

OK, so it's a lot of silhouette, and not the best shot. 

However, we look happy. 

We'd seen a blip of a basketball game while we were there. They cancelled it at half time. 

The cancelled the Basketball tournments. Things are changing.

Our lunch was Excellent.  And we had quiet adult conversation. 

I think this will be vitally important in the coming days. 

When the kids were at Kumon, we got a call from the School. 

Our schools are now closed too, we're closed for the next week, and through Spring Break.  

School's out until April 5.  At least.  

I'm glad I got a date with my husband. 

Fallish sorts of things

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I found Christopher's Pat McAfee jersey this week.  And he couldn't wait to wear it.  He put it on to wear on Thursday, so naturally Sam wanted to wear his to school too.  So I sent them off to school, and thought, I should put Jake in his, and they could be all matchy matchy.  The trees were being so lovely, and I thought it was going to rain all day, but it didn't.  So after school, they looked so handsome and Colts spirity that I couldn't resist.  I had to take their pictures.  So I threw them into the car to our spot behind Eagle Creek to take their pictures.

My three sweetboys.

I think this would have almost been a perfect picture if Sam hadn't popped behind Jake's head.  

Sweetboys on a picnic table. 

The boys loved being in the leaves, and with sticks, and under the trees.  

They really are boy's boys. 

This was my favorite from the day.  

They wanted to have a silly picture taken.  So this was their silly pic.  

And since they were so goofy, I had to get closer.  

He was going for Silly.  But I think he looks more Gangsta. 

This one definitely looks silly. 

And Daddy picked the caption for this one. 

I told them if I got a couple good pictures of them, then they could Play.  

Jacob of course, took this to mean that he could grab giant sticks.  

The big boys wanted to get into the trees.  

I wanted to capture the colors. 

I love the colors of fall. 

Especially when I can find all of them just on one leaf! 

I mean look at that!  

God really can make death, even leaf death, so beautiful. 

Meanwhile, the boys found a tree to climb. 

Unfortunately, it was covered in some plant that had seed burrs.  

Still, Chris kept climbing. My sensory seeking sweetboy.  

At least, now he doesn't climb so far I can't get him.  He's gained a small sense of fear of heights. 

I'm ok with that.  

Jacob just enjoyed running wild. 

And Sam, Sam came off that tree so covered with burrs, well, they all were, but Sam was so covered that Chris said it looked like he had a tail.  Let me tell you what a pain in the butt removing all those burrs were.  It will be the last time I let them do that.  Only burr-less climbing from now on! 

A Field Trip

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Yesterday was Sam's first Field Trip for his Science Class. 

We went to Eagle Creek Park. 

I hadn't been to Eagle Creek Park - actually going inside of it, in a couple years.  

I'd never been inside of the Earth Discovery Center. 

His science teacher gave them a great list of items to find on a nature walk.  

And we were supposed to have a picnic lunch, but instead we decided to have a floor picnic at the school due to rain.  

As soon as we arrive, Sam checked off finding flower, as he picked me a dandelion. 

I love when he picks me flowers.  

I put in in my hair, and started singing "If you're going to San Francisco..."  which made him laugh.  

Then the group went on a hike.

I had 20 pounds of Jacob on my back, and Sam by my side, and it felt so calming and nice to be out in the woods.  I had my little point and shoot camera, which as it turns out is pretty good in spite of being unable to bend over because of backpack full of sweetboy. 

On our small hike I spotted this moss.   It made me very excited that I recognized its sporophytes right away.  That's the reproductive parts of moss, kind of like a flower, it was neat to see it naturally occurring.   

This was my favorite:  Virginia Bluebells.  

I think I may need to plant some of these: a. they love the woods, so they'd be ok in my shadey backyard 2. the flowers start out pink and turn blue, and d. they are just so darn pretty!  

Even Sam thought so, though he couldn't get much smell off them, and I couldn't get down that far to smell them either.  ;) 

It was a rainy musty day, and still things are starting to get a little green. 

The woods looked amazing. 

My last bonus picture, as we were driving out of the park I saw a pair of bluebirds.  

Can you see the male?  He is the brightest, about 2 o'clock from my watermark. And the Mrs. is right up the branch from him.  They were flying around, even Sam saw them zip by our car.  So Cool.  

I love Spring, and I may need to get back to Eagle Creek when I get in better shape to enjoy it more.  

Snow on trees

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I'd just started agreeing with my friend Melissa, that Snow was a 4 letter word.  More snow came in the night, on the heels of a wicked rainstorm that kept me awake from 2-4 am, while everyone else in the house slept.

 By the time we were up in the morning, the flurries had started to fly.  

I wanted something warm.  It had been so nice and lovely yesterday, I just wanted it to stay spring forever.  

Alas, that was not the way it was going to work out. 

However, on the upside, I was going to host Java-n-stitch in the morning.  I poked around for something to make, but we were out of many things, I needed to go to the store.  We had a couple tubes of biscuits, and that reminded me of something I saw on Pinterest.  Orange Biscuits! So I checked out that recipe, and improvised.    Instead of using orange zest, orange juice, and sugar, I used a half a jar of orange marmalade and half a stick of butter.  I melted them in the microwave for a minute, stirring so they didn't burn up, and then covered each biscuit with the glaze before laying it my greased bundt pan.   I lined up 2 tubes for 16 biscuits total, and then used the rest of the glaze as a topping.  Frankly it smelled divine, especially as it cooked.  I baked for 30 minutes at 375, which was plenty of time to get the biscuits cooked, but the top got a little crunchy.  They were really good with the pot of fresh tea I cooked up too.  

My friend brought her 3 year old daughter Lila over, and the kids played a bit together.  It's so fun that Jacob is getting old enough to Play like a big kid. 

After our playdate, I needed to go to the store, so I met my friend Melissa at Costco.  And with the snow blowing I gave more than a little consideration to just sitting tight.  Going nowhere was very tempting, but we were out of almost everything.  I got in the car, agreeing to meet for lunch first, and went driving behind the Park.   I'm so glad I did.  It was Beautiful.  So beautiful that I could have just turned around and gone home then, but I didn't.  I got groceries and a few pictures too.

The rain came first in the middle of the night, so that everything was wet, and the snow and wind came let it cling to the trees like tinsel in March.   It was breathtaking.

  The pictures barely do it justice.  It was beautiful.  And I was rather a dangerous driver sticking my arm and camera out the window.  If I'd had the Beast, I could have really done some good work.  But these are still lovely.  I particularly love that as we returned home, the snow still clung to the trees, but the snow had begun to melt from the ground, which had been nice and toasty from the 60 degree days before.  So it looked amazing.  It was the best kind of snow: beautiful to look at, yet not sticking to the roads, so not too dangerous.

Another pretty frosty morn

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Yesterday morning after dropping Sam off, I headed off on a grown up playdate with my seestor, and as I circled around back of the park, the sun started to really shine.  It was so shiny there was a beautiful bit of frost on the plants, they sparkled!
I guess I'm not as tired of winter as I thought if I can still find the beauty in it.

I've missed the sunshine.  

It was so bright it hurt my eyes.  

And it's warmth was so wonderful, I didn't mind having the windows down shooting pictures out the windows while I drive, at a balmy 32 degrees, it felt like a nice breeze. 

Eagle Creek Park is just so pretty. 

The twigs were sparkling, though it may be hard to tell. 

And sparkly amber waves of grain.  

Not too shabby for snapping pics while driving. 

OK, speaking of being old, old enough to find great joy in birdwatching and snowy days, my sister was doing some cleaning out, moving prep stuff, and she found a box full of goodies, awesome 80s.  So we made a deal, I got the records (see the Empire Strikes Back, which probably isn't going to even work since we ran it into the ground) and she got the Speak-n-Spell (WHICH I might add, Actually came on when she turned it on!)  Cool as heck.  Man, the 80s were a cool decade. Yes, I'm old.