Camping!

Dev and I hadn't been camping since before we got married (not counting camping in the backyard) but Beatrice had been begging to go for the past two years so I figured it was finally time.

This week we went camping at Serrano Campground in Big Bear.

My favorite part of camping is labeling things.

 

The weather was gorgeous - a high of 73 degrees, sunny and clear with a slight breeze, and a low of 43 degrees at night.

Beatrice's specific wish list for this trip was to "wear pajamas, sleep in a tent, fly a kite, and make s'mores," so we made sure to do all those things.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Big Bear was check out the new Big Bear Discovery Center, the very impressive visitor center for the San Bernardino National Forest.  They have an interior museum space with a café and activities like crafts and story time, and a large outdoor play area and hiking trail.  And dogs are welcome, too, even inside.

 

 

 

Ribbon dancing with the dogs in the "dramatic play center"

Mina, this reminded me so much of something Louis would love  - a big pile of sticks, logs, and rocks of various sizes you can use to build structures:

Then we ate a picnic lunch by the lake and Dev helped the kids fly kites.  They weren't very good at it, of course, but they still had a lot of fun.

After that we went to our camp site.  Dev showed Beatrice how to set up a tent and then the kids played bocce and colored postcards for their cousins while we made dinner.  (Beatrice insists on working coloring into every other activity she does.)

For dinner I made some great sloppy joes (using this recipe).  I hadn't had sloppy joes since I was a kid and I'd forgotten how good they are.
 

Sloppy joes

 

Then, of course, we had hot chocolate and s'mores for dessert (I accidentally packed mini marshmallows instead of regular ones, but we made do).

As a special treat before bed, the kids got glow sticks and glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces to wear.  Then everyone got a chance to tell one bedtime story.  As you might imagine, Beatrice's was incredibly long and convoluted.  Arthur's story was, "One time I saw an alligator and it tried to eat me! The end."

The entire day the kids were perfectly behaved and we had a relaxing, idyllic time. Until, of course, bedtime, when things took a sharp turn for the worse.  We had set up two tents: one for me, Dev, and the dogs; and one for Beatrice and Arthur.  Beatrice went to bed eagerly and stayed in her sleeping bag all night.  Arthur, meanwhile, freaked out completely.  He was very cold, which was a big part of the problem, and also overexcited, and nervous, and basically he cried from midnight until dawn.  I wound up sleeping in the kids' tent and even let Arthur sleep with me in my sleeping bag, but he spent the entire night saying, "I want to go home," "I hate camping," and "I quit!" all the while keeping Beatrice awake, too.  (Beatrice was a real trooper, though, and even tried to help cheer Arthur up, including letting him use her beloved camping lantern.)

It did not go this smoothly at night.

Finally at 5:30am I took him and Beatrice for an early morning drive to McDonalds so we could run the car heater and warm him up.  Which meant I didn't sleep the entire night, though Dev did let me nap from 7-8:30am while he and the kids made a big breakfast of sausage and eggs.

Up early for breakfast with Dad

Despite the very difficult, exhausting night, the children were both in high spirits the following day.  After breakfast, we took a short hike and went on a nature scavenger hunt, and Dev and Beatrice took another hike to explore an old, abandoned cabin we had seen from the side of the road. 

Arthur's favorite activity was picking up the heaviest rock he could lift and then hurling it to the ground.

Then we headed back home for baths and dinner and put both kids to bed at 5pm.  It was a long, eventful two days, but Beatrice is already saying it was the most fun she's ever had.

And the tie-breaking baby is

A boy!  We saw baby #3 today at our 20-week ultrasound and it's a boy.



He has Arthur's nose.

Beatrice is delighted - she really wanted a brother.  In fact, when I tried to explain that I couldn't choose the sex of the baby, she told me exasperatedly, "When you get to the hospital, just tell the nurse you want a boy." 

 

Earlier this year, in February, Arthur and I went into Pollen, a floral design store in Eagle Rock (Beatrice was in school that day).  I wound up talking to the owner, Craig, for about an hour, mostly about gardening, landscaping, and chickens.  He really liked Arthur (and correctly guessed his horoscope sign of Taurus).  In the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I also had a daughter and he asked me if I was planning on having any more children.

 

"Maybe," I said, "but probably not."

 

Then he told me that I was going to get pregnant this year and have a boy.  He even gave me his card so that I could email him when I found out.  Two months later, I got pregnant and today we found out it's a boy, just like he said. I'm planning on visiting Craig later this week and letting him know.

Beatrice has a Copernican Moment

We were driving in silence when from the backseat Beatrice suddenly said, "WAIT A MINUTE: so all the planets revolve around the sun?!"

I told her that was true. 

She stuck one fist up in the air and said, "So this is the sun?" and then demonstrating with her other fist, "And these are the other planets revolving?"

"Yes, exactly."

Stunned silence.

Making grape jelly

Fancy grape photography

Last week I harvested about ten pounds of grapes from the vines in our side yard (eight pounds of which were from a single super-productive vine).  We ate a few pounds, gave the shriveled or damaged ones to the chickens, and still had six pounds left to make into grape jelly.

Honestly, I've never really liked grape jelly that much, but I wasn't sure what else to do with grapes besides jelly, raisins, or wine, so we gave it a try.  I used the recipe from this awesome cookbook, which I highly recommend - it's also where I got my unbeatable recipe for pickled beets.

Essentially, we started by cleaning, sorting, and stemming all the grapes (Beatrice helped me with this part).  Then we added water and boiled them down to a mushy pulp.  Then we strained that mushy pulp overnight in little cheesecloth bags tied over a colander. 

In the morning, we had this:

Then we boiled that grape syrup with sugar and lemon juice until it thickened, canned it, and let it rest for about 24 hours to set.  Of course, I'm skipping the many, many arduous steps involved in sterilizing and sealing the jars.

It took about four hours overall, but most of that time was just waiting for 32 quarts of water to boil. 

Sterilizing the jars

In the end, it turned out pretty well.  I like the flavor more than commercial grape jelly, or maybe I'm telling myself that because I spent a total of two days working on it.  But it's tart, not too sweet, with a nice lemony aftertaste.  Unfortunately it didn't set up firmly enough. I was going to give some jars away to friends, but I think it's too runny to make a nice gift, so we'll just keep this batch at home.  All eight jars of it.

Runny jelly

Maybe next year we'll try raisins...

*A friend suggested I try adding chia seeds to firm it up - I think I'll try that tonight and see if it works.

Bo

Several months ago Beatrice made a book.  I stapled eight sheets of paper together into a booklet, she colored all the pages and titled it Bo. (Or possible Beau?) 

Bo is the name of the main character, a skunk, and almost every night before bed she reads Bo to Arthur and me.  Of course, the story changes every time, but some consistent elements include families of skunks and/or hedgehogs, a "blueberry tree," lava, and "a rescue dragon."

My favorite part of this video is at 0:25 where Arthur exclaims, "Oh no!"

Before and After #10: Guest Bathroom

 

We have a new bathroom!

 

BEFORE

 

The old room had such a weird, narrow, crowded layout it was almost impossible to photograph.

 

Remember this giant linen cabinet?

 

AFTER 

  

 

We kicked off the guest bathroom renovation project by replacing the entire sewage line that runs underneath the house, connecting the sinks, toilets, and showers in the kitchen and both bathrooms to the city sewage line in the street. It was a big and expensive project but definitely worthwhile.

 

Replacing the line also made it easier to change the plumbing layout of the room. The old layout was hugely inefficient; the new layout feels so much more spacious it's as if the size of the room doubled.

After deciding on a new floor plan, the first step was entirely demolishing the old bathroom, which Dev and Naresh tackled together during one of his (extremely helpful) visits.

 



A glimpse of daylight from beneath the bathroom floor boards

We got rid of everything, from the toilet and shower to the walls and floor.  As you may remember, both bathrooms were originally carpeted. Once we tore out the carpet in this room, we found that the floor underneath was a mixture of linoleum and pressboard, all slightly damp, so decided to tear out the subfloor, too, just to get a fresh start and avoid any issues with mold or mildew down the road.



Then we moved all the water lines so that we could change the location of the toilet, shower, and sink.  We replaced the stall shower with a full (extra-long) bathtub.  This also had the side effect of upgrading the room from a "3/4" to a "full" bathroom, which will come in handy if we ever sell the house someday.

 

 

Dev was in charge of picking out the tub, the toilet, and all the faucets and other plumbing fixtures.  I never realized there was so much variance in something as simple as a toilet, but now I know there is! Plus we wanted to repeat certain angles, lines, shapes, and colors throughout the room so we considered everything very carefully.

I spent months looking online before finding a sink and vanity that had everything I wanted: small, elegant, made out of real wood, with elevated feet.  I love this vanity, especially the caning on the front of the cabinet doors, the bun feet, and of course, the marble.

After the plumbing, Dev went to work rewiring the bathroom for new lights and switches (with help from our friend James), as well as adding a fan and extra insulation.

Then, drywall. Followed by adding beadboard around the bathroom perimeter and new crown and base trim throughout.  And paint, of course: we used "Seattle," the same gray color we used in the guest room.

We hired a professional tile installer to install the small hexagonal marble tiles on the floor and the marble subway tile on the wall behind the tub.

We tore out the absurdly oversized built-in linen cabinet and replaced it with some open chrome shelves above the toilet and a small medicine cabinet.

We also pulled out the old light fixtures and replaced them with a new sconce over the sink and this amazing antique chandelier that Suzan and I found while on a scouting trip to her favorite antique and consignment stores in Dallas.  It's French, about a hundred years old, and absolutely gorgeous and unique.  And the warm purple and gold tones add some color to the cool, subdued white, black, and gray color scheme in the rest of the room.

Then came the fun and easy part: accessories, linens, decorations, and plants.

Photograph hidden in the medicine cabinet

And now it's done*! Thank you so much to Suzan and Naresh for everything!  And if I ever miss the old damp blue carpeting and synthetic beige sink, I can still find them in the master bathroom.

* Well, pretty much done.  An observant viewer will notice there's still no toilet seat.  I'm going to buy one tomorrow morning, but I was too excited about taking photographs to wait.