ski school

Today my dad, brother, and I took the boys skiing for the first time on the Greatest Snow on Earth. If you ask James about it he'll tell you, "I cried a lot." But really, he and Sam did great until the last half hour or so. Our Dad will be glad to know James wasn't afraid at all and was excited to do it all by himself. By the end he was just so cold and tired that he fell to pieces over every little thing, namely that he couldn't have a powdered donut until we got back to the car. Hey, I can relate to that.



Addy had fun playing in the snow and making a few runs down the bunny hill in Grandpa's arms. His favorite thing was throwing snow at me, until an armful of the fluffy stuff went in his own face and down his jacket. When we got to the car and took off his gloves, he seemed to realize how cold his hands were. He kept saying, "Hurt! Band-aid! Need Band-aid!" They were so cold they hurt, and he thought a Band-aid would help. I wasn't really successful in convincing him otherwise, but a powdered donut seemed to dull the pain a little.







Grandpa was a great, and very patient, ski instructor. James was slaloming by his third run! He lugged him the boys up the hill over and over again until he was totally exhausted. We love you, Grandpa Brent!

James said today, "Mom, I loved it when we were skiing. Are we going again tomorrow?" I loved watching him try something new and love it. Maybe there's hope for the science nerd after all!

the christmas monkey

It's nearly here, the day we've been counting down to, the day that has been occupying the thoughts and dreams of a certain four-year-old in our house for weeks. We've counted links on a chain, chocolates on an advent calendar, Sundays in the month. Now we're down to the last of these objects and Mom and Dad are getting a little sad. You see, after today, we won't be able to pull the "Santa card" anymore. No more threats to call Santa, no more "Santa's watching." No, we're going to have to actually start disciplining our children again. Rats!

Christmas, we are ready for you now. All the presents are wrapped (with the exception of mine from Christian, which he has purposely left out in an open box to tempt me. I think he wants me to peek! Unfortunately for him, I like surprises.) The stockings are hung from the bookshelves with care, and the ornaments have been rearranged by the monkeys approximately 486 times so they're just right. We've purchased our Christmas ham, sent the Christmas cards, and eaten more than our fill of Candy Cane Hershey's Kisses (my new fave) and Mint M&Ms (my other fave). Now we're just patiently waiting for ol' St. Nick to pay us a visit. Last night we decided to kill some time before the blessed day arrives by enjoying our new Seattle Christmas traditions with some friends.

O Christmas Ship, O Christmas Ship. . .A local ferry company celebrates the Christmas season with a lighted Christmas ship that cruises around Lake Washington each night with a choir aboard and a flotilla of lighted boats behind it. Making stops at two beaches each night, the choir's performance is broadcast to the shore where onlookers huddle around a bonfire and sip hot chocolate. We attended a performance last year and loved it, so we went again tonight. This is my number one Seattle Christmas tradition--and it's free! I will really miss it when we leave!





Deck the halls with Garden d'Lights. . .After seeing many of my friends' posts with pictures of Temple Square at Christmas, I was feeling a little nostalgic, and I was sad that my kids were missing out on this tradition from my childhood. So this year I found the Seattle equivalent. The Bellevue Botanical Garden offers a *free* attraction, Garden d'Lights, that rivals the lights on Temple Square, with a little Pacific Northwest flair. From giant snails and spiders to a Christmas monkey, everything was created with lights. We met the Chamberlains and Daines there to stroll around the gardens and enjoy the amazing creations. Okay, so there wasn't much strolling going on--it was more searching and chasing. But it was fun. Even in the rain.



{Christmas} tree huggers


As usual, there was lots of screaming and silliness.


James' favorite display of the night.


Carly, me, Addy, Jess, and Emery.


Wow! Everyone is looking at the camera! It's a Festivus miracle!

The Christmas Monkey

Merry Christmas from our monkeys to yours!

parties and playdates

The last month has been a busy one, hence the lack of posts by me. At least not at my usual rate. Crafting has taken up gobs of my time. We've also had quite a few social engagements that have made late-night posting especially arduous--even for a night owl like me. I'm wiped out and it's not even Christmas yet! But we have had an enormous amount of fun. Here are the highlights.

*3 work Christmas parties (well, there were 5, but we only chose to attend three of them). Doctors work hard, hence they play hard. And they deserve it. But five holiday parties? We could only find time (and babysitters) for three. First there was the Department of Orthopaedics party at the Museum of History and Industry. All the residents squeezed onto one table and avoided the attendings and nurses. The all-appetizer dinner was good, but we left a little hungry. Then there was an Orthopaedic Residents party at Blu Water. Good food, good conversation. But the winner was the last party for the R2 class at Morton's Steakhouse. I haven't had a meal like that in I don't know how long. And it was free. And the valet parking was free. Any guesses why we skipped the ward party for this one? Not everyone was there, unfortunately, but we still had great company. And three whole nights out (sans kids) in one month! Amazing.


*Visiting teaching brunch at my house. I visit teach three of the most amazing ladies in my ward. They are exactly who I would've picked if I was able to choose my own route. Since I haven't had a partner for a while, and we're all good friends, I thought it would be fun to have them all over for brunch instead of doing individual visits during this busy time of year. They all brought their kids who ran wild with mine, plus they all three have new babies, so I got my baby fix. We had quiche Lorraine, orange rolls, and spinach salad. And I musn't forget the hot chocolate and whipped cream. And here's where some of the crafting came in. Their gift was an altered clipboard with Christmas wish lists for each of their children to fill out. I had so much fun making these that I made one for myself and another friend. I'm going to keep the lists each year from my own kids and put them in their scrapbooks. I have a wish list from Christian's baby book that he wrote out himself when he was probably four that includes every Star Wars character copied straight off the back of the box (including the little ®). So cute. Anyway, if you have a group of ladies on your VT route that get along well together, I suggest trying a brunch or lunch together. We decided to make it a once-a-quarter event.



*Ortho Girls Nights. I hosted a make-your-own-wrapping-paper-and-gift-tags night for our monthly get-together. We had BBQ chicken pizza, autumn veggie pizza, and classic Margherita pizza, plus a scrumptious bacon/walnut/mango chutney brie, blood-orange soda with sparkling apple juice (or champagne), and to-die-for brownies. I think we ate and talked more than we stamped, but it was so fun. A few weeks after that we had a cookie party where we spent hours decorating dozens of sugar cookies for ourselves. You should have seen some of the masterpieces these girls were kicking out. I'm not sure how they could justify eating them. (I however had no problem finishing off all three dozen of mine, with only a little help from the boys). I love these girls so much. We take turns hosting or planning a girls night out every month. It is a saving grace. We clicked instantly when we met last year, and so did our guys, which makes us the envy of the entire residency program. I guess it just doesn't happen that often that all eight of the residents in a class have a bond like we do, and like to spend time together as much as we do. It is one of my greatest blessings.

*Playdate with Martha Stewart. My friend Jessica (one of our ortho friends) is an amazing hostess. So it was no surprise that for our monthly play date she went all out. Imagine a basket of gingerbread and cinnamon crunch bagels, colorful fruit kabobs, and steaming mugs of hot apple cider. Yeah--I brought a bunch of bananas. Nice. After bagels the kids made reindeer hats and colored Christmas pictures (and ran around screaming--good thing they get along so well, huh?) while we talked. Plus her house was in perfect order, spotless, and she didn't seem one bit stressed. I am so glad I have three and a half more years to learn from the Queen of Parties. I have a feeling I'm going to need all these hostessing skills someday.

James & Ella-Patella "playing." Sounds more like a scream-fest. What a pair. If you listen carefully you'll hear James' favorite word several times.

Our next event is Christmas dinner at our house for all the ortho R2s who can't be with family this year. Should be laid back and delicious. I love a good party at my house--it's the only thing that motivates me to clean. And I love that we have a family away from home with whom we can enjoy holidays, birthdays, football games, summer BBQ weather, ski trips, river-rafting trips, beach trips, rainy days. . . Life is good!

the scientists play football

Addy is the physical one. James--he's more of a scientist. Like his dad. But his dad doesn't want him to be a science nerd, so he's often teaching him little tricks to help him avoid the nerd herd. (Case in point--tonight at bath time I overheard Christian say, "You WILL take swimming lessons and you WILL like it!")

Last month, during some unseasonably warm, dry weather, I caught Our Dad teaching James to catch a football. Yeah, so he catches like I do. I admit it. So sorry, buddy. Looks like you still have a way to go with this one, Cree. At least he's got the tossing down. You're halfway there.

me and eight guys

Who: Layne, Boy, T, Jordan, and Mr. Mase
What: Sybrowsky boys trip to Seattle
When: November 10-13, 2007
Where: They all bunked in our little condo--on air mattresses, couches, and wherever they could go to get away from T's snoring!
Why: To go to the Seahawks vs. 49ers game at Qwest Field
How: Via the Seattle Shuttle (aka T's Suburban)--they drove through the night

What do you get when four big Sybrowsky boys (and one little one) all stay at my house for the weekend?

*Lots of good eats*Lots of football*Lots of shopping?*Lots of TV*Lots of late nights*
*Lots of interesting odors*Lots of furniture assembly*

I was wholly outnumbered, but I felt like one of the guys. Sitting around watching TV, eating meatballs and artichoke dip, enjoying treats galore (like the tropical Starbursts from Boy--thanks!). In fact, I hardly lifted a finger while they were here. You wives will be glad to know that your men pitched in with all the housework and cooking. . .

Layne did the grocery shopping and cooking.
Adam and Jordan both did the dishes.
Taylor took out the garbage.
They all cleaned up their beds every morning.
And Cree? Well, since he wasn't really on vacation, we cut him some slack. And slack he did. :) No, he actually worked really hard (with Layne) putting together the boys' new dresser and the new desk for his office. In fact, he stayed up all night working on the desk and then went to work. It was a labor of love. He LOVES his new desk. He LOVES his new office. He LOVES how he can spread his books out and study. It's all he can talk about, still!

The little guys had a blast, too. They played hard all day long. We were constantly hearing crashing above our heads as they jumped from the bunk bed ladder and crashed toys off the staircase landing. They made a cool Transformer out of an empty cardboard box, watched several Scooby Doo episodes, and ate lots of "dollars." Seriously, what more could they want?








The guys went to the Seahawks game (courtesy of one of Layne's associates at KIRO 710AM) on Monday night. T was able to score some tickets off Craigslist so Mason could join them. Fortunately, James hates football--he didn't even want to watch the game on TV with me. But he did love the Seahawks football they brought back for him. He's still saying, "Remember when Mason was here, that time I got that Seahawks football? That was a fun day." Mase was rooting for the 49ers, but after watching Seattle in action (and winning), he decided he was a Seahawks 12th man after all.


I am so glad you guys could all come up. I hope you make it an annual tradition! Now girls, we need to start our own tradition in Seattle, say an annual girls' shopping trip?

happy feet

What personality. This is Addy in real life. A dancin' fool. A mover and shaker. A silly monkey. He goes and goes all day, running, jumping, sliding, flinging his body onto various objects of furniture. Stripping himself down to his leak-proof skivvies. Running laps around the kitchen and laughing uncontrollably. He won't dance unless he wants to, but when he does, it's something to see.

high and dry

A few streets south of us in Bothell.

Across the street from our running trail in Woodinville.

We've had a few concerned calls from thoughtful friends and family members with the recent flooding in Western Washington, so I am officially putting all your minds at ease: we have not been flooded. However, these pictures are taken within a few miles our house, so we're counting our blessings. On Monday the rain came down in bucketfuls, pounding rather than dancing like we're used to in "heavy" storms. The boys stood under the skylights in amazement at the percussion concert above their heads. The region received between three and ten inches of rain that day, and creeks and rivers could not hold the frantic, rushing waters. A section of I-5 between Seattle and Portland is still closed, under five feet of water. Thousands of people are without power or access to any other city, barricaded in by high-water and washed-out bridges. Many more have lost their homes and businesses. Sink holes swallowed cars, and there is no access to Golden Gardens Beach until Spring on account of the road sliding down the hill. Two men lost their lives in the wind and rain. We watched others on the news being pulled out of the water by boats and helicopters, some stranded in water up to their chins, some waiting to be rescued off rooftops. We probably shouldn't have been so irreverent, taking advantage of the exceptional welly weather and splashing around outside a bit, and mourning our temporary loss of access to Costco and Target. Perhaps I should have been more concerned with karma and joined the sandbagging efforts in Bothell. I guess we'll see next time it rains.

yeah, that's what i thought

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snow day

The Seattle area only gets genuine snow once or twice a year, if we're lucky. Last year we had four huge snow storms where the snow actually lasted a few days, but we were told this was rare and not to expect snow again for a while. So when I saw Rachie's blog post "First Snowfall" the other day, I was a little jealous. No way was I going to get a shot like that this year. Okay, I was wrong. This is a picture I took of our street Saturday on my way home from a YW meeting.


The crazy thing about snow here is that it completely shuts the city down. Schools are closed, people stay home from work, there are rushes for food and generators at the stores. So as we watched the huge flakes falling--and sticking--from Anne Beale's picture window yesterday, I knew we'd have a "snow day" for church on Sunday. That's right--we have church snow days here. I didn't even bother to finish preparing my lesson or set my alarm clock Saturday night. When the phone woke us up at 8:30, I knew it was our home teacher calling to tell us meetings were canceled without even looking at the caller ID.

In 28 years living in Utah, home of the greatest snow on earth, never once was church canceled for snow (or any other reason). In fact, I only remember three school snow days in my entire educational career. Jode told me they went to church in 12 inches of snow today, no problem. Last winter our ward canceled meetings three times! Hilarious! One of the days it was a perfect, beautiful, sunny day, but the rain the day before had covered the streets in ice overnight. I guess our Relief Society president hit a telephone pole a few years ago driving to an early morning meeting, so the Bishop doesn't want to put anyone in danger, which is so thoughtful. But it's ironic that our pioneer ancestors risked life and limb crossing the plains, the rocky mountains, and ice-cold rivers in winter so we could worship, and we can't show up if there are two inches of snow on the ground.

I'm grateful for my snow-driving training in Utah. I am not afraid to drive in the snow here. But I am afraid of the other drivers. They're the real reason to stay off the streets. In all fairness, there are no snow plows or salt trucks here, so it really can get messy. But honestly, it's really not that hard, people. Last year it took Christian over five hours to get home from the hospital because of a snow storm. The freeway was literally shut down. People were abandoning their cars and walking home. His only real obstacle was getting around all the stuck or nervous people plugging up the roads. He had even left early that day to make it home for a dinner party we were hosting. By the time he got home, everyone had left. So this morning he didn't even go in to round. It wouldn't have been worth sitting on the freeway in his car (which has no heater) for only a couple hours of work!

The monkeys didn't even get a chance to play in it, but they wanted to know if Christmas was coming NOW. I'm so glad the first day of December actually felt like December--something we might not feel again this year. We had a quiet, relaxing day with the boys, watching the snow melt in the rain and getting cozy by the fire. Believe me, I'm not complaining.

hamma and papa come to visit

How lucky are we that Grandma Holly and Grandpa Brent came to visit US for Thanksgiving this year? I didn't have to cook a turkey alone or fly alone with two kids this year--what a blessing. We had the best time with them. It was even sunny and dry the whole week (except the day they left). Here are some highlights of their time with us:

*Finally going to Colossal Fossils. James' dream come true! He has been talking about going to the "dinosaur exhibit" at the Pacific Science Center for months now. The rest of the museum was really fun, too. James loved the human body exhibit, which included x-rays of bones just like Daddy looks at, the music room, and the sea creatures pool. I'm thinking we need an annual pass to this place. It kept them busy for hours! Perfect for rainy days.

*Grandpa Brent: the human jungle-gym. The kids climbed on him non-stop the entire trip. Whenever he'd sit at his laptop to get some work done, they'd be right up on his lap, begging to play a Scooby Doo game online. If he wanted to relax on the couch, they would start jumping from the ottoman onto him, over and over. Every morning they'd wake up and head straight downstairs to go jump on the air mattress and wake him up. They even wanted him to squish in the backseat with them in the car, which he did. He spent so much one-on-one time with them, which is so precious to us. He sat and looked at every single page of James' Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs with him, and even brought him a cool National Geographic issue full of extreme dinosaurs. I'm so glad they love to be with him so much, but I bet he was glad to get home and reclaim his personal space!


*Grandma Holly: my personal housekeeper. One of my favorite things about having my parents here was that I didn't feel like I was doing everything alone all the time! My mom did the dishes every single day (my worst chore!), watched the kids while I showered and dried my hair (which made it go about 20 times faster!), and acted as my personal shopper. She also took James to the bathroom approximately 264 times while we were out shopping. It was so nice to have her around to consult on clothing, home decor, and everything else moms know everything about. I've missed that! She even cleaned the bathroom, washed the sheets, and vacuumed her room before she left! A house guest doesn't get any better than that.

*No more fluorescent green walls or stenciled spaceships! My dad and Christian both took a whole day of their vacation to paint the boys' room. What good guys. Love you. I've been dying to change the paint since the day we bought the place, but I couldn't 1. pick a paint color alone, or 2. face those extra-high walls. I am so glad I had my mom here to help me pick the paint. She has such a natural talent for design, and I love the way the color turned out. It only took us three trips to Home Depot to choose it! It's called Oatmeal by Ralph Lauren. Very classic. We haven't had a sunny day since to an accurate picture of the color, but this is a pretty good representation.

Before. . .


After. . .much better!


*A REAL trip to Costco. We spend a fair amount of time (and money) at Costco. But it's been a while since we had a real trip to our favorite store. My mom and dad really know how to do it. We walked up and down almost every aisle, picked out multiple colors of the same clothing items for all the boys, tasted all the samples, bought any food item we thought might be fun to try (the Creamy Tomato Basil Soup, Tuscan Three Cheese Kettle Chips, and Coconut Macadamia Nuts are our three new Costco must-haves!), and then stocked up on the essentials. We were probably there two hours. It was good times, good times. Thank you so much for helping us with a few items for our food storage and diaper stock! You have no idea how much that helps us. Of course it was not the only trip to Costco we made. We visited the Everett Costco a few days later, just in case we missed anything at the Woodinville location.

*Christmas presents under our tree! My mom was smart and decided to get all the Christmas shopping for us done while they were here so she didn't have to ship anything. We had such a fun time shopping at Toys R Us, the mall, craft stores, etc. (sorry, Mom, I had to hang one of my presents--it just would've been too hard to wrap--hee hee!) She even added significantly to my Christmas crafting ribbon when we found them 50% off at Michael's. I didn't have room in my regular ribbon organizer, so I made this ribbon holder just to hold them all! And she also helped me get my Christmas decorations up. Not to mention her tradition of giving me a darling ornament for my tree. Actually this year there were three, and I love them all! Thanks, Mom!


*Multiple trips to McDonald's. What visit with the grandparents would be complete with at least two trips to McDonald's? It's what the boys associate all their grandparents with. After the second trip (the day they left), Addy told everyone we saw, "Papa Donald's! Papa Donald's!" That really is a rare treat for them, and I know it's fun for Grandma and Grandpa to do it, too.

*A night out for us. Well, if you call a movie from Redbox and a trip to Walmart for treats a night out (currently we do--it's about as good as it gets these days). Plus they were there so we could go Christmas shopping at 4:30am on Black Friday, so really that's two dates without paying a babysitter! *Dig It Fossil Workshop! I have heard about this place at the Everett Mall, but we hadn't had a chance to go up there yet. Luckily we were looking for something to do the day they left, so we headed up to dig up some real life fossils! This place takes all the "extra" fossil remnants from real archaeological digs and puts them in their store for kids to dig up and "prepare." Holy cow, what a perfect activity for James. They both loved it. James picked a shark's tooth and Addy got a polished sea creature of some sort. We probably spent an hour there, just looking at all their dinosaur toys and products. So fun! But I think the best part for James was the gum ball Grandpa bought him in the mall. He's still talking about that.




*The Fun Forest Amusement Park. At the base of the Space Needle is a little amusement park we discovered during my parents' trip here last summer. We stopped here on our way to the airport to kill some time. Luckily they have some indoor rides and games because it was a pretty dreary day. They had such a blast on the Frogger ride, the inflatable castle, the arcade driving games, and the dragon ride.



*Just having family around for the holidays. This is something we have really missed the past year and a half. We've had some great holidays with our ortho friends and friends in the ward, who we really do love like our own family, but it's never the same as spending a holiday with the people who taught you the meaning of that day, who gave you all the traditions you look forward to each year and want to share with your own children. It meant so much to us that my parents would take off a whole week of work, spend money on plane tickets, sleep seven nights on an air mattress, share their room with the huge new computer desk, spend endless hours entertaining the kids, stocking us up at Costco, helping with the biggest meal of the year, and just staying up late to talk and hang out.

It seemed so quiet and empty when you left. Back to the grind. James and I cried as we pulled away from the curb at the airport. I really appreciate how much love and affection you show the monkeys, too. You have made such an impact on their lives. I'm learning from friends that not all grandparents are created equal. How'd we get so lucky?