Lila explores uncharted territory on waves of music and rhythm in her own impossibly cute way. Of course, I am completely smitten, but she’s hard to resist, this one, and there’s something magical about children exploring music and the movement of their own bodies.

Camera: Jill

Rainbow Arabia from L.A. plays the music.

The uncut version is on Jill’s Dylan & Lila blog.

Today, our lovely girl turns two and words seems insufficient to describe this little one and my love for her. She’s a happy child with a love of the spoken word and music and the feel of things, especially liquids…and this can get messy. She likes to laugh and play. She is strong-willed with a playful sense of mischief. She wants to do things on her own. She says “I do it. I do it,” even if she can’t yet and I hope this spirit finds her achieving many great things.

Here she is wearing a sweater my mom just finished knitting for her. Indeed she comes from a line of talented women.

Lila turns 2!

A couple weekends ago, I took both kids out to the School of Visual Concepts’ (SVC) annual Wayzgoose festival, which is an open house and a celebration of letterpress printing. My friend, Kate, teaches at the school and I wanted to go to support her and check out the event and the SVC letterpress studio as I love letterpress printing (nearly as much as Jill!). We ended up meeting Tim, little MJ, Jenny, Koga, and Kate down there!

Click thumbnail for more photos.

Earlier, Dylan’s interest in going had waned and he wanted to stay home and play trains. I was able to change his mind by telling him that there would be a steam-roller down there and that Kate would be driving it. That did the trick.

Kate had finished her stint as driver, but we did see 3′ x 5′ letterpress posters being created 2 at a time by a crew of volunteers, big linocuts, a couple of 4′ x 8′ sheets of plywood, and the steamroller for the actual pressing. Pretty ingenious. The posters were hung from the school balconies to dry and were auctioned off as a fundraiser. My favorite was the Godzilla/sushi poster created by a crew from Starbucks.

A Wayzgoose is a tradition in the letterpress printing world that dates back to the 17th century, when master printers would serve a feast to their apprentices in recognition of the impending shorter days of fall and winter which would require the difficult work of hand-setting type by candlelight. Goose was often served, along with whisky. Now shops had adopted the past time as a way to open their doors to the public and showcase the work that has been going on.
— Kate Fernandez

Summertime in the Northwest is busy busy busy as everyone milks the most out of long days, occasional warmth, and mostly consistent sunshine. This trip was the third camping weekend running! Humorously enough and in-keeping with our daddy/kid camping trip last year, we did manage to find a bit of precipitation as the rain began pitter-pattering on our tents some time during the night Saturday. Very glad it held off…the photos show some of the rather amazing light and clouds forming in the lee of mighty Baring Peak. This night owl stayed up for a bit more campfire and the full moon coming up over the ridge amidst more amazing cloud patterns in the sky. Magical.

It’s hard to get an idea of the vertical relief from lake to the looming summit above, but it’s nearly 4000′. What was even harder to believe is that this is a popular BASE jumping venue. On the way in we passed a group of about 6 or 7 jumpers packing out large packs and carrying helmets with cameras.

Just before dark we took the kids down to the west end of the lake to “the beach”. As we hiked the trail, we heard an alarming roar above the trees which scared the kids (or at least Dylan). Looking up, we just caught a glimpse of one parachute gliding east toward the meadows at the east end of the lake. We were pretty eager to witness this spectacle, but we had just missed it. Visions of bodies screaming, flying down that wall in a wingsuit pulling the chute 100 feet above the trees filled our heads as we gazed up the wall hoping for more jumpers. Alas, there were no more, and the evening settled down eventually as we watched a green heron land lakeside and bats consuming a feast of insects hatching from the water.

Marinate on this:

Baring Mountain BASE jump