It's beginning to look a lot like...

Finals are over, faculty-staff potlucks have been had, and now this college town has very few creatures stirring. We too are taking advantage of the long winter's break, but first had a few weeks of holiday and birthday activities to take care of :

 The Pullman tree lighting

I think the brass quartet was playing Good King Wenceslas, or at least it keeps humming in my head when I see this photo:

Pullman Plaza Tree Lighting

Maggie's first orchestra concert

Families crammed into the  middle school gym to hear a sampling of all Pullman school orchestras from 4th grade to high school. The 4th graders kicked off the show with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old MacDonald, and the evening ended with a very impressive high school orchestra performance. I'm amazed that there's just one (very patient) orchestra teacher for five different orchestra groups!

 What do you mean you can't tell which one is Maggie?  

 
There she is!


 Andrew's Birthday #7
We took Andrew to Zeppo's bowling for his birthday, followed by burgers and shakes at the Cougar Country Drive-in. He got lots of  Legos, plus an electronic circuitboard kit (?) from his uncle John. I though it looked way too complicated; Andrew figured out in under 10 minutes.

We are packing up to head south for a bit - more photos and stories to follow. 
So you know, "Deck them halls, ho ho ho, and all that jazz" and we'll see you in 2013!

(Resisting the inevitable title of) November Rain

We are thankful for November, for we were able to see family for the first time since we moved out here. In a span of two weeks, we were visited by Joe's mom, as well as my parents and my aunt and uncle.

We took them around to the highlights of Pullman, and Moscow, and got the opportunity to pop in and out of some of the little shops in our downtown, including quite accidentally stumbling into a bookshop with stacks piled so high, you thought one misstep on the creaky wooden floor might land you with a pile of paperbacks on your head. My mother-in-law was tickled to find an Alaskan wild game cookbook ( good if you ever need to make beaver stew) at Brused Books, and I picked up a copy of The Letters of E.B. White, and a children's book written in 1929. Maggie found the latest in her Cat Warrior series, and Andrew snagged a well-loved Leo Lionni story collection.

We toured my family around the WSU campus, including a trip to Ferdinand's Dairy - an ice cream shop run by the animal/food science students, which makes all their own ice cream onsite, as well as  their famously yummy "Cougar Gold" cheese:

 

We also visited the Conner museum,  an exhibit within the biological sciences building displaying  hundreds of vertebrate birds and mammals.

"Canis Lupus! What are you doing here?!" - Fantastic Mr. Fox

I thought the leaves would all be gone by the time we had visitors, but there was still quite a bit of fall color around town. Unfortunately they also got the gray and rainy version of the Palouse, not the clear, dry  and sunny version we had seen for most of the late summer into early fall.

Otherwise in November, we kept busy with scouts, orchestra, and mock elections. And, Maggie got her braces off! She'd been saving aside an envelope filled with bubblegum and  Laffy Taffy for the big day, but the orthodontist's office also presented her with a tower of goodies:

We had the whole week off of school/university for Thanksgiving break, so we drove to Utah (via Boise) for an extended stay. More on that trip in the next post.
 Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We miss you!

-Alison

If I Had an Orchard

I'm not sure if it's just the weird weather everywhere, or if Washington doesn't get a full four seasons, but it felt like fall here got crammed into two short weeks. One day it was October, still warm and dry and sunny, and and next thing we knew, wintry weather began threatening our 5-day forecasts. (The last two weeks of cold drizzle clearly underscores the regions' addiction  need for good strong coffee.)

But before the clouds settled in, it was apple-picking time! The WSU orchard just up the road from us set out its painted boards advertising "FRUIT SALE". We took an early dismissal Friday to go pickin'.

 

They have a lot of apple varieties for sale that I've never heard of  (Scarlett O'Hara, anyone?) along with pears, plums, and potatoes, but also pick-your-own Golden Delicious.

 Meanwhile, the IGA down the street sets up large bins of organic Bartlett pears and honeycrisps that could rival James' peach.   We filled our crisper with more than 15lbs of apples.  We made apple sauce, those Cracker Barrel-like cooked apples, even threw some in the crockpot with a cup of red hots (pretty yummy!)  Luckily, I don't think I could ever tire of apples.

View from the WSU Orchard, Early October, 2012

The orchard is located to the northeast of campus, where there is a lot of land devoted to the studies of agriculture and animal sciences.

You can take a bike path past an ominous sign reading "Large Animal Quarantine" and just past that is the Bear Research and Conservation Unit.  These are grizzly bears, orphaned or otherwise unable to be rehabilitated who have been rescued from the wild. According to their website, "the WSU Bear Program is the only facility in the world to house adult grizzlies for research."

The bears are being put into hibernation next week, and at our last visit, most all of them  looked ready for their big snooze!





PRWF
Speaking of bears, Andrew joined Cub Scouts this fall and last weekend we went to a regional TrailBlazers event.  There was geocaching, archery and fishing lessons, and survivalist tips, with whom I imagine is Idaho's version of Bear Grylls. 

It was held at the Nez Perce National Park near Spaulding, Idaho.  I forgot my camera, but it turned out to be such a beautiful day that I had to sneak a few shots with the iPad while Andrew was in the Human Foosball court:

                 

This week we have our first visitors and couldn't be more excited to see family.

Happy All Hallows' Eve!

And the sea is just a wetter version of the sky...

Activities were at a lull around the Sampson household lately. It's been two-plus weeks of a smoky haze filling the air, as Washington battles extremely dry weather resulting some large forest fires burning around us - nowhere near us thankfully, but close enough for the smoke to settle in, making the town smell like a campfire for days on end, causing soccer and recess cancellations.  Which is why we jumped at the chance to take a weekend trip when Joe had a WSU pre-game event to attend in downtown Seattle.

We drove out of town Friday afternoon, straight west across the state. I now understand why people refer to where they are from in Washington as "east side" or "west side" - because there's not much in the middle of the state.

 Maggie & I had just spent the day on a field trip at Kamiak Butte, learning all about state geography & geology, so it was interesting to see some of the landforms we had talked about. My favorite was the classes' re-enactment of the Pangaea splitup, using kids as the various landforms, the ice floes, etc.

"Look kids, there's the Space needle!"

We arrived into Seattle just in time to hit some evening traffic, and find our hotel in the dark. We knew our hotel was right near the Space Needle, but kept driving in circles around it for a long time before we figured out which 5th avenue it was. Very frustrating at the time, but I couldn't help but laugh thinking it was very European Vacation-like, "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament...Look kids, Big Ben..."  Aagggh!

We ended up in a great location to explore the city in one full day. We walked around the Seattle Center first thing in the morning (Space needle, EMP, Chihuly's Garden) and then took the monorail into downtown.

Feeling it was my duty, I visited no fewer than 3 coffee shops throughout the day, including a tiny  gluten free bakery I sought out among the stalls of Pike Place market, and basically bought one of everything. (The madelines were divine!) I also popped into the giant Starbucks across the street from the main market entrance, thinking it might be their original location (wrong) but because of the ridiculous line, I headed across the street to Seattle Coffee Works, and it was a far better choice.

Some of the sites/places we visited throughout the day:

• Space Needle & Seattle Center
• Pike Place Market
• The Waterfront
• Pioneer Square area
• Waterfall garden
• Klondike Gold Rush National Park
• Olympic Sculpture Park
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Waterfall garden, Pioneer square

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation visitor center

Olympic Sculpture Garden

Whew! The kids were great travelers, walking and walking. Andrew loved the monorail, but it's a short trip, so we rode it back-and-forth a few times.

The weather was perfect, sunny and not a drop of rain (I was kind of hoping for some.)







Next blog post: Apple-picking, and bears, oh my!

Cougartown

Last Saturday we went to the WSU Cougars home opener against the Eastern Washington Eagles. The kids enjoyed the pre-game festivities so much so that Andrew asked, "Are we just here for the party or is there a game too?"

  "Cougville" featured several giant inflatables to pounce, er, bounce on. 

It was a sold out crowd, and I think I might have been the only one not in WSU (or EWU) gear...though I tried my best to blend in with the sea of crimson & gray.

The day was sunny and unusually warm, so by halftime, the kids and I strolled over to the student union, aka the CUB, to cool off. We hit the food court and browsed the bookstore until it was time to catch the bus back home.

Cougars triumphed over the Eagles 24-20! The highlight of the game was a surprising 61-yard field goal kick (the second longest in Cougar history, we're told) just seconds before the first half ended.



 
Go Cougs!















-Alison