The Cook Family Adventure Blog: Fall and holidays 2023

Wow - fall and holidays of 2023!! It was a crazy summer and the fall was just as nuts for us! The kids are really growing and developing and it seems like every time we turn around something new is happening with them!! The big events of the the fall were the teacher's strike and recovery from that... but more on that later. We had to say goodbye to Madison this fall, which was sad, but her death was quick and painless - which is a small blessing for a 13 year old dog.

As far as kid updates:

Elliot: This girl LOVES to read!! She has her kindle and between it and her print books she will sometimes get through a book a day!! When we were in Hawaii prior to Thanksgiving she was just hanging out in the corner of the pool reading her book - like an adult!! She also is creating all kinds of connections that we can hardly keep up with. At one point we weren't believing her about something and she said it was just like Galileo, where nobody believed him about the heliocentric model either. She is loving violin and girl scouts and remains a talented and motivated gymnast.

Weston: This little man is a bundle of energy! He loved playing rec soccer this fall and dove right into wrestling after the strike. He is adapting to the increased structure of first grade and working real hard on his reading skills. He loves math and is excelling at it. He also has really enjoyed his time in cub scout and getting to know his own social circle. Guitar is a bit of a challenge and we tried several different teachers (including one who left because it was "tedious"...sigh).

Fiona: Oh Fiona "Fireball" Cook - how we love you. She convinced Wes to cut her hair on thanksgiving (!) and is nothing but smiles all the time!! She is full of joy, wonder and curiosity and love. She absolutely loves collecting treasures and has bags and boxes full of special things in her desk upstairs. She has developed quite the love of stuffed animals and sleeps each night with her Mono, Owlie, or many more. Owlie goes on lots of adventures with us! She started violin this fall and has loved getting to be one of the "big kids" practicing each night.

In September Nora came out to visit us! It was great to see her out here in Oregon. Grandma and Jesse and Betsy came too!! Betsy had a work conference in Portland and took the opportunity to stay with us and explore the state.

Concentrating hard on a phone call or video? Not sure which, but isn't it cute when they all lined up in order! As they have gotten older, they actually get along really well. The three of them are just fantastic siblings together. Sure they fight sometimes, but when it really mattes they are on the same team, communicate well, work together and look out for each other.

Fall soccer and ice cream at Nico's! This is fruit soft serve and and DELICIOUS! Wes was on the King's of Alameda and Elliot was on the Stingers. They seem to really enjoy soccer and while they probably aren't going to be professional players, it is good to get them out on the field for some team sports.

Crystal went with the Alahood moms up to the Beyonce concert in Seattle - they took a party bus up and had a blast up there!! Look at all those sparkles!

Oh Fiona...this girl just loves life!

Continuing mom adventures! Crystal got backcountry passes for the core area of the Enchantments this year and led a group of women from the Alahood up on a multi-day backpacking trip. This was the biggest / first trip for a lot of the women and Crystal did an amazing job leading and supporting! They had great weather and a blast!

Beautiful scenery in the enchantments!

A great group of friends hiking in the enchantments including folks from Alahood and Jess Lassiter!

What! Are they serial killers? Is this for Halloween?

(!) This captures her personality perfectly! Funny, silly, excited to be a big kid (she packs a backpack to go to ABC even though she only has a lunch because that is what the big kids do)

An end of year camping trip to the coast with the Alahood group. Up near Astoria. This was a fitting end of the summer. There was a big rock near the camp that the kids loved to climb and all kinds of fun woods to run through.

Wes loves to dig and really loves when he has a job to do. We assigned him the job of digging the deepest hole on the beach and he got right to it!

Smiles and fun at the camp!!!

Watermelon and snacks at the Maritime Museum in Astoria after!

Oh my gosh - is it fall already? Boni was out for pumpkin picking in the fall weather. The rule is each person has to be able to pick up their own pumpkin and carry it to the wagon. The kids were REALLY stretching that rule this year and took as you can see from some pumpkins as big as themselves.

Wes is very much in a car, truck, machine phase right now. He love the idea of big machines, driving and operating them.

As soccer progressed - it was really clear that Elliot love defense and goalie. She seemed to enjoy the competition and coaching. She really seemed to latch on to the idea of being a keeper - can see the whole field, last line of defense and lots of responsibility. She really is an oldest child and takes it very seriously!

The Weis clan all got together in Denver for a Packers game and visit to Colorado. Eric hosted everyone as they got some of that mile high air. Mac was home with the kids so that Crystal could have some much needed quality time with the siblings and mom!

Go Pack Go!

Go Stingers Go!

Go Kings of Alameda Go! Wes has been working hard on his writing through the first half of 1st grade and is making a lot of forward progress.

**A side sad note: at the beginning of October our beloved first dog, Madison, died suddenly during a dog walk. She was healthy and fiesty until the end. She passed quickly and without pain. It was unexpected and difficult for all of us and she brought us 13 years filled with love, adventure, barking at strangers and stealing food from the counter. We miss her and love her very much. ***

Now back to the fun stuff:

Blegh....Carving pumpking guts!!

It was unfortunately raining outside so we were carving inside. We cooked up some pumpkin seeds afterward - some with spicy and some with cinnamon.

Hard at work carving for Halloween - hi Wendolyne!

Somewhat surprisingly - zero fingers were cut off during this process.

Ta da!!

Another costume NAILED by Crystal - astronauts, a rocket scientist and ground control! The white tubes lead into the backpack so that they could put candy down the white tube and into the backpack for safe keeping!!

Homemade spacesuits and backpacks!!! Crystal is amazing at this!

eek...An Alien with the astronauts!!

Well - it isn't all fun and games. Halloween was a fantastic night of trick or treating. The weather was clear and not too cold (the year before it rained) and the Alahood was out in full force. After a pre-party at the Oster's the candy was flowing and bed times were lax because....the teacher's strike started the next day. On November 1 the PPS teachers started a strike that would end up lasting a month! The picket lines were staffed every day outside of school and the kids were quite interested and excited to join and support their teachers as they advocated for more funding and smaller classes.

The next generation of labor activists. "Honk 4 Teachers"

"Smaller classes, School Funds, We Love our Teachers"

The kids with Allanah Freeman - Elliot's teacher and girl scout leader. They were out on the picket line rain or shine (mostly rain). The strike went on for pretty much the entire month of November. It started to get pretty old at the end when they would provide daily messages (usually around 7pm) that there was no school the next day. It made planning for childcare somewhat hard.

Dia de los muerts with Wendolyne!

Mandy, Landon and Kendall came into town for the Taylor Swift concert event! They visited for several days with a major part of it being the girls heading out to watch the concert on the big IMAX screen. How about that outfit!!

The trip got even better when we all when to the paint room at Smash PDX. Why are we all dressed in white and what is a paint room?

Chaos....it ended up being a bit much for Fiona, but otherwise it was a BLAST!!

Mandy, Kendall and Landon continued their Oregon adventure with a rainy trip to Multnomah falls...

and a rainy trip to a Thorns game (notice a theme?). The game was a blast and we had seats pretty far up in the front with a really great view. With the ongoing teacher's strike, having friends out for adventures was a lot of fun! Hot dogs for all (a bit soggy).

Little Fiona snuggle bug...look at that hair (foreshadowing!!!))

We had a wonderful friends thanksgiving at Alison Bourne's house with the main Alahood group. This group has really turned into our core neighborhood social support and it was special to be able to spend it with them at thanksgiving. The teacher strike was still going on at this point and everyone was starting to run thin on their patience with their kids and with the whole process so it was fun to gather and celebrate the good things in life.

With a few days off before Thanksgiving we headed to Hawaii for a quick vacation. We stayed on Maui at a condo right on the beach and man was the sun, beach and waves a welcome break from the teacher strike. We took it easy and spent time at the beach, the pool, the shuffle board court and didn't get too worked up about seeing all the "things." Crystal and Mac had some great morning runs along the coast.

Island girl!

Dressed up for dinner and a Luau. I am partial but they are pretty cute! There was a big wildfire in Maui several months before this and while the island was open to tourists, the area around Lahaina was still off limits and very much in recovery mode.

Setting sun in Hawaii at the luau. This was a few months after the big fire on Lahaina that destroyed the city and the Old Lahaina Luau, where we had been before, so this was a new place for us.

Shred those waves!

What is a trip to Maui without a trip to Haleakala! We didn't go up for the sunrise this year (it is really early) but were up early in the day to hike through the crater and enjoy the volcanic landscape.

This captures Elliot perfectly, sun hat, lemonade and a book. Hanging out in the pool, lost in her story. She is growing up!

And now...the moment we have been waiting for. Thanksgiving day, Mac and Crystal are both at work and Chris texts us that quite time didn't quit go as planned. Fiona convinced Wes to cut her hair because she liked the way short hair looked. She is so very proud of herself and so very happy.

Business sin the front and party in the rear!

for a 6 year old cutting a squirming 4 year olds hair, they actually did a pretty good job! And he didn't cut her at all.

Mom got home from work and did some damage control hair cutting. Thus we enter the phase of short hair Fiona!! Look how happy she is! This is Fiona in a nutshell, happy, optimistic and VERY sure of what she wants and how to go get it.

After Mac and Crystal both worked Thanksgiving, we were able to celebrate with Andy and Chris as well as Wendolyne and her friend Sahian. It was a delicious and family focused holiday!

Since the cook Grandparents were out - we took advantage of this time to go Christmas tree picking. We got to see Santa and his sleigh.

Look at the tree Grandma found!! It is a great one!!

Hugs and snuggles with Grandma at the Christmas tree farm!

Continued recovery from haircut-gate 2023 with a professional touch up. She looks good!! The short hair fits this little fireball well!

As the holidays approach we continued with the traditions - the yearly outing to the the Polar express train with the Alahood gain (Weinman/Sabot, Oster and Uranga folks here). Based at the Portland rail museum it was a quick ride but there was hot chocolate, candy canes and Santa!

And gingerbread house decorating. Probably as much frosting went into kids as went on to the ginger bread house and definitely more candy into kids than onto the house.

This team was way more organized and focused!

We are also getting back into the swing of going out - here we are at Life of Pie, a pizza restaurant, with great pizza and a GREAT kale salad.

Sniff...the last ABX pajama night...6 years and now Fiona is in the last year before kindergarten

We do still occasionally work and Crystal brought the kids to OHSU to visit Mac. Unfortunately the macaroni was not very good (or as we say "not to my liking...yet")

Traditions continue with the girls yearly trip to the Nutcracker ballet.

and a new snuggly! This is Teddy, he is a christmas bear and Fiona loves him very much.

Through all of this, Fiona has been working with teacher Sophie on her Violin and here she is at the store getting the next size up violin! She is taking to the violin with enthusiasm and, I think, loves to now be part of complaining about doing instrument practice each night. Really helps her to feel like part of the family ;)

Zoo lights 2023! The weather was amazing and we got a great night out to see them. Mac had to come right from work to see them, but it is always a great show that the Portland zoo puts on.

Here comes Christmas at home!!! How about all those matching pajamas! We celebrated a few days early at our Oregon home so we could travel back to Maine and Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with our extended family.

After opening presents, we started our flights home. On the redeye back to Boston, the pilots invited the kids to come and sit in their cockpit. Look at how happy he is!! He is literally like a kid in a candy shop. I think he might grow up to be a pilot!!

The even let them put on the emergency pilot masks that they wear for emergency decompression. This was VERY cool and the straps were pneumatically operated so they sucked down around his head. You can see in his right hand one of the Delta airplane trading cares for the A321 we were flying on. Other than being in the middle of the night - this was AWESOME!

And then we were home in Maine! Kate and her family had us over for a Christmas eve party and we got to play in their backyard and use their new firepit outside. It was a very Maine Christmas eve.

and then people were very tired...

There wasn't much snow around on the lake and we got to adventure down to the lake and spend some time with Grandpa, Luna and Pilot (the dogs)

Christmas!!! How about those pajamas!

We took out annual trip out to the farm for a horse ride and searching for Santa. There wasn't much snow out so it was a ride in a wagon. We went to the farm and saw the donkeys, ate cookies, ran through the woods and sang Christmas carols with the whole Cook clan

Then it was off to Wisconsin! Paige is getting so big and was such a huge help with Fiona. Look at how happy they are together!

and these little peas were in their own pod the whole time! Jordyn and Elliot LOVE spending time together they sure do look related!!

A third christmas!!! What!!!!!

How about those Oregon kids who can't skate to save theirs lives. This was at the indoor rink at the UW campus and aunt Kelly did a wonderful job supporting little miss Fiona as she learned!

Wes just wants to go FAST (is that a surprise to anyone)

After skating we had the chance to go to Christmas mountain for a day of skiing. The snow was mostly made but was more than enough for a fun day of lapping the groomers. The kids were all having a blast and it was really great to get out on the mountain with the family!