Our Christmas Top 10 Countdown!

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Logan and I thought we'd save a little paper this year and post our Christmas letter on the blog.
So, without further ado...
LOGAN & MELISSA'S TOP 10 MOST EXCITING EXPERIENCES OF 2008:
10- Needing to dig the truck out of the snow in Tahoe: We were pleasantly surprised to have a few feet of snow dump on us the weekend we went to Tahoe in February. This was our first trip up there with the Tacoma, and we made good use of the four-wheel-drive and snow tires.9- Holding a flower from the Enchanted Tiki Room: In April we took a trip to Disneyland and enjoyed a special behind the scenes tour, on which we got to hold one of the original flowers from the Enchanted Tiki Room.8- Making it through Thanksgiving without Clark nibbling anyone's fingers: Our dog, Clark, has some problems with being afraid of strangers, so we were a little nervous about having a dozen people over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. But he did really well and made some new friends.7- Experiencing the joy of having grass in our backyard again: On a lovely day in March we were thrilled to lay sod in our backyard. I can't say much more than that- it's just nice to have grass.6- Hosting a party for 50 friends in our backyard: In June my parents celebrated 35 years of marriage. We threw a surprise anniversary for them in our backyard. It was a big success and lots of fun.5- Attending a Colorado Rockies game with a rain delay: In August we flew to Colorado to attend my cousin's wedding. After the rehearsal dinner we went to see the Rockies play, but the game was delayed for almost an hour because of heavy rain. There was some lightning too!4- Becoming the cannonball king: We had a great time at our church's annual Labor Day weekend family camp. Logan and our friend Geoffrey spent their afternoons having cannonball dive contests with the kids in the swimming pool.3- Braving the July forest fires: We decided to take a road trip/camping trip in July, but unfortunately there were forest fires all over California that month. We dealt with detours due to closed roads, incredibly smoky air, and traffic delays. But we had a great time anyway.2- Going clubbing in Reno: In June our friends Matt and Bonnie tied the knot. Logan served as a groomsman in the wedding, and attended Matt's bachelor party prior to the wedding. He and the guys had fun at a club in Reno, dancing the night away.1- Bringing home our new bundle of joy: Our biggest life-changing event of the year was adopting our dog Clark from the Humane Society of Silicon Valley. He's so silly and sweet, and makes us laugh all the time. He's really part of the family.
We hope this Christmas finds you all happy and healthy. We're so thankful for all of the blessings in our life, and our friends and family figure prominently in those blessings.
Don't be a stranger- feel free to comment on the blog so we know someone is reading it!
Love,
Melissa, Logan and Clark

Learning to Make Nice

Oh, how the weeks fly by. I can't believe it's already been almost a month since my last post. I was doing really well posting fairly often, but if the last few weeks have been as busy for you all as they have been for us you know why I haven't posted.
I'll pick up where I left off...
First of all, I've been working a lot of weekend days recently, so that's a major factor in how often I blog. The weekend of November 15 & 16 I attended the California Library Association Annual Conference in San Jose. It was nice to have the conference so close. I just took the bus downtown in the morning and back in the evening. I went to several really good workshops and was able to reconnect with some colleagues I hadn't seen in a few years, including JoAnn Bauer, the librarian I worked with at the Humboldt County Library. However, it did consume my whole weekend!
The next weekend was busy too. Since I was working on Sunday I had to squeeze all of my weekend errands (and some fun) into Saturday. We started out the morning by having a training session at our house with Clark's trainer Amelia. We wanted her to come demonstrate for us how to introduce Clark to visitors coming to our house since we would be having 12 people coming for Thanksgiving dinner. For those of you who don't know, Clark has some problems with strangers, not just in our house but in general. We're not sure if it's because he was a stray when he was a puppy or if it's just his personality. But he's scared of strangers and shows his fear with aggression- barking loudly and generally looking scary. Amelia showed us some good techniques for introducing him to strangers, and he actually did a really good job on Thanksgiving. It will take a lot more work to get him to the point where he's comfortable with strangers, but I think we'll get there. Clark is a really smart dog and a fast learner. Here's a recent picture of him with his best buddy Logan: The day before Thanksgiving Logan's dad and stepmom arrived to spend the holiday with us. Clark had met them in July when they visited and he took to them well. He really enjoyed having them stay with us again- to the point that he wanted to sit in their laps all weekend! (He has a habit of yawning with excitement often when I snap pictures.)

Logan cooked another perfect turkey this year (or so I am told, since I don't eat turkey!) Since 13 people would be eating the turkey we had a 22 pounder. Here's our friend Heather making friends with Clark. Cooked chicken works wonders! (In case you're wondering, Clark is wearing a muzzle. Amelia suggested it so that we won't be worried that Clark will snap at someone if he gets really stressed during training. He doesn't seem to mind it much since wearing it means he gets chicken- a very special treat.) It always gets crowded in the kitchen just before dinner is served, with the last-minute preparations. Here my mom and Katie help me finish the cooking: Clark finally relaxed enough to lay down in the kitchen before dinner (I think he was waiting for some turkey to fall on the floor.) Despite the fact that we have a small house we're able to fit 14 people comfortably for dinner. We just push the sofa forward and add another long folding table. Dinner was yummy! Clark was a really good boy during dinner. I took his muzzle off and gave him a big treat to chew on. The next day we relaxed. We took Clark to the dog park to play for a while and then spent the afternoon and evening at home. Clark took his favorite spot perched on the back of the sofa and enjoyed a nap while Richard and Sue watched TV.

I had to work on Saturday but on Sunday we drove up into the Santa Cruz mountains with my parents and Katie to cut down our Christmas tree. This will be Clark's first Christmas with us, and he had a fantastic time running up and down the hill at the tree farm. He is so fast! Here he runs up the hill toward Katie:
Whew! He was tired out after all that running around, and his long tongue proves it:

After the trees were tied to the top of my dad's new XTerra we tried to get a family photo for our Christmas cards. "Tried" being the operative word. It took a while for us to get Clark to sit still! Here is take one:
And take two:
He finally did sit still, and we got a really nice, very professional-looking photo. (Thanks, Katie!) But you'll have to wait to see the winning photo until you receive our Christmas card.
Dad was kind enough to deliver our tree to our house later in the afternoon. He really enjoys driving his XTerra around:
While Logan and Dad unloaded our tree I took this photo looking up at the tree in our front yard. The sky was so blue in the background behind the red leaves of the tree:
We put the tree up that evening and decorated it the next night after I got home from work. We always put our tree in front of the living room window, which means that we have to move our green armchair into the corner. Which means that Clark can't sit in the chair to look out the window for the whole month. But I suppose he'll live...
Here are Clark and Logan looking cute...again:
Clark wasn't quite sure about the tree at first. He kept staring at it. He stares at it even more when Logan starts up the train that runs around the base of the tree!
Clark cautiously leaned out to smell the tree when he finally got brave enough. Luckily he hasn't decided to pee on the tree, drink the tree water, or steal/eat any ornaments. He's really a very good boy.
That's all for this time. I plan to update again soon since there should be some exciting holiday events happening in the next few weeks.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo- how about you, you, you?

Does anyone but me remember that old Raffi song about going to the zoo? It's funny what I remember from my childhood. It's a cute song.
Anyway, we had a nice long Veteran's Day weekend. Logan was off Saturday through Tuesday, and I had Sunday through Tuesday off. On Sunday it was dog day. We got Clark a vaccine he needed, bathed him, brushed his teeth, and gave him his flea medicine. He's sparkly clean and healthy now! Here he is waiting to chase a ball in the backyard a few weeks ago: On Monday we took a nice long hike with my Dad at Fremont Older Open Space Preserve. It was an unseasonably warm day- a little too warm for hiking. Toward the end of the walk Clark saw a deer in the brush and REALLY wanted to chase it. We had Dad take some photos of Logan, Clark and me in the hills, possibly for our Christmas card this year. But we ended up with some weird shadows on our faces, so we'll have another photo shoot later. Here's one of the better shots: On Tuesday we went with our friends the Cacioppos to the San Francisco Zoo. This was our goddaughter Chloe's first trip to the zoo, and she seemed to really enjoy it.
We always have fun watching the prairie dogs and meerkats scurrying around. This meerkat look-out was keeping an eye out for birds of prey: No, the turtle Chloe is riding on isn't real, although it looks pretty authentic! This is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. She was so big and beautiful, and she's still just a youngster. The keeper told us that these owls, at full adult size, have been known to kill deer for food! Goats are so funny! This was the most smiley goat I've ever seen: Chloe loves animals, and was happy to pet and brush the goats: No trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the antique carousel:

It's Raining Cats & Dogs

Happy Halloween! We had a fun day yesterday, starting with a cool and drizzly run for Clark and me in the morning. I put his rain coat on him, and he looked so cute! He enjoyed sniffing around in the pile of leaves on our driveway after the run, and I couldn't resist taking a few photos.

Here's a picture of my "Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin" display in the Children's area at the library. All week, kids preschool age through 5th grade could guess the weight of the pumpkin I took from our garden. Yesterday I weighed the pumpkin and chose the winner from the guesses. The pumpkin weighed 35 pounds 3 ounces, and a first grader guessed 35 pounds 2 ounces! He won a certificate for a free ice cream cone at a local shop.
Friday is storytime day at the library. Every week I present a toddler storytime and then a preschool storytime an hour later. Last week, I told the kids they should come dressed in their costumes for our Halloween storytime, and many of them did. They were SO cute! I figured that since the kids would be dressed up, I should be too. So I dressed as a cat.
This pair of twin skunks were my favorite. To see more photos, click here.
After work I met Logan at the Cacioppos' house to have dinner and go trick-or-treating with Chloe. This is the first year she is big enough to walk from house to house, and she looked so cute dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.
She got the idea of trick-or-treating really quickly, and has decided she likes candy!

Go Earthquakes!

Tonight we had a full social calendar. After walking and feeding Clark, we left to go to our friend Kaila's birthday party. I started babysitting for Kaila when she was 23 months old, and she turned 16 a few days ago! It was quite an affair- a jump house, pool party, food and drinks galore, and 35 teenagers.

After we had dinner and visited with Kaila and her mom for a while, we left to go to our next event. Luckily, it was just down the road at Santa Clara University. We went to the San Jose Earthquakes professional soccer game. Logan's school offered discounted tickets for the game, so we decided to give it a try. It was a lot of fun, and best of all was that the Earthquakes won 2-0.
Here are some photos from the game: (click on a photo to enlarge- click the back button when finished)
There was a big Earthquakes cheering section on the other side of the stadium:The Earthquakes fans threw lots of streamers onto the field, especially when the goals were scored: This is the Earthquakes mascot. He's got silver hair! The final goal of the game was scored as a result of a penalty kick. Very exciting!
Here's the set-up...
And... GOAL!! (the blur over the goalie's hands is the ball.)