The Weekly Photo

So, I have two photos this week. I really want one of the skiing photos as that is the biggest and best thing we did last week, but you all have already seen those pictures! So, you get to see this one again, since I will want it in my photo book that I do at the end of this year. I also wish I got a photo of her skiing, as I only got videos of her in action. Oh, well. Next time, I guess.

The weather turned very warm at the end of last week, especially on Sunday. It got up to 60 degrees! It feels like Spring is in the air, though I suspect we will have another snow storm. The sun was so glorious, so it had to be included in this week's Weekly Photo.

Skiing with Elanor

Last year, we took Elanor skiing a few times and she loved it. She loved going fast and did not want to have to ski alone because she just wanted to go fast! We took her up to Park City Resort this past Monday, where they have a magic carpet (conveyor belt type thing) and it is all free! It is a great place to take kids, for anyone in the Utah area.

Look at that face, all ready to ski! My camera was accidentally zoomed in, but it is still a cute picture.

Elanor rocked it this time around. The first few times down she wanted us to hold on to her, but once she felt confident she wanted to go straight down as fast as she could. We had to keep reminding her to turn or we would end up having to catch her as she bolted down the mountain. We skied for an hour and a half, took a lunch break and then skied for another hour. She was super exhausted by the end, but had a great time! I think some of the key things to know when taking young kids skiing are:

Getting ready to go!

1. Go on a nice day, you don't want your kids to remember only that it was wet, cold, windy, etc. You want to make the experience enjoyable.

2. Don't push them. Again you want them to like skiing, so if they are tired or just not feeling it, take a break, have a snack and try again. There was a dad there working with his 2 or 3 year old daughter and she was crying the whole way down as she skied. She was doing an ok job skiing, but if she is having a horrible time, the memory will just be a bad one.

Elanor was so excited to have her own hot chocolate.

3. Try and play little games with them. We played follow the leader and that worked really well and Elanor followed me as I skied down. Red light, green light is also a good one.

4. Ski with them so they have someone to watch and copy.

5. Don't take them on a rope tow. You will end up carrying them up it and that is not worth it and so tiring. Magic carpets are the best, so find a place that has a magic carpet. 

 Here are two little videos of her skiing:

The Weekly Photo

Sorry, I was so late getting this out! I have had a busy couple of days. 

I also do not have any really "good" photos from last week. I have some funny ones, cute--but blurry ones, etc. I really wanted to get a good Valentine's Day picture, and I tried, but failed.

This little miss is looking so proper and fancy in her lace dress on Valentine's Day.

 It was a good day though. Tyler could not be there all day or night (poor guy), but still took the time to get Elanor and I each a bouquet and little treat, plus he made chocolate covered strawberries. We played with friends, had a tea party and spent some quality time with my favorite little girl. We did not see Tyler much on Saturday either, but I made a fancy Valentine's dinner and dessert for him before he went to work that night. On Sunday night, work was canceled and he did not have work/clincals on Monday, so we took full advantage of his day off and took Elanor skiing and then we went on a date that night. It was wonderful to actually see the guy. I miss him, but I know he is working hard and would really rather be home. Valentine's extended the whole weekend and into Monday, which was rather nice.

Skiing on Monday, more pictures and videos later this week!

Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple Black died last night. She was 85 and had lived a long, good life so I am not particularly sad, but I loved her! I watched so many Shirley Temple movies as a kid and my sister and I were really into her and acting like her. I especially liked anytime she danced with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (they did four or five movies together). 

A bit of a side note here, because I love Bojangles so much:

{Bojangles is a super cool guy (if you ever take a history of dance in musical theatre class, you will learn about him). He was a great tapper, but in a time period of heavy racism, he was also one of the first black men to be in  "white" films and was the very first to dance with a white person on screen--Shirley Temple. }

This little dance is adorable:

Shirley Temple is easily the most popular child star there has ever been. When her movies were coming out in the 30s, she and her movies were more popular than any other movie or actor--adult and child alike. She was funny, adorable, spunky and a dang good tap dancer. Her popularity continues to this day and people still love her movies. Elanor has watched a few and loves them! 

"Good Ship Lollipop" is one of her most famous songs:

Perhaps the best thing about her, is that she survived her childhood popularity. She became an ambassador for the United States for goodness sake! She was a good mother and wife to her husband of over 50 years. She is no Miley Cyrus. 

She was a huge part of my childhood and I love her so much!  There will be articles all over the internet about her which will be more informed and better written and I hope they do something special for her at the Oscars--but I wanted to say just a little something on here about how much this person meant to me. Shirley Temple inspired me, she made it seem possible that a kid could do anything and she lived her life well.

Plus, that little girl could dance.

In case you were wondering, my favorite Shirley Temple movies are:

The Littlest Rebel

Bright Eyes

Little Colonel

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

I also liked: Heidi, The Little Princess, Baby Take a Bow, and pretty much every other one, but the four listed above are the best--at least I think so.

The Weekly Photo

Chilly walk.

{Elanor loves playing/taking care of this sweet little baby that we have been watching occasionally}

Home.

I was talking with some friends the other day and they were talking about how they wanted to see my parents house some day. I guess I talk about it a lot? It got me thinking about how much I love where I grew up. 

I was five when we moved to our house in Corbett, Oregon. We had lived in other parts of Oregon and Washington previously. It is a 1906 farmhouse that belonged to a great-great (there are possibly more greats in there) uncle. My great Grandpa Don (on my mom's side) grew up in a house just down the road. My grandfather grew up, went to college, married my great grandma, lived in Portland for awhile, but ultimately moved up to Washington. So, there have not been any close relatives living in Corbett for many years. It is important to know a bit of the history as this house feels so right. It has a happy feeling in it, as if it has witnessed many happy memories inside its walls. Houses have feelings, at least I think so--especially old houses. This house is not spacious or fancy, but it is cozy, clean, and friendly--plus my mom has good taste.

The house is wonderful, but the property and view are stunning. Our house sits on a cliff looking out over the Great Columbia River Gorge. We also have twenty-seven acres of forests and fields to explore, many of those acres are also steep hills covered in (un-explorable) blackberry bushes. Blackberries grow wild everywhere. Delicious, yes. Very difficult to control and kill, also a yes--which is why we had a goat (he kept the blackberries from encroaching upon the lawn).

The four Scott kids, Ian, me, Jessica and Erik with out dog, Nessie.

Since I saw this view everyday going up, I sort of took it for granted. I have not lived at home in six, almost seven years and when I go home, I am always so amazed by the beauty of this gorge. Oregon, is beautiful, my friends.

 I love how different it looks at different times of the day and year.

My siblings and I were explorers. We spent many hours in the woods behind our house, exploring, building forts and I named everything. There was a large hollow right near the house and I named this place Fairy-Elfkin Dale. Fern Hollow, Ivy Glen, and Mud-Puddle Square were also areas in Fairy-Elfkin Dale. We were fairies of course, the boys were elves and we spent many long summer days down there building a fairy village. We dug out stairs, made nice paths lined with sticks, we all had houses, there was a bank (walnut shells were the money), a town square and it was so much fun. Many good friends also built houses down in Fairy-Elfkin Dale and I have many happy memories of this lovely spot. I do not have any pictures of it unfortunately!

We also had a tire swing, which was on a large walnut tree. Near the tire swing was Cherry Tree Forest (they were actually plum trees, but when I was 5 or 6 I thought they looked like cherry trees), where we were often orphaned children running away from a horrible orphanage. This mini forest was made up of small, young trees that grew very close together and was right on the edge of a large and grassy field. This walnut tree, little forest and field were up the hill pictured above, but a little more to the front of our house.

We had a large and grassy backyard, which led into The Forest. A real, proper and large forest, unlike the Cherry Tree Forest. The main forest path (wide and fairly grassy) led to The Point. It was a clearing, which overlooked the river. We had a campfire out there and at one point it was a Merry Men camp and later changed into a Viking fort.

It is mostly just a fire pit and a good view nowadays.

Throughout The Forest, we created many paths. My brothers have expanded on what we did and now there is a very nice forest path which goes on for miles.

In the forest there were, The Cliffs of Wonder (I think that was it, it was mostly shortened to The Cliffs),  and a large rock area named The Ruins. 

The Ruins

Atop The Ruins was our very favorite spot. It was mossy and peaceful and we would often come out here to read.

My mom took this picture in early spring, so usually (as in when we would go out there to read) there would be leaves on all the trees.

Elanor on a forest path this past October.

Coming out of The Forest, this is the view of the house and backyard (taken in early spring).

This is not at my house, but near it and was taken on a hike. Isn't Oregon beautiful?

I am so happy Elanor loves this place too! She might even be ready for the tire swing this year!

I did not do any of this incredibly long post to brag about where I grew up, but rather I feel so completely grateful and blessed.  It was so much fun to grow up in place where it facilitated imagination, exploration and magic. Fairies live in these woods. There are Indians living up on the grassy hill by the tire swing. Orphans have found shelter and food in Cherry Tree Forest. Vikings have attacked and knights have battled valiantly. Happy memories were made in this cozy home, surrounded by the woods, by four kids and their wonderful parents. 

So thank you, Mom and Dad.

I hope Tyler and I can provide a similar environment for our children in the hopefully not too far off future.

The Weekly Photo

I am not sure what she is thinking, but I love her expression.

I know I have not written much lately, but I started working on a blog post on Saturday and I am not quite done with it. It should be up tomorrow!