Musicians

Aaron learned the basics of the ukulele a couple years ago and loved the heck out of it, but he had not been playing it for the past year or so, because he didn't know many chords and it had gotten boring. Then Dale pointed out to him that his wonderful ukulele book, "Daily Ukulele," has a chord chart in the front - and it was a revelation. Any chord you want, right there! The next revelation was that "Daily Ukulele" actually has 365 songs, so that you could learn a new song every day for a year. How awesome is that! Aaron proceeded to learn five new songs then and there, and another five the next day. Clearly he can read a chord chart.

One day he picked out "Don't Worry, Be Happy," which Dale could also strum on the guitar, and Jordan hopped over to the piano, and the three of them played together. Dale's music-father heart just about burst with joy.

And it really is pretty amazing. Jordan can accompany pretty much anything you want on piano; he can play any melody he hears (in essentially any key), then accompany it with chords that he finds himself. And Aaron, even on a song he's just learning, is such a good all-around musician that he is a pleasure to play with: he keeps time, he knows how to drop out and come back in, he responds to what the others in the band are doing without getting frustrated or needing things to be just so. For Dale's mom's birthday we had a little family singalong with Dale on drums, Jordan on piano, and Aaron and Uncle Danny both on ukuleles, and Danny was extremely impressed with Aaron. Danny is one of these extraordinary musicians who plays pretty much any instrument you hand him, so that is quite a compliment.

Jordan, meanwhile, has not played the ukulele in any concentrated way; but he does sit down with it and strum a little song sometimes. At some point I realized he was doing this without a chord chart... so how does he know where any of the chords are? I asked him, and he said, "I just find them." I had never thought about anyone possibly doing this. But the frets are a half-step apart, and his music theory is so deep that chord structure is just a second language to him, so he just fiddles around and finds finger positions of his own that produce the chords he wants. This casual musical sophistication, with both kids, is a wonder to me.

PT

My knees started to hurt, so I am seeing a physical therapist, and it's amazing. Last week my guy showed me a core exercise (the "dead bug") that I had not thought would be possible for me, and it turned out that I could totally do it. It was exciting! The next week, he started me on side plank, which I was terrified by, but he helped me do it with strength, and what do you know, it is in fact possible for me. Such an experience! I show up, and he doles out increasingly challenging things for me to do, and I do them, and I get stronger!

I left that day thinking, if only life were like this. In PT, you are not faced with challenges that are too hard for you. No one asks you to do such things, because they know you would injure yourself. Instead you are given a steady progression of increasingly challenging things that strengthen you in specific ways, so that you can eventually do things that you had wanted to do but couldn’t. What a wonderful system. Life, on the other hand, hurls challenges at you almost randomly, and some of the challenges might be beyond your strength. I guess you have to learn to recognize the ones that are too hard, and figure out how to say no, so that you avoid injury? Does it work like that?

Leavenworth: Sleigh ride

Right down the street from our marvelous Leavenworth lodge, you can take an actual horse-drawn sleigh ride around the valley. The day we went, the clouds draped themselves among the trees on the mountainsides, and it could not have been more beautiful.

Leavenworth: Snow tubing

Leavenworth has a terrific snow tubing run just outside of town, and several of us went. You buy a pass for six runs. When your turn comes, you grab on to a giant inner tube and slide it over to the tow line. You sit in it, a guy hooks it on, and the tow line pulls you up the hill. Magic!

Then you shoot insanely down the hill, flying and bumping and spinning out of control but somehow never falling out. (I made sure of this before I participated.) It was a total thrill. However, after four runs I had to stop because my poor neck could not take any more of the shaking. The kids gleefully used my extra runs.

Leavenworth: Hot tub

A great feature of this house is the giant covered porch, where the kids dump their wet things, and where there is a hot tub. I was surprised by how much time the kids spent in the hot tub. I was especially surprised by the middle schoolers; I have never seen Jordan enjoy such a thing before, and did not think of packing a swimsuit for him, but he and Ori and Ian and Nat and Nathaniel were all in there. They were like college kids. Some had brought swimsuits, Jordan went in his clothes, and Ori, who is the most adventurous, wore boxer briefs – and jumped in the snow to cool off! I wish I had pictures of his exuberance. Instead, just the younger kids… but they were exuberant too.

Leavenworth: Yard

One of the best things about this Leavenworth house is the yard full of snow. The kids run out there the minute we arrive and play for hours on end, without anyone having to take them anywhere or do anything other than yell at them to close the door, and maybe put their stuff in the dryer. It’s fantastic - probably the highlight of the whole winter, for our kids. Thanks to Don, Dale, and Juju for these gorgeous photos.

Aaron, Amara, and Maya led the construction of a very ambitious snowman. His middle body was so big that the kids built a snow ramp to roll it up onto the base. He was quite the friendly presence!