Georgia Eats Food!!!

The time has finally come and Georgia is getting her cake and eating it too... Due to an increasing interest in our own appetites for solid food, we've begun to introduce Georgia to her own palate. We started with the usuals such as banana, avocado and plums, but will soon branch off to more adventurous morsels when the allergy trials are over. This after she's been introduced to approximately 12-15 different foods without showing signs of allergic reaction. Then its no holds barred. We went to a "First Foods" class hosted by Anne Keppler this last weekend, and were quite enlightened by much of the information. Apparently, rice cereal is not the way to go, much to my relief, and we should expose her to as many different foods and spices as she shows interest in (within reason of course). I can't wait to offer her something with saffron, cumin or turmeric and, NO, we're not going to proceed to hastily on this, but she's definitely interested as you can see in the picture above. Coincidentally, this is also when we get introduced to copious amounts of food on the floor. Here you can also see her enthusiasm for bananas while she takes over Julie's recent lunch. Don't forget to set an extra place at the table the next time you have us over for dinner!

Bessie's Bahama Birthday Bash!!!

New Year's this year was quite special for the Stokkebye, Madsen, Boll and Sauvage clans as we colonized the quiet island of Man-O-Way Cay in the Bahamas for Bessie's birthday. For us, it was well earned as we started out the evening of the 26th and after 2 commercial flights, 2 cab rides, a charter flight, a ferry ride and a golf cart trip later we arrived at our condo the next evening. The island is located in the Abacos Islands which is in the northeastern corner of the Bahamas. The picture here shows 1 end with the Atlantic on the left and the bay on the right. The beach seen here on the right was where we spent the majority of our time swimming and snorkeling. And with the exception of sight seeing and grocery shopping we didn't need to leave the island. However, we had rented a boat for such excursions and, as seen here, I got to be captain for a day trip to Hope Town. There were 27 of us for the trip so we split our time and activities according to group preferences in order to give everyone an opportunity to explore. Such outings included fishing, scuba diving, sight seeing etc... and with only 2 golf carts, 1 boat and such a large group we managed to coordinate quite well. Two events that stood out above the rest were the much anticipated soccer match and the inaugural Stokkebye Olympics (next games to be held in the Seattle area). The soccer game quickly went from an international friendly match to a World Cup final right from the start. After a promising start, it became evident that we were being outhustled in every way and found ourselves down by mid match. Then in the second period, thanks to some halftime adjustments, we held our own until I scored the winning goal (bruised toes and all). Of course, the MVP goes to Eric Stokkebye for his stellar play as keeper. The Olympics, on the other hand, consisted of each of the 5 families (vying for gold in the following events; conch dig, human sand burial, Frisbee toss, freestyle swim, Bessie quiz, coconut throw, coconut water race and the much anticipated final event... the 100 yard flipper dash. I was nominated for the conch dig (literally digging for conch shells in a designated area) and immediately put our team on the board in first place. The next event we didn't fair so well as our digging skills could only afford us a 4th place finish. The Frisbee toss went to the True Danes as Frederik played it safe to edge out the victory. The freestyle swim again went to the True Danes but, being the most physically demanding event, kudos to all swimmers here. The Bessie quiz proved yet again that its a great way to both learn more about someone and find out who should know more about someone! In the coconut throw, we utilized an unconventional throwing style to award us another win. The coconut water race was full of numerous violations so don't even get me started! And easily the most entertaining event of the games, the 100 yard flipper dash was nothing short of hilariously competitive as each competitor showcased his or her own unique style of high-stepping their way to victory. The trip also included an unforgettable New Years celebration which included a formal dinner on our boardwalk, a late night cruise and an unbelievable party in Hope Town where dancing and fireworks were not in short supply. The trip had many more fun and memorable times, far too many to keep rambling on about, and it was great to have the entire family there. OH, and this last picture is of our vantage point from the charter plane as we passed the slow asses who took of in front of us for 1 final victory. Isn't competition great!!!

White Christmas

Well it finally happened. We had ourselves a White Christmas this year. Thanks for dreamin' Mr. Crosby! It was actually quite fun and nostalgic for me as I seem to remember opening gifts with the site of snow in the fields more regularly on the farm. The first picture was actually taken after the first storm which we thought was large in and of itself, but boy were we in for a surprise with the next couple of storms. The winds accompanied the 2nd storm with some extraordinary ferocity so the accumulation was not as apparent. Of course the 4 foot snow drifts throughout Snoqualmie were good indicators. A few days later the snow returned and this time it was a steady 8"-12" dumping that lasted through Christmas night. Naturally, I shoveled out the cars and driveway in between each snowfall thinking we'd be set until it melted. All in all, it was a great way to transition the layover between Mexico and the Bahamas. Definitely a winter to remember!

Doug Turns 400 in Puerto Vallarta!!!

Of course, I'm accounting for the exchange rate from Mexican to American years which is currently about 10:1. It's been a while since the actual trip, but for those of you who couldn't be there, here's a little summary. We all flew out on the morning of December 9th taking up 2 entire rows of the airplane as Doug had booked us as a group for the flight. That is with the exception of Alan who was living it up in first class. Once in Puerto Vallarta, we went straight to the Villa - about a 45 min ride through town. We stayed in a beautiful 4 story, 8 room Villa complete with a pool, an open air living room and our own Chef...compliments of the owner for booking out the entire place. From there we were 2 minutes from the beach and shops. After taking it easy that night, it was beach time the 2nd day as we spent most of it soaking in the 85 degree sun and saying no to the roughly 200 beach vendors. Mmmmmm, more meat on a stick please! Later that night we had a totally awesome "wall e" birthday party for Brody complete with an authentic pinata which he proceeded to turn into debris by his 2nd turn. The next day was pretty much more of the same until the much anticipated birthday party for Doug. We all sat up on the balcony outside of the room Julie and I had where we consumed tequila and told stories about Doug. We even had a couple of quizzes which were very well done and provided much insight into his life. A couple days later the boys went for one of the famed zip line canopy tours of the jungle. We ended up with a great tour and had lots of fun. Check out the slide show for more details. The following day we all went to a sleepy fishing village in the south end of the bay only accessible by boat. There we indulged in Pina Coladas and more lounging on the beach which I've concluded is the best thing to do anywhere with sun and beach side beverage service. On the way back we saw some whales, but come to find out its quite common in the bay there. The next day the boys got together to take Brody deep sea fishing. We only went for 4 hours so Spanish Mackerel ended up being the only option, but we caught around 15 so Saul cooked them up for us that night and it was great. We had our 3rd birthday party of the trip that night for Jeff and again enjoyed margaritas into the wee hours. It was a fun trip full of memorable moments and I can't wait to do it again when I turn 400!!!

Sorry for the Delay

For those of you wondering where all the witty, funny and roundly entertaining updates on the Sauvage family, namely Georgia, have gone, I just wanted to provide a little update, and proof, as to the reasons of the delay. We were recently hit with the fourth "100 year" flood for the Snoqualmie River in the last 25 years, so as you can imagine we got WET. Yes we were able to get out in time and yes our house is raised and supposedly out of the designated flood levels, but we suffered some major damage to our heating system (standing water in the heating registers) and a few other issues to remedy before we can return home. We are currently staying in North Bend at the Grina household. Here are a few pics to demonstrate the enormity of the flood... The first shows the water level which came 6 inches from soaking our living room and the other shows the damage to the crawl space under our house... that's the ducting from our heating system hanging from the floor. Coming soon will be installments of both the Mexico and Bahamas trips...

Lt. Col. James Gordon Johnson: 9/16/22 - 11/20/08

For those of you that have not heard, my Grandad from my mom's side of the family passed away recently. It was a bitter sweet end to a long illness as we were all brought together for the Thanksgiving weekend which was filled with some tears, a few stories and lots of laughs. Here is a video I put together a few years ago. It's a family history based on his autobiography and I thought you might enjoy it.

Georgia Speaks: The Movie

Here is some random footage I shot of Georgia over the Thanksgiving weekend. I'm experimenting with the video embedding feature of this blog so please provide feedback on how it performs so I may adjust accordingly. Here you'll see a typical conversation between us and Georgia. She loves to talk while laying down and we usually get a bunch of smiles, but this conversation was more of a spat, most likely pertaining to her being hungry and having a camera shoved in her face instead of you-know-what!