Shaw Girl Happenings

Another beautiful day dawned, and it was off to Cascade Mountain. Except for me, as my knee buckled on the descent from Giant the day before, forcing me to hobble down the mountain at an excruciatingly slow old lady pace (which was, unfortunately, exactly how I felt.) I took off with a couple other hikers for Baxter Mountain, an easy hike. Baxter looked, felt, and smelt, just like hiking back home, complete with humidity and bugs, so with an attitude of "why bother?" we bagged the hike, and headed for the ice cream shack that we had passed back on the road. It seemed a much more noble pursuit. Katie and Matthew, however, enjoyed Cascade and the summit.

Then it was off to Lake Placid to see the sights. Matthew and I snuck into the Olympic Ice Arena complex and gave ourselves a tour.


Here we are on the ice of the 1980 Rink, where the "Miracle on Ice" occurred. Shortly after this photo was taken, we were kicked off the ice by a skater who yelled at us in German.





Many thanks to Val and the Adventurer's Group: Ben, Jan, Jill, Becky, Nick, Lindsey, Maria, and Becky, for an excellent adventure. And no bear ever disturbed our camp or food, although I think a couple of chipmunks did.

Labels: Adirondacks, Katie, Matthew, Sue

The trouble with climbing Giant, the 12th highest peak in the Adirondacks, is that you have to start at the bottom. Now this probably seems obvious, but with most of the other peaks, once you drive your car to the trail head, you are already at 2000+ feet. With Giant, or its full title, Giant-of-the-Valley, you start in that valley at the bottom and climb up for 3 miles. Up, up, and then up some more. You scramble over rocks, you hoist yourself up over boulders. You grab onto trees, worn smooth from countless other hands, and pull yourself ever upward. Near the top we entered into an alpine forest. The trees changed, the flowers changed, the aroma changed. The views are magnificent. But I made it, scraped hands, scraped knee, with every ski injury I've inflicted on my body screaming for attention, I made it. I could see Whiteface, including the ski trails. I could see Mt. Marcy. I could see the Lake Champlain Valley. I could see Vermont. I could see New Hampshire. I could see my children, gazing in wonderment.

Labels: Adirondacks, Katie, Matthew, Sue

After an extensive car ride, featuring a scenic by-pass through downtown Schenectady for reasons that escape me, we arrived in the Keene Valley, home of the High Peaks. After a quick jaunt to our campsite, at the base of Roaring Brook Falls, we set up the tent under a canopy of tall hemlocks, packed our food in the bear canister, and off we went in search of the top of the falls some 400 feet above our campsite. You can't really see the falls from the top, as the water just drops straight down from the sheered off bedrock. We hopped across the stream, stood on the rocks, took pictures and enjoyed the view. (On the ride home, I read that people have slipped, plummeted, and died doing exactly what we weredoing. Ignorance is sometimes dangerously blissful...) We gazed to the southeast towards the summit of Giant-of-the-Valley Mountain, our goal for the next day.

Labels: Adirondacks, food, Katie, Matthew, nature, Sue, vacation

Now that Brian is in his senior year, I didn't even take pictures of him taking off to college. Stupid, lazy, and I regret it. However, I did manage to snap one of Matthew, and we have Katie on the porch (all by herself, for the first time) on the first day of school and a picture of the teacher going off to school, too.

Labels: Brian, Katie, Matthew

Hats off to Matthew, Class of 2009!

Labels: Matthew

Matthew and I have just returned from Rochester from the New York State School Music Conference. Matthew was selected to sing in the Mixed Chorus along with 240 of the top high school vocalists in the state. This is the cream of the crop, and to have someone like Matthew from our little school (his class has 47, count 'em, 47 students in it) singing at the same level (or better) as vocalists from performing arts high schools, Long Island, and the Big Apple, was just a thrill. It was definitely, a once in a lifetime experience! The picture above is of the 3 students from our county who made All-State. Matthew is in the middle.

Matthew attended over 20 hours of rehearsal in 3 days, and performed at the Eastman School of Music, the premier music school in the US. I kept busy by attending a bunch of great workshops for music educators, and concert after concert. Click here for a link to a newspaper article about Matthew.






On another note, (get it, another note...) here's a picture of Katie, the Adventurous, getting ready to try her Sea Urchin Nori Roll at the dim sum restaurant next to the Eastman theater. Katie reports that sea urchin is "tasty, but slimy..." She is eager to tell her biology teacher, who has sea urchin in a fish tank at school, that she dined on one of those spiny creatures.

Labels: food, Katie, Matthew, music

Labels: 'tis a silly place, Matthew

"I got a cat for my girlfriend. Best trade I ever made" says Matthew about his newly adopted shelter cat "Izzy." Girlfriend's out, kitty is in.

Labels: Matthew

A historic occasion! For the first time ever, the third generation of Will and Shirley (i.e. all the cousins) were together. Meeting in the same amusement park their great-grandparents visited on dates almost 100 years ago, the cousins gathered at, historic, Midway Park for Carrie's and Emily's birthdays. After much discussion on how to take a proper corn row (oldest to youngest? shortest to tallest?) the photo was snapped.

Here's a heroic shot of the cousins with the picnic grove in the background. (Heroic poses seem to dominate many of my photos this year. The common denominator in each shot appears to be Matthew...)
Thanks to Jake, the family's "Ace of Cakes", we had 2 delicious decorated cakes for the celebration.
And finally, a last photo of the sisters: Carrie, Hannah, and Sue. Rebecca and Molly, we missed you!!!
For more pictures of the visit, with rare photos of Rick and Kenyon, click here!

Labels: Brian, Carrie, food, Hannah, Katie, Matthew, party, Spokane, Sue, vacation

Matthew had the time of his life at Boys State. He's the first candidate to be selected by the American Legion to go from his high school in many years. 1000 boys from across the state met and set up a mock government. Matthew did very well: giving speeches, introducing bills, and running for office. He was elected State Senator, and missed his party's nomination for Lieutenant Governor by 15 votes. He slept very little. Rick and I attended the closing ceremonies.

Labels: Matthew

How many Shaw Girls went to All-County in the Amp at Chautauqua? I went a bunch of times, first on my flute in the jr. high band, and then with my oboe in the senior band. Matthew and Katie were participants this year in the senior high chorus, and the junior high chorus, repectively. It was a nice, warm, beautiful day for the event. Astute blog readers might be able to spot Katie. This shot is right in the middle of the the grand finale "Battle Hymn of the Republic." The finale still gives me shivers after all these years.

Labels: Katie, Matthew, music

Labels: Matthew

Just wanted to finish up the Spokane Trip pictures before Memorial Day!!! And to feature Carrie's lovely daughters, who's faces have never graced our blog. Time to fix that!





First, we have the lovely Anne sporting a fancy hat.









In this photo, the two 'cellists of the family, Emily and Grandpa, discuss a new piece of music.

Labels: Carrie, Matthew, Molly, Rebecca, skiing, Spokane, Sue, vacation

An entry on Jennifer's Blog about bald eagles reminded me of a story I forgot to post of our the Day One entry. Matthew and I saw great powder trail marks on Wardner Peak at Silver Mountain so we headed off in that direction. You have to climb up quite a ways from the lift to ski this mountain face. We climbed until we were tired of climbing, and then started to traverse over to the slope on a cut across the cliff face that was about 6" wide, enough for about 1 and 1/2 skis. I made Matthew go first. While we were climbing we noticed 2 bald eagles circling the peak. As we worked our way across the cliff, the eagles shifted and were circling us. I guess were looking a bit tasty! We watched the eagles, watched the snow which our skis dislodged spinning down the cliff, and chatted how strange it was that we hadn't seen anyone ski this part of the resort. As there was no way we could turn back, we finally screwed up our courage and started down. The slope's "powder trails" that we had seen from the lift were frozen crud and the rocks turned out to be boulders. I forced myself down, telling myself "breathe, 2, 3, turn!" When we reached the end I said "Ha! How many 50 year-old women have skied that today?" I didn't get any pictures of all this, I was busy praying, but here's one from the resort's web site (easy for this guy, with the fresh powder...)

Labels: Matthew, skiing, Sue, vacation, What-was-I-thinking?

We actually made it out of bed, ate breakfast and were on our way north by 8AM! Day 2 was spent at 49 Degrees North, in Chewelah, Washington. Slightly cloudy, with sunshine peaking through in the mid-twenties. Perfect!

No avalanche warnings here. They've "only" had 276" of snow this season! From the top of the mountain you can see Idaho and British Columbia.





There's this great trail that sweeps around the side of the mountain and passes a tree troll with a bell. If you hit the bell with your ski pole while skiing by, legend has it that you will return to the mountain. I have a picture of Brian swinging his pole up in the air to hit the bell from 4 years ago (before I went digital.) On this trip, with all the snow, the bell is waist level.








Dinner, in celebration of Mother's belated 80th birthday was at Luna's in Spokane. I had Grilled Wild Alaskan Salmon with Braised Palouse lentils, mustard greens, little beet salad, and fresh horseradish vinaigrette. It was delightful to both eye and palate. Matthew's dinner of Rack of Lamb filled him up, fortunately.




I knitted Mother an alpaca shawl for her birthday. (Rick called it "Shirley's Shawl".) I bought the yarn from the woman who raised the alpaca, and it is naturally colored. I have one just like it knitted in a cream colored alpaca, only mine has a bunch of mistakes in it, as it was the first one I knit. It's really soft and very warm, in spite of the laciness of the pattern.

Labels: food, knitting, Matthew, skiing, Sue, vacation

The best day, weather-wise, was our first day at Silver Mountain in Idaho. Blue skies, plenty of sunshine, tons of packed powder snow. This resort has had 400" of snow this year!








Our favorite trail was a groomed black diamond and it's name says it all...
Back in Spokane, Mother cooked up Shrimp Scampi over Fettuccine. She was amazed when her 16 year-old grandson inhaled his dinner, ate half of mine, and was then busy looking around for more food...

Labels: food, Matthew, skiing, vacation

Labels: Matthew, skiing, vacation

The culminating project of "Big Time Productions" was a delight! Rick's niece Ylsa's married her business partner Angelo of "Big Time Productions" on a beautiful October afternoon. The bride and groom were so excited about their wedding that they could hardly contain their joy. Our whole family was involved (except for Brian who's at college.)

Katie was a "Lady in Waiting" (i.e. the "official skirt fluffer", a job shared with her cousin.) Matthew, Rick, and I sang "Alleluia" by Randall Thompson, in the choral group formed for the occasion. Plus, I did some custom sewing for the groom; I embellished Angelo's jacket with ribbon, sewed up a brocade vest (black with gold and silver thread, trimmed in crimson), an ascot and a pocket square. Angelo's ascot, etc. matched the crimson trim in Ylsa's dress. Very sharp! When I delivered Angelo's outfit to him, he couldn't hug me enough, saying "this is exactly what I envisioned!"

The reception was so fun. As Ylsa and Angelo are professional dancers, we just danced ourselves silly. Angelo, lead us all in the Tarantella, saying "I've waited my whole life to lead this!" We danced the Tarantella around in circles, dancing down the middle of clapping lines, and back around in circles for probably 20 minutes, until the band gave up and went on break!






Here's the cake! It sums up the wedding:
yup it's a wedding cake, but what fun!

For more photos click HERE!

Labels: food, Katie, Matthew, music, party

My kids are growing up too fast. Two different teenagers, gussied up and went to two different homecomings over the weekend.

Matthew went to his girlfriend's homecoming and Katie went to her own school's homecoming dance. Katie turned down several dates, choosing to go with her friends so that she could "dance with everybody and not just one guy."
The fretful mom stayed up until 2 AM until all her chicks were under one roof.

Labels: Katie, Matthew

We live in small, rural school district. Our band doesn't march, doesn't even have uniforms. But, boy oh boy, we have an enthusiastic Pep Band! Teachers join with the students, who range from 6th grade to 12th, and we wail on the school's fight song, and a bunch of other charts guaranteed to get the crowd behind our boys in blue. Here's my view from the Pep Band. I played trumpet along with the math teacher, and the rest of the band. Katie played her french horn, and Matthew, the bassoon player, manned the drum line. Rick kept us in hot dogs, and cocoa. It was a great day for a football game! With a game fought right down to the last minute, our team won.

Labels: Katie, Matthew, music