Paul, Elizabeth, Lotty & Sarah Brown: 2013

20 November 2013

More Alligators to Walk

As you can see, Sarah is now walking with help. Lotty has been helping her little sister.

Walking Aligators 2 from Paul Brown on Vimeo.

27 October 2013

Magic Word

A little excerpt from life's script:

Lotty: Give me that, Daddy!
Daddy: What is the magic word?
Lotty: Please!
[pause]
Lotty: It doesn't seem very magical, Daddy.

We have moved into fall but still have so many summer pictures to share. It has been such a busy start to the school year with all of us being sick at some point and our nearly indestructible Subaru finally giving out.

This collection of pictures all comes from our trip to Mt. Rainier all the way back in July. We had a very nice time at a cabin we rented near Greenwater. Oma and Grandpa Derksen joined us, as did Uncle Dan, Auntie Kathryn and cousins John Clair and Jacob. We did a little hiking in the park.

Sarah, in a quiet moment, with her chewy giraffe

Even though it was July, it was pretty cold out when we went to Sunrise. We put Sarah in a warm, if silly, hat. On our hike, we found some butterflies on what look like Truffula trees. Lotty spent a while hiking with here Uncle Dan, who was very patient with the exquisitely slow pace of a toddler. Sarah had some very nice time with her Oma. This is a very nice picture of the both of them.

Lotty and Paul found an old bench in the sunshine.

Lotty enjoyed running through the dandelions. They turned the bottom of her pants yellow.

The "cabin" in the woods was really a house.

Sarah is learning to be a photographer in her own right

18 July 2013

13 pictures from this summer

Here are a few pictures from this summer, at least so far. The first six are from May, and the rest are from June. We went down to California in late June for a Brown family reunion, which was our first big road trip with both girls. July pictures are coming soon!

Sarah has a beautiful smile. This is from early May.

Sarah spent some time with Grandpa when Grammy & Grandpa visited.

Grandpa even got some laughs.

Both Lotty and Sarah enjoy the swings at the park in mid May.

Sarah started solid food 25-May.

It went pretty well—Sarah was ready. She is quite the eater now.

Sarah is started getting more hair. This was in mid June.

We did a little hike in Richardson Grove State Park (Northern CA) while en route.

We visited the Point Cabrillo lighthouse while in Fort Bragg. Lotty walked the whole way.

The lighthouse has been beautifully restored.

Lotty also got to explore some tide-pools. Sea anemone are fun.

Lotty, Elizabeth and Grammy walk along the beach.

Lotty and Grandpa had a lot of fun playing in the sand together.

06 April 2013

Good Dog

We are all sad to say that Maximillian, our beloved beagle of almost 12 years, passed away early in the morning of April 1st. He had seemed to age a lot recently, but it came as a big surprise, and we don't know what the cause was. We miss him very much. Here are a few pictures of our favorite puppy dog. Please feel free to share your own memories of Max in the comments.

11 March 2013

Elizabeth's Concert to be Webcast

We wanted to let you all know about an upcoming concert where Elizabeth will be performing the world premiere of a piece written by her sister, Kathryn Smith Derksen. The concert will be streamed live through the PLU Music Department, so you all can watch it live this coming Saturday, March 16, 2013, 8:00 pm (Seattle time): http://www.plu.edu/soac/events/webcast/home.php

The concert opens with Elizabeth playing solo guitar, with Kathryn's piece on at about 8:10. This will be followed by guitar duets by Elizabeth and Stephen Howland, an intermission and then a jazz combo group featuring Stephen Howland (guitar) and guest jazz performers Courtney Fortune (vocals) and Nate Omdal (bass).

These are Kathryn's notes about the piece: "Odyssée Tchadienne: Rues de la Prière, Chadian Odyssey : Streets of Prayer, is a reflection on the variety of music I heard in my several years living in Chad. The southern region of this isolated country is balanced between the Muslim - Arabic speaking cultures, and the Christian communities speaking French and local languages. Over time, music has become a mélange of sounds, a co-mingling of alien and local. Colonial church music was squeezed into pentatonic position, with blocks of chords moving in parallel fourths. Single-line melismatic passages from North Africa call the faithful to prayer, but are also heard in market music. I was haunted by these two sounds: dissonant pentatonic harmonies and decorated single-line melodies that never mixed, especially when juxtaposed with the absence of our western scale and temperament. In this piece I have tried to re-create a walk through the town. We first hear an Azan, a simple call to prayer at a nearby mosque, followed by more complex calls that repeat throughout the piece. The musical stroll travels to the church, where I borrowed the tunes Tien ma main and Quel Bonheur. Marketplace stereos play middle-eastern music of the oud, and the dance sounds of a Lebanese orchestra. The walk continues past a guitar jam-session, and a youth music rehearsal, including the vernacular song Jesu I bo. The final section is reminiscent of a marimba band, followed by the evening call to prayer."

10 March 2013

Sarah Smiling & Talking

Sarah Smiling from Paul Brown on Vimeo.

24 February 2013

Snow Camp

We made it up to our church Snow Camp this year. We feel somewhat adventuresome for having made the trip with a 2-month-old. Both Sarah and Lotty did quite well traveling, and we even managed to get some sleep with all of us in the same room!