I Don't Care if I Never Get Back

We had an awesome time at the Mariners game last weekend with Franklin and eight of his friends from daycare.

(Click the arrow to see all the photos. Or take a look at the full album here.)

Took a lot of planning, but I'm so glad it all worked out!

We even got to see a strange and rare triple play. And the Mariners won with a walk-off home run in the tenth inning by Franklin (!) Gutiérrez.

Game highlights here:


Speaking of highlights, this summer has been so full I just can't keep up on the blog... but here are some places to look for more photos:

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yancy9a/

Emily's Instagram: https://instagram.com/emily.dominick

Yancy's Instagram: https://instagram.com/yancy9/

Can't resist re-posting a little from there. Awesome running into Franklin's friend Beckham at the wading pool:

Best place to run into friends! #splash #ilovesummer

A video posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on Jul 30, 2015 at 7:26pm PDT

And here's something I haven't posted anywhere else yet:

Post haircut treat... pizza-flavored lollipop! (!?!?)

Play Ball! ... Or, I Love You Too, But Spring Is Here

So much fun with so many sports with Franklin. He's pretty committed to seasons lately, and spring is for soccer and baseball:

He also told me that he wants to go to Wrigley Field and see a Cubs baseball game. So... Grandpa Ray? Aunt Merrica?

Speaking of spring (the title of this post is one of his inexplicable but hilarious recent sayings), some delicious spring dining:


And tulips from last week's outing:


Last week's outing being the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We went in 2012; fun to return, and to see the fields in the sun!


Still nice and muddy though:














Long, full day:


Back at home, Franklin has really been enjoying watching 20-minute bits of Sweetgrass, one of my very favorite movies:


I mentioned it here back when we first saw it; such a great movie!


Also had some fun playing soccer, baseball, and a little frisbee with Jen at the beach last weekend:






And of course, as you may have heard, we attended our first Sounders game:


Pretty fun time.


And they won! And it was because of a beautiful 360-spin-move goal. Take a look:






All right, that's more or less it. (I really need to post more often and shorten these up, huh?)

Oh, a little fun today on Instagram, which Emily and I recently decided to look into after hearing how much Magen enjoys it:

#marchmadness in April

A video posted by Emily Hughes Dominick (@emily.dominick) on Apr 5, 2015 at 11:49am PDT

No Jayhawk gear in that basketball clip, shockingly, but here's Franklin's current favorite ad:

Over and over lately he's been saying, "Rock Chalk, baby!" :)

All right, a little more Instagram:

Lamb chops

A photo posted by Emily Hughes Dominick (@emily.dominick) on Apr 5, 2015 at 5:48pm PDT

And that's it. Cheers, reader! Hope you're having a wonderful spring!

Happy day all!

A photo posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on Apr 5, 2015 at 6:51pm PDT

It covered everything as far as he could see

Thanks to Emily B. and Pete for a great weekend in a snow-covered cabin!

(And a belated thanks to Ezra Jack Keats for the amazing book that I'm quoting in the title of this post.)

I was glad that Franklin's snowsuit (which was pretty roomy last year) fits perfectly this year. He was pretty happy too:


What? A river, with rocks for throwing? Yes, someone had a fun weekend.

In the Teanaway River Valley. Read about it here: friendsoftheteanaway.org.




Pete, Emily, Franklin, and Emily, looking for ice to crunch through.



And just like magic (just like a picture book?), it was snowing when we woke up Saturday morning:




Of course, the only thing he liked wearing more than the snowsuit was the KU jersey he got in his stocking on Christmas morning.

In his stocking Christmas morning, and on him for the next four days straight :)

The only time he wasn't having fun at the cabin was when he remembered that we didn't bring the dinosaur puzzle that he got for Christmas. This is within five minutes of returning home:

Thanks Magen, Dave, Braxton, Amelia, and Evan!

Oh, and if you want to brush up on dinosaur names, here's the online Picture Legend.

Speaking of Christmas presents and whatnot, here's a quick look back at the holiday:


Working on gingerbread cookies, mostly as a gift for Franklin's teachers at daycare:








Mostly:


And then it was Christmas morning:



One of his favorite presents, a forklift from Nana & Papa.



And for dinner, eye round roast, Moroccan Sweet Potatoes, deviled eggs, and more!


Hey, so did anyone happen to read that New York Times piece about Religion Without God? It hit almost exactly how I had been feeling, especially this bit:

... two anthropologists, Caroline Humphrey and James Laidlaw, go so far as to argue that ritual isn’t about expressing religious commitment at all, but about doing something in a way that marks the moment as different from the everyday and forces you to see it as important. Their point is that performing a ritual focuses your attention on some moment and deems it worthy of respect.

I had in fact been considering asking Emily to bring us to mass on Christmas, but couldn't quite get there. And the logistics were tricky...

Anyway, we settled on singing some carols together, just to make the point a little clearer:


I hope you won't mind one more quote from that article:

Atheists trust in human relations, not supernatural ones, and humans are not so good at delivering the world as it should be. Perhaps that is why we are moved by Christmas carols, which conjure up the world as it can be and not the world we know.

May the spirit of Christmas be with you, however you understand what that means.

Please Put a Penny in the Old Man's Hat

Just in time for the most wonderful time, this year's school photos:



Warms my heart.

Speaking of which, it's also that time of year when I try to take stock of what we've been doing with our money and whether any of it's been well spent...

So, here's the latest breakdown:

More going toward those most in need and less toward music and whatnot. And yes, if you're tracking it from the last couple of years, that's partly on account of Peter Singer and his damned compelling reasoning. Not only that, but some friends hosted a book club meeting a couple months ago about his book The Life You Can Save, which really only made things clearer...

Anyway, I kind of struggle with what to say in this kind of blog post.

I mean, I want to make this somehow more than an annual ritual of congratulation and flagellation, but it's hard to get past those superficial moments. Yes, I am proud of the fact that we are giving away this much of our income. And yes, I am disappointed when I do the math and see that we spent more on vacations in 2014 than we did on helping others...

To put that another way, although I can pat myself on the back because we give to the King County United Way at the "Leadership" level, we're still not even close to giving 5% of our income.

Also not even close to the recommendation from the Life You Can Save website...

Well, damn it. Here's a commitment to up our United Way and Oxfam giving in 2015. 5% or bust! Damn it!

Meanwhile, where are we spending money on ourselves? Let me count the ways ;)

How about: Had some fun watching KU come back and win against Florida last weekend:

(And how about that win at Georgetown yesterday?)

And a little holiday fun at the West Seattle Farmers Market:

Horse-drawn carriage? Mule-drawn carriage? Whatever—it was charming and they had jingling bells on...


Hope you're feeling that holiday spirit, reader! More soon!