Christmas Fun

Sally's Mom Making Progress in Ohio

Hi All. My mom is making slow progress in Ohio. In case any of you did not know this, she had quadruple bypass surgery at the University of Cincinnati Hospital on November 23, at age 89. As you would expect, this has been a tough go, but all the medical people say she is doing remarkably well. She has been worried she will not have the energy and determination that it will take to recover fully, but has been trying hard to do what is expected of her. Eating has been a major problem, in that she has little or no appetite and chewing takes too much energy when nothing tastes good. We're told that heart surgery often affects the taste buds for quite a while, and she has never been "much of an eater" (as my Gramps used to say). She also has to induce coughs and do deep breathing exercises that are painful when the sternum has been cut through and wired back together. Anyway, I have been here two weeks as of tomorrow and will be going back to Minnesota tomorrow. It is very hard to leave her, but my niece is returning tonight and will stay until early next week. I am just hoping Mother is headed in the right direction, and can see that she has made a lot of progress in the last two weeks. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. If you want to send her a card, her temporary address is :

Gail Ireland
Berkeley Health Care Wing, Room 408A
100 Berkeley Drive
Hamilton, OH 45013

Love to all,
Sally

A Los Alamos Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2007 was marked by standard Robertson fare: good conversations, good food, good wine, some laughter, some tears, and fun and funny experiences. Rebecca and Davida and Karin were extraordinarily gracious hosts--for Monica, Tate, and me, in particular, as we pretty much took over a whole wing of the house with baby stuff. We enjoyed lots of good coffee, watching Grandma hold her (now increasingly heavy) great-grandson, and boardwalks saunters at Oso Flaco Lake; we worried for Grandma Ireland, and mom as she traveled to be with her following quadruple bipass surgery.
Here is a slide show of some images from the holiday. We hope you're all well, and enjoying this advent season. Much love to everyone.

Greetings from the nations capitol

Hi Everyone, I hope this post finds you all well and enjoying wonderful fall weather in your respective part of the country. There have been some spectacular days here, but many gripes about the lack of vibrancy in the foliage due to the drought. It was still amazing to me to be in a land of deciduous trees for the season.

Life as an intern at National Geographic has been a great ride. I'm working for the research, conservation, and exploration (RCE) division on the bioblitz project. A bioblitz is a 24-hour species inventory of a national park, where scientists and the public join forces to identify as many living organisms as possible. This coming blitz is going to be May 30-31st in Santa Monica Mountains National Park. If you folks out in CA are looking to brush up on your biodiversity knowledge, check it out! As the golden rectangle is involved, it is going to be a huge event. I've heard rumors of Jack Johnson and other celebs that might make appearances as well. Shhhhh!

The "job" part of NGS is ok, but can be quite tedious at times—trolling CA universities and museums to solicit team leaders for the blitz. BUT, just being part of the "society" has it's benefits. I've met some people within the organization who are doing amazing things, including some slide shows from the NGS photographers and a tour of all the different departments (including the image library!) Also, working for the RCE div. has allowed me to see the presentations from all the grantees who receive funding from us, and come back to DC to present their work. Many of the projects have a GIS/GPS aspects associated with them, so it's especially interesting for me to see what is being done research-wise.

I've had to escape the city on the weekends to retain my sanity, and have been rafting on the gauley river in WV (class 5 rapids with a friend-of-a-friend, whose guiding skills were not quite up to par), hiking on Shenandoah NP (another one of those loosey-goosey panoramas of the other 10 NG interns on top of a summit in the park: loosey-goosy panorama), and camping on Assateague national seashore with wild ponies (see photos of ponies-in-the-surf and my tarptent). It has been fun to have a group of 10 other outgoing interns to hang out and travel with--it's made the city transition a whole lot easier.

But, it's all gone really fast and I'll be headed back to Colorado on Dec. 14th! Working a 9-5 work week and hanging out with the interns multiple nights during the week has made this period of my life seem to scoot by faster than any I can remember. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and I hope to see some of you soon when I'm back west of the Mississippi.
Love, "Little" Jamie

Happy Birthday, Great-Grandma!

Dear Great Grandma Rachael,
Happy Birthday! Hope you have a lovely day of celebrations. Can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving.
xoxo
Love, Tate

Hey, Colorado Robertsons: Congrats!

You're both in Denver now, right? And Cindy's got a week under her belt at her new job? You guys are actually living the dream -- that is fantastic. Congrats.

Happy Halloween!

6 months

Tate turned six months old on Sunday -- and in the last day and a half, he's really perfected his army crawl. Especially when a computer potentially may be in reach... gotta go! :)

Tacoma or Bust

Hi All. I'm just adding an update too. Jamie and I are flying to Tacoma on Wednesday, as are Colin, Monica, and Tate. Jamie and Colin are on the same panel giving papers at the Western Literature Conference there, so that will be quite an event for us. Caitlin will be coming up from Olympia--only a half-hour away, so that will get us all together. While we're there, Colin and Monica will be celebrating their 4th anniversary, so we get to babysit for Tate! We are all going to an Iris DeMent concert too, so we are looking forward to that, and Jamie and I are going to a dinner where poet Tess Gallagher will be doing a reading--probably from her recent book Dear Ghosts, which I have enjoyed after being introduced to it by Garrison Keillor's Writers' Almanac on Public Radio. We hope to hear more from everyone--all of us too busy and stressed out at the same time for some reason--maybe it's the stars. Love, Sally

I miss everybody, too

I've been busy rolling around on the floor, mastering sitting up, and slobbering on things. Mom and Dad are busy changing jobs, trying to figure out what to do next, and keeping up with me. Looking forward to more blog entries and updates!
Love, Tate

Remembering Cayucos

Today I had a long conversation with Jamie and Sally. As we caught up with each other's lives over the phone, we both lamented that there had not been very many new postings on the blog. Everyone is busy, lives continue with lots of tasks and for some, lots of change. I want all to know that after a stressful and frustrating week in Denver at the house, things seem to be looking up. The house in Adel is still on the market, but did have a couple of showings this week. Hopefully, the real estate market will come back strong i the next few months. I will be traveling to Denver to interview for a job on the 16th. I am looking forard to that.

I remember this beautiful place and the great times we had spending Christmas by the sea with everyone. Let's make plans to do it again-maybe Christmas 2008? If not in Cayucos, somewhere just as lovely.

The Beauty's and the Spider

I looked out my window this morning and this spider had built her web between the roses. It was quite the construction project and I marvel at her ability. I once watched an entire web construction process under a lamppost one evening and it was a highlight of witnessing nature.

It is a beautiful fall day in Iowa. September is my favorite month. Cindy

Alaska

Well I am out of the woods and living in Fairbanks Alaska. Nathan and I drove from Denver about two weeks ago and had a great trip. I dropped him off in Anchorage and then drove up through Denali to Fairbanks. The college is gorgeous and I am enjoying my classes. I had a great summer in the woods. As you most know the forest fires were outrageous this year and many were burning on our district. I was able to get some minimal fire experience and had fun. Winter is approaching fast here in Fairbanks. Daylight is lessening and the leaves are all a golden brown. I plan on getting a job and keeping myself busy. When I get a camera I will post some pictures. Everything is great on my end hope it is the same for everyone else!
Love
Thomas

Tim's Truck

This is the truck that Tim drove to Denver. It was fully loaded and we didin't have our furniture and "living" stuff as it still fills our home in Adel. Too much stuff...but it seems to have found a home in the storage unit, my cousin's garage and the home and garage at Clarkson. Tim has been "on the job" for one week, dealing with sewage in the top unit, renting the second floor unit and tearing out the unit in the basement to get ready for the new furnace. I have the houe on the market, have shown it three times and am trying to keep it in top condition...easier because I am alone, but still not a realistic way to live. Beautiful day in Iowa, 83 degrees with a nice breeze. Cindy

Rolling Over

Fun at Blanche Lake

Three Months Old

Colin's 30th Birthday

Tate and I threw a party for Colin on Friday for his 30th. Here's a selection of pics.




As you can see from this last pic: Tate really wore himself out! :) If you can't tell, his t-shirt says, "My Dad is Rad."

Mo Pichas o' G-Gram in the Hizzle

G-Gram in the Hizzle

G-G/Gigi/Great-Grandmama ("I don't care what he calls me as long as he calls me"), and Great-Auntie Cynthia and Great-Auntie Rebecca (to be said loudly in a fake posh-British accent) came to visit and everyone is SO in love with everyone else. Cyn and Becca got a tutorial in blogspot, so look for their posts soon. (Right?!)

Paul + Tate

We were happy to hang out with Paul for a night during his roadtrip.

Ah, Iowa, how great it is to live in one of the first caucus states. Tonight we were able to hear Hillary and Bill. We have also seen Obama and Edwards. We will miss the opportunities to see the candidates when we move.

Grand Marais

Here are a couple more from the pageant and one of Cindy learning how to use a lathe powered by a spring pole.

summer solstice pageant

Here are three photographs from the Grand Marais summer solstice pageant, probably the highlight of our trip to the north shore. The story of the pageant this year was the Boundary Waters fire known now as the Ham Lake Fire. It was very fun, starting with a fellow driving with his dog to his northwoods cabin, news of the fire on the radio, the evacuation and comfort provided by the "comfort goddess," a dance between the fire god and the wind god, then comes the fire dragon, next the rain goddess and the local firefighters, and finally the sun god all lead to a parade of little green sprouts played by small children among bigger kids on stilts looking like burnt trees. Very cool.