PRITCHARD LIFE

still picking out a paint color

Bring Out the Reese’s Pieces

November 3, 2012 by jody 1 Comment

I don’t remember Halloween being such a big deal in our family like it is in some, but I do remember my mom laboring over hand-made costumes like clowns and cats, and elephants. Sometime’s life feels a bit circular. When Autumn announced she no longer wanted to be a bumblebee this Halloween because “wearing the color black makes me feel sad”, we had to work on a fast Plan B. We re-purposed the bumblebee wings, found some inspiration from a Pottery Barn Kid’s catalog and voila, we had ourselves one “Autumn Fairy”. The night of October 30th as I’m putting in zippers and wrestling with sparkle tulle in the wee hours of the morning, I thought to myself, “How many other moms are staying up tonight doing exactly the same thing I am?” Lots, I’m sure.

We may have pressed the easy button on Carson’s costume, but he was just as adorable. Little man, no one can pull off a pumpkin beret like you.

We spent the evening with our extended family getting the cousins together in a fairy tale suburb of Marin. How perfect that Marley was a gnome (check out the amazing handmade costume by Lindsay & Wayne), Ashytn was a mushroom and their parents came as trees. A bunch of woodland storybook characters we were! Falling leaves and falling rain (hello Oregon childhood & wet costumes) along with the hoards of giddy kids made it feel like a scene from ET. Bring out the Reeses Pieces. Utter joy.

Sharing pics of my own mom’s creations for fun too – Thanks for the memories Mom. The ribbons on Autumn’s dress are dedicated to you. It may have taken 30 years, but we can finally cross that ribbon dress project off the list ; )

On the left: 1981 – Jody at age 4 (same age as Autumn above) in a clown costume my mom handmade. Brian had a matching one.

One the right: Brian as the cat, Jody as the elephant circa 1985? Nice work Mom.

Filed Under: autumn, carson, Uncategorized

Gravity is a Harsh Mistress

October 7, 2012 by matt 1 Comment

It’s amazing how a moment can go from laughter to complete shit in just a matter of seconds. All it takes is a little distraction, a bit too much confidence and the inescapable forces of gravity. Autumn recently graduated from the wee charms of her Skuut balance bike to a bona fide big girl pedal bike, complete with basket and custom license plate (sans training wheels). She’s still getting the hang of it, and as you can see from the video, so is Dad.

Not to worry. The tears were dry within minutes, and Autumn was smiling shortly thereafter. Dad is still a little freaked out.

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First day of school! First day of school!

August 31, 2012 by jody 3 Comments

Wait, a year just passed? How did that happen? Yesterday Autumn started her second year at Presidio Preschool in their pre-K program. Even though she’s been going over the summer, the first day of school was still a big deal: new teachers, new students, new friends, and a new dress she helped make with Mom. I doubt we just started a tradition, but we had a great time and it helped establish her on her 17 year education track to become a dress designer – her stated career goal at age 3. We’re just trying to get our head around the process of enrolling her in a San Francisco kindergarten. We’ll need most of this next year to figure that out. Take your time little beauty. You’re growing up much too fast.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Fireside

August 30, 2012 by matt Leave a Comment

My affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America was short-lived. For a number of reasons, Troop 81 of Novato, CA had a hard time holding my interest. I bailed about a year into the program, well before I had achieved any level of proficiency in some basic elements of campcraft. Years later (around the time I was at OSU), I developed a deep appreciation for hiking, backpacking and alpine climbing. In the years that followed, I found a partner in Jody and pursued backcounty adventure at every opportunity. Together we learned map and compass navigation, backcounty cookery, winter travel, and any number of skills that we’ve deployed from Wyoming to Patagonia, New Zealand to the Dry Tortugas. And right here, in the mountains and along the coastline of our Golden State, we’ve had more adventures than we can remember.

Back in 2003, we created SierraSoul to document our wanderings and help educate others about backcountry travel. We’ve written articles on trip planning, snow camping, and first aid. We have a spreadsheet that helps you calculate the optimal caloric density for backpacking food and a half-written article about thermodynamics and heat transfer as it applies to backcountry travel. Despite this hard-won knowledge, I had always held on to one deep, dark secret: I couldn’t start a campfire to save my life. It is shameful, embarrassing and difficult to explain. I simply never learned how to do it. I think I hit rock bottom in New Zealand, on our second night along the Routeburn Track. We were staying in a hut with a pot-belly stove. The caretaker had stocked the hut with ample firewood, kindling, newspaper and (no kidding) a bucket of coal. And still I failed to start a fire. It was Thanksgiving.

Fast forward five years. Our backpacking calendar has slowed down considerably. Our nights outside are focused on the family, and we’re usually just a stone’s throw from the car. Autumn and Carson are becoming capable campers, having braved the wilds of Death Valley, the Sierra Nevada, the Marin Headlands and Grandpa’s backyard. Carson will climb anything in sight and is usually covered in dirt within minutes of our arrival. Autumn divides her time between woodland dance routines and reminding Mom & Dad that we get to roast marshmallows after dinner. Which brings us full circle…back to the campfire.

In early July, we took a week for a low-key vacation. Our plan was a few nights at Grandpa’s house and wandering trip through the Sierra, camping along the way. After a quick drive to Twain Harte and a night to decompress, we headed east along 108 and found a great little campsite off Eagle Meadow Road. We are still in dispersed camping mode, and likely will be until we civilize these savage beasts. What it lacks in convenience, it more than makes up for in solitude and guilt-free nights. We had pine trees, we had granite, and we had a big damn fire ring waiting to be used. After setting up camp, I put Autumn to task picking up the small, dry twigs we would use to prime that evening’s fire. With a hot meal in our bellies, we set the stage – more twiggy fuel, some dry pine needles, matches, kindling, firewood. I thought through the instructional pep talk that an Eagle Scout friend gave me a few years back. I buried my past failures, lit a single match and started our campfire. A s’more never tasted so sweet.

We eased our way back to Twain Harte to knock the dust off the children, celebrate the Fourth of July and catch some restful sleep in a comfy bed. But we wanted one more night under the stars before returning home to foggy nights in SF. This time we headed further up 108, near the top of Sonora Pass. We found a great campsite at about 9,200′ with beautiful High Sierra views. Autumn and Carson had a blast just playing in the dirt, climbing (and falling off) everything in sight. I found success by the fire ring for a second time. I won’t call it a comeback, but the progress feels good.

A chilly night led to a slow morning. But at least it was a slow morning filled with bacon and eggs. While the kids collected some last minute dirt under their nails, we broke camp and then headed down the hill. We didn’t quite get the four nights of camping we planned for, but two nights is nice. I’ll take two nights in the Sierra with this crew any time.

There are more photos from the trip here.

Filed Under: vacation

Ski Bunny – Short Film

April 6, 2012 by matt 3 Comments

Autumn’s been coming to Kirkwood since she was four months old. She knows the inside of the Red Cliffs Day Lodge as well as any local. Last year, we put her on skis for the first time and pulled her around the flats to try “skiing” for the first time. This year, we decided she was ready for something more. This past weekend, we hit Chair 9 at Kirkwood. She loved it. Four runs in a row—pretty good for her first outing. I’m sure it won’t be long before she’s booting up 99 Steps or hucking the mandatory air at the bottom of Heart Chute. Check out the video below. We feature one of Autumn’s favorite songs on the soundtrack and the post-run interview is pretty great.

If you get these updates via email, you can watch the video here.

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Mobile. Agile. Big Smile.

March 25, 2012 by matt 3 Comments

Attention Heisman voters: keep your eyes on this kid.

Carson took his first steps just a few weeks ago. He’s making his way through the stage where walking is interesting, but crawling is faster. And with more walking comes more falling. He’s grown a bit tougher in his second year, so the total tear count is being held in check. Here he is strutting his way along the Ocean Beach promenade.

If you get these updates via email, you can watch the video here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Days in the Valley

March 16, 2012 by matt 1 Comment

We took our first trip to Death Valley back in 2005 during a September road trip to southwestern Utah. It was a quick layover during a long drive to the storied canyons of Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. The scale of Zion Canyon with its high-country terraces and serpentine slot canyons quenched our thirst for a bit of adventure. And the Seussian red rock of Bryce burned its twisted forms into our memories. But the brief time we spent in Death Valley stuck with us most all. We found ourselves heading back just a few months later during an impromtu winter road trip down the east side of the Sierra. We gave ourselves more time to explore, making the pilgrimage to Racetrack Playa and ringing in the new year on the rim of Ubehebe Crater.

After Autumn was born, we started talking about when we could share the park with her, which was really a conversation about just how soon you could subject a young child to a twelve-hour road trip and camping in the remote desert backcountry. After a steady year of Tahoe trips and good number of nights in the tent, we decided fifteen months was about right. To make things interesting, we dismissed all of the responsible destinations and instead aimed for the Saline Valley, one of the most remote outposts in the largest national park in the Lower 48.

After ten hours of driving, doing a northern end run around the Sierra, we braced ourselves for the final leg of our trip: fifty dusty miles down the infamous washboard of Saline Valley Road. As it happens, the washboard wasn’t a problem. The 6,000 foot pass laden with 16 inches of unplowed snow was the problem. We white-knuckled our way over North Pass and drifted down to the valley floor, where we looked back at Autumn and took a moment to reflect on how incredibly responsible we were being.

That night, the temperature dropped to the low thirties, about ten degrees cooler than we had expected. Jody did an admirable job keeping Autumn warm, but low temps and the forecast for a major storm found us breaking camp by mid-morning and resigning ourselves to just a single night in the tent. We spent the next two days enjoying the hell out of the Lone Pine area, taking trips into the Alabama Hills and generally goofing around.

Two years and too many seasons have passed, and we find ourselves a family of four. Carson is fairly sturdy at age one and has ample tent time under his belt. We found an opportunity for another wandering road trip south. Two days after Christmas, we loaded up the Subaru and hit the road in the pre-dawn hours. A very dry start to the winter gave us the unusual opportunity to cross Tioga Pass in late December. We landed in a shoebox-sized motel room along Highway 395. Decompression in tight quarters took a while, but by the following day we found our way into the park and did a short day hike in Mosaic Canyon. Carson loved the view from his perch atop Jody, and Autumn was in her element, bouncing her way up the canyon. A full-speed faceplant had us both worried that our little girl would advance her quest to be toothless by the age of four, but the grill remained intact and we brushed the dust (and blood) away.

That evening we found ourselves more comfortable accommodations and settled on our plans for the following day. The temperature was relatively low, hovering around the low 40s overnight. Our original plan to camp in the Eureka Valley and visit the Eureka Dunes wasn’t going to fly given the elevation and corresponding temperature drop. But the Panamint Valley looked promising. Big and desolate, with a low elevation, the Panamint Valley was the perfect place to find some distance between us and everything else.

The next morning, we loaded up the car again and drove back into the park. We bounced our way north along a washboard dirt road and found a big patch of sand with plenty of room to spread out near the northern end of the Panamint Valley. Dispersed camping is the perfect remedy for the guilty feelings that usually vex families with young children in crowded campgrounds. Our nearest neighbor was two miles away and the kids had the biggest sandbox they could ever dream of. We played a bit and watched the sun set early over the Inyo Range. Camping in late December means very long nights, but we kept Carson and Autumn entertained until bed time arrived. Jody had her hands full sharing a tent with both kids. I stifled feelings of guilt and drifted off to sleep in my own tent just twenty feet away.

Morning brought happy smiles, but also bitter cold and a painfully slow sunrise. We filled our bellies with a big breakfast and broke camp, a little bummed that we had just one night at this amazing site. Our drive home took us back over Tioga pass and we stopped at Tenaya Lake, to stretch our legs and play on the ice. We drew into SF pretty late and knocked the sand out of our shoes one last time. We’ve now camped in three of the four major valleys in the park: Death Valley, Saline Valley and Panamint Valley. Getting to Eureka Valley just requires slightly warmer weather—something that isn’t hard to come by in this place. The kids had a great time and they’re getting used to these long road trips. We hope this is just the start of many more years exploring Death Valley and all the outer lands of this amazing state we call home.

More photos from this recent trip can be found here.

More photos from our 2009 trip can be found here.

Filed Under: vacation

Christmas Time Lapse 2011 – Short Film

February 5, 2012 by matt Leave a Comment

This is the best way we know to condense eighty minutes of stocking un-stuffing and gift un-wrapping into a tidy little film. And we only had to press the shutter release once. This year, we have twelve-hundred photos in just under four minutes to capture a whole lot of Christmas cheer. For the kids, the naughty moments were simply no match for the nice ones this year, and Santa delivered once again.

We’re getting this posted a little late. There were some technical challenges and good bit of lazy to blame for that. But maybe it’s nice to have a little bit of Christmas in February. Take Care, All.

2010 Christmas Time Lapse

2009 Christmas Time Lapse

If you get these updates via email, click through this link to watch the movie.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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