Christmas 2022

Since Christmas was on Sunday and we didn't want to delay or rush our favorite leisurely way to spend Christmas morning with church in the mix, and since local family was clamoring for our attendance at a Christmas lunch in Grandview, we decided to ignore the calendar and celebrate Christmas in our house on December 24th. That shifted Christmas Eve to Friday, December 23rd. We were all ready! We were all home! Why delay? Liberating myself from the constraints of the calendar is always a light happy feeling. Bring it on, Christmas!

Cold and Sweet

The first day of Christmas break was on the winter solstice: Wednesday, December 21st. But before we reached that happy day, we had two days of Normal School Routine to crawl through. Monday was incredibly busy with errands, appointments, and obligations. I barely sat down at all, all day long. It was also cold cold cold. 20° at most in the middle of the day. My face ached for the first quarter of my run in the morning, and going in and out of cars and buildings all day made my body clench up, even with all of my wool apparel. Amber had her annual doctor checkup in the middle of the day, so we had a brief hour together before I took her back to school. 

Then came the errands: Dollar Tree for stocking stuffers, Walmart for funeral meal supplies, Les Schwab for air in the van tires, and the post office to pick up a package that for an inexplicable reason would not be delivered, even though other packages were delivered to our house all week long. I ended the long, tiring day with 3 hours of work at a funeral meal at the church. Most of that time was spent chatting with friends in the kitchen while we waited for the people to eat, but it was still a night time outing and I was socially fried when I got home after 8pm that night.

"One more day till Christmas break!" I told myself. 

Onesies and Cookies

I. Onesies

Last year the kids loved wearing onesie pajamas, so when Jay grew out of his old fleece onesie, I decided to get Christmas onesies for everyone. I wanted everyone to have their own color, and Old Navy had exactly five patterns available in our sizes when I was online, so I ordered one of each. Jeff got stuck in the heart onesie because it was the only one in his size. Jay's onesie is the same size as mine. The snow and gloom has hung around so long that I decided to get a family onesie picture in the stark winter landscape. 

A concert and a cage

Jeff kicked off our winter season of sickness two weeks ago when he was slammed by another round of Covid. This week, it was the kids' turn to get sick--not sure what they had, but it was sniffly and achy and feverish. Amber came home from school on Tuesday afternoon with sick eyes--that glazed tragic look that young kids get whenever they have a fever. Before she eve said "I don't feel good," I knew she was sick. She stayed home for the rest of the week with a fever, congestion, and a cough. Jay didn't feel great and stayed home on Wednesday and Thursday, but felt well enough to go back to school on Friday. 

The cage of winter...when my body cashes in on all of the aches and injuries accumulated throughout the year and I am cornered into resting more. It's not a bad thing to slow down; it's just different and sometimes makes me feel a bit caged in. And cold. This chain link fence was almost completely coated in jagged shards of thick frost.

White Week

It was a very white week in Sunnyside. Winter came early! The ground was covered in snow all week long, with another layer falling partway through the week to freshen it up. Monday was a snow day. Tuesday and Wednesday were school days. Thursday and Friday there was no school due to elementary parent teacher conferences. Suffice it to say, it was a weird wintry white week! 

Jeff was mostly recovered from Covid by Monday, but he still had Monday and Tuesday at home to finish his five day quarantine. So we had some rare one-on-one time during the middle of the day together. We started talking and ended up planning our whole summer, seven months early. 

Other things that happened this week:

A Snowy Sunday

We had a snowy Sunday. It snowed pretty much all day on Sunday. We stayed home from church due to Jeff's Covid making me paranoid at every scratchy throat and sniffle. When the snow started right around when we normally leave for church, I felt even better about our decision to all stay home. I strongly dislike driving in winter weather conditions, especially since our city does not plow the roads. So we had a cozy snowy Sunday at home together. Every time I looked out the window, I felt like I was living in a snow globe!

Skating and Parading

Saturday (December 3rd) was full of wintry Christmasy magic. After a face-freezing five mile run, I climbed down into the canal to check the firmness of the ice. It was thick and and slick. Time to get out the ice skates! A little while later, Rose, Amber, and I lugged our gear down into the canal for some ice skating.

The girls' feet grew so much that we had to do some ice skate shuffling with our three pairs of skates: I wore Jeff's size 12 skates, Rose wore mine, and Amber wore Rose's size 8s. Only Rose had skates that weren't too big, but Amber and I made do with our extra roomy ice skates just fine. Amber picked up on skating almost instantly this year! She flew all around the canal, and we had so much fun skating together. She even tried skating backwards with me. She fell down a good amount, but she was so happy and enjoying herself. I love doing mutually enjoyable activities with my kids!

Weekly Album

A photo album from our week: 

School pick-up. Ideally, Jay and Rose would ride home from school with Jeff, but he started coaching high school swim team a week after cross country season ended, and schedules have been all irregular ever since. For the past few weeks, Jay and Rose have gone running on the track after school before calling me to come pick them up afterwards. My fit diligent children!

Christmas Tree Quest 2022

The day after Thanksgiving is our traditional get-a-Christmas-tree day, and it is an all day event! From leaving to get the tree to hanging the last ornament took almost 8 hours. We left at 8:30am and drove an hour and a half to the mountains on Friday, November 25th. Jeff tried driving up our favorite forest service road a ways, and I had to clench my jaw to keep from verbally freaking out. The road was was too steep and icy, and our van started sliding! I am still so amazed and proud of myself for NOT saying anything or even making any noise at all as our van slid sideways and Jeff worked to get us turned back around on the narrow tree-lined icy gravel mountain road. Thankfully we were moving slowly and we kind of just slid through a 4-ish point turn till we could drive back down the road and park in the first clearing. This year our friends the Kannelys couldn't come on the same day as us and until we were on our own I didn't realize how much reassurance it gave me to have another vehicle, more people, and especially a second strong, winter-savvy man in our group. A year or two ago, we had six or more of us pushing the van from behind while Jeff drove it out of the snow. Shudder.

September & October Books

Whew, I'm squeezing this post in at the last minute right before November ends! My two month total for books read in September and October was 11 books. While I only really loved one of the new-to-me fiction books I read on this list, I very much enjoyed both of the nonfiction books I read in September and October. I'm not fast at reading nonfiction, but I enjoy finding a book about an interesting topic, and diving in. I usually read a little nonfiction each day while I eat lunch. This is a no-frills, no-quotes post, since I was not in quote-saving mode during cross country season. 

Turkey Time Part 2

Turkey Time Part 2 covers a two day span: Wednesday and Thursday, November 23-24. Late on Tuesday night, I got a phone call from my sister Mel. They were planning on driving the 3 hours from Seattle to our house on Wednesday evening, but their car broke down on Tuesday night! They had to get it towed to a shop and were awaiting a diagnosis. Late Wednesday afternoon, the mechanic's verdict finally came back, declaring the problem to be a dead alternator. Mel and Braxton would not be coming for Thanksgiving after all. Suddenly we had a lot more food than expected! The girls helped me make two more pumpkin cheesecakes on Wednesday, and we were planning on prepping Thanksgiving feast number two on Thursday! We did it anyways, but just had way more leftovers than we really wanted. Eating the same turkey and gravy dinner every night for a full week got pretty old, at least for me.

Turkey Time Part 1

We celebrated Thanksgiving for an entire week. We ran two turkey trots and cooked two turkeys. This post is about the first turkey trot and the first turkey, from Saturday, November 19th to Tuesday, November 22nd. My friend Tina is a high school teacher (we've served together in several church callings for the past five years, and she's currently our Relief Society president, with me as a counselor). Tina's high school leadership class organized a fundraiser turkey trot for the Saturday before Thanksgiving, so naturally we ran. I mean, a local running event that the White family is NOT in charge of? You'd better believe we'll be there! 

The Ambaptism

Happy sigh. Sunday was a good day. We had Amber's baptism at 1pm, and she was such a joyful ball of energy. We had just enough time to go home for a quick lunch after regular Sunday church before we went back to the church building to get ready for Amber's baptism. I helped Amber change into her white jumpsuit in the mother's lounge, which has the door to the baptismal font in it. Amber had never been in the mother's lounge before (in her memory), and she enjoyed trying out all three rocking chairs after she changed her clothes. Then we went out to the primary room to take a few pictures and say hi to the friends and family who came. Amber zipped around the room like a ping pong ball. She was so cute and excited! 

Amber got baptized!

Amber was baptized today! It was a sweet beautiful special joyful moment. I will write more about it soon. For now, here are a few preview pictures of our sweet spunky 8 year old being her natural free-spirited self. We are currently working on reading a kids version of the Book of Mormon together, and before her baptism I wanted some pictures of her holding the Book of Mormon. We had a five-minute front-yard cell-phone photo shoot on Friday, November 11th. After a brief standing pose, Amber was done with boring stand-still-and-smile tradition. She marched over to our rope swing and gave me some of my favorite ever Amber pictures as I chased her back and forth with my phone, taking pictures while she swung. I sure love my Amby girl. She has filled my life to the brim since before she was born.

36

November fourth: I turned 36 the same day Amber turned 8. Every year I journey a little farther on my quest to find the balance between motherly sacrifice and the necessity of carving out space for myself. This birthday was no exception. I tried my best to find a different day for Amber's birthday party, but there was no other time that worked. Hosting a birthday party for Amber on my birthday was something I did not want to do. It seemed like the recipe for a bad birthday for me. But I dug deeper (again) and hosted a birthday party for my daughter on my birthday anyways--not in a martyr give-till-I-shrivel-up-and-die way, but with the attitude that "I can share, give, and make my birthday good too all at once." In the process, I learned another useful lesson: a day is rarely all good or all bad. I realized that compressing any day into a good day/bad day binary is recipe for dissatisfaction, so I decided to pay attention to making parts of my birthday good, even if the entire day couldn't be all "good" or Shaina-centered. This was my approach to my shared birthday this year. Carve out time for good moments amidst the chaos! There's a life lesson in there somewhere.

Ambirthday: 8 years old

Amber turned 8 this week! We did all of the celebrating on her actual birthday--Friday, November 4th. In the morning before school, she opened gifts from her family. She brought a treat to share with her class at school. After school, we had 8 kids over for her birthday party with birthday dinner and donut cake. It was a very full intense day of celebrating our Amber!

Three Spoonfuls of Sugar

The week of Halloween is also known as SUGAR OVERLOAD week, wherein I must exert myself to stop projecting my own digestive needs onto my children. They eat so much more sugar than I could ever stomach, and I get an odd sort of referred pain as a result. 

Low maintenance Halloween costumes: a strawberry, a teacher, a tree, a teenager, and a witch. Confession: I recently purchased my first selfie stick. It converts into a tripod AND has a removable Bluetooth remote camera trigger, so it is pretty much going to take my family photography to the next level. I actually prefer to use it as a tripod rather than holding the awkward selfie stick out like I did for this picture.

District Meet & Year Five

Our district cross country meet was on Thursday, October 27th, at Franklin Park in Yakima (a 50 minute bus ride away). I left home a little before noon and was gone for 10 hours doing the necessary coach work. Jay, Rose, and Amber got a ride home from school with their Grama Leslie, and then they lived it up watching many cartoons and videogames all afternoon, with Eggo waffles and sausage patties for dinner. I didn't like leaving my kids behind, but I did like not splitting my brain between mom-mode and coach-mode at the meet. However, the older my three kids get, coach-mode and mom-mode seem to merge closer and closer together.

Packed Week

The middle school cross country season ended last week, but high school cross country is still going full steam ahead, along with what feels like everything else as well. We are in the thick of such a full busy happy tiring time right now. Our week was packed to the brim! Pretty much everything happens after 3pm too, which makes for a rather intense final five hours of each day. This post is a day-by-day breakdown of our week, with corresponding pictures under each day.

Monday was cross country practice, followed by Rose and Amber's piano lessons. We also squeezed in a trip to the library to pick up a book I had on hold and Pepe's Bakery for fresh donuts. Since we're nearing the end of the high school cross country season, practices are shorter to get the team's legs ready for the big district meet this coming week. So we had time to burn between cross country practice and piano lessons. Once we had our donuts, we went to Denny Blaine Park around the corner from Pepe's to eat the sweet treats. Denny Blaine Park is possibly the most underwhelming of parks. It is one tiny city block, with minimal everything. But it's a perfect place to park and let off steam because it's between the piano teacher's house and Pepe's Baker. We've stopped at Denny Blaine Park many times.

October Sunshine

 October has been so warm this year! Usually by October the heat breaks and we ease into mellow 70 degree afternoons, but this year we've been sweating it out in 80+ degree heat at cross country practice for the entire season. The tomatoes in my tiny wild garden stayed stubbornly green well into October. The sweet scent of sun-ripened grapes growing in the fields behind our house hung thick in the warm air for longer than usual. The heat finally broke this week and yesterday was the first time all season that I have needed to wear long sleeves for a run.

October is when we start fulfilling our favorite traditions, both in our family and on our cross country team:

Spa Day, Race Day

Another week has come and gone. As coaches, Jeff and I have entered the "hang in there" phase of the high school cross country season, where we are physically and mentally drained--still happy with coaching and excited for our runners to improve, but also very tired from the rigorous schedule we've been keeping for the past almost two months. The season will be over in less than three weeks! (Four weeks if someone qualifies for state.) We can do this! We love our team.

One of the things that gets progressively harder as cross country season progresses is spending quality family time. Jeff and I get so worn out (and our kids do too), that when we're all home together in evenings after practice or on Sundays, all we want to do is veg. Lounge. Relax. Not think or interact or exert ourselves. Thankfully cross country season is only ten weeks of this intensity, but I still feel a little bad that most of our at-home time is spent draped around the house like a bunch of blobs. So I was proud of myself for exerting myself a little on Friday when my kids and I had some free time at home together.

Courage & Conference

 Once again, our week was dominated by cross country season, with a few new extras sprinkled in. Jeff had a bout of what we assumed is long-covid relapse, since his symptoms of nausea and elevated heart rate were the same as what he experienced last spring. This caused him to miss one day of cross country practice as well as our cross country meet on Saturday, which meant his assistant coach (hi!) took charge. 

It is always daunting for me to face 30 teenagers with my not-loud voice, so I used our starter's microphone and portable speaker to amplify my voice at practice. It worked wonders, and my voice actually echoed off of a nearby building at the park during practice! I felt so powerful, and practice went relatively well even without Jeff's presence. 

 

This little headset and around-the-neck speaker were powerful!

5k Progress and the Connell Meet

This post has two parts, and both are about running: 1. my own 5k progress, and 2. the Connell cross country meet.

I. 5k Progress

On Friday, September 23rd, I woke up sore and tired from the rigors of hosting the home cross country meet the day before. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go on a run by myself before running at cross country practice later, but when I looked at the calendar, I realized that this was my last chance for over a week to get in my own 5k time trial. So once the kids were at school, I pulled on my running clothes and jogged up Scoon Road. Scoon Road is a long straight road that is a very gentle 1%-1.8% grade going north uphill. It's so gradual that the incline is barely noticeable going up, but going down feels speedy and amazing.

The Sunnyside League Meet

Thursday was a big deal for the Sunnyside High School cross country program. We hosted our first ever league meet in school history, with seven schools and close to 300 runners attending! It was a LOT of work. I'll start with Wednesday night to set the stage:

Wednesday, September 21st journal excerpt: I had an RS presidency meeting tonight and that was a lot (responsibilities, emotion, struggling sisters, etc.). When I got home, my period started. (No surprises; it was right on schedule--just a few hours early--but still annoyingly persistent.) Then Jeff and I laid out our plans for tomorrow, which is our first time ever hosting a league cross country meet. It's going to be a long day. I knew I'd probably be on my period for this meet, but I was hoping the flow would start tomorrow night instead. No luck. Sigh. I know I can do hard things while I'm "flowing," but that doesn't mean I want to! I do it all anyways, but everything is just harder (and grosser).

Fort Steilacoom

We tried our best not to, but we ended up scheduling a 4am school bus departure for the Fort Steilacoom Cross Country Invitational in Lakewood, WA on Saturday. In the past, (pre-covid), we have done the Lakewood meet with that dread early wake up and it was such an exhausting day, we tried to find a workaround this year. Our original workaround plan for this year was to only send the varsity boys to the speedy super-competitive meet in Lakewood (4 hours away), and send the rest of the high school team and the middle school team to the closer, less intensely competitive Wenatchee Invitational (2.5 hours away). The varsity boys' race in Lakewood wasn't till the afternoon, so they wouldn't have to get up before dawn for it like they would if we brought the JV and middle school runners, whose races were much earlier in the day. Nobody would have to get up before 5am.

Smoke and Spray

Smoke: Wildfire smoke rolled in thick and hung in the air for Monday and Tuesday this week, forcing us indoors for cross country practice and cloaking our skies in gray gloom. Gloomy days make me somewhat existential, apparently: When I was done cooking on Monday, I sat down and thought about the ridiculous amount of time that I spend planning, purchasing, and prepping food. At least a third, if not more, of my existence revolves around this menial but necessary task. And my active teenage and preteen kids have begun eating SO MUCH! Some days it feels like all I do is plan and prepare for the next meal/feeding frenzy.

July & August Books

This summer I read less than usual, so I decided to combine my July and August reading lists. July was mostly romantic vacation re-reads, so I didn't write plot summaries or opinions. I need familiar easy fluff in summertime! In August I finally finished reading my nonfiction book (The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal) and read an actual new book too. Progress! 

School and cross country

Journal excerpts from this week of school and cross country:

Tuesday, September 5th: Whew, I have been thirsty all day. Coaching cross country practice in the heat is extremely dehydrating. I have been drinking so much and I am still thirsty! 

Today I felt so organized: I started the Roomba as Amber was leaving for school (she caught the school bus at 8am). Then I did some yoga and ran 5 miles in the gorgeous cool morning weather. I got half of my ministering interviews done today and even made dinner before cross country practice. I used the saute mode on the instant pot to cook the sausage and white beans and then turned it on slow cook mode to keep it hot until dinnertime after practice. It was a hearty filling meal. Jay had two bowls of it plus two pieces of cornbread. The bottomless pit teenage boy stomach begins. 

Ultimook 2022

This was our fourth year attending the overnight Ultimook cross country meet at Hydrangea Ranch in Tillamook, Oregon. Last year we locked in the ideal schedule for this team trip, which took a lot of guesswork out and made it easier to relax and enjoy the journey this time around. We took an enthusiastic, fun-loving group of 14 high schoolers plus our own three kids to this beloved meet. It was gratifying and satisfying to watch the returning runners relish the traditions of this trip and see the new runners have a blast with the fun experience. 

We spent a little over ten hours on the school bus round trip, slept in sleeping bags in a barn loft, bathed in a river, lived off of granola bars and PBJ between dinners, and got soaked to the skin with rain on Saturday morning. This trip is always pretty grueling for us coaches, but we will keep coming back for more every year because it is such a FUN, positive, worthwhile experience for the kids. It's refreshing to take a step back from the intensity and monotony of training for distance running and just play on the beach, stay up late camping, and race through some mud and rivers the next morning. Even though this trip was tiring, Jeff and I had fun with it too--I think I say this every year, but it felt like we were on a family vacation with 14 extra kids in our family. Here's the timeline breakdown:

School Begins

The first day of school was on the late date of Thursday, September 1st. Of course, teachers including Jeff, always go back to work a week before school starts. And high school sports still needed ten practices before the first competition, so official cross country practice started almost two whole weeks before school. A few days before fall sports began, there was a parent meeting. So even though we had a so-called extended summer with our late school start date, we were not free to wander or go on adventures for the last 2.5 weeks of summer break. 

Jay is in 8th grade, Rose is in 6th grade and her first year of middle school, and Amber is in 2nd grade.

August misc.

August has ended! Here are a few miscellaneous journal clips to go along with some miscellaneous August pictures: 

Monday, August 8th: Jeff went grocery shopping with me for the second week in a row, and I am feeling so spoiled with our simple happy summer routines! I want more time before the intensity of school and cross country schedules begin again. I mean, we have a few weeks, but still. It's slipping  away so fast! And thanks to that deer destroying our van, we might not make it to the beach this summer for the second summer in a row! Boo! I made two batches of apricot freezer jam today because the apricots were turning to mush and I couldn't wait any longer, even though I was tired and not in the mood for jamming. 

We read Psalm 23 for CFM tonight and then sang hymn #108, The Lord is My Shepherd, while I played it badly on the piano. We sang all three verses and it was not great music. In fact, it was hilarious and I kept laughing while doggedly playing whatever notes I could manage. I couldn't even sing past the first line because I was struggling to play the notes, so Jeff had to carry the tune. Each verse, Jeff switched parts from bass to tenor to melody, which confused the kids greatly. For family game night we played two loud intense rounds of Uno. Jeff won both games.

Van Hunt

 We have a van again! Even though we lasted 13 whole years as a one-car family, the 18 days that we waited between the deer debacle and subsequent van replacement felt lengthy. Once our Kia van was officially declared a total loss, Jeff and I had to sign several notarized documents releasing the vehicle to the insurance company. Then we had to wait for the paperwork to be processed and then (after more paperwork) wait for the insurance company to deposit the settlement into our bank account. Meanwhile, the days of Jeff's summer break were slipping away. Once the insurance settlement appeared in our account, we had three days to find a replacement van before Jeff's first day of teacher in-service. 

A weekend in the country

Mel and Braxton drove over from Seattle to visit us this weekend! They brought their 9 week old puppy Pancha to meet us, and we all enjoyed a slice of fluffy bouncy puppy heaven. Mel and Braxton stayed overnight at our house on Friday and left Saturday afternoon. The whole time they were here, I kept marveling at the novelty, ease, and FUN of having members of my family visit me in my own house! Sunnyside is far enough off the beaten path that Mel and Braxton were only the third overnight guests we've ever had at our current house in five years. I am not used to being a hostess, and I kept having to think carefully about what they may need, like towels and blankets and a free pass to the fridge. 

Kachess Lake

When I hit that deer and destroyed our van at the beginning of August, I felt my remaining summer plans slipping away. We still needed to go camping and visit the beach and go to the lake with the cousins! We had been waiting until August for these activities because in August the mountains are less snowy and the Pacific Northwest beaches tend to be warmer. Suddenly our van was gone and we were tethered to the 70 mile range of Jeff's little electric car. That car is amazing for in-town use, but its range is too small for any mountain or beach trips, which require 100 miles or more of driving each way. 

While we were gathered for Grampa Dan's pancakes, Steph and I hatched a strategy to have our family lake day anyways. There were enough cars in the family for us all to get to the lake together, so we borrowed a car from Jeff's parents and went to Kachess Lake! We discovered Kachess Lake two years ago and it is one of our favorite places to go with the cousins, kayaks, and paddle boards because it's beautiful, peaceful (meaning no road sounds and not overly crowded), and it's an easy 2 hour drive on the highway from our house. Highway driving is key because our motion-sickness-prone daughters don't tend to get pukey on the interstate like they do on curvy narrow mountain roads. The only thing that would make Kachess Lake better would be if the lakefront beach area wasn't so painfully rocky. But this is a mountain lake after all, so we can't be too picky. We do own sandals after all.

Oh deer

While I was limping my exhausted way down the trail towards the parking lot at the end of our 19 mile hike in the Enchantments, I was so exhausted that I started considering staying in a hotel instead of driving the 3 hours home that night. In a fleeting spot of cell phone service about half a mile from the parking lot, I called Jeff to check in for the first time all day. He told me the same thing I was thinking: stay in a hotel if I feel too tired to drive home. By the time I reached the parking lot, my mind was made up. I was driving to Wenatchee and staying in a hotel for the night. Instant relief flooded my heart, and my throbbing feet rejoiced.

Mel drove my van back to the upper trailhead (bless her, my feet were so sore that even the light pressure required to press the gas pedal sounded awful). While Mel navigated the bumpy forest service road, I propped my feet up on the dashboard and gave myself a foot massage for the entire 30 minute drive. By the time we reached the upper trailhead, my feet were no longer screaming. After I hugged my sister and started driving (slowly) down that rocky rumpled road, I was feeling quite refreshed! I began reconsidering my plan to stay in a hotel. 

The Enchantments

Friday, August 5th was the most brutally beautiful hike of my life! My sister Mel and her husband Braxton thru-hiked The Enchantments Trail in the premier Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the central Cascades. The rugged, rocky 19 mile trail boasts 5,000 feet of elevation gain (aka uphill) during the first 6 miles, and 7,000 feet of elevation loss (aka downhill) over the remaining distance. At least 3 or 4 miles of the route are navigated by line-of-sight cairns rather than an actual boot path. It is a beast of an epic day hike, and we were nervous and excited to take it on. We estimated that it would take us about 12 hours to complete the full 19 mile trail.

Denver bonus week

 After the Brown family gathering in Denver and my cousin's wedding in Portland, Jeff and I had a six day date trip all planned out. Our kids would stay in Denver with my parents while we hopped on an Amtrak train to Chicago. We'd stay in Chicago for two nights and then take another Amtrak train to Pittsburgh, stay there two nights, then fly back to Denver. Compared to the other traveling we've done in the past, this trip seemed tame and simple, but that was done on purpose. We planned the trip when Jeff was still recovering from long-covid, and we wanted it to be as low key as possible. In spite of the low-key-ness of our plans, we were still excited to have our first true multi-day one-on-one time together in a whole year. 

On Sunday night, July 24th, my dad dropped us off at the Bellevue light rail station a mile and a half from his house (we were going to walk but it started thunder storming, so we accepted a ride), and we rode the little train to downtown Denver's Union Station to catch our big Amtrak train. We arrived an hour before our Amtrak train's departure and checked the arrivals board. Our train was delayed by two hours. Not terrible. We could wait. This was an adventure with public transportation after all! First we streamed some live coverage of the world track and field championships. Then we went for a walk. Then we went for another walk in downtown Denver. Then we sat outside Union Station. Then Jeff started feeling weird, so we took another walk to shake it off in case it was anxiety from the bustling train station. 

Portland for a day

 On Friday, July 22nd, my sister Em and I flew from Denver to Portland for our cousin Caralyn's wedding. Our aunt and uncle flew us out so Em could take the wedding pictures. I was Em's plus-one-slash-assistant for the day. Our flight was a classic Denver special, aka very turbulent, but we survived and then rented a car at PDX. We were originally going to stay at a rental duplex with our cousins, but we decided to be high maintenance and get a last minute hotel room instead. The first hotel we tried was full, and it was a bit stressful driving around and figuring out where to go. By the time we had grabbed a quick Chick-fil-a dinner and finally found a hotel, we were worn out! 

Denver 2022

 We spent the two weeks of July in Denver, visiting my side of the family. The timeline looks like this: 

• Friday, July 15th: fly from Pasco to Salt Lake City to Denver.
• Friday, July 22nd: Em and Shaina fly from Denver to Portland for our cousin's wedding.
• Sunday, July 24th: Em and Shaina fly from Portland back to Denver.
• Sunday night, July 24th: Jeff and Shaina face off with Amtrak and cancel our train date trip.
• Monday, July 25-Monday, August 1st: we stay with my parents.
• Monday, August 1st: we fly from Denver to Seattle to Pasco and arrive home at 1:30am.

This post will cover the week we spent in Denver with the Brown family: my parents, my four siblings and their spouses, plus their kids. For the third year in a row we held steady at 12 adults, 12 kids. 

The Finger

 It was gruesome. It was gory. It happened right before our big summer trip to Denver. On Tuesday, July 12th, our garage door was being more finicky than usual (finickier?). This cursed garage door likes to bounce back up over and over when we push the remote button to close it. Usually we can get it to close in less than five tries, but this particular morning it was NOT working, and we were starting to feel the time crunch to get to swim team and cross country practice on time. So Jeff pulled the string to detach the garage door from the motor so we could close it manually. Jeff pushed from the inside of the garage; I was on the outside. 

June Books

 I read 8 books in June. Here's one way Amber likes to read:

Denny Creek Trail Hike

On Saturday, July 9th, we went on another family hike. In early July it is tricky finding a good trail that's two hours away or less that isn't covered in rattlesnakes (north, south, and east of us) or snow (west of us). After browsing and pondering, I selected the Denny Creek Trail in the Snoqualmie region of the Cascades. It was right around a 2 hour drive from our house and only 45 minutes from Mel and Braxton's place, so they met us there for our second hike together of the summer. We lucked out with another Saturday of perfect weather. It was in the high 60s and partly cloudy but not misty. The trail was well-traveled and in spite of a very full parking area and long lines at the vault toilets, we didn't feel crowded on the trail itself. 

Sleep is secondary

Who needs sleep anyways? Summer nights are so short, it's nearly impossible to get enough sleep without the sun peeking in a poking me awake. Add a huge heap of activities on top of that and sleep is even more limited. This week was extra busy for our family of homebodies:

Monday was Independence Day, with all of its back-to-back-to-back activities. (documented in a separate blog post)

There was no swim team practice on Tuesday morning; just cross country practice. For the rest of Tuesday I got a bit of a breather, with only a Relief Society presidency meeting in the morning and my family art club Zoom meeting in the evening.

The 4th of July

 Independence Day 2022 was all booked up:

• 8am: Annual White Family Independence Day 5k
• 9:15am: Annual Wise Family Independence Day Breakfast
• 11am: baptism of Rose and Amber's neighbor buddy Dekker Martin at the church
• 4pm: my first ever attempt at cooking on a grill
• 8pm-midnight: loud, sporadic booms and pops of independent fireworks coming from all directions

Post-5k family patriotic picture

Silver Falls Hike

On Saturday, July 2nd, we went on a family hike at Silver Falls near Mt. Rainier, a 2 hour drive from home. This trail was the number one vote when I asked the kids which trails they wanted to visit again. When I saw that it was almost equidistant between our house and Mel and Braxton's place, I invited them to come with us. We met them at the Ohanapecosh campground, which was packed with cars, making parking hard to come by. Eventually we parked and hit the trail. 

We couldn't have picked a more perfect bluebird glory of a day. It was about 65 degrees when we started hiking, with sunlight filtering through the bright green forest. When I did this trail with the kids on one of our Wedventures two years ago, it took us a nice long time to journey to the waterfall because the kids climbed on every stump, log, and rock along the trail. This time we were fast! Jay, Rose, Jeff, and Braxton cruised up ahead at a speedy clip. Mel, Amber, and I walked at a more normal speed, with Amber forcing us to run and catch up to the front group whenever they pulled too far away. 

The kids are in excellent physical condition thanks to five weeks of swimming and running. They are also 2 years older and less interested in stopping to climb and touch every single thing along the trail. Amber wanted to climb and play along the way, but she felt the pull of the fast big kids up ahead, so she kept moving. We finished the hike well over half an hour faster than the last time we did it, even with a sizeable stop to admire the roaring Silver Falls. As we hiked back towards the car, I decided that my now-older, fitter children need longer hikes in the future! 

It was pleasant and therapeutic hiking along through the sun-dappled greenery and tall silent trees with my sister and daughter. It has been a while since I went to a trail with actual other people, and I loved it! Hiking is a very rhythmic restful activity. Trail running has a certain frantic element to it due to terrain-dodging and ankle-risking, but hiking is very Zen. 

Silver Falls was MASSIVE. Last time we visited, it was September and the falls were more of a gentle gush. Turns out in early July they become a roaring beast. The clear blue Ohanapecosh River is supplied by creeks farther up in the mountains rather than from melting glaciers, which apparently is what gives the water its crystal blue color. (Glacier-fed rivers are milky white with suspended sediment, the website says.) We could barely hear each other talk over the roar of the swirling frothy water. 

After our hike, we found a river access point and sat on a log, tentatively dipping our feet into the FRIGID water. It was so cold, even tough skinned Jeff couldn't hold his feet in the water for more than 2 minutes at a time. Once we had soaked and snacked, we said goodbye to Mel and Braxton, and drove the curvy highway 12 homeward. 

With zero warning after about 45 minutes of twisty-turny mountain pass driving, Amber suddenly puked. Thankfully she grabbed one of the blue barf bags that I keep stashed in the van seat pockets and used it properly. After our last carsickness vomit debacle, I ordered a case of blue hospital grade emesis bags from Amazon to keep on hand. It was the tidiest backseat barf-a-thon we've ever had! When Amber started hurling, Jeff pulled over as soon as he could and when she was done, I simply took the bag and tossed it in the nearest trash can. Boom. No mess. 

We went to Costco on the way home for a late lunch/early dinner/$350 of groceries.

Sun-dappled forest: my fave. I can almost SMELL that fresh Cascades air just from looking at this picture.

Amber and Mel. This picture warms my heart.

Silver Falls roaring.

Sisters!

Amber, hiding from the cool river mist.

Blurry blue waterfall, but THE RAINBOW in the mist!!

So blue.

Mel obliged us and took a few family photo recreation pictures for us. We first visited this spot as a family 7 years ago.

Preparing to freeze our toes off.

Silver Falls: September 30, 2020 vs. July 2, 2022

Top: Sept 2020

Bottom: July 2022

July 2015 // July 2022... our kids have grown.

More trails, please!

Mt. Si

 On Wednesday, June 29th, I went on my first trail run-hike of the season! Lots of my favorite trails are still under mountain snow, so I went out near North Bend, WA to climb Mt. Si. I did this trail three years ago and it nearly crippled my quads on the way down because it is such a steep steep grade. This time I vowed to be careful and gentle with my legs on the way down. I ran almost 4 miles at cross country practice that morning, then got in the van and drove to the mountains for my trail run-hike. The forest welcomed me back like an old friend, and I felt all kinds of Pacific Northwest love as I basked in the greenery and breathed that fresh Cascades air.

"It was calming how the trees stood and offered themselves to my heart." 

--Quiara Alegria Hudes, My Broken Language

June Album

The last half of June can be summed up in four words: swim, run, read, screens. Monday through Thursday were swim team days, with practice early in the morning and one or two meets in the evenings. Monday through Friday were summer practice for the cross country team. Jay and Rose joined in for a portion of the cross country practice after 80 minutes of swimming. They ran for 20-40 minutes with the team most days. Buff kids! 

During Rose's first run at cross country practice, she got a painful side stitch and had to walk a lot, and felt pretty frustrated. That night during family prayer, Jay prayed for Rose not to get any more cramps while running. My coach-brain thoughts said "That's a nice thing for Jay to say in his prayer. Rose will eventually stop getting side cramps when her core gets stronger, her running form improves, and she gets used to the motion of running. So I guess this prayer will eventually be answered." But Rose hasn't had a side stitch since! Time for me to dig up some extra humility and faith.

Denver Solo

Denver Solo sounds like Han's trendy granddaughter, but what actually happened was I went to Denver by myself last week. Math has never been my forte, but here's my attempt at an equation describing the trip: 

Same day x (Father's Day + my Mom's birthday) + [expiring 2020 flight credits] = Solo Denver trip

My Denver Solo trip lasted from Saturday, June 18th to Wednesday, June 22nd. It was a very peaceful visit. I have never spent so much one-on-one time with my parents in my life! The day I arrived, I briefly congratulated my brother Brad on his graduation from medical residency on our way back from the airport. That evening, I got to help my parents prep for a senior missionary social dinner that they were hosting. The 50 or so senior missionaries who came to the dinner were very nice. Several people asked me if I was home from college for the summer, and I got a kick out of that. 

May BOOKS

I read nine books in May.

As a dedicated Kindle user, I don't read paper books very often, so it feels like a photo op when I do.

Last/First

During the first half of June, we had several last days and first days all clustered together: