White hike

Monday morning after our usual summer Jay-swim-team/Jeff-and-Shaina-running routine, we threw together a bag of snacks and drove 2 hours and 15 minutes west to meet the White family for a hike at Olallie State Park. It was a cool, 60 degree, mostly cloudy day in the deep green forest of western Washington. Our trail of choice was the Twin Falls trail. After researching the best family friendly hikes within 2 hours of home, Steph and I chose the Twin Falls trail. I was concerned that the hike would be completely flat along the river and therefore dull in the vistas department while stressful in the Amber-falling-into-water department, but this trail surprised me in a most pleasant way, with its ups and downs and sweeping views.

Once we were all present (we drove in three separate vehicles), we ate a quick picnic lunch in the parking area, corralled all of the kids, and then headed up the trail. Our group was quite the entourage. With seven kids (ages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9) and seven adults, we strung out in a long line along the trail. We were hardly ever all together at once for the entire hike because we couldn’t all fit together on the narrow trail! Plus, half of the kids started off at a run, forcing half of the adults to briskly follow, leaving the other half to a more moderate pace. Every now and then, the front-runners paused and waited for the cabooses to catch up, and the front-runners and cabooses switched places over and over. In that exuberant, slightly haphazard manner, we inchwormed along the trail, pausing to climb tree stumps and logs, throw rocks in the river, admire exceptionally massive trees, and breathe in that green damp air.

The ferns were frondy. The trees were stately. The river was rushing. The kids were exploring. It was an excellent family hike, even if the hills were a tad steep at times. We hiked about 1.7 miles out to a big bridge that crossed the main falls (which were gushing loudly but not from a particularly spectacular height). After admiring the falls, we turned back and retraced our steps to the car. The younger kids were rather worn out by this point, and Grampa Dan and Jeff gave lots of shoulder rides.

Amber and Jay were the only two kids who hiked the entire way without any help. Jay is in the best shape of his life from swimming for an hour every weekday at swim team practice. Even better, he FELT good on the hike too since he wasn’t tired, and he had a great time exploring and climbing and running ahead. Amber is AMBER. She thrives on running, climbing, throwing rocks, and choosing sticks. She was in her element. By the last half mile or so, she did start to flag slightly. I could tell because she got quiet, stopped running, sought me out, and held my hand for the rest of the hike. For the first 3/4 of the hike, she wouldn’t come near me because she wanted her freedom, but she always comes back to her mama when she’s hurt or tired. At least I’m good for something.

As for Rose, she did not wear socks with her shoes and ended up getting a small blister. Any discomfort or pain (from thirst to wounds to aches) reverses Rose’s superhuman determination and redirects it into mooching piggy back rides and shoulder rides from her various relatives. I only carried her for maybe an eighth of a mile, but her bones are heavy and my shoulders got sore.

We arrived back in the parking area two hours after we left, all sweaty and tuckered out. Our kids got straight into the van and buckled up immediately. Amber said “can you close the door, Mommy?” They were spent and ready to go home. Our drive home was extended about 40 minutes by a bad car accident, and then another 20 minutes by a quick stop at Costco. I dashed in and ordered a massive hot pizza, then grabbed a few food items for the week while they baked our za. We ate giant drippy cheesy pizza triangles on the last leg of our drive home, listening to Harry Potter on audiobook (we started the series at the beginning again for the summer since it has been over a year since we last listened to the last disc of book 7).

It was liberating to go to the mountains for a day! Usually the mountains feel unattainable unless we spend the night because they are so far away and it seems like a waste not to stay longer after such a drive. When we lowered our sights from Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams to the Snoqualmie region instead, we found plenty of greenery and scenery with half of the drive time.

I love the contrast between eastern Washington and the west side of the state. I also love having relatively easy access to the BOUNTEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, wet, green, tree-covered mountains, while living in such a gorgeously sunny dry place. One more of my WA-loves is how exotic the large ferns and moss-covered trees still feel to me, even after all of these years of visiting them. We know where to go when we need a dose of humidity and greenery!

Picture progression:

• Starting off: we were all a tad chilly at the beginning and were confused at all of the sweaty people heading back to the parking lot…until we hit the first hill! Off came our jackets.
• First stop: a boulder in the river. The part I was standing on was higher than where Jeff was standing, so I look way taller than him in this picture.
• Jay had fun slipping and hopping between rocks on the river.
• Our crew really took over the river access. That tiny red shirt on the far right is even one of ours (it’s Grama Leslie!)
• On the trail again: that MOSS. (and Jeff’s LEGS! 🙂
• How is this place only two hours from our house? It’s a whole new world. (Amber is on an Aladdin kick right now)
• Rose never says no to a shoulder ride, and Grampa Dan was carrying either Rose or Grayce for a good 75% of the hike.
• Grayce, Amber, and Jeff. At this stop, Amber pooped her pants. Jeff and I were unprepared for such an occurrence (unwisely, but seriously, she had just used the potty right before we embarked on the hike!). We ended up digging a hole with a stick and burying the poopy undies, apologizing profusely to mother nature and the forestry department under our breath. We cleaned Amber’s bum with a thin napkin we scrounged out of our backpack plus three tiny alcohol swabs that we had in our first aid kit. I used both the wrappers and the 1-inch-square alcohol swabs to wipe Amber. It was not ideal. Jeff and I decided that we had reached new heights of parenthood with this experience. (or was it a new low?) Amber went commando in her little skirt for the rest of the hike, which thankfully had soft little built in shorts underneath it.
• Miss Grayce. This is the closest she ever gets to smiling at me. For some reason she is WARY of Mean Aunt Shaina, probably because all I do is stop her from doing fun-but-harmful activities and/or take things away from her. Sorry little girl, maybe someday you’ll get over it and we can be friends!
• Tate, ready to pounce.
• The waterfalls were rather obscured by trees from the trail. We never ventured down side paths to see the falls better because that would have been inadvisable with the large number of tiny kids we were herding.
• Grampa and Gracie.
• This tree was massive! I told Grayce to hold out her little broken arm and it was so cute and tiny, stretching out.
• Cole: the chubbiest, happiest, blondest little 1-year-old I know. He has the best belly laugh and I love squeezing his tummy.
• In spite of/response to past failures, we managed to get all seven cousins in one picture! Grayce did NOT like sitting on the log, but she’ll be glad she did someday. I took like 7 pictures in a row and this was the best one I could snag before everyone ran away.
• The last waterfall at the turnaround point. It was much bigger, deeper, and more impressive in person.
• There was a bridge crossing the falls and the pictures do not show just how high up it was and how deep and gushy the water was.
• We used up our group picture prowess at the log, so I managed to at least get one of each of my kids by the waterfall we had worked so hard to find.
• Heading back.
• Looking downstream from the top of the bridge.
• These two girls sure love their grampa.
• Taking a break, waiting for the caboose crew to climb a particularly steep hill.
• See how the Amby is wilting?
• Jay was sure not wilting! He was ready to run! So he did. It is so fun to see him fit enough to have fun! Swim team for the win! Seriously, Jay has always been more of an intellectual gymnast rather than a physical type of guy, so it did my heart good to see him so happy on a 3 mile hike.
• Amber’s hair loved the humidity much more than mine did. Her ringlets became more and more perfectly round and individualized the longer we hiked.
• I have no clue how anyone can carry Rose (over 60 pounds of pure BONES) on their shoulders over rough terrain, but Jeff and his dad are like mountain goats with their ability to keep firm footing and carry heavy loads.
• When she couldn’t quite bring herself to hold my actual hand, but she still needed to be close to her mama, she clutched a dangling backpack strap.
• About 20 minutes into the drive home, Amby finally gave in and fell asleep. For some strange, traditional Amby-reason, she did not sleep for long (maybe 30 minutes). My kids have never slept for long in the car! Driving is supposed to be the great snooze! Alas. At least we had Harry Potter.

Three dates

Last week I went on three dates with three of my favorite people:

Date #1: Rose

On Wednesday morning, Rose and I drove to the Grandview cousins’ house and stayed for two hours. Rose played with her cousin while I talked with my sweet mother in law. We left at 11am and drove to the tri cities with four objectives: lunch, haircuts, scriptures, and temple walk. We ate lunch at Five Guys, sharing fries and a strawberry milkshake. Rose is such a fun little companion. She alternately chatters on and on or silently studies the scene around her with a serious thoughtful gaze. After lunch, we walked over to Great Clips next door to Five Guys and set appointments to get our hair trimmed. We had twenty minutes to burn, so we strolled around Target (which was across the parking lot). Then we walked back to Great Clips and both had our hair trimmed. It was a calculated risk–the last time I got a haircut at a walk-in salon, I walked out with a jagged mess. But Great Clips pulled through and Rose and I left feeling “light-headed”.

After a quick stop at Costco, we went to the LDS distribution center and bookstore to get Rose some scriptures. She has been wanting her own scriptures for a while now, so we finally made it happen. She picked out a sparkly bright pink plastic scripture case to carry them in and was very pleased. We walked around the temple underneath the melting force of the June sunshine. Rose reached into the fountain up to her elbows to cool off. We drove the 50 minutes home, arriving 7 hours after we left.

Rose is such an intense little person, soaking up her environment. Staying home all day every day like we have been mostly doing this summer so far makes Rose go stir crazy. Without any high-energy roomfuls of people or chaos to feed off of, she goes haywire and pesters her parents half to death:

“Will you draw with me?”

“Want to hear me sing this song 100 different ways?”

“Let’s play a game!”

“Can I help you cook that?”

“What are you doing? Can I try?”

“Come and see ____!”

“Watch me ______!”

And on and on and on and on. Our seven hour outing really satisfied Rose’s need for ACTION. She was mellow for the next two days afterwards! It is fun to spend one-on-one time with my kids. No divided attention, no squabbling, just companionship.

Sharing our strawberry shake.

BURGERS!! Rose eats as much as me!

The wind fluffed our freshly clipped hair. Rose got about six inches cut off for the summer. It is SO much easier to brush now! I merely got the ends trimmed up, but it still feels so luxurious and healthy. We really should do haircuts more than once a year. Haha

Temple fountain: always a fave.

Temple selfie: another favorite. I love my sweet Rose and how excited she gets to see the temple!

Date #2: Jay

On Thursday night, I drove Jay to the pool for swim team pictures in the 90 degree heat. Trying not to count the trickles of sweat flowing down my back, I strolled through the park while the photographer lined up 6 or 7 dozen kids in Speedos for the picture. Since we weren’t buying individual photos, I snagged Jay out right after the team picture. As we were leaving the pool deck, we walked past a table with several massive tubs of ice cream on it. It was for the swim team and families, and it was melting FAST in the heat, so the ladies practically begged us to each take a bowl. No problem there! Jay and I each picked up a bowl of moose tracks and found a picnic table in the shade to enjoy it. We chatted and enjoyed the peaceful summer evening right along with our ice cream.

Back in the van, I had turned homewards when Jay said “I wish we could go to the library.” One U-turn later and we were parking at the Sunnyside branch library. It was 20 minutes before closing time, so we did some speedy browsing and each checked out four books. Then we drove home, Jay reading facts to me from the extraterrestrial book he picked out all the way.

My Jay-date was less planned and far more low key than my Rose-date, but each date was perfect for the kid. Jay is a low key guy who prefers to be home, so we kept it short and simple. It was so fun to have Jay all to myself during the daytime. Normally when he wants to tell me the 75 most recent facts he learned, Amber is climbing one of my legs and Rose is singing loudly in my other ear. It is much easier to deal with my kids’ various verbal intensities one-on-one. And it is FUN too!

I took a cell phone picture through the chain link fence…that’s the team. It’s big, ages 6-18.

I attempted a poolside shot, but it seemed like a major faux-pas because the professional was taking individual pictures in the background, so I did not try again when this picture was overexposed.

Moose tracks! A taste of my childhood. Seriously, this particular carton of moose tracks tasted exactly like the Blue Bunny brand we used to get when I was growing up in Tennessee.

Silly boy hates smiling for pictures.

I forgot our traditional library date picture so instead, we did a drive-by window picture.

Date #3: Jeff

A member of Jeff’s cross country team and his Sunday school class recently got his mission call to Ecuador. On Saturday morning, this fine fellow went through the temple for the first time. We attended the session as well to support him. The session of choice was at 8am, so we had to get the kids into the car by 6:30am so we could drop them off at the Grandview grandparents’ house on our way to the temple. It was an early wake-up, but Jeff and I were both pleased with how alert we felt at the temple. We are morning people. I love how much more I THINK when I attend a temple session with a living ordinance. It is special to watch a living breathing person make personal sacred commitments.

This was the first date Jeff and I went OUT on since our trip to Paris in February. It was also the first time we’ve been to the temple since Paris! It was good to be back. There is such a deep calming peace inside the temple. It was just what I needed after a wild week with my high-maintenance children. After the temple, we drove over to a favorite pathway, did a quick wardrobe change in the back of the van, and then went on a nice long run along the cool blue Columbia River. We did not run together this time, but we were both running at the same time! I joked afterwards that this was some date–we sat across the room from each other at the temple and then ran two miles apart for 70 minutes. Hah! But it still totally felt date-ish, so I’m counting it. I mean, Jeff and I first met on the college track team after all, so running is so totally romantic to us.

On our way home, all salty and sweaty from our run (and sitting on towels to protect our car’s seats), we picked up burgers and peanut butter bacon milkshakes from Five Guys. Yes, I ate Five Guys twice this week. YUM. This dating thing is awesome! Five Guys is my restaurant-reason not to be a vegetarian. Those peanut butter bacon milkshakes are delicious. We ate our lunch in the car on the way back to pick up our children. We reclaimed them 6 hours after we dropped them off at Jeff’s parents’ house. We crammed a lot into that six hours, especially since over 1.5 hours of it was spent driving!

In general I am a homebody–Jeff and I are Netflix-and-chill (aka ice cream) type of daters mostly. But even this homebody enjoys a non-errand outing every now and then, especially if bacon is involved!

Parking lot temple selfie! I don’t know why selfies have such a stigma in my head, but I always feel slightly sheepish whenever I take a selfie. Oh well, I never regret having pictures with my loved ones, so selfies it is!

The Columbia Point Marina was our start/finish point. The breeze blowing off of that cold water was like nature’s air conditioning–most welcome in that hot sun.

Salty smoocheroo–Jeff is always bound to act up during a selfie, but that makes them better.

LUNCH on the go!

Three dates in one week? We sure are living it up this summer!

Last day/first day

We just finished our first full week of summer break. Here are excerpts from my journal regarding the last day of school and the first day of summer:

Wednesday, June 13, 2018: Today was the last day of school!! About time! The kids and I decided that we must be the last school district in the country to get out for the summer. I will not miss the dread morning routine in the slightest–adios daily shoe-tying ordeal, hello summer and sandals! Although I do still hope to have the kids do a daily chore, exercise, and practice piano at least 4 days a week this summer. I hope we can make it happen… This afternoon I went outside and waited for the school bus and welcomed Jay and Rose home for summer.

Jay has faced so much this year. He battled recess injustice with a well-written letter, met with the principal, and saw changes made as a result. He had a tough third grade class, full of kids who swear, bully, and act unkindly. The teacher put Jay’s desk in the middle of the rough crowd in hopes that Jay would be a good influence on them. He was good, but they were not influenced.

My sweet sensitive Jay had to deal with all of that unpleasantness every day, and he never backed down. He always had a calm reply to the rude kids. He never punched the bullies back. He firmly resisted picking up the habit of swearing. The boy was a shining light in his classroom. He refused to be dimmed no matter what those kids did. I am humbled by his goodness and courage. Jay is relieved that third grade is over! He had friends at school, but it was tough dealing with all of the other negative kids. I wish it was better, but I am glad that he has begun to learn how take a stand and stay true in the middle of a rowdy rude crowd. During the last quarter of school, he finally started remembering to turn in his homework too!

Rose loved first grade. She loves learning and activities and spending time with people, people, people, soaking in their energy with her insatiable appetite for life. She had a wonderful teacher and a positive classroom environment. She had to deal with on-again-off-again fickle first grade girl friendships, but she handled it all in her no-nonsense irrepressible Rose way. She even admitted to having her first crush on a boy in her class She mentioned her crush in passing, nonchalantly, no big deal, like “of course I have a crush, everyone has a crush. Don’t you have a crush too?”

She improved her reading till she was literally off of the charts, and started reading the Book of Mormon on her own before bed each night at the beginning of June. Grama Meri gave her a spiral bound “Book of Mormon for Young Readers” that is full of pictures and explanations. It has a lot of the verbatim verses, but totally skips the Isaiah chapters. She got glasses in April and may be the cutest little bespectacled scholar I’ve ever seen. She picked out the brightest, most colorful frames she could find and is learning how to be responsible with her glasses (no glasses on the trampoline, don’t let Amber play with them, etc.).

Rose began to master her perfectionism this year, and her meltdowns decreased in number (though the ones she does have seem to have increased in intensity…). Rose is such a fierce, vivacious, bright, determined little dear. She has a loving heart and would hug and snuggle her family all day if she could.

I love my sweet strong kids!

Bring on summer!!

Thursday, June 14, 2018: It feels way later than 9pm because today was busy and I’m all tuckered out. Jeff took Jay to swim team practice this morning at 7:30am (swim practice is from 7:30-8:30am Mon-Fri till the end of July). When they got home, I went out on a pleasant 5 mile run and when I got back, Jay was already off playing with the two neighbor boys on our street. They paused at noon to make some quesadillas at our house, and ate them on the front porch. Then it was off to play some more, digging in the dirt and playing with army men. They worked for an hour on an elaborate battlefield with the army men and trenches and even made a small river with the hose, rocks, and plastic bags. I was so happy that they were doing the GOOD kind of playing, I kind of hovered by the window peeking out every now and then for a while before sitting down to read. While the boys did army stuff in the dirt, Amber filled her blue wading pool with hose water, then scooped dirt into it over and over until she had a massively muddy vat of witch’s brew. She grabbed two big sticks and stirred it up, then spent the remainder of the time playing with a plastic grocery bag in the water. Who needs toys when you have mud and trash? Haha!

After the army men, the boys attended Rose’s Flag Day party that she prepared in the playroom (she made a pin the tail on the donkey game and a catapult game and liberally handed out her own stash of candy as prizes). Eventually some sort of battle royale erupted in the playroom, and at 3pm everyone came trooping out to play Super Smash Bros on the Wii. It was an excellent first day of summer break. Summer, summer, SUMMER! Bring on the dirt, rocks, army men, neighbor friends, muddy water, sticks, quesadillas, front porch picnics, and rope swings. Overheard while the boys dug trenches for battle: “this is going to be an awesome summer.”

Tonight was Jay’s first swim meet! This morning at swim practice, he swam the entire 50 meter pool without stopping, so we signed him up for the meet, which started at 6:30pm. I took Rose and Amber over to play on the playground near the pool while we waited for Jay’s event to be announced. While we were at the playground, Jay swam the freestyle in the 200m medley relay! And I missed it! I was so bummed because I still have not seen Jay swim. We signed him up for the 50 meter freestyle, but his coach tossed him into the relay too and I didn’t know about it. Around 7:30pm, I talked to Jay through the chain link pool fence. He was exhausted and hungry, and very discouraged that his last event wasn’t till the very end of the long meet. He started crying in his tragic lip-wobbling Jay way and I realized that he was ready to go home. I snuck into the fence to talk with Jeff (Jeff was helping with timing the races, and only vounteers and swimmers are allowed inside the pool fence), and after telling the coach that Jay was going home early, we left. Jay perked up a lot on the way home and revived even further over a nice bowl of cereal at home. Then we cycled through teeth-potty-prayer and got the kids into bed. Jeff didn’t get home from the swim meet until 10:45pm!

Tonight was my first time EVER at a swim meet and I was so lost and unprepared! I had no clue what to expect and I did not bring any snacks or blankets or books or games or ANYTHING to help pass the time. Consequently, Amber kept escaping and Jay was overwhelmed and EVERYONE was HANGRY. When we got home, Jay ate his bowl of cereal and the girls each had a steaming bowl of oatmeal before bed. All three kids were in bed by 8:30pm. That does not sound very late, but it is LATE to our kids. Amber did not even take a nap today. I fear tomorrow.

[end journal entries]

[begin: SUMMER]

Last day of school pictures! They were too crazy to take this picture seriously.

The last shoe-tying ordeal of the school year. These look like two humans, but really that’s a snail and a turtle. Or possibly two senile sloths.

Adios, third grade.

Adios, first grade.

Post-school-dropoff chores: sweeping the garage. Country life in eastern WA can be summed up in one word: DUST. I have never swept a garage as regularly as I do this one. The sheer volume of dirty dust that sneaks into the garage (and house) is staggering. Pictured here is about one month’s dust accumulation. I want a leaf blower, but I wonder if it would actually blow the dust OUT of the garage or just poof it up in choking clouds before re-settling on the garage floor again. Even the push broom creates quite the billowing dust-clouds.

Photo captions:

• My Ambuddy enjoying her last few hours of daytime alone time with the sidewalk chalk.
• That view makes me feel artistic too.
• Our little skinny house with Amby on the driveway.
• Flying away on the balloons I drew for her.
• Country life in eastern WA can be summed up in one word: DUST. I have never swept a garage as regularly as I do this one. The sheer volume of dirt and dust that sneak into the garage is staggering. Pictured here is about one month’s dust accumulation.
• Amber reached for the Nutella jar and said “I need to smell it!” [nose in the jar, deep sniff] “Mmm, it’s a-licious.”
• Moving on to the first day of summer break:
• Quesadillas on the front porch: the first lunch of summer.
• Angel-Rose on the trampoline.
• BRIGHT sunshine
• The battle preparations begin! I know that when the British refer to the “garden,” they mean the yard, but I still like how these boys were literally playing in our garden, with my tomato plants to the left. Normally I reduce the shadows and bump up the brightness on pictures like this, but it’s summer so this is it for now.
• Amber, stirring her witch’s brew
• Rosie swingin’ high in the front yard.
• Super Smash Bros is the perfect group Wii game (as long as I am not in the group, hah, I do not enjoy video games)
• Jay was so tired after his first swim meet, he fell asleep with the light on in his room.
• School pages, front side. We fill the front side out at the beginning of the school year. I probably explain this every year, but here’s a refresher: I made these pages in trusty ole Microsoft Word, the only computer program I know my way around–hah. When I was growing up, my mom bought and kept a school book for each of her kids, and I love having that record. I could not find any school books that I liked enough to buy for my own kids, though, so I made my own when Jay started kindergarten. Each kid has a big binder-o-life (I use the Project Life system and add sheet protectors for other papers like these school pages and our birthday interviews) and we keep these pages in the binder along with pictures, certificates, and papers for each year. I am over a year behind on the picture side of the books (typical), but since it’s easy to shove a few papers into sheet protectors every now and then, the school record is up to date at least!
• School pages, back side. We fill this side out at the end of the school year. Clearly Jay was in a hurry when I finally pinned him down and made him fill out his school book sheet. Basically, he wrote P.E. everywhere. I have not printed the last day of school pictures yet. Rose said her favorite part of first grade was “my techer” and Jay’s favorite part of third grade was recess.