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.