Instagram

I use Facebook. I have no desire for any more social media. Then a month ago, it was time to decide whether or not to renew my poor dying dumbphone (as in opposite of smartphone) plan. Cue side note interlude (be patient, it’ll all come together in the end):

My old call-and-text-only cell phone was starting to do strange things like: default to the most annoying ring tone ever. The call connection was horrible. And the battery life? Ha. It was time to move on. Jeff discovered a no-contract month by month plan that cost within $10 of our old plan (we hate cell phone contracts). We have had two old iPhone 3’s (bought cheap from family members) for a long time. So we put the two together and POOF! I have an iPhone. It is kind of a dinosaur compared to my iPad, but it still does a million more things better and faster than my old dumbphone, so I’m content.

AND that brings me back to Instagram. I thought you could only use it on a smartphone, so I never even considered it a possibility. Turns out you can use it on an iPad too. Whatever. When I started using the iPhone, I felt like it needed a few apps on it, so I downloaded Instagram. I have used it for a month now, and I’m starting to get the point of it. All you do is post a picture with or without a caption, and the people who follow you can look at it and/or comment on it. That’s all. It seems superfluous for any Facebooker, but it’s kind of nice not having all that other junk that people post mixed in with the good stuff: pictures!

I also discovered that most of my family prefers Instagram to Facebook, so that helped me want to use it more. So. That’s it. When I first used Instagram that’s actually what I said: “that’s it?” There’s not much to it! Even my Dad joined Instagram this week, which is awesome since neither of my parents uses any sort of social media.

So if I occasionally post a square picture, it’s probably from Instagram.

selfies

“This is Daddy, Mommy, Jay, Rose, and Amber.”

This boy and his Legos. The other day he said “Mommy, I love you as much as I love my little Legos.”

When Rose is tired, she sleeps. Who cares about laying down with a pillow?

Since Grampa Dan was out of town this weekend, Jeff took over and made pancakes for breakfast on Saturday—Jay ate that whole plate-sized cake! He ate most of it for breakfast and the rest of it for lunch.

We haven’t been doing much around here—the temperature heated way back up again so we’ve been hanging out in our blessedly cool home and swimming at the Prosser pool sometimes. It’s so nice having Jeff home for the summer. The kids stick to him like glue and they have so much fun together.

Jeff has also been battling the yard—the lawnmower broke right when he was trying to mow the extra thick grass growth after we got home from the lake, so it grew even more while we waited for the new mower to be delivered. Then that mower turned out to be weak and wimpy, so Jeff drove to Yakima and then to the Tri Cities in the same day to return and replace it. The weedwhacker also died at the same time. Then he mowed over a rabbit hole containing five newborn bunnies. The mower is just a reel mower, so don’t worry—no bunny brains were sprayed around, but Jeff did have to get rid of the poor creatures since they couldn’t live in the middle of our yard with no burrow and no mother (don’t tell Rose). Also, one zone of our sprinkler system stopped watering, so our side yard is all brown and Jeff has started watering it with the hose. We don’t even have a garden this year but there is so much to be done out there! And I sure am no help with my big belly and small energy.

Instead of helping my dutiful husband with the sweltering yard work, I have been sitting in my chair reading, reading, reading. I take the library’s two week checkout period as a personal challenge. Recently I read over 1400 pages in under 14 days! When my body is occupied with growing a baby, reading is one of the only things I actually CAN do. So I do it a lot. It’s a welcome distraction from my lingering, steady nausea. I like reading, but I prefer to have other options that only my normal non-queasy able-bodied self can give. 99 more days!

Ok, now July can end. The blog is caught up.

Popcorn Popping

Starring Rose:

Ape Cave

Yesterday, Jeff took Jay and Rose on an adventure to Ape Cave, which is a lava tube cave near Mt. St. Helens. They left at 7am and didn’t get home till 9:30pm (it’s a 3.5 hour drive to Mt. St. Helens). Jeff says that the trip was epic enough to rival last year’s infamously muddy Shi Shi Beach hike. [I just looked up that blog post and relived the gory glory of that trip. Last summer was ahh-mazing.] I still can’t believe I wasn’t THERE for this family adventure. Pang! Twinge! Just you wait till next summer.

Quick background info on Ape Cave: it consists of two lava tubes (aka thick tunnels in the lava bed), called the upper and lower tubes. The lower tube is shorter and kind of tapers off so you can only walk so far into the cave before it ends and you have to turn back. That’s the one we did a few years ago. Jeff had explored the upper tube two other times, so he knew what to expect, more or less. The upper tube is just over a mile long—1.3 miles to be exact, and it has openings on both ends so hikers walk through the cave. There is a trail (1.3 miles long) on the outside of the tube that takes you back to the start. So round trip for the upper tube = 2.6 miles.

Flashback—here’s what the kids looked like last time we were at Ape Cave:

  
Rose, 3 years ago.

Little 2 year old Jay with his “special light.”

Jay was so little! Three years ago, I carried baby Rose and Jeff carried Jay through the upper tube cave. It was short and dark and rocky, but doable with small kids. I thought the lower tube would be similar, but Jeff set the record straight after their 5 hour trek underground through the cave.

I have very few witty insights or clever turns of phrases for this year’s story of Ape Cave since I was not there for the journey, but from what I can see, it was hard going. The Washington Trails Association describes it this way: “the tube beds are rough and uneven.” That’s all they give you. What is with trail info and understatements??

Here’s what I can tell you about it all, secondhand: Jeff came back exhausted and sore from wriggling, scooting, and climbing over rocks while lifting and carrying kids, all in the pitch black with only headlamps for light. Jeff’s light burned out during the trip, along with his spare, so all he had was a small handheld flashlight for the rest of the way. Near the start, they took a wrong side path that had them crawling on their stomachs for 20 minutes before Jeff decided it was the wrong way. Rose did not like that part. Jeff says he laid on his back, put Rose on his stomach, and scoot-wiggled along with her when she was upset at the crawling and head-bonking. Talk about dedication! It took them 5 hours to get through the 1.3 mile lava tube cave.

 

They met 3 nice people on the way and they decided to help each other out through the cave. So Jeff lifted some strangers up 'n over the big rocks too! He said at one part there was an 8 foot high rock to scale, with a maybe 2-foot high stepping stone in front of it. I asked how he would have managed that obstacle without those nice people, and he admitted he didn’t know and threw out the idea that maybe he’d have had each kid take turns clinging to his back while he climbed. Insert mother bear-Shaina growl of disapproval. Jeff helped these people, and they helped him with the kids. Little Miss Rose perked up for the last quarter of the cave and Jeff said she kept getting ahead of them like a little mountain goat, climbing rocks all nimble and quick.

My hard core family. They had McDonald’s Happy Meals for dinner, which for the kids was an exciting way to end their big adventure. Rose calls her McDonald’s toy her “happy toy.”

Verdicts:
Jeff—“It was awesome! Epic! Exhausting! I’m so sore everywhere!” 
Rose—“I…I…I don’t know…” (mixed feelings)
Jay—“Can we do it again next year?”

Quiet

Today is a strange day. First of all, it’s a cloudy cool day, which never happens in the Yakima Valley in July (last week we had 4 days in triple digits). So that’s throwing me off. Second, my family is on an adventure without me. Sniff, yes. I am too feeble to attempt wilderness excursions like we did all over the state last summer. Jeff and I decided that the rest of the family should not be deprived of QMT (quality mountain time) just because I’m busy growing a baby. So this morning, Jeff and the kids left on a little spelunking expedition to Ape Cave by Mt. St. Helens without me. I’m home alone, doing my best to keep my forlorn feelings at bay.

Our house is silent. Well, the trash truck came about 2 hours ago and that made a little noise, but since then, the house has been quiet. I sat in my chair trying to figure out what to DO with this intensely quiet time for a full thirty minutes after everyone left, but all my brain would do was marvel at the silence. Maybe I’m so used to thinking against background noise that when there’s no resistance in the sound waves, I can’t figure out how to work my brain?

So I got dressed and went on a walk out in the unseasonably cool air. Refreshing! It was only my second walk in 5.5 months, so it was slow (as in 25 minutes for one flat mile), but it felt GOOD to go outside and move around a little. And since I have zero responsibilities today, I could afford to spend some of my very limited and valuable energy on a frivolous walk. As I strolled along sedately, I did have numerous pangs for running. I found myself daydreaming about the inexplicable satisfaction of a good heart-pumping run. At one point, I was even thinking fondly of the numerous times I pushed the fully-loaded double stroller up a small rise and how I could barely do a slow-tiptoe jog pushing that thing sometimes. That right there just shows how easy it is to romanticize even the most arduous task when it’s out of reach. These reflections helped me remember that I am not, thankfully, permanently pregnant, and I will be able move and groove again in not too long from now (106 days, not counting postpartum recovery). It was a comforting thought.

I came home from my walk, turned on some Piano Guys music nice 'n loud, and indulged in a little cleaning—the small time tidying up that is rarely worthwhile unless the kids are asleep (or gone). I thought if I’m going to have a day all by myself, I should be able to enjoy an uncluttered family room and a clean swept kitchen for once. Now that it’s relatively orderly in here, though, I’m discovering that the tidiness seems to accentuate the absence of my family!  Yurg.

In six years, all of my kids will be in school. What am I going to do with all that quiet time? There are no universities around here where I could get some extra degrees. I don’t want to work at a Mercado. Thank goodness I have six years to figure that one out.

Ok, that’s all I really have to say right now. Sorry it’s not more exciting. But I do have 3 or 4 cute pictures to share to make up for it!

Sleeping Beauty.

All the stubborn 3 year-old-ness evaporates when she’s asleep, leaving long-lashed, red-lipped perfection.

We had Spencer over twice in the last week, and those kids love to PLAY! And swim!

Jeff started reading a chapter of Harry Potter to the kids before bed every night. They love it! His character voices are pretty amazing. This 20-30 minutes of story time right before bed has helped Jay and Rose fall asleep so much more easily than before. In fact, Rose has fallen asleep during the story a few times. It’s also just such a cozy thing to do with kids—my Mom read to us almost every night when I was little, and it’s one of my favorite memories. I got to take over reading one night when Jeff wasn’t feeling well, and it really was fun, even though my Hagrid voice isn’t nearly as booming and impressive as Jeff’s.

You know how I feel about the sky here.

Lakecation 2014

Let’s do the math:

10 days (8 full days plus 2 half days)

9 nights (and 9 sunsets!)

10 grown-up Browns

2 pregnant bellies (which stayed away from the boat)

5 kid cousins

4 Hondas

1 large luxurious lakehouse

15 bottomless appetites

100 grocery trips (well, it seemed like it)

9 enormous dinners

3 bows with arrows

1 boat

2 kayaks

1 lake

100s of fireworks across the lake (Independence Day!)

100 story books (more or less)

2 bald eagles

4 laptops

4 cameras

8 iPhones

9 iPads (holy cow—but oh, those bluetooth Ticket to Ride games!)

200+ pictures (consider yourself warned…)

= it all adds up to another awesome Brown Family Lakecation success!

The view from the windows in the room Jeff and I sleep in at the lake house shows nearly 180 degrees of the lake. On the fourth of July, we laid in bed and were surrounded by fireworks! Luxury in its simplest form.

The closest we got to a Patriotic cousin picture, ha ha. Shortly after this, Rose’s hair went crazy and everyone changed into swimsuits.

BBQ chicken

Jesse’s guitar jams. Ambience.

BJ’s pizza: Tradition!

Stories! Grama Meri kept the house stocked with stacks of library books.

Ikea with the girls

Jesse, Brad, and Kyle tried playing catch at high speeds. I don’t think it ever worked all the way.

Meanwhile, Dani and Mel perfected the delicate dismount, barely getting their hair wet. Masters.

 

L’artiste at work

 

Intensity redefined. On the last day we were together, my brother Brad rode the 204 mile STP—Seattle to Portland—bike ride. All in one day. And you thought runners were crazy.

Kids tubing. Jeff and Rose have a lovely view of Mt. Rainier in the background.

Brown boys—my Dad and brothers

Swimming with Aunt Mel

Dani at The Griddle. Dani was KEY to our quality meals. Mom and Dani were the deluxe dynamic duo in the kitchen.

Game time.

After a 5 year break from his last painful water skiing effort, Jeff was ready to try a little wakeboarding. He was the best first-timer this family has ever seen.

Only sheer exhaustion could get these cousins to sleep in the same room—mostly we had to put them in separate rooms.

The kids swam and swam and swam!

Jay was in boy cousin heaven with Steve and Dan.

All those water sports turned the kids into zombies. Luckily we brought a few movies along for those long afternoons.

Honda, anyone?

Our favorite place—the kitchen (blazingly HOT, feebly air conditioned kitchen with west-facing giant windows though it was…)

My sister Em and I are due 3 weeks apart. (both having girls—yay!) We thought our bellies were so big and that these pictures would be more…visually stunning or something, ha ha.

Brown girls…just missing Dani.

Isn’t Chase just the cutest? He’s a little Jesse Jr. except so blond he looks bald.

Speaking of bald—the bald eagles!! They live somewhere near the lakehouse and we saw at least one of them swoop by the windows every day. I LOVE them from afar—those beaks are long and their eyes are piercing! I used my binoculars well. Jeff and I spent 15 or 20 minutes one night trying to take a picture of them through my binoculars. The picture above is my camera at full zoom, and the picture below is my camera at full zoom held up to the binoculars.

Ahh! He’s looking right at me!

I love my family. We know lakes. We know food. We do Lakecations right.