Wedventure 2.0: Brooks Memorial State Park

Our second Wedventure was delayed for two weeks by that bout of mid-September wildfire smoke, but once we had clear air on a Wednesday, we were back at it. After a morning of online school on September 23rd, we drove 50 miles southwest to tiny Brooks Memorial State Park. As we drove along, I started noticing the telltale sights and smells of SMOKE. When we arrived at Brooks, the big half of the small park was closed due to wildfires. The smoke wasn't too bad, though, so we studied the trail map at the kiosk and decided to hike the available one mile loop. Signs proclaimed proudly that we would see a Big Fir Tree somewhere along the trail, so we hunted for the trailhead. It took a few detours down some closely-wooded pretty pathways before we picked up the edge of the small loop path.

Iron Bear Trail

When my trail research uncovered the Iron Bear Trail, I put it on my list based on the name alone. Turns out it's named for two nearby parallel creeks, Iron Creek and Bear Creek. The only downside to this trail was its length-- a mere six miles. If I was going to drive nearly two hours to the Iron Bear, I wanted to have more trail time than that! So I started zooming in on trail maps, calculating distances, and eventually designed, memorized, and downloaded my very own gorgeous 13 mile loop, utilizing the Iron Bear trailhead as the start and finish point. Normally I feel best on out-and-back trails because once I turn around, I know exactly what to expect on the return journey. All of my recent trail time must have made me bold, though, because I felt confident and ready for a loopy challenge. So I went for it! 

Smoke vs. Mist

Friday, September 18th was a teacher inservice day, so the kids didn't have school. I was planning on driving the kids to the mountains for an adventure. Since the smoke was beginning to lift down in our valley, I figured it would be even better air up high in the mountains. It was supposed to be cloudy with a chance of rain in the mountains, but we were desperate for outside time, so we decided to go anyways.

Jeff got up and went to work bright and early, only to discover that the high school teachers did not, in fact, have an inservice day. They had the day completely off! Jeff returned home and joined the rest of us on our mountain adventure instead. It was an awesome surprise to have him along! From our limited options, we chose the Naches Peak Loop trail in trusty Chinook Pass as our destination. We've done that trail before, but this was not an exploration; it was an escape.

BLAH

We had one of those weeks that I'd prefer to leave behind rather than relive with a blog post. The vibe around the White house over the past two weeks can best described by a single four-letter word: BLAH.

Pandemic. Online school. Hazardous levels of wildfire smoke. For the last two weeks, our daily life was bursting with quite the lofty trio of large-scale trials. Homeschool, pandemic, and smoke, oh my! The other day I told a local friend "aside from the obvious--pandemic, online school, and hazardous smoke--I hope you have a good day!" Hah. It was a beast of back-to-back cooped-up smoke-headachy weeks 'o BLAH.

Owyhigh Lakes Trail

Our valley's air quality has been stuck in hazardous range for nearly a week, thanks to nearby (and not-so-nearby) wildfires. Hazardous air means no exercise, indoor or out. No exercise means restless crazy Shaina. In desperation, I moved my weekly trail run up a few days--to Tuesday (Sept 15th) instead of Friday this week. As I researched which trail to run, I discovered that one of our three main mountain access roads, highway 12 through White Pass, had just been closed due to--you guessed it--another wildfire. Since I-90 is still under major reconstructive surgery (involving several key road closures), my portal to the Cascades shrunk to one entry point: state road 410 through Chinook Pass.

The air quality had deteriorated so drastically since Friday that I didn't know if even the mountains would be clear enough for running. The Air Quality Index (AQI) maps sure didn't inspire much hope for fresh mountain air. But I had to check! So when Jeff got home early Tuesday afternoon, I drove 2 hours up and over Chinook Pass and down into Mt. Rainier National Park a short ways to the Owyhigh Lakes Trail. The air may not have exactly been clear, but it was much LESS smoky than at home, so I ran in it... slowly, with plenty of walking "smoke breaks." 

Crystal Lake

Sunnyside is not threatened by the wildfire flames that are ravaging so much of Oregon and other nearby dry areas. Instead we deal with the intense smoke from those fires. Our valley loves to collect thick bad air. In the winter, dense freezing fogs settle in and torture us. In late summer and early fall, wildfire smoke does the same. We had bad air quality all week, to the point that running was not an option. I was already feeling off physically, so I used the smoky air to help me take a break from running. It was weird. I have been running 30 miles per week for six months! But when school started, maintaining that 30 mile standard became too much of a strain. I need energy to be a nice mom, especially when my children are at home all day doing online school! So it felt smart to take a break from running to reset. 

Devil Creek Falls

We went on a Labor Day excursion with the cousins! Journal excerpt from Monday, September 7, 2020:

What a day! It was so nice yesterday that Jeff and I slept with our bedroom windows open last night. This morning, we woke up to smoke and high winds. The wind storm kept picking up speed, rolling the cursed wildfire smoke back into town. Soon the air was so gunky I knew running outdoors was not going to be an option. So I did my yoga, Jeff hooked his bike up to ride indoors in the basement, and we resigned ourselves to a blah day. 

Then Steph called and we started scheming. 

Online school, week 1

Online school, week one is done. Amber officially starts online kindergarten next week, on Tuesday, so as I sit down to document this past week, I am realizing that next week will not look much like whatever limited rhythms we have managed to establish already. But, we SURVIVED the first full week of distance learning! Here's a run-down:

I. Family Routine

This is the routine that I created to give structure and freedom to the kids. Each day is divided into three parts: before school, school, and after school. 

Before school to-do list rhyme: clothes, chore, hair, piano, scripture, prayer. The chore changes from day to day. I'd love to have designated chores for each day of the week, but  I leave that as a per-diem decision so the most-necessary chores get done first. It has been relatively easy to get back into the practice piano each morning, largely thanks to Tonora--the app that our piano teacher uses to track practicing. It is an excellent motivator. We have fallen back into our 7am family scripture and prayer routine nicely as well, which is nice.

Eastside Trail Run

For my own personal Shainadventure this week, I wanted a moderate trail without drastic inclines. I needed shade because the temperature was in the mid-80s, even in the mountains. It also had to be a two hour drive or less from home and out of the wildfire smoke that was clogging our valley. That was a very specific list of demands, but I managed to find a trail that not only met my requirements, but also exceeded my expectations. 

Wed-venture: Union Creek Falls

Last week, when the horrific riptide waters of online elementary school were closing in around my head, mother nature plunged in her hand to rescue me. I gripped it hard and emerged, taking deep breaths of life-giving oxygen. As I organized my thoughts, one fact became clear. If we were going to stay sane during distance learning, the kids would need to get OUT of the house regularly. 

Problem: online school takes until noon every single weekday. It's like we only get the bad parts (cooped up) of homeschool without the benefits (free-form outings). I began to see why so many families had withdrawn from school to do their own homeschool curriculum. But we are committed to our Sunnyside School District! I have never doubted keeping our kids enrolled in our local public schools. It's right for our family, so we have to work within the new distance learning parameters, however confining they may seem.

Burroughs Mountain Trail

Part 1: Drowning in Domesticity

It's hard to believe that the pandemic has been drastically affecting our lives for nearly six months now! Quarantine life is starting to feel almost normal, and it's been going on so long that I didn't think that school starting would feel different or even be a big deal. We would still be at home all day every day just like we were during spring and summer, after all. Sameness defines life right now. So starting school seemed that it would just mean extra screen time each day for the kids. No big deal, right?

Wrong! 

All three of our kids are competent computer users, and for the most part Jay and Rose are pretty independent with their online school schedules so far. When something goes wrong with school stuff, however, they need me RIGHT NOW to fix the problem immediately so they can attend their class meeting before it ends. Consequently, I am the most restricted to the house that I have been since the days of napping diapering babies. 

Distance Learning 2.0

SCHOOL HAS BEGUN. As of Wednesday, August 26th, the school year is officially in session--from afar. Our school district is doing distance learning all online, while we [continue to] wait for COVID-19 to back off. Jeff is able to teach online from his classroom, which is a great setup for him since he has unlimited quiet and much faster internet there than he has at home. On Tuesday, I helped him lug his various electronic devices into his classroom. 

The first day of school was anticlimactic on the home front. No special outfits, no new school supplies, no backpack assembling. No pristine front porch pictures. No waiting for the bus. Well, ok. We did do front porch pictures, but nobody wore special new clothes or backpacks. We did wait at the bus stop, but rather than picking up the kids and taking them to school, the bus delivered school lunches to us. It was so strange! Nothing felt new or different. Although Jeff leaving for work was a novelty after nearly six months of having him home.