The first week of school

We revved into gear this week: Monday was the first official practice of cross country season, and school started on Tuesday (August 26th). Another defining feature of my week, apart from the school year and cross country season starting, was my abnormally intense period. It was out of control and I had an embarrassing moment (wherein I left church early to go home and do laundry), and several nights of interrupted sleep, all thanks to the red doomsday floodgate Niagara situation I had to endure. Everything I accomplished this week was done during and in spite of an exceptionally awful period, so BE IMPRESSED. I am impressed with myself, even though I still succumbed to a few irritated rants and breakdowns, thrown in for variety. Here are a few journal excerpts from the week:

Burroughs Mountain Trail

Rose and I said goodbye to summer in style with a nice long hike! On Saturday, August 23rd, we woke up at 4am and started driving west at 4:30am. A little over 90 minutes later, as we drove through Chinook Pass, we saw a spectacular view of Mt. Rainier over Tipsoo Lake. The big snowy white mountain was painted pink in the reflected light of sunrise. We didn't stop and take pictures, but we ooohed and ahhhhed as we drove onward (after a quick stop at the nasty smelly vault toilet on the other side of Tipsoo Lake). Our plan was to get to the White River Entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park before 7am, so we didn't need to have a timed entry permit. (This year Mt. Rainier National Park started doing timed entry reservations for the Sunrise corridor, required between 7am-5pm.) We rolled through the entrance at 6:30am and continued slowly along the winding park road, all the way up to the Sunrise parking area. It was completely full. Cars lined the road. We turned around and drove back down the road until we parked on a gravel roadside. 

The Warm-up

This week was a mix of summer and the school year, so it felt like a warm-up for the fast-approaching school year. The first day of work for teachers was Wednesday, August 20th, so Jeff went back to work while the rest of us were still clinging to summer. But summer kept slipping away. Rose had two pre-orientation half days for freshmen at "Grizzly Academy" on Monday and Tuesday. Amber had meet your teacher night on Thursday. Rose had official freshman orientation on Friday. Since Jeff was back at work, I was the solo coach in charge of the last three mornings of summer training for the cross country team. Jay was the only one who really got to keep living his best summer life! He had friends over, went to a friend's house, and went out with the missionaries on Wednesday night. He did help pick Rose up from the high school, though, so even his summer bliss was bracketed by school events. 

Country Life

In order to get my ankle back to normal, I took the entire week off from running and went to the chiropractor three times in five days. The lack of running left me with reserves of energy that I pumped into both cross training and yardwork. I did the elliptical machine, rode my mountain bike, hiked, lifted, walked, and even used the rowing machine for the first time ever. All of that different movement made me tired in a different way than running does! Two days on the bike gave me a bruised seat. One rowing session gave me the painful beginnings of blisters on my hands and tired shoulders. And lifting always makes me sore. The lower aerobic effort needed to do these activities left me with extra energy to pour into yardwork, so I hacked and hoed the side flowerbed with extra dedication, further developing the callouses and hotspots on my hands, while also thrashing my forearms and back from the effort. 

Colchuck Lake

For the past six months, Jeff's dad Dan has been working on increasing his fitness so he can do more hiking and enjoy general better health. That type of quest is right up my alley, so I volunteered to be his hiking buddy this summer! His stretch goal hike was the trail to Colchuck Lake in the Enchantments outside of Leavenworth, WA. After our hike to Sourdough Gap a few weeks ago, I told Dan I thought he was ready for Colchuck. So we chose a weekday and invited the family. Three adventurous kids decided to join us on the 9 mile hike: Rose, Amber, and their cousin Tate (age 12). 

Just peachy

The only post titles I seem to be able to think of lately are fruit related. The blackberries slowed down this week, but they are still steadily producing. It's currently more like a river flow of blackberries rather than a fire hydrant spray, so about a half gallon of berries every few days rather than a gallon every day. The blackberry flood was replaced by a peach avalanche this week! The handful of crumpled, crispy, crippled-looking peach trees out front are overflowing with small sweet juicy peaches! The peaches were so small, I wasn't sure if they would taste good, and when I went to check on them, they were pretty rock hard. But we waited too long on the apricots and completely missed their window of ripeness, so I decided to pick some mini peach rocks and see what happened. Rose and I picked a big box of these blushing beauties on Monday, and to my surprise they were soft and ready to eat by Tuesday! 

Blackberry Beginning

Our blackberries are beginning! Last week (July28-August 3rd) we sadly said goodbye to July and rounded the bend into August. It always feels like summer will last forever during July, but when August hits out of nowhere, it feels like the school year and coaching seasons are staring us in the face up close. Am I ready for another school year and cross country season, swim season, and track season? I don't know! It's coming whether I'm ready or not, looming in the near future at the end of August. I enjoy coaching and the school day routine, but the minute school starts, we go pretty much nonstop full steam ahead for the entire school year, evenings and weekends included. Sundays are our only day off. That relentless grind is daunting! Thankfully we have another two-plus weeks before it all begins again. 

Sourdough Gap Hike

On Tuesday, July 29th, we went on a family hike along the Pacific Crest Trail to Sourdough Gap. The central Cascades were in prime summer condition, with bright blue skies, abundant wildflowers, and sweeping mountain skylines. Jeff and Jay were worn out from running earlier in the day, so they only hiked 4 miles roundtrip. Rose, Amber, and I hiked the full 7 miles (roundtrip) with Grampa Dan. The mountains are my happy place, and it was the best kind of quality time to spend with my daughters and father-in-law. Hiking in such a beautiful place with my beautiful daughters was like spraying my eyes with a fire hydrant of beauty! That's a weird comparison, but we had a lovely time together on the trail for 3.5 hours.

Ear spray, girls' camp, bike path, yardwork

 Another week of summer is done, filled with more of our regular summer activities. The two new activities from this week were my trail run and Rose went to stake girls camp. We also had two cloudy days--incredibly rare for Sunnyside in July, but a welcome break from the merciless hot sun. On Tuesday, I also was deaf for a few hours!

A lovely cloudy morning run past fresh mint fields.

Wildflowers in Wonderland

How has it been 3 years since my last trail run? I've gone hiking during that time, but not trail running. Probably because trail running is really hard and a little scary! But I can cover so much more ground while running than I can while hiking. Basically, I can see MORE scenery on a five hour trail run than I can on a five hour hike. I forgot about that alluring detail! So I visited an old friend on Wednesday: Mt. Rainier's Wonderland Trail. I volunteered to drive a van of young women to girls camp on Wednesday morning, so once I dropped them off at Clear Lake on the east side of White Pass, I kept driving on Highway 12 another hour west all the way to Mt. Rainier National Park. I chose the first place where the Wonderland Trail crosses Stevens Canyon Road: at Box Canyon. I did this route one other time, five years ago, so I knew what I was getting myself into--mostly.

Summery Sunnyside

Summer is in full swing here in Sunnyside! The fruit is ripening. The sun is blazing. The weeds and fruit are growing. This week, Amber said "So we are basically fruit farmers now, aren't we?" She is not wrong. We are currently in a small lull between fruit harvests: we missed the apricots while we were out of town, and the blackberries, peaches, pears, grapes, and apples are not ripe yet. There is still plenty to do!

One of my projects this week was to tie up some collapsed grape vines. The grapes are flourishing, but that extra fruit-weight caused several vines to slide down the pillars into a heap at the bottom like a slinky. They were so heavy, Jeff had to help hold them up while I tried to tie them not too tight or too loose. Time will tell if my novice grape horticulturist skills are successful!

Brown Family Pictures

 My sister Em is an amazing photographer with her own business (Emily Broadbent Photography). She takes our family pictures every year. These pictures make me so happy! Enjoy:

15 grandkids!