The old cliche holds true, apparently

…the one that says, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

The other day I made granola bars, and let the kids have one for a snack in the afternoon.  Sim took a couple of bites, then looked at me and said, “Granola bars win my heart.”

Blessing? Curse? You decide.

Okay, people, I know I haven't posted in a while, and I know that what you really want to see are cute pictures of my kids with descriptions of their amusing pursuits, and I will get back to you with that soon.  My time here is limited right now, and I feel I must share this with you.  For your own sake, go there, follow the instructions, and report back to me.  My only word of advice right now is to let it cool a bit before you dig in.  Now, off you go. 

New (to us) piano!

We are blessed to have the two oldest kids in piano lessons, and Michael took lessons over the summer during his sabbatical.  Lessons are done at church, where there’s a beautiful grand piano to play.  Practice is done at home, where there used to be just an electric keyboard.  No, not an electric piano, an electric keyboard that didn’t have all the octaves, nor did it have dynamics, nor did it have pedals.  Needless to say, we’d been considering upgrading for a while.

One day in early summer, we got a call from a friend at church who asked us whether we’d like a baby grand piano that someone needed to find a good home for.  I managed to keep my head long enough to measure our living room to be sure that it would fit, then said we’d love to be the new home of a baby grand! 

We knew it might be a little while before the piano was available, because it was helping to stage a house for sale, but a couple weeks ago we got a call that we should arrange for piano movers – and it needed to be fast, because the neighbors, who shared a driveway, were about to tear it up and redo it…A call to the piano movers, begging to be fit in before the driveway destruction less than a week away, and we had an arrival date. 

Tess was the only kid home when the piano came, and she thoroughly enjoyed watching.  She learned to say “piano” to commemorate the occasion.  The process was fascinating, I have to say.  The whole thing, from packing it up at the old house, to completing setup at our house, took less than an hour, which I thought was surprising. 

It’s quite beautiful, and even though it still needs to be tuned, the sound quality is lovely.  My brother and his wife are doing some research with the serial number, so I may have some more information about it sometime soon.  

For now, the information is that the kids (and Michael) enjoy playing it. 

Hannah Camping 2013

Hannah and I got back yesterday from our backpacking adventure.  We drove north and east into the Cascades, on Mountain Loop Highway past Granite Falls, to hike up to Pinnacle Lake and stay the night.  It’s the first time I’ve taken any of the children backpacking, so I wasn’t quite sure how it would go.

Hannah had her own pack and carried her own gear:

We stopped by Bear Lake on the way up, which was huge and pretty.  Being August, it was also pretty warm.

The hike up to Pinnacle Lake was 2.0 miles and the first mile was brutally steep, going up almost 1,000 feet.  There were lots of rocks to climb and tree roots to scale. 

We had to take frequent breaks, and were a little discouraged:

There was a neat wooden bridge along the way, though:

Here’s Bear Lake again, giving a sense of how much we’ve ascended.  The views on the way up were magnificent:

At the end, we reached this lake, and wondered if this were Pinnacle Lake.  It seemed a little disappointing:

We pushed on another eighth of a mile, and found the real Pinnacle Lake at 4,000 ft, which was just beautiful:

After some time at the lake, having soaked up the beautiful scenery, it was time to set up camp.  We found a pretty good spot back by the little lake.  Our tent was on a slant – it was the only flat spot without mud – so sleeping was a little strange as we kept sliding down!

We also had to set up a camp bathroom.  This was the ladies’ room: notice the elegant TP dispenser:

Dinner on a backpacking trip was dehydrated, of course: Teriyaki Chicken and Rice.  Hannah said it wasn’t as good as when I make it.   We were hungry though, and still pretty excited about dinner:

Hannah and I gathered wood for a campfire and got a pretty good blaze going to warm ourselves and make cocoa – it gets cold quickly at 4,000 ft.

Once it was dark, it was time for bed, although we played a few hands of Gin before going to sleep.  Hannah hadn’t played before, but picked it up very quickly. 

The morning found us making oatmeal and snacking on Pop-Tarts [hey, they don’t weigh much] and exploring the lake further.  It was even more gorgeous in the morning light:

When we broke camp, we used some of our wilderness skills – Hannah and I both took Wilderness Awareness School courses this summer, to make sure our campfire site was virtually unnoticeable:

The hike down was uneventful, and seemed shorter than the way up, as return hikes usually do.  We stopped by Bear Lake one more time for some scenery and cards:

We didn’t get back to the car until about 1:30 pm, so we ended up having a very late lunch.  But we made sure to lunch in style after our big adventure.

It was a really fun trip, and I definitely hope to do more backpacking with the children in the future!

Simeon Camping 2013

Simeon and I went camping this past week at Ft. Casey State Park.  Ft. Casey was a battery created to protect the Admiralty Strait from foreign attack – and a very cool place to visit, complete with a glorious lighthouse.

We took a ferry to get there:

The Admiralty Head Lighthouse:

The lighthouse was not only open, we were able to climb steps to the very top:

And it just gets better: after the lighthouse, we toured the big guns – 10” anti-ship artillery pieces:

He was fearless about climbing all over the guns:

Some emplacements didn’t have guns any more, so Sim pretended to fill in.  He’s angled and ready to fire:

What targets might present themselves?  Why, a Washington State Ferry:

And our campsite was, literally, a stone’s throw from the ferry dock:

We slept fine anyway, after a traditional campfire and s’mores.  Friday morning, we drove up to Deception Pass and went kayaking:

There was one other family with us, along with the instructor:

The blue of the water was just incredible – the whole thing was beautiful.  I had never done sea kayaking before, and it was amazing.

The kelp was growing quickly – a foot per day, our guide said.  She also said it was edible.  Sim wasn’t interested, but I tried some.  It was like a salt-flavored Fruit Roll-up.

• “Having fun, Sim?”
• Thumbs up, Dad:

I was pretty tired after 90 minutes of kayaking, but Sim was quite happy:

One more ferry ride made the trip home complete:

It was really a blast to get away for a night, and by the time we arrived home, it seemed like we’d been away more than a day.  The ferry-side camp site was a little weird, but I’d definitely go back to Ft. Casey.

- Michael

Naomi Camping 2013

I had time this summer to take each of the kids for 1:1 camping for a night each.  Naomi and I settled on Deception Pass State Park.  We had a blast: we played on the beach, did a bunch of hiking, cooked pasta, and ate s’mores, among other things.  Time is a little short – I’m preparing for the next 1:1 trip – but here are some photos.

The park is just beautiful – check out this beach:

Naomi checks out a tide pool:

She was totally fearless for rock climbing:

Naomi was happy to take pictures, too.  There was a neat exhibit on the Civilian Conservation Corps, which built much of the park’s structure:

Paradise, continued:

During a two-mile hike, you have to take a few breaks.  Admire the hiking stick:

Little foggy in the morning:

 

One last treat before we got home, at CC’s Espresso and Ice Cream:

Looking forward to the next trip!

- Michael

Trip Motto: Be Flexible

Michael came up with the trip motto of Be Flexible.  He encouraged the kids in flexibility when we had to change plans, which is pretty much inevitable when dealing with both a family with 4 kids and nature. 

Michael’s wanted to visit Yellowstone since he did his elementary school state report on Wyoming, so this trip has been a long time coming for him.  Yellowstone sounded interesting to me, but I hadn’t actually formed an intention of visiting. 

I’m glad Michael had, though.  It’s amazing.  This is the Lamar Valley, which is in the northeast corner of Yellowstone.  It looks like the idyllic recreation of the Old West, but it’s not a recreation at all.  Well, I guess in some ways it is:  wolves were hunted out of Yellowstone a long time ago, and were recently reintroduced.  They live mostly in the Lamar Valley. 

Can you see the bison dotting the landscape?  We also saw pronghorns (a type of antelope).  There were people who’d been out since 6 a.m. watching for wolves.  I’m not sure they’d seen any this particular morning.

The craziest landscape changes happen within Yellowstone.  Lamar Valley, meet Norris Geyser Basin, where things bubble, smoke, and spew.  Not much wildlife here.  It’s a crazy and amazing landscape.

Apparently, the first descriptions written about Yellowstone were published as fiction.  You can see why. 

At the beginning of the hike that took us up this hillside, it was raining.  By the end, we could take off jackets and fleeces.

And things are still changing.  The geyser behind the girls here used to erupt every three minutes.  Because of an earthquake a few years ago, it now erupts continuously. 

An entire hot lake.  You can see it steaming.  The bacteria that like that temperature of water are what make it that color.  Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe some of the sights here.

And then you have the fun that people have had there.  This is the Old Faithful Inn.  It’s a pretty spectacular bit of architecture!

And if you thought funky steaming, bubbling, craziness wasn’t enough, Yellowstone throws in a beautiful canyon – the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone – to be sure you don’t leave unimpressed.  The picture up above looks like we’re posing in front of a painted canvas, but I can assure you that we were very much there.

Incredible!  One begins to get an idea about why the place is called Yellowstone, too.

We got to see an osprey’s nest.  They nest in the canyon and eat fish from the river.  The reason we noticed this one is that we saw one of the parents swoop from on high to get to home base.  Can you see it there on the rock pillar? 

The canyon continues on. 

I mentioned that we all made lists of things we’d like to do next time.  Michael, poor guy, would have loved to fit a whole bunch more in on this trip, but the baby needed her nap and the kids needed a fairly reasonable bedtime after all the activity of the day.  Despite his instinct to go, go, go, he took the trip motto to heart and was flexible. 

 

So maybe there will be a next time.  And maybe next time we’ll see more, hike more, get up earlier, stay up later.  Or maybe not.  We’ll just have to be flexible.