Invasion of the Ninja Warriors

Having your birthday fall during the cool weather season and during a major holiday week makes party planning difficult. However, that was not what Kevin and I thought about when we had kids and we ended up with one baby born the week of Thanksgiving and the other with a birthday that often collides with Easter. Needless to say parties can be tricky as people are often out of town. Plus, the weather can be iffy that time of year and I prefer outside parties if possible as cramming ten second-graders in my house and the place might not survive. There is a lot of energy packed in those little bodies!

This year we devised a clever plan. We have learned through trail and error that we seem to get better turn-out having parties after school on Friday. So we picked two Fridays and watched the forecast hawks. Then when it looked like the first one would be rain free, Jack took invitations to school and handed them out. This year we lucked out and the weather was more than rain-free, it was a downright gorgeous day to be an American Ninja Warrior.

 

Both the kids love watching this show and are always trying to make their own elements in the house. Mom, is a bit of a killjoy about that though. It came to us that setting one up for a Birthday party would be a great way to keep the kids moving and engaged and Jack was all for it. Most of the course is made from firewood logs, pallets, and wood scraps we had lying around the place. The only board we bought was for the teeter-totter (even the pipe that acts as fulcrum was a “found lying around” piece). The kids had a BLAST!

(Author’s Note: The course pictures are not mine. An awesome Mom offered to take some picture for me with my Camera since Kevin and I were busy wrangling kids…I am eternally grateful!)

We timed them all once, but by the end they were just practicing different elements and coming up with ways to terrifying me on the teeter-totter. In the between playing on the course we did manage to squeeze in some Birthday cupcakes and a Piñata. I mean if you're going to  put them through their paces why not throw some sugar in the mix?

The only real bummer of the whole day was there was just enough breeze that I couldn’t get the candles on the cake to light. Everyone was fine with faking it…..guess we’ll save candles for his actual birthday. Here’s the whole party crew. I’ve been told that they had a great time by several Moms, and one kid cried when he had to leave so I’m going to mark this party a success. Now I just have to wrap my head around the fact we have an eight-year old……

Portland to Coast

After three days home I feel like I’m finally getting my mojo back and functioning at my normal level. It probably would have been two days, but in my genius I decided to mow both the front and back lawn (about an hour pushing the mower for each portion) AND spray a backpack of 2-4D and two of Roundup (take that evil goatheads!). I’m back now though and have a weekend full of wonderful and hysterical memories. Most are probably only really funny if you were there or if you are in a severely sleep deprived state. I will never be able to think of Dick’s Sporting Goods the same way ever again and glow sticks also have new meaning.

In overview, the Hood to Coast/Portland to Coast run/walk relay event is considered the “Mother of all Relays” as it’s the largest event of it’s kind in the world. Our team, Team Slow Poke, did the walking relay. 132 miles starting under the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland and ending just down from the swing sets on the beach at Seaside, OR. There are twelve people per team divided into two vans of six (14 if you have designated drivers – our team had one so there were 13 team members overall). Each person completes two legs and you rotate through in a preset order. I was #6 in Van 1 so I got to do the “big” exchange at the Van transfers. Each team has a little slap bracelet and that is what gets handed off at each exchange.

Team Slow Poke start time was 3:15am so we were up by 2am on Friday morning making sure the vans were loaded and everyone had their stuff in the right van. At 3:15 we cheered Cheryl as she kicked off our first leg and head off toward the coast.

Coarse rules state anyone walking at dawn/dusk/nighttime has to wear a reflective vest, flashers on front and back, plus headlamp or flashlight. You also cannot have any speakers (i.e. headphones) above shoulder height. Out team was fortunate to have invested in reflective vests with speakers built in, so you just plugged in your iPod and rocked out in your own happy little music bubble – that is unless your iPod choose to get hung up right at the most annoying part of that Beyoncé’ song. (or was it Rihanna, Jill? I can’ remember )

Cheryl handed off to Libby, who passed to Dan who gave it to Jill who put it in the hands of Janet who delivered it to me, entrusting that I would give it to Kathy from Van 2 safely.

My first leg (18) was a warm one that started at St. Helen’s High School shot you west for a couple miles and then looped back around to the county fairgrounds. It was about 5.25miles total and around 80 degrees or so. I opted to skip carrying water which was a big decision given this leg is completely unsupported (i.e your van cannot drive by and give you water) but since I run this distance at home without water in this type of heat I figured I could do it. I did too! Though that first bottle of water at the end was the best I’ve ever tasted.

Once I was finished with my leg our van was done for awhile too so we went and grabbed some lunch then headed off to the next van exchange for a nap. Now, race rules prohibit sleeping next to your car for obvious safety reasons. For that reason Dick’s Sporting Goods set up a little ‘Slumber Village’ of 4-man sized tents in a grassy area in back of the exchange. Fantastic idea! Except that the sun was high in the sky (I’d completely lost track of time by this time) meaning no shade and there was little to no breeze. This meant Dick’s Slumber Village was really more like Dick’s Sauna. We tried adjusting the rainfly’s to provide shade while letting air though but it didn’t do much. Mostly we just spent 2 hours trying not to melt to the tent floor.

As dusk fell we began to prep for our next go-round and decked out in all manner of glow sticks and flashy LED’s as well as mustache tattoos. It was at this point running on 18hrs of no sleep that things started to get a little punchy around the van. Trust me, the van parked next to us thought we were nuts…..

 

 

 

We finally got to my second leg about 4am Saturday morning. Still only minimal sleeping of 15 minutes here – 10 there. This was a fun leg along Hwy 102 headed into Astoria. It was pitch black, the fog rolled in just after I started, there were no fog lines on the road (those are kind of nice since they reflect and make a line to follow) and there were times I could barely see within the distance of the glow of my headlamp. It was like walking in a tunnel. A girl in front of me actually asked her Van for her gloves because “It was dark and she was scared.” I’m still not actually sure what glove are going to do for you in that situation but whatever makes you feel better. I’m pretty sure any critters in the vicinity were chased off long ago.

My leg wrapped up sometime around 5am. I only know this because it was 5:30am when we stopped at the Pig ‘n’ Pancake in Astoria and we had to wait half an hour for it to open. So if you saw a bunch of people passed out in a GMC suburban in the parking lot on Saturday morning….that was us. Half an hour does very little for you when you haven’t slept in almost 30. We were so exhausted and giggly all through breakfast. There was one point when the waitress came by to ask if everything was alright and we were laughing so hard no one could answer.

From there we made it to the beach for showers, foot care, and a little sleep (like an hour or hour and a half maybe) before heading down to cross the finish line with the rest of our team. From there is kind of blurred for me. Team photo, lunch at American Cancer Society after party, walked over to get Saltwater Taffy, then I’m not sure at some point we ate dinner, then we waved at people on the boardwalk for awhile, walked down to the concert on the beach, and I threw in the towel about 10pm. Up around 9ish the next morning to clean up, load up and head home.

 

It was a long, exhausting, totally amazing and fun weekend with some old friends and many new ones. I’d really love to do this again next year if I can figure out a way to work it into the budget.

Water Day

This week the kids and I hosted some of our Mom’s Group friends at a backyard water day. We set up the pool and slide, filled some water balloons, and told everyone to bring their squirts guns and a picnic lunch. I threw in some homemade ice cream with a choice of toppings.  One of our friends brought a large piece of plastic sheeting for a homemade slip ‘n’ slide. We turned on some of the sprinklers and pretty much just let the kids have at it.

The results, as you can see, were fantastic. I am always so amazed at how well this group of children gets along. They are all different ages and stages ( I think the range was 2 – 12 ish ) with a large range os skills and interests and yet they all are kind and considerate to one another. It’s exactly what every mom hopes to see! (Yes, this is me applauding my mom friends for raising awesome kids!! Pat yourselves on the back ladies….you’re doing a great job! ) 

I will make a small mention to take note of the tall girl with the long brown hair in the black and pink in the photos. Her name is Delaney, and Jack is just absolutely infatuated with her. He thinks she soooooo coool! For the last week and a half he has not shut up about her. “Can Delaney come over and play trucks with me?”, “You know Delaney has a red van? “Delaney can do this….” “Delaney can do that….” Ahhhhhhhh! Whenever he’s around her, he pretty much follows her around like a shadow and peppers her with a million and one questions, which greatfully, she answers for him. Seriously, once she’s ready to babysit I know who to ask cause Jack (and Emilie too) will do ANYTHING she asks them too…..Sheesh!

Bass Lake Beach Babies

My little pollywogs love to swim, and a friend was kind enough to invite us down to the local country club as her guests to swim at their ‘swimming hole’. Bass Lake is spring fed so the water stays a nice cool, but not freezing, temperature and is crystal clear (It is also full of bass as the name implies). There is a playground, sandy beach with plenty of buckets and shovels provided, roped off swimming area for the littles, and even a slide. If you want to do catch-and-release fishing you can, there are also canoes, paddle boards, and paddle boats available to use….it’s a pretty awesome place.

 

Jack was determined to wear the slide out. Up and down, up and down. Thankfully he was tall enough and is good enough in the water now that I didn’t have to wait at the bottom every time because he must have gone down that 50 gazillion times. Emilie was more cautious about the slide (it’s “too high” when you get to the top) and mostly did belly flops off the dock. That, and practiced her underwater swimming technique. A friend loaned her some goggles which she thought were just awesome and she’d stay down for 30 seconds or so just looking at stuff.  Both kids are really coming along with their swimming abilities spending all that time in the water.

(Yes, he is covered in sand in the photo. Every time he got out of the water he’d literally roll around in the sand to coat himself….I don’t ask)

Needless to say the kids are in love with this place… and never want to leave. 11am to 4:30pm is just not enough time in their book.

Thanks again to our friends for inviting us! This is a fun place to make some memories. You’ve spoiled us for sure!

Oh A Camping We Shall Go…

Whew! The last two weeks have flashed by before my eyes. The better part of last week I was working on a special project, which I will get to in another post, then we went camping. This week has been camping recovery and gearing up for VBS next week. Pretty much there has been something going non-stop. No chance to even get bored around here.

We haven’t been camping since Emilie was about 4 months old and that was just a quickie overnighter en route to see my parents. Emilie slept in a cardboard box, we forgot the propane for the camp stove, and a porcupine sat in the tree next to our tent all night and…’chewed.’ Wasn’t all that great really. We’ve been saying we were going to go for the last 2 years but it just never happened. This year we said, “enough talk, more action,” picked a weekend, invited some friends (Josh & Chelsey and their kids Molly & Henry), and headed for the hills.

Our campsite was at Five Points Campground, a semi developed (meaning outhouse but no potable water) about 25 miles north of Fairfield, Idaho. Turned out to be a great choice as it was nice a quiet, there was a small kid-friendly stream alongside one of the campgrounds and it was close to a lot of things to see in the woods.

As for the friends, well they are awesome. I often worry going into the woods with people. I mean people have different definitions of what camping is. Thankfully the friends who went with us seem to have a similar laid-back attitude to camping. No sweat, sleep in a tent, let the kids get filthy, eat really good food, and have a fantastic time.

Most of the time we explored around camp, chatted, and let the kids play. We did go over to the Worswick Hot Springs for awhile and let the kids wade a bit. Not directly in the hot springs itself…that water was scalding….but just below the main pool where it mixed with a cool mountain stream is was just about perfect.

Kevin and Josh even got in some fly fishing while Chelsey and I hung around camp with the kids. It was Father’s Day weekend after all. Hanging with the kids was pretty entertaining on its own anyways. At one point we got a triple concert, three kids, singing tree different songs. Emilie even had hand motions. There was even a puppet show late in the afternoon that involved a car door and eagle and Emilie as a ‘special assistant.’ She got ‘attacked’ by the Eagle….the boys were riveted. Then they mutinied and took over the show much to the girls’ chagrin.

 

Should I even mention the food? Sooooo yummy. There is definitely no need to live solely off of hotdogs while you camp (though we did have that for lunch one day). We had a nacho bar, Dutch oven lasagna, pancakes, sausage hash, and lots of other yummy snacks and sides.

 

Other fun highlights of the weekend included. Making “non-traditional” s’mores and Molly losing a tooth in her S’more. Yes, Emilie’s double decker there includes chocolate striped shortbread cookies, a peanut butter cup, a plain marshmallow, and a strawberry flavored one….YUM! It’s hard to beat your basic s’more but these were pretty darn amazing.

There was also the hunting dogs that showed up in camp Sunday morning. Guess the bears were still in bed so a pair of them meandered into camp early checked to see if there was any food to beg for, got some pets and lovin’ from the kids, and moseyed on down to the road where their owner picked them up.

Oh, and we can’t forget the mouse. I was sitting around the campfire early one morning drinking coffee and chatting with Kevin and Josh when I caught something dark on my foot out of the corner of my eye. My initial thought was that Kevin was being a goof and poking my foot with a stick until said stick moved and it dawned on my that it was a mouse. Now, I am generally pretty calm about rodents but this one caught me off guard. My initial reaction was to shriek and shake my foot around. Startled poor Josh so much that he poured his coffee in his lap (oddly I was the one with a mouse on her shoe and didn’t spill my coffee at all…most be those supermom reflexes). The little bugger than proceeded to try and hide under a cooler than climbed in the wheel well of Josh & Chelsey’s car until Kevin scared him off. Gotta love the wildlife.

So yes, it was a FANTASTIC trip. I’d got back again in a heartbeat. In fact we’ve already been tossing around the idea a bit perhaps August or something like that. One last hurrah before school starts.