We’re on an Adventure!

Last weekend was supposed to be the weekend for me to walk in the Portland to Coast Relay with a bunch of friends. However appendicitis happened and despite being six weeks post-op the surgeon suggested skipping that level of activity (especially since I was recovering and not training). Therefore we took advantage of the change in plans and went on a road trip/adventure.

First stop was to my parent’s house as originally scheduled. Dad’s 59th birthday was the day before we left so when we got there my sister hosted a birthday party dinner complete with German Chocolate cake covered in frosting made from scratch (Dad’s favorite). Usually I avoid coconut in dishes but this was sooooo good that the coconut could be overlooked.

The next day we took a short trip up towards Longview to visit one of my oldest friends. She and her family took in the kittens we fostered this past spring. Add to that fact that the last time we saw each other in person Emilie was under 6 months old and her youngest two weren’t even in the picture. You could say the visit was long overdue. It also was too short in my opinion (I think she’d agree too) and we’ll definitely have to wrangle a longer get together next time one of us is in the same vicinity as the other…hopefully that’s not another five years.

 

 

Part of the reason we couldn’t linger longer was due to the fact that my Mother, sisters, and I had planned a “Ladies Night” (another long overdue occurrence). Dinner a La Pellah down off Highway 14 near Fort Vancouver (Not sure what the area is called now as the county has grown so much, and that shopping complex didn’t even exsist when I lived in Clark Co.) and taking in The Lion King, Broadway Musical, at Keller Auditorium in Portland.

It’s been ages since I’ve seen a play and this one was well worth it for the costuming alone! Plus the company wasn’t too bad either…

After that it was off on the adventurous side of the adventure. Many years ago we discovered we work much better without a plan. A basic idea of where we want to end up when, yes. A detailed plan, no. So we knew when we headed out Thursday afternoon we wanted to try to land in Moses Lake that evening, we also wanted to avoid the main freeways if possible.

Dad suggested taking the old Lewis River Highway around the back side (south side) of Mt. St. Helens. The drive is scenic (takes you past Merwin, Yale, and Swift reservoirs, you get great views of St. Helens and some nice glimpses of Mt. Adams too) the road is paved all the way through, and you come out at Randle, WA on Highway 12, and from there you can pop right over White Pass into eastern WA.

The drive was gorgeous. The road itself, however, left much to be desired. Once we hit the Forest Service maintained road there was pretty much a 35 mile stretch where the road had buckled or slid and been poorly patched if patched at all. With all the shade from the trees you couldn’t even see some of the dips until you where half way through them. It was truly and adventure. I felt for those riding through on motorcycles or pulling trailers. Not sure if the problem is unstable terrain, low maintenance budgets, or some combination of those factors, or what, but Kevin came through it feeling a whole lot better about the maintenance and upkeep he does on the forest roads here.

After we bounce or way around the mountain and stopped for milkshakes in Yakima we cruised up to Moses Lake just in time for Chico’s (aka the best pizza known to man) and a dip in the pool. Turns out those swim lessons are paying off as both kids were able to paddle across the deep in of Grandma and Grandpa’s pool without too much difficulty.

From Moses Lake we aimed the car toward home but opted to head for Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater instead of the usual trip through Tri-Cities. Of course we stopped at the Country Mercantile on 395 and while Emilie sampled her way through various salsas, Jack discovered a new love of Dilly Beans. Not too surprising as he loves dill pickles. I canned 25lbs of pickles last year and he’d eaten them all by February (did 30lbs this year).

Our intent had been to try and stop at the Whitman Mission outside Walla Walla, but if you recall what I mentioned about us and planning… By the time we reached the turn off for the mission the kids were wasting away from hunger in the backseats. There was no food to be had until Walla Walla proper so we thought we could always go grab something and come back. But as we drove through town we saw the Fort Walla Walla Historical Museum and it looked pretty neat and  wouldn’t require much back tracking so…change of plans. We grabbed lunch at the Ice Burger Drive-In (Highly recommend this to my burger/shake loving crew) drove back to the museum and ate at the park next door then went and toured the museum.

What Fun! The museum covers history from the early days and Indian Wars up to WWII. There are also huge displays of farming equipment, a penitentiary display, and a little “town” of buildings the historical society has moved to the Fort from the surrounding area and staged with period items.

There truly was something for everyone. Kevin and I were most impressed by the early harvesting displays for harvesting wheat on the Palouse. Can you imagine driving 30 Mules at one time? Quite the undertaking. Makes using a combine harvester seem like a cakewalk in comparison.

Enough history for one post…back to current events. Though I do recommend getting over to visit the Fort Walla Walla Museum if you’re in the area.

As I mentioned before we were on the scenic route. From Walla Walla we headed south through Milton Freewater and popped out at the Travel Plaza just east of Pendleton right before you head up Cabbage Hill. Here Emilie took the liberty of dumping her just purchased icy-cold beverage on my feet in the middle of the store…ahhh memories. Once I washed all the orange stickiness off my feet (thank goodness for small favors and I was wearing flip-flops at the time and not my sneakers…much easier to clean) we headed on over the Blues and stopped in Nampa for the night.

The next day we finally made good on our promise to take the kids to the water park. We’d picked up a couple of passes at the school carnival this spring and were going to go after swim lessons concluded in July. Once again, foiled by the appendix. This was about our last chance to squeeze it in before school started. Both the kids had a blast! I only have one picture as water and cameras don’t really mix but I will say both kids rode the slide in the background of the picture. Both kids were fearless…me not so much. Normally waterslides to bother me but I fret about my novice swimmers. Emilie was so small compared to most of the kids on the slides and while she was too short for some of the bigger rides Jack made the cut…barely. Seems he is precisely 48” high…so precise that we had to take him to guest services to get an “official” measurement and wristband so he wouldn’t be turned away from any slides for being too short. I was hoping he’d be under, but his excitement at being a “big kid” made up for my lack of enthusiasm. Fortunately Emilie adored the lazy river so she and I spent most of our time there. Though, my thighs were sure to remind of how many laps we made the next day.

After three or so hours of swimming the kids were both exhausted so we went and got a late lunch at Yard House (And yes, we did have the Mac and Cheese Squared) stretched our legs with a quick tour around the Zoo and then headed for home.

It was a fantastic way to cap off the summer. We’ve had a great one, but I’m ready for school to start and for us to be back in a regular routine!

Still Breathing!

I warned you about summer and my predictions were true. I haven’t updated in close to six weeks now. Sheesh!

We’ve been thoroughly enjoying our summer. The kids and I had a blast at Vacation Bible School. They are still singing all the songs they learned and counting down the days until next year.

Over the 4th of July my entire family came to visit. We even surprised my parents by flying in my older sister and her three kids in for the event (they were moving cross-country at the time and my folks thought she was coming a few days later) This is the first time in over 5 years that everyone had been together.

It was exciting catching up. We enjoyed the 4th of July parade in Buhl and a pie eating contest for both the kids and adults. Grandpa and Jack were our winners.

Unbeknownst to my poor younger sister, her kids had all been exposed to the Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus prior to making the trek to Idaho. They all broke in blisters on their feet and hands while here. That was ‘fun.’ By the time we all realized what they had everyone had been potentially exposed so the most we could do was become hand washing and house cleaning  tyrants. My poor dryer just about gave up the ghost trying to keep up with drying all the bedding. The kids were everywhere touch and walking on everything so everything had to been washed. I’m not much of a laundry enthusiast so it pretty much sucked. Thankfully, our efforts paid off and neither my nor my older sister’s kids caught it. Still it caused us to have to adjust some plans so we wouldn’t expose other just in case which was discouraging.

My older sister stuck around Idaho for a few days after the rest of the family left and the next week we loaded up all the kids into the van, kissed Kevin goodbye and drove to Washington to get her settled into their new home. We met her husband and father-in-law midway. They were driving and truck and trailer with all their worldly possessions including the cat and Guniea pig from Virginia to Washington.

We helped them move in and stuck around a few days visiting more with my folks. Lots and lots and lots of playing with the cousins with some blueberry picking thrown in. By that time the previous three weeks were starting to catch up with me so the kids and I headed back home with a new addition in tow…a Guniea Pig. Peppa, as she is called, was a belated birthday gift from my little sister to Emilie. So far she has not yet been loved to death, but more on that in another post.

We made it home to Idaho with no major hiccups. We even managed to stop in at the SAGE center in Boardman, OR. I recommend this to anyone driving I-84 through Oregon. It is totally worth the $5 admission fee. It’s all about agriculture and very hands-on. The kids loved it. We probably would have stayed longer, but the pig was in the car and we didn’t want to roast her.

I think, after two weeks home, were finally settling back into our routine. It takes me three days, at least, to recover from any trip and this one seems to have taken longer. The kids are busy swimming in the little easy-set pool in the back yard and playing games in the dirt. The garden is starting to really put out. I’ve already put up peas (which need picked again) and zucchini (relish & bread). Jack’s ‘pickle plants’ aka cucumbers, are producing. There are raspberries starting to come on. Even the beans, that took a hard hit from a now deceased ground hog (thank you dogs!), have made a come back and have blossoms. We may get green beans yet!

We’re hoping to get in a camping trip before the fair at the end of August and after that it is back to school. I’ve already started to slowly gather supplies as the sales pop up. It is amazing how fast the summer goes! There is really never a dull moment.

Road Trip!

Whew, going out of town always seems to result in several days of playing catch-up. After last weekend’s trip to see three of my Nephew’s get baptized I’m finally feeling like I’m catching up sort of…

So the weekend went down something like this. We got the truck packed Friday morning while the kids were at school and pretty much hit the road as soon as they were picked up, save for a quick stop at Little Caesars to pick up lunch/dinner. Then we drove. One of the glorious things with two potty trained kids is that we can go further between stops since they tell us when they need to go. Although Jack did try telling us he needed to pee at every single rest area…just so he could do a quick dribble in the toilet and then go check out the trucks. Caught onto that pretty fast. The weather was perfect until we hit a wall of fog around Memaloose, OR. Then there was that torrential downpour in Camas that really just says, “Welcome back to the PNW!” Fortunately that was about all the rain we got for the weekend. Not bad for April in Washington. We got in about 8:30pm on Friday then it took another hour and a half to get all the cousins settled down so they would sleep. The late night was offset by being able to sleep in on Saturday….small blessings.

By this time Emilie had discovered her cousins’ Guniea Pigs and was already begging Daddy to take one home. She got a pretty firm no, but it didn’t stop her from trying. She just wanted to love them, and cuddle them, and feed them, and carry them around, and love them some more. Perhaps in a few years if she can prove that they are more than a passing infatuation and that I’m not going to be the primary caregiver when she gets bored with them, then maybe she can have a guinea pig. Though, I’m still not entirely certain that Cosmo (the one the right- that Aunt Mandy was more than willing to give her) isn’t going to show up at our house over 4th of July. Surprise!

Since the weather was decent, and to give the poor pigs a break. We decided to hop over to the Oregon Zoo for a quick visit. We didn’t see everything by any means, we just sort of wandered and when the kids and Granny’s legs gave out we headed home. Still we got pretty lucky in that they were having an Open House for the new Elephant exhibit  that’s being built. There were crafts to make and we were allowed to walk around inside the newly expanded enclosure.

I thought it was cool learning about the new habit. A size increase from 1.5 to 6.5 acres complete with swimming pool. 24 feeding stations located around the perimeter that go off at random intervals to encourage foraging behavior, enrichment stations (culvert with trunk sized holes in the top that can be loaded with food/treats), and even a heat exchange system that warms the Elephant’s water with the energy generated when cooling the Polar bear’s water. Very educational. The boys, and Emilie, on the other hand, were more impressed with the 6 acres of SAND!!!!! Sand you could run in, roll in, and build castles in….. it was awesome! It was like being at the beach without the ocean. No fooling we had to line them up and dump sand out of their shoes when we left the exhibit.

Walking around the Zoo got everyone to bed at a decent hour in advance of Sunday’s big event…the Baptism. Kevin and I are sponsors (basically godparents) for all the boys, an first for both of us and we get it in triplicate!  All three boys did really well. Owen, who everybody worried would “freak out” actually just leaned back and closed his eyes. He looked so peaceful…of course he did have a death grip on Kevin’s tie. Noah was the nervous one. He’s not much of a water fan. Getting him into a pool take lots of encouragement, flotation devices, and an adult to hang onto and he was dubious about having the Pastor sprinkle water on him. Didn’t help me that he’s getting heavy to hold at age 4 and the font was pretty high, but we managed. Matthew was really excited to be baptized and just lay there like a limp noodle. One reaction or another all three are now Children of God!

Side note: through the service there was this little black thing up on the wall behind the altar. It was waaaayy up there and I wondered what it was for. I thought perhaps it was some sort of hook for hanging banners from, but it seemed to be a pretty inconvenient location and not even center. Afterwards I found out that the church has a problem with bats nesting behind that wall of the sanctuary. Every time they get the nest removed the bats find a way back in, and on occasion one finds a way into the building itself. Lovely…. I thought the fly issues our church had a few years ago before they resealed the outer walls was bad…but at least flies don’t carry rabies. Well, if you know anybody who needs some good Lutheran bats I know where to find some.

To summarize, it was a great trip. The weather was fantastic and the kids all got along and played till they dropped. The three boys got baptized and since Monday was a holiday for Jack’s school we had an extra day to travel. It was a fantastic trip all around 

The Fair, Grandma & Grandpa, and a Date

As promised here is a post about the fair. We went twice this year. Once to see the Monster Truck show and again a few days later when Grandma and Grandpa came to town. The second trip we got to spend more time walking around and looking at the animals, 4H projects, crafts, canned goods, sewing etc.

It never ceases to amaze me. Every year we seem to know more and more kids with things entered in the fair. I look forward to the day our two are big enough to do 4H and enter projects of their own.

As a special treat we timed our second visit so we could go and see the tractor pull. Neither child, nor Grandma it turns out, has ever been to a tractor pull. This pull had 3 categories Large tractors, small tractors, and lawn tractors (not sure where the break between large and small tractors was). Each tractor took a turn seeing how far down a marked track it could pull a weighted sled. The sleds had weights on a pulley and as the tractors drove the weight was pulled forward over the sled’s axel therefore increasing the amount of force needed to move the sled. (click on the picture below for a better explanation)

Jack thought is was great fun! He kept asking everyone what their favorite tractor was. His was the black tractor. Grandpa liked the ones with tracks. Emilie fell asleep and entered no opinion (guess that says what she thinks of tractors pulls) I liked a big 1950’s era John Deere. I also got a kick out of the little kid pulling with a lawn tractor. Note the 2x4’s attached so he can reach the pedals and the adult walking alongside with the kill switch

Emilie was much more interested in the animals, she petted rabbits, sheep, and pigs. She enjoyed the train room (so did Jack) and the Ag building as well. In all it was another great year out at the fair.

With the Grandparents in town for their visit we also took a tour of the “West End” over the weekend. Specifically the Hagerman National Fish Hatchery, so Grandpa could pet the sturgeon, and the Cloverleaf Creamery in Buhl.

LeAnn and I got some food preservation in. 6 pints of raspberry-peach jam, several pie fillings, and some pickled jalapenos. I learned one should cook jalapenos when home alone as the steam seems to bother people – yep I tried to pepper spray my husband and father-in-law. I was standing right over the pot in the kitchen and had no issues but they were coughing and wheezing away out in the living room….Ooops.

In crazy news, Kevin and I even got to go on a ‘date’. Wait! Did you see that? A pig might have just flown past the window! Seriously though, we left the kids with the Grandparents for the afternoon and went to go check out the thrift stores downtown in hopes of working on Halloween costumes. Of course it was Labor day so they were all closed. In 8 years of marriage we’ve just learned to ‘roll with it’ so we headed down to Auger Falls on the Snake River.

We’d had the foresight to bring the fishing poles so we hiked and even dipped our lines in the water once or twice. Kevin scared the bejeezes out of himself when he went to meander down the bank and hopped up on a rock just in time to see a bull snake launch himself into the water and grab a Sculpin (small fish).  I learned two things 1) My husband can move really fast and has great reflexes when properly motivated. 2) Snakes will jump in a cold river to eat fish.

After hiking down to the falls and wandering the canyon bottom for a couple of hours we were starting to feel warm so we headed back to the car. Then we decided to do something really crazy and see a movie…in the actual theater. No fooling, the last ‘in-theater’ (not counting the Drive-in) experience I can remember is seeing Sherlock Holmes (the first one) with Robert Downey Jr. It’s been awhile. Of course the movie didn’t start for an hour after we got there so we improvised with a quick trip to Chilie’s for a cold pint and some nachos. Better yet we happened to conveniently stumble in during Happy Hour so it was CHEAP cold pints and nachos (yes, it’s the small things that make our day ) It was back to the cinema after that and I’ve got to say ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ was pretty great. No comic book nerd by any means but all the great 80’s references and humor were what really made it worthwhile, well that and the cute guy sitting next to me willing sharing his popcorn. We really should do dates more often….

Well, here’s to fun visits with the family and to date nights!