The girls spent a week with Grandma and Grandpa to go to Bible Camp. Wesley and I went down today to watch their program. It was everything you would expect of 100+ kids, half pre-schoolers, “singing”. Only a mother (or grandma) would be thrilled.
Wesley liked the baby behind us.
Thanks for the great week, Grandma and Grandpa!
Fremont has its Summer Solstice Parade every year (I bet you can guess when it is). The Naked Bicyclists are a popular entry, and Wesley is prepping for his turn.
A few weeks ago, I lowered the seat on an old two-wheeler (with training wheels) that Wesley had been coveting for a while. A few short days later, he had already gotten the hang of pedaling, turning, and braking! (He will be biking without the training wheels before he is ever potty trained, I predict. He will probably be able to do many things before he is potty trained.)
Dwayne’s work team had a family picnic on one of the rainiest days of the last few weeks. We had already decided to go after naptime, so it was almost sunny by the time we arrived.
No way is Dwayne going to get stuck carrying around balloon swords without using them. Go Kyla!
Piper likes the idea of playing, but not as much as the reality of eating kettle corn.
Kyla tried her skills at climbing the rock wall.
Mama (on the left) tested her skills and make it nearly to the top. I’d like to blame the cowboy boots I was wearing, but really, my arms need to be a lot stronger to carry the load of chocolate chips in my belly.
A good time was had by all. How do I know? Because Wesley threw up all the food he had eaten there by 11pm that night.
It’s on Whidbey Island, about 10 minutes from the ferry and two from Langley. Our offer was just accepted, so in forty days or less, we’ll get the key! For a long while, it will be not so much a cabin as a large wooden tent with a kitchen and bathroom (BYO sleeping bag and dishes). But this is the beginning of many good childhood memories for the kids on the island. And it won’t be so bad for Dwayne and I, either. | Letters to the Editor - July 9, 2012 Could someone remind me again: in the upcoming election, are we suppose to vote for the person with the most signs, or the one with the best design? Karen Holt, Woodinville |
You all knew that Dwayne wanted to be Pharaoh, right?
What is it going to be?
The Sphinx, of course!
This time, a napping Wesley and I stayed behind while everyone else rented boats and when to the other side of the lake.
Everyone kindly let my daughters have turns paddling the canoe.
Expresses Esther, “It’s exhausting having so much fun!”
Either Isaac’s napping or Kara succeeded in drowning him.
Huh? Me?
Lots of swimming.
One of my favorite couples in the world.
Kara made dozens of these towers simply so Wesley could smash them.
Hulk SMASH!
Our parting shots…
If you find yourself in Mt. Shasta, spend a day at Mt. Shasta City Park. It’s famous for being the headwaters of the Sacramento River, which really is cool enough. But it’s a great park with a groovy feel.
For instance, the headwaters:
The headwaters with a banjo/fiddler duet:
There were some music camps going on while we were there, and apparently mostly young, long haired, skinny jean-wearing millennium hippies participated. If I can be condescending, they were tres cute. And made great music.
What really made this park for us was not the sweeping lawns for Frisbee and football, but the great little obstacle courses through the stream-drenched land.
Wesley is throwing a tantrum because I’m not carrying him. Still sucking fingers.
Okay, we’ve cheered up again (it was the cold water and slippery rocks he likes so much!).
It was hot. The waters were painfully cold. The cousins compromised and through water over their heads.
Little Ol’ McCloud organized at “social bike ride” for Wednesday evening. Meet downtown at 6, bring a picnic and lots of water, and bike about 3 miles down the road to a little known spring of the Mt. Shasta watershed while strengthening community ties. Eight of our ten went, which with the exception of one preteen boy, was the McCloud social group, plus the three that organized it. (And a mom-and-daughter team showed up halfway through, but they were also not from McCloud.)
The social part of this was a smoke screen for a lecture on the importance of the springs, the watershed, the corporate influences on water rights and citizens, etc. However, when she started talking, I only heard, “Not only did we start 15 minutes late waiting for non-existent people to show, but now I won’t let you feed your hungry and bored children at what is an expected dinner time because it’s more important to educate you very-non-locals about our watershed. So you get to keep your children quiet and artificially well-behaved for an interminate time while the non-mothers can ask thoughtful, lecture-lengthening questions.”
Nope. Not bitter at all.
But look at this view. Could it have been more picturesque?
I didn’t have to even Photoshop in that perfect bridge in the background. What a lovely evening!
Wesley and Kyla loved the daisies along the trail and both picked me large bouquets. All things considered, I did enjoy the evening.
[True confession: it didn’t take Wesley long to find something more macho than flowers.]
I still bathe all three kids together, and I tell you, every night this week, the bathwater is quite….gray. Their clothes—if they happened to be wearing any—were often dirtier.
But it still surprised me when Piper got into this tunnel at the playground and declared it a washing machine. She and Kyla went through the wash and spin cycles for several minutes, but probably only came out a little dirtier. (That white shirt she is wearing is still off-white and gray, with—believe it or not—bike tire tracks crossing the front of it. Even Oxyclean hasn’t been able to redeem this shirt yet.)
Here’s my IQ calculation: Giving Wesley a gooey roasted marshmallow—idiotic. Taking off his clothes first—genius. So I’m average.
Blurry pictures are due to (ahem!) dirty kid fingerprints on lens before I discovered it.
This makes Dwayne cringe and shudder simultaneously.
Just one more Piper story. I took the kids to a local beach the other day, somewhat unintentionally, and hadn’t planned for swimming. Piper, in her long sleeve shirt and pants, was undaunted. After getting herself soaked to her neck, she would come up and roll in the sand, covering as much of herself as she could before going out swimming again. My kids ride home naked from parks fairly often.
