Northern Trek: Day Two

Our second day of the trip was Independence Day....

Quick side note:
I could not get enough of this little man:

Adam and Whit's baby is 9 months old and seemed to get more adorable every time we looked at him.  He didn't get as comfortable with me as I was hoping he would but he let me hang out with him a little bit here and there.  I sure enjoyed watching each of his older siblings maul him with love in their own special way.  S, the oldest, would just walk by his mom, pick up P with out a word and go play with him.  R, the cousin Bundle's age, seemed to have it in her daily to-do list to pick up her baby brother and move him at least 27 - 38 times a day.  Every few minutes: time to move the baby!

Okay, the 4th.  I'll tell you, hanging out on Bainbridge Island is a great way to spend the holiday.  It's really got a small-town feel (I guess that's because it IS a pretty small town, even though it seemed like a lot people came over from the mainland.)  Our first order of business was to eat Whitley's super yummy breakfast.  Right after that we piled the kids into the back of Adam's new cruiser - that is a fun island car to have for sure.

We headed into the downtown area - basically main street.  We put the little kids into a kids race involving summersaults and crab walks and tunnel runs - it was cute.  I especially enjoyed the way Bundle insisted on doing the whole thing in her cousin's galoshes, which I found out later were about 3 sizes too small.  That must be the reason why she was seriously under-performing in the crab-walk portion of the race....

Rosie was seriously hilarious while trying to get her tiny body to go over her big noggin with every summersault....

The crab walking queen

After the race we had some time to kill before the parade so what else were we supposed to do?  Of course we went to Mora's!  Best ice-cream on the planet.  Troy and I got lavender ice-cream...oh gosh.  It was so good.  We're going to try to make some of our own one of these summer days in the near future.

After ice cream we walked around the town, hung out in trees, looked at flowers, visited a car show, ate a little snack and waited for the parade.

Finally it was parade time.  Confession: I'm not a huge fan of parades.  And this one was really really long.  Really.  But despite that, I really enjoyed seeing what this awesome little island had to offer, what groups are here, what the community is proud of.  Each of Adam and Whit's kids were part of the parade - R was in a trailer with her little preschool group, L was supposed to be with her gymnastics gang but opted out at the last second, and S was with his roller hockey team.  It was fun to see the two kids in the line up but there was some other great stuff too.  One of my favorites was this group of grandpas pushing their walkers and wearing giant Groucho glasses.  So funny.

 I also loved the name of this local band: "The Intensely Vigorous Revolutionary Volunteer Dixieland Band."

S in his skating getup:

And I even got to hang out with baby P for a good chunk of the show:

I think there were more festivities after that but the parade wiped us all out so we headed back.  We sent the kids off to play and Whit fixed us the perfect 4th of July meal - barbecued chicken, baked beans, potato salad and watermelon.  We just sat on the front porch enjoying every bite while the kids rolled around on the grass.  Their front porch is nothing short of heavenly.  

As evening rolled around Adam pulled out some fireworks - they turned out to be completely awesome - sparklers of course were the favorites but there were lots of bright sparkly loud exploding things too.  And bottle rockets.  Bundle loved those....so much that she spent the rest of the show in the upstairs playroom watching out the window.

I can't stand how much I love this picture of R - best sparkler picture ever.

Adam bought these "sparklers" called The Sword of Truth  - it would be more aptly named The Sparkler From Hell.  The kids adored them.  Too bad (not) that they lasted only about 30 seconds each.  

We had to cut our fireworks show a little short because the sun went down and it was time to go watch the big show in the harbor.  We headed back down town and just put blankets out in the parking lot of the ferry.  It was a great view - impressive show.  Troy missed it because with the very first firework, which didn't happen until 10:45 or something nutty like that, Bundle promptly had a full-on meltdown.  She did pretty well with the fireworks last year but I think she was maybe 1/10th as exhausted that day as she was on this one.  She begged her daddy to take her to the car, which he so kindly did; she was asleep on his shoulder before he even got there.  He just lay back in a seat and let her sleep on his chest until the show was over.  I was sorry he missed it but loved that he got to rescue his little girl and snuggle with her for a while.

So basically we had an awesome day, and definitely set the precedent for the rest of the week of staying up way way way too late but having a ball.

Northern Trek: Day One

Day one, and it was the longest day ever since our trip began at 1:00 in the morning.

Yes, we decided we needed another trip to visit the Northern Romneys.  You may remember reading my post about our trip there in January, right after Christmas, when we took my mom.  (Blech...I get the yucks in my brain and my belly just thinking about the lowlights of that trip.)  It left a lingering bad aftertaste, that is for sure.  And since Troy and I adore the woods and lushness of the northwest so much, and since we love Adam and Whit, and since we needed to cleanse our emotional palates, we decided to find a way to get up there this summer.

I'm so happy that we did it.  Ahhhhh.........Bainbridge Island.  In the middle of the bright and airy summer with no scary experiences to manage.....it was HEAVEN.  

So yes, day one really began as early as any day can:  we were off and driving by 1:30 in the morning.  We've decided this is the best way to do this.  Troy goes to bed at 8:00 and sleeps until 1:00 while I pack the car and clean the house and gather stuff and try to make my kids go to sleep, which is successful for everyone except my night owl Bitty.  She stays up late, eyes wide open and excitement just jumping in her veins.  I wake Troy, we load everyone, including Bundle who was moaning, "Why are we doing this.....?"  It's a valid question.  But really, since we all go back to sleep while Troy drives and no one is conscious until 8:00 in the morning and we're in Oregon, it works out.  Troy gets the bum deal there but he says that's how he likes it best.  

We arrived in Seattle around 2:00 in the afternoon, not considering that it was the day before Independence day and many folks would be leaving the city early to celebrate the holiday weekend.  It took us at least 90 minutes to get on the ferry to Bainbridge - that tested everyone's patience but no one completely melted down.  It just made that first ferry ride all the more beautiful.  

And of course as soon as we got there, the kids all started begging to go to the beach.  I don't blame them - I sometimes feel like my whole body is dying of thirst for the ocean and its vast expanse.

Bundle seems to have no sense of gross-out.  She had no fear of picking up all sorts of stuff on the beach: dead crabs, piles and piles of stinky seaweed....

This is Mitt.  Yes, Adam named his dog Mitt.  As in Mitt Romney.  I love it.  He's a sweet puppy.

By the time evening rolled around we were all exhausted, and even Bitty was easy to tuck into bed.  We tried to hang out with Adam and Whit a little bit....but even I could hear myself start to snore while I relaxed on their bed during a movie.  I made it an early bedtime and gratefully climbed into Whitley's awesome guest bed and was immediately unconscious for the next 8 hours.  Did I mention that it was Heaven?

Happy Gatherings

We've had such a good time this summer getting together with people we don't normally see.  For starters, we've decided to make a real effort to get Stomper together on a regular basis with one of his Preslar cousins.  He's already very close to his boy cousin on my side of the family, and we've often lamented that they don't get together more than a couple times a year since he lives in the Seattle area.  And yet as much as we miss that cousin as well as the rest of his family it occurred to us that Stomper has a cousin just about his age who lives a heck of a lot closer, just 25 miles away in DayBreak.  So far this year we've planned three family gatherings with subsequent sleepovers.  How lovely it's been to see another cousin friendship strengthen and develop.  It's been wonderful for me too since it means that I get to see my sister-in-law Kathleen a lot more, and our families have enjoyed our time together.  I don't have many pictures of the escapades, but here's one I snapped at Seven Peaks, where we met up after a sleepover at our house.

Another very happy reunion last week was the day Bitty got a visit from her long lost friend who moved to St. George a year ago.  It was happy for me too.  This gal's mom became a real friend and I have missed her this year.  Poor Bitty keeps losing friends to the tragedy of the move.  She has some cute friends here but so many have left us and it's been sad.  We had a delightful afternoon visit.  You know what's funny?  These two started having playdates before kindergarten and every time they got together I had to break up or reconcile or referee at least 5 disagreements/fights/fits every single time. I wasn't sure that these two girls were even really friends way back then.  And now you put the two of them together and they're off, just enjoying every minute together.  I love watching that progress. Bundle has that issue with pretty much all of her friends right now and it gives me hope for the future.  Maybe someday she will actually get along with her friends.  Bitty sure does, and it took some time!

Also last week was a soccer team reunion for Stomper.  He hasn't been on the team for a year, which has been nice, mostly due to that thing where he doesn't like playing soccer.  I'm so happy he did it though because of the great friendships he forged and which remain strong.  One dear family moved away to San Fransisco a year ago (last summer was a tough one for friends moving away!) but came back for a visit.  We planned a party - it was supposed to be a swimming party at the home of another kid but his mom ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis (poor girl! It was the worst!) and so at the last minute we moved the party to my back yard where the kids did their best to recreate the feel of a pool using our hose.  The moms sat on the porch, tried to avoid getting sprayed by the kids, and had a great time catching up.

So we've had many happy gatherings thus far, and I'm looking forward to many more!

Birthday for My Dad

My father turned 75 last week.  A couple of weeks before that Peter and Sheri were planning on coming into town and Sheri had the great idea to put together a surprise birthday party for him.  Margaret and I agreed to get on board and tried to plan something and it just wasn’t working out  - mostly because no one could make it.  After a valiant attempt we finally admitted defeat, scrapped the idea and just had a family dinner together during the St. Georgian’s visit.

Margaret and I talked a little more about it and decided to try again.  Sadly Peter and Sheri would not be able to make it but despite that fact, the stars aligned for us.  We found an evening that worked for both Margaret and me and we were able to book dad too - it was the night before his actual birthday and we told him to meet us at Margaret’s so we could walk to her favorite Thai restaurant to celebrate his birthday.  I called several of his dearest friends and miraculously they were all able to come.  Margaret decorated her house and yard beautifully (sadly we had to bring our gorgeous garden party inside due to a downpour that evening but it still looked lovely) and I put together a menu I was proud to feed dad’s friends.  It took some elbow grease but I think we put together a respectable party.  
Although it was actually kind of a lot of work, just imagining what my dad’s face would look like as he walked through the door and saw all of his friends was enough to motivate me to get it all done. Dad is getting into the very hardest part of caring for my mother and I just knew that an evening with his friends would bring him more joy and energy and cup-filling than any wrapped gift we could offer would.  

Oh I was so right about that.  I’m so grateful Sheri planted the seed and got the ball rolling.  It was indeed an absolute pleasure to see my dad’s face as he came through the door, a few tears even welling as he looked around at the intimate group of loved ones.  Dad and mom have wonderful friends and I love them dearly.

What was so fun for me was that after we finally got everyone into the kitchen to get some dinner, the guests filled their plates and the entire group of them smushed themselves around the smaller of Margaret’s two tables and sat, shoulder to shoulder, happily eating and reminiscing for a couple of hours. Margaret and I just sat back and enjoyed the sight.  We cleared plates, we refilled water glasses, and we just watched them happily.  Why had we ever tried to think of a present to give him ever?  All he wants is the people he loves and who love him.  It was a really wonderful sight and a wonderful evening.

Happy birthday to my dear dad.

Summer at Its Best

Dang dang darn - I had this big goal to post more in June and actually surpass my monthly average of four posts and instead of surpassing I only posted three times!  Boo!  But I guess all I can do is recommit (again) to find more writing time.  I guess it's a good sign of summer if you can't find time to write about all you are doing - a comment I feel I must have made before.  I also take it as a good sign that the fliers adorning my fridge, each announcing a movie theater's summer schedule of morning movies for a dollar, are all sitting untouched and unused.  We have been too busy to go to any of the movies I thought would help me fill up the empty summer days!  Turns out none of them have been empty.  It takes me a couple of weeks each year but I eventually seem to adjust to the schedule of crazy every day.  We're doing it!

One adventure I have been meaning to record is our trip to our friend's cabin.  It isn't always easy finding a family you love dearly enough to actually travel with - I'm sure there are many families with whom we would travel well but actually getting out and doing it is another thing.  So our good friends invited us to spend the first weekend of summer at their cabin up Hobble Creek Canyon and it was a great way to kick off the summer.  Walks, card games, watercolors (boy it's been a while since I have picked up a brush!), books, poetry, starry nights, s'mores, all the good cabiny stuff.

An Elk Leg.  Gross. 

Bundle got very good at scaling this rope ladder - it took my breath away to watch her climb it because it's very high up.  I could only watch her do it once.

On a Sunday morning hike we found a lovely outdoor spa

Best picture ever.