Come on, Get Mappy!

The kids and I visited my parents 2 weekends ago. Man! I'm really falling behind on this blogging thing! Anyway, we gave the kids several options and they chose Northwest Trek for their way to spend the day. It was a great choice, perfect weather, wonderful scenery and we saw almost every single animal that resides on the 723 acres. I snapped quite a few pictures, though it was an off day for me, I still got a few that make me smile.

Come on, get mappy...

I Can See Clearly Now...
Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man...

From the tummy of the grizzly bear...

These shoes were made for walkin'...
...but they were good for sitting too. Rylan had to "test" nearly every. single. bench. at the park. It ended up being a wonderful day.

The following day the kids and I took the opportunity to meet up with five other moms from an online group that I've been a member of since I was pregnant with Rylan. It was so wonderful to meet these women, and their kids, in "real" life. They have virtually walked with me during the best of time and during the worst of times, they held my hand. The kids acted like they've known each other forever and the four hours we spent in Seattle could have easily been doubled and still not felt long enough.

Nothing deep, just a few shares to get caught up a bit more. My poor brain is cooking, the weather has been so hot for our area. Actually? It's been pretty hot for just about anywhere. It was 103 today and, right now, at 11:30 pm, the heat index is 80 degrees with 64% humidity. Not fun. I would much rather be too cold than too hot. Thankfully, we don't have too many days like this. However, this was just the first day of 3 or 4 that will be up in the triple digits.

Oh and a Karleigh funny while the county guys were working on our road today, filling pot holes with hot asphalt (poor guys)... "Hey mom! Check it out! The guys are working so hard, they're smoking!" :-)

Wordless Wednesday... Pretty Much

It's pink! You don't see that every day!

Thick and Thin

I've been such a blog slacker lately. A lot of it has to do with me really wrestling with some internal/emotional stuff and I've just needed to take a step back from things. I guess I say I need to take a step back but really, I've just been spending more time on the whole thought process of stuff... research, reading, thinking, making mental lists.
And it's exhausting.
Really, really exhausting.

And as much as I feel like I want to share that here, I just can't put it into words. Strange I know. I seem to be ok at getting the past written down but when it comes to the future? I'm not very good at that. Honestly? The future freaks me out! I know. Worry about today because it has enough worry for itself. But future... you're freaking me out. I just wish I knew what it looked like for us. Just a little bit. A tiny peek. But, even if I had that I wouldn't have a clue how we got there I suppose. The traditional approach isn't working so who knows?

Jim and I also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last Friday. 10 years! Double digits people, that's pretty cool to me. Especially when you think about everything that we've been though. OK, I know that there are plenty of people who have been through much more than we have but I think we're pretty blessed to be pretty much (relationship wise) unfazed by all the yuck that we've gone through. And honestly? Continue to go through.


My mom came down and watched the kids for us so we could get away together, alone, to the beach... did I mention alone?
Without the kids?


I love them to bits but now that they are getting older I was ready! Sure we talked about them and missed them in the "oh, that would be fun with the kids... some other time" way but we needed some alone time. We haven't been alone overnight without the kids since the night we were in the hospital delivering Eli. Before that? we had never left Rylan and hadn't left Karleigh overnight except to have Rylan!
Sad.
I know.
It was time and we all survived.
In fact, I think we flourished!


Jim and I took off and headed to the Oregon coast through our old college town. We stopped and walked around campus. Yowzers! that campus has changed in the *gulp* 12 years since we attended. Honestly? They took full advantage of the building boom that started as soon as we left. They must have averaged almost a new building per year. Sad however, was seeing many of the improvements named after people we knew. The tiny maples that lined the sidewalk outside the campus apartments where Jim and I lived (in different apartments at different times) are huge leafy canopies now. There are new residence halls, which are huge yet at the same time only added a little over 300 beds for students... may or may not have been the best use of money. Jim and I both drooled over the new baseball stadium. Not field. Stadium! and the brand spanking new lighted and covered! tennis courts.
Oh well.
Looks like our tuition went to a good cause and frankly? I wouldn't go back to 19 again just for that. But it does look really nice.

We even snapped our picture in front of the building where we met almost 14 years ago. The gabled window facing camera right was my dorm room when we started dating. :) Oh, how I could go on about crazy roommates.
But I won't.
But I will say if you get a crazy roommate, the next thing you do is get yourself a job at the Student Life office.
Then you get yourself a single, as a Freshman, just as soon as one opens up on your desired floor.
Just sayin'!



After our detour through Forest Grove, which, other than some street changes looks pretty darned exactly like it did when we left, we headed out to the coast.
Where it was almost 30! degrees cooler than it was inland.
But that was so beyond the point because we were kidless!

We got checked into the inn, which was great. Oceanside with a balcony, wonderful bed, fireplace, small kitchen and SO clean and then got cleaned up for our dinner reservations at Cannon Beach.

Yum! We were stuffed, wonderful food. The fog started rolling in so instead of hanging around Cannon Beach we headed back to Seaside and walked off some of our dinner, strolled back down the Prom and called it an evening. Then we decided (along with every. loving. person. in town) to make a quick Safeway run for breakfast stuff so we wouldn't have to rush in the morning.
And then we called it an evening.
Again.

We checked out around noon, wandered Seaside some more and then got the heck out of Dodge before we were stuck there. The Miss Oregon pageant was going on and it was a crazy house. We ate lunch along the river in Astoria, watched the boats go in and out and the huge salmon jump out of the water and decided to head home. It was all foggy and socked in at the coast, which felt about right since it was also Collin's due date. Well, would have been, except for that whole heart not beating thing.

It was a wonderful get-away for the night and really nice to spend some time with the one who has stood by my through thick and thin! Oh and we weren't even missed (of course, I didn't think we would be) They got grandma one on one so they felt super special too!

Not too much more exciting stuff going on other than that.

Oh! Karleigh lost yet another tooth, making this number 5. So here's her new toothless grin from this evening! She was kind enough to let me wiggle it out (wiggle? yank? we're not going to discuss that right now!) before the sun went down. It was causing her so much pain, she ate half a piece of toast for breakfast today and that was it. She did drink water and milk but didn't want anything else, even soft foods. Poor kid. I had Jim pick up some Ora-gel on the way home so it wouldn't hurt her so much. The whole thing was out except for one tiny corner that was the spot that was giving her so much trouble. As soon as it came out she screamed "Yes! Finally! It already feels soooo much better!" She ate a bowl of ice cream, as I promised her, and then two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (on hot dog buns!) Seriously, she was like a new person the rest of the evening... totally reminded me of the story, The Lion's Paw. I'm just wondering how long it will be until it comes down now. Her bottom teeth came in pretty quickly and I really do think I could see it right there so... we'll see!

Vacation Wrap-Up... Finally!

Wednesday, we had promised the kids their "stay at home" day. We had planned on getting stuff for a picnic lunch and heading down to city beach on Whitefish Lake. However, the weather was iffy and when we swung past to check it out, the city workers were grooming the beach with a tractor... not exactly what we were looking for. Jim and I decided instead to take the kids to The Amazing Fun Center. We drove past it almost every day and when we had lunch with my friend, she said for sure, we had to do it. Oh my! I'm so glad that we did. The weather wasn't perfect but it wasn't horrible. The maze was insane! There were 4 towers, one at each corner that you had to get to and get a stamp. Also? The letters M,A,Z,E (one for each tower) did not necessarily come in order. It was so much fun though. We went through as a family, Karleigh lead us to the first tower, I got us to the second one, Rylan got us to the third and we all pretty much found the fourth one. I was really impressed with how the kids remembered where we had been.

Starting out in the sun... and those clouds... and Karleigh's looking a bit windblown already!

Woohoo! Stamping the "M" on the time cards... oh, yah, you also clocked in and clocked out your time. We completed it in about 40 minutes.



YAY! It started to sprinkle just as we got our last stamp! (that's a go-kart track behind them!)



Shortly after we finished the maze, it started to pour! So, knowing Montana weather, we headed back to the van and hung out for 20 minutes or so. The rain chased off all the tourists and blew through quickly. So, we took the kids back and we played a game of mini-golf which was a great deal since it's 18 holes.

So proud, Jim took this pic while I took Karleigh for a potty break!

After the mini-golf game, the kids begged to ride the go-karts. Rylan was juuuuust tall enough so we did! I took Karleigh with me, unsure of how she would react and Jim took Rylan. Turns out, Karleigh and I had a faster car and she love, love, loved it! We started out behind the guys and Rylan was worried about where we were the whole time, so we lapped the boys and everyone was happy then! No pics though since I was driving :) Not only was it fun but the employees, mostly high school kids, were so very nice!

We headed back to the condo, ate dinner and then spent a couple of hours in the pool. The kids raved about the day, were worn out and slept like rocks! Jim and I packed everything back up, which didn't take too long since as soon as we got there, I unloaded all of their clothes into the dressers and then every night I folded that days outfits and packed them back into their bags.

The next morning we got up fairly early for one last hurrah in Glacier. We had to go back around to the east side of the park. THIS was the day that seemed like the "real" Glacier National Park to us. We got to experience the turquoise blue of the lakes and the deep blue of the sky. It was beautiful! Windy. But beautiful.

We parked at Many Glacier Lodge and did some walking around, some hill climbing and then let the kids check out the trail horses. Sadly the minimum age is 8 years old but they were allowed to go talk to the horses, pet them and check them out.

We had a picnic lunch... outside this time!... we had bug spray :) and then changed into jeans and took another nature hike. This one was 2.8 miles and went all the way around Swiftcurrent Lake. The weather was funny, typical Montana weather... don't like it, wait 5 minutes!

Swiftcurrent Lake with Many Glacier Lodge... which is a huge lodge and gives you a little bit of an appreciation for the landscape. When we do Glacier again, I would like to stay here for a night or two.

After we walked around the lake... oh, can I just say again, how great the people were? We would come across people walking the opposite direction and they almost always made a comment on what great troopers our kids were! They really are wilderness loving kiddos which is great.





About 500 yards from where we snapped the above pic, we walked through a nice stand of lush green, vegetation but Karleigh and I were looking at all of the Indian Paintbrush. Oh, but my point is, that was the very end of our hike, we got back in the van and continued our adventures. At least for a couple hundred yards we continued our adventures... until we saw this lovely lady! Poor thing. We probably woke her up... we being the two short people who never. stopped. talking. because that's how you scare away bears...





I'm certainly glad we didn't see her on the trail, but in the van instead. I got out to take the above pic but the kids were able to see her just fine. She did wander off quickly when a mother and son from Idaho (at least that's what their plates said) took off into the bushes after her. We watched and then pulled to the side of the road at the helipad where we got a GREAT view of her. The kids laughed and mentioned that the only thing we had left to see was a big horn sheep...

...which we saw less than 2 minutes later. Jim had to come to a complete stop to not hit this little one and I had to react fast and shoot through the windshield since the poor thing got spooked just seconds after this. After our luck with the wildlife, we decided to hit the east end of the Going to the Sun Road. We pulled over for wild goose island...

...and then continued along until the road block was set up. We got out and did some more walking... and soaking up the heat from the road. Kind of cool that they could experience it this way!

After our walk, we stopped to check out Jackson Glacier... it's the part with the grey, sandy looking stripes near the center of the pic.

We also stopped to check out another waterfall and really cool stone bridge.

With that, we realized that it was getting late and we needed to start heading back to the condo to finish up our packing and get ready to wrap up or vacation. The light was beautiful for this parting shot at St. Mary.

Also? Free range? Crazy! We came upon cows and horses the same day. These horses were beautiful but at the same time, so sad looking... understandable if they were wild but the lighter horse is branded. Yucky skin condition but beautiful eyes.

We boogied out of the condo on Friday morning around 10 to start our journey home. We knew we wanted to get to the National Bison Range so we did. It was a great thing for Friday since the weather was drizzly all day but we were inside the van for the whole thing. I didn't know how huge the place really is. The loop for the road, alone, was 20 miles of dirt road.

I had great hopes of getting some really neat bison pictures but I wasn't that lucky. We did have a set that were REALLY close to the van but we didn't hang out with them that long and I regret it. That was the closest that we got to them but the loop took a LONG time so no one was willing to do it a second time (not even me). We wanted to make it to Spokane at a minimum.

Just outside the fences to the Bison Range, I spotted this momma and casually tried to get her picture... it was sheep fencing with barbed wire across the top, when out of the bushes, popped her fawn too. So sweet!

We saw tons of bison in the distance, pronghorn sheep, male, female and baby elk... I'm assuming those were either male or female too :), tons of white tail deer.Good stuff. We eventually made our way back to I-90 and did make it to Spokane around 5 pm.

We got a hotel... the one I hesitated getting on the way through the first time (so much better), brought our stuff in and went swimming again for quite awhile. We got the kids settled and I head Karleigh say "Dude! (yes, she says dude... a lot) I think I just saw some lightening!" I looked out the window at the dark purple clouds and said "by the looks of those clouds, I totally believe you!" Sure enough. Thunder and lightening storm! The kids got up and we all cuddled by the window for a good hour or more. We finally bribed them... there was a lot of that on this trip... that whoever fell asleep first, got a quarter in the morning. We didn't hear another thing from them for the rest of the night! And, in case you're wondering, I think Rylan was asleep first but he sleeps hard from the get go and Karleigh eases into her sleep so they both got their quarters in the morning!

The next morning, we took our time getting up and started to head out of town. Until Jim notices a small portion of our bumper flapping in the wind... on a Saturday... when none of the dealerships would bother looking at it and none of the body shops were open. He did call one where the body shop guy happened to be there working on his own project!

Yahoo!

...all the way back in Spokane Valley...

where he told us it wasn't a big deal but pointed out that it had been hit (not by us, we have a back up camera thank goodness) but that it wasn't going to be a big problem.

Yahoo!

...almost 3 hours later.

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing. We made it home, our yard looked like a jungle, the cats were both waiting for us and we all slid back into the comfort of our home!

Again, this was truly a gift from God and a wonderful friend. We had a great time as a family and we were able to get away from a lot of the thoughts about wondering what the future really does hold for our family. Of course all of that and more was still here when we returned home but the break was really, really nice.

Phew, so now you're all caught up... whether you like it or not! And I can get back to my regular bizarre posting :)

Vacation Interruption

I'm going to interrupt our vacation re-cap with some 4th of July goodies! Few words, a few more pics. We spent the day at home this year, just our little family which was fun. It was hot though, mid-90's which was pretty rough. We started off the morning with cheesecake with strawberry jelly and sugared blueberries. Then the kids did a few pop-its and smoke bombs. We played Wii inside where it was a bit cooler, the kids napped (yay!) and then we played outside, set a camp fire, roasted hot dogs, did some more fireworks and ended the day with some 'smores.


It was fun this year as our entire day had its own sound-track. Someone across the canyon had live bands all evening and night long. We tucked the kids into bed and then Jim and I sat around the fire a bit longer listening to Hotel California and Tequila to name a few. :)

Our yummy breakfast that we ate outside in the sunshine!

This was totally not intentional but funny none the less!

Sometimes the fireworks aren't the best show ;)

All tuckered out and ready for 'smores then bed!

And last but not least... thanks to each and every service member past and present that continues to make this all possible for us!