A Summer in Washington

In my last post I expressed my excitement over summer coming ... well, it has come and gone!  And it was marvelous.  As I scanned through the photos I took over the last few months I realized we got to do quite a lot.  Here's a recap!

We enjoyed our second time at Lake Wilderness's 4th of July festivities.

My mom and I drove (in her mini cooper, Lord help us) to the North Cascades one weekend.

We also stopped by Deception Pass.

Last summer we drove to Bothell in search of a blackberry farm ... haha!  They grow wild everywhere (and are actually invasive).  So we had our fill of them this summer.  I also figured out what huckleberries look like.  They are tart, yummy things.

 Blueberry picking of course.

 We bought an inflatable boat!  Here's Evey on Lake Wilderness.

 The evening sky.  This was after 9PM!

We went fishing for Zach's birthday, his first fishing trip!  Poor fishies ...

Evey participated in her first play, The Jungle Book.  She thoroughly enjoyed doing it!

We found this little guy outside our house.

We visited the Goonies house, and then watched the movie with Evey!

We discovered the beautiful Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.  Grizzly bear!

I found a rock jumping place, woo hoo!

Jeff and I stayed up at Crystal Mountain and got to enjoy this view for our anniversary.

And I got my first tattoo for our anniversary, too!!

Visited Mt. Rainier with cousin Amelia.  She just moved here as well, from San Francisco!

These little fellas.

Rope swing on a weekend trip to the Vancouver area!

Amelia and Evey in two of the three inner tubes we bought when I discovered we could float on a nearby river!!

The Washington State Fair.

Playing in the neighborhood.  Love the sky against the trees when it's that color.

Walking Harley on the Cedar River Trail.

 Nothing like a nap in the shade with Grandma on a sunny summer afternoon. 

Onward we go into Autumn!  Maybe I'll post again before Winter arrives ...

It's My Birthday!

I realized last night that my birthday is the last of our first birthdays living here in Washington.  My Mom's was in May, Zach's was in June, Evey's was in November, and Jeff's was yesterday.  Odd tidbit ... not really of any significance, but I thought of it so I'm sharing, ha ha.

Since my last post we revisited the sledding area at Mt. Rainier National Park.  We went on Superbowl Sunday and had a lot of fun again, despite it being less sunny this time.  Here's one photo I took on a bridge crossing over the Nisqually River.

Next week I took three days off work because Evey's school is closed for its mid-winter break ... bizarre to me since they have winter break and spring break as well!  I figure we'll have a good time further exploring things to do around here.  I have a couple ideas so far.  Visiting the Black Diamond Museum and the Cedar River Watershed Education Center.

On another note, I can safely say that working out and eating better have finally become habit again!  I have a long way to go, but there has been progress since we started this at the beginning of January!  I have lost about five pounds so far, hurray!

First Time Sledding at Mt. Rainier

The kids and I ventured up to Mt. Rainier National Park this past Sunday to sled at Paradise.  I was a little nervous heading to the Park in the winter, hoping the winding road up the mountain wouldn't be covered in snow and ice.  Luckily, the road was pretty clear, though as required my tire chains are in my trunk.  I had practiced at home that morning and was successful, but that still didn't mean having to use them in "real life" would be fun.

The highway into the Park from the north is closed during the winter so we had to drive the long way around and head in from the south.  It was still a pretty drive.  As we gained altitude we left the fog blanketing the lowlands and were greeted by clear blue skies and a spectacular view of the mountain.

My choice in heading out there Sunday was in part due to the thought that most Washingtonians would be at home fixated on their TVs watching the Seahawks game.  That and it was supposed to be a sunny day up there!  I was right on both accounts - there were still plenty of people around, but not obnoxiously so!

Our day of sledding got off to a rocky start when the brand new sled I had purchased broke into several pieces on the second time down the hill.  Luckily, we were able to purchase two sleds at the Visitor Center, and for a very reasonable price!  Evey also had a few moments of grumpiness, but once she ditched her coat (the sun was quite warm and the temp was about 40) and we found her misplaced mittens, and stopped trying to sled down the biggest two hills, we had a wonderful time.  I don't think I've ever had so much fun sledding before!

This is a view downhill toward the Paradise Inn and the Tatoosh Mountain Range in the distance to the south.

Goofy little Zach in his snowsuit for the first time!

This was the best spot we found to sled!

I learned on this trip that, while not so far this season, normally more snow falls at Paradise than anywhere else in the lower 48 states!

Now I'm going to get sentimental.  A few times, I paused with purpose to soak in our surroundings.  The colors of blue, green, and white were so brilliantly bold.  The sun was warm on our faces and the air was cool and fresh.  Even though I was chasing the kids around, constantly picking Zach up off the ground, and in general trying to keep the peace, I did feel at peace.  Surrounded by such beauty it was almost impossible not to.  I read this quote from John Muir at the Visitor Center: "Of all the fire-mountains, which, like beacons, once blazed along the Pacific Coast, Mount Rainier is the noblest in form."

On our drive home, once we had descended to a certain altitude, I could clearly see the thick fog ahead waiting to re-envelope us in its misty haze.  I had lots of time to think, seeing as the drive was roughly two hours long, and my thoughts turned to comparing Mount Rainier and Mammoth Cave.  Mt. Rainier reaches over 14,000 feet into the heavens a short 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean while Mammoth Cave's passages twist and turn for over 400 miles beneath the rolling, green hills of south central Kentucky.  Both are majestic and unseen.  Sure, on many days we can see Mount Rainier, but there are more days where she remains entirely hidden in clouds, sometimes clouds of her own making!  I guess it's apparent that both caves and mountains fascinate me, a balm to my soul.  Their beauty and mystery call to me in an almost indescribable way.  I think perhaps it's that I can't separate my heart from what they are ... nature?  We are all part of it, from the tiniest of pine cones to the largest of caverns.  From sweet newborn infant feet to the aged eyes of an elderly man who has seen so very much in his life.  There are no words.

Snow's a'coming!

Well, I hope the snow comes. It flurried on December 1st, but tonight we're supposed to see some accumulation. Anywhere from 1" to 100", ha ha. Gotta love weathermen.

So, the title of my last post was "Laziness". Now it's been nearly 6 months between postings so what's that called?? What can I say ... except I say most of my stuff on Facebook these days. I'm not giving up the blog, but I'm pretty sure it'll just continue to get updated sporadically.

This morning I booked travel for Evey and me to Hawaii in February to visit my Aunt and cousin! I had enough reward miles to fly us there so why not?! The only hard part will be coming home and arriving at 6am, and then having to go to work that day, ugh. They live near Hilo on the Big Island. I am excited!

Jeff, Evey, Harley, and I visited my Uncle and Aunt in Pensacola, FL for the week of Thanksgiving. We drove 16 hrs to get there! It was a long drive, but we had a great time! I'll post some pictures. Also, I got to briefly stop at Mammoth on the drive home and say "hi" to friends.

I'm sure I'm forgetting other things, but ... oh well. If anything comes to mind, you'll know!

Laziness

Wow, it has been a few months since my last post ... why?? I have no good excuse, unless laziness counts. It's not that we haven't been doing anything. I just haven't been writing about it!

So, let's see ... since Easter, what have we done? I went to Kentucky alone the weekend of April 10th for a CRF Expedition. It was nice to fly down after having driven there just a couple weeks before. Because it was only a one day expedition, we went on one cave trip. I went back to Belfry Ave via the Carmichael Entrance (which is an entrance that tourists use). This trip was dry and walking passage ... A LOT of walking. I think we hiked about 8 miles.

Evey and I went back to Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend, too. It was fun, though Evey tested my friends who watched her. She's a very strong-willed kid, which will serve her well in life as long as we hone that aspect of her personality well!

I went in the cave twice, the first time wearing vertical gear and my wetsuit along with two 4 ft sectional ladders. Another person carried the other two and the third person carried rope. We had a great time belly crawling through a water filled passage about 300 ft (150 ft each way). The passage continues with blowing air so it has a lot of potential, but the water was just too high to try surveying through it. The next day I went on an easy trip along the Historic Tour route, and we ended up climbing up and over one of the restrooms along the main trail. We hadn't realized we were doing this until we followed the sounds of flushing toilets down a hole and found ourselves along the side of the restroom wall!!

Oh, I jumped ahead a bit. On April 30th I passed my CPP exam, which stands for Certified Payroll Professional. I'm DONE with exams for payroll/HR now, thank goodness. It was awful, awful, awful.

I think that covers most of the exciting stuff ... random things, Evey starts big kid swim classes this Saturday. That basically means the class is 45 min long instead of 30 min and she's in the big kid pool. We also recently got her a 16" wheel bicycle with training wheels and she loves to ride it. She's gone all the way around the block on it now. She's also in love with the movie The Labyrinth. I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting, but if I remember them, I'll have reason for another post!

Onward we go with summer - swimming, camping, caving, movies, etc.!

Easter Weekend

We had a nice Easter weekend! On Friday, my mom and I took Evey to Spring Valley in Schaumburg. We also went swimming at the Streamwood Park District and were supposed to be part of an "egg dive" where the kids all collect plastic eggs from the pool, but they ran the last group of kids early so we missed it. It was supposed to have been at 2:40, but they did it at 2:30 because no one was watching the time carefully enough. They ended up giving us a few eggs just for Evey so we let her "find" them in the pool. Evey enjoyed it and that's all that matters. Mommy (me) had been very angry!

On Saturday Evey got to go swimming again because her swim lessons have started back up! And that afternoon my mom took her to see How To Train a Dragon in 3D and Jeff & I saw Clash of the Titans.

Sunday morning, per a suggestion from Nonnie and Poppie, the Easter Bunny left Evey's basket on our doorstep and rang the doorbell. Here's a video of her getting it!



Later, Jeff, Evey, Harley, and I went to the forest preserve for a picnic lunch. Evey likes to try walking Harley ... but it doesn't usually go so well!

Spontaneity

I had the week of 3/22-3/26 off work for spring break because Evey's daycare was closed during that time. I mulled over a few ideas of what to do. It had ranged from nothing to flying to Colorado. I knew I had to do something though, because I've never been one for taking a vacation and just staying home! At the last minute, I decided to take a road trip with Evey to Kentucky to do the tourist thing; to do what I normally am unable to do because I'm underground!

We had an uneventful drive south - stopping only twice. Somewhere between Indianapolis and Louisville I remember thinking to myself that I know now why I try to fly ... [[SNORE]]. However, once we crossed over the Ohio River into Kentucky, a familiar burst of energy reinvigorated me. We were almost there now!

We only went as far as Elizabethtown Sunday evening because we were staying with a fellow caver friend, Nicole Bull, and her son, Teddy. She welcomed us into her home for the whole time we stayed. I still haven't figured out a way to repay her for all she did for us, but I will!

Monday morning after a breakfast of delicious homemade banana chocolate chip muffins, we met my friend Michael Carter in Munfordville and then drove together over to Cub Run Cave. The visitor center was closed when we got there so we drove down to the cave entrance to look around.

When I tried to drive back up the steep hill we'd come down, I hadn't thought to put the car into 1st gear so we weren't able to make it up. As I backed down to get a better start, I hadn't been watching my side of the car enough and backed right off the road! We tried to get back on without luck. I was caught on the lip of the curb. We walked back to the visitor center (about a mile or so I think) and luckily it was now open! We "rescued" my car with the help of Mark, who also gave us the cave tour!

To free my car, he strategically placed plyboards down behind my left front tire so I could back up onto it to lift my car above the lip of the curve. It worked- and there was no damage! Evey did well on her first tour since the last one when she was just six months old. It helped that there were only the three of us and the guide! Cub Run Cave is a very beautiful, highly decorated cave for the area.

Afterward, we drove to the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center for lunch, and then we went on the Diamond Caverns tour nearby. There were a few more people on this trip, but Evey still did well, granted I had to carry her a lot. After the second tour, we drove back to Mundfordville to get Michael's car. Then we followed him back to Bowling Green to see his apartment and meet his kitty, Luna. Evey tortured- er, played with her for awhile, gave us the following replay of our day's "caving", and then we went to dinner.



On Tuesday, Nicole and I took the kids over to Dino World. That place is much larger on the inside than I had been expecting! It was fun to walk around with the kids and to even walk out by a giant T-Rex that sits just off I65.



After that, we had a picnic lunch at Mammoth Cave and went for a hike that was probably about 2 1/2 miles in total. Evey gave up early on, and Nicole let me borrow her backpack carrier. Teddy was a tough little guy and walked most of the way! I carried the 40 lb Evey with me for over 45 minutes, ugh!



That evening, Nicole made pizza and cookies. We ate well! Instead of driving home Wednesday as originally planned, we stayed one more day so I could visit with my friend Eli Winkler. I met her at noon at the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center. But first, Evey and I got there early enough to take the New Entrance Tour. It was awesome! I loved the stairwell built into the domes. I carried Evey down most of the steps, but she did a good job walking most of the rest of the time. There were eleven people in total on that tour.



After our picnic, Eli and I took Evey over to Sloan's Pond, where we looked for turtles and saw them as well as fish, frogs, and two geese. Then, Evey fell asleep in the car while we drive around looking for ice cream. Failing to find any, we bought chocolate instead at a place in Cave City. Then I took Eli back to her truck.

Lastly, Evey and I went to the Jesse James' Stable for an hour horseback ride. It's hard holding onto a three year old while riding! She did well for her first time, but she did complain that her butt hurt. I suppose the 30-minute ride might have been good enough. :-)

Thursday morning we drove home, once again it was uneventful and we only stopped twice. When I stopped for lunch at a barbeque place in Lafayette, Indiana, Evey slept in my arms the whole time!!

I figured I wouldn't miss Kentucky since I'm going back for a Mammoth expedition in two weeks, but I was wrong. We had lots of fun doing things and exploring together and I loved seeing several friends. I love Kentucky, what can I say?

I'll post a link with pictures soon!

Downsizing

We made two major purchases this weekend. The first, two new car seats because I realized Evey was just 3 lbs shy of the limit on her current seats. I've been reading about the importance of keeping children in a 5-pt. harness for as long as possible so I ended up getting the Graco Nautilus, which will allow us to keep her harnessed up to 65 lbs, and then it converts to a regular booster for up to 100 lbs.

The second purchase ... we traded in my Jeep for a 2007 Nissan Versa S Hatchback! OMG, she sold her Wrangler! I will miss not having to be wary driving over bumps ... but we lowered our monthly payments $120, dropped our debt by $5,000, gained back 10K in mileage, and I'm not afraid of the gas station anymore! Sure, it's no hybrid, but there's not much worse than the MPG on a Wrangler. Oh, and it's a stick!! :-D

Potty, potty, potty

Evey is FINALLY wearing big girl underwear! She wanted to wear them 2/10 and she hasn't gone back to pull-ups since. And she's been dry at night since that evening! I hope this post doesn't jinx us. She has had a few accidents during the day, but that's to be expected. She is doing awesome! We never thought the day would come, ha ha. She was incredibly difficult to "train" as nothing motivated her - not rewards, not punishments, not being dirty and/or wet. Being the strong-willed little thing that she is, using the potty pretty much had to be her idea. We took a step back and while continuing to encourage her, we just acted nonchallant when she didn't do it.

Shoe Factory Woods

On 1/31 my mom, Evey, and I went for a walk in the Shoe Factory Road woods just a few miles from our house. It was nice, especially since this time Evey walked most of the way herself!

As we were getting back in the Jeep, my mom noticed several deer out in the field. Evey decided to go after them.