Pine and Cedar Lakes

We've done this hike before but Job and Lona were carried.  John's ran this trail training for Mount Baker but this day we tackled it as a family with all of us walking.   It's a hard slog up hill for about 2 miles.  Then it's still up hill to the lakes and the view point but not like the beginning.  I'm liking the fact that Isaac has become the Sherpa that we bring.  He willingly wears a full pack and carries all of the snacks and most of the water and Gatorade.  When we went hiking a couple of weeks ago John got so much grief from the kids about not bringing the dog that we dragged his sorry but into the back of the truck.  We needed to stop and get hiking boots for Isaac, not the way to do it and the dog whined the whole time they were in the store.  By the time we arrived at the trail head it was almost 11:00!  We hiked up to Pine Lake and the viewpoint then headed over to Cedar Lake.  On the way down we decided to go over to Rapter Ridge on Hemlock Trail and then back down.  I have struggled with walking down hill ever since the marathon 6 years ago and so I ended up backing down the mountain.  It doesn't hurt to go up just down.  It doesn't hurt to walk backwards just that pressure on the outside and back of my knee in a downward motion just kills it.

He's 15!

It seems strange to have a child that is 15 yet so normal too.  This year has been one of changes for him.  He has done very well at the high school and surpassed my expectations.  His grades have been stellar.  He's gotten involved in athletics, chess, and two different youth groups.  One youth group meets at school on Thursday morning and the other at our church Wednesday nights.  He continues to ref soccer but has decided that it isn't all that great though it does provide him money. He is planning on taking driver's ed this summer which I dread and look forward to.  He has surpassed me in height and almost in weight.  If I continue to lose and he continues to gain it maybe within a month.  He's had his first date and plans on another with this girl.  She seems nice.  He has moved his interests from history which he loved to politics and Wired magazine.  His birthday was a small family thing this year.   I bought him a pizza for lunch and took it to school.  When he lifted the lid, I had written on the inside of the box "Happy Birthday".   We usually take the kids to a restaurant for a birthday dinner but his choice was Dairy Queen.  Dairy Queen over the Olive Garden but that is what he decided.  It seems as though time is slipping away with him so quickly.  We still have our arguments and yelling matches but we understand each other and love each other.   He wants to pick berries this summer for a job and I'm looking into it.  Ideally he would work 5 to 10 hours a week, just to get his feet wet.

The motley crew that helped Isaac celebrate

Date

Its been a long time.  Soccer is finally over and the kids had places to be around the same time without John and I having to be part of it.  We took advantage of it and went on a date.  It was a chatty date.  Some dates are activity dates, some dates are veg out dates and other dates are chatty dates.  Activity dates are bike rides, hikes, anything that get you to move. Veg-out dates are movies, plays, anything that you are participating in other than your eyes.  Chatty dates are going for coffee, dinner, dessert, and walks.  It was a chatty date at Boulevard Park.  A needed one.  I really felt that we hadn't connected for about 10 weeks, the lenght of soccer season.  Our schedule was one of soccer for Isaac everyday of the week from 2:30 to 4:30 and I would pick him up from school then.  Soccer for Lona Tuesdays and Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 6:45, John helping out on Tuesdays.  Job had soccer practice on Wednesdays and Fridays from 5:30 to 7pm.  Ice skating was one Mondays for Job for the first 3 weeks of the season.  Awana on Wednesdays from 6:15 to 8:15.  Soccer games on Thursdays for John anytime from 7pm to 10pm.  Soccer games and Reffing on Saturday.  Church on Sunday.  It was a long time and now it's done, well mostly done.  It felt like a hi-five you're up tag team kind-of schedule.  I know that it is our choice to have the kids involved but we have benefitted so much from these activities.  We really try to limit them and make sure to schedule their time and our time wisely.  I think that is why we have the kids do the same sport.  I don't know what we would do if they did something different and had to be all over the county. 
So our date was a reconnection over a shared cup of coffee.  It was relaxing and nice and by sharing it reminds me of our dates in college where we would get one order of curlee fries from Hardees and share them.  We were both poor college students and $1 was a big deal to us. 

Fragrance Lake

This is a hike that is open early if not all year long.  Some of the other hikes are closed until July due to snow but the chuckanut hikes are open.  It takes us about 1 hour up and 1 hour down.  We always stop at the falls for a snack and a blood sugar check.  The kids hike all over the falls.  At the top we hike around the lake, watch all the dogs swimming, sad that we don't bring ours.  And then we head down again.  We brought Ben with us this time and he got out of the car and was planning on running the whole thing.  It's been done, we had some guys pass us on the way up and by the time we got to the lake they had gone around 1 1/2 times and across the lake once as well.  Back to our kids, Job with his broken arm, Lona and Ben took off running.  It switchbacks right away for about 1/2 mile or so.  ven good photos.  It just doesn't work.

With in the 2nd switchback, Lona was done and by the 4th Job and Ben were done.  Isaac decided that he was going to train for a backpacking adventure.  Ben asked him what that was.  Isaac, "You know, you hike in with a backpack and camp."  "Oh, that.  I want to do that but my parents won't let me. You don't train once and then go in three months."  Ben responded.  Since soccer is almost over we have started the next activity:  hiking.  I think that the family wants to go almost every weekend from now on.  I'm game for that, however, I've decided that I'm going to take my camera and not the one Lona's using.  I'll carry the extra weight just for some better photos.  Oh, and you can't give the camera to a stranger and expect great or e

broken again

I really should have a label about broken arms.  We've been through it three times with Isaac and now twice with Job. I'm getting good at reading x-rays.  Maybe I should go back to school to become a radiologist.  Job received a hairline fracture across his elbow on April 30th.  He had a gift card that he had been saving until he had enough money to purchase a skate ramp.  The skate ramp arrived in the mail on the 30th and he eagerly set it up, strapped on his rollerblades, placed his helmet on his head and proceeded to try out the ramp.  After a few crashes on the cement, he moved it to the grass.  He nailed his landings on the grass, took off his pads (I have no idea why) and moved the ramp back to the cement.  Where upon he made one more jump, landed on his elbow (actually flat on his face but his elbow was the first thing to hit) and just laid there crying.  I walked out of the house, helped him to his feet, took off his rollerblades, got him so ibuprofen and an ice pack.  I wanted to wait a little before taking him to the doctor just to make sure he hadn't banged and that was it.  However after 30 minutes of it still intensely hurting we tried our after hours clinic but his was full and the walk -in clinic doesn't accept patience an hour before closing.  Really?  Why don't they close at 7 and take patience until 7 knowing they'll stay until 8?  Why post an 8:00pm closing time?  Don't get it.  We ended at the emergency room, walking in around 7:30pm.  We left after 11:35 pm.  The nurse bless her heart just had to have us walk out with a new sling even though it was too small and the other one she had was too large.  The sling we had with us already was just right. Feeling like goldilocks here.  He missed the next day of school, he was tired and in pain.  It wasn't until a week later that he got a cast which he has to wear only two weeks and then they'll cut it off and use part of it to make a splint for the next two to three weeks.  The kicker is that they are all booked up and really can't see him until the middle to end of June.  So for now he's wearing an orange cast and has had many kids sign his cast.  Apparently we stands under the monkey bars and asks who wants to sign his cast.  In between being diagnosed and getting casted, I caught him on his unicycle.  I had gone to the grocery store and as I pulled into the driveway I see him wildly swinging his good arm as he's making a sharp turn in the neighbor's driveway. I quickly had him off that unicycle, "But I'm bored" he whined.  Thank goodness that it's only two weeks.

Mother Daughter Look alike

They had a parent child look alike theme night at Awana and Lona chose to dress like me.  She let me know what I was to wear so that we'd look alike that night.

Outdoors

The winter sometimes feel so dark and dreary, like the sky is lower to the ground, crushing me.  I push through the days of the no sun chill until spring comes.  It feels as though the sky lifts and stretches out a bit, the light starting before five in the morning and ending after nine in the evening.  I need to be outside playing, working, relaxing, laughing, stretching my arms out and feeling the sun hit my face.  The kids get outside more too.  They start asking to play different games or doing different activities.  Even Isaac, though as he gets older it is not happening as often. His activities have graduated to Frisbee or soccer with friends.  We have enjoyed the trampoline for years and are continuing to do so.  Backyard baseball is another activity that makes it's appearance in the spring, each of us taking our turn at bat.  Every night when John comes in from work, he says hello, gives me a hug and a kiss, chats with the kids, and then walks out to wander our little bit of earth looking at his plants, his shrubs, his fruit trees - a ritual, a routine.  The door is left open more, and the garage can't hold back the bikes, unicycles, roller blades and wazzis anymore. Often times the toys become strewn across our front lawn and the neighbors too. The kids spilling the contents of the garage throughout the neighborhood until I reign them back in.  The lawnmower emerges and the youngest child goes to work. John and I plan the yard out, making new beds, buying plants, hauling the yard waste that has collected to the dump.  It feels good, involved and tiring.  As it warms up, lunches are eaten on the front steps so the breezes are blocked but eventually they migrate to the backyard.  Each time reminding me of having lunch at my grandmother's who cooks a large meal for lunch and then hauls everything outside.  My backyard becomes a haven once again and beckons throughout the summer to be there instead of inside.  My favorite time is when the lawn is mowed and the toys are picked up.  I guess it mirrors the need for order in my house since my favorite time inside is having the house clean and the toys picked up.  The end of school also becomes visible taunting me with less structure and routine, eagerly anticipating John working his 40 hours a week within 4 days and spending Friday, Saturday, Sunday with us.  I love springtime at our house so full of newness and promises to come in the summer.