Figured Out at Age 3

When we ask Gunnar what he wants to be when he grows up, he doesn't hesitate.

"A fireman and a logger."

Update: On October 4, 2011, Gunnar declared, "When I grow up I want to be a fireman, a missionary, and a logger."  Sounds good to me.

Nana Condoles at Our House

After being home from a seven-week 26-state roadtrip for only about ten days, my mom just had to get away.  For the previous year, my folks had been trying to sell their condo in downtown Salt Lake City.  Finally, they had a buyer.  However, just as they plunked down the credit card to buy some moving boxes at U-Haul, their realtor called to say things were "unraveling."  When the sale fell through, Mom was so disappointed that we both decided that a visit to White Salmon was just the pick-me-up she needed.  Two days later I was picking her up at the airport for a 12-day visit.

We all enjoyed having Nana around.  She does the dishes every night.  She magically combs tangles out of little girls' hair.  She helps fold laundry.  She knits (and lets Adah & Maggie try it).  We mostly just hung about and took care of the kids.  She was here during the second week of twice-a-day swimming lessons, which limited our outing potential, but that was okay.

On Saturday, July 2nd we planned a fun day out with the whole family.  Luckily, Nana is small enough that she fits in the third row of the minivan between Adah and Maggie. : )

Our first stop was at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA where there was a free birds of prey demonstration.  It was slightly disappointing because they didn't fly the birds very much, but we did get some up close views of a peregrine falcon, an eagle, and an owl.  The kids were really thrilled with it, as you can see.

After picnicking in Cascade Locks and playing in an excellent park (love those spinning tire swings!) by the Sternwheeler riverboat, we headed to Multnolmah Falls.  

Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon and one of its most popular tourist attractions, as evidenced by the crowds of people who were also there with us that day.  Nana's feet were hurting a bit, so she opted to stay with Holly while the rest of us took the small "hike" up a paved trail to the bridge overlooking the upper pool of the falls. 

Maggie was the photographer in the picture above,

so here's one of Nana with all 3 big kids.

On the 4th of July we had a pancake breakfast at the church and then I was happy to have my mom around to share some potato salad with me during an afternoon BBQ.  (No one else in the family likes it, so I rarely make it at home.)

We loved having Nana come for a visit!

Summer Swimming Scholars

For a few reasons, I believe strongly that everyone should learn to swim.  First, I really love to swim and just think everyone should enjoy it as much.  I want my children to be good swimmers so we can all go have fun in the pool together.  Secondly, it's just a good life skill to have to keep yourself safe.  So, even though it can get a little expensive, and even though poolside waiting is tricky with little ones who aren't old enough for lessons yet, I make swimming lessons a priority for my older kids at the beginning of each summer.

This year I was glad for my convictions.  Scheduling lessons for my 3 older kids was a PAIN.  Because the pool got out this year's schedule very late (like 4 days before lessons were starting), they canceled several classes that didn't fill up.  That meant that the only classes in the levels for my kids required us to be at the pool twice a day.

This was Gunnar's first year for lessons. Originally I had him signed up for a Mommy & Me class. It was going to be during the time immediately following Maggie's lesson, which meant a full hour at the pool in the morning.  However, after watching the one-student beginner I class that was being held during Maggie's time slot, I knew that Gunnar could handle it--and that the teacher-to-student ratio would be great.  So, Gunnar joined that class the second day and eventually just had 2 classmates and 2 teachers.  His class was mostly about getting comfortable moving through the water and some beginning skills.  Gunnar has always had a healthy respect for water that keeps him from being too adventurous in the pool.  I'm glad.  I know that he won't do anything crazy when I'm not looking, whether we're poolside or at a beach.  And now he's confident enough to play in the shallow end (where he can easily touch) without clinging too me the whole time.  That's Holly's job.

Here's Gunnar with one of his teachers, named Finn. Adah, thinking it was Fin, said, "That's a good name for a swimming teacher."



Gunnar, playing catch with his other teacher, Susie 

Maggie was in the beginning II class.  Maggie would be a great little swimmer if she could just figure out how to blow those nose bubbles!  While she loves swimming in theory, she's never really liked getting her face wet.  This year she's finally really comfortable doing that, but she always goes under while plugging her nose.  It doesn't really advance her skills much.  Still, she did much better this year.

Our pool always has "life jacket day" once during a 2-week session.  Living in a place with so many water recreation opportunities, I'm glad that they do this.  Kids can bring their own life jackets or use the pools' so that they can be properly fit and get some practice maneuvering while wearing one.  Maggie's the one on the far right, below.

Diving board action on life jacket day

On non-life jacket day, she wasn't so confident and pretty much jumped right on top of her poor teacher!

After morning lessons with Gunnar and Maggie, we were back at the pool at 5:00 for Adah's intermediate class.  Again, good thing for my convictions.  It was a pain trucking everyone back and forth twice a day.  But, so worth it.

Adah is a confident little swimmer, if not the most technically elegant.  She can get from one place to the other pretty well and safely, but is still mastering all the techniques of proper stroke and breathing.  She loves being in the deep end and going off the diving board.

She's also still mastering diving.  Ouch!

As I said, it was a chilly June. We had a weather mix during this year's swimming lessons. No rain. Mostly sun. But at least one day, here's what the spectators wore:

Lucky for the swimmers, the water temp at the local pool was usually in the 80s. Nice & toasty.  Also lucky for us, we were in the summer's first session of swimming lessons.  After that, our struggling little pool began to have some mechanical problems with the filtration and had to shut down for days at a time, finally closing down for the final weeks of summer.  It was a huge bummer, especially for many of our friends whose lessons this summer were quite abbreviated.  I'm glad my kiddos got their time in to build up those skills.

No More Pencils, No More Books, No More Teacher's Dirty Looks

June 16 was the last day of school for Adah and Maggie.  It should have been a day or two before that (now I can't remember exactly), but we had more snow days last winter than the school calendar anticipated, so the kids had to go past the original "last day" date.

Getting out a little later wasn't too big of a deal for us.  However, Adah's teacher, Mrs. Beseda had a trip to Mexico planned and whoever bought the tickets had scheduled for them to leave the day after school got out--on the original calendar.  Oops!  That meant she missed the last day of school, and missed receiving her really cool gift from Adah.  (I missed the news that Mrs. Beseda would be gone, or we would have gotten her gift finished early!)

We made one of these for Mrs. Denny, Maggie's wonderful kindergarten teacher, too.  Hers, of course, had a giant D made out of old crayons.  I got this idea from Family Fun magazine, so I can't take total credit.  It was a fun, simple project with a big impact for the finished product.  And, it's a great way to use broken crayons!  They were well received by both teachers and are hanging in their classrooms this year.

After a rather chilly and wet spring--and June--we were delighted to have a true warm and sunny afternoon the day after school got out.  It really did feel like the first day of summer when the kids were all able to go out in the yard and play with bubbles.

In fact, they had so much fun that they used up what was pretty much the summer's supply of bubble solution!  See that blue jug behind Gunnar?  That was practically full when the kids started!  Someone was a little over-zealous pouring the bubble stuff into a tray and pretty soon we had a soapy, shiny patio.  No matter.  They loved it and I was happy to see them having a great time in the sunshine finally.

Piano Playah Adah

Adah has now completed 3 years of piano lessons.  She has played in two festivals where she was awarded a superior ranking for her two memorized pieces.  She loves to play and practice, which makes it much easier on the parents.

Her annual recital was on June 5.  Her teacher always hosts it in her home, which can be a little snug, but it makes it very friendly and comfortable atmosphere for the performers.

Adah played the "Pumpkin Patch" duet with her teacher.  She had it memorized, but Jenni needed the sheet music for the second part.

Her solo piece was "Sunburst Waltz."

Adah's teacher, Jenni, believes that if she's going to ask her students to perform, she should be ready to do it herself.  So, each year she prepares a couple of pieces and plays them with other local professional pianists.  The duets are always difficult and fantastic to watch and hear.  I love that Jenni gives her young students and example of fine music and performance to which they can aspire.

We also love that every year Jenni orders catered tamales, rice, and beans for a celebratory meal after the recital!

The Non-School Kids

Here are just a few mid-June photos of the kiddos who weren't at school everyday.  It's a simple life.

 

Holly, wearing her cute pleated tunic that she got from Grandma for her birthday, wanders into her big sisters' room:

 

Hmmm...what's in their toy bin?

Stuffed animals!

One Sunday morning Gunnar didn't want to get dressed for church because he wanted his Sunbeam teachers, Brother and Sister Rathgeber, to see him in his dinosaur pajamas.  I finally convinced him that we'd take a picture of him in his T-rex PJs and show that to his teachers.  (Good thing he never followed up on that end of the bargain.)

I just love the "Heil Hitler" pose we got in the first shot.

The next one was much better.

Life is pretty good for the McMillan under 4 set.

Memorial Day on Wind Mountain

On Memorial Day we set off in chilly temperatures and a bit of a breeze to hike up Wind Mountain. The trail head is about 15 miles west of where we live.  Damon found a geocache for the trail and before we headed out we stopped at the store and the 3 big kids each chose a Matchbox car to leave behind once we found the cache.

At the start of the hike everyone was feeling happy and chipper.  I carried Holly most of the way up.  At one point I had to stop on the trail to nurse her.  Damon continued on with the other kids, figuring I could make better time than them and catch up pretty easily.  They made it quite far without me and I got pretty thirsty and tired charging after them.  Damon had to take Holly for the final quarter of the uphill portion.

 

The trail was about a 1000-foot vertical climb, pretty steep considering it was just 2 miles one way.  The kids did very well.  As we neared the summit there were a few signs that we had to read to get clues for solving our geocache puzzle.  Before finding the cache, we were rewarded with amazing views of the Columbia River and the Gorge.  First, to the west:

To the east (back towards White Salmon):

And here Damon and Holly take in the view to the north.  We stopped here on these rocky fields for our lunch.  The rocks were some sort of spiritual Native American site (not burial), so we hope that we managed ourselves respectably.

The view behind the kids is kind of to the east-southeast; you can see the river.  They were great hikers that day.

We found the geocache on our way back down the trail.  It required reaching the summit first to get all the clues, but then it was hiding under a log near the trail on the north side of the mountain.  It was fun to use our GPS--the first time that we had all done it together when there wasn't snow on the ground.  We want to hike more and take advantage of the beautiful part of the world where we live.  Each time we do it the kids gain a little victory and have more confidence that makes them much less likely to whine on the next one.  We're encouraged and hope to do more and more to get out and be active and enjoy the Gorge.

Holly's First Birthday

Turning one is always a bit more exciting for the family of the birthday kid than for the birthday girl herself. Sometimes by age 2 they know what's going on, but they always seem to have a fun time when everyone is making a big fuss.

May 25 was Holly's first birthday and her sisters were very happy to get ready for school quickly so there was time for opening gifts before they left for the day.

Holly got a clomping horsey toy that makes noise and moves along with a clip-clop sound when you push down on the rider. (Full disclosure: This was a gift to the girls several years ago that has been packed away for awhile. When you're child #4, your family sometimes suffers from too many toys. This was new to Holly, and practically new to all the other kids who had forgotten we even had it.) It's great for chasing on the kitchen floor.

Maggie wrote Holly a book. It's called The Little Holly Fiary. (Mags didn't know how to spell "fairy.") It's an adorable little book about three fairies named Holly, Maggie, and Adah. So sweet.

Adah gave Holly a bib that she and I sewed. Adah chose the fabric and did most of the work herself, including adding a flower detail across the front. I did the button hole and some of the top-stitching, but this was truly Adah's project for her baby sister.

Like any fashionable one-year-old, Holly finished her birthday with several new outfits and shoes. She loved carrying around these Robeez from Grandma and Grandpa. To be truthful, I think it was the handle on the box more than the shoes, although they are adorable. :)

After dinner we had a some friends join us for birthday cake: a purple crayon.

Yum!!

Agreed.

Happy Birthday, Holly! We can't believe it's already been a year. She is such an alert and funny little girl. She pays attention to everything and perks up at the slightest sound--birds, cars, airplanes, Daddy's voice. She's learning sign language and her first word was "Adah." We love having her in our family.

Zoo Snooze

Note: Check back later for updated information after I have the chance to interview Adah and Damon about their experiences.

In May Adah and Damon got the unique opportunity of spending the night at the Oregon Zoo. The "Zoo Snooze" is a program run by the Oregon Zoo and the school PTO organizes a group of 1st and 2nd graders every other year. Since I was still nursing Holly, it was a no-brainer which parent would take Adah to the overnighter. We decided that when Maggie's turn comes, I'll get a turn, too.

The Zoo Snooze began on Friday evening with special programs taught by zoo staff and volunteers. They got dinner and everyone rolled out sleeping bags in a couple of classrooms. I heard that they actually got a decent amount of sleep once the goofy noises and giggling stopped around 10:00. In the morning they were served breakfast and had some more scheduled programs before the zoo opened for general admission. The Zoo Snooze fee included zoo admission for the next day, so I brought Maggie, Gunnar, and Holly to meet Damon and Adah in the morning so we could all enjoy a day at the zoo together.

Our camera lens broke on the night of the Silent Auction at the end of April, so these photos are courtesy of a friend of mine who took her daughter to Zoo Snooze. She snapped a few of Damon and Adah throughout the event.

We broke for lunch at a little playground and ran into my friend and her family. Her husband brought their son to meet them, so we got a few more of her photos of the kids play.

We did see some live animals. We just didn't have the camera with us. The tigers, bats, and sea lions were some of my favorites.