Mt Tamalpais Trail Run

After watching (via the Internet) his brother Justin complete the 100-mile Run Rabbit Run trail race in Colorado, Damon decided it was time to train for another ultra-marathon himself. (Remember the Badger Mountain Challenge?) He signed up for the 50k Mt. Tamalpais Trail Run, and then went about inviting friends, co-workers, and family to join him. He got one taker: my brother Jed.

The race was on November 16, 2013. Damon's parents came up for the weekend. Damon's dad took him to the starting line early in the morning, and the rest of us joined them in the afternoon. We met my sister-in-law Joette at the finish line and awaited the runners.

Mid-way through the grueling (there was a ladder!) trail that went through the Marin Headlands up to Mt. Tamalpais, Jed realized that he was not going to make it the full 50 kilometers during the allotted time. He decided to shift to the 30k trail, and completed that in 5 hours and 44 minutes. We and he were all still very proud of this accomplishment. This was Jed's first long-distance running race ever.

Damon stuck it out and completed his 50 k in 7 hours 11 minutes 36 seconds. (The clock in the photo below says 7:13:02, but his official "chip time" was shorter since he was at the back of the pack at the starting line.) The kids joined him for the last 50 yards or so; that's Maggie next to him.

Here are the victorious runners. Can you tell who's been resting at the finish line longer?

Damon was exhausted. We let him relax on the grass for a bit, but then we dragged him to our niece's first birthday party before finally taking him home.

Jed declared that he NEVER needed to do anything like that again. He was glad he did it and felt proud, but had NO desire to ever do anything like it again . . . until Damon talked to him a few days later. He was already coming around to the idea of trying it again next year. 50k all the way next time!!

Sailing Away

Damon's been working on a new project, and it required the purchase of a remote-controlled sailboat.  Yes, required. I try not to get in the way. He does dishes. He bakes bread. He comes home from work at a very decent hour. And, as he reminds me, he "could be out drinking in some bar." So, if he wants to buy a sailboat every once in awhile, I'll be supportive.* 

The first Saturday in November was a lovely day with a light breeze, so he found a local park with a lake and we sent the boat out on its maiden McMillan voyage. (Maiden for McMillans since it is a used boat.)

Everyone got a turn steering.

We liked chasing the ducks.

After my turn (no photo of Mom, of course), I enjoyed sitting on a blanket on the shore, but the kids started wading in that chilly water. Adah didn't stop until she had built a little stick-and-rock fortress and was wet up to her bum.

Gunnar was pretty well soaked up to his waist, I believe. 

I don't know when I'll finally learn that if we go visit a body of water, my children WILL get wet. I should just bring extra clothes, no matter how cold it is or what other activities are on the agenda. They'll get wet.  I wasn't too happy about it, but they didn't mind, so I guess I shouldn't have either. I'm trying to mellow out and go with the flow...of water.

*If you really want to know more about Damon's latest endeavor, email or call him and ask about the Kinticky Project.

Adah's Summer Project: The Geodesic Dome

Sometime in late May or early June, Damon decided that Adah needed a summer project. He said he didn't want her to spend the whole summer just reading books. Yes, you read that correctly. For some reason he thinks she reads too much. (Is that possible?) Either way, it was a good idea for her to have some sort of goal to work towards during her vacation from school.

I was supportive of the idea as long as it was something Adah could do independently while her dad was at work or with minimal supervision by me. It wasn't that I didn't want to be involved, I just didn't want it to become a source of frustration between us when she needed help and I needed to be taking care of her siblings or other household duties.

I'm not sure how they came to the decision, but after knocking around lots of ideas, they finally settled on making a geodesic dome.  You know, like Epcot.

Or?

 

Don't ask me. I told you: this was their thing.

I do know that they found a website with some step-by-step directions for figuring out measurements and materials. No kits for them. Damon gave Adah guidelines, and Adah had to do math and shop online and check prices. Then one night they set out for Lowe's and bought a whole bunch of electrical conduit--basically metal pipes.

Adah measured and marked all the pipes for cutting and then she and her dad logged some chop saw time.

It was pretty awesome seeing those sparks fly. That's why Adah is wearing a sweater. It wasn't cold; she just wanted to protect her arms.

After all the poles were cut, Adah had to flatten the ends so that holes could be drilled in them. Damon attached a vise to their worktable for smashing them. Adah would go onto the patio to flatten a few poles at a time; she'd crank the vise round and round until each end was flattened. We didn't get any photos of that step in the process, but you can see the vise here:

On assembly day, Maggie was invited to help. The girls used a belt sander to grind off some of the sharper edges of the poles. Damon drilled holes in each flattened end. (Adah tried that part, but it required a bit more strength than she had.)

 

Then, it was time for assembly. First they laid out the pipes and connected the bottom perimeter.

Then they made triangles and began connecting them.

 

Higher....

...and higher:

I had to be called in for the final level. It was too high for the girls to reach.

Ta-da!! Isn't it the coolest backyard jungle gym ever?

Pretty cool summer project for a pretty cool ten-year-old, right? 

Pretty cool dad to come up with such a cool project, too.

Make-up Father's Day

Although my kiddos were excited to go to Utah in June, they were pretty devastated when they realized we'd be gone on Father's Day. I think one of them actually burst into tears. They love their dad. Damon was actually okay with us being gone that day; I mean, of course he missed us, but there were no tears. He got to spend the day with his father, and I with mine, which was kind of a treat for us.

So, when we were back in California the next Sunday, the kids gave their dad a belated Father's Day relaxation treatment. Maggie pushed together the chair and couch in the living room and then they piled up just about every blanket and pillow in the house for Damon to rest on.

I believe that the relaxation involved a bit of a hairdo, complete with barrettes. Damon's such an accommodating daddy. Gunnar also gave him a foot rub....with a brush. ???

. . . and a foot smell? or maybe this was part of the foot rub. I hope Damon enjoyed it. I can't speak for Gunnar.

Damon is such a great dad and it makes me happy to see that his kids recognize it. They didn't want to let Father's Day pass without giving him some special attention, however wacky it was. I'm grateful to have a husband who is such a great dad. He plays with his kids and provides for our family. He's especially great at swooping in and taking over the parenting duties when this stay-at-home mom has had enough for the day. What a guy!

An Overnight Guest

Damon often goes for walks during his lunch hour. His office is near park that has paths through a marshy part of the southern tip of San Francisco Bay. He spots all kinds of shore birds, frequently finds lizards, and occasionally sees snakes.

There's also a canal adjacent to the office parking lot. The canal connects to the bay marshes and is also a source of wildlife spotting.

One evening Damon brought us home a little visitor that he found on the bank of the canal.

 

 

This red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) is a semi-aquatic turtle that is actually not native to California. (I just learned that reading the Wikipedia article linked above.) We only had the turtle stay one night in our bathtub and then Damon returned him to the wild. I guess maybe we might have done the ecosystem a little favor if we'd kept him out of there (according to Wikipedia--the red-eared slider is becoming invasive in California!).

Everyone got a thrill out of his visit, and I got a bit of a spook when I heard him clunking around in the bathtub upstairs after the kids were all asleep and Damon was out of the house. I forgot he was there and couldn't figure out what that noise was! Luckily, as I creeped up the stairs to investigate I remembered. Then I just added a little more water to the tub and we were both happy.

This Month Is Such a Special One

November is birthday month in the McMillan-Wangsgard family. Damon's dad, Jillaire, Damon's brother, Damon, and Jillaire's sister-in-law (in that order) all have birthdays during November. Now that we're in California, we were lucky enough to do some celebrating with all of the McMillans this year.

Damon's parents were still twiddling their thumbs waiting for their new house to pass inspection before they could move, so we invited them to come visit for the weekend of Grandpa's birthday, which was also the Primary (children's Sunday School) program at church. On Saturday we all visited the San Jose Flea Market and then Grandma and Grandpa had take-out Thai with the children while Damon and I headed out for a date.

On Sunday, after church (where Adah and Maggie played a piano-violin duet), we had a birthday lunch, complete with a GIANT Costco cheesecake. Yum!!

We didn't have 69 candles in the house, but Damon and the kids got around that by using our "6" candle and 9 singletons.

Grandpa politely shielded the cake from any germs. : )

A week later, it was my birthday! It was pretty much a normal Monday of running children to and from school and doing laundry, but I don't mind that as long as I can end the day with my triple-layer Darn Good Chocolate Cake with my Mom's Killer Chocolate Frosting. Oh yes, it's as good as it sounds.

Maggie was in charge of embellishments. She used a heart-shaped cookie cutter as a stencil for pink and yellow sugar sprinkles. The extra candles (other than the 34) were merely decorative.

We had to do our Happy Birthday-ing and candle blowing in Adah's bedroom. Poor girl was not feeling well at all and had gone to bed with a cold and no appetite for cake. : (

 

Her bedroom also provided the perfect venue for Damon to give me my gift. He had hidden it behind Adah's sliding closet doors and gave me the choice between Door #1 and Door #2. Since he had already asked me if I "would be mad" if he got me a wireless printer for my birthday, I was quite surprised to find a new set of pots and pans (which I really wanted) behind Door #1. I figured that the printer must be behind Door #2. When I opened up to find a BANANA, I was very pleased (and relieved) by my original choice.

The results of that little birthday gift game show made it very easy to choose Damon's birthday gift: a wireless printer!! His birthday, which is 8 days after mine, happened to fall on the day after Cyber Monday, so I waited for the good sales and ordered it then, meaning he didn't get it in time for his actual birthday. 

This is the only photo I got to document his day. It's not a good one at all. The funny thing about it, though, is that he didn't even notice that I'd hung up the banner after he'd gone to bed the night before so it would be there to greet him at breakfast time. Damon takes a pretty low-key view of his birthday--lucky for me.

And, just because the only photo I got of the birthday boy was a lousy one, here's a bonus shot of him, along with Holly, sleeping on the couch after church. I'm really not sure who fell asleep first. I do know that he had come home from after-church duties and cuddled up on the couch with his little girl. What happened next was inevitable.

 

Why Damon's Missing from the Halloween Pictures

Poor guy. Damon had a business trip to HAWAII the week of Halloween. He spent his week in Kona on the island of Hawaii doing tests on the Wave Glider boat that his company makes.  It's an unmanned boat that is wave- and solar-powered. It goes around the ocean collecting all sorts of data. What you see below is just the above-water portion. There's also an underwater part that connects to the surface craft with an "umbilical." 

 

Here Damon's hanging off the side of a pier doing a test. He had to buy flip flops when he arrived and he came home with a nice tan line on the top of his foot.

 

It was a rough business trip, let me tell ya. One day some of the other guys didn't have their part of the project done, meaning Damon and his colleague had nothing to do. So, they went snorkeling.

Here's the rental car:

 

The hotel:

 

The wild turkey outside the hotel: (Okay, maybe that wasn't so luxurious--a little weird, even.)

 

Damon found this little guy on the patio at his hotel:

 

He's so tiny!

 

Damon got a real kick out of the airport and took several pictures for me.  The terminal was completely outdoors. Here's the entrance to security:

 

The gate:

 

Here he is waiting at the gate before flying home. He was just amazed that those planters were the only barrier between the gate and the tarmac.

 

We expect Damon to have more business trips to Hawaii in the future. I will DEFINITELY be joining him next time. I'm sure I could find plenty to do--or nothing to do (that sounds nice)--while he's working. If it hadn't been the week of Halloween and his parents hadn't been packing for their move, we totally would have bought me a ticket and left the kids with the grandparents on this trip.