Final Fall Camping Trip: The Next Day

Here are some cute kids after their night in the tent. Everyone slept pretty well, aided by our comfy pillows, which we didn't have room for on the last camp-out (after which I made a note to always make room for my pillow in the future).

 

 On the last trip I also made note of my cold ears and this time packed hats for everyone.

We got us up another great fire in the morning & had some pancakes for breakfast.

Then we broke camp, packed up the car, and re-parked the car near the visitors center so we could go hiking without worrying about getting back in time for check-out.

These morning rays of sun coming through the trees were just begging to be caught on camera. My family obligingly hammed it up in their poses.

Chosen One

Angelic Prayer

Shying Away

And here are just some cute poses of Maggie by a green pool:

 

We all crossed over this meager bridge. Here's proof that I was on the camping trip.

We saw several banana slugs. Here's Gunnar's foot for scale:

And the same slug by Holly's foot:

We finally settled down at a rocky shore by the creek. I claimed a spot in the sun while Damon and the kids did some more exploring.

 I found this butterfly softly resting on some of the rocks nearby.

 

Adah enjoyed getting her feet wet and playing in the water.

Holly looked at rocks. 

Gunnar rolled up his pant legs and got in a bit deeper.

...and reached a bit further....

Until he pretty much fell all the way in. The only dry thing for him to wear was Maggie's pink fleece. He was not loving that, (although I think he's smirking here, so maybe he didn't mind so much).

We eventually had to leave the creek and finish our hike. We were all getting hungry and wanted to get back to the car where our lunch--and dry clothes--awaited. We also had to get back for an afternoon birthday party for Gunnar and Holly and the Relief Society General Broadcast (a worldwide meeting for women) for me. I told you our weekends were busy!

Camping is fun, and even though it's hard work, I'm glad we make the effort. We always have a good time and make good memories with our kids.

Final Fall Camping Trip

We wanted to get one last camping trip in before the weather got too cold. Our Saturdays were looking pretty busy throughout the first months of school, but we finally found a weekend in late September when we could make it work. Damon got off work a bit early and we left as soon as the kids were out of school.  We were headed for Portola Redwoods State Park, a quiet little place not too far away in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Despite being a short distance away, the drive took awhile since it involved a narrow and winding road. Still, we arrived well before dark & got the tent set up before meandering down the road to the visitors center before it closed for the night.

We took an alternate path back from the visitors center along one of the park's hiking trails.

 

These tall trees never fail to impress me.

And there are always some great hiding spots. I love this photo because Maggie has her arm around Gunnar. She is wearing my old Brownie Girl Scout sash and Gunnar is wearing a homemade one, hoping to earn "badges" established by Maggie on the camping trip, like the River Badge. They had a lot of fun together on this camp-out.

The great part about camping with our children now is that they are old enough to help set up! Camping is fun, but can be so much work. Now that the kids have gotten bigger, they can take on responsibilities. While I made dinner, the kids got all the pads and sleeping bags unloaded from the car and rolled out in the tent. Then they set to work preparing for the fire, which is definitely the highlight of camping for my little pyromaniac family.

This was one of our better campfires, if you ask me. For once, we brought wood from home. We had some old fence boards that were nice and dry and burned quite nicely.

We had a great evening around the fire, roasting marshmallows, sitting, warming ourselves,

or just being silly!

 

I love this one of Damon looking at his girls. He's a great dad. He loves his kids.

And they love him!

 

More camping to come in the next post! I couldn't get all the photos to load into a single post.

White Salmon Trip & Roy Webster Swim

After just nine days of school we took a trip we'd been planning for a year: we returned to White Salmon for Labor Day weekend so I could swim the Columbia River.

Unlike our summer vacation road trip, this one set off with a more auspicious beginning: our minivan hit 200,000 miles!!

The euphoria, however, was short-lived. We'd actually been hoping to buy a "new" car before the trip and have the old van in someone else's hands before making the 700-mile drive to Washington. When the check engine light came on somewhere between Klamath Falls and Bend, we knew that car-shopping effort had not been misplaced. Still, we kept on truckin' and eventually made it to Bend in the wee hours of the morning. Damon's boss had graciously offered the use of his vacation rental there, so we had a comfortable free place to spend the night before our Safeway breakfast and final 3 hours on to White Salmon.

Immediately after crossing over the Hood River Bridge, we stopped for lunch at Killer Burger (home of the famous peanut butter and pickle burger) in Bingen and I couldn't resist snapping this photo of a logging truck rumbling past on Hwy 14.

Our next scheduled stop was at the schools so Adah and Maggie could meet up with some friends. We had enough time to drive through town  past our house. Then we parked just up the street from the elementary school, and as we strolled down to the front of the school I said to Damon, "Being here feels so . . . normal." "I know," he agreed.

I spent the afternoon at my friend Marisa's house while Holly and Gunnar played with her son Jack. Damon visited his old work place. We had dinner with other friends before finally landing at our weekend hosts' house for the night. Wayne and Jody Goodrich put us up for the whole weekend.

Saturday morning we stopped by the White Salmon library to see the best children's librarian in the world: Heidi.  After that we went to Mountain View Orchards, which is owned by our friend Lyle McAlexander. We picked peaches and bought apples from their bins.

 

Everywhere we went that weekend (Thriftway, Wal-Mart, the library, etc) we ran into someone we knew...even at the orchard. My friend, Brooke Whittle, who'd be swimming the river with me on Monday, also happened to be there picking peaches at the same time! I still really miss that small-town aspect of our White Salmon days--just knowing people almost everywhere we went.

On Saturday night we had dinner with our next-door neighbors, Jim and Cheri Anderson and their kids. (No photos!) We sure miss them and enjoyed catching up and spying over the fence into our own yard. As we stood in the Andersons' yard looking across at our house, now occupied by another nice family, I told Cheri, "You know, it doesn't feel like that's my house. I'm okay." She said, "Well, I still feel like it's your house!" They were such fantastic neighbors.

Sunday we got to attend church at our old ward, where again, it just felt very normal. We even sat on the same pew in the chapel where we used to sit! Most of the people we knew and loved were still there, but a few had also moved away. That afternoon the Goodriches hosted a spaghetti dinner with many of our good friends and we just got to hang out, visit, and catch up.

Monday morning was the big event, the real reason we'd come to White Salmon that weekend: the 71st Annual Roy Webster Cross-Channel Swim.

There were four of us planning to jump in together (below, left to right): me, Brooke Whittle, Lee Goodrich (Wayne's oldest brother; he flew in from Utah for this), and Ryan Van Sickle. Jody, who swam it with me two years ago, opted out this year, but she did volunteer to get up at 4:30 in the morning and drive us to the Hood River Marina. This photo was taken just after we checked in and were assigned to a flight. 

Each flight consisted of 10 people who would all jump off the Sternwheeler at the same time. (That boat lit up with the red lights across the marina is the Sternwheeler.) We were in Flight 14. That means there were 130 people who wold jump off before us. There were another 352 after us.

Swimmers in the water! Small sailboats, kayaks, and paddle boarders line the course to offer encouragement, resting spots, and rescue, as necessary. My good friend Yolanda and her husband were part of their volunteer crew in their kayaks. She's not a swimmer, but we convinced her to get up early and participate in this way and it was fun to see her as I swam past.

The water was actually pretty warm this year--I think they announced on the boat that it was 71 degrees, and a cheer went up from the crowd of swimmers. Still, I was in a full wet suit and appreciated the extra buoyancy. I felt better prepared this year than 2 years ago, both because I knew what to expect and because I think I trained more. I still don't know how fast I swam (since I don't know what time I jumped in), but I feel like I did better than last time, and that was my main goal. I was in flight 14 and I passed some people in flight 8, so that was also an indication that I was doing well.

 

Here's Lee with Roy Webster. Lee was the first of our foursome out of the water. I passed him at one point when he stopped at a boat to adjust his goggles, but he must have then motored passed me. He has done Iron Man competitions, and was sure fun to get to know during the weekend.

Here's Ryan. I totally beat him. I was proud of that since Jody had pegged Lee or Ryan to come out first.

Jillaire and Brooke! I'm so glad she did this with me. I really wanted to do the swim again, but if I hadn't had a friend also doing it with me, I don't know if I would have signed up. I think she felt the same way. Throughout the summer we texted each other about our training efforts, giving tips like, "Don't eat a McMuffin before swimming," or "You must get a spandex swim cap! It won't pull your hair!" Important stuff, and even though we were far apart it made it a fun joint effort. Brooke is a great friend.

However speedy I may or may not have been, it was--once again--too fast for my family. They got there too late to see me come out of the water! They misjudged the timing of when we'd jump off and how long it would take us in the water. Jody feels bad, as her whole family also missed Lee coming out, and she had been with us in the morning and then returned to her house to direct everyone out the door.

It's okay with me. It just gives me another reason to go back next year. One of these times Damon will see me come out of the river!

On the way back from the swim, we stopped by our house on Green Street to check in with our renters, and we also visited our neighbors across the street. The whole weekend we took every opportunity to see old friends, even if it was just for a moment, and we were so happy to find most people at home & with time to chat.

After a nap (for me) back at the Goodriches' we spent our afternoon in the White Salmon park meeting up with more friends. We had made an open invitation to all our friends via Facebook and at church on Sunday to just come and hang out with us at the park. Lots of people showed up and my childhood friend Katie even came out from Vancouver! It was really a great way to finish our trip. We left from there for dinner at Beneventi's (local pizza joint) & then onto Bend for the night before the full-day drive to Sunnyvale on Tuesday.

It was a whirlwind weekend cramming in so many social calls and events, but we really did get to see so many people & favorite places; there's very little that we missed. It was a great visit to a place that was our home for seven years.