Camping Trip, Part 3: A Walk in the Woods

After our morning by the river and lunch at the campsite, we took a drive on the main road through the Mt. Hood Forest.  It was partly exploratory and partly to get Holly to take a nap.

When we finally arrived at our chosen destination, a little hiking trail that led to a beaver pond, Holly had had a bit of the nap in the car but was still pretty sacked out.  Damon carried her along the trail, still sleeping, and eventually found a spot to recline himself.  Just beyond him you can see the pond with the trees from the opposite shore reflected in the water.

 

The path we took came along the side of the beaver pond that is to the left of this picture, and then it eventually wrapped around to dead end at this giant log.  We found the beaver dam, but no beavers.

 

Then we set off along a couple more fallen trees and then up a slope to return to the path.

I wasn't too nervous as we crossed the first tree. That's water to the right, but fairly dry land to the left:

However, this log bridge made me fairly nervous that someone was going to fall into that green murky water and I was going to have to jump in and save them.  I came last, very cautiously, with Holly.

 

Everyone made it. Whew!

 

Then we had to make our way up a slope back to the path, and this time we headed in a different direction, rather than wrapping back towards the beaver pond. 

The forest was full of fallen logs that criss-crossed each other and led over small ravines.  They made great jungle gyms.  We had a great time climbing up and down and over.

 

 

The best part of this was that when we left our campground after lunch and got in the car, we told the kids we were going for a bit of a drive and that we'd go on a hike.  They whined a bit, complaining that they didn't want to hike and just wanted to hang around by the river or the campsite.  As we drove back to our campsite in the late afternoon and asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was, they all answered, "The hike!" It really was a great one--more playing and goofing around than actual hiking, mind you, but we loved it.

The next day of our trip was Sunday and we spent the morning doing another easy nature walk on the paths around our campground. Then we drove out of the forest and into one of the closest cities to attend church.  We had a late picnic lunch at a scenic overlook before returning to camp, where we relaxed, read, and played games until dinnertime.  We had actually expected rain showers throughout the day on Sunday, but only got a few sprinkles, so that was a nice blessing.

On Monday morning we took our time breaking camp and getting in the car.  We drove home by a different route than we had taken Friday afternoon, basically going up and over Mt. Hood instead of around it.  We stopped for lunch at a cafe in Government Camp (where there was still snow on the ground) and then poked around Timberline Lodge (where people were skiing AND we ran into a Utah friend of mine who now lives about 40 miles away!) before finally rolling back into White Salmon, unloading, showering, and doing some laundry.

What a weekend! It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. I would have appreciated about 10 more degrees in warmth, flush toilets, and sinks for hand and face washing, but all in all it was a great camping trip. I'm glad we made the effort and did it. We don't camp a lot, but I always think we should do it more. We certainly are lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world and there are so many more campgrounds to explore!

Camping Trip, Part 2: Down by the Riverside

Just through the trees about 50 yards from our campsite was the Clackamas River.  We could hear it rolling along all night long, and it was a fun place to play in the morning sunshine.  The campground itself was very wooded, meaning lots of shade. Once out on the open rocky shore we were able to warm up--relatively--in the sun.

We probably spent two hours, at least, down by the river just playing among the rocks.

 

We had permission to collect firewood, which seemed only natural given all the downed trees (we figured we were doing them a favor), but the shadiness and spring rain meant that most of the wood we found was damp.  Out in the open, near the river, the wood got hit by that wonderful sunshine, so we were able to find lots of dry pieces and it became our favorite firewood-collecting spot.

 

Gunnar liked collecting river rocks to bring back home (I had to limit him) as much as he liked throwing them in the river.  What child (or adult) can resist throwing rocks into a body of water?

 

Mags found plenty to explore in the shallow water.

 

 

Holly and I went back to the campsite to get some snacks to enjoy riverside, and she insisted on wearing the backpack and carrying back all the juice boxes, fruit leathers, and granola bars.  She's an independent girl.

 

But she still loves to cuddle. . .

Camping Trip, Part 1: Campsite Fun

We went camping for Memorial Day weekend, starting on Holly's birthday.  Even though we began looking several weeks beforehand, it was difficult to find a campsite.  We finally made a reservation at Indian Henry Campground in the Mt. Hood National Forest, just along the Clackamas River.

The campground's website said that it had been closed due to fallen trees, but after several phone calls we learned that the loop we were on would be open....although, sadly, the bathrooms were down (= port-a-potties).  So, after our arrival and removing some branches from the tent site, we were able to set up camp, where we'd be for the next 3 days.

 

We enjoyed exploring the forest and the paths throughout the campground, but we also enjoyed time in our campsite.  One afternoon Damon helped Maggie and Gunnar play a boardgame on a makeshift card table. We also--never say it--brought our portable DVD player and watched some movies in the tent at night.  That's something I always thought was cheating while camping, but it was a good way to wind down the kids when it was too dark to be out of the tent, especially in the chilly, damp weather that we had that weekend.

 

Here's Adah doing a bit of reading by the fire--this girl is a bookworm if there ever was one:

 

Holly loved the fire. Heck, all the kids did. I don't know how we managed it, but we don't have a single kid afraid of fire.  When I was little, I had a very healthy respect for flames and left the fire tending to the bigger people. Not our kids! They all want to get in on the action and stick things in it. We had to be pretty vigilant to keep the bigger kids from setting a bad example for the littlest one, as we definitely didn't want her getting too close to the fire.

 

Here's Gunnar giving me a nice grin. You can see some scooters behind him. We got these for the kids a couple of summers ago after being on another camping trip and seeing other kids in the campground with them. They're so compact and easy to bring in the car that I was excited to bring them along this time. There were a few slips and falls the first morning because the road was slick, but mostly they were a fun diversion.

 

The campsite came complete with a log see-saw and a little friend next door. There was a very friendly 7-year-old who came over and played with our kids quite a bit. I think she and Maggie exchanged phone numbers before we left. 

 

The campground had some fun paths through the woods and near the river that we explored on little walks. We loved this hollow stump that we found just along the road that went through the campground.

 

 

Good campground.....if they had only planned ahead and had more than TWO port-a-potties for 100 people on a holiday weekend!  Eeeewww.

Too Two Cute

Holly turned 2 on May 25!

 

She knew just what to do on a school-day birthday: get dressed before opening presents.  (That actually wasn't required of her, but we wanted her big sisters to get a move on, and Holly has really taken to choosing and putting on--with some help--her own clothes, so she got dressed along with the big kids.)

 

Holly's first gift was chosen by Mom and Dad, but purchased with money sent by Nana and Gumpin (my parents). It's a Bilibo. 

What? You've never heard of a Bilibo?  It's kind of like Phineas and Ferb's Perry the Platypus Inaction Figure.  "It does absolutely nothing. Now it can be anything you want, like an airplane, or a race car, or maybe a bucking bronco. He can even turn a mean tango!"

Really, it's a toy that doesn't do anything so that you can do everything! Holly immediately made herself into a turtle.

 

She liked peeking through the holes--or showing me her nose. It's also really fun to sit in and rock or spin, or to give your dolls and stuffed animals a ride.

 

And it makes a great hat!

 

Grandma and Grandpa gave her a fun dinosaur book with googly eyes and a giant inflatable beach ball that hooks up to the hose and becomes a sprinkler for playing on the grass.  (Almost a month later now and we've only had about 3 days hot enough to actually use it! It's come out once so far.)

 

We gave her this soft and cuddly bunny. Aren't they two too cute?

 

Holly, of course, had to help make her birthday cake. She also, of course, had to lick the beater. Sorry, no photo of that here.

 

We made a chocolate chip cake with chocolate frosting.  It had to be pretty simple because we left on a camping trip on the afternoon of her birthday and the cake needed to travel.

 

After arriving at our campsite and setting up the tent, we pulled out the cake and candles and sang Happy Birthday in the growing darkness. It was a fun ending to a fun day and the beginning of a fun weekend.

 

 

At two, Holly is an adorable little blonde who can be charming and funny at home when she repeats phrases she hears from TV or other people, but clams up and becomes shy around other people. She really loves her older siblings and will run for her shoes when I announce that it's time to go pick them up. She likes to spin and dance to "Dancing Queen" or whatever other songs Maggie puts on. She'll happily go to nursery on Sundays, but only if Sister Lewis is there. She hasn't warmed up to the other teacher.

Holly loves to read the book The Monster at the End of This Book featuring lovable, furry, old Grover. When Grover says, "I'm so scared of monsters." Holly says, "Me too!" She also loves to wear her "bootsies," which are a pair of red rain boots that my mom bought for Adah at Woolworth's in the UK when Adah was 2 years old. All four kids have worn them and I love to see this last one taking her turn and loving them as much as the others did.

We love Holly!

Knock-Knock

Yesterday, Holly, who regularly hears her older siblings tell jokes around the dinner table, told her first complete knock-knock joke.

 

Holly: Mama, knock-knock.

Me: Who's there?

Holly: Oh-anj.

Me: Orange who?

Holly: Kiss?

Then she waited for a kiss.

Holly's been doing the "knock-knock" part for a couple of weeks, and the day before yesterday she had progressed to the "orange." I thought that was pretty smart of her to remember that "orange" is a typical knock-knock joke opener. However, when she just stopped at "oh-anj," I continued, "Orange you [aren't you] going to give me a kiss?"  So yesterday, she remembered the whole thing and did it herself.

Love it.  And it means I get one of her cute 2-year-old kisses, which are always sweet and rarely slobbery.

 

P.S. At bedtime lately Holly wants me to give her a kiss on the lips, something I tend to avoid with kiddos. She's heard me say "gross!" enough times after being forced to kiss her siblings on the lips that after she does the same to me, her automatic and immediate statement is "gose!" (Think "gross" without the R.)

It was a blast!

We've lived in White Salmon for 6 1/2 years now. During that whole time, some college friends of ours--Sterling & Julie--have lived four hours away in Seattle.  Until May, we've never gotten together. We kept talking about it, but just never made it happen until we found out Sterling was accepting a job transfer and they were moving back to Massachusetts!

Julie, Sterling, and their 2 sons

So in mid-May we met Sterling and Julie and their two boys at a hotel in Kelso, Washington on a Friday night. We had adjoining rooms and the kids played while the adults caught up. Everyone went to bed pretty late, but we made it up in time for breakfast and a dip in the hotel pool before heading up the highway to Mt. St. Helens.

We had been wanting to visit Mt. St. Helens and Julie had never been either. (Sterling grew up in Washington, so I think he'd been there before.)  Squeezing in a volcano visit with the McMillans before their departure seemed a great way for Sterling & Julie to combine two must-do activities before they left the Northwest.
We regularly drive I-84, the east-west freeway that connects Portland and the Columbia Gorge. I-84 is south of Mt. St. Helens, and from it, on a clear day you can make out the mountain's sloping sides and flat top in the distance.  I had never, however, seen the Mt. St. Helens from the north, and was amazed at what I saw as we drove up the mountainside towards Johnston Ridge Visitors Center, where I was keen to go and learn all about the May 18, 1980 eruption.

Look at that! It's as though the whole side of the mountain was just scooped out! I was in awe.

This photograph gives a little bit better perspective of where Johnston Ridge is and of the path of the debris rushing down from the mountain. 

As one of the rangers at the Visitors Center said of the mountain, "She didn't so much blow her top as lose her head." The whole side of the mountain had been bulging outwards, increasing by about 5 feet per day, in the weeks preceding the blast.  Then the pressure was just so great that the mountain basically just gave way and slid down, burying the forest for miles and miles and sending ash more than a hundred miles away. 

This view is to the northeast of Mt. St. Helens.

When you see the tall trees and green forest of the surrounding mountainsides, or even lower down on  Mt. St. Helens outside of the blast zone, it really helps you understand the magnitude of the dirt and rock that came rushing down/out of the volcano.  It has been more than twenty years and it is still pretty much a barren wasteland. 

Trees were sheared off, completely uprooted, and thrown downhill.  We could still see stumps and logs lying beside the paths.  The devastation wrought by the volcano was still so evident, and that was so amazing to me since it erupted two decades ago.  It was powerful.

 

The kids and adults alike really enjoyed the exhibits and activities at the Johnston Ridge Visitors Center and hiking up for more views of the surrounding valleys.  It's a bit of a drive to get there, since you have to go for about an hour east of the freeway (and for us, that's after coming west--it's the only way to get there), but it's definitely worth it.

 

The kids all got along with each other and the adults sure enjoyed catching up.  Damon and Sterling were freshmen at MIT together and have known each other since Damon joined the Church. I met Sterling after his mission, a year before I met Damon. The four of us were all in a ward together as undergrads and continued to socialize after we were married (about 6 months apart). Sterling and Julie even surprised us by showing up at our wedding reception in Salt Lake City! Even though they were living in Massachusetts at the time, they happened to be in Utah to see family a few days before our reception and arranged their plans to stay and see us.  The last time we'd seen them was at a going-away party ten years ago when they left Massachusetts for Washington.  Still, we'd always kept in touch and it was so great to see them and wish them well again before their next move.  With any luck, it won't take us another decade to see them again.

Project Early Bird

After returning from my  trip to Arizona and giving myself a few days to adjust to the normal routine, I launched an experiment which I have now dubbed "Project Early Bird."

I started getting up at 5:30 in the morning.

Are you sure about this?

That is a big deal for me. Really big. I like to sleep in. For most of our marriage, Damon has risen earlier than me, getting up and having breakfast with the kids and sometimes only waking me up when it was absolutely necessary for me to take over while he got in the shower.

Still, I had this big idea to start getting up early enough that I could exercise and shower before the kids needed me. I had several motivators for embarking on such an ambitious new schedule. I'm more productive once I'm showered and dressed. Holly is at an age where she can get into mischief and danger if left unsupervised for too long, so I can really only shower when she's napping or someone older (other than Gunnar) is here to keep an eye on her.  Over the last several months she has dropped a nap, and now her only nap of the day is a little later in the morning. If I wait for her to go to sleep, I'm not able to shower until after 11:00, and so I just tend to waste the whole morning kind of puttering around waiting for her to nap. I figured that if I could be showered and dressed before the girls leave for school, that would help me start my day better.

Also, I tend to stay up too late, and wondered if getting up earlier would leave me tired out and inclined to go to bed earlier.  One of the reasons I believe that I stay up late is because I need some time to wind down and do my own thing after the kids are in bed. I thought that, maybe, by getting up earlier, I could "fill my cup" before the kids were awake rather than recharging at the end of the day. I was skeptical about this potential benefit of my early rising, but willing to try it out.

So, is it worth it?
Turns out, I'm not getting to bed any earlier most nights. Instead, I'm just getting less sleep. I don't actually notice it too much, except at about 5:30 and 1 second when I've realized that the alarm is going off and I wonder if I'm crazy and can really drag myself out of bed.  Honestly, some days I do bail and get back in bed. And, some nights I know that I just can't get up at 5:30 the next morning. (I also manage to sneak in a few afternoon catnaps throughout the week, which helps.)

However, I have learned that I really like being showered and dressed before the girls leave for school. Often I still tend to lounge about and waste some time on the Internet after they leave, but once I come to myself and decide I ought to get on with the housework or some other project. . . I'm already dressed! So, on the mornings when I decide I need to sleep in a little and don't get up at 5:30, I get up at 6:30 instead (still early for me) and hop right in the shower.

I'm also getting more exercise. Although I have to have the TV turned way down low and all the lights off (so that when Holly wakes up at about 6:00 she'll go in our bedroom and fall asleep with Damon instead of coming out to the family room with me), it's so much easier to exercise without kids climbing on me, asking for a drink of water, or needing a diaper change in the middle of the workout. I've even spent some of my early-morning hours going for solo walks or working on a landscaping project in the part of our yard that's right by the street--both things that I can't really do when I'm home alone with the kids.

So, I'd consider my Project a success.  Dare I go so far as to call it a new lifestyle? Maybe.  Ask me in a few more months.

P.S. I do plan to continue it during the summer, but I might allow myself a 30-minute delay since there won't be the pressure of having kids dressed and fed and lunches made by the time Damon leaves for work.