Not working....not working.....

Why does everything break at once?

Well, I know that it doesn't...it just seems that way. Just for my own clarity of thought, I wanted to list here all of my broken things that need to be fixed/replaced. I guess this is also my Christmas Wish List!

--Stove Top (I really only have one working burner)
--Washer and Dryer (they are so close to DEAD. Washer isn't turning...might have to put a set on our credit card...yikes! DON'T want to do that!!!)
--Computer (Yeah, that's right...I have no access to all my family pictures! I just hope we can recover all our information at some point!!!)
--Digital Camera (it's just KILLING me that I've missed 3 birthdays and 2 Halloween parties, with no camera to record my cute kids in pictures! I can't sleep at night when I think about it.)
--Vacuum Cleaner (It hasn't ever really worked well since our van ran over it!)
--Computer Chair (Scott leaned back....and he kept on going when the back wheels snapped off! Now we're always stealing the kitchen chairs so we can sit at the laptop, and the kids complain when they come to dinner and their chair is missing ;P All the drama is kind of funny, actually.

I think we'll be spending a lot of time on Craigslist!

It seems like the list of broken things always piles up right before Christmas. I guess it's good practice for us to learn how to tighten our belts and really watch our finances. Last year it was having to replace our water heater. The year before, we spent thousands on doing some necessary house upkeep, including slicing off a portion of our wood shed. This year we had to pay off some medical bills, so our little list of needs & wants will just have to wait a while to be addressed.

I'm just SO grateful that Scott has good steady employment. The Lord has always blessed us to have plenty for our needs. We don't want for food or clothes, or anything else, for that matter!!! So I'll be counting my blessings and crossing my fingers that I won't have to learn how to wash our clothes by hand next month! I know the Lord has blessed us abundantly for paying our tithing. Bags of clothing for my kids miraculously appear on my doorstep, friends and strangers give me BOXES of homeschool supplies & books, offers of free furniture seem to pop up just when we most need it...and most of all, we've been SO blessed with a ton of free firewood...we'll be warm this winter --hurray!




As long as our van doesn't break down, I think we'll be okay! (KNOCK ON WOOD)

My grown-up birthday wish list

When I was young, birthdays were about late nights at Chuck E Cheese, Halloween themed birthday cakes, and lots of special attention from family and friends. A paper birthday crown, kisses and hugs, and lots of laughter and presents. I loved all my dress-up costume parties. Such sweet memories!

When I was a teenager, birthdays were about hanging out with friends and getting new clothes. Mom would make our favorite breakfast and lunch. Sometimes we'd get to go out to a restaurant. Once on my 18th birthday, my Mom and Dad even came to school in the middle of Choir class and surprised me with a giant bouquet of roses, balloons, cards and presents. My peers were flabbergasted. Their parents never went to such extremes to show love and attention on their birthdays! They wanted to make fun of me for my parents coming to school and singing to me in front of the whole class, but most of them just couldn't. Maybe it was because they were so pleasantly surprised at my parents' sincerity...or maybe they were a little jealous.

When I was a young married, birthdays were about getting to go out on a special date with your spouse. My husband would spent every waking moment making sure I felt like I was Queen for the day. My wish was his command.

Now that life has evolved to constant chaos of five growing kids, my wish list was developed from necessity and desperation for cleanliness and order.

Here's a copy of the wishlist I gave Scott last week:

A clean garage
A working stove top
A working vaccuum
A Clean Garage
New frying pans
A tidied backyard

It's interesting to compare my current wish list with those of my past, because I see how my needs and circumstances have changed. Wow, I guess my priorities and daily desires have altered! There wasn't a single book on that wish list! It makes me wonder what my wish list will look like in 5 more years.

But Scott must have known what was in my heart...because he actually did get me a book for my birthday! Yay for thoughtful hubbies!

In fact, I was pampered and cared for beyond all belief on this, my 33rd birthday. Today I have been overwhelmed with gratitude for all the blessings God has given me in my friends and family.

Here's a quick summary of my Birthday Fun:

The night before, a good friend made me the most amazing delectable dark chocolate coconut filled "MOUNDS" cake. It was amazing. She threw me a little party get together. Girl talk is so relaxing and fun! The night was a blast! I laughed and smiled so much my face began to hurt!

I came home and played with my new family pictures, and went crazy rehanging half of all the pictures in my house. My husband was patiently tolerant of this, because all he really wanted was for me to go to bed so he could make me a birthday surprise.

I went to bed at midnight, but poor Scott decided to stayed up till 3 a.m., cleaning the kitchen, and cooking a whole-wheat, no sugar (honey only) 3 layered pumpkin cake with honey vanilla filling, and dark Ghiardelli chocolate frosting. Then after that he still let me sleep in till about 9:30 a.m.!!! I haven't slept in that late for over a year!

Scott cooked me banana french toast and sausage for breakfast, and a yummy casserole for dinner. And he cleaned! My man knows that the quickest way to my heart is a clean house!

My Mom stopped by to give me presents, and then my sister took me out to eat for lunch. That afternoon the kids and I watched The Tale of Desperaux (gift from my sister) .

Instead of a birthday wish list, what I should have written was a birthday gratitude list:

I am grateful for my dedicated, loyal, loving husband of 13 years.

I am thankful for my 5 beautiful healthy, happy children

I am grateful for good friends both far a near who give me love, friendship, and great examples to follow.
I am thankful for loving parents who support me all the way,

I am eternally grateful for My Saviour Jesus Christ and his unconditional gifts of love, forgivness, and resurrection.
I am also thankful for my membership in The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which gives me peace, direction, and purpose in all that I do.

I am thankful for all good books from Scriptures to history to fiction Stories that give me knowedge, values, wisdom, and a foundation from which to measure and view all things.

I am intensely grateful for a free country with laws established by our constitution...may it stay free!

I am grateful for the many liberties I enjoy from freedom of speech to freedom to homeschool.

I am thankful for good health, enough wealth, and a great home.

If every Holiday and Birthday I made a thankful list instead of a wish list, I bet I would be happier, healthier, and wealthier...from not spending so much $$ on presents...ha ha!

Today I turned triple 11, 3x my eldest child's age. The age of 33 is bound to be a great year!

Thankyou, everyone for the best birthday ever.

Moving up in the world!

All my kids are growing up so fast! They are moving up in the world! Here are some recent updates on my kids to show how quickly they are changing and maturing.

Julianna, almost 17 months old now has said several new words this week. "Bear" "Star" "Moo" &"Bye bye" (more clearly now anyway) and she sang the melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! I love it when my babies first figure out how to sing! All of my kids have been early singers. Christopher could sing a whole repertoire of songs by the time he was 18 months, but Courtney was my earliest singer. She learned how to sing when she was only 9 months old! Funny, but she hardly sings at all now. She's usually too busy pulling headstands. Julianna is also learning how to run. She hasn't quite figured out how to climb yet, but I actually saw her CRAWL for the first time last week! She can crawl a little, after she's been walking for3 months!

Angel has now been promoted to the chore list. Starting in September she got her official first "chore". Emptying the silverware out of the dishwasher has been the very first chore each of our children have received. In the past, some of our kids have had a hard time with this transition. Not Angel! Her entire life was spent watching her older siblings do chores. So, for her, this was a HUGE boost! Her very first day, she was so proud of herself! She even does it now without being asked! It's just the beginning on the long road of learning to take care of herself and serving others in the family.

The other big news on Angel is that she is POTTY TRAINED!!! She still has accidents...but for the most part, she wears underwear full time, even to bed! The only thing holding her back from 100% completion is that she still refuses to sit on any of the "big" potties at any store. They terrify her. She is only willing to use "regular" small potties at peoples houses. Which means when we go out for the day, Angel has to wear a pull-up, or I have to haul a portable kid potty. It's quite a pain, we're hoping she grows out of it sometime this year.

Angel is also participating in a preschool Co-op. This is a huge source of joy and satisfaction for Angel. She is loving it. She feels so grown-up to have an activity that is just for her. At first, I was hesitant to commit to participating, but I'm so glad that I did. Once ever five weeks, I plan 2 days of preschool for five 3-year olds. It has been so much fun so far! My older kids are a little jealous. None of them got to do anything quite like this.

Courtney has been promoted in her chores. Now she has been moved from emptying the silverware to unloading the rest of the dishes with Dorathy. She is also learning to do dishes as well as clear and wash all the tables and counters. She has her own assigned "zone" of the house she is responsible to pick up every night. For all the changes, she is handling it very well. She is a champion dish washer, and loves washing the dishes by hand. I think her love of water and bubbles helps her out.

Courtney is also participating in YMCA gymnastics. It has been a sacrifice to drive to Independence 2x a week, but I think we'll keep on doing it. Courtney is really enjoying the gymnastics class. It is just second nature to her.

Dorathy is learning to be a chef. She is a girl who loves food. She hates sandwhiches, and so one day during the lunch hour when she was hungry she offered to cook for all of us. All on her own with no help, she made "Tortilla pizzas" for the whole family! I think that means she's ready to learn more cooking! She's got a real eye for balance and beauty; when Dorathy cooks, she's not just making a meal, she's creating art. Dorathy would do great in a 4H cooking class at some point, she really goes for the "presentation". She's the kid who at 5 years old made little "Italy Flags" to stick in everyone's pieces of lasagna. What a character!

Dorathy is enjoying her art lessons very much. She tells me she wishes the classes were several times a week instead of just once. Right now, she's learning water color. Both Dorathy and Courtney spend hours drawing. It's fun to see how they pay attention to eachother's art work, and bounce ideas off each other. When Dorathy and Athena draw, or Ivy and Courtney draw, they tend to reflect one another's artistic style. It's interesting to watch. I think Dorathy draws as good as I did when I was 11, and Courtney already draws as I did when I was 8. I never spent a lot of time drawing as a kid, I just preferred watching my sister draw instead!

Christopher is now ELEVEN YEARS OLD! I can't believe it. He's entering the pre-teen years! Lots of things are headed his way! He is now participating in 11 year old scouts. He is really enjoying it. He's already gone to his first overnight campout. He had a blast. He put up his own tent with zero help. I don't think I could do that without help! (I've forgotten)

Christopher has graduated from emptying the dishwasher and has now moved on to more interesting chores...like mopping! Christopher changed his first diaper last week. He's been dreading that for years, but we're finally requiring him to learn it as he is currently in training to be our babysitter! According to Oregon law, a kid is old enough to stay home alone at 10 years old, and old enough to babysit when they turn 11. I was so worried that he wouldn't be ready to step up to that responsibility, but he's really almost there!

I'm going to design a little home "babysitting class" for him with a few more things he has to complete and check off before he's babysitting ready. We already had a short trial run, and I came home to find that Julianna's diaper had fallen off and she was playing in the potty...SO we have some work to do! Christopher's excited to give it another try. Scott and I will have our first date be at home, while Christopher watches the kids at our own house. Then we'll eventually move to the point where he's watching the kids after we've already put them to bed, and we're in town a close phone call away.

Anyway, you can tell we've been thinking about this....we've got a plan! It's so much fun to watch these amazing kids growing up!

September Family Vacation 2009 part 2

Sorry these posts are so long, but since I'm using this blog as a family history I am now going to record the second half of our September camping trip! Optional reading below! Since my Camera was broken, I'm borrowing pictures off of the Web.

September 18th

Our first day at Mt St. Helen's we had perfect weather! It was sunny and got up to 85 degrees! Of course it was much cooler up closer to the volcano, but I was just SO excited to get to see the mountain with clear visibility! The last 2 times I had been there, it was gray, overcast, and drizzly. No fun! This picture below shows exactly what the mountain looked like when we were there.
After Julianna's morning nap, we drove up to the tippy top at Johnstone's ridge Observatory. We had some beautiful views! You could see right into the crater! You could even see volcanic vents in the cracks in one side venting steam. It was so awesome! We took a very very short hike since the kids were hungry and cranky. We played around at the visitor's center for a few hours and watched the movie twice. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch. Julie and Angel both had a few temper tantrums from sheer exhaustion. On the way home, we decided to stop at their forestry center. Their exhibits were closed, but they had a wonderful park! We played there for about 2 hours until dinner time. We were too worn out to do much besides go back to camp, cook, eat & sleep. But the kids had had a terrific day learning all about the history of Mt.St. Helens and volcanoes in general. They park had a miniature Mt St Helens, and they all took turns climbing to the top and proclaiming themselves ruler of the volcano. Courtney was the first to climb to the top.



Saturday, September 20th

This was a big day. We left as early as we could after breakfast and took a long 2 1/2 hr drive to the south point of Mt. St. Helens. I had heard great things about the "Ape Caves", so named for the Boy Scout Troop who discovered it. (They called themselves the Mt. St. Helens Apes) They are one of the longest Lava Tubes in America. A Lava Tube is formed from an ancient lava flow. 3,000 years ago, Mt. St. Helens had a rare lava explosion. The lava flow cooled around the outside, but the lava still ran through the center, like milk through a staw. After several weeks (or months), the liquid lava ran out, and the tube was left hollow. We only discover lava tubes beneath the ground when a part of the roof collapses. These lava tubes at Mt. St. Helens were SO LONG. I had been under the impression it was an easy hike, but even the easiest route proved challenging or my little ones. We didn't dare touch the upper caves where you are required to scale 8 foot walls of boulders!

The only kid who really enjoyed it was Christopher. I also didn't expect that it was entirely undeveloped. No rangers go down there with you. There are no artificial lights. You are suppose to bring your own propane lantern and flashlights. It is PITCH BLACK down there, and a flashlight would never be good enough to make it through those tunnels. We ended up having to rent a propane lantern. At least we brought several flashlights! You really need both to hike safely, though, so be warned!

At first, everyone did okay. The tunnels were windy and cold, but it was sort of fun being in the dark with a great echo. But after an hour of hiking in the dark with REALLY RUGGED terrain underfoot, the kids got really weary....and bored. It's not like the Timpanogas Caves in Utah with beautiful colorful formations to examine. And it's nothing like Carlsbad Caverns. These lava tubes looked like an empty train tunnel with jagged uneven ledges all over the place. The top of the tubes looked like a subway tunnel.

Geologically speaking, it was fascinating, but it was over the heads of our little ones. We ended up making it to the very end of the tunnel where they have a small crawl space. The kid wiggled through on their bellies to get to a room at the very end that only little kids could reach. Christopher and Courtney were the only ones brave enough to make it. By this time Julianna had just had it. She was wailing non-stop. She was cold, hungry, and tired...but we were not allowed to bring food of any kind to cheer or warm her. All we could do was trudge the long hour back to the beginning. We sang lots of songs to lift the monotony, and to keep our sanity since by this point Julianna was wailing so loud we were silently praying that she wouldn't cause the lava tubes to collapse! Poor Scott had a terrible headache. Poor Julie was just sure we were torturing her. There was no point in stopping, though. The only thing we could do was endure on the way out. I had to carry Angel all the way piggyback since she just refused to walk another step. SO...I recommend this hike for kids 9 and up!

If I had been a wise woman, I would have called it a day and let my Honey just take us back to camp to relax. But no. I've inherited this mentality from my Dad, that when you go on a trip YOU PACK AS MUCH FUN INTO EVERY SPARE MINUTE THAT YOU CAN, and the more you do and see, the better. I had heard amazing things about the Lower Falls of the Lewis River. And we were only 45 miles from an amazing waterfall! I really wanted to see it, and check out the campground there to decide if we wanted to make a visit another year. So my sweet Hubby acquiesed.

The drive took longer than I expected...over 2 hours! I should have realized in the mountains that would happen. By the time we got there, Scott was exhausted and really put out with me. I took Christopher and Courtney on a super short hike where we gazed in wonder at a truly amazing falls for 30 + minutes. Scott, baby, Dora, and Angel all just wanted to stay in the car, but we went back and convinced them that it was worth seeing. It was only a 2 minute walk from the car. You could hear the water roaring from the parking lot, even though it was the dry season!

This one water fall looks like a minature niagra falls. It was so lovely. It had about 5 different falls on different sides of the ledges. The only scary part was: there are nearly no railings separating you from the falls. You can also walk right down to the water above the falls. There are signs everywhere warning you not to put even your foot in the water since the water looks deceptively safe...but people are swept over the falls to their deaths every year. So...as beautiful as it was, we are not going back there for many many years. I was terrified to put Julianna down for even a second. So...it was a really amazing view, but not worth the extra 3+ hours it cost us.

By the time we drove back into any kind of civilization, it was after 7 p.m. and we were all starving. We ended up going to a Chuck E Cheeses at a mall. The kids had a blast. Especially Julianna who really made up for the hours being trapped in the car by running around like crazy. She also ate about 4 pieces of pizza! The poor girl was starving! She was making up for all those dinners she had missed so far on our vacation. Embarrassing story: while running around playing, she actually walked right up to a family, took a piece of pizza off of a boy's plate, and stuffed it in her mouth! I was mortified, but all I could do was apologize for my 15 month old baby and offer to pay for the piece of pizza. The ladies (who were from India) were very gracious about it, considering Julianna stole it from THEIR baby!

Sunday, September 21st.

On Sunday Scott really just wanted to stay at camp and have our own Sacrament meeting. But I felt strongly that if there was a church ward nearby, we should at least attend Sacrament. Trying to clean up while camping and STAY CLEAN in your Sunday clothes long enough to get to church is a real production!!! It took us around 2 hours to get everyone showered and dressed. But despite all the hustle, and getting lost trying to find the chapel, I am so glad we went! Castle Rock, Washington has a lovely ward! They were so kind and welcoming! They went to a lot of trouble to make us feel at home. I'm glad that my kids got the opportunity to go to a primary far from home and discover that they worship the same, and sing the same songs, etc.

Back at camp, we finally got to relax and rest. It was a lovely day. We met several nice new families, some of them homeschoolers at our Campground park. It was nice to get to share some about our religion and our homeschooling adventures. One family from Atlanta (who are Jewish) were touring the country with their 4 young children. They had been on the road for 3 months! They were hoping from National Park to National park! What an experience that must be! We were very impressed.


Monday, September 21st.
This day ended up being everybody's favorite! We took at day trip to Mt. Rainier! I've always been in love with Mt. Rainier. It is "my mountain"! For the year and a half I lived in Redmond, Washington, I could see mountain right outside my window!

We thought it would be a long 3 hour drive, but it ended up being only 2 hrs. I had misinformed my children: most of my memories of Mt. Rainier were in Spring or summer when the mountain was smothered in snow! So my kids thought it would be a short hike to the glaciers. They were looking forward to throwing snowballs and sliding down glaciers like I had seen so many people do at Mt. Rainier. I hadn't taken it into consideration that the tailend of September was the END of the dry season! The mountain was still gorgeous, but it had hardly any snow on it! The mountain streams and waterfalls were nothing but a trickle compared to their usual gusty show.

When we arrived we enjoyed a short hike up to a waterfall area. We had a great view of the mountain (perfect warm clear weather!!!) and a lovely scene of all the mountain meadows. It's not as breathtaking as it is in early summer, when the fields are filled with bright wildflowers, and yet the snow is still impressive. But considering that the mountain is shrouded in mysterious clouds 300 days out of the year, we were so glad to get a good view!

One year when my sister and I went hiking there as teenagers, we saw several Marmots (mountain prairie dogs-like creatures) who would pop up out of their burrows and squeak at us. We didn't see much wildlife this time around, but the incredible presence of the mountain was enough to satisfy each of us!!! The kids loved it, and were making songs up about it. Angel was singing so endearingly, making up songs about the berries growing up along the pathways that were for the birds, she got a whole audience of adults who stopped to liesten. Our kids were so cheerful and sweet we got many kind compliments from other visitors that day. The only unhappy one was Christopher.

He was so sure he could make it to a glacier if we just let him hike on by himself! He had no clue that the mountain which looked SO close was very very very far away, and there was no way he could reach those glaciers without some serious mountaineering gear! (and a week of long 20 mile days) I'll just have to take my kids to Mt. Hood one of these days in the winter to do some sledding!

One of the neatest parts of our stay was the brand new visitors center! It was beautiful. The sides of the walls were made entirely out of glass so it felt as if the mountain just encompassed you. There were lots of cute kid exhibits and hands on stations. And of course, they had a well-done movie. My kids are now very knowledgable about the life cycle of destructive volcanoes. Every once in a while, they would need assurance from Scott or I that the mountain wasn't about to erupt THAT VERY MOMENT.

Here is the front desk at the new visitor's center

Truthfully, Mt. Rainier is the most dangerous volcanoe in all of the Cascade range, even if it's not frequently as active as Mt. St. Helens'. It is 300 years overdue for a major eruption. When Mt. Rainier finally goes it will cause cataclysmic destruction. With all the snow on top, the mudflows could actually reach Puget Sound. Because of this, and some nightmares I had frequently a few years ago, it was quite amazing that I got Scott to let us go to Mt. Rainier at all! A while ago I kept on having dreams that when I had finally taken my family to visit Mt. Rainier, it erupted, and we had to be evacuated by emergency rescue helicopters. I admit it was really freaky when I stepped into that new visitors center, and it looked exactly like the one in my dream! Thankfully, I am not a prophetess, and our visit was a joyful one uninterrupted by earthquakes and lava flows.

I had to put a picture of a rescue helicopter just for fun...
just because we didn't need to ride in one! :)

Tuesday, September 22nd

This was our last day of vacation. It went so quickly! But as much fun as we all had, we were ready for it to end! We wanted to go back to sleeping in our own beds! I wanted to go back to being clean and having clean kids! I couldn't wait to get back to all the work and homestuff that had been on the back burner for weeks, but I was totally dreading it at the same time.

On the last day of our trip, we were woken up by Julianna at 6 a.m. I heard her say her very first sentence!

"No, I don't want to!" she said it as clear as day...several times in a row! I thought at first it was Angel talking in her sleep, but no, it was the baby imitating what she had heard Angel say through the whole trip! She then proceeded to go through her entire vocabulary for our benefit: "Ball! Bo-Bo! Up, Down! Hot...hot hot. (we'd been trying to teach her this because of our campfire) HI! Bye bye." It was so funny to hear her testing all her new words. She's said them a few times since, but not regularly. Now that's she's home, she's back to pointing and grunting to get what she wants. *sigh* I need to take away her bo-bo so she'll talk. I need to get back to teaching her baby signs. The only word she says consistently EVERYDAY is "Ball!"

That morning at 7 a.m., I woke up all the kids and we walked down across the highway to Silver Lake. (We let Daddy sleep in) We took a nice leisurely 2 hr walk around the shores of silver lake through a wilderland of marshes and wetlands. It was a nice boardwalk over the marshes, with lots of signs labeling different plants and animals. I wish that we had brought our nature notebooks from our homeschool so we could do some sketches. But as it was, the kids had a terrific time spotting birds, ducks, fish, spider webs , and other plant and animal life.

When we came back to camp, we packed everything up and took one more fun trip. We went across the street from Seaquest State Park, and we visited the official Mt St. Helens visitors center. Out of the different museums we checked out, this was the kids favorite, because it has a model volcano to crawl through! The have a clever display that makes it look like you are looking into a magma chamber miles below the earth's surface. My kids were so impressed! At first Courtney was entirely freaked out, so sure that the lava down there was REAL.

Our drive home only took 2.5 hours, and it was so great to be back! It was not so great to deal with the overwhelming piles of laundry, however. I was only home 30 minutes before I drove Courtney to her first Gymnastics lessosns. Back to homeschool and the old grindstone!

This was a wonderful family camping trip, and it was really neat to visit some places with our kids for the first time! I really loved exploring more of the wondrous sites to see so close to home!!!

September Family Vacation 2009 part 1

Wow, it has been forever since I have written a post! And sad to say, I have no cute family vacation pictures because my camera broke on trip day #2!

September has been an incredibly wonderful month. Scott had 3 weeks of vacation time, and he decided to take it all at once! That is the most vacation time he's ever had. Now that he's used it all up, he has zero time left, but it was worth it to have such a nice long break. Now we're talking about taking no vacation for 2 years so that in the future we could take a 2 month road trip to see the whole country. Wouldn't that be grand! We'd take the kids to New England to see lots of historical sites, and then go through all the Church History sites on the way back! Someday! I know it would be really hard for us to go without a vacation for that long, though.

For our camping trip this year, we ended up deciding to stay close to home. Scott wanted to go SOUTH, and I wanted to go NORTH, so it took us a while to choose what we were going to do. Our budget, however, helped us make that decision. No Disneyland trips this year! We would spend the first half in Astoria, and the second half near Mt. St. Helens. We must have bad luck with flat tires, though. Last vacation we had 3 flat tires total. This year we started out with a flat tire! We also had to replace our chain and electrical cord twice! OUCH as the $$$ went away before we even officially began our trip. We spent all day packing and cleaning. We were finally ready to pull out at 3 p.m. when we noticed that our trailer had a flat tire. Scott put on the spare, we drove to Mcminnville, and then let our old friend Les Schwab fixed it up.

The weeks before our vacation were just crazy. Teaming up with my sister Mary Cate, we canned a total of 400 lbs of peaches, and over 400 lbs of pears. Scott and Mary and Christopher were out chasing bee swarms, and I was trying to gear up for homeschool and stake conference. All this chaos made it really hard to get out of the house! Not to mention, that Scott was under pressure trying to get about 5 cords of wood chopped before the rainy season hit. We were so grateful to get a break from the constant work. Camping work is a breeze compared to everything we were doing! There are only so many chores to be done in a 20 foot by 20 foot area. :) Then there's just the fire, the stars, good books, and great company!

Monday, September 14th

We arrived at our campsite in Fort Stevens by 6 p.m. and barely had enough time to fully set up and start a fire before it was bedtime. That night we discovered 2 rascally raccoons living close to our campsite. They were NOT scared of us at all! We threw a piece of wood at them, trying to scare them away, but all they did was come fully out of the bushes to pat and sniff it to see if it was edible. Geez. That made us decide to be REALLY careful about our food. Raccoons are pretty darn clever and can get into coolers. I'm just glad they didn't find a way into our tent trailer!

Tuesday, September 15th Today was Courtney's Birthday! I can't believe she is 6 years old today! Julie woke up at 6:20 a.m. today, and I took her for a nice long walk and we explored all around the campsite while the other family members slept in. We found the park, amphitheater, ranger station, and bike trails. Then we came back and made oatmeal with peaches and cream. YUM.

Then while Julianna took a morning nap, Scott took the older 4 kids to go explore the military batteries. They took some flashlights with them and crawled around the military installation. Fort Stevens was an important military base during WW2. They also checked out the museum and discovered that the base was shelled by a Japanese Submarine! Never knew that!

While Dad and the kids were having fun, I was waging war...against a very naughty sneaky ground squirrel. Once again, he was so tame, he'd come within an inch of me for food. I kept trying to scare him away. But nothing frightened him off. I couldn't stand to see him standing on our picnic table, eating mics. crumbs the kids had dropped on the ground. I just knew he would poop where we would be eating meals later! AARGH!

He'd pick up a piece of food from the ground, then stand on top of the table to eat it. After about an hour of active warfare, he disappeared for a while. I thought I had won! I faced my chair towards the spot in the bushes where he always popped up, thinking that way I'd know if he was coming back. WRONG! I saw him zip by me with a full piece of bread, and I managed to give chase and make him drop it. Then I discovered the squirrel had sneaked behind my back, crawled into the baby stroller, and gotten into my morning snack I was saving and had all wrapped up.

That darn squirrel had opened the package and taken my bread! I was so mad! The funny part is, after I chased the squirrel and it had dropped the bread, it ran in to the bushes and it CRIED! I'm not joking. It literally huddled in there and cried for about 5 minutes. It sounded like a little toddler having a tantrum. Needless to say, I had to throw my snack away. I didn't get to eat my bread, but at least that naughty squirrel didn't get it either! All the kids laughed their heads off when I told them this story. But Angel was very disturbed, and took our interloper very seriously. She later told me, "We got to get that naughty squirrel! When you catch him we'll need to spank it, then smash it, and throw it in a garbage can!" Yikes. I never knew Angel to be so aggressively violent! She's usually the tender-hearted one. I thought she would be the kind to tell me to stop chasing it so we could keep it for a pet. NOPE.

That afternoon, we all packed up and went to Sunset Beach (within our campground area!). It was the PERFECT DAY at the beach! 80 degrees, sunny, and NO wind! It was so nice, that the water didn't feel too Freezing! (haha) When Julianna saw the beach she got SO excited. She ran right for the water...no fear. I've only had a handful of splendid days at the beach, but this definitely ranks in the top 5! We stayed for 3 hours: playing, walking, exploring. This beach had a old shipwreck that was pretty cool to see up close and touch.

I found out that Courtney is still so terrified of the water, she won't go within 100 feet of it unless she is carried. And since she is WAY too heavy for me to lift, she spent the whole time playing in the dry sand hundreds of feet away from the surf. She wasn't about to take any chances! Scott dug a giant hole big enough for all the kids to stand in! Then he stepped in it, and the kids buried him up to his head. I got some HILARIOUS pictures! Then we buried Christopher and Courtney up to their heads. I got some great pictures of that, we were all laughing our heads off at the funny faces they would make in the pictures. Then I made a giant throne out of sand and had "King Daddy" sit in it for more poses. All the kids (and me) got a chance to sit in it. The kids decorated it with bird feathers. Then, while I was laughing at the funny antics of Daddy and the kids, I DROPPED MY CAMERA IN THE SAND.

2 years ago, a small piece of the top of the camera fell off of it. For while I just taped it on, then it fell off and got lost, leaving a gaping hole in the top which exposed the inner workings of the camera. It still worked fine, and so I was too lazy to do anything about fixing it. So when I dropped it at the beach, the sand got to the inside of the camera....and THAT WAS IT.!~funeral music plays in the background...

Right now I'm sending the camera in to the company to see how much it will cost to have it taken apart and professionally cleaned.

For dinner that night, we had Courtney's favorite dinner: hamburgers, corn on the cob, with s'mores for dessert. We had a terrific view of the stars, and could even see the milky way that night. So beautiful!

Wednesday, September 16th

Wednesday morning was cool and rainy, so we stayed at the campground, playing games under our pavilion. We played memory and other easy card games. It was the perfect day to do something fun INDOORS!

At lunchtime, we drove south to Seaside to meet up with the Bassetts. We went to the seaside mall and shopped, rode on the carousel, and ate chocolate dipped twinkies. (I usually hate twinkies, but believe me, these were GOOD!)

Then we drove to Fort Clatsop, where Lewis, Clark, & Sacajawea spent the winter when they arrived in the northwest. This is a neat interpretive center, I wish we had had more time to let the kids really explore. After reading a few books on Sacajawea, I more fully appreciated this museum.

After hiking and exploring around there, and seeing the landing where Lewis and Clark would set off in their canoes, we drove to the famous Astoria Column.


Most of my kids had RUN UP those hundreds of stairs and gotten to the top of the column before I even got Julianna into the backpack for the long climb up. Scott took Angel. WOW, that was a workout climbing hundreds of feet up on stairs with an extra 27 lbs on my back. The view at the top was breathtaking.

I couldn't enjoy it at all, however, because I was totally freaking out about my kids. They were laughing and screaming, and running around the top of the tower. I felt my fear of heights triple. I wasn't just scared for me, I was terrified for them! I could hardly walk unless my hands were touching the center of the tower. I was so sure one of my kids would climb up the fence and fall off to their deaths. I couldn't relax until all my family was safely at the bottom again. (just me being an irrational mommy)

Then Christopher and Sanford had to run back up and down the tower 2 more times and fly gliders off the top. That was one of Christopher's favorite things that we did on our trip. He just told me again tonight, "Mom, that Astoria Column was SO COOL!"

By the time we were done there, it was way too late for cooking a dutch oven dinner. So we went out to eat at Astoria's Rollin' Thunder BBQ. Scott loves it because it is classic Texas style, nothing with "yucky" sweet bbq sauce. I love my sweet BBQ sauces, but he likes his beans spicy, not sweet.

Thursday, September 17th

In the morning, Angel was awed by the sunrise. She was so excited as she exclaimed, "Mommy, the sky is all rainbowy! I see pink and orange and yellow! It's a rainbow in the whole sky!" It took a while to explain to her that it was a sunrise, not a rainbow.

This was the day that we really debated on what we were going to do. Starting on the 16th, no Washington State park would accept prior reservations. And so now we were free to go anywhere at anytime. Just show up and make your camp when you arrive: first come, first serve.

We decided to pack up early and go to one more museum before we headed off to Mt. St. Helens. It took longer than we thought though...doesn't it always? We went to the Columbia River Maritime Musueum. It was very expensive, but it was a neat place. Our kids loved it too. Their favorite part was where they had the front of an actual, real, retired battleship. They played for about an hour on the control deck of the battleship. It was hilarious to watch. Christopher became a military captain, ordering his sisters around..."Man the weapons!" "Torpedos away!" "Steer to starboard!" All the girls just loved this, and hopped around to his command.

Christopher really ate it up, he had recently read a lot of books about ww2, so he was really into it. It was really cool learning more about the history of the Columbia River, and the terrors of the "Columbia Bar". It made a deep impression on all the kids. Courtney's favorite part was the fish display, of course. Dorathy like the Indian stuff. Julianna hated the whole thing and only wanted to run like crazy. She was so sleep deprived, it was impossible to keep her happy, but we made the best of it anyway. We were the only family there with kids. Either people gave us kindly smiles, or spiteful, hateful looks that we were ruining their quiet day out. I felt bad for them, Julianna was pretty terrible there. At one point the kids were bickering (tired & over-stimulation is no good combination for any kid) but some watermelon gum perked them all right up enough that we were able to enjoy the rest of the museum.


While the kids were playing in the battleship, I was having so much fun watching them that I didn't notice Angel wandering away. She got lost, and was crying when someone took her to the front desk. She was gone only a few minutes, but all was well when we were reunited. Poor Angel! She saw me and while hugging me said "I was crying for you Mommy! I was crying and crying and I couldn't find you!"

Then we went outside and toured a "light ship." A light Ship is like a Light House on the water. We also saw a Coast Guard ship readying for departure. We wanted to see them leave, but it was taking too long, so we rode the city trolley instead. That was really fun for us & all the kids. Julie really liked it. I would have liked it better if the kids hadn't been begging me for sweets the whole time. I was so irritated by the time we got off! Take the kids on a fun historic trolly ride, and all they can say is, "More gummy pumpkins!" The kids always go crazy trying to eat as much sugar as possible on vacation. Maybe because I restrict our sugar intake so much at home. My kids hyped on sugar drives me nuts. I'm so tempted to throw it all away permanently.

We didn't leave for Mt. St. Helens until 4 p.m. We made pretty good time and arrived at Seaquest State Park in Castle Rock, Washington around 6 :30 p.m. The most stressful time of our whole trip was then, trying to set up camp and cook dinner before it got too dark. This campsite had no hook-ups, and we only had one good lantern, so that made it extra difficult. I don't think we got to eat till 8:30 p.m. I felt so bad for Julie. She likes to go to bed at 6 p.m. Most of vacation, she just lived off of milk, because she never could stay awake long enough to get some dinner! I was worried that she'd begin to loose weight. She sure enjoyed running around the campsite and getting dirty, though. And the kids loved this park because they got to run across the street to the park whenever they wanted. It was a great place to stay, even if we could hear the highway from our campsite. After camping at the beach and hearing the ocean in the background, when you hear the cars, you just pretend its the surf!

I will write the second half of our vacation in the next posting.