Cycling on the Chehalis

No one can accuse us of trying to get our kids on bikes at too young of an age. Poor Isaac has two parents and no one who has been able to run behind him holding the back of his bike in his younger years. Bless the YMCA/City of Lacey for holding a learn to bike clinic earlier this year. With a three day weekend and some sunshine, Jason had some time to get the bikes prepped (tires pumped up and cobwebs wiped off) so we could take our newest biker out on a bike ride. 

We ended up doing a bit over of six miles with Isaac pumping his legs and Jason carrying Gatorade and snacks in the basket on his bike.

And though the bikes were ready and the snacks were plentiful, we still managed to forget what should be a Miller Cardinal Rule: always, ALWAYS bring tissue.

Summer Week 5 (Chehalis, Quarantine II, Point Defiance)

Sunday

I spent the morning on a 24-mile bike ride and now have biked the entire Chehalis trail (though not on one day).

After that I put a call in to the on-call pediatrician because one of our children had a low-grade fever and some other covid-19 symptoms.  Unfortunately, covid-19 is a bit of tricky disease and can exhibit in several different ways. It wasn't very likely that he had it as we've been fairly cautious, but we do see people (ie his 29yo grandmother) who are high risk so we made the call. Which lead to another call on....

Monday
....which lead to a follow-up call leaving a message with the nurse...who didn't call back which lead to an email conversation on...

Tuesday
...which lead to an appointment in the afternoon for a double nostril swabbing. Which is about as fun as it sounds. The nurse was kind enough to tell him that it wasn't going to hurt, but it was going to be rather uncomfortable.

She was right.

Before all that though, we spent a rather rough night in our it's so FREAKING HOT AND WE HAVE NO A/C house trying to sleep.  We were sleeping rather fitfully when Michael came into our room with blood pouring off his upper lip.

First we had sleep peeing in the trash can (Josh) and then sleep peeing in the bathtub (also Josh), but now we have sleep shaving (Michael). The latter being by far the most dramatic of the sleep behaviors. He woke himself when he gouged a chunk out of his upper lip.

Luckily he found the whole situation amusing and was pretty patient while I dug through the cabinets for a band-aid that would fit.

Wednesday
As soon the ped and I decided Michael needed to be tested, the whole house had to go into immediate quarantine. We really haven't been doing all that much or going to that that many places, but it highlighted just how much we actually have been able to do when all of a sudden we were back at square one.

Back to Josh asking in the evenings if we are going to do anything tomorrow and me quoting the irrepressible Brain.

Josh doesn't usually find that nearly as amusing as I do.

I felt badly for him though so I let him con me into letting him play Just Dance on the Wii for his exercise time. Entertaining for him. Entertaining for me.

Thursday
We got the good news more quickly than expected! NEGATIVE! The only person who was at all sad about this was Michael who thought this was going to be his ticket to getting out of hiking this summer.

Mwah ha ha ha!

Friday
To celebrate our newly (again) found freedom, we took Nana up to Point Defiance park to check out the Rose (and friends) Garden and to track down the relatively new chutes and ladder area. The flowers did not disappoint.

The older boys were indifferent to beauty surrounding them, but Isaac had enough enthusiasm to make up for all of his brothers....and then some.

Michael tried to impress me with his fake enthusiasm for gravel.

Isaac did more than stop and smell the roses.

I was even able to get a rare picture of Nana. I'm not sure if she was overcome by the beauty around her or the epic memories she was making with her grandsons, but I got a few pictures.

We eventually moved on to an activity with a bunch (and I do mean a bunch) more stairs. I only made it to the top twice to enjoy all the slides back down, but the kids had a fabulous time going up and down and up and down and up and....you get the picture.

It took a while, but eventually everyone was tired of running up stairs and we drove to the beach. We weren't there long, but we were there long enough for Josh to find a piece of kelp with which to whack his brothers.

Our last stop was the duck pond where it is clear that not everyone reads the signs about not feeding the animals. A duck waddled up quite close to Michael and then pooped right in front of him when it was clear that no food was going to be forthcoming.

And Ben, ever hopeful, made sure to check for blackberries.

No berries, but Josh found the shell of a bug he thought looked tasty. Or, at least, that's he wanted this picture to look like.

When we got home I did something I've been thinking about for a long time: I bought the old school Super Mario Bros 3 game. The boys thought it was hilarious. Also more difficult than expected. Also weird because of some of the glitches (like the one seen below). Also crazy because you can't save where you are in the game when you turn off the Wii.

Welcome to the Dark Ages of video games my children! Bwa ha ha ha!

Saturday
Back in fun sick land, Isaac climbed into our bed first thing and then puked.  And then kept doing that off and on for a few hours. It's been the kind of week where my mantra has been "at least it's not lice." ::facepalm:: Several hours, several Pedialyte popsicles, several snack bags of Scooby-Doo graham crackers later and he was doing much better.

Hopefully next week will be healthier.

Summer Week 4 (Sculpture Garden, Glacier Basin, Beacon Rock, Mashel Falls)

Sunday

No better way to start the week than with an 18 mile bike ride (round trip) to the sculpture garden.  Rachel suggested the idea and I voluntold Ben, Michael, and Josh that they were coming with us. 

They weren't super-thrilled.

Of course, once they found some great art to play with their attitudes improved significantly.

Rachel found it all very invigorating.

Some of the art was more interactive than your regular sculpture garden.

And some of it was less interactive than we hoped.

Monday

My friend wanted to get in a more intense hike if we had a day without our respective youngest children. She gave me three choices and I picked the one that was described as "an easy hike".

Ha!

I guess it's all subjective. 1600ft elevation gain in 3.5 miles. It was a beautiful path that was uphill 90% of the way.  

On the way back down we took a side trail to moraine. It had a fairly treacherous switchback section but also a stunning lake.  We both agreed we didn't want to do that section again, but it was worth it for a one time hike.

Tuesday

Back to back camping trips were on the schedule for the month. But we had to leave Josh behind because he was finishing up his driver's ed class. Poor kid had to suffer through a few days with Aunt Rachel and Nana (ie unfettered access to the internet, eating out etc).

This time we headed even further south to Beacon Rock. The goal had been to do a tour of the Bonneville Dam and hike Beacon Rock, but both of those were closed. We still had a lovely time and got a few hikes in and it didn't rain! 

No electronics means more time for card games.

Uno is a good one for us since Isaac can also play. Though he likes to play with his cards showing. It makes him an easy target for "advice" from other players, but he generally holds his own.

And here is Jason modeling good winning behavior.

Wednesday
After breakfast, we corralled our minions and hiked up to Rodney Falls. There were some gorgeous views of the river, dam and a bunch of power lines along the way.

Thankfully there was shade for most of the trail and after about a mile and a half we came to the falls.

Here are a couple of my hiking buddies with their matching hats and walking sticks.

After our hike we drove to a picnic area with a gorgeous view of Beacon Rock. When we got a good view of it, I was the only one who was sad that we weren't going to get to hike there.

After lunch we drove over to get a look at the not-open-for-tours dam. It's a pretty impressive structure.

In our quest to get a good view, we found a selfie spot.

Thursday

On our last day we hiked to Little Beacon Rock while Michael "guarded" our campsite for us.

Little Beacon Rock actually had a pretty good view of Beacon Rock.

We also met an itty, bitty bird that we hoped had a mother nearby to help it as soon as all the meddling people taking pictures moved out of the way.

While we were gone Nana worked her paint magic yet again and painted Ben and Isaac's room. This isn't a great picture of the gorgeous purples Ben picked out.

Friday

Why stay home and rest after a camp out when you can go on a hike at Mashal Falls? To motivate the two who came with me, I promised them donuts. Worked like a charm!  Also, there were so many thimble berries that Ben was pretty happy the whole time.

We visited the Lower Falls first.

Isaac wanted to get his feet in the water again.

Then we moved on to the Upper Falls. The trail was not maintained which explains the rash on Ben's arm he got from brushing up against plants and the tree root that jumped up and grabbed my foot.

Ben and Colin were more adventurous that the rest of his and hiked up to the top of the falls. And then dropped enormous rocks over the edge to see the very big splashes.

It was a long day of hiking, especially for Mr. Short Legs, but we had a great time.