Photo Essay

Toddler-Led Hikes

or

A Tale of Two Hikes

or

Why It Takes 3x as Long to Hike with Isaac

Procession of the Species

Doing this out of order, but last Saturday was the Procession of the Species.  I'd never heard of anything quite like it and we had heard that it was a quintessentially Olympian event, so we decided to attend.  We also heard that we should get there early to get a good seat.  So after a morning of potato planting and chores, we packed up the van with the not-so-little red wagon, camping chairs, snacks, and umbrellas (always, always, always umbrellas).  We got there about 1 1/2 hours early to get a good spot and meander around to check out the street performers.  After a couple of short rain showers (they hold this rain or shine...kind of a necessity here), we got situated and the boys found someone who was handing out chalk.

Any guesses as to what Josh is drawing?

Jason tried to teach Isaac how to properly use the chalk.

Might need some more practice with that.

If you guessed Dalek, you guessed correctly!

Then the Procession started with a band of bees.  I heard that the rules to be in the parade was a costume based on nature and no motorized vehicles.  I have to say that people here are fairly creative.

So fun and the rain even managed to stay away until we were in the car driving home.

Bipedal

Apparently, our littlest man is not in a hurry to hit milestones, but when he does, he owns it.  All of the other boys were walking by a year, but not Isaac.  We waited and waited.  We watched all of his second cousins, even the one two months younger than him, becoming mobile in the manner of most homo sapiens, but not Isaac.  We waited and waited.  We chased him around the house and the church as he crawled and scooted on his knees, but not at all interested in walking.  We waited and waited.  About a month ago, he decided that he would help us out and allowed us to walk him around holding his hands.  But heaven help the family member who tried to encourage him to let go and do it on his own.  We waited and waited.  Then, on the very day he turned 16 months he just up and walked around the house.

He couldn't be happier with his new skill.  He follows his brothers around.  He butts into their games.  He can stand on his tippy toes and try to pull things off the table when no one is in the room.  He can go to the park and play swords with his brothers.  He can follow us around when he is having a tantrum and wants to make sure we are feeling his pain.  He can run away from us at church when he has grabbed some nasty piece of trash he dug out of the trash and wants to put in his mouth.  He can turn in circles and laugh hysterically.  And although we still have some screaming issues (no words yet), he has somehow become a happier child overnight.  Thank goodness!

As a side note, I think this kid is getting a lightsaber for his birthday.  I don't think those are generally recommended for the toddler crowd, but there is no way we can wait much longer with three saber-wielding brothers.  The ninja sword they keep giving him will only placate him for so long.

Welcome to bipedalism, baby boy!

Disaster Simulation

Because we have so much fun doing this, the boys came and were victims survivors of another disaster simulation.  

This time with makeup!  

Josh had an absolutely magnificent injury and he really would like to wear it to school tomorrow.  (No.) 

We found him in the bathroom banging on the wall of a stall.  After we tagged him, he wandered off.  At which point we had to track him down (I got the weirdest looks from the other teams when I told them to keep an eye out for a kid with a pencil sticking out of his head) and escort him out of the building.

Ben had a serious case of road rash.  He was a great victim who did not wander off.

And Michael declined to have his picture taken, but he had road rash on his face, arms and legs as well as a possible broken knee.  He had to hang out until a team came and splinted him.  Then he got a ride on a chair to the door of the building until the instructor told him to walk out to the medical area. (We were under strict instructions not to damage the chairs.)

It was fantastic.  A great evening.  The boys are definitely hoping they can do this again.

Spring Break

Spring Break!  It turns out, Mom took the term "break" literally.  She came to visit.  She was worried we were going to kill her on one of our hikes.  Ha!  We didn't even make to a hike!  We showed her!

After her arrival Saturday evening, we kept Sunday and Monday low key.  Tuesday morning Mom started making a lemon pie.  The pie generated a lot of interest and excitement by the gluten and dairy consuming population.

But she didn't get to finish making the pie that day.  She had more important things to do.  It all started with some good old fashioned fun: rollerskating.  Mom loves to rollerskate.  Josh and Michael love to rollerskate.  Ben may one day come to love it if we give him more time to practice.  But after an hour or so, Mom and Josh met on the rink and it went downhill from there.

Downhill meaning Mom's wrist no longer appeared like a human joint should and after 6 hours in the ER, it looked like this:

If you take a look at the end of the radius, you'll see several fractures that aren't supposed to be there.  In any case, if she wanted to avoid hiking, she was extremely successful.  I tried to explain to her that there were other ways of getting out of it.  She didn't have to go break something.

But she didn't get out of finishing the pie.  Wednesday she came over, sling and all, and directed Michael on how to make the whipped cream to go on top.  They had a very interested audience.

The pie was a success and it has been added to the desert rotation.

Poor Mom spent the rest of her time here in pain and with her arm elevated on as many pillows as we could prop under her arm.  Definitely not what she had in mind for her time here.

Other excitements during the week:

Josh learned how to make french toast and was happy to share his new skill with his brothers.

Jason and I caved and let them watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  With the caveat that this was not an invitation to let them bug us to watch other PG-13 movies.

Friday was gorgeous so we took lunch to Heritage Park.

And walked around.

We also hit up Heritage Park Fountain where the boys got wet even though they weren't in swimsuits like the rest of the people whose parents had better planning skills.  We meandered around Percival Landing and spent time at the playground.  Basically hitting up all the fun stuff that Isaac and I had checked out a few weeks ago.

We were sad to see Nana go home at the end of the week.  And even sadder that we had to send her home in so much pain.  She may never want to visit us again, but we always enjoy having her here.  It was a great week for sunshine and warm weather.  And now to get back to the daily school-day grind until the middle of June.

A Bit of Earth

I loved The Secret Garden as a child.  It is not a book that I have managed to get the boys interested in, but it always captivated me.  I especially liked the part where Mary asks for and gets her own "bit of earth".  And then actually manages to get things to grow.

However, I have very little experience growing things.  Well, very little successful experience.  I did try some container gardening at the townhouse.  It might have been more successful if I didn't think the neighbors wouldn't approve of me using a bb gun on the squirrel population in Virginia.  But that is neither here nor there.

We moved here to Washington and have a house with a yard.  But it is a rental and I didn't really feel comfortable asking to dig up a chunk of the yard.  The solution presented itself in the local parks and rec magazine: a community garden!

The deal is, we get to use a 3x8 foot plot (I opted for the smaller size since this is our first time) and water is provided via drip irrigation for FREE.  In return, we help with the planting, weeding and harvesting of the acre sized food bank garden adjacent to the plots.  Sounds like a win-win to me.  And a great service opportunity for our family.

After getting word that the water has been turned on, we gathered up the troops this morning and headed over to weed and plant.  Keep in mind that yesterday it was so warm that kids were running around in swim suits at the sprayground in Olympia.  So, it was a bit shocking to discover that it was very chilly this morning.  However, we didn't let that stop us.  I put Isaac on my back in a carrier and we got to work.  The boys actually did really well.  They have some difficulty with attention to detail, so the weeding took a bit longer than necessary, but they got their hands dirty and we got the job done.  A couple of hours later and we had strawberry plants in the ground (thanks to a friend with some extra plants) and carrot, bean, pea, broccoli, and cabbage seeds planted.

The next trick is to get anything to grow.

And the trick after that is to get Josh to eat some of it.

Wish us luck.

Three Hikes

The sun has come out and the temperatures have been in the 60's.  I cannot get enough of it.  Physically cannot.  

Must. be. out. side.

Must. drag. children. along.

There is always complaining before and often complaining after, but during our excursions they have a blast.  The boys have had half days of school all week (shoot me now) and Nana is due to arrive this weekend.  With the great weather, this was also a great opportunity to revisit and check out some hikes to see if they are Nana-friendly.  As in, afterwards she won't tell everyone that we were trying to kill her while she was visiting us.  All three were good contenders (if the weather lasts).

Sequalitchew (Wednesday)

We've done this one before, but this time we arrived at the water at low tide.  The water was not as close to the good skipping rocks, but there were delightful tide pools with little eels and huge rocks hiding crabs of various sizes.  I tried to keep Isaac in the drier areas, but he would just dig in the dirt until he found water to play in.  Good thing I was wearing him in the Ergo and neglected to bring extra pants.  We both were a little damp at the end of this hike.

Tumwater Falls Park (Thursday)
This was a new one for us.  Even though Michael predicted that this would be a waste of time after visiting Niagara Falls a couple of years back, we actually had a great time and the water was very exciting after all.  There was a lovely path and several falls (I lost track, but Michael was keeping count).  We had a good hike, but there was even more at the bottom to explore that we couldn't get to because it wasn't very stroller accessible.  Perhaps next time.  And there will be a next time.

Woodard Bay (Friday)
Since it was April 1st, I splurged and bought a Discover Pass (this way I get 13 months out of it).  Now we can start exploring parks that have a fee/require a pass.  Based on recommendations, we picked Woodard Bay.  This time we invited some friends to come with us.  Pretty sure we are starting to go a little crazy with just each other to talk with.  Fun times again on the hike and on the water.  I learned my lesson and this time I brought extra pants for the littlest explorer.  Which was a good thing, because he got in on the crab hunting.  He got pretty dirty and a crab even crawled up his pants!

It has been very fun, but I think the boys need a break.  We are all now nicely tanned and slightly dehydrated.  I can't wait until the weather is like this all the time!