Hoh, Day 1

We just got back yesterday from our three day, two night camping trip to the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park.  Before we moved here, I saw an episode of "Rock the Park", a PBS show about the national parks, about Olympic National Park and I was hooked.  There are three areas of the park: mountains, rainforest, and beach.  We had plans to hit up the last two.

Wednesday morning we loaded up the van with half the house and headed out on the 3.5 hour drive to Hoh.  Six people for three days is a LOT of gear.  We may have to invest in a car top carrier in the not too distant future.  This was the last opportunity that the boys had to play on electronics until the trip home.  I am not sure if they felt confident that they would last that long, but I had a lot of fun adventures planned and they did manage to survive.

We found a GREAT campsite close to the bathroom (a must!) with quite a bit of privacy and an easy walk to the Hoh River.  Probably the best campsite we've had this summer.  First order of business: give Isaac a hammer and let him help put the tent up. 

It only takes Josh about 5 minutes to put together his handy-dandy tent.  He loves having his own space and it actually makes our 8-person tent comfortable for the 5 of us left.

Ben tried to find inner peace on the log stand.

The next order of business was to check out the river access that was just down the road.

The Hoh River is this amazing blue color.  I love western rivers!  Josh has a 5-day camping/hiking trip coming up, so we got him a Lifestraw and he brought it this week to give it a try.  Sadly, he didn't bring the instructions, but he did give it a good go.

Lots of branches and rocks to climb on.

And of course, rocks are actually meant to be thrown in the water and Isaac is always happy to oblige.

Isaac also found his inner...hahahaha....peace.

After lunch, we headed over to the Visitor Center to do the Hall of Mosses and Spruce Nature Trail.  The weather was true to a rainforest and was kind of hot and muggy.  Or, at least, muggier than we're used to around here.  We hiked a little over 2 miles, but it felt a little bit longer.  Beautiful, though.

The trees were a little humongous.

The water was shockingly clear so you could see straight down to the plants .

Josh and Michael helped out keeping this tree off of the path.

See?  Humongous.

They're even big when they've fallen over on their side.

Mom, screaming toddler, grumpy older boys, and fake smile boy.

It was a little bit mossy in the Hall of Mosses.

Just hanging out.

We were hiking so long that Ben started growing moss on his head.

Possibly my favorite picture.

The nature trail also took us along the Hoh River for a little bit.

One more attempt with the Lifestraw.

It was a really interesting and unique place to hike.  I am glad that we took the opportunity to check out this area of our new home.  Next up: the beach.

Blue Stripe

It's been all TaeKwonDo all the time this weekend.  First the tournament, and then on Monday Michael was promoted to blue stripe on Monday evening.  I didn't get a ton of pictures, but there was reciting, forms, a verbal test, more forms, and some sparring.

And then a black belt added a blue stripe to his yellow belt.

We're so proud of this kid and his dedication and hard work!

35 Minute Mile and Water Fun

Thinking about a 35 minute mile kind of takes your breath away, doesn't it?  I mean, it's pretty epic.  If the roadrunner went head to head with us, I think you know who'd win.  

The problem we have is actual multiple problems stuffed into a wee little man.  Isaac doesn't just stop to smell the roses, he also picks up the rocks, examines the pine cones, squishes the bugs, follows the ants, picks up sticks, takes short breaks, and often tries to eat not fully ripened blackberries.  Oh, and he has short legs.  

Hence the 35 minute mile.  Luckily, it's mostly about the journey when we go on walks and the older boys are usually pretty patient, so we still had a good time yesterday.  Although, I did have Josh wear his backpack with tent, sleeping bag, and pad inside so I think he may have had less fun that usual.

I forget the name of these ants, but this is indeed an ant hill.  Luckily, they aren't particularly aggressive, biting ants so Ben could get this picture for me.

Little buddies hanging out at the point we stopped and turned around.

I think Ben may have eaten his weight in blackberries.  They were ripe for the picking and Ben has a difficult time passing them by.  

That was our fun for the morning.  In the afternoon, we checked out a new beach in the area.  Nice sand and not a lot of people - it's definitely on the favorites list.

Isaac went out in the water prepared to do battle with his sun hat and life jacket.

Michael tried to escape the camera by going under water.  He was only partly successful.

 Ben gave me his creepy face.

And, well, Josh gave me his new teenage face.

We played until I was ready to go. Which basically meant I needed enough time to start a load of beach towels and make dinner before TKD.  Next up: TKD

Tae Kwon Do Tournament

Saturday was Michael's very first ever Tae Kwon Do Tournament.  You should be hearing that in a big echoey voice by the way.  It was up in Renton and took up 6 hours, so he and Jason left in the morning and we didn't see them until after Isaac was in bed. 

It was a long day.

To start off the event, the masters asked the students to come a little early so that they could practice their forms and learn how to spar within the blue tape lined box.

Then every single participant lined up by belt and they did some stretches and warming up exercises.  It's hard to see Michael in this picture, but I think it is a great picture.

There were 190+ TKD students competing from the Pacific Northwest.  Pretty cool stuff.

Forms were up first.  Michael is very diligent and focused when it comes to mastering his form and that paid off.  He came in third place in 21 yellow belts.

At the end, he had to kneel down facing away from the judge as they recorded his score.

Next up, sparring.  This ended up being a little bit more difficult.  He ended up getting his foot stepped on, kicked in the shin, hit on the face twice, hit on his ear, and hit on his arm.  Which was unfortunate.  Very unfortunate, actually, because this is noncontact Tae Kwon Do.  I think ultimately these are kids who just don't have great control, but they still ended up getting points even when they hit or kicked Michael and he didn't hit any of them.  Oh well.

Below are some action shots from two of his sparring matches.  Take a look at the size of the second kid Michael spars against!!!

Here are all the students from Michael's school who came waiting around for their scores and the awards to be given out.

Hooray for TKD!

And Michael with his award, third place in forms.  It was a great experience and nice to see his hard work recognized.

Sixth Week

We just finished Week 6...I think.  The farther we get into summer, the more difficult it is to keep track of these things.  I started PT a little bit ago, so that is slowing me down in the hiking department, but we still had some adventures this week.  Of course, then Canada started to burn and the smoke moved south across the border and that kept us in the house for a couple of days and definitely put a stop to our adventures.  

As much as we enjoy owning a nebulizer, I make it a point to avoid having to use it if at all possible.

However, on Monday that was still in the future, so I invited some friends to hike at Staircase with us.  Though, I didn't tell the boys that friends were coming.  I just told them there would be a surprise once we arrived.  Just walking from our car towards the trail head was enough to cause them to start complaining, but once they saw their friends I didn't hear a single complaint the entire hike.

Friends are like magic.

Staircase is a lovely loop hike that takes you up to a bridge and then back along the river to the parking lot.  We usually stop at the bridge and hang out along the river eating and throwing rocks, and this time was no different.

Then it was back down and time for a final picture of the tired kids at the end of the trail. (Not seen here: Isaac in the backpack carrier who seemed to be energized by his ride.)

Then Tuesday I went to PT and told him that I had hiked, but it hadn't been as bad as expected.  We're still in the phase where "not as bad as expected" is considered an improvement.

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed to Long Lake.  I've heard good reviews, but the kids were grumpy that we weren't going to the beach at Millersylvania.  Some day they will actually withhold judgement on one of my plans until they get there and save me a lot of grief.  Because, of course, they loved Long Lake and had a marvelous time and begged to go back every day for the rest of the week.

(Michael not shown here because he spent the ENTIRE time in the water farther out than my camera takes a decent picture.)

Sadly, this is when the smoke descended on us (the sky looked pretty nasty on our drive home) and we had to cancel any outdoor plans for the rest of the week.

Still, we had a pretty good week and, with the skies clearing, I hope to have many more adventures this next week.