Summer Week 10 (Potatoes, Mount Ellinor, Woodard Bay, Potatoes, Rachel B-day)

Sunday

We're still working on learning volleyball skills from Rachel before she heads across the Atlantic. Some of us are making more progress than others. 

Michael does really well - now we just have to hope that there is some league he can play in sometime in the not too distant future.

Monday

I had to bribe the boys with Costco lunch and that was only worked on three of them, but we spent some of the morning digging up potatoes at the community garden. This harvest is usually a big work party with a table full of pastries on the side, but covid19 has changed all of that. The fact that we are a family group of workers means we can do more work than most in a shorter period of time. The people who run the garden really appreciated this.  The boys.....not so much.

Part way through the morning, Josh and I had to bail on the potato fun. He had an appointment to get his braces off. We went through the whole check-in process. I took a before picture:

And then....nothing. The ortho looked at his mouth, recommended he keep wearing the bands for another four weeks, and we went home.  

It was a pretty disappointing morning. Hopefully I will get to write about this again in a few weeks.

Tuesday

It's been a few years, but I admit that Mount Ellinor is still fresh in my mind. So, it wasn't the brightest thing I've ever done, but I went again. Ben had heard the tales and for some reason really wanted to do the hike. Honestly, I have no idea why because I know that I haven't said much of anything positive about it.  Either the kid really enjoys a challenge....or pain....or both. But Ben hasn't asked to do many things this summer. Josh wanted in as well. I wasn't able to make it to the top last time, so I invited Rachel and the Bremners to join us so there'd be other people who could hike with them if I had to bail again.

We left the house a little after 6am (no really). We decided to start from the upper trail head this time (thank goodness). Luckily it was not at all crowded so there was ample space and no line for the bathroom.

Our before picture:

In typical PNW fashion, it was sunny driving to the mountain, sunny driving from the mountain, but cloudy, SO CLOUDY on the mountain.  This is about as good as it got for our stunning views of Lake Cushman and the Hood Canal; however, it was nice not to hike under a beating sun and there were fewer people on the trail.

Also, there were lovely flowers. Probably past the peak, but definitely worth a break to breathe and take a picture. Ok, mostly to breathe.

I was tired before I started this hike. And I had many moments of really, really not wanting to be on this hike. I spent quite a bit of time quite a bit behind the rest of the group. But putting one foot in front of another, climbing one step after another, and taking more breaks that any normal person would need, but I made it to the top. Wahoo!

Impressive view, right?

Well, it was greatly improved when we did a 180.

We ate lunch and chilled at the top with a half dozen of our new best friends - CHIMPMUNKS. They were pretty sure we brought them lunch (we didn't) or that we would share (we didn't). We also saw a very lonely mountain goat whose days are likely numbered.

Eventually we decided it was time to head on down. There was some debate on what is worse: up or down. Rachel says down. Normally, I would agree, but in this case the up was pretty bad for me so the down was a relief.  Regardless, we successfully returned to the car and took an after picture to prove we survived.

While on the hike, Ben commented a few times that he didn't want to do this hike ever again. Later he said he would do it again in a few years. The further we got from the hike, the easier it became in his memory and a week later he is ready to go up in a few months.  Not likely.

Thursday

An early start to the day had three of the boys in the dentist chairs at 8am. I took a picture of this cool cat because the sunglasses they had him wear matched his coat and shorts.

Ben, Isaac and I spent the afternoon at Woodard Bay with Nana. I was still barely mobile after Ellinor and Mom generally doesn't go in for hikes with elevation change so we took the paved path to the water. Ben picked a few blackberries, but I think we're at the end of that season.

It was high, high tide this time so not a lot of beach to look for rocks to throw in the water. There were however quite a few seals out on one of the piers and listening to their groaning, grunting, clapping, and (possibly) farting was quite amusing. It was a lovely afternoon to get some vitamin D.

Friday

More potatoes! Ben hadn't come with us on Monday, so when I bribed him with Costco lunch to come on Friday he told me two things:

1. Costco lunch wasn't worth this.

2. I had misspoken and called it "picking potatoes" so he thought we'd be picking them off of bushes not digging them out of the ground. 

Trying to teach kids to serve others and have a good work ethic is so much fun!

Saturday

It's the day that only comes once a year! Rachel's birthday! My plan was for some of the boys and I to sneak over and decorate her car in the morning.

We got there later than expected and she came out to check on the voices she heard outside so it wasn't quite the surprise we were hoping for, but she was kind enough to go back inside until we finished.

It took a while and Michael spent a lot of time declaring that he wasn't going to participate in this act of vandalism, but we finally finished and hollered at Rachel to come on out and check out the final product.

She was a great sport about it. 

After dinner, Rachel and Mom joined us along with Mom's epic toilet paper cake creation so we could celebrate. Rachel made a special request for this cake and Mom did a fabulous job. Several of us actually wondered why on earth she was bringing a roll of toilet paper in the house on a plate. 

After everyone got sugared up, Rachel, Mom and the other boys played a cutthroat game of Throw, Throw Burrito. Rachel was the triumphant winner and proudly held up her FEAR ME token for all to see.

Summer Week 9 (Lena Lake, North Cascades National Park, Lake St Clair)

Sunday

Game night was a little intense in our house this week. Our first time playing Throw, Throw Burrito ended with a Burrito Duel between Mom and Jason. It was a close game that ended with Mom winning by throwing her squishy burrito at Jason's feet before he realized what was going on.

Then we introduced Mom and Rachel to Poetry for Neaderthals which ended with Michael hitting Jason with the "No!" stick because Michael didn't like the poem Jason made with some of the winning words.

Definitely two good purchases.

Monday

I finally got to one my bucket list hikes: Lena Lake. I ditched the kids and went with my friend. We got up and left early - so much easier without the whole crew. 

It was so lovely and there's a campground that is making me reconsider my requirement that all camping comes with a bathroom.

Tuesday

Packed and ready to go on our fourth camping trip. Look at the excitement of this face. He's a teenager so you have to look deep to find the excitement.

Now look deeper still.

Deeper.

Deeper.

Never mind. It's probably not really there.

This trip was a drive. About 3.5 hours. After which I was so blurry that I thought this was real snow. In August. When it had been 100 degrees the week before. 

After a late start and a long drive, we got all situated and dinner started.

Jason helped pass the time by telling the boys about a new sci-fi show he found on YouTube.

With the fire ready to cook food, Jason started working on dinner. I mentioned to Isaac that I have pics of Jason's bum from all our camping trips when he cooks, so Isaac jumped up to highlight the important part of this picture.

We picked this campground because it was close to the river (Skagit). Ben, Isaac, and I skipped out on cleaning up dinner went to go check it out on our first evening.

Then it was time to see if the ancient emergency light sticks in the car work.

Spoilers: they work. 

Wednesday

I was surrounded by sleepy heads, so I went on a hike while everyone else worked on waking up. The rest of the campground must have been on the same schedule as Jason and the boys because I only saw one other person.

After my hike and breakfast, we piled into the car and down highway 20 to see Gorge Lake. 

I used to think it was cheating a little to digitally alter pictures, but I have to admit that this picture doesn't do the color of this lake justice.

A few pictures later and we went on to Diablo Lake. Gorgeous.

Gorgeous. A park ranger gave me the tip that we should stick to on particular arm of the lake that usually remained calm while the main part of the lake would be too choppy for our inflatable kayaks. The location was perfect and the kayaking was so much fun.

Also a great area for Isaac to splash around in the frigid waters. 

We all took turns. We even put Isaac in a kayak and had Jason tow him around a little bit.

When we'd had our fill of sunshine (more than our fill in one case) and were pretty sure that Michael had burned the top of his feet (luckily he didn't), we packed up the kayaks and drove over to the stunning, but windy, Diablo Lake Overlook.

Afterwards we had to take a little drive to find firewood (that's been a thing this year, thanks Covid!) and then back to camp for dinner and another light show.

And once AGAIN, night two of our camping trip it RAINED. That pretty much killed my plans for an early morning hike. The fact that it CONTINUED to rain killed my plans for a mid-morning hike. Josh, Ben and I did walk to the visitors center to get some souvenirs and have a ranger tell us that the forecast called for rain all day. 

Sigh.

So we did the River Trail and went back to help take down camp.

It was a good thing we did because check-out time was 12:00p and we pulled out of the campsite at 11:58a. 

And back on the road. 

Saturday

Ben and I spent the afternoon with some friends kayaking at Lake St Clair. It's nearby but we'd never been before. The sun came out to play after spending the morning hiding and we had a lovely time exploring. Well, I had a lovely time and Ben enjoyed being dragged behind me. That was a good arm workout!