Koda says hi. She's making sure I'm not leaving her.
May is my favorite month. It's so full of all the delicious, wonderful things in this world:
flowers, baseball, friends, birthdays, sunshine, rain, firsts.
First beach day!
Avery and Bea and Bailey are all reading the same "Keeper" series, and they are obsessed. It's so fun.
First dock jump!
First spit from the geooy ducks.
Koda has been joining me and my friends on the trails. She has SO much fun.
This was one of the many birthday parties in May.
Avery patiently waits through everyone else's birthdays until the 31st finally gets here and it's HER turn.
Good times with the young women, watching a tennis match.
Another trail with Roxanne and Koda.
This was a first doing "Brown Pow" and it was HARD.
Jim did the loop going the opposite way on his mountain bike. We high fived half way round.
Tuesday we went to check out Baker Lake back country to see if it would be a good backpacking spot with the young women.
The first camp was so perfect and beautiful. It's an easy beginner trail and camp. It has everything.
It felt so good to me, like the curtains had been opened.
Look at this fun mountain toilet.
Then we went to the second camp (another 2 miles down) to see which camp was better.
Right from the get, I had a weird, negative feeling about this camp. It wasn't right.
Then - around the same time that Koda was growling and barking (not totally aggressively, but uncharacteristically), I saw "an animal" walking through the trees. It looked like an ugly calico dog to me. That's the only way I can describe it. I said "what is that animal? is that Koda?"
But then Koda walked by from a different place, and I realized it was a wild animal of some kind. I yelled at Lisa "get over here!".
I was spooked and wanted to get out of there. We made lots of loud noises and headed back down the trail.
The weather was so crazy and beautiful.
It was sunny, then rainy, then just cloudy. Then it rained WHILE sunny.
We went back to the first camp, stripped our clothes, and took a dip. It felt so good even though it was so cold. About two minutes after we got dressed, it started hailing.
When we got home, Evan was out on the driveway selling
"tiny pencils".
It's not a top seller. For some reason.
And THEN...
four days after the Baker Lake recon, I saw this:
Can you even believe this!
Remember that bad feeling? Remember that animal I saw?
I really hope they take care of this situation, because that trail was so perfect for out backpacking trip.
Moving on to "Friday Fake School".
As you know, Fridays are asynchronous. Which means it's a special day where the kids and their moms get to accomplish a day of school all on their own!
It's terrible!
I used to really give it a good go, but now days, we just go on field trips and I take pictures of them "learning", then email the pics to their teachers. I know their teachers are also aware of the fakeness, so they say encouraging things like: "looks fantastic, thanks for sharing."
This Fake School day, we went on a field trip with binoculars and some PNW animal pamphlets, and the kids found things like dandelions and butterflies and we called it a very successful day at SCHOOL.
Also, we go on field trips pretty much every day, so whatever.
Saturday was a sun up to sun down - everyone gets a sunburn - kind of Saturday.
First we watched Evan play a baseball game (this pic is from another game when Andrew got to play CATCHER!).
It was a fun, close game. But then we beat them which was awesome because we hate Lynden.
Next was Hudson's birthday party at the Stake Park.
Andrew fell asleep on his shoulder on the way home from picking up pizzas.
Hudson is a good buddy to sit still and let Andrew sleep.
At the birthday party, they made this amazing fort.
It had a toilet (that they all peed in, of course) and a mailbox and a secret safe with something secret inside it.
Here is the toilet. he's demonstrating how going number two would look. But let's put a PIN in THAT because I have a story about him going number two, and it did NOT look like this.
After the party, we all went home for some down time, then us four adults went to Galbraith for a sunset session. Koda and Scout ran with Jim and Joe on their bikes and were absolutely pooped at the end of the sesh.
As we drove home, the sky was entirely alight with pinks and purples. It was awesome.
Sunday after church and dinner, we did a recon tour of a camp site Jim and Joe are taking the deacons this weekend. We stuffed all my friends in the cars and drove up the back roads of Sumas Mountain.
The forest was carpeted with moss.
It misted all over us in the most delightful way.
Joe's jeep tore up this tree as he banzai'd his way up and down this sketchy part.
On the drive home, somehow we ended up with all the girls (and Jim the driver) in one car, and all the nutso boys in the jeep with Joe. It was a tale of two rides home. My ride home was the most lovely and pleasant with my best friends and a side of random 90s songs.
***
Ok, let's go back to the pin we put in Andrew "going number two". Prepare yourself.
One day we were on a field trip at the rock pile. We were all having a lovely time, and then Andrew came running up to me: "I have to take a dump! I have to take a dump!"
We were very far from any bathroom, any car, any toilet.
So I told him "just go, but don't get it on your clothes."
Confession: I kinda wanted to "see where this goes", so I wasn't a lot of help. Me and Lisa stood back and watched it unfold, and soon we were in actual tears, die laughing.
He took off his shoes, took off his pants, took off his SHIRT. I don't know why he took off his shirt, but he did. That's when I died laughing.
Then he put his crocs back on and stood there with his legs spread and went number two.
Buck naked, no squat, just standing there, going number two. The number twos dropped to the ground and he didn't know what to do next.
Lisa gave me some tissues and I went to help him wipe.
He yelled out "I'm sorry it has come to this!"
Then, "Everyone look away! ESPECIALLY YOU, LISA!"
We were dying.
But then along came Scout and she ate up those number two logs before I could stop her.
That sobered us RIGHT UP.
We stopped laughing and started yelling at that darn dog "NOOOO! SCOUT!"
So, yeah.
