Baker Lake Because I have FOMO

Avery left on the 11th, and school got out the 12th. 

So on the 12th, about an hour after they walked in the door and turned off Alice Cooper,

we were packed up and out the door. 

I had texted my friends: here's a hair brained idea - lets go spend the night at Baker Lake?

I was expecting some push back, but Roxanne and Lisa said yep lets GO! and it was ON. 

It was a beautiful night. Clear, warm.

The next morning.

The water was still too cold to swim in for the kids. They fished instead.

Koda swam the whole time. 

It's a great way to start summer. 

This is how I cope with it all.

Park Butte

The first three days of school, I continued to enjoy my summer haha. Neener.

I joined Roxanne's family hiking up to Park Butte Fire Lookout. 

We came here about three years ago. It's still out there like we left it. Amazing as ever.  

When we got to the lookout, there were two people sitting on the porch, but they left soon after we got there.

Then we had the whole house to ourselves for an hour! I don't know how we got so lucky. 

We ate sandwiches, read through the guestbook, play the guitar, 

find the basecamp to Mt. Baker summiters, 

diagnose the names of all the peaks around us. 

We stayed until we spotted some hikers making their way to the lookout. 

On our way back, the men decided they would help build the "bridge" across the river (because the real bridge got washed away years ago).

They carried these heavy logs for a while and I love that for them. Men are so fun. 

Up at the lookout, you can see the source of this churning, milky water. 

It comes straight out of a glacier from Mount Baker, all the way down here to my cold bare feet. 

It was such a fun day! We were there for 6 hours taking our time, taking it all in.

I needed all of it to help me know that senior year is going to be ok.

We are going to be ok. 

January

I played a lot of legos this month. 

I finished the Gringotts Bank, and it was so fabulous I wanted to keep going.

It attaches to the rest of Diagon Alley.

Then I did the castle and moved on to some Ninjago sets. 

Lego projects are a form of meditation for me. I sift and I think and I make order out of chaos. 

Evan ended his season with the best game ever. He was working so well with his teammates, passing, blocking, shooting,  scoring. 

He ended up being the third highest scorer on his team. They only lost 2 games. 

His coach is so funny - he has the deepest voice that booms around the gym. The audience can hear every word of advice and strategy he has for the team. "Cowboy! Superman! No more goosey goo!" etc. 

We hiked Rockpile while the other half of the group mountain biked. 

So, new year, new book of scripture. We are working on the Book of Mormon. 

There's something so exciting about coming around to studying it this year. I feel like I know so much of the backstory now that I understand the OT and NT.

Every night we gather on my bed, discuss some specific verses, get a history/geography lesson from Jim, 

then we set the timer for 10 minutes and everybody reads silently on their own. 

Listen. When I set out to have everyone read on their own, I had LOW expectations. I expected complaining, pretending to read, disinterest...

We are one month in, and I am FREAKING OUT at how much the kids are into it. 

I think reading on their own phones and highlighting and looking at pictures helps with the novelty...

But they are really INTO it. Evan asked if we can read any time we wanted? or only in the alloted 10 minute time slot? 

(of course the Grandpa 100$ incentive is HIGHLY motivating, but there is so much more to it than that...)

The other day when we were reading about Nephi's vision of the coming of a Savior, Evan was blown away that Nephi was seeing into the future - "BUT IT'S ONLY 600BC!"

and Andrew asked "so what is this book - the Old Testament? Or New Testament?"

and we continue to explain how it is separate but equal...

Avery is over there highlighting and writing notes and thoughts. 

The fact that they are piecing these things out is something I never really did as a kid. 

(PS yes I also earned the 100$ incentive from my dad. I remember I was around 6th grade or so and I loved checking off the boxes next to each chapter on a piece of paper that got me one more closer to 100$. But I also remember how epic 3 Nephi was. The destruction and then the redemption. I don't remember understanding anything else.)

I'm just really loving it. We are about to hit the 2 Nephi hump though. That's tough to get through. But we can do it. 

Rainy day activity at the church.

Jim has been working on this bathroom for weeks. 

He works so hard to transform this house.

Woodwork, paint, wallpaper. 

PS did you know we are adding a TV room, master bedroom/bath, and a covered porch onto the back of our house? We have been planning on it for years, but we finally have a contractor and the prices are finally reasonable. We break ground in February and hopefully it will be done in June. 

We are all sooo excited to start. 

The other day we went to Intalco Archery Range.

Archery is Jim and Joe's latest hobby. Of course it has become a family affair. 

There are all kinds of cool things on the range - tree houses, frozen ponds, etc. 

Last week I got new eyebrows. 

I can't believe I went so long in my life without eyebrows. I love them. 

And finally, today my neighbor texted me that she found a dead rabbit on her sidewalk, and do we want to take it to the forest to the trail cam? 

And I said yes, I sure did. 

So I took a bag and scooped up the dead rabbit and laid it near the trail camera. I'll keep you updated on what creature takes it. My money is on a coyote. 

Oh yeah one more thing:

today in church - it was near the end of sacrament meeting - I found an invisible ink pen in my bag. You write and then shine a light on the writing to see the invisible message.

So me and Evan were messing around with it - we wrote a message in the hymn book "if you are reading this, send help!"

Then the bishop got up to end the meeting and a lady hustled up to the pulpit and whispered some announcement clarifications for him to make before we adjourned. Bishop let everyone know about the fireside, etc. then we sang the song.

As we were singing, Evan whispered to me "I thought she was going up there to snitch on us for writing in the hymn books."

haha I died laughing. It cracked me up to imagine if that was the real scenario. 

 

December

Some other things we've been up to this month:

Lots of Galbraith. Cold and grey, it doesn't matter. It's so good to get out in the trees. 

The first day of Christmas Break, Jim and Evan flew to LA and watched a Lakers game. 

They had so much fun - so fun to watch such talent. 

While they were in LA, us and the Dicksons went to Padden etc. 

Avery and Bea were walking behind me and Lindsay and somehow got lost. This is us trying to figure out how to get them back to us. Koda failed at shepherding this day.

Here is an update on Andrew's goose egg. 

It traveled down to a nice "black eye". 

I loved circling up around candle light all month. 

My kids also loved it. 

Every time we go to this trail and check on the birds, we can't see them for a second and one hundred percent of the time we get mad that someone stole them.

Then we find them and "phew!" 

We went to the science museum in downtown Vancouver. 

Jim had to work darn it. 

After hours in the museum, we came out to the play ground and the light was so beautiful! 

Eventually a rainbow developed just for us. 

We have the perfect field behind our house to shoot our weapons. 

This is the entrance to the forest as well.