Whistler

Something undocumented about this summer is how much soccer I'm doing. 

I joined an adult league, I go to all of Avery's high school training sessions, and I've been watching all the Women's World Cup games. Lots of soccer.

I'm coaching the MS girls again in the spring, so I feel a drive to know more about soccer. 

So this here picture is after my soccer game in which a giant lady stepped her cleat right into the soft buttery part of the top of my foot. It was swollen and wrecked. I considered getting it xrayd because how much pressure can those little baby bones take? Surely not 150 pounds worth, right? 

Anyway, this happened the day before we went to Whistler. It cause me to pause and rethink climbing 4 miles straight vertically up the mountain. That and the 100 degree weather. 

It was 2019 pre covid the last time we came up to Whistler. 

So much has changed since then - the world, our kids, how we vacation.

We had to re-figure how to do it. Like, now the kids don't need entertained with parks and face painting and throwing rocks into rivers. 

Now most of them want to join the dads on the mountain. We've shifted from:

 the kids hanging with moms

 to 

kids hanging with dads. 

In the morning I was so conflicted. I wanted to ride with them, but I also didn't.

I wanted to ride with Avery, but she wasn't ready when they launched. 

I needed to stay and be a mom with Andrew, plus my foot, plus I'm a little intimidated. 

plus plus...

But this picture of the riders heading out to the chair lift gives me major FOMO feelings. Major. I want to be at the back of that pack! I want to bring up the rear, squeaking my brakes, feeling the feelings of fear and bravery on the top of the mountain. 

Evan was also so nervous about the scary Whistler trails. 

Here they are packed into the gondola.

While they rode, the other half of us went down to the village to eat and meet up with the bikers when they made it down the trail. 

Evan came ripping down, exclaiming "hello ladies!" 

He was so stoked - having a great ride, thank goodness. 

I asked, "could I have done it?"

He answered, "I don't know mom, there are some steep parts"

(I could have. Just slower.)

Anyway, after lunch and swimming and considering the zip line, we decided to meet the bikers at the top of the mountain by riding the gondola up, peak to peak. 

This was us non bikers on our way up to Blackcomb Mountain.

This is a glass box full of my very favorite people. We had so much fun bantering the whole way up. 

Those stinker boys tried so hard to throw litter out the window to watch it flutter to the ground. 

This was a glass box full of brave bikers on their way up to Whistler Mountain, then over to Blackcomb Mountain.

Then we combined the lot of us into one gondola - together on our way back to the top of Whistler Mountain. 

On the other peak we could see where Jim and Joe went earlier to the "Top Of the World".

Look at that crazy bridge!

(this was them on that bridge)

On the top of Whistler Mountain we got our traditional "kids in front of the olympic rings" picture. 

See the marmott putting on a show for us. He is so silly. 

Me and Avery vowed we were going to mountain bike next year 

and me and Lisa vowed we would ride the 100mph sasquatch zip line next year

and I vowed I would hike around all those top trails. 

Swear. 

AUGUST:: Trust the Process

Last week Lindsay bemoaned the end of summer. How are we going to walk away from this? How can we possibly start another school year, get up early, be on a schedule?

We puzzled it out and fretted and all of it, but I remembered: trust the process. 

Trust the Process Lindsay. We will be ready when it's time. We always are, they always are.

The literal next day we met up down the road and confirmed: it happened! we are ready for school to start. The kids are acting the fool and yep it will be a great day when school starts again. 

All our kids are giving the signs - fighting, complaining, Andrew's brain spinning, a staleness in the air. 

"Trust the Process" is my current mantra. 

(The back story: a while ago I listened a podcast that told about some NBA basketball team who tried to lose badly so that they could get first pick of the draft the next year. The crowd during the losing season would clap and chant TRUST THE PROCESS clap clap clapclapclap). 

Now when something seems hard or impossible or confusing we remember: Trust the Process.

On the way to Trek drop off, Avery told me about what she was nervous about (making friends, being herself) and I told her about TRUST THE PROCESS clap clap clapclapclap. 

Trust yourself. Trust your personality. Have you ever had a hard time making friends? No. Trust that this time will be the same. 

And now for my memory solidification: here is a collection of the last greatwonderfulbest month. 

Way back at Christmas Jim and Joe got us tickets to Hamilton. 

It is just so good. So masterful, so epic. 

If I could, I would start it over and watch again the minute it was over. 

We took a field trip up to Canada to "Wild Play".

The kids were so brave climbing and swinging and ziplineing through the forest. 

This day we rode our bikes all the way to the State Park. It was Andrew's first time on his own bike!

The campground market was our turnaround spot where I got some sushi and the kids got drinks. 

It was a long ride but Andrew did great! 

Later that evening we met up at the beach for a fire.

The light was so beautiful. 

I love days like this when the party keeps rolling into the next venue and activity until the sun goes down.

We were so tired, which is also my favorite thing to be at the end of a summer day. 

Can you tell by Andrew's body language here he is at the end of his tether? He just wanted to go home. 

I made him stand there for this sunset shot and he hated me. 

But then I took the poor child home and bath and bed. 

This was another beautiful summer day that turned into a summer night.

As you know, Andrew gets obsessed with things and his whole being/mind/body revolves around it. He talks nonstop, he paces and imagines, he draws and plans about it. 

For a while he was all about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Halverson Park was his factory.

We rode our bikes down there every night for a week. 

One day he planned the most difficult treasure hunt and had all the kids come and find the clues and the treasure. 

He is so creative and clever. 

After finding the treasure, everyone jumped on bikes and rode down to the bay. 

Jim showed up and joined us on the log to watch the sunset.

Somebody built this structure in the bay with driftwood, and it has lasted all summer! No one and no thing has destroyed it yet. 

The kids kept talking about jumping off of it, and we finally had the timing of the tide just right.  

It takes about 5 minutes of picking blueberries with this many kids to fill a bucket. 

So then we head down to the swing set and flower garden to mess around and throw exclamation marks at the mathematical dahlias. 

Tired. 

This obsession du jour is his game series "Dragon Slayer". He has made 11 different games, with different cover art and different premises. 

He tells me all about each one. 

Here he was being in "YouTube Mode" where he ranks each of the games from best to worst, explaining what is good and bad with each game. 

It's honestly exhausting to give him my full attention, so I only listen to a quarter of what he says and he's cool with that. 

His little brain spins and spins. I feel like he is in need of SCHOOL TO START. 

Chocolate waffles the morning after a sleepover. 

I was watching these giant man boys eating, and realized this summer carefree innocence is about to end. They have to go back to middle school where they have to act cool and be cool and a little weird and very guarded because that is just how dumb stupid middle school is. 

I also realized this summer that I need to choose: do I want kids to come over to my house, or do I want food on my shelves. Because they come over and wipe out the whole box of granola bars or crackers in five minutes flat. So you can't have both a stocked pantry AND teenage boys rummaging around. 

So I guess I need to buy extras of everything. 

The boys went crabbing off the dock at Blaine Marina for HOURS one day.

They brought home four little rock crabs - dead - and tried to sell one to me. 

(ps never eat dead crab. It's full of bacteria and tastes gross. You def need to be the one to kill it seconds before it goes into the pot of boiling water.)

I said, "try again boys", and a few days later they brought me a big, wriggling dungeness crab and I smashed its belly with a hammer, ripped it in two, and boiled it up. 

Me Evan and Andrew devoured. Dang it's so so good. 

I was looking at Evan there on the bench filling out his mental health questionnaire, and realized he is so big. Big strong legs, so tall (95th percentile). 

He got a 7th grade booster shot (the usual vax boosters, not the covid booster). 

He subtly waved me over to hold his big hand while the doctor stuck the needle in his arm. 

Also, this past week me and Lindsay have been clearing out a new trail in a new forest by our house,

so every evening I go to bed, my ankles humming with cuts and scrapes from fighting with vines and shrubs and bramble. More to come on that awesome development. We have a second chance at our own trail and I am so happy about it. 

This darn baby. Look how cute. 

One day Evan and Andrew disappeared and this tall man appeared in my house. 

Weird.

We hiked to Fragrance Lake for a swim. 

I didn't get in, and that's ok. Sometimes I just don't want to. Forgive me. 

Andrew showed me his goosebumps. 

At the beginning of sacrament meeting, it's just the three of us.

Jim on the stand, Evan passing the sacrament. 

We had a ward carnival. Jim made his corndogs for the crowd. 

This face I'm making is because I'm legitimately confused or annoyed at what Ray is saying. 

He is either talking about the Old Testament, politics, or the Russian lady he is doing missionary work with on Facebook. 

What Ray? What? 

We realized we were twinning, so we had to get a picture of the twinning. 

Avery went to girls camp. She did a lot of camping this summer. She says she is all camped out. 

And lastly,

This book, "Letters to a Young Mormon" was just sitting on the counter minding its own business.

 I walked by and saw Andrew had made a quick amendment.