cousins.

 
This past weekend we saw a few of our cousins. And it was good to swim, dig in the dirt, sleep in a tent and go for boat rides with them. There's a friend for everyone and since Everly is the only girl, she saddles up to anyone and woos them with her girlie sweetness.

movie night

Sometimes the anticipation is nearly as exciting as the event. I would say that our neighborhood movie night fell under this category. Last week a bunch of parents thought an outdoor movie in preparation for back to school might be fun. Fast forward a week and we picked a day and things just fell together. I loved the non-planning awesomeness that arrived with this one. We weren't even sure it would work out until a couple hours beforehand. But rumors have a way of spreading and around 1pm, kids were out in full-force, doing slow ride-bys on their bikes. Playing in the cul de sac and keeping an eye on all the houses. Jeremy and our neighbor Kristen taped a sheet to our garage door in the late afternoon and kids scattered and came running back with chairs and blankets. It was hilarious.

We planned to show The Lorax around 8:30 when it got dark. By 5:30, about 20 kids were sitting in their chairs staring at a blank screen. Everyone was forced to head home and eat dinner by their parents at one time or another, but by 7:00, they were all back, eyes focused on the blank screen. A little while later a wise older child suggested everyone go home and get their jammies on. Things revved up at that point! Kids came running and riding back, parked their bikes in the parrallel parking that cropped up behind the chairs and by this time popcorn and pillows and airmattreses were out. Oh, the glee, the giggles, the hushed whispers as the movie started to play. There were over 40 kids and adults there, everyone wide-eyed and grinning huge. The kids because of the happiness of watching a movie outside and staying up 2 hours past bedtime and the adults because I don't know that I've ever seen a group more excited than them. There were individual bags of popcorn passed around, extra blankets laid on them as the evening got colder and trays of hot-chocolate served halfway through the movie. Oh, the cuteness.

reunion.

We had a family reunion last weekend. There was a lot of hand holding, playing, talking and canoeing going on. And there was a lot of chatting and eating on the adult end of things. I think that means everyone had a good time.

Grandma got a little unnerved in the boat by the boys thinking they could stand up, switch sides and really row every time they talked her into the canoe. So a great portion of their time was spent with the little boys in the canoe by themselves, rowing and rowing and rowing out as far as they could. They were attached by a (LONG!) rope to the bank. A concerned elderly member of the tribe came running down the grass, pointing at them and said "Are they attached to something?!" and without skipping a beat, my cousin Rachel points out to the lake and says "Them?! In this family?! YES! Lindsey and I spent our entire childhood on various bodies of water thinking we could row out the ocean and all we did was make half circles for 12 hours." Oh, I nearly died of laughter. What Rachel says is true. Very, very true. I feel like we just passed the torch after 35 years.

animal love.

 The kids would think they'd died and gone to heaven if we could live on a farm. They are the biggest animal lovers I've ever known. And they have no bias - "What an adorable alligator! Can we hold him?" and "Ah, look at this snake. Can we keep her?" So we spent our second day at the fair last weekend going from animal to animal. We went through every barn and stopped at most animals. Parker asked every 4H kid he could find if they had an animal there and if he could meet it and pet it. They spent a lot of time simply sitting in front of gates or cages just soaking it all in. "Can we get a goat? A cow? A chicken? A turkey? A pig? Yes? A pig?" Maybe next year...

cool down.

On the hottest day, the day it was 95 degrees and we felt sticky in the shade, our friends came to visit. We threw out our ideas of heading to the lake because the very idea of getting into a car and actually driving somewhere sounded exhausting in the heat. And because there were 5 hot kids in tow. So we stuck around the house and filled up virtually everything we could find with water - 2 pools, a tub for toys, the water table and the slip and slide and let 'em go. We ventured inside for a cold smoothie dinner after awhile. I love these three visiting kids. When I see them I think back to my days of teaching together with Britt and looking down the long hallway at each other from our classroom doorways 7 times a day. I walked into that middle school 9 years ago and met one of my best friends. It took maybe two weeks before we were getting coffee together, having couples games nights at each other's houses and going on vacations. I took my pregnancy test for Parker in the school bathroom with Brittney standing outside the stall door. We went through pregnancies gained and pregnancies lost together. We went on epic vacations and had epic talks together. This girl knows me inside and out. We spent the first 6 months of Parker and Addie's life basically living together, holed up at my parent's cabin while our husbands were either far, far away or busy with work and going to school. I love her, her family and her children deeply. And now, with the chaos that life in general with children brings and living far apart, we see not nearly enough of each other. So I cherish these moments. The times when we do get to see each other and it easily slips back into a version of normal that we've always known. Where I know exactly what Britt is thinking and we know what to do to help each other and we can skip from conversation to interrupted conversation and make it back around again without missing a beat. I love this.

the circus came to town.

 

It's fair week in our county. And for the past 3 years, we've taken the kids to the fair two or three times during the week that it's here. We do it because they love it so much and because they think the rides and the fair itself are two different things. So we have ourselves a "circus" day where they can ride as many rides as they want to and we just get to keep saying "yes, yes, yes!" and then we have another day where we see all of the animals (the "fair!") and we get to say yes again. This year our circus day came first. We set an all-time family record and made it eight (EIGHT!) hours. In the ninety degree heat. Phew!

 

Everly was SO excited this year that she got to go on most of the rides. Then she was SO disappointed because she couldn't go on all the big kid rides. Because she said she wanted to. And I believe her.

 The horses were an early favorite before she decided that she likes rides that are super scary, twisty, fast and bumpy. I think the horses took last place at that point, but they still stuck in at number one for me.

I believe we went on the slides at least 20 times over the course of the day. Most of them were at one time where we just kept lapping around. The guy at the gate just waved us on and told us to keep the blankets after the first 6 times. We figured they'd be tired early at this point. I think it was 11:30. Little did we know we still had seven and a half more hours to go.

 Sweet Parks went on the Dragon Coaster as many times as Everly asked him to. She was too short to go by herself and parents couldn't go on it so Parker hopped on every time, even though he was fairly tired of it. I think he actually got a huge kick out of Everly's face and excitement. Pretty funny.

Everly did the balloons and went up a little higher and got the lay of the land with Parker and here's where things started to go downhill for the parents. Never give your children "the lay of the land".

Sooooo, there's this ride that brings you straight up and then drops you down like you're free falling. I figured there was no way Everly would want to do that. I was so wrong. So very, very wrong. We did this as a family probably 7 times. One of the times Everly was clapping and cheering so loudly with her little feet just barely sticking over the edge that a small crowd gathered to watch her and the guy running the ride cycled it through a few times over and over just so they could all watch her glee. IT WAS HILARIOUS. Everywhere these two went they wrangled an extra lap around in the roller coaster, and extra run on the free-faller, the first car in the line-up, you name it. Because it's pretty funny to watch a tiny 3 year old and a five year old holding her hand with a bunch of nervous teens and adults. They'd stand in line and ask the others "You scared?" Yes, they'd tell them. And you? they'd reply. "Nope." We're not. That never got old.

Aaaand here's where my day took a downturn. Cars that spin on spinning axis' while the entire ride SPINS (we're at three points of spinning here) was WAY too much for me. I figured I'd go for Parker's sake, but then I kept my eyes closed the entire time, repeating in my head "Don't throw up. Don't throw up." while Parks laughed and looked around and slid across the seat and kept saying "This is fun! Are you ok, mom? You're safe! This is fun!". I totally disagree, Parks.

Given that experience, one would think I'd be smart enough to avoid this little number. Wrong. Parker went on this with Jeremy and then they both assured me that it's NOT SCARY. Totally fine. Doesn't make you dizzy AT ALL. Wrong, guys. Wrong on all accounts. TOTALLY WRONG. My arms are sore today from gripping the handle bars so tightly while every time I looked over at my sweet 5 year old's face, he again kept assuring me "You're ok! Don't be scared! This is fun!". How is it that I have been outdone by him already?And why is he assuring me on this ride? And how can he stay SO CALM?!

So, then this came. We figured if he could handle the one on the smaller side of the park, he might be able to handle this one. And if not, well, the free-falling ones don't scare me as much, so maybe I'll get my moxy back and show him I can handle it. Wrong again. He went twice with Jeremy and then with me. SO SCARY. And SO FUN. Mind you, there was no line for this one because all the normal people at the fair were too scared to go on it, so we could lap this one too. And the first time Parks did it and hopped off, he was laughing so hard and I asked him "How was it?!" and he replied "So awesome! I peed myself a little!". Ah, the sign of a good ride, friend. The sign of a good ride.

 

At the fair, I asked Parker "Do you ever get scared on rides? Like when I was scared on the rides that went around or upside down?" And he threw his head back and laughed and said "I never get scared, but I love feeling scared! SCARED IS MY MIDDLE NAME!". Seriously. That happened. And then we went home after eight hours.What does it take to get put in your place by your kids? A day of rides at the fair.

peaches for you.

My dear friend Christine visited the Columbia River last weekend and was kind enough to bring us back an entire box of peaches. Peaches have a way of multiplying when you're not looking in the fridge, so every time I opened the door, there was another bowl. Strange, peaches. For a week now we've been canning peaches, eating peaches, slicing peaches, making peach milkshakes, adding them to icecream, pureeing for future freezer smoothies, and making (the creme de la creme!) peach salsa. I also have Christine to thank for her uh-mazing family salsa recipe. I can't get enough. We finally canned our last batch today, and while I feel like we've been living at a peach farm lately, I could go for another box. They are just that good.

 

 

twelve.

We laid in our driveway last night in the early hours of the morning, watching the Persied Meteor Shower, holding hands and keeping warm in the summer air with a blanket. As we watched those shooting stars with our kids long asleep in the house looming at our feet, I was bursting with love for this man. This wonderful father, husband and friend that I'm lucky enough to be married to. It's moments like these, little moments built up over the last twelve years of marriage that create a tapestry of unconditional love, support and friendship that covers us like this blanket we're sharing. We've done a lot in these twelve years. "Time's a 'wastin!" is what we seem to operate by. But within that vigor, there are always these moments that temper our days and time moves in slow motion for a minute, an hour, a second. Staring up at the sky, holding hands in the dark, watching shooting stars. We did this as friends. We did this when we dated. We did this as we walked through years of marriage. We did this since we became parents. And I like to think that we will venture out late at night with our walkers, when we're ninety, and somehow help each other onto that still warm concrete from being sun-soaked all day.  We'll intertwine our old, wrinkly hands together, and watch these ancient shooting stars into the early hours of the morning, just like we've done for the past years and years. Happy twelfth anniversary, my friend. I'm looking so forward to celebrating a lifetime more.

Up, up and away.

 

Of all of the things we've done with our kids, of all the adventures we've had, they have never been on a plane before. They have never even been in an airport. So, when one of our local email deals came to us with an opportunity to fly to the San Juans for $25, we jumped on it. With our frugal flight and a free walk-on ferry ride back, we were hooked. We took our trip to Friday Harbor today and surprised the kids. We told them we were running errands and rushed them to the car. We hopped out at the airport, checked in, and Parks and Everly really didn't seem to think anything of it. We walked through a beautiful hanger on our way out to the runway and they started getting excited about the neat old airplanes stored in it. Still didn't think anything of it, though. And then we introduced them to our pilot Holly and told them she knows how to fly and we could get in her airplane. Oh, the excitement!

Now, the best part is that the kids were ELATED about this. They bounced around and looked at the airplane and were so thrilled. Then, as Parker was getting in the plane, Jeremy told him that Holly, was going to fly us to an island and we were going to eat dinner there. I managed to snap a photo at that exact moment. I think he went from excitement to total disbelief. They thought the big surprise was just looking at a plane and getting to poke their heads inside. There was a moment of  AREYOUKIDDINGME?! on their faces. Parker has forever wanted to fly in a plane. Everly very much enjoys pointing them out in the sky (same level of excitement in two different worlds?).

This was Parker's face when we found out he was going to FLY!

There were hugs and kisses and thank you's and buckling of seatbelts all around. These kids were ready to go. I remember being so, so, so very excited for something as a kid that it seemed like my heart would pound out of my chest and I couldn't believe it was going to actually happen, so I had to take my job very seriously. I think this is how they felt as Everly made sure she knew what a flotation device is and Parks read the map of the cabin of our 6 person airplane before we took off. So cute.

 

We flew into Friday Harbor and we had just a few hours to walk around and eat dinner and treat ourselves to icecream before the ferry left to head back. It was beautiful. We counted boats and islands from the air. And I can never get over what a gorgeous archipelago we live near when it's viewed from the air. It seems there are so many tiny little islands dotting the blue water that I could lose count of them all. We pointed out Sucia and the ferries and the houses and Parks kept exclaiming "They're so small! We're so high up!".

 

As we headed home, Parker kept saying "Hey dad? Remember that plane? I'm going to remember this day." He and Everly also gathered bits and pieces of everything in their path - flowers, apples that fell from a tree near the airport, feathers and rocks - to "help remember the day." It warmed my heart. I think this is the first time that they could sense that this was a special and remarkable experience for us to share. And we treasure it.

Painting the day away.

Today, all the stars aligned and while Jeremy is at work for a couple of days, I had the day off and Parker and Everly both had gymnastics. This translates to: quality time with each of them by themselves which happens just a few times a year. Yay! I took them out on their own little dates and Parker chose wandering around his favorite toy store and going out for a cookie. Everly chose getting icecream and visiting a friend. For the main part of our dates, I surprised them with a trip to the pottery painting cafe where they each got choose anything they wanted to paint. It was like I was presenting them with Christmas and Birthday combined, and wrapped up with a little Easter bow and some Halloween sprinkles on it. They were elated to put it mildly. These two took their painting seriously. Parker wanted me to help him create his T-Rex Statue Masterpiece, while Ev insisted I close my eyes the entire time (an hour and a half!) so I could be surprised.

a river runs through it.

This past week I paused a lot. I stood still and let the warm sun shine on my face. I let the 95 degree air envelop me like a blanket. I let the cold water rush through my toes. I let the wind blow my hair around. I stepped back and watched my kids sparkle with sheer joy. I watched them scrunch up their faces with determination. I listened while they threw their heads back and laughed, big and deep and loud. We ran around until our feet got dirty. We slapped mosquitos away. We let the river be our bath. We jumped off of rocks the size of a small car into the cool water. We floated through rapids. We had one of those vacations where I wished time could stand still. Just for a moment.

We ventured off to Plain, Washington this past week. This sleepy little town where a few hundred people live along the river banks of the Wenatchee as it runs through the valley is one of my favorite places in the world. I grew up here. I learned how to float on a log and how high the river needs to be to make it over the rocks, but not too fast. I stayed up late watching the campfire dance in the reflection of my parents' glasses. I watched my dad and and his friends place their handhewn logs one by one until after 7 years, they built a 3 bedroom cabin with only their bare hands and no electric or gas-powered machinery. I swam at the swimming rock, I hiked, skied, ran, biked and walked the trails around us. I had so many different friends come there with me that I could never think of all of them now. I learned how to nurse a bee sting, how to stoke the fire when the cabin got below freezing at night, and how to build a thrilling (and somewhat death-defying) sled run. I remember (well into my school-age years) when I used an outdoor shower to bathe, hidden in the woods and my sleepy feet memorized the moonlit path to the outhouse with our German Shepherd by my side. I remember bumping along the dirt roads, unbuckled in the back of my parent's white Volkswagon bus, with the orange daisy-printed curtains swaying back and forth, singing along to Peter, Paul and Mary and Air Supply.

The way the summer air smells, the sound of the crickets at night and watching the field irrigation across the river brings me back to those days. And now, as I drive down River Road with all the windows rolled down and U2's Beautiful Day playing on the radio with a raft tied to the top of my car, I'm convinced we could live here forever. Or dream of it. I know that moving here would bring along all the daily life that I escape here and I'm sure that would spoil all the allure. Because that is what our time there lacks completely. There is no phone, no TV, no internet and (God bless it) my cell phone doesn't even work there.

 We ventured our of our hiding hole for one windy hour at the lake before we packed it up, headed back and never strayed more than heading up river or down river.

 Absolute euphoria right here.

Root-beer CHEERS!

The Firefighter catches the popcorn AND the ovenmitt on fire. In his defense, he'll likely say it's because he built such an amazing campfire.

 The River Guide takes his job very seriously. "Let's go" he'd nonchalantly say, tossing his roped up waterbottle overboard and pushing off his raft. He scanned the river for rapids at all times and insisted we hit them all. He had to bail his boat about 10 times during the trips. :)

We had a pure, uninhibited, blissful time. The kind where we rafted the river every day. I said yes every time the kids wanted another root-beer float. We watched baby birds in a ground nest next to the deck grow and the mama bird got so used to us that she would land on the stair next to me. We popped popcorn over the fire and we dammed up the river to create our own little private swimming pool on our sandy beach. Pure, pure bliss.