Summer Days

  Forget the fact that it rains most of the time here on the coast. Most everyone does as soon as the sun dashes across a cloudless sky. The walks on the beach are more glorious. It's easy to hear God's voice call through the worry and stress. Having Nukka has been good for me. She gets me out even when I don't want to. This AM I strolled along the water and enjoyed the peace of an empty beach.
  We walked a mile before comming across another set of people and their dogs. I held Nukka back, as she tends to be a bit overwhelming, and waited to find out if thier dogs were friendly. The were and so she sniffed them and moved on. Its hard to let go. In the doggy world its important to have that 'invisable leash' on your dog. The only problem is that in order to teach it you have to let them go. In citys they have fenced dog parks for that, here its miles and miles of beach. Do I even have to say how hard it is to let something go?
  I suppose that is how I feel about school next year. I know its important for the three to get into a classroom. They are ready, but am I? Its hardest for me to let go because I know its the begining of a new stage in life. Its a good thing really, but such a huge change for me.
  Last weekend Dave and Judy stayed with us. Our house is finally presentable. (aka no more pressboard) The kids got to say hi then stayed the weekend at my folks. We toted Dave and Judy from place to place then out to eat at one of our favorite resteraunts. It was nice to give them some relaxation time.
 This weekend is the last quiet moment before our summer bursts wide open. Fun things, good things, and very busy things. I know my blogging has been sparatic of late..hang in there, my fall looks wide open.
 

Haiku Tuesday

dog and bike chase deer

now the trail runs cold today

Black bear! ride away!

Usually on my bike rides throgh the neighborhood Nukka presses her nose to the ground and sniffes out the deer. Its amazing. Usually, she finds at least one. This morning it seemed as though she was having a hard time picking up the scent. I didn't mind. This ment she would pace herself instead of running at 20 mile per hour bursts followed by me dragging her behiind the bike. We came near the end of our loop and I saw a tall animal moving past a car...sniffing it? It was in the shadows so I assumed it was just a deer. We drew closer. Nukka surprised me by not pulling my arm off. Then the 'deer' started meandering across the road. It was a huge black bear. I hit the brakes and turned through a yard onto the opposite street. My initial worry is that Nukka would want to investigate. Boy, was I wrong! She shot off toward home throwing paranoid glances behind us every so often. Aparently her nose told her that it was not a deer long before my eyes did!

click for Kristen

Snakessss

  A disaster struck our household two weeks ago. It left my youngest face down on his bed, crushed with greif. I knew it must have been bad because he rarly shows sadness in the form of crying. There before him on the bed was a snake, belly up.
  "I think my snake is dying," he said with a shreik, then crumpled back onto the covers.
  I slid my hand underneath and lifted its limp little body up.
  "Do you want me to bury it?" I asked.
  To which he howled again, "Noooooooo...."
  "Do you want me to put it in the grass to see if it will recover and slither off?"
  "Yes." (whimper,whimper)
  I took the poor thing out to the bushes and gave it a toss. Inside I knew that it was already dead. For my little guy it was important we tried. He had been so good with it. Years ago Greg and I had discussed getting Mr. Steel some sort of reptile, but decided he was too young. The thought started brewing in my mind once again. I checked craigslist and found two corn snakes for a resonable amout of money. Better yet it was close to our house.
  Your probubly shaking your head at me I know. Go ahaid. I'm okay with the fact we are 'pet' people. I guess I never grew out of it. Yes, we got the snakes. Yes, they eat mice.....and yes, that its kind of cool.

lofty ideas

Summer is here. My girl had her last day of school and Thomas is done as well. I picked up three Summer Bridge Activities books from Barnesandnoble.com for our summer schooling. Usually I set the bar way to high and end up being bummed that we didn't finish it all. The books I purchased are perfect. Two pages a day that review all the subjects so it stays fresh. Today we started our 'get in shape for the next trip' hiking. Hopefully we can do 2-3 miles of walking each day with the kids. The funny thing is that Thomas the indoor kid is the best hiker. He keeps a consistent pace and trucks along. That is what happened on our Opal Creek hike two weeks ago. The other two zip ahead and then lag behind. I tried to explain what having a steady gate meant. Sometimes mom speeches fall on deaf ears. We are reading through the Artemus Fowl books at night. The three are really into it, although Thomas would rather hear technical books about bio luminescent marine animals...yeah that's exactly what I was thinking. Next year all three kids are going to school. I feel a peace. Earlier this year I thought that keeping them home for another year was the best thing to do. My youngest has never been socially 'great' and it worried me a ton. Just recently he has started making leaps and bounds in that department. He played interactively with a 2 year old...super huge deal for a boy who hates babies. He has also shown an awareness of his temper. He has never been able to see his frustrations retrospectively until a few days ago when he told me that he had been working on his temper fits, and talking about his emotions. WOW. Huge for around here. Guess I can embrace the changes up ahead even if it is more than scary. Right now I am putting away the usual lofty ideas that I hold for the summer (educationally) and focusing on the most important thing, spending as much time loving these kiddos up because life changes and this is just a small stopping point.

Not so Haiku Tuesday

Happiness is holding your hand

and listening to you talk

The fascination of life renewed again

through the eyes of youth

Pour out discoveries made new

but please get your gardener snake off my computer.

click for Kristen

camping trip to Howard Prarie Lake

Yes, its near Ashland Oregon. Yes, Ashland is so close to the Californian border you could spit over it. After 10 hours of travel time we reached a beautiful campground. It was gorgeous and COLD. Can we say snowing at night? Next time I am checking the altitude before we make reservations in case of spring snow. The kids had a great time staying with my folks in the trailer they rented. Greg and I tented and for the life of me I couldn't get warm. Two nights strait I shivered until morning and then walked around in layers that would put an Eskimo to shame. It was fun though. Nyssa and Bill came on Friday and joined my parents for a campfire full of conversation.

and now the end is near...

only days left now

camping, backpacking, swimming

summer's on its way!

Our next backpacking trip is the lake Ozette triangle with the cousins. Yes folks 6 kids and hopefully six adults. One to one ratio is so much better don't ya think?

click for Kristen

backpacking #6

This is the last post on the trip I promise! My girl snapped a picture as we were packing up otherwise we would have been void of any pictures of our camp sight. The large rock hill was near our tents and it provided them with ample, 'I can climb this faster than you' competitions.

backpacking #5

A few scenic pictures. There were waterfalls and rapids everywhere you looked. Lower down the river slowed to swimming pace, but up at the top the water crashed and churned violently. We stayed FAR away from that!

backpacking #4

 Doesn't my girl look just like her daddy?? I love those two!

 We took the two dogs on our trip. Realistically we should have had Nukka pull the wagon with all the kids stuff considering the trail was the old road used by the mining camp in the 20's.

 This is the only picutre of Frank. Poor guy...he is such a good dog, you forget he even exists.

 Nukka did great. She was just like Mr. Steel, in her element. The only issue we had was during the evening when Greg and I had zipped the kids into their mummy bags and settled down on a mossy patch together. I looked over to see Nukka wandering away. I called her over. WHAT A MISTAKE! She had found the poo hole and Eaten...yes EATEN the contents. EEEWWWW!!! She slept outside.

Even though You cant see the kids faces very well, I love this shot. These three little savages mean the world to me. A few weeks I was asked if I regretted having kids so young in life. I said no right away and then stepped back to mull it over. Do I? Nope. I'm glad to have the energy to keep up and be silly and go hiking etc.

backpacking #3

We reached our destination at an alarmingly slow rate...lets call it kid speed. Roughly one mile an hour. It didn't help that I over packed their packs. Yes, I will kick myself for that a few more days. Thomas is doing his miner 49er impression. (old school scooby-doo) The hike led to a 1920's mining camp. The place was strewn with old machinery, tools, stoves, and pretty much anything else grandpa has in his field. Rumor has it that the mine had to shut down after loosing two of their trucks over the ravine. Hiking along the ravine, I could believe it! Mr. Steel was in his element. He lives to be outdoors. We originally were slated to stay two nights but both Greg and I decided that our sleeping bags weren't holding our heat. Both my girl and Mr. Steel were disappointed.