N is for...

New Nutella Dessert! The kids have never tried Nutella, so I made some crepes and spread the most delicious chocolate spread on them. Kyler decided he didn't like the crepes, but Ilea loved them (and I could eat them all day). I made the rest of the batter up the next morning and we enjoyed a little treat before we went off to vacation.

M is for ....

Meeker Mansion - NOT! I am a little upset with the folks down there. We were really excited to visit Meeker Mansion, and planned to go in the morning before it got too hot. If you click on that link to their site you will notice that it says they open Wed through Sun, 10am-4pm. So after a half-hour drive we got there by 10:30am and found the hours posted on their door as 12-4pm, PLUS a sign on the door saying Closed due to Heat. Are you kidding me? Wrong hours on the website, so even if it had been open we would have had 1 1/2 hrs to kill. So after our picture we drove the half hour back home again. Bummer. So we listened to Music, had some Mints, and Mom Made Macaroni & Cheese for lunch. As a Make-up treat, Mom brought home Mud Pie. Not bad for M, but a frustrating and disappointing day.

L is for ....

Library and Lemonade! The kids have been working on the library reading challenge. So we went in today and got their prizes. They both read 1000 minutes. For that they each got a pizza coupon, a wonderful certificate, and an art kit. The art kit is pretty nice, and they are currently using them to make pictures while we finish listening to The Princess Bride on tape (it was due yesterday and we were in the middle).

We came home and made some delicious lemonade from huge fresh lemons that my dad gave us in California. This is a wonderful recipe. It took 5 large lemons, and the kids each helped with the sugar and mixing. We were able to garnish with a sprig of fresh mint from my friend Sabrina's garden. Perfect for 100deg weather!

K is for....

Kubota Gardens! Thanks for this idea Sue!We had never been here before, so this was a great outing. Plus, there are 3 letterboxes, well written, with great stamps. We explored a large part of the park, but still not everything!


There is a great view from the top of the mountain at the back of the park. The only drawback was it was 95 deg yesterday and we were dying! We were there about 1 1/2 hrs in the afternoon (should have gone at 9am), and the kids still wanted to explore more. I was melting in the shade, and ready to get home where it's cool. We'll have to go back another time with Kipp and explore more of it. There are lots of ponds and streams, bridges, and beautiful landscaping. We saw hydrangeas and other flowers blooming. It was a wonderful place.

Diving

While the kids were gone we chose to go scuba diving at Edmonds Underwater Park. It was beautiful weather, and the water was great. Because of the tides we got in the water about 7pm. We saw tons of fish, and a huge ling cod, bigger than us.


This is a huge man-made park, that has many 'reefs' with lots of life. When we got out it was raining, which didn't bother us, but it stopped soon. There was a gorgeous sunset after that. We stayed at a hotel in Lynnwood, so it was easy to get cleaned up and rested. It was a great getaway!

California

We had a great trip to Calif. Left early Sat am, and made it to Sacramento, where my Uncle lives. My Aunt came over to visit and we all went to the Spaghetti Factory. It was a great start to the week. It was actually overcast in Sacramento, and only in the 80's, which is unusual summer weather.



On Sunday we went to Los Altos, where Jenny's parent's live. It was warm there, in the 90's, which is also unusual! We were able to letterbox around town, Mom and I went to a great lunch, the kids played in parks, and we relaxed.
On Tues we went to San Francisco. We took the kids up to Coit tower (and found a letterbox), went to the beach, and ended the day with a trip to the de Young Museum to see the King Tut exhibit. The kids really enjoyed it. It was presented very well, and was interesting. I think there was more Bling when it came the first time, but it was still very impressive. It made a long day, and we were pretty tired that night. My dad had taped a documentary on what went into setting the exhibit up which was really interesting.



On Wed we went over to Fresno. It was 107deg, which was not unusual. The next Sun, after we left Kyler there, they broke a record - 112deg. In Fresno we usually hit a movie or two (Harry Potter this time), and swim a lot. The house is cool, so we stay inside. We visit Starbucks. Kipp planned at mini-reunion with some high school friends that he has become reacquainted with through Facebook. It was at a pizza parlor owned by another Bullard High student, and we met Jennifer and Lisa. It was fun to get caught up and find out how people have turned out!

Sat we left Kyler in Fresno and met my parents to had off Ilea. The kids spend the next week with one set of grandparents, and then the next year they switch. It's a great time, and we enjoy the quiet time at home also! We drove to Sacramento again, and saw Up with Uncle Ken. Then Sunday the long drive home. All in all, a good trip.

Cub Scout Day Camp

On July 7 - 10 Kyler went to Cub Scout Day camp at Royal Arch in Maple Valley. One day I was a Walking Parent, which means you stay with a group of boys (yours plus some more) all day and keep them on track. We had a great group this year. 8 boys from our pack and 6 more from another group. Each group had 2 parents, so we were totally covered. It was a good day too. Started out overcast, but warm, and didn't really clear up until after lunch. It was not too hot, and the kids weren't getting dehydrated. They have stations all day, with one break time, plus lunch. They start in the morning with all the groups together and the groups take turn doing either raising the flag or taking the flag down. Then they start with the stations. They get in the basics like archery and BB guns, woodworking, crafts, scout skills, science and nature, field games, and cooking.
This was after Woodworking, where the boys all made the stools they are sitting on. The pieces are cut ahead of time, with predrilled holes, and the boys nailed them together, with some help. The next day they decorated them.

The Scout Skills for this day was to start a fire. Kyler and his partner actually got a pretty good fire going. They got to use matches, so it wasn't TOO hard. The goal was to get the right amount of kindling to get it going.


In Crafts they made picture frames, and got to use a wood burner to make any design. They loved it! It's a well run camp. Older Boy Scouts help at the most of the stations. This is Kyler's second year and he really had a great time.

Kipp's Thumb

The latest episode in the saga of our family is Kipp's thumb. I came home late, around 9;30, and Kipp came down to say hi and put his ice cream dish in the sink. It broke and he tried to catch it, cutting his right thumb pretty deep (the top outside of the thumb). He doesn't do well with pain, and realized that and so I got him a chair to sit by the sink. I went to go look up about when one should get stitches, and he was putting pressure on it. It had been a few minutes now, but he said he was starting to feel light headed. Sure enough, in a few seconds he passed out. This is his response to sharp pain, and has happened maybe 4 or 5 times in the last 20 years. He started to slip off the chair, so I ran over and kept him up, and as he came out of it he had what appears to be seizure-like symptoms. This has also happened before, but it is very disconcerting, and I never know if his heart and blood pressure are OK. It takes a couple of minutes for him to become coherent again. Next time I'm going to grab the camera! I didn't panic this time, but I couldn't get the phone until he could sit up by himself. The paramedics came (as always, with lights on and the biggest fire truck that Covington owns), and checked him out. They give him oxygen, and check vitals. They were also able to check his thumb and suggested stitches. In fact, the required them. They asked if I could take him to the hospital. I asked if we had to, because it was almost 10pm, and the kids were in bed....she said they could call an ambulance. Fine! I was just hoping they would say that it could wait until morning. We tried to call Covington's Urgent care, which we are 2 min away, but even though it was 9:51 they said they wouldn't take us. Bummer!

So we all headed down to Auburn General, thinking how long could a couple of stitches take on a Tues night? Well, let me tell you....all night. After 1 1/2 hrs, we had not been called for "triage" yet, which is the first step. It seemed like no one was going back. At 11:40pm I went and said I think we were going home. The man checked, and was surprised Kipp hadn't been triaged yet, and said Kipp was next, but that after that there were 9 people ahead of him for rooms. Didn't sound good. I told him we were going to wait and go to Urgent care in the morning, and did he see any real problem with that? He said as long as Kipp wouldn't bleed to death, it was probably fine....and I was pretty sure he wouldn't bleed to death from his thumb.

We got home about midnight, and after a quick urgent note to Cub Scouts that we wouldn't be carpooling in the morning to go to camp, we went to bed. We got up about 7:45 am, and Kipp went down to Urgent care, and I took Kyler to camp. Kyler made it in time for the opening ceremonies, and Kipp got 5 stitches and a new prescription for Vicadin (He also got a recommendation to try Swedish Urgent Care in Issaquah - top rated, open 24 hrs, and we would have been seen much faster - good to know!). He's working at home, and we'll get the stitches out after we get back from Calif. Should be good to go!

J is for...

Juggling and Jello Pudding pops! Juggling was the best J thing we could think of, so I made a set of bean bags for each family member. Ilea's is made from the material I made her Easter dress out of, Kylers is out of leftover fabric from his bedspread, mine are yellow, which is my favorite color, and Kipp's are blue with sparkles.

Kipp is the only one of us who actually knows how, so we started our training last night. We worked on it more today, but it may be a bigger effort than one day. I can juggle 3 balls for 3 times, essentially moving 2 bean bags from my right hand to my left hand, but unable to toss again to do 4 times. The kids are still working on getting comfortable with 2 bean bags going at the same time, starting from either hand. We'll keep at it! It's fun, and as Kyler says, "then we would be the juggling family!".


Ilea made Jello pudding pops all by herself. She's getting pretty good at reading and following directions. They are freezing now, and should be ready soon.

Expect a hiatus from ABC's of summer for a while...Kyler has cub scout day camp the rest of this week, and then we will be vacationing for a bit. We'll resume later in the summer. Have fun!

Amazing Camping

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Although Kipp is not that fond of camping, life in the outdoors is getting better....we finally have an air mattress that stays up through the night, a stove and pans for real food, a huge tent where he can actually stand up, and life is getting better. We were headed up to see some Ice Caves on July 3, but had no camping reservations. This was more a last minute trip for us. I figured if we could get something great, if not, it would be a longish day, but we could drive home...it was only a couple of hours. The person at the ranger station I was called about the ice caves said that Gold Basin had some first come-first serve campsites, but get here early since it was a holiday weekend. We couldn't leave Thrs night because we had bible study and we were hosting that night. So we got the van packed with everything except the cooler and our clothes, and got up at 6:40am. We left the house by 7:10 (I woke Kyler up to get dressed and he got his pajamas off, then fell asleep again on his bed....naked...luckily Kipp went in to find out what was taking him so long!). We drove through McDonalds, and made it up to the camp area by 9am! There is no ranger station, so we asked the host campers about sites. He said he thought there might be a few. We asked him what was good. He said all the good ones by the river are taken. We asked him what was good of what was left. He said maybe 22 was OK. We drove over and 22 was completely open! It had a reservation for the night before, but the people were already gone! It was a gorgeous site! Large, private, and beautiful. We had most of our camp set up by 9:45am! This place had new bathrooms, with real mirrors, and even had free showers! What a treat!
I had gotten some flowers the week before, so we brought those, and the candles the kids helped to make, and so our table looked great. The weather was beautiful. We walked around some, had lunch, and then headed up to the Ice caves/fields. We came back and just relaxed all night. It was a full campground, with a sign up by the time we went for a walk about 11am. We couldn't have asked for a better place. We made Slugs, our new favorite dessert (thanks Claudia!) that we learned about at Cub Scout camp the week before.
This is the view straight up from our tent. It was a warm evening, although it did finally cool off. We had a relaxing morning, made a few more cinnamon sugar slugs, and headed out around the whole Mountain Loop Highway. Didn't know that 15 miles of it were gravel, but it was fairly easy going. Made it back in time to clean up and go to our friends' house tonight for fireworks. What a great day!

I is for...

Ice Caves! I had heard that there were ice caves somewhere in Wa. I looked them up, and found there are 2 places. One is closer, up east of Everett, and it had great reviews. An easy 1 mile hike, good for kids, amazing ice caves, and a beautiful area we had never been to. There is a camp ground nearby, so I thought we might spend the night. But back to the Big Four Ice Caves. I called the ranger station twice asking about them, because there was a bridge that was under construction, due to be done sometime around 4th of July. We were hoping to go on the 3rd if the bridge was open. It was, and we headed up. When we went to the ranger station in Verlot, where I thought the caves were, I kept hearing people asking about buying passes. Turns out the caves are 14 miles further, and you do need a $5 day pass. No problem. BUT...there are no ice caves at this time of year! Whoops! Kipp had seen one article mention that, but all the ones I saw didn't say that, and didn't mention that they only came out later in the summer! We headed over anyway and took the hike.
This is up in the mountains, and we thought it might be cool. No way! It was at least 85deg, even up by the snow. Turns out there is a big Ice field! So I is now for Ice field! It was fun and amazing. Squishy snow, freezing your toes, gorgeous mountains all around you, and hot sun!
This is as close as we got to an ice cave, sort of an Ice Crevice. It's only about 2 feet high. Kyler hated touching the snow, but the rest of it was great. It was pretty cold when the snow got stuck under your foot and started melting. Gorgeous view of moutains ringing this spot, and a good hike. Everyone had fun.

H is for...

Help! I thought H would be a Hard day since we didn't have much planned. Kyler started the day at 4:11am wanting to be Held because he had a bad dream...not a great start. In the end, the kids Helped with Household chores, Helped to make a treat for bible study, and we Hunted down a few of Kyler's friends to deliver Pokepals. I tried to get them to play Hide N Seek, but Kyler got bored. I thought it would be great...they are old enough to understand the true concept behind HIDE, and still small enough to get into good spots. Kyler Hid and Ilea couldn't find him, then Ilea Hid and Kyler was done. Oh well, it was a good try. I almost forgot the best part of the day. While we were going to the store we Held Hands. Kyler will still let me hold his hand occasionally, and I treasure every time it happens, knowing it might be the last.

G is for...

Girl Scout Hike, Gum, Goggles, Good kids, and Goat Cheese stuffed Chicken with Grilled Peaches! Today was a Great day! We met up with Ilea's Girl Scout troop and headed up to North Bend to work on our Hiker patch. We went up to Twin Falls. It was a Great hike, shady the whole way, perfect temp, and a beautiful area. We brought snacks, and had a good time. We also stopped by Cold Stone Creamery and Got Great ice cream on the way home, which made them all Giggle!


Kyler LOVES gum, so I promised them they could pick their own Gum for G-day. We usually get sugar-free, so it was a treat to pick any flavor. Kyler chose Juicy Fruit and Ilea got Hubba Bubba. We have also been needing some Goggles, so we picked those up at the store also. Tonight I am excited to try a Gourmet recipe for Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken with Grilled Peaches. I love Goat Cheese, and this should be a Good dinner!

F is for...

Free Family Film Festival, using a Frindle for F pictures, Flinging the frisbee, and Fun! We started out the day with a free film courtesy of Regal pictures. The kids saw Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit, at South Hill Mall. Check out the schedule in your area! It's a great deal. Then the kids used their frindles to draw these great pictures. What? You don't know what a frindle is? Spend some time reading Frindle, by Andrew Clements. One of the best kids books I've read in a long time.
Lastly, they had fun Flinging their Frisbee in the sun! What a great day! Beautiful summer weather. Loving it! They also got to watch Fantasia while I made dinner. 2 movies in one day? Why not, it's summer!The last thing we did was Fly the Flag... We're a few days early, but it never hurts.