A family leaves for California

We left for our trip to California today.  A year ago, my SIL shared with us that our nephew, Alex, would be marching in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena with his high school marching band.  We missed out on seeing our other nephew, Connor, march with the same marching band in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade the year prior because the trip was very expensive and it wasn't feasible to take so many young children on a trip to the mean streets of NYC.  So for this trip, the stars were aligned.  We had a year to save up, the kids would be the perfect age to visit Disneyland, and it had been 8 long years since our last visit to CA.  We had a portion of each paycheck diverted to a special savings account, and at year's end, we were mostly set.  Theme parks are expensive!!

We left bright and early this morning, but still almost a whopping two hours behind schedule.  Despite the mother of all packing lists, it is the actual doing of the packing that we never seem to manage...  We are traveling in our van, and my brother, SIL, two nephews, my dad and stepmom are traveling in their van.  They live an hour away, so they hit the road long before us.  Our destination is Cedar City, Utah.

We've had some snow, but thankfully almost a full day of weak sunshine for the crews to work on the roads.  As we traveled along we fought a little bit of traffic along I-70, and decided in Frisco that it would be nice to be able to actually SEE out the windshield, so we stopped for a new pair of wiper blades.  After that, the travel was much better.  As we passed Vail, I remembered that Dean and I resolved to listen to Serial, the podcast that everyone is raving about.  So I queued up as many episodes as I could while we had cell service, we popped in a movie and made all the kids wear headphones, and then Dean and I settled in to enjoy the show.

As we neared Glenwood Springs, the canyons looked absolutely magnificent.  The snow-covered strata was so beautiful...

Funny, though, when I look at this, I associate it now with the beginning episode of Serial, as the case is being discussed for the first time.  The way people associate different memories with smells - I'm the same way with sounds.  I look at my bedroom walls, and remember painting them as I was listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

We drove through the late afternoon and evening.  I'm sad we missed seeing the beautiful landscapes of Utah, since it was so dark.  We arrived in Cedar City a dead-tired and crabby bunch, and immediately went to bed after saying a quick hello in the hotel hallway to my brother.  Tomorrow we drive to CA!

Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... Beautiful sunshine for now, but it will be a hot one today...

I am thinking... oh my head is full this week... I am thinking about my upcoming ACL surgery and I still can't decide if I want a donor tendon or do a patellar graft.  I am thinking about how the craziness of house repair will most likely start while I am recovering next month (joy).  I am thinking about house repair.  The insurance adjuster totalled our roof, gutters, shutters, screens, some of the windows, some of the trim work, the paint, and maybe the garage door?  Luckily the contractor we will be working with can do all of the work, but it will be a headache to coordinate it all, get the new stuff picked out, get approval from the HOA and so on and so on...  I feel an urgency to get it all done NOW, before our contractor gets booked elsewhere, and we will still be waiting as the snow falls.  Our car is scheduled to get it's body repair work done - in NOVEMBER.  It will be in the shop for 16 days!  I have never made claims before, so this is all new to me and I am just astounded at the damage estimates.  Dean, the OK native, seems nonplussed by it all.  As I walk around the neighborhood, I see more and more roofer signs every day in various yards.  This is going to be one very noisy neighborhood for the next several months.  That really bums me out because I love to have the windows open in the fall, but it will be impossible to get any schoolwork done, listening to hammering all day.  

I am thankful... That Jordan's cell phone was found.  He lost it as he was packing up at scout camp this past Saturday.  The phone wasn't even supposed to BE AT CAMP.  This is also his third phone, so he got lectured inside and out by both of us.  To top it all off, he got home on Saturday, and was leaving in less than 24 hours to fly to OK to stay for the next month.  Not an ideal situation.   Jordan called both boys he was tenting with and asked them to search through their stuff - and they did - to the extent that any 13/14 year old boy knows how to search.  It was finally found it a couple days later (AFTER Jordan had flown back to OK and AFTER Dean had driven 2+ hours back to camp to search the tent site) in, of all places, a baseball gear bag of one of the boys.  He found it while at practice.  I can imagine that his stuff in his room must be in layers, and the camping gear was thrown on top of the baseball gear and the phone slipped out of wherever it was in the camping stuff and fell into the baseball stuff.  Dean had noticed at camp that Jordan and his tent mates had the messiest tent of everybody - so it is no surprise it got lost.

I am thankful that Jordan earned his Life scout rank while at camp.  His three merit badges that he earned while there which helped him over the hurdle.  I had no idea he was on the verge of that.  A long while ago I made the conscious decision to detach myself from his scout activities and badges and so forth.  It is his journey, his work that will get him where he wants to be, and he is in charge of getting there, at his pace.

I am also very, very thankful for insurance.  State Farm really came through with fair and accurate assessments of the damage.  I wish it hadn't taken so long, but I know now that it took time to get adjusters here from out of state, given the scope of the damage across the area.

From the Learning Rooms... I got a call from our principal at Calvert yesterday, and she went over the assessment tests and discussed placement with me.  It all went as I expected - Owen in K, Rylan in 2nd, and Jordan in 8th.  Jordan's math skills are coming in at a solid 7th.  I guess I was expecting that too, it's just hard to hear, and it's a huge hit on my personal pride - because it's my fault.  We have been too busy and too distracted these past couple of years and have fallen behind, and it is precisely why I have cleared the decks in our schedule, so to speak, for this coming year, and beyond.  The boy can run circles around me doing math in his head, but when it comes to the easy stuff - the stuff that always trips you up on a test, he stumbles every time.  I was hard-pressed NOT to look over his answers before I packaged everything up and sent it off last month.  We are ready for pre-algebra, and that is where she assured me he would start.  They use Singapore at Calvert.  I'm not a fan of Singapore, but I suppose it's not fair that I say that because we've never done it before, but in looking it over, it seems, well...a bit boring and very linear?  We love using MEP, and I think MEP does a fantastic job of stretching the concept all around in different ways to drive home how to approach an equation.   I refuse to drop MEP once we start Calvert.  It will be a supplement - I just can't let it go.  Anyway, the curriculum should be arriving just about the beginning of August.  That will give me the time I need to plug away at our schedule, and do a soft start with all of them.  It will be most brutal on Jordan, who will have done next to nothing all summer, with the exception of Minecraft. (the bane of my existance).

In the kitchen... I am making rhubarb crisp this morning for breakfast.  I wound up with a ton of rhubarb when the hail destroyed my plant.  I was able to salvage quite a bit, and the plant is already making a nice comeback.

I am wearing... pjs.

I am creating... A calendar and chore chart for the kids.  I am annoyed by them asking all the time what we are doing and when, so I got a large white board calendar and color-coded dry erase markers to fill it in each month.  The smaller-sized kitchen calendar is too pretty to muck it all up with scribbles all over the place.  Plus, I want the kids to begin the habit of adding their own stuff.   For the chore chart, I am going with a piece of sheet metal in a frame, magnetic chore cards and lots of tape, so we'll see what I come up with.  Pinterest has been a great inspiration.  I promise I will post when it is done.

I am going... Physical Therapy this afternoon for me, and Rylan to the orthodontist after that.  She may be getting her lower braces on today.

I am wondering... How to manage the stress... I can only walk so far for so long.  I miss running.

I am reading... Still working on The Happiness Project, and then I picked up three new reads from the library: Firefly Lane and Fly Away, both by Kristin Hannah, and Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, by Richard Swenson.  I've seen that title referred to in the past couple of books I've read, so I am taking a look.  Dean also ordered a book from Amazon for me - Smart but Scattered Teens, by Guare, Dawson and Guare.  Jordan is really struggling with executive function, and I need this to help me ease up on him and get off his back.  His behavior has improved tons in past few years, but it still comes down to being able to focus - and as you can imagine, schoolwork, being able to finish a task and remembering to do things are the biggest issues.  I suppose it is timely because I also discussed this very issue with his psychiatrist at our last check-up.  I wanted some advice, routines, resources..whatever,  to help Jordan get some self-management skills in place.  First, he scoffed and said that even his patients in their early 20's still struggle with that.   And then you know what he recommended??  A sticker/reward chart.  Again.  Three years later, we are having THE SAME EFF'ING CONVERSATION.  I need this book, and we need a new doc.

In the garden... Nine, rather beaten-up tomato plants that have about a 50/50 chance of making it, chives that won't quit, and a really plucky rhubarb.  And a nice selection of weeds.  Still.  I know...

I am hoping... For patience.

I am looking forward to... therapy today (ready for some new exercises) and a summer movie tomorrow with the kids, followed by swimming.

I am learning... just for kicks, I looked up how to check your Google history to look up things I've been searching for.  And here is what I've found.  I spend waaaaay to much time on the computer.  I need to set a timer for myself!

I am hearing... Coldplay's Ghost Stories (I LOVE THIS ALBUM!), and the kids playing in the garage.  So far this morning Owen has shot himself in the eye with bug spray and had a shoving match with Colin.  I don't know why they like playing in the garage.  All they do is ride their bikes in circles, search for spiders and get into stuff they shouldn't.  

Around the house... lots of dust bunnies because Abby is shedding.  I will be contacting the contractor today to set up a time to look over shingle samples.  We aren't changing the color, but I suppose we need to pick something.  I really hope the HOA moves quickly on this.  I imagine their office is flooded with requests already.

I am pondering... how this will all come together, and when, and how much it will set us back, financially (the house, surgery, school)

One of my favorite things... Ice cold McAlister's Sweet Tea on a hot day

A few plans for the rest of the week... violin lesson, movie, swimming, a Luau party at our church and Rylan begins girl scout summer day camp next week.  I need to get her water shoes for the canoeing portion.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing... 

Two things: First is Jordan's first GoPro YouTube video that he edited and set to music.  He must have figured it out how to do it all on his own - now he needs to teach me!  He just uploaded it this week, within hours of arriving in OK, and after conferring with Dean over the phone about the finer details of music credit and so forth.  This is Dean and I on the Mind Eraser (if you have vertigo issues - DON'T WATCH), in May.  We got the front seat, and Dean is wearing the GoPro.  I loved the ride, but screamed the whole way - thank goodness there is awesome music for you to listen to instead.

And here is a picture Colin took of Rylan walking by the pool at swimming lessons last week:

I love the splash and the reflection...

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The week where we cancelled just about everything...

We got sick last week.  All of us.  We dropped like flies, one by one.  Rylan started it, on Mother's Day.  The following day was her birthday.  Instead of celebrating with a family dinner and blowing out 8 candles on her birthday cake, we cancelled everything and she fell asleep in my lap, feverish and miserable.  Colin and Owen followed suit the next day - after I dragged everybody but the fever girl to the dentist.  Do you know how hard it is to reschedule four simultaneous dental appointments?  I'm sure the dental hygienists loved me.  We skipped Park Day.  We missed tumbling.  And the saddest of all, we stayed home instead of driving to Boulder and watching my nephew - the first of the great grandkid generation - cross the stage and accept his high school diploma.  My mom took several short bits of video and so we got to see things as they happened, which was nice.

Rylan on her birthday afternoon.  She isn't feeling too hot..  :(

Jordan was next.  Jordan is leaving for a scuba diving trip in just two short weeks - the last thing he needed was a head cold, considering he had burst his eardrum on Christmas Eve during the last cold, but germs don't seem to care about plans like that.  Rylan finally ate a single bite of birthday cake on Wednesday night.  She had skipped scouts that day - more due to her brothers than to her, but she did go to her ballet class late that afternoon.

Dean came down with it and stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday, running the occasional temp.  We skipped a morning of play and work time we had planned to spend with the other girl scout leader and her three girls, and rested the rest of the day.  Friday seemed to be a good day for the kids, so we left Dean at home to fend for his sick self, and we took off for Colorado Springs to take part in a field trip to the Air Force Academy for Jordan.  Even though we don't officially start up with Colorado Calvert Academy until the fall semester begins, Jordan was invited to go on this field trip with other Calvert eighth graders for a tour of the campus.  I'm glad everyone was feeling good enough that we could go.  I gave a Jordan a don't-you-dare-cough-on-anyone lecture and we left him with a fellow homeschool friend and her mom (they are the ones that introduced us to Calvert) and wandered around the area for a couple of hours to kill time.  I took the kids by a B-52 that is on permanent display, and then that was about all there was to see on the Academy grounds, so we drove to the east, into the Black Forest, an area that was devastated by wild fire not quite even a year ago yet.  It was certainly a sight to see.  I was curious to see if La Foret, the UCC church camp that I attended in my youth was still standing, and to my relief it was.  The kids and I drove onto the grounds, and circled just a bit.  It looked very familiar, and I wish I could have wandered around on foot, but I didn't feel comfortable asking.  We drove back down the road to a parking lot we had seen for a recreation area, and got out to walk a trail through the blackened forest for a bit.  I'm glad no one else was around because I'm sure it would have been a sad scene to listen to three kids hack and cough and wheeze as they ran back and forth along the trail.

We went back to pick up Jordan and then made a bee-line back up the interstate to none other than IKEA!  I just about peed my pants when we passed it on the way down.  It has been open for what...three years now?  And I haven't been there yet.  So I WENT.  :)  The place is huge, confusing, and I have a few unkind things to say to the men (obviously) who designed the layout, even though I know the effed-up plan is all in an effort to control 'flow'... but if you are someone like me, who leaves her wallet in the car and only figures that out while trying to pay for food in the cafeteria, it is damned near impossible to make a dash for the parking garage in any kind of quick manner.  I am proud to say that we spent a whopping $17.  We came home with a new wastebasket for the office, and plastic snack cups, bowls and plates.  My husband got off very easy.  This time...

Saturday morning I woke up and well...wanted to die.  It may have been a cold for the rest of the family, but for me late Friday evening into Saturday morning felt like the flu.  Everything hurt.  I could even feel my insides hurting.  I don't think that another single ounce of snot could have been packed into my sinuses.   Despite feeling like curling into the fetal position, Dean and I dressed up, traveled across town and spent a scant 15 minutes congratulating a young man (who will forever be a sweet little toddler in my mind's-eye), on his high school graduation.  Austen was a wee 5 months when I first started nannying for him and his older sisters, and the next seven years I spent with them were very happy ones - gosh I love their family.  They were kind enough to host our wedding in their gorgeous backyard almost nine years ago, and so it was nice to be at their home again, for one last time.  They are empty-nesters come this fall, so they are putting their home on the market this summer.  I remember when it was built.  I dragged the Austen and his sisters over there when they were pouring the concrete and each of them placed their hand prints on the front sidewalk.

The garden area where we got married nine years ago

Straight from the party, with enough Sudafed in my system to trigger alarm bells at a Walgreens, Dean dropped me off to see a movie with friends.  I hope they forgive me for showing up sick.  Even though I felt like absolute crap, after a week of sick kids and all the *super fun* we were having, I really needed to get out.  I loved the movie - as you may have read - and I think I need to see it again, because I was kind of in a drugged-out haze at the time.

Dean picked me afterwards, with all the kids in tow, and we -as promised to our birthday girl - set out to start our quest to build a turtle enclosure that will sit on top of our present fish tank.  All week, between episodes of dealing with sneezy, wheezy and snotty kids, we had been doing research on how to go about this.  It has been a crash-course in all things turtle - habitat, keeping, species...blah, blah, blah.  Rylan has settled on a Southern Painted turtle, which is one that swims and basks - hence the need for a basking area above the water.  I'll go into more detail in another post.  What it meant on this day was three hours of going from store to store to store gathering the different items we needed.  Turtles are a real pain in the ass, if you ask me.  I wish she had asked for a kitten.

On Sunday we went to my nephew's graduation party.  He had his ceremony on Tuesday, and now it was time to party.  We all went, I greeted people with a safety sick perimeter around me and we didn't stay too long.  It was nice to see some of my SIL's family that came and family friends, I wish I had felt better.

And that was our week.  It was a week I had been looking forward to - a birthday and two graduations, and to miss some of it was very frustrating.  There is also that strange freedom you feel though, as you cancel things right and left... that you get to stay home and do nothing because nobody feels like doing anything anyway... and suddenly you feel a lot more relaxed and at peace.  Note to self though - I need to have a batch of chicken noodle soup, frozen and ready to go for the next time.


 

Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... A nice mild morning, with a few clouds here and there. The sunlight is illuminating the bright green leaflets of the ash tree in the front yard - it just started leafing out a couple of days ago. Birds are twittering all around the neighborhood, and the occasional puff of a breeze is carrying a multitude of different floral scents: honeysuckle, crabapple, currant, red cherry and Daphne. It's heady stuff, but makes a walk through the neighborhood a real joy right now. I love the jasminey smell of Snow Crabapples. A man just walked by with his dog, talking loudly on his headset thingy, and the neighbor just fired up the engine and is heading to work. I have no idea what he does -it is an ongoing mystery. We just see a different brand new car in their driveway every few weeks, it seems. Maybe he is a car salesman...we just don't see dealer tags on the cars. weird. Let's sniff the jasmine again....ahhhhh.

I am thinking... about the wonderful dance show that Rylan and I went to last night. The dance academy where she takes lessons has an audition-only performance dance team, in addition to the wide variety of classes they offer. They have groups that perform hip-hop, jazz, contemporary, tap and dance theatre. Last night they put on a show that showcased all of the dance performances that they have used in competition during this past season. There are 86 dancers in this group, ages 4-18, and there were 43 (!) different dance performances for the show. The show moved at a steady pace, with no announcing, just dance after dance, and we saw some really amazing stuff. The most moving (for me anyway) was the solo dance that a 10 (?) yr old girl (she played one of my 'daughters' during the party scene in the Nutcracker), performed. It was a contemporary piece, and she really nailed it. I think I like contemporary best because it is just so open to interpretation, and a dancer can really pour their soul into it. How a child, so young, can be so gifted in that regard is just beyond me - but I enjoyed it immensely. Rylan had three friends from her jazz and tumbling classes that performed in a jazz piece (which was the real reason we were attending) and she looked wistful. I felt a little bad because I was wondering if she felt like she was on the outside of an exclusive club she didn't even know existed until a few weeks ago. We talked about it on the way home. I told her that being on this team meant that number one, you had to audition to get in, and number two, it meant a lot more practice and numerous performances. She considered it, and then decided that didn't really sound like fun. She loves dance, but the passion is just not there. That's okay. She has her whole lifetime to discover what her passion really is.

I am thankful... That Rylan doesn't have that kind of competitive streak in her when it comes to dance. Those types of girls drive me crazy. Their mothers even more so. The audience behaved pretty respectably,with families only whooping and hollering for their kid after each performance....except for one mom. Her daughter - age 6, maybe - got set on the stage for her solo (there were only 10 solos), and seconds before the music started, her mom, camera video rolling, yelled out - "You got this, baby!!". uugh.

I am also thankful that Colin is recovering well from his broken leg, now that the cast is off. He is still walking around on his tip-toes on that leg and favoring it quite a bit. We are working with him to stretch his leg every night. He is back to riding his little blue Strider bike instead of his pedal bike, but I can only imagine how uncomfortable that might feel to pedal a bike right now..ouch. He got on a trampoline yesterday at a party a Rylan's violin teacher's house, and he bounced for a little bit but greatly favored his leg. He got off with a grimace - it must have hurt.

From the Learning Rooms... We are just steadily plodding along here. Jordan went to a friend's house last week to listen in on a Calvert Academy online class session. He will have 2-3 weekly sessions himself next year, when we start with Calvert in the fall. He got a nice feel for it and said that he liked it. We have a field trip with the Calvert group in a couple more weeks when Jordan gets to go on a tour of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. I look forward to meeting some of the families.

In the kitchen... This morning it will be yummy blueberry pancakes. Only one kid is up right now. Dean and Jordan are up at Spring Camporee, so they won't be home for a few more hours.

I am wearing... comfy clothes - t-shirt and yoga pants!

I am creating... I am making a discussion list for Dean and I to use late this afternoon when we go out for coffee. I have some pretty good ideas from a book I am reading (see below) to help him sort out some priorities for him in regards to his scoutmaster role in Jordan's boy scout troop. He is struggling with intense overload lately, and he completely stressed out. Parent emails are driving him absolutely insane, and he spends an average of 1-2 hours every work day (when he should be working ?!?) trying to put out fires, answering dumb questions, or asking a person for the umpteenth time to do the job they volunteered to do. He does delegate, but eventually all queries come back to him. He is behind at work, and by virtue of his employment being in the tech industry, I am always afraid that poor performance will mean his number will be up the next time layoffs come around. What really pisses me off is that this is a volunteer position that seems almost like a second full-time gig.

I am going... Whew - busy week ahead! It's birthday season again - Jordan on the 9th and Rylan on the 12th. I am getting my first salon haircut in years on Tuesday. Yay me! While my mom babysits the little guys on Friday (Jordan's birthday), Dean and I are taking the older two to an amusement park that has a private day just for homeschoolers. The last two years it rained on this particular day, so I am crossing my fingers. This is the second time it has coincided with Jordan's birthday, so that makes it extra cool. On Saturday Rylan is having her birthday party at a local pottery studio, and Jordan will be playing laser tag with a good friend later that afternoon. And Sunday is my favorite day of the year. :) Mother's Day!

I am wondering... If Rylan will like riding on rollercoasters...

I am reading... I've got two going right now - Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life, by Julie Morgenstern, and Parenting Beyond Belief, edited by Dale McGowan. I am enjoying both immensely and learning a lot. There is good advice in the Morgenstern book about how to line out job or volunteer duties and separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

In the garden... The lettuce is growing. As are the weeds and grass. I need to get busy.

I am hoping... That this nice, mild weather continues all week.

I am looking forward to... birthdays!

I am learning... all about sleep apnea. I have it. I did an at-home sleep study (all the insurance company would spring for, at the time) last Tuesday night, and saw the results the next day. I stopped breathing multiple times during the night, and my brain was poking me awake on average every 2 minutes. Needless to say, I never wake up feeling rested. Ever. My pulse ox runs at about 90, dipping down to 86 every time I stop breathing. The results are being sent to my doctor and insurance company, in the hopes that I will be approved for a full-on sleep study - an overnight at the testing facility, so they can see what the brain is doing as well. When your body stops breathing and then you snort and gasp after several seconds (my longest period without breathing was 17 seconds), your brain releases adrenaline and pumps up the blood sugar in a flight response. This prolonged increase in the blood stream is hard on your heart and your liver. My blood pressure has seen a very slight, but steady increase over the past year. Dean has reported that my snoring is pretty bad, that I repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night, I wake up with a headache most mornings (due to the pumped up adrenaline in the system), and I never feel rested. I also feel sleepy throughout the day, drive while drowsy and have poor concentration. All bad things. A CPAP machine is definitely in my future. But so is feeling rested, better sleep for Dean, better concentration, better mood, and maybe an end to my depression???? yay!

I am hearing... Shawn the Sheep. A Sunday morning kid favorite.

Around the house... The dirty, smelly camping gear will be arriving shortly. :(

I am pondering... how to work in a walk this morning. Being home alone with the little kids presents a problem that I can't just leave the house and walk for 45 minutes on my own. The solution has been to walk in the gigantic church parking lot behind the house and let the little kids roam all over on their bikes while I walk laps. Kinda hard to pull that off on a Sunday morning. I could drive a short distance to a walking trail, but there is always the danger of rattlesnakes, and kids who take off on their bikes - out of earshot.

One of my favorite things... The birdies. And the scent of jasmine.

A few plans for the rest of the week... My haircut is something I am really looking forward to. Not a big change - I don't think. Sometimes all reason escapes me the second I sit in that chair... I've got the birthday cake requests in - Jordan as always wants Blackout Cake, and Rylan wants a 2-layer chocolate cake, with marshmallow frosting, strawberries on top and a Barbie stuck in it. okay.... we'll have to negotiate on the Barbie. For her party I am going to special-order cupcakes at bakery close by. Most of her friends have the tough lot in life of food allergies to contend with, so I want to make sure I have a treat to offer that they can have.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Colin took this picture from his car seat when we took our road trip last week.  I think this was on the stretch of highway between Steamboat Springs and Craig.

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Mommy/daughter ski day...

A week ago last Sunday Rylan and I went skiing at Copper Mountain Ski Resort.  We left the house at 5:45 a.m. and drove through the early morning darkness, catching only a glimpse of the sunrise as we crested the top of I-70 before it dropped down into the canyon.  It is about a 1 hr 45 min drive up to Dillon/Silverthorn, and another 15 minutes beyond that to Copper.  Rylan loved the sensation of being the only person on the road for a little bit.  I do to.  :)

We got to Silverthorn and pulled off to go to the Mountain Lyon Cafe for breakfast.  Dean and I first went there exactly nine years ago when we spent a weekend in Dillon and it is still as good as ever.

We drove on to Copper and spent the next 30 minutes getting our gear organized and on.  We were in Dean's new car, and it is a tight fit as far as getting dressed!  I am not well-acquainted with Copper, so I was a little mystified as to where to start Rylan out.  This was her third time on skis, and it had been two years since her last stint.  Unfortunately, I made a bad choice.  We hopped on a shuttle to take us to the Center Village so that we could get our lift tickets, and I thought we would just take a lift up to the top of the main green run that runs from the very top all the way to the bottom, and we would just make our way down.  Umm.. not such a good idea.

  

Here we are, we made it off the lift in one piece, and I was able to drag her to this spot.  A very nice lady took our photo.  Then we turned around and headed down the run.  We made it about 10 ft and Rylan went off the side just behind us, down a steep shortcut that led to a double black diamond.  Sigh.  I had to take off my skis, hike down to her, toss her skis back up to our run, and boost her up the side.  We got our skis back on, made it another 10 feet and then another major fall.  Rinse and repeat about another 50 times, over the course of the next TWO AND A HALF HOURS.  Then we finally made it to the bottom of that run.  Never in my life did I think it would be so difficult for her - and neither did she.  I think she was very frustrated with herself, and it was annoying her to no end that other little kids were zipping right past her.

Rylan has had two and a half years of karate, plus almost two years of dance...and yet this kids still struggles with body-awareness.  She struggled with which foot to put her weight on, which way to lean, how to transfer her weight, how to lean into the mountain, yet lean forward as well..  It really is a lot to take in, and I am seriously kicking myself for not getting her on the gradual bunny slope first thing.  Trouble is, I had no idea where it was located.  I studied the hell out of the map as we sat and ate lunch after finishing that long, horrible run, and finally found it tucked away in a glade between the black section and blue section of the resort.  Stupid place for a bunny slope, if you ask me...

So, after a late lunch we got on a bus and after getting off at the wrong spot, getting on again and hiking over a meadow with our heavy skis, we made it to the bunny slope and Rylan got to master getting on/off the ski lift and got in some good practice with turns.  She ended the day on a very happy note, much to my relief. I would feel terrible if this day turned her off to skiing.  She sported a very nasty bruise on her hip, and her muscles ached for a couple days from all of the snow-plowing, but she recovered quickly!  Here she is on her last run..

I was just fine, but I really should have put my orthotics in my ski boots because my feet - especially my left - were barking by the end of the day.  I could barely put weight on it.  I also had to do a lot of getting up and down from a sitting position while still in my skis as I helped Rylan get in and out of her ski bindings, and a lot of pulling her up and so on... my shoulder really took a beating - I am not as recovered from that surgery as I thought!  No falls on my part, so that is a good thing - but I also didn't really 'ski', as I was working with Rylan the whole time.  That was a bit of a bummer, because the snow was freakin' fantastic!!!!!

I love my girl for not giving up, and for staying as positive as she could, all things considered.  She is not a quitter, that's for sure!!  I also loved bonding with her over pancakes and cocoa during breakfast and music during our long drive up and back.  She loves alternative rock as much as I do!

The R-rated Family Camping Trip...

Ahhh... Family camping.  You have visions of hot dogs and S'mores, cozy campfires, filthy kids, the smell of pine trees and warm sleeping bags. 

Meanwhile your campsite neighbors have visions of 2 a.m. expletive-laced drinking games, loud sex, breakfast at noon, beer runs and more. loud. sex. 

Awesome.

Let me back up...

Fall 2010
 

To me, Dowdy Lake, near Red Feather, CO. is the equivalent of Heaven on Earth.  It is my favorite place to camp.  There are gorgeous views all around the lake, you can camp just feet from the water, there are rocks to climb, fish to catch, trails to stroll and so on and so on.  I have made it up here just about every year for the past 15 years or so.  It is only an hour away from home, and there is a small mercantile close by in case you forget anything.

 

This proximity and undoubted popularity is also it's downfall.  Seniors in motorhomes as well as families flock here.  But so does another element of society.  College kids.  Or at least - 20 somethings.  Many of them, that I have observed in too-close-for-comfort-camping-proximity, I believe, have never camped before.  The call of the wild, where these kids can let it all hang out, is just too enticing for some.  So, without any regard for their neighbors or Leave No Trace, they come to the mountains and thoroughly enjoy themselves.

 

I have, with maybe two exceptions, the unfortunate luck of an unpleasant experience with such individuals on every visit to this beautiful place.  Some memories are striking - as a nanny, I brought up three young children for a campout three years in a row.  Each time I had a run-in.  Young guys drinking and swearing until 2 am, just FEET away from our tent.  The last visit we had, I met the campground host when we arrived and informed him I would come knocking if there was a problem.  And, yes, at 1:30 in the morning I came knocking, and true to his word, he kicked the offenders OUT.  It is a long story, but a good one!

 

But this most recent visit, last weekend, blows any previous negative experience out of the water.  We had blocked out the weekend of the 20th for camping.  I don't know why I chose the weekend.  The two GOOD experiences were on weekdays, and that is what makes the difference.  I guess I forgot that bit, because I set aside this particular September weekend back in July.  As per usual, we arrived late... like set up camp in the dark late.  We wound up in the RV section, and our site was a $50/night DOUBLE FEE electrical site.  Whoops.  But it was night, hard to see, and we couldn't find any other open sites.  A neighbor down the way was out playing his mandolin and it was so beautiful to listen to, so it wasn't all bad.  And everybody in that area went to bed at 10pm.  Perfect!  But the next day, as I went down to pay for our second night (we had decided to stay put, rather than move everything) I spied another open site, right on the lake, in our favorite loop.  So we moved.  Now I know why that site had vacated....

 

So here we are, at gorgeous site #20.

 

 

 

See what I mean?  It is right on the water.  You can sit by the campfire (behind the table), watch the kids play by the water, or climb rocks (just to the right of the picture).  The bathroom is 100 ft. away, as well as the parking area.  Totally ideal.  This is my favorite loop.  There are five sites around the perimeter, and then two interior sites.

 

Let me back up again....

 

When we arrived the previous night, we set up our tent in the dark, had a quick campfire and roasted marshmallows and then went to bed.  As we went about our business, a few late stragglers were arriving and looking for sites as well.  Two cars in particular were practically racing around the different loops, looking.  You could see them and hear them as they circled and circled.  At about this time I had the little kids relatively settled, and Dean and Jordan went to go fill out a payment envelope for our site.  When they got back, Dean reported to me that the two cars had showed up at the payment area, and seemed totally confused as to what to do.  They asked him, "So how does this work?  Do we just pick one?  Do you know of any *secluded* sites?"  It was one guy from one car, and one girl from the other car.  I joked it must be a late-night tryst sort of thing...

 

So, come to find out, these same two cars arrived and parked in our area after we had set up in our second site, site #20.  I didn't see them when I had staked it out earlier.  If I had, I would have never moved.   It's not like I was totally focused on these people, but there were things you had no choice but to be exposed to.  When I had initially arrived, a bedraggled guy and girl were in their pjs, looking forlorn, stirring a smoking campfire at that site.  Then the others showed up.  Throughout the afternoon things just got weirder.  They all took a nap.  Then they got up.  They discussed their various drug escapades and juvenile delinquency for all to hear for the next few hours.  Two wandered over by the bathrooms and started madly making out.  What a romantic spot... just a couple feet away from stinky bathrooms.  It went on, and on, and on...  Later, Dean remarked that maybe they were high on Ecstasy.  A friend had told him (years ago) that the drug made you lose all inhibition like that..  Then they started a new campfire by using an entire roll of paper towels.  One guy made a big display of pulling off huge armfuls of towel and throwing it in the fire.  Idiots.

 

So - back to our family experience...

 

The kids fished and fished and fished.  Rylan caught her first fish ever, and so did Colin.  Jordan caught 10 in all.  I got to take a walk around the lake by myself AND read.  We had hot dogs, S'mores, cocoa and a nice fire to round out the evening.  How ever horrible this night was, I need to remember that we really did have a fantastic day.

 

 



 

So... nightfall comes, Colin falls asleep in his chair and the kids get cranky and tired.  Colin wakes up when Jordan pokes him, and fussed very loudly for a long, long time.  We struggle to get the kids in bed, clean up for the night, put the food in the car and tamp down the fire.  It is late, like 10:30 pm.  Another ridiculous display of paper towel flinging has begun as a spark-filled campfire grows 20 ft. away - it is time for more beer pong!!  Joy.  We crawl into bed, and the party is now revving up.  My head is on my pillow for barely 30 seconds before Colin wakes and begins to cry.  The neighbors are banging pots, digging through the coolers, shouting, laughing and carrying on.  Colin keeps crying.  Dean pulls him out of his bed and puts him between us, and he finally settles down.  The loud mayhem continues, but I drift off.  At 1 a.m., somebody hurts himself.. maybe a stubbed toe or something.  Every other word for the next half-hour is the F-word.  It is loud.  Beyond loud.  Now he's pissed about anything and everything.  He goes on and on...  I drift off again.  It is now 4 a.m.  I hear unmistakable grunting.  You've got to be kidding me.  Seriously?  It goes on for an HOUR.  Dean and I are awake the whole time, trying to decide what to do.  That's not all... as one pair is in the tent, grunting away.. the other pair and what I am sure is a third voice is still around the campfire, banging pots, digging in the cooler, and talking loudly.  I just can't wrap my head around this one.  Who in their right mind would do that?  Either party in this case?  I would be mortified!?!?  Then I smell the unmistakable smell of pot smoke.  I am itching for confrontation soooo bad at this point.  But these individuals are in a whole other class than previous parties I have delt with.  They are beyond approach.  Jordan stirs in his sleep with all the noise going on, and Rylan is talking in her sleep.  Dean has his iPhone on, and eventually gets a white noise app downloaded.  That really helped to drown out everything else.  But once you hear it, you can't not hear it.  At 6:25 the crows start up, I wake up and I immediately hear more grunting.  AGAIN??  wtf??

 

So - what is the best revenge for lost sleep?  Noise.  And lots of it!  I made about 10 trips back and forth to the water tap between 7:00 and 7:30.  That big boulder that was 10 feet away from their tents?  yeah, I may have accidently hit it with my pan, each and every time I walked past.   Dean and I had loud conversations.  Right by their tent.  We sent the kids to climb the rocks right by their camp site.  Our kids are not the quiet types.  Now don't worry about the other campers in the area - they were already up, so no - we weren't bothering anybody else.  They all looked as bleary-eyed as we did.  A lot of these campers are there to fish too, and early in the morning is the best time for that, so they are up anyway.

 

When these fine neighbors finally got up, the girls did the work of packing up and they left.  They never once acknowledged the entire time that anybody else was in earshot.  No eye contact, nothing...

 

We enjoyed our last hour of peace and quiet.  Almost every site had vacated.  That was when I had realized our sad mistake.  The other camping trips when it did go well?  Always in late September/Early October, and ALWAYS during weekdays.  We're homeschoolers, for goodness sake!!  We have the freedom to be flexible with our schedule!!





42

photo credit

 

 

 

"The answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything"

 

 

 

I turned 42 today.  I am lovin' this age and I can't wait for this year to get underway!!

 

 

Here are some awesome things about 42:

 

1. I've now got the answer to a long-forgotten question.

 

2. 42 is the angle rounded to whole degrees for which a rainbow appears.

 

3. 42 is a (2,6) perfect number.

 

4. '42' is a track on Coldplay's (my fav band) Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends

 

5. On page 42 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry discovers that he is, in fact, a wizard.  (I verified this by checking my first-edition copy of the British version that Dad gave me for my birthday, a few years back.)

 

6. The element Molybdenum has the atomic number 42, and is the 42nd most common element in the Universe.  It is used in steel alloys where it gives great strength and heat resistance.

 

7. There are 42 illustrations in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

 

8. Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear's spaceship is named '42.'

 

 

We celebrated my birthday by hiking one of my favorite trails in RMNP, in the Wild Basin area.   Dean took the day off and my dad joined us, so it was the seven of us on this adventure.  We had a great time.  Owen and Colin were wandering every which way - much like Billy does in the Family Circus cartoon, by Bil Keane.



 



Our destination was 1.8 miles up the trail: Calypso Cascades.  It was coolish, and rain threatened from time to time.  We stopped for lunch along the way, and stopped another 30 or so times to get wandering kids back on the trail.

 

 

 

After we hung out at the falls for a time, the skies looked very threatening, a cool wind blew and we put on our rain jackets.  And then it began to pour.  And pour.  And pour.  I didn't mind - I think it is kind of neat to hike in the rain.  But - it did get chilly, and by the time we were within a 1/4 mile of the car, Owen was on his last legs.  His hands were cold and he was getting miserable.  "I just don't like this trail much anymore..."  :(  We got in the car, peeled off wet rain jackets and shoes and socks, and were sorta warmed up by the time we got home.  Luckily we had already made plans with my mom for dinner, so we just changed out of wet clothing and headed over for a yummy beef roast dinner and birthday cake for dessert.  I couldn't of asked for a happier day!

 

 

The High Park Fire

On Saturday morning, June 9th, at 9:00 a.m., Rylan and I were on our way to karate.  Our drive is southbound, just a couple miles east of the foothills, along a wide stretch of openspace.  We noticed, up in the foothills, a thin, black smoke plume up snaking its way towards the sky.  We watched it again when we made our return trip home an hour later.  It was definitely bigger.

And so it began.  Over the next three weeks that little fire, sparked by a lightning strike, grew into an 87,000 acre wildfire, consuming some of the most picturesque landscape in all of northern Colorado.  It came dangerously close to our most favorite playground of all: the Red Feather Lakes district.  It also spared the boy scout and girl scout camps, my old Campfire camp which is now the Shambala Center, Mishiwaka and a few other landmarks along the way.  But.  In the meantime, 259 homes/structures have been destroyed, along with long stretches of forest land, portions of campgrounds, hiking trails, bridges and logging roads.  The fire reached 100% containment over a couple of weeks ago, and we have finally been blessed with some rain, after a solid five week dry spell.  Although now the rain is causing its own problems.

We live exactly two miles from the base of the foothills.  There are three neighborhoods between us and the mountains.  As soon as the fire began to grow, the smoke settled upon our city.  The winds would shift constantly, and the smoke would get so thick you would choke, and then it would clear and you could see blue sky.  Our clothes smelled constantly of smoke.  We couldn't open the windows at night because of the dense smoke that would settle in the low areas.  At times ash would fall from the sky and it would look vaguely like it was snowing.  We are situated in the flight path of the airport, so all day long there would be air tankers, slurry bombers, Black Hawks, helicopters and helitankers flying overhead.  (the kids thought that was pretty cool)  It was hot, dry and windy each and every day.  Some days the plume looked like a monster.  Other days you couldn't see a plume at all - it was just a haze.  And still other days you couldn't see any smoke - yet the smell was still there.  Everything outside is covered with a light layer of ashy soot - from the water sprinklers pulling it from the air.  There was one day, in the early days of the fire, when I was truly afraid that it might jump the gap near the end of the long, narrow reservoir that lies just one foothill away from our city, and hook around and blaze through the neighborhoods at the south end of town - and head towards us.  When I saw that another wildfire, the Waldo Canyon fire down near Colorado Springs, did the exact same thing a few days later, I knew my fears weren't for not.  It's easy to feel safe and complacent, but at times a wildfire can be too big and too powerful for the scores of firefighters risking their lives to keep people safe and protect homes.

It was so hard to concentrate on our day-to-day lives, when so many were displaced and still others had already lost everything.  I so wanted to extend a hand and take in some animals or a family or...do something ... but life doesn't really afford me that ability right now, other than dropping off donations of basic goods to help the displaced families start over.  I can't wrap my head around the level of destruction that lies just 10-15 miles to the west of us.  Entire neighborhoods - small mountain enclaves that you never knew were there, gone.  The area was known for its rolling hills, wide valleys, small meadows, horse paddocks, marshes, forest, curving roads, cattle pasture, mountain peaks in all directions, ponds with beaver dams...  My kids got to see it once, last year when we went for a drive and the day turned south when we came upon a single motorcycle accident.  Now the area is stripped bare and left blackened - for decades and decades to come.  I am lucky that my only loss is a pretty view - and I feel really lame complaining about that when others have lost so much more.  But it really is a community loss - and we all feel it and are affected by it in different ways.  The mountains are what makes this area the great place it is!

June 11th, 2012  Day 2 of fire

Looking NW from daycamp, a recreation spot located 10 miles SE of where we live

June 13, 2012  Day 4 of fire

Same view from camp, looking NW.  Fire is advancing NE towards Bellvue and S/SE towards Buckhorn and Masonville

Later that day, view from Carpenter Rd. & Lemay Ave.  Black smoke indicates fire has reached a high-fuel area - most likely a beetlekill zone.

June 14, 2012  Day 5 of fire

Just a shot to show the incredible firefight that has been going on overnight.  The smoke plumes from the day before are gone.

June 17, 2012  Day 8 of fire

View from backyard.  Feeling nervous today.  It is has been very hot, dry and windy.

View from my dad's street, 3 miles NE of where we live.

June 25, 2012  Day 16 of fire

Horsetooth Reservoir, looking NW.  Smoke has filled entire valley.  Fire is at about 80% containment.

Down by swimbeach on the east side, looking directly across to the west.  This area was okay.

Same spot, panning towards the north.  You can see the border of the burn area.  A friend has a home just below the burn area - they were very lucky. 

Moved north along the reservoir and saw a helicopter stopping to fill its bucket, so I hopped out to snap a photo.

It was actually delivering the water to a truck to refill its tank.  (Here is an awesome picture of a Bambi bucket in action with this fire)  The truck was at the temporary camp set up for a portion of the scores of firefighters that have pored in from surrounding states to help.  The camp is situated near the NE edge of the reservoir - here is another picture of how close they were situated to the fire.

Same spot, looking north at Soldier Dam, and beyond that, the town of Bellvue.

We drove through Bellvue, relieved to see that the fire had been kept largely at bay in the immediate area, and drove on to the Poudre River for some time to cool off and play after our drive.  We also collected water samples.

We drove south, and passed by the entrance to the temporary fire camp, and saw tons of people holding signs and cheering as fire fighters began to arrive for the 12 hour shift-change.  It was a heart-warming sight to see, but I chose not to take a picture.  I snapped a photo of the sunset instead.

This last set of pictures was the first time that we have ventured out to see any of the fire damage.  I don't want to be branded a looky-loo, and it is important to stay out of the way of those who are doing their job.  It's frightening to think about close this fire came to our community.  Neighborhood after neighborhood was evacuated - places I had been multiple times throughout my time here and still others I had never heard of.  The childhood homes of my school friends were in danger.  The dirt roads where I practiced my driving skills, the hiking trails... the memories.

And then I think about all those families that are displaced now that their homes and livelihoods are destroyed.  It brought forth the awful thoughts about what it would be like to lose everything - except what you managed to take with you in your car.  I thought about it last week as I cleaned out the remainder of non-clothing 'stuff' from our family closet - clearing out all of my mementos so I could store them elsewhere.  My scrapbooks, photo albums, old letters, birthday cards, family heirlooms, journals and calendars, books and so forth.  Several boxes worth.  I could not imagine trying to take it all with me - there would not be enough room!  But how awful it would feel to lose all of that.  I just couldn't bare it.  How could you possibly prioritize?  And what if you weren't home?  What if you left for work and then found out your neighborhood had been evacuated?  Your pets are at home, along with all of the items they say you should take with you - papers, photos, prescriptions, personal computer and so forth.  It is awful to see the anguish on people's faces when they are turned away at a roadblock, and their livestock is in harm's way.  It is tough on either end - I know that safety is paramount - but it is gut-wrenching to hear about situations like that.


Last week we took a drive as soon as Dean got home from work.  I wanted water samples for our water study from the river right in the burn area, and I felt enough time had passed that we could drive through the area and not be a total nuisance.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by what we could see from the road - but I know that we didn't drive through the areas that were hit the worst.

We headed north on CR 27 (Buckhorn Rd) from Masonville toward Hwy 14 and the Poudre River.  This was one of the first patches of burn that we saw..

The fire topped the ridge to the east, working its way through a large stand of beetle-kill..

This is why I love this road - it is so beautiful!  Some areas looked pretty bad, but then there were remarkable stretches such as this... so all is not lost.

Again and again we marveled at some of the miraculous saves that the fire crews made.  This is one of the largest horse barns in the area.  They evidently held their ground.  Amazing!

There were lots of strange scorch marks everywhere you looked...

We think that the fire crews set the underbrush on fire in this area to remove the fuel.  Almost all of the trees we saw in 'unburned' areas were scorched at the base.

And yet, just barely two weeks after the fire... grass!

The view from Poudre Canyon, at Stove Prairie Landing, looking east.

On our way to the river to take a water sample.  Note the burn area just above Jordan.

Yuck... (gosh how I love pudgy toddler feet though!)

The mud had a very strange consistency - it was like Oobleck!

One of the areas where the fire jumped the river.

The entrance road to Mountain Park Campground, my stomping grounds in childhood.  The fire reached the very southern side of the campground, but no real damage was done.

The large rock formations that are above the campground.  I can remember hiking up to them as a kid - and I thought it was soooo far...  I think it is just bizarre how the fire was so sporadic in where it spread.

So there you have it.  This is has been my preoccupation for the past six weeks.  The hot, dry summer season isn't over yet, but I hope that with the fire bans continuing to stay in place, that we avoid any more fire in the area for the rest of the season.  This particular fire was started by a lightning strike that smoldered for a couple of days before it erupted into flames that Saturday morning back on June 9th.  But that is all it takes.  A careless toss of a cigarette butt.  An errant gun shell.  A gas stove.  A hot exhaust manifold...  All of these were culprits of starting fires in Colorado this summer.  Be careful out there!

Only YOU can prevent forest fires!