Just Another Week in the Life

It's funny how I go back and forth between feeling like our life is slower now that we only have one child at home, to feeling like it's flying by with so many things on the to-do list every day. This week has been full, but also had many slow moments.

We started of with a ridiculously warm Monday, so decided to have dinner at the pool with friends and the kids swam until 8:30. It was a fabulous evening and while it seems crazy for it to still be so warm at the end of September, we're soaking up the pool days. We went back the next afternoon with the same friends and a couple others from our normal park group because it was just too hot to be at a park. The water was fabulous though--it's holding strong at 84 degrees.

Wednesday, we skipped out on the typical school schedule and drove Daddy-o up to Mariposa where the truck had gotten a new transmission put in. We walked around downtown, talked with a rock collector at a little rock and fossil shop, met up with Grandma for the pizza buffet, and then stopped by the house to see Grandpa who wasn't feeling up to lunch. And of course, the only picture I got all day was of the cat, haha.

Thursday was much cooler and the kids had fun at the park. I love it when they play together--ages 6-13, all involved in something. This is one of the beautiful things that happens so organically with homeschooled kids that I think is a little tougher to teach when the kids are divided by age all day at school. I'm glad that Peanut has the chance to be one of the older kids here, instead of always being the baby at home.

When we finished up there, we hurried over to the library for their tarantula program. I learned a couple of new things and we both got to have the spider crawl over our hands.

Friday was a van day--we now have our power system hooked up to the solar panels! And we've planned out and ordered the wiring for all of the outlets, lights, and appliances. Slowly, but surely! Peanut and I cut out early for his swim team party, but Daddy-o did a great job finishing up.

And Saturday, we were back at it at the new property.

We have one building down

And another one gone (used to be in front of the red one in the middle of this picture. It doesn't really look like a lot in these pictures, but it feels like big progress.

We spent the day breaking down all the old furniture that we've pulled out and getting the dumpster full so we can have it picked up on Monday.

And we finished emptying the back porch. This was full, just like every other covered building, and now only has our collection of wheels and casters.

We finished up a little early so we could go listen to the Livermore Amador Symphony which had their free POPS concert in front of the Bankhead. And it turns out that one of our new neighbors is in the symphony, and we ran into another couple from our neighborhood, plus a family who I used to teach science to. It was one of those small town moments that I really love about where we live.

And then we finished off the day with another night swim and dinner at the pool, this time with Daddy-o's brother, J, and his family who were in town for a Giants game the next day. It was a little cooler--not so fun for those of us sitting outside the pool, but the water was at least 10 degrees warmer and the kids were happy!

By Sunday, I was really glad that we hadn't invited anyone over for dinner. We're going to try to plan more dinners with other families because it's nice to have friends over and Peanut appreciates the other kids being around, but I thought we might feel like we'd socialized enough for the week, and having a slow afternoon with time to read, nap, and hang out with the animals in our jungle length grass was really nice. We didn't even have to cook dinner because it turns out we haven't quite figured out the amounts of food to feed only 3 of us and had enough random things that needed to get eaten that we just had a snacky dinner. Honestly, it was perfect. We're figuring out this new stage and finding the balance between all the busy projects, and embracing the quieter house. 

Getting Home

We took 2 days to drive home, just like we did to get up to WA at the beginning of the week--13.5 hours just makes for a REALLY long day, and doing it this way, we didn't have to rush out of Seattle on Friday, and we had time to squeeze in a quick hike on the way home.

Hedge Creek Falls is just of I-5 in Dunsmuir CA. Bean and I stopped here on our van trip last May so I knew it was a great place to stretch our legs for 1/2 an hour and see a beautiful little pocket of nature 1 minute off the freeway.

The view above the Sacramento River even gives you a peak of Mt. Shasta.

We made it home mid-afternoon and had time to do our first grocery trip for only 3 of us (we'll see how I did--it was a little less than normal, but not as much as I'd expected, so we'll see how long the food lasts. But I'll just say it was super weird only buying 2 bananas and skipping half of the bread products, haha. Bug always needs lots of snacks and I'd gotten into a regular routine of things that he'd go through each week which the rest of us just don't eat much of.)

And then we got cleaned up and went to the pig roast in our new neighborhood put on by one of the many new neighbors we've met this summer. Everyone is so nice and we got to meet a couple new people, and then spent the evening getting to know everyone a little better. It's fun to be in a neighborhood that seems pretty social, and people are definitely looking out for one another.

And speaking of the new place. . .we were pleasantly surprised to see that one of the buildings has been taken down! We hadn't heard from our demolition guy so we didn't know if he'd made any progress this week, but when we pulled in to check on things, we found a pile of rubbish and no mobile lab. Slowly, but surely. . .

 

The Husky is Home

We've got another college student! Bug moved into the dorms at the University of Washington Wednesday afternoon and began a new chapter in his life. We helped him get his room set up and everything unpacked (and started the shopping list of everything we hadn't thought about yet.)

Even though it seemed like a lot of stuff when we were loading and unloading the car, his room looks much more sparse than Bean's did, although some of that might be that she had so little space in her triple, and he has half of a room. 

We walked around campus a little, and were surprised that it was clear enough to see the top of Mt. Ranier above the clouds.

More brother time (and once again, this was actually Peanut insisting that the mountain was just clouds, and the rest of us were delusional thinking it was a mountain top, haha.)

We went with Bug to dinner to make sure his dining card had been activated, and then he headed over to the church institute where they were having dessert and a beginning of the year kick off of some sort. 

It was kind of weird going to our hotel without him, knowing that we'd see him the next day, but only briefly because he had orientation and welcome activities and roommates to get to know.

We ended up taking him to Trader Joes the next day for a food stock-up, and then to get dinner at a really good Thai place near campus. And then we saw him the next morning for a quick breakfast before we had to take off.

Goodbyes aren't fun, but it's a lot easier when you're leaving a kid who seems to be in a good place and is already excited about the friends he's starting to make. He had plans for the day with some of his roommates and seems to be looking forward to everything coming up in the next week as they get ready to start classes.

Love this boy--and we're so excited for what he has coming up.

Not All Rainforests are Tropical

Olympic NP is huge and we knew we couldn't see it all in one day, so I asked my brother which part we had to see (it's their family's favorite park) and he said absolutely the Hoh Rainforest. So, that's where we went and it did not disappoint. We are huge fans of the redwoods, and this had a very similar feel, but with more variety in the plants.

And from the very beginning, I found mushrooms! Tiny, perfect little mushrooms in a carpet of moss,

 and bigger ones, too. All types of mushrooms. It was fantastic.

Also loved all the different mosses and lichens.

They're so beautiful. The first trail we did was called the Hall of Mosses and there were a lot.

It's like a whole second forest, in miniature, on each log or under each shrub.

Also found a couple of banana slugs.

After we finished that first loop, we went back to the car to get out our picnic lunch.

And were quickly joined by some visitors. These canada jays were relentless, and despite our best effors, were rewarded with 1/2 a graham cracker when they swooped right in front of Peanut and grabbed it from him. We defended the rest of our lunch pretty well.

And then it was back to the hiking trails to do a few more miles, and find more fungi, like these bird's nest fungi,

and this slime mold.

There were some very large trees around. Our biggest take away is that an old growth forest, whether redwood, or Douglas fir and Sitka spruce, is stunning. They have a lot of similarities, and are so impressive. It's sad to realize how many have been completely destroyed.

We walked to the first river spot on the Hoh River Trail and watched a couple of fly fishermen for awhile.

These trails were just so green! It was a lovely area to hike in.

After we were done, we stopped at Beach 4 on our way home. The low tide was still a couple hours off when we got there, and it was drizzling pretty good, which meant we got completely soaked in the hour we were there and didn't even stay for the lowest tide.

But we saw lots of barnacles, snails, and mussels.

And a lot of anemones and sea stars, too. It was a beautiful beach and I'm sure a great spot when you can time it with a negative tide.

But we were cold and wet, so we'd had enough for the day.

The hike to and from the beach was a beautiful stretch of rainforest.

Back at the house, we got warmed up, made dinner, and played video games. Peanut has been wanting to do stuff with Bug more than usual--trying to soak up the brother time before he's gone. It sounds sweeter than it usually is, haha, because the interactions aren't always fun, but I still feel a little sad when I think about how much our house will change when there isn't the daily sibling interaction. We're all going to have to get used to it.

Off On An Adventure

The day has come: It's time to take our little Bug to college! We decided that if we were going to drive all the way to Seattle, we should make it a bit of an adventure, so we left a few days early and planned a couple of fun stops along the way. We got loaded up after church on Sunday and drove to Eugene, OR before we stopped for the night.

That put us in a good spot to stop at Silver Falls State Park the next morning where we hiked to two of the many waterfalls in the park.

Both South Falls and Lower South Falls had a trail behind the falls which was fun.

It was so beautiful!

Glad we got to enjoy a few fun sibling moments before we only have one at home. That's going to be a weird shift--it's been almost 18 years since we've only had 1!

Found a banana slug along the 2.6 mile trail.

And then came to the Lower South Falls.

Peanut found a couple little caves carved out of the rocks.

Walked behind this one as well.

Kind of a two-for-one fall with a straight drop and cascading over the rocks on the lower half.

We found a spot to check out the creek.

This whole area is so beautiful!

I'm so glad we were able to sneak in this hike, even with several hours of driving.

Back up near the visitors' center, we checked out the old kitchen house which was made of rocks that had lots of fossils.

Shell imprints everywhere!

And then we finished the drive to Olympic National Park.

Our home away from home for a couple of days--cute little cottage in the woods--it was near the Quinalt Visitors' Center, which is closed, but such a beautiful location. It was a little creepy because the road was closed to through traffic and it turns out that this is the only house on that stretch of road, so we were really isolated.

We walked over to the old homestead before dinner.

Everything was closed for the bats living in the area, so we didn't get to see it any closer, but it was a gorgeous view and we still had a day in the park to look forward to!